whispering whisps

except for the fact that most of us have a fundamentally different relationship to sexuality and romance than allos do. except that we're still alienated from an amatonormative culture. except that we still constantly have to justify our identities. except that many of us still deal with feelings of brokenness. except that many of us approach relationships differently than allos.

except that being in a relationship doesn't suddenly make us allo.

It just hit me the other day when I found out that most people are kissing by the first date and having sex by the third and to me that is just wild. And apparently, some people wait up to three months before having sex and that's seen as like a really long time and I'm sorry but is everyone okay???

ao3 is facing a ddos attack from an overseas right-wing anonymous group because it contains "degeneracy and disgusting things like LGBT and NSFW".

they're not the only right-wing group that is attacking fanfiction sites because of queer & nsfw content. the Heritage foundation, the US right wing think tank that writes laws for republicans, wrote an article about how "big tech turns kids trans" in which they're advocating for the Kid's Online Safety Act to pass because it will give state attorney generals power to sue websites for "potentially harmful content towards minors". in this article they point out websites like wattpad, tumblr, tiktok, twitter as sites that GOP attorney generals can and will target for censorship if this bill passes. all places where fandom, that's mostly queer, hangs out.

if you think this bill has no chance of passing because of all the red flags it poses, think again. it currently has 38 cosponsors in the senate, and is being pushed by the democrats as a "protecting the children!!" type bill.

there are left-aligned orgs in congress rn lobbying for this bill to pass. july is extremely decisive, because if KOSA goes through to markup it'll be bundled with the Earn It act, Restrict, and all the other bad internet bills and passed as a package, completely censoring the internet forever.

if you want to learn more about the bill, go here. also sign the open letter against it here

it's ESSENTIAL that you call your members of congress, specifically Maria Cantwell (you can call from out of state) and tell them DO NOT PASS KOSA. this site here connects you to your members of congress and gives you a short simple script to read off of! super easy and doesn't take much out of your day! please do this now!!

The Dark Watchers from American Folklore.

The Dark Watchers are a group of mysterious dark human-like creatures who stand on the hills, ridges, and peaks of the Santa Lucia Mountains of California and Mount Mingus and Mount Graham of Arizona. They supposedly watch those who wander into the mountains and are not aggressive. They are most often spotted around twilight and are usually seen staring upwards toward the sky while standing atop the mountains. They seem to be some sort of spirits however their origins are currently unknown.

According to legend, no one has seen one up close and if someone were to approach them, they disappear.

While sometimes attributed to the Chumash people who historically inhabited the central and southern coastal regions of California, nothing analogous to the legend appears to exist in their mythology. When Spanish Settlers first moved into the area they were said to have witnessed the Dark Watchers whom they dubbed Los Vigilantes Oscuros.

The Dark Watchers are most famously given a brief mention in John Steinbeck’s “Flight”, included in the 1938 collection of his short stories The Long Valley. It is mentioned that “ No one knew who the watchers were, nor where they lived, but it was better to ignore them and never to show interest in them”.

According to newspaper archives in the mid-1960s, a Monterery Peninsula local and former high school principal went on a hiking trip in the Santa Lucias when he suddenly spotted a dark figure standing on a rock and surveying the area. When the principal called out to the other hikers, the creature vanished. More sightings continue to be made to this day.