lonely and terrifying

God's First Failed Angel Lived in the Garden As a Bird

They're operating pop-up kitchens, delivering food and medicine to medical posts, and running water trucks wherever they can.

You should read about the good they're doing and donate if you can!

Happy 25th birthday, Layla! @sallymosworld

Today, August 12th, is my friend Layla's birthday. She has been working hard to survive in Gaza with her two young children and the rest of her family after their home was destroyed and they lost everything. On her birthday last year, she and her family were injured in a bombing. Layla shared with me that this year, her wish is to have a small cake for her birthday, that she could enjoy with her children and spread a little joy and celebration after so much hardship.

Just a simple thing would have been nearly impossible a week or two ago, but now with some aid having entered, it could happen, with a few generous donations. She relies on this money to keep her family fed, clean, and clothed above all, but I would really like for her to be able to have her cake. Please consider sending her a birthday gift of $25 or more, or at least share this post today.

a few nights ago lotus and poison, iconic performers and trans women, were viciously attacked at legends gay nightclub. nobody intervened in a supposed community space. please help cover their medical expenses and show them they are not alone. they were absolutely let down, and what kind of community doesn't help its most vulnerable? consider showing them support both emotionally and financially after this dual trauma of abuse and neglect.

in aotearoa, june isn’t our pride, it’s theirs. martha p johnson and sylvia rivera are their historical figures, not ours. the phrase that “you owe your rights to Black trans women” is true there, but here we owe our rights to (mostly) Māori historical figures. i have the freedoms i do because of the legacy of an entirely different set of people operating in an entirely different context at entirely different times.

But because of american cultural imperialism, most queer people in Aotearoa don’t even know our own queer history. Carmen Rupe, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, the Dorian Society, Gillian Laundon, Georgina Beyer, and the Wolfenden Association are some of our queer history. We should know their names! we should know what they did for us! but because of the power of the american imperial machine, we don’t.

our national pride month should be july, the month that the Homosexual Law Reform Act passed in 1989. our two largest cities hold their pride festivals in february and march, respectively. american queer history has very little (or nothing, depending on who you ask) to do with our queer history. anecdotally, from my own queries, queer youth in aotearoa know more about american queer history than our own.

if you’re in so called Australia go look up the experiences and stories of brotherboys and sistergirls (and those terms if you haven’t heard them to start).

“Kunghah: Sistergirls and brotherboys unite to strengthen spirits” (Article from 2016 by the ABC. Contains photos of Aboriginal people and I don’t know if any have since died.)

Video interview of brotherboys Kai (18) and Dean (50) (2014)

if I were to share only one specific story I’d like it to be of Dr George Duncan, who’s hate crime murder in 1972 lead to South Australia being the first state to decriminalise homosexuality.

(content warning for both articles of homophobic language, violence, hate crime and murders.)

SBS article on Dr Duncan