Feathery on Main

The literal cofounder of queer theory as an academic field says that abandoning trans people is fascist logic.

The voices in our community trying to exclude us may be loud, but they are not right, and they do not speak for the community as a whole or our history or anything at all.

This beautiful outdoor choir performance is an act of rebellion, and efforts are underway to make it illegal to do this.

The choir is part of the larger organization Women of the Wall, a multidenominational, international group of women who are campaigning for the right of women to pray at the Kotel in Jerusalem in an egalitarian way -- to sing, read Torah, and to pray out loud, taking up space, as women.

The Kotel is currently administered by a highly Orthodox rabbinate, which I suspect would prefer it if women just . . . didn't pray there at all. Grudgingly, they allow a teeny tiny official prayer space for women, who are expected to be very quiet and Orthodox about their prayer. The Orthodox men who take up most of the space at the Kotel haaaaaaaaaaate when people pray in non-Orthodox styles there, and they especially loathe it when women do that, to the point where they will physically attack people like the Women of the Wall, by throwing things like chairs and hot coffee at them while they're having services.

4 year old me: why must we do this

Fantastic old woman in the leopard print coat: "Why yes, my tooth IS real silver! Nobody ever asks me that. Do you like cats?"

However at the end of the day its just calling jews greedy. Like people whip it out about everything and anything that it literally is just the socially acceptable way to call jews greedy. Ya know, a stereotype shoved on us for decades.

enough. stop with the shock value. there is no need to insert THE CREATURE; the benign concept of such a world is horrifying enough. not even in urgency, but just in banal, everyday interaction. imagine you meet someone and their timer says two years. not tomorrow, not urgently soon, but two years. enough to do quite a lot. they could fall in love in that time - could they get engaged? have a baby? you might otherwise get to know them, befriend them, but perhaps you opt not to, make a conscious choice not to invest in your own grief. what balancing act would every individual person have to participate in - I have ten years, is that long enough to be a good mother to children? is that long enough to secure a caretaker for my own mother? my wife will die a few months before me. my newborn’s timer reads nineteen years.

so many responses of “its nice that you’re privileged enough to be able to steal from Target willy nilly!” and that’s not at all what this is about. like, yeah, shoplifting and loitering and graffiti and breaking the rules is, obviously, part of “do crime”. but they’re not parts you have to do.

would you help someone get an abortion where it was illegal?

would you help a trans friend get healthcare that had been criminalized?

would you shelter someone fleeing persecution, even if the law said not to?

would you help a gay couple stay together when the state decided their relationship was unlawful?

instead, would you report someone else for breaking the law? will you snitch on your hungry neighbors for stealing food? on your homeless neighbors for sleeping where they’re able?