#gbltq — Public Fediverse posts

#Maine - #Queer #GearLibrary - #KindlingCollective

"Kindling Collective is a queer-centered gear library creating an accessible pathway to outdoor experiences in Wabanaki Confederacy Territory / Maine.

We aim to build community and support people in nurturing and sustaining relationships with the natural world and each other. At Kindling Collective, members can check out the gear they need for #camping, #hiking, and #backpacking adventures. You don’t need to be queer to be a member; you just need to be on board with supporting and affirming queer people’s access to the outdoors. Our guided trips and events are designed by and for queer people.

You don’t need to be queer to be a member; you just need to be on board with supporting and affirming queer people’s access to the outdoors.

Membership perks:
- Unlimited gear loans for up to 7 days.
- Advice, tips, and guidance from our staff and volunteers.
- Invitations to member appreciation and community events.
- A welcoming and inclusive community.
- Access to additional gear and equipment supplied by #MaineGearShare through interlibrary loans.
- 25% off monthly membership at Portland Yoga Collective
- 15% off room reservations at the CoHo Hostel in Conway, NH
- 15% off gym memberships (monthly & yearly), a discounted day pass for $17, and a discount off of the "learn the ropes classes" at Evo Rock & Fitness
- 10% off at Portage Eats "

Sliding scale memberships available.

FMI:
https://www.kindlingcollective.org/

#SolarPunkSunday #GBLTQ
#GBLTQEvents #SafeZoneEvents
#QueerEvents #SolarPunkSunday
#BorrowDontBuy #SharingEconomy
#SpendTimeInNature #Kayaks
#Hiking #Maine #BIPOCEvents
#QueerFriendlyEvents #SpendTimeOutdoors #GearHub #GearLibraries #BorrowDontBuy

A Map of Gender-Diverse Cultures

This text and the language in the corresponding map was updated in consultation with a world gender expert in October, 2023.

"Throughout recorded history and since time immemorial, thriving cultures have recognized, revered, and integrated more than two genders. Terms such as #transgender, gay, or bisexual are Western constructs that often assume three things: that there are only two sexes (male/female), as many as three sexualities (gay/straight/bisexual), and only two #genders (man/woman).

"Even after the end of the modern era and as the #colonial period wanes, hundreds of distinct #Indigenous societies around the globe still retain their own long-established traditions for third, fourth, fifth, or more genders. The subject of #TwoSpirits, Fred Martinez, for example, was not a boy who wanted to be a girl, but both a boy and a girl — an identity his Navajo culture recognized and revered as #nádleehí. Meanwhile, Hina of Kumu Hina is part of a #NativeHawaiian culture that has traditionally revered and respected #mahu, those who embody both male and female spirit. It’s not uncommon for third gender people to perform critical spiritual and religious functions in their communities.

"Among many Indigenous societies, two prominent features often distinguish the lives and social roles of third gender persons from those of cisgender persons or contemporary transgender persons in non-Indigenous societies. The first is that many Indigenous terms for third gender people contain both the word for 'man' and 'woman' in their construction, and that #ThirdGender people are seen as embodying both of those genders in diverse ways. The second is that the history of many third genders is in the community role of religious specialists, which also takes diverse forms, depending on the beliefs of diverse cultures. While not all third gender persons are defined in these terms, across our species, this phenomenon of the third gender religious specialist, healer, or spiritual worker has been part of our #CollectiveIdentity and human experience since time immemorial.

"Since the beginning of the 21st century, we’ve seen tremendous expansion of the role that transgender, #GenderDiverse, and third gender people have in society, following the tenuous establishment of civil rights for #gay and #lesbian people in many nations and increased access to #genderaffirming care in the transgender community. Many Indigenous transgender people who also identify as third gender are familiar to large audiences via their participation in popular media or social media activism. Third gender people, like the Japanese-Samoan, #Faafafine artist Yuki Kihara, now participate in major global cultural events and function not just as representatives of their gender-based community, but of their nation. Kihara had both a solo exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and represented New Zealand at the 2021 Venice Biennale. [For more: '#LGBTQIA+ Pride and Two-Spirit People' in Smithsonian Voices.]

"In the 21st century, many third gender people choose to take advantage of #GenderAffirmingCare, and identify, in addition to being third gender, as transgender. As access to gender-affirming care parallels healthcare access, and both third gender and Indigenous persons are often marginalized economically, it is not as readily available to many Indigenous transgender people, and within Indigenous cultures, medical transition is often seen as separate or secondary to social transition.

"Within #Western societies, despite centuries of suppression, there are still traces of a past when third or fourth or more genders were recognized within many cultures and societies. In rare cases, they presently exist. An example of this would be the #burrnesha of Albania, women who give up their social role as women to live as men. Likewise, within Jewish culture and law, as many as eight genders have been historically recognized, and in diverse ways.

"Take a tour with this world map, and learn how many cultures see gender diversity."

Learn more:
https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/content/two-spirits_map-html/

#PBS #GenderDiversity #CulturalTraditions #Genders #ThreeGenders #ThirdGender #FiveGenders #Gender #GBLTQ #Genders

WTF #Kansas!

An #AntiTrans #BathroomBill With a Cruel New Twist

A new Kansas law lets those “aggrieved” by the presence of a trans person in a bathroom to file a civil suit for monetary damages.

Natasha Lennard
February 3 2026, 8:59 a.m.

"With masked paramilitary forces grabbing nonwhite people from the streets and shooting civilians with impunity, it can be difficult to keep focus on all the other ways Republicans are entrenching a #fascist status quo nationwide. For #trans people, however, the legislative and policy assaults, which have been escalating red states for nearly a decade, are only getting worse — and, as ever, drawing all too little concern from Democratic leaders.

"Just last week, the Kansas legislature passed some of the most far-reaching measures to push trans and #GenderNonconforming people out of public life to date. Bathroom bans that bar trans people from restrooms aligned with their gender identity have become grimly common; over 20 states have such a law on the books. But Kansas’s new anti-trans bathroom bill adds a dangerous twist: a #BountyHunter provision.

"The law would permit private citizens to sue and seek monetary reward based on claiming to encounter a trans person in the bathroom. That’s on top of some of the harshest punishments of any existing bathroom bans, such as criminal charges, steep fines and even jail time.

"As journalist and trans rights advocate Erin Reed first reported, the bill’s vague language means that its reach could extend beyond public buildings — the remit of most bathroom bans around the country.

" 'As written, it would not only be the first bathroom bounty law to target transgender people directly, but also the first to extend a bathroom ban into private spaces,' noted Reed, “effectively creating the nation’s first private bathroom ban if enacted by empowering bounty hunters to search for trans people in bathrooms.'

[...]

"Kansas Republicans rushed through the bathroom ban, skirting public comment by essentially sneaking the bill into another piece of legislation aimed at denying trans people correct government IDs. The ID legislation is in and of itself extreme: it would invalidate driver’s licenses, government IDs, and even birth certificates that don’t list a person’s sex as assigned at birth.

"The bill would require trans people to surrender their correctly identifying driver’s license or risk a misdemeanor offense for driving with a invalid license. Trans Kansans would thus have to choose between carrying identification with their assigned sex at birth — inviting potentially further harassment and violence in public — or forgoing aspects of public life entirely. It’s a policy in line with the Trump administration’s move to stop issuing accurate passports to trans Americans."

Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2026/02/03/kansas-trans-bathroom-bill-bounty-hunter/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/VKuYu

#USPol #GBLTQ #GBLTQRights #TransErasure #TransRightsAreHumanRights