#lgbtq_ — Public Fediverse posts

Hype for the Future 16A: The Countercultural Movements of America

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2025/11/16/hype-for-the-future-16a-the-countercultural-movements-of-america/

Honey Don’t! another Ethan Coen lesbian B-movie

https://oldaintdead.com/honey-dont-another-ethan-coen-lesbian-b-movie/

NJ Hate Watch: Do You Know This Man? Transphobe Attacks Trans Woman at Gunnison Beach in Sandy Hook, NJ

On Tuesday September 23, 2025 at approximately 3pm a trans woman was hate crimed at Gunnison Beach, located in Sandy Hook, NJ. Gunnison beach is a well known clothing optional beach in Sandy Hook and a popular hang out spot for the queer community.

The woman, who was hanging out with a friend and their dog was approached by a cis het white man in his 50’s who started berating the friend over the dog. When the trans woman stood up for her friend the man lashed out and verbally attacked her for being transgender, calling her a “freak” and telling her she should be on “meds”. As she took her phone out to record the escalating situation he struck her in the face, threw sand in her eyes, and tried to whip her with a towel.

A full video of the attack is located below. The trans woman’s face has been obscured for anonymity.

After the incident, the transphobe furthered the violence against the trans woman he victimized by reporting her to a nearby park ranger in an attempt to get her ticketed/arrested. The ranger spoke with the woman but declined to arrest or ticket her. The man was not arrested nor ticketed for his attack and was allowed to leave.

This act of tansphobic violence, while a horrific reality for many trans people in New Jersey, cannot go unchallenged and will not be tolerated.

Do you know this man? He is white, approximately 5’9″, has a graying beard, is balding, and is a cis het. He has a job, family, friends, and people who know him.

Any tips regarding his identity can be sent to [email protected].

#general #HateWatch #LGBTQ_ #news

When Fall is Coming, surprising French family drama

https://oldaintdead.com/when-fall-is-coming-surprising-french-family-drama/

Queenz: Drag Me To The Disco! coming to Swansea Grand Theatre

Queenz: Drag Me To The Disco! will take over the Swansea Grand Theatre main auditorium on Tuesday 21 October 2025 as part of a UK tour following the show’s Las Vegas debut.

Billed as “not just another drag show”, the production blends live vocals, high‑energy choreography and comedy with a soundtrack celebrating pop royalty through the decades. Organisers promise a night “where Dancing Queenz and disco dreams collide”, packed with glitz, glamour and heart.

Audiences can expect renditions of disco classics and pop anthems, alongside moments of humour and emotion. The show has been praised for its mix of entertainment and empowerment, with its cast of queens delivering what producers describe as “unfiltered fun, unstoppable talent and disco divas”.

A spokesperson for the show said:

“We’re so excited to bring our brand‑new disco‑fuelled party to Swansea. Expect jaw‑dropping live vocals, fierce choreography, outrageous humour and a night of pure joy — it’s the ultimate celebration of individuality and music that makes you want to dance.”

Tickets, priced from £24 to £29, are on sale now via the Swansea Grand Theatre website. The performance starts at 7pm and is recommended for ages 14 and over.

#Disco #DragQueen #GrandTheatre #LGBTQ_ #Music #Swansea #theatre

The early church embraced non-gender-conforming persons

In the book of Acts (Acts 8:27), Philip (one of the apostles) baptised an Ethiopian eunuch.

#LGBTQ_

Nothing is a broad term

If nothing can separate us from the love of God, as it says in Romans 8:38, then the list of “Things That Can Stop Him Loving You” is an empty list. Thus, being LGBTQ+ or any other marginalised flavour of person is not on the list of nothing, as it is an empty list. Therefore, God loves the entire LGBTQ+ community without exception.

I apologise for any Christians who have said otherwise.

#LGBTQ_ #loveIsLove

Four films, indies, and genre work

Nothing new or extra good has crossed my path this past week. Instead I’ve been roaming among the indies and smaller films looking for something to watch. I didn’t find anything great, but I watched several fair to middlin’ things that I’ll give a short review about.

[…]

https://oldaintdead.com/four-films-indies-and-genre-work/

Too Much de Lena Dunham: ¿La nueva Girls o un desastre total? Mi review honesta 😬

¿Ya vieron Too Much en Netflix? Porque yo acabo de terminar la serie de Lena Dunham y tengo SENTIMIENTOS encontrados que necesito desahogar 💭

¿De qué va Too Much? Un resumen rápido ⚡

Too Much es la nueva serie de Lena Dunham que sigue a Jessica, una mujer que navega por las relaciones, el trabajo y la vida en Londres. Suena familiar, ¿verdad? Es como si hubieran tomado la fórmula de Girls pero con un twist diferente.

Mi problema principal: Todo recae en Jessica 😩

El peso de una sola protagonista

Y aquí viene mi mayor beef con la serie: TODO se centra en Jessica. Literalmente TODO. Y es que por algo Girls funcionó tan bien – la trama se repartía entre Hannah, Marnie, Jessa y Shoshanna. Había contrapeso, diversidad de perspectivas, diferentes arcos narrativos.

¿Por qué Girls era superior?

• Múltiples protagonistas = más historias interesantes
• Diferentes personalidades balanceaban el show
• Sin Hannah todo el tiempo = menos agotamiento para el viewer
• Más layers narrativos = mejor desarrollo

Si Girls hubiera sido solo sobre Hannah 24/7, habría sido insufrible. Period. 💀

Too Much = Emily in Paris pero make it queer? 🏳️‍🌈

Las similitudes son evidentes:

• Protagonista problemática ✓
• Decisiones cuestionables ✓
• Situaciones cringe ✓
• Trama centrada en UNA persona ✓

La diferencia: Jessica no es heteronormativa y tiene ese toque crudo típico de Lena Dunham. Pero honestly, ¿es suficiente para salvarlo?

Las escenas más incómodas que me traumaron 😵

Momento #1: La escena del escupitajo

Cuando Felix le escupe en la boca a Jessica… No. Simplemente no. Me tapé los ojos y todo 🙈

Momento #2: La conversación sobre ITUs

Jessica hablando con la esposa de su jefa sobre infecciones urinarias durante la cena. Mientras casualmente promocionaba el consumo de… ya saben qué 🍃 Como si fuera tan natural como tomar una cerveza.

Momento #3: Las escenas íntimas

Las escenas de relaciones son tan raras que no se sienten naturales. Es como ver los momentos privados de alguien pero no de manera artística, sino súper incómoda.

El tea sobre la vida real de Lena Dunham ☕

La teoría Jack Antonoff

Okay, esto se pone jugoso. Se rumorea que Lena está retratando su relación actual Y la de su ex Jack Antonoff (sí, el famoso productor musical que ahora está casado con Margaret Qualley).

Red flags que investigué:

• Jack la dejó y Lena posteaba contenido de dolida en Instagram
• El ex de Jessica en la serie es súper pretencioso
• ¿Venganza creativa? Maybe Lena está usando la serie para procesar el heartbreak

Mi take: ¿Arte o resentimiento?

Cuando usas tu arte para sacar tu dolor personal, a veces sale genial… y a veces sale desastroso. Too Much se siente más desastroso que genial, la verdad.

¿Vale la pena ver Too Much? Mi veredicto final 📺

Para quién SÍ funciona:

• Fans incondicionales de Lena Dunham
• Personas que disfrutan el humor incómodo
• Espectadores que aman el drama romántico caótico

Para quién NO funciona:

• Si esperabas otro Girls (lo siento, no es)
• Si te incomoda la vergüenza ajena
• Si prefieres series con múltiples protagonistas

Mi rating: 1/10 ⭐

Too Much es un desastre total. Es como ver un terror romántico donde sientes más cringe que emoción.

Lo que me gustó:

• Honestly… nada 😬

Lo que NO me gustó:

• Representación LGBTQ+ cliché y forzada
• Actuación horrible de la protagonista
• Producción mediocre

Lo que no me convenció:

• Trama centrada en una sola persona
• Escenas incómodas sin propósito narrativo
• Falta de balance entre personajes

¿Tú qué opinas? 🤔

¿Ya vieron Too Much? ¿Están de acuerdo conmigo o piensan que soy muy dura? Dejen sus comentarios porque NECESITO saber si soy la única que sintió esto 💬

Sígueme para más reseñas honestas de series que todos están viendo pero nadie se atreve a criticar 😉

#1 #2 #3 #Girls #JackAntonoff #LenaDunham #LGBTQ_ #Netflix #Review2024 #SeriesReview #TooMuch

Pride on parade!

Hundreds of thousands of people participated in Budapest’s Pride festival on Saturday, defying a legal ban imposed by far-right prime minister Viktor Orban and his political allies. Attendance was estimated at about 200,000, six times last year’s 35,000.

Budapest Pride a big success, defying ban – Boing Boing

#goodNews #lgbtq_

[podcast] Pride e altro

Internazionale – Pride – La storia del Pride in otto puntate. Di Claudio Rossi Marcelli.

La storia dell’umanità è costellata di lotte per i diritti e, anche se non sempre in modo lineare, tende a procedere in una lenta conquista di nuove libertà. In questo percorso però ci sono dei momenti cruciali di rottura, di rivoluzione, in cui la battaglia sembra compiere improvvisamente un salto in avanti.

Choramedia – Prima – Di Sara Poma.

Prima è il viaggio di Sara Poma attraverso la vita di Maria Silvia Spolato, la sua militanza e la sua sparizione, la scelta o la condanna all’oblio, a seconda dei punti di vista. Un viaggio che parte da una domanda personale: come sarebbe stata la vita dell’autrice se non ci fosse stato il coraggio di Maria Silvia e di tutte quelle e quelli venuti prima

#LGBTQ_ #mariaSilviaSpolato #podcast #pride

The 21 Day Boyfriend Audiobook

The 21-Day Boyfriend
A.S. Kelly
Publication date: May 21 2025 (Audiobook)
Genres: Adult, Comedy, Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance

Eric O’Shea needs to make a decision. The annual event his family forces him to attend is just around the corner, and he doesn’t have a date.

Eric never needs help when it comes to finding men. But this time is different – his ex and his new boyfriend will be there, and Eric can’t just bring along one of his usual flings.

His only hope seems to be him: the best friend of his best friend, who he never wanted to meet.

Sean Quinn is a calm, collected, and cultured man; someone who would rather stay at home and read a book than waste his time chasing a date with no future.

Sean isn’t in a rush to find the perfect man, and he certainly doesn’t intend to go out with Eric: his best friend’s other best friend, who he’s avoided meeting for years.

But Sean has a flaw: he can’t say no to anyone, especially not when it comes to his friend Jake, who has a habit of worming his way into other people’s lives.

But it’s just one date, after all: pure fiction. It’s a shame, then, that when Eric needs Sean for another favour, he can’t turn his back. It’s a shame that just when Sean is beginning to understand that Eric isn’t what he seems, he can’t seem to stop before he gets hurt.

Twenty-one days: that’s the agreement.
Twenty-one days of grazing hands, furtive glances, and unexpected kisses.
Twenty-one days where anything goes; except falling in love.

Goodreads / Amazon / Audible / Apple / Kobo / Google Play

—

AUDIO TEASER:

Author Bio:

A. S. Kelly writes Rom-Com, Romantic Fiction and Family Saga.
Avid reader, hopeless romantic, lover of yoga, knitting and home baking.
She was born in Italy but lives in Ireland with her husband, two children and a cat named Oscar.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Bookbub / Newsletter

GIVEAWAY!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js

—

#Adult #Comedy #Contemporary #LGBTQ_ #Romance #XpressoTours

Pride 2025

It’s 13th June, which means it’s almost halfway through this year’s Pride Month. I’ve been so busy that I am very late in posting about Pride 2025. I usually post something to mark Pride Month on 1st June (e.g. here). In fact I hadn’t even noticed the Pride Progress Flag flying on Maynooth Campus (between the Arts Block and John Hume Building) until today. I didn’t see anything on Maynooth’s social media about Pride either. I didn’t see the flag yesterday when I left the Science Building and assumed it wasn’t there. It was however raining heavily so my view may have been obscured by the rain on my spectacles, so I went back today to check. I am relieved it is there, as we need such symbols now more than ever.

With its origins as a commemoration of the Stonewall Riots of 1969, Pride remains both a celebration and protest. It’s more necessary than ever now because of the sustained abuse being aimed at trans people from all quarters, including those in political power and those sad losers who have nothing better to do that spend all day tweeting their bigotry on social media. Bigots will always be bigots, but the lowest of the low are those that masquerade as some sort of progressive while spouting their hate and prejudice.

Someone asked me the other day whether we still needed Pride. I replied that I think Pride will be necessary for as long as there are people who are annoyed by its existence. As well as a celebration and a protest, Pride is an opportunity for us all to show solidarity against those who seek to divide us. Though many LGBTQIA+ people in many countries – even those that claim to be more liberal – still face discrimination, hostility and violence, Pride Month always reminds me of how far we’ve come in the past 50 years but also serves as a reminder that the rights we have won could so easily be taken away. As I get older, I find I have become more and more protective towards younger LGBTQ+ people. I don’t want them to have to put up with the crap that I did when I was their age.

To mark this year’s Pride I decided to become a patron of Gay Community News, a free magazine that is, I hope, a vital resource to for the Irish LGBTQ+ community. I hope to take part in the Dublin Pride March on 28th June too. More generally, I would like to wish all LGBTQIA+ people around the world, but especially staff and students at Maynooth University, a very enjoyable and inspiring Pride 2025!

#GayCommunityNews #GCN #History #lgbt #LGBT_ #LGBTQ_ #LGBTQIA_ #Pride #StonewallRiots

Nanaimo Pride Parade 2025

I always love a good Pride parade, and this year’s did not disappoint. Lots of shining happy people waving flags. Click on the arrows to see the slideshow.

#humour #LGBTQ_ #Nanaimo #Photography #PrideParade #Society

Happy anniversary!

For 30 years, the chorus has been a place for gay men to gather, support each other and express themselves in song. The chorus will close its 30th anniversary year with its first concert at Sacramento’s Memorial Auditorium, a single performance that will highlight the history of the community, with cameos by leaders of local LGBT organizations. The show also will showcase the Sacramento Children’s Choir and will benefit Sierra Forever Families, which specializes in helping foster children find their forever families.

Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus Celebrates 30th Anniversary – capradio.org

#lgbtq_ #music

Ferocious Designs appears on new ‘Rock Against Hate’ compilations benefiting LGBTQ+ causes

Ferocious Designs, the music project of Central New Jersey-based songwriter Brian Kelley, has contributed two tracks to the latest releases in BlowUpRadio.com‘s Rock Against Hate music compilation series. Rock Against Hate, volumes 7 and 8, will be available starting Friday, June 6, and all proceeds will benefit The Trevor Project and No More Dysphoria, respectively.

These latest releases will coincide with BlowUpRadio.com’s Rock Against Hate “Pride Month” Special, featuring live performances and selections from the compilations, starting at 9 a.m. EDT on Friday, June 6. The special will repeat every six hours through that weekend (June 6-8).

For more information, and to donate and listen, visit RockAgainstHate.org.

Also appearing on Rock Against Hate, Volume 7, is the late LGBTQ+ trailblazer and icon, Jill Sobule, who contributed a live version of her song “America Back” shortly before her untimely passing on May 1.

“It is a profound and bittersweet honor to appear on Rock Against Hate, Volume 7, alongside Jill Sobule,” said Kelley. “Jill performed at a very small venue less than 20 minutes from me in Central New Jersey in early April, and my wife and I nearly bought tickets to see her before realizing we couldn’t make it that night.

“I am a big fan of Jill’s work and her advocacy, and I’m proud to be taking part in a project she also supported,” added Kelley.

Kelley contributed a stripped-down version of his song “Peace of Mind,” featuring longtime friend and collaborator Christian Beach on acoustic guitar, for Rock Against Hate, Volume 7, benefiting The Trevor Project. The song, in its original form, appears on the 2023 album, Looking for the Light.

For Rock Against Hate, Volume 8, benefiting No More Dysphoria, Kelley submitted a “techno demo” of “It’s All Around You,” a song that appears in a more guitar-driven, power-pop format on his recently released EP, Off You Pop!

“We are seeing so many attacks on the LGBTQ+ community from the regime in power and its minions,” said Kelley. “My song ‘It’s All Around You’ is about trying to survive this fascist nightmare by finding strength and hope within one’s self and in the community and support systems around you — and these compilations are a small way for artists like me to help out and be allies in this fight.”

https://youtu.be/nHU3TBezORs

#benefit #BlowUpRadio #fundraising #indie #LGBTQ_ #music #NJ #NoMoreDysphoria #Pride #PrideMonth #RockAgainstHate #TheTrevorProject

In Pictures: Swansea Pride 2025

A colourful parade through the city centre was followed by an afternoon of live free entertainment in front of the Guildhall.

Swansea Pride is organised independently but supported by Swansea Council and Elliott King, Cabinet Member for Culture, Human Rights and Equalities said: “I want to thank everyone who came along to watch the parade or turned out to be part of it.

“Every year our city offers Swansea Pride a warm welcome and it this time it was brilliant with wall-to-wall sunshine.”

Swansea Council leader Rob Stewart said: “It was an amazing and colourful day. The afternoon of events at the Guildhall and Brangwyn Hall were full of energy and showcased the best of Swansea. It is really important for our communities that events like this take place every year and it keeps on growing.”

#featured #LGBTQ_ #Swansea #SwanseaPride

Swansea Pride parade and festival returns on Saturday

Once again, the festival is free and an open invitation is extended to all.

The annual parade is set to depart from Wind Street at 11am and will make its way along Oxford Street and St. Helen’s Road to the Guildhall.

A stage will be set up in the car park at the front of the building hosting live entertainment between noon and 7pm.

There will also be food and refreshment stalls as well as traders selling a range of items and merchandise.

Just like last year, the Swansea Pride Community Zone will be indoors in the neighbouring Brangwyn Hall with lots of information stalls from organisations, support services, charities, community groups and some craft traders as well.

Swansea Pride is organised independently but supported by Swansea Council.

Council Cabinet Member for Investment, Regeneration, Events and Tourism, Robert Francis-Davies said: “Once again the council is proud to be supporting the hard-working volunteers who do such a great job in making Swansea Pride the inclusive celebration that it is.

“This year is shaping-up to be as good ever and we are very grateful to them.”

Elliott King, Cabinet Member for Culture, Human Rights and Equalities, said: “Swansea Pride is one of the highlights of the year for the Pride community. It’s a opportunity to celebrate our city’s diversity in a carnival atmosphere of music and colour.

“The main stage will be outside the Guildhall and will offer live entertainment throughout the day.  The Brangwyn Hall will host the Swansea Pride Community Zone, with lots of information stalls from organisations, support services, charities, community groups and some craft traders as well.”

Council leader Rob Stewart, said: “This free event is one of many event  highlights  this year and there is an open invitation for people across Swansea and beyond to come along and enjoy what is always a great carnival atmosphere.”

A full list of acts, activities and other information can be found at www.swanseapride.co.uk

#Guildhall #LGBTQ_ #Parade #Pride #Swansea #SwanseaCouncil #SwanseaPride #WindStreet

“This Could Save a Life”: BBC Three’s Jake Devline-Reed champions new support group for Gay & Bi men across Wales

As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, 27-year-old I Kissed A Boy star Jake Devline-Reed from Swansea has teamed up with Welsh men’s mental health not-for-profit Helpu to launch a new online support group for gay and bisexual men right across Wales.

Following the success of their Cardiff-based Gay & Bi Men’s group, and backed by NHS Wales Executive on Suicide Prevention and Self Harm, Helpu is expanding its reach by launching a fortnightly Wales wide online men’s group, starting Monday 18 May. 

Jake’s involvement marks a powerful moment for LGBTQ+ mental health in Wales, where recent ONS statistics show the need is urgent. LGB+ people are 2.5 times more likely to self-harm. Suicide rates are over twice as high as those of heterosexual people and bisexual people face the highest risk.

The new online group is said to offer a safe, confidential space for gay and bisexual men to connect, share, and support one another.

No stranger to the challenges of mental health and suicidal thoughts, Jake Devline understands the power of connection. “I’ve been in that dark place where you feel like you can’t talk to anyone — where suicidal thoughts creep in and isolation takes over. For me, connection was everything. That’s why I’m backing this group. It gives gay and bi men a space to be real, be heard, and realise they’re not alone. Sometimes, just knowing someone understands can make all the difference.”

Ian Smith, Director of Helpu believes the initiative is vital. “Our gay and bi men’s groups exist because too many men still feel isolated and unable to speak openly. These spaces allow men to connect without fear of judgment — and that kind of support can be lifesaving.”

With much of Wales being rural, accessibility is a major barrier to mental health support. Helpu’s new virtual group format is designed to break that barrier — reaching men wherever they are.

Phil Scully from Helpu said: “As someone living with a chronic illness, I know how hard it can be to attend events in person. That’s why I’m proud we’re launching an online group — to reach those who need community in a different way.” 

Michael Cameron, Group Facilitator from Helpu added: “So many of the men who come to our group have never spoken openly about how they feel — not even to their closest friends. What we offer isn’t therapy, but it is powerful. It’s about being seen, being heard, and realising you’re not broken or alone. That kind of connection can be a turning point.” 

Helpu will hold sessions online fortnightly at 7pm from Monday 18 May.

#LGBTQ_ #mentalHealth #Swansea

🔮 Historia del Tarot (Parte 2): Mitos, símbolos y magia según María Luisa Honey

En esta segunda parte de la historia del tarot, publicada originalmente en la revista Kena, la escritora Beatriz Espejo entrevista a María Luisa Honey, una mujer fascinante que nos abre las puertas al enigmático mundo del tarot francés. 🃏

Este tarot no solo incluye símbolos tradicionales, sino que se adentra en el arte, la mitología, la astrología… ¡y hasta en la historia de Napoleón Bonaparte! 👑🔥

Prepárate para descubrir lo que significan algunas de las cartas más potentes y misteriosas de este mazo único. Spoiler: hay drama, magia, traiciones, pasiones oscuras y hasta representación LGBTQ+. 🌈

💀 La muerte violenta: Aquiles y Héctor

“En el tarot francés, la muerte violenta aparece representada por una pintura en la que Aquiles arrastra en torno a los muros troyanos el cuerpo inanimado de Héctor.”

Esta imagen no solo habla de violencia literal, sino de rupturas emocionales profundas, pérdidas que transforman, finales inevitables que dan paso a nuevos comienzos.

🍎 La discusión: Paris y las diosas

Cuando Paris, rodeado de diosas, lanza una manzana gritando “¡para la más bella!”, no solo inicia la Guerra de Troya… también deja clara la energía de esta carta: conflictos, celos, competencia y caos emocional. 😬

🌳 Entrada a una vida mejor: El jardín de las Hespérides

Un oasis entre tanto caos. Esta carta representa esperanza, paz y una nueva etapa luminosa. Ideal para cuando has pasado por algo difícil y al fin ves la luz al final del túnel. 🌞

👯‍♂️ Amistad verdadera: Cástor y Pólux

Los gemelos mitológicos representan lealtad, complicidad y apoyo incondicional. Si te sale esta carta, piensa en esas amistades que son familia del alma. 💖

⚔️ Salir bien librado: Agamenón y Menelao

Los hermanos, saliendo del campo de batalla, simbolizan superación de obstáculos y éxito en medio del caos. Aunque parezca imposible, vas a lograrlo. 💪

🕊️ Abuso de confianza: El rapto de Helena

La escena del rapto de Helena no es romántica, es un llamado de atención: engaño, traición y manipulación emocional. Cuidado con quien te rodea… no todo lo que brilla es oro. ⚠️

🧪 Protección mágica: Medea y sus polvos

Medea, famosa hechicera, aparece recibiendo dinero a cambio de ciertos polvos mágicos. Esta carta sugiere protección poderosa, rituales, brujería ancestral y pactos secretos. 🕯️✨

🐂 Pasiones oscuras: Júpiter y Europa

Cuando Júpiter, disfrazado de toro, rapta a Europa, el tarot nos habla de deseos incontrolables, encuentros ocultos y emociones intensas. 🔥
Si esta carta aparece, no ignores tus instintos… pero tampoco te dejes llevar ciegamente.

📦 Todas las penas: La caja de Pandora

La famosa caja de Pandora simboliza penas de todas clases, pero también la persistente chispa de la esperanza. Aunque todo parezca perdido, siempre queda algo bueno por rescatar. 🌩️➡️🌈

🕵️‍♂️ Secretos revelados: Mercurio

Mercurio, el mensajero de los dioses, representa noticias importantes, revelaciones, secretos que salen a la luz. ¿Estás lista para enterarte de lo que no sabías? 📬

🏆 El premio mayor: El vellocino de oro

Una de las cartas más deseadas: la conquista del vellocino de oro. Aquí hablamos de éxito rotundo, logros épicos y recompensas merecidas. ¡Vas por buen camino! ✨

🦁 Napoleón y la carta del León: poder, orgullo y redención

En honor a Napoleón Bonaparte, nacido bajo el signo de Leo ♌, se diseñó una carta muy especial:

Hércules estrangulando al León de Nemea.

Pero no termina ahí. En la misma carta también aparecen dos escenas:

• 👑 Napoleón coronando a Josefina
• 🎖️ Y condecorando a uno de sus mariscales

Todo esto simboliza lo siguiente:

Por muy mal que estén las cosas en este momento, te rehabilitarás ante el crédito ajeno.
Una carta que promete rescate de tu reputación, incluso en los peores momentos. ✨

🌈 Inclusividad inesperada: el cometa parado en tierra

Una carta en este tarot muestra un cometa detenido en tierra, y su significado es claro: homosexualidad.
Sorprendente para su época, este tarot demuestra una visión inclusiva y simbólica de la diversidad. 🏳️‍🌈

🕰️ Predicciones cumplidas: la derrota en Waterloo

Napoleón creía en las cartas, y según cuentan, le advirtieron que un retraso sería fatal.

Por eso, decidió comenzar la batalla de Waterloo una hora antes de lo planeado, pero aún así, una demora lo llevó a la derrota.
📉 El destino ya estaba escrito… y las cartas lo sabían.

📏 Las cartas originales: pequeñas, precisas y mágicas

Las barajas originales del tarot francés medían solo 8 centímetros, eran prácticas y fáciles de manejar.

Cada carta incluía:

• 🔭 Un plano astral
• 🔤 Una letra
• 🖼️ Tres grabados

Eran conocidas por dar noticias exactas.
Después se creó una versión más pequeña: el famoso Lenormant, que María Luisa Honey manejaba admirablemente. 🔮

🎴 ¿Cómo se consulta el tarot?

Cuando alguien quiere hacer una pregunta concreta, hay un método especial para obtener respuestas claras:

✋ El ritual de barajar

• Se barajan las cartas siete veces.
  El 7 es un número cabalístico:
  • 7 días de la semana
  • 7 colores del arcoíris
  • 7 palabras dijo Cristo en la cruz
  • En 7 días Dios creó el mundo 🌈🙏
• Luego, se extraen tres cartas clave:
  • La número 9 → la indestructible (el 9 aparece en todas las multiplicaciones)
  • La número 13 → la fatalidad
  • La número 21 → la recompensa

🙌 ¿Con qué mano partir?

• Con la mano izquierda si deseas que intervengan los afectos 💓
• Con la mano derecha para preguntas comerciales 💼

✂️ Cómo partir la baraja

• Muchas personas la parten diciendo: “Por mí, por mi casa, por mi porvenir.”
• Otras dicen: “Por las tres fuerzas: el espíritu, la materia y lo que se ignora.”

🎭 Porque la mente juega un papel importante: si crees en el tarot, se convierte en un espejo profundo del inconsciente.

🃏 ¿Y la baraja española?

Aunque es la más popular, también existe la creencia de que, como se ha usado mucho para jugar, a veces “no dice la verdad”.
Pero eso ya es tema para otra lectura… 🧐

✨ El tarot como espejo de la humanidad

Desde héroes griegos hasta emperadores históricos, pasando por hechiceras, cometas y cajas malditas… el tarot francés retrata la complejidad humana con arte y misticismo.

Cada carta cuenta una historia. Y según María Luisa Honey, el tarot no es solo para adivinar el futuro, sino para leer el alma. 🌌

🗨️ ¿Te gustó esta segunda parte de la historia del tarot?

Guarda este post, compártelo con tus amig@s brujit@s y dime en los comentarios:

#Brujxs #CartasDelTarot #Esoterismo #HistoriaDelTarot #Lenormand #LGBTQ_ #Mitologia #Napoleon #Simbolismo #Tarot #TarotFrances

Five fave lesbian/sapphic love songs of alt/indie rock

Obviously, we all have individual tastes in music. As a male listening to this genre, these five lesbian/sapphic love songs share common threads with all other great love songs — they contain a heartfelt emotional vibe, feature well-written and evocative lyrics, and include great instrumentals that help draw the listener into the soul of the tune.

Of these five fave songs, three are by Canadian artists, one is by an Irish band, and one is by an American group. Peace & love!

_______

“Holy Show” by Pillow Queens (Ireland) –

“I’ll roll you up and crack you open
We look like a couple of teens
Just hanging back and holy ghosting
Apologise and leave” – Pillow Queens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvHd0vId3uo

“How To Breathe” by Momma (United States) –

“What a tender place to be
In her arms, I flirt with Heaven
Angels bring her down to me

She taught my body how to breathe
She taught my body how to breathe” – Momma

https://youtu.be/JT17GDAC_-w?si=PcqINQsmrND0E31Y

“Constant Craving” by k.d. lang (Canada) –

“Maybe a great magnet pulls All souls to what’s true” – k.d. lang

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ4ANwlDb58

“Edge of the Earth” by The Beaches (Canada) –

“She’s a fire sign
And I don’t really know what that means
I’m a cold night
And I wanna be close to the heat
I don’t want to get burned
I don’t want love like that
But I can’t go any further ’til I start coming back” – The Beaches

https://youtu.be/FTsHU7RxuGQ?si=s8yCA-8ea0YmiaIk

“Closer” by Tegan & Sara (Canada) –

“All you think of lately is getting underneath me
All I dream of lately is how to get you underneath me” – Tegan & Sara

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJCFnqrYfcU

#altRock #Canada #gays #Ireland #kdLang #lesbians #LGBTQ_ #love #loveSongs #lyrics #Momma #music #PillowQueens #sapphic #songs #TeganSara #TheBeaches #tracks #tunes #women #writing

😱 El día que Dawson’s Creek habló de empatía y homofobia… ¡en los 90s!

📺 Temporada 2, episodio 15: mucho más que drama adolescente

Estaba echándome un maratón de Dawson’s Creek (porque sí, soy esa morra nostálgica) y llegué al capítulo 15 de la segunda temporada, y OMG… no esperaba terminar llorando con el corazón apachurrado 😭.

Este episodio no solo trata sobre el drama adolescente clásico. Va más allá: habla de identidad, homofobia y empatía. Y todo eso… ¡en una serie de los 90s!

🏳️‍🌈 Jack aún no sale del clóset… pero ya lo están juzgando

Al inicio del episodio, Jack aún no decía abiertamente que es gay, pero ya se notaba la tensión. Todo se acelera cuando Jen, que está saliendo con un tipo llamado Tyson, se enfrenta a una situación súper incómoda..

🙄 El «open mind» más falso del mundo

Tyson es de esos que se dicen «mente abierta», pero sólo de dientes para afuera. Dice que es religioso pero bien selectivo con lo que cree. Y claro, se le va encima a Jack diciendo que «eligió ser gay» (insertar ojo en blanco aquí 👀).

Jen se enoja —y con justa razón—. Le dice que la sexualidad no se elige, y que lo que está haciendo es juzgar desde su ignorancia. El ambiente se pone tenso… hasta que llega la señora que menos esperábamos.

👵 La abuela de Jen y su inesperada sabiduría

Estaban todos en casa de la abuela de Jen, que es súper religiosa, y Jen ya se imaginaba que iba a ponerse del lado de Tyson.

Pero nop 😌.

La señora se avienta una frase que, honestamente, se siente adelantada a su época:

“Sólo Dios puede juzgar a Jack. Como a todos nosotros. Lo que tenemos que hacer es tener empatía.”

🎯 Directo al corazón. En una serie de los 90s. En voz de una señora religiosa. Qué joya.

💔 Y lo más fuerte: Jack sale del clóset con su papá

Como si todo eso no fuera suficiente, minutos después del episodio, Jack le confiesa a su papá que es gay. La escena es súper emotiva. Se le rompe la voz, se le quiebra el alma… y a una también 😭. No es una salida del clóset ideal, pero es real, vulnerable, y valiente.

💬 Reflexión final: esto sigue siendo tan actual

Este episodio de Dawson’s Creek salió hace más de 20 años, y sin embargo, el mensaje sigue siendo urgente y relevante.

A veces las series del pasado tenían más coraje para decir verdades incómodas que muchas actuales. Y esta en particular nos dejó un recordatorio que vale oro:

✨ La empatía nunca pasa de moda. ✨

🧠 ¿Tú viste este capítulo?

Si también te pegó directo en el pecho como a mí, déjamelo en los comentarios 🥹
¿Crees que hoy las series tratan estos temas con la misma sinceridad? ¿O ya no se arriesgan igual?

#DawsonsCreek #JackMcPhee #LGBTQ_ #PopCultureMx #SeriesNoventeras #TVDeAntes #TVLGBTQ

The Lady’s Companion, period comedy from Spain

https://oldaintdead.com/the-ladys-companion-period-comedy-from-spain/

It's publication day!

Enwogion o fri: Diversity Project 2023-2025

Our free #DiversityProject anthology for the #Bywgraffiadur has just dropped on KC Works. Over 40 authors contributed more than 60 articles about the most fascinating people in #Welsh #history you could possibly imagine.

We've covered #BAMEHistory #LGBTQ_ and #DisabilityHistory, #WomensHistory, #ArtHistory, the #HistoryOfScience, #HistoryOfReligion and #Wales

Frankly, there's not a single article in this collection that's not bound to be of interest to someone.

Get your own copy here as PDF or epub. And because we're in Wales, we even offer you two versions.

English: https://works.hcommons.org/records/dtb9c-bzm89
Cymraeg: https://doi.org/10.17613/mmwvm-ryh93

#History #BlackHistory #OA #OpenAccess

Museums launch new bilingual app to support LGBTQ+ communities living with dementia

Launching during LGBTQ+ History Month, LGBTQ+ in Wales will evoke memories of queer Welsh history, as Swansea Museum and West Glamorgan Archive Service join with other organisations across Wales to support LGBTQ+ people living with dementia in their communities.

The app package uses the real memories of community members in Swansea and Neath Port Talbot and from across Wales, as well as spotlighting key items from queer culture found in Welsh museum collections.

Created alongside National Museums Liverpool’s House of Memories dementia programme, Swansea Museum and West Glamorgan Archive Service have contributed their own items and memories to create a digital archive or LGTBQ+ content.

The main aim of this project is to spark conversations between people living with dementia and their loved ones. Using items found in the app as cues and talking points, people living with dementia can have meaningful conversations, as well as personalising the app to focus on items that hold particular significance to them.

LGBTQ+ in Wales is a digital archive of memories from Wales’ LGBTQ+ communities, with experiences of nightclubs, Pride marches, queer activism, drag acts and more. This new package is an addition to the House of Memories Cymru programme, which was launched at the Senedd in 2023.

Highlights from Swansea Museum and West Glamorgan Archive Service collections that feature in the app package includes programmes for the first gay marriage in Swansea, “Pits and Perverts” event poster, theatre programmes for drag acts and a Swansea University LGB society newsletter.

Other museums across Wales have supported and contributed to the project to create a selection of memory prompts from queer culture in Wales. The museums involved are: Conwy Culture Centre, Swansea Museum, National Museum Wales, Glamorgan Archives, West Glamorgan Archives, Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery and Museum of Cardiff.

Other highlights for people to explore include court registers, inclusive rugby team shirts and flags and memorabilia from Pride events using a mixture of audio, video and images.

House of Memories Cymru is available through National Museums Liverpool’s My House of Memories app. Alongside the dementia community, the app is co-created through the award-winning House of Memories programme and features memories from a range of community groups in the UK and further afield.

The LGBTQ+ in Wales package will contain items that relate to specific areas of Wales. Already existing items from museum collections will be brought together to showcase the country’s rich and diverse queer history.

Jack Sargeant, minister for culture, said: “This LGBTQ+ in Wales app package will be such an insightful resource, celebrating the rich history and lived experiences of LGBTQ+ communities throughout our country.

“This Welsh Government-supported initiative not only helps preserve our shared heritage but also provides an invaluable support for people living with dementia and their loved ones to connect through meaningful memories. Projects like this demonstrate the power of heritage and inclusive storytelling in strengthening communities across Wales.”

“Wales is striving to be the most LGBTQ+ friendly nation in Europe. Our LGBTQ+ Action Plan sets out steps to strengthen equality, challenge discrimination, and create a safer, more inclusive society.”

(Lead image: Swansea Council)

#CeriDupree #dementia #LGBTQ_ #Museum #NationalMuseumWales #NeathPortTalbot #Pride #Swansea #SwanseaMuseum #WestGlamorganArchiveService

Locomía vendía música e imagen, no vendía sexo.

En 1992, la icónica revista TVyNovelas entrevistó al grupo Locomía, una banda que marcó una generación con su música, su imagen extravagante y su característico uso de abanicos. Durante la charla, se abordaron temas como la percepción del público infantil y las especulaciones sobre su vida personal.

“Los niños no tienen tabúes”: Locomía y su impacto en la infancia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XISaOX_-_g

En la entrevista, se les preguntó si consideraban que su estilo era un ejemplo para los niños. Frances respondió con una reflexión interesante:

“Los niños son los únicos que no tienen tabúes al entender las cosas. Si les parece bueno, pues les gusta. A ellos les encanta la faceta visual de los abanicos”.

Por su parte, Manolo añadió:

“Sobre todo son muy sinceros, dicen lo que piensan sin ningún problema”.

Los rumores sobre su vida privada

A medida que el grupo ganaba popularidad, comenzaron a surgir especulaciones sobre su orientación sexual. Frances respondió rápidamente al respecto:

“Esto es absurdo, lo dicen por nuestra manera de vestir”.

Carlos, en una postura firme, dejó claro su punto de vista:

“La vida sexual de las personas es algo que debes tener de la puerta de tu casa hacia adentro y eso no les debe importar”.

Finalmente, Santos y Manolo zanjaron el tema con una frase que resonó con su esencia:

“Vive y deja vivir” – Santos.
“Locomía vende música e imagen, no vende sexo. Que cada cual haga con su vida lo que le apetezca” – Manolo.

Unas respuestas icónicas para su época

Recuerden que eran los años 90 y la revista estaba dirigida al público mexicano, que sin dudas era muy homofóbico. Es lógico que en ese contexto no dijeran abiertamente que eran gays, pero tampoco lo negaron. Sus respuestas fueron inteligentes, elegantes y sin duda icónicas para la época.

Locomía no solo dejó una huella en la música de los 90, sino que también desafió prejuicios con su estética y actitud vanguardista. A más de tres décadas de su auge, su legado sigue vivo entre quienes disfrutaron de su estilo único y rompedor.

¿Eras fan de Locomía en los 90? ¡Déjalo en los comentarios!

#CulturaPop #HistoriaDelPop #LGBTQ_ #moda #retro #TVyNovelas

I’ll Be Right There review: when family is a comedy

https://oldaintdead.com/ill-be-right-there-review-when-family-is-a-comedy/

“Healthcare, Not Hate” – Protestors Ask Seattle Children’s Hospital for Support

SEATTLE, WA – Over 900 people assembled outside of Seattle Children’s Hospital today, in protest of the organization’s decision to unilaterally discontinue healthcare for its transgender youth. This was the third in a series of grassroots demonstrations; attendance has grown exponentially since they began Thursday morning.

Today’s action is especially noteworthy, as this time, it was organized by the hospital’s own staff. At least a dozen healthcare providers risked professional retaliation in order to demand justice for their wards— and to publicly condemn the cowardice of their employers.

And that’s punk as hell.

Violation of Oath, or Law? Perhaps Even Both.

As originally reported by The Stranger’s Vivian McCall, Seattle Children’s Hospital abruptly canceled its gender-affirming procedures on Monday, offering impacted families little in the way of explanation or compassion. One patient— identified in the article only as Ethan, age 18, in the interests of privacy— was informed just hours before his scheduled top surgery that he would not be receiving care, after all.

Allegedly, hospital leadership abandoned both their professional responsibilities and common courtesy; failing to communicate the changes to the family and providing inadequate aftercare for what was almost certainly a world-shattering disruption to Ethan’s physical and mental health.

When pressed by the family for an explanation, representatives from Seattle Children’s Hospital vaguely gestured toward Executive Orders 14168 and 14187— the latter is deceptively titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation”. These orders instruct government agencies to interfere with healthcare intended for trans youth, and to financially punish those organizations which continue to provide it.

Privately, Seattle Children’s Hospital1 expressed concerns that failing to comply with this order would risk the loss of federal funding. Canceling gender affirming care was presented as a defensive maneuver, outside of their control.

In other words, that the sacrifice and collective punishment of trans youth was necessary to ensure the continued care of other patients.

This argument is unsatisfying for multiple reasons. To get the most obvious one out of the way, the orders in question are blatantly unconstitutional to begin with. They’re comprised mostly of hate speech; they repeat widely debunked myths and contradict international consensus on medical standards of care; and they were authored by a bunch of Neo-Nazis. They never should have been written, and no self-respecting healthcare provider would ever willingly obey them.2

Perhaps the more surprising reason, then, is that somehow SCH managed to begin complying with them before they were written. According to The Stranger, Seattle Children’s was already scrubbing mentions of gender-affirming care from its website as early as January 16th. Trump had not even been inaugurated by that point; there were no orders with which to comply.

Setting aside the inherent immorality in withholding life-saving healthcare from human beings that need it, Seattle Children’s Hospital has apparently volunteered to do so— in advance of any valid legal requirement or credible threat.

And so today, their own employees called bullshit.

Walk With Me

Shame you missed it, but that’s okay. I’ll paint you a word picture.

(Actually, these photos are from Friday, but it’ll make sense why I didn’t take new ones in a second.)

Folks begin assembling along Sand Point Way just before noon.

Within an hour, the sidewalk outside of the Forest building is completely packed. An 860-foot wall of human signage spontaneously forms along the side of the road; it reaches all the way from 40th Ave, to the corner of NE 50th St.

A sheet of poster-board reads: TRUST TRANS KIDS. Another: DO NOT OBEY IN ADVANCE.

People begin crossing the street to make room for more.

At quarter after one, organizers test the day’s chants with the crowd. Call, then response. When trans rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back.

A live band plays behind me. The tuba player has, by some feat of witchcraft, suspended the word “PRIDE” across the open bell of their instrument.3 Meanwhile, commuters contribute an unceasing, manic stream of car horns from the intersection. The crowd seems re-energized by each cycle of the traffic light.

As the main event begins, eight speakers assemble beside the nearby bus stop. Fliers are distributed to the crowd, requesting that attendees refrain from photographing, filming, or tagging the speakers on social media, in the interests of their continued employment. A few of them have the luxury— and the security— to speak plainly on the record, but not all of them will. I re-attach the lens cap to my camera.

The first speaker is a psychology fellow, who invokes Bell Hooks. They patiently explain what we all already ought to know; that trans healthcare is life-saving and necessary. They draw from their professional experience to name something which will eventually become the day’s theme; deserving. Children deserve this standard of care which is being denied them.

Speaker number two is the parent of a transmasc child, whose life was immeasurably improved by access to transition care. They describe their son’s struggle with self-harm, but only in service of highlighting his subsequent love of life.

“I will never forget the look on his face when he woke up from that surgery,” they say, “[It was] unadulterated joy.”

A sticker on the side of the organizer’s megaphone says “PROUD AS FUCK”. They hold it up for a young speaker named Fern— she can’t have been older than 10. I’m grateful that kids are being given space to speak for themselves, rather than merely spoken about.

Fern delivers her speech from a stepladder. She says she has already experienced discrimination. Fern recalls being forced to change pre-schools; apparently her teacher was unwilling or unable to work with a trans child. Fortunately, Fern seems to have processed that this problem was never hers to own. I’m grateful for that, too.

She encourages the audience to live authentically— to celebrate what makes them different. In this moment, the absurdity of the situation is inescapable. We’re all here today because there are grown-ass adults in the world that still need to learn this lesson, which even a child can grasp. Remember that whenever these adults express disgust at transgender people, they are not talking about an abstract concept, but a child like this.

Fern’s address is brief. She closes with this simple wisdom:

The only way to make peace is to be weird.

And I’m like, amen kiddo.

Next, a healthcare representative who wishes to remain anonymous. They confront the stakes head-on, and with precision:

This is a fight that is bigger than us. It is bigger than Seattle Children’s Hospital. (…)This is a fight against fascism, and a fight for humanity.

This speaker challenges the reasoning of Seattle Children’s Hospital— the decision to trade the well-being of trans children for that of cisgender ones. They assure the audience that they understand the risks of defying a trans healthcare ban. Personally so. They tell us about their sibling, who is a patient at this hospital. His life depends on the continued availability of Medicaid.

You would think that such a family would have an interest in maintaining that coverage at any cost. You might expect such a family to be risk-averse. You would be wrong.

This is the line we draw in the sand. We are being bullied by the federal government to bow down or else. But if we bow down now, who will they come for next? Will they hold federal funding over our heads, to stop providing care to your children next?

(…)This moment is where we take a stand. This is the moment we refuse to let an executive order determine who is worth treating, and who isn’t. Healthcare should be determined by evidence-based practice, not the words of a politician. We stand up against discrimination today, so that you don’t have to tomorrow.

And then they read that poem about who the fascists came for and in what order. You know the one. Yeah, that one.

The fifth speaker is not only a healthcare worker, but a union member representing United Food & Commercial Workers Local 3,000. They read a petition, which you can find here, calling upon Seattle Children’s Hospital to reverse their policy.

Here’s the most compelling bit:

In its public appeals to patients, Seattle Children’s vows “to help every child live the healthiest and most fulfilling life possible.” That statement does not say every child except trans children. That statement says “every child.” By denying them necessary medical care, the hospital is failing its own commitments to the patients, families, and community we serve.

In lieu of a retraction from SCH, UFCW30004 hopes to attract the attention of Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown. Incidentally, Washington filed a lawsuit just yesterday which seeks to enjoin Trump’s gender-affirming care bans. The court documents offer Seattle Children’s Hospital as an example of parties harmed by the order.5

Speaking of Nick Brown, the next presenter also claims to be working with the Attorney General. Sarah Moran is the board chair for the Gender Justice League; in her address, she scolds SCH, referencing the opening chapters of Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny:

Seattle Children’s has broken the number one rule of dealing with authoritarians, which is: you never obey in advance.

(…)And in capitulating so quickly, Seattle Children’s is doing Donald Trump’s work for him. That is not acceptable. And not only is it cowardly, but it is an abdication of their duty to provide the health care that their patients need.

According to Moran, the Gender Justice League compiled the stories of transgender people throughout Washington, and sent them to the AG to support the state’s lawsuit. They urge the audience to continue applying pressure to their elected officials, and to steel themselves against the deluge of legislative nonsense aimed at at their noggins.

The work will be difficult, says Moran, but she is confident that we will win in the end. The crowd repeats it back to her; we will win. This might be the first time it’s been said out loud, but the sentiment was already in the air.

It has been for the last hour.

The penultimate speaker introduces themselves as a psychologist, a parent, and a trans man. And for a moment, the audience evaporates.

Know that you are not alone.

He speaks directly to the grieving trans children whose care has been suspended, and whose humanity has been rescinded. And I’m about to quote him extensively, because in my opinion this is the most important and most heartfelt message of the entire enterprise.

I want to address you as a trans elder. (…)Consider that there was a time— not long ago— that we didn’t even have the imagination to consider the context that you’re currently in… Consider that my survival as your elder is fueled by your survival.

My promise to you is that everything changes. And sometimes a good night’s sleep and a warm meal can give us the care we need to begin to just see things a bit differently.

Let’s be clear; he is not speaking to most of us. I’m transgender, and he’s not even speaking to me. This is the language of a mental health professional who has seen some shit, who understands the trauma these kids are going through, and who knows what that kind of trauma can do to a person.

He is begging these kids to survive, because he is quite reasonably concerned that they might die deaths of despair as a result of this ban.

“It’s not acceptable to me that so many of you think you’re not gonna live past 35,” he says. “So I hope that both young folks and your family hear me when I say that you are not to allow your standards of living, either in how others treat you, or how you think of yourself, to be degraded because you’re queer or trans.”

It might seem odd for a stranger to forbid you from doing something, but I do not doubt for a moment that someone needed to hear it— maybe multiple someones— and that is just emotionally devastating.

Finally, the megaphone is passed to Meesh Vecchio, president of the Seattle Education Association. If these domains seem unrelated to you, I would ask you to look again, and to look more closely.

On January 29th, Donald Trump signed executive order 14190— “ENDING RADICAL INDOCTRINATION IN K-12 SCHOOLING”. It seeks to rescind federal funding from any school which acknowledges the gender identity of its students, under the guise of “parents rights”. Framed a bit more honestly, the rights of parents who reject their children’s identity, and not the ones who accept it.

Federal funding is being wielded as a hostage in education, in precisely the same way as it is in healthcare. The target is the same, and so is the harm.

“We will not let hate erase the facts”, says Vecchio. It’s as true when applied to education, as when applied to WPATH standards of care. Vecchio’s address highlights that these fights are not separate; that erosion here foreshadows erosion there.

Then they call for something crucial; reparations. Forgive me for having such a pesky thing as a point of view, but they’re right. It is not enough to restore these rights that kids always ought to have had. At this point, they are owed more. We’re back to that theme of deserving.

Ethan, for example, deserves to have his top surgery, but that’s table stakes. He deserves more than that, for the anguish he has been caused. At this point, organizers are no longer asking for violence to stop; they’re demanding justice.

“Complicity has a price tag,” says Vecchio.

And I get that I have a vested interest in the outcome, but I’ll be damned if I don’t agree.

Focus On [Cisgender] Kids

Seattle Children’s Hospital has yet to publicly acknowledge any of this, or issue an official statement of any kind as of writing. Their last press release was in December of last year, and their social media presence has been dormant for over a week.

You should know that I have contacted SCH representatives twice now— first in person, and again via email— and received no response. If you feel that their viewpoint has gone unrepresented in this piece, I promise you it’s not for lack of trying.

According to SCH staff— who for obvious reasons wish to remain anonymous— the internal response has been equally inadequate. An email I’ve reviewed from the 7th confirms for staff that yes, they have been in contact with the AG’s office:

Seattle Children’s has been collaborating with the Washington State Attorney General’s office for the past week on a lawsuit in response to President Trump’s January 28th executive order directing federal agencies to revoke funding for institutions providing gender-affirming care to minors…

That part is useful and good to know. Cool.

Unfortunately, they follow that up by suggesting that their current policies are in full compliance with the law, and for everyone’s own good, actually.

…Given the uncertainty surrounding the executive order and its harmful effects we’re seeking clarity on the best interests of Seattle Children’s patients and families, and our workforce, so we can continue to deliver on our mission. We remain committed to caring for our patients and families who need us and engaging in life changing research, while ensuring we operate within all applicable laws.

Our hearts go out to our patients, families, workforce, and the communities we serve who have been impacted by the uncertainty of our current landscape.

Your hearts go out them, huh? From one chronic abuser of the passive voice to another, let me ask; impacted by whom? It’s true that SCH didn’t write the executive orders, and obviously it’s more productive to direct the bulk of your anger at the fascists that started all this. But it wasn’t necessary to eject one of your most vulnerable communities into traffic to save your own skin, either. At the very least, not yet.

There’s a distinct lack of ownership and professionalism here, given that they failed to inform at least one patient that their surgery would be canceled. SCH definitely had that time to prepare; we know this because they started sanitizing their website a month in advance. Surely, they had some inkling; certainly, they had some choice.

Instead of acknowledging this, they cite their policies and their mission statement, not because they have adhered to them faithfully, but as a means to deflect responsibility. It is a surrogate, a straw man, a punching bag. SCH couldn’t have hurt these people; see, it says right here they’re committed to not doing that!

As an aside, Seattle Children’s Department of Laboratories hosted their annual benefit “Beakers and Bubbly” at the Inglewood Golf Club this evening. The mission statement on that program’s website currently reads: every patient is our patient. I feel like that bit might need amending.

Anyway, hopefully the auction is lucrative enough to offset any loss in federal funding.6

Here Yesterday, Still Here Tomorrow

It’s two in the afternoon. Parents and allies wear capes crafted from trans flags. Every car horn elicits a fresh whoop from a hundred humans delighted to be alive, and in the company of someone who cares— no matter how briefly.

In a way, walking through this crowd feels a lot like attending Pride. But instead of corporate sponsorships and cheap tat, there’s a table of homemade zines. I stick around to read a few. This one— titled “Transmutation – An Early memoir”— is my favorite. The author signs, “a vegan tranarchist”.

As the demonstration winds down, the organizers say they want to try one last thing. They warn that it’s weird. They’re not sure it will work out, but what the hell, why not?

That thing turns out to be queer karaoke. They hold their cellphone up to the megaphone, and 900 people sing Pink Pony Club on the spot.

It is beautiful in its imperfection.

Eventually the protestors go their separate ways, but many of them were here yesterday, and they’ll be back tomorrow.

A child waves from the back seat of a vehicle as she leaves; it might be Fern, but I can’t tell from this distance. Whoever she is, she’s holding pink and blue balloons.

1. Hereafter “SCH”, because I am lazy and do not care about their branding guidelines. ↩︎
2. I actually don’t intend to waste any more words refuting their contents. Statistically, you either arrived at this article capable of recognizing the humanity of transgender people, or you have decided in advance not to do so under any circumstances.
   That said, if you’d like to read a proper refutation of these unconstitutional, pseudo-scientific pieces of hate speech, such breakdowns are readily available elsewhere. Here’s a short piece by Natasha Lennard at the Intercept to get you started. ↩︎
3. I am embarrassed to admit how long I stood fascinated by this. ↩︎
4. …which when abbreviated sounds like the model number of an as-seen-on-TV vacuum cleaner… ↩︎
5. It’s unclear whether the AG’s office will separately prosecute the hospital’s conduct between now and the complaint’s resolution. Depending on how how quickly it progresses, and on the result, it may not even be necessary. I’ve reached out to both Brown, and to the AG’s Deputy Communications Director Mike Faulk, and will follow up if I learn anything useful. ↩︎
6. Jokes aside, it looks like these folks are volunteers for a separate department, so please don’t bother them. It’s fun to tease the business side of the house for the optics, but healthcare isn’t zero-sum, and events like this probably help a lot of people. 🙂 ↩︎

[CORRECTION: 2/9/25, 6:36pm – Meesh Vecchio uses they/them pronouns. Additionally, I fixed the link for EO 14168. Both are rookie mistakes to have made, how embarrassing! Thank you for the feedback.]

Citations

Lennard, Natasha. “Trump’s Anti-Trans Executive Order is Unscientific Nonsense”. The Intercept, 22 January 2025. https://archive.ph/cQCYj

McCall, Vivian. “Seattle Children’s Postpones Trans Teen’s Surgery Indefinitely”. The Stranger, 4 February 2025. https://www.thestranger.com/queer/2025/02/04/79906101/seattle-childrens-postpones-trans-teens-surgery-indefinitely

Niemöller, Martin. “First They Came”. 1946. Republished by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. https://hmd.org.uk/resource/first-they-came-by-pastor-martin-niemoller/

Trump, Donald. “PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM CHEMICAL AND SURGICAL MUTILATION”. White House EO 14187, 28 January 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-children-from-chemical-and-surgical-mutilation/

Trump, Donald. “DEFENDING WOMEN FROM GENDER IDOLOGY EXTREMISM AND RESTORING BIOLOGICAL TRUTH TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT”. White House EO 14168, 20 January 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/

Trump, Donald. “ENDING RADICAL INDOCTRINATION IN K-12 SCHOOLING”. White House EO 14190, 29 January 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-indoctrination-in-k-12-schooling/

United Food & Commercial Workers Local 3,000. “Petition: Restore Gender-Affirming Care at Seattle Children’s Hospital!”. 7 February 2025. https://ufcw3000.org/news/2025/2/7/petition-restore-gender-affirming-care-at-seattle-childrens-hospital

Washington State Office of the Attorney General. “State of Washington challenges unconstitutional presidential order criminalizing, and ending funding for gender-affirming care”. 7 February 2025. https://www.atg.wa.gov/news/news-releases/state-washington-challenges-unconstitutional-presidential-order-criminalizing

#Activism #Antifascism #HumanRights #LGBTQ_ #Politics

Mickey Calisto at Future Yard

Ah to have the energy of Mickey Calisto. Love seeing him perform. Great gig at Future Yard.

View more: https://petecarr.net/blog/mickey-calisto-at-future-yard/

#Birkenhead #futureYard #gig #lgbtq_ #liveMusic #photography #Wirral

Who will stand up for LGBTQ+ Diversity?

The only thing that has surprised me about Donald Trump’s assault on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is the speed with which he has imposed his bigotry on individuals and federal institutions. The first step came within hours of the Felon-in-Chief assuming office with an Executive Order intended to dismantle crucial protections for transgender people and deny the validity of gender identity itself. The new order withdraws a range of executive orders issued by Joe Biden, including those allowing transgender people to serve in the military, advancing the health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth, and interpreting federal sex discrimination protections in domains like education, housing, and immigration to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. And this is just the start, and I don’t think it will be confined to the USA for very long.

The attack on LGBTQ+ rights is part of a wider assault on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies intended to create a level playing field for women and minorities. The intention is to turn the Federal government into a system of oppression operated by people of Trump’s hate-filled mindset that diversity is a threat to white male privilege and must be crushed. He and his crony Elon Musk got where they are not by merit but through inherited wealth. It’s no surprise that they wish to deny others the chance to succeed.

I have addressed the question “why should we care about diversity?” many times on this blog in many contexts, though usually in science and usually in reference to LGBTQ+ rights. The obvious answer _ think – is based on notions of fairness: we should do everything we can to ensure that people have equal opportunity to advance their career in whatever direction appeals to them. But I’m painfully aware that there are some people for whom arguments based on fairness simply don’t wash. Trumpists, for example. For them there’s another argument that should work better. As scientists whose goal is – or should be – the advancement of knowledge, the message is that we should strive as hard as possible to recruit the brightest and most creative brains into our subject. That means ensuring that the pool from which we recruit is as large and as diverse as possible. In large and complex research collaborations, such as the Euclid Consortium (of which I am a member), the range of ideas and perspectives is a real asset when it comes to solving problems. The problem is that this argument doesn’t work either as they are driven purely by mean-spirited ideology and the desire to fill the institutions of state with those of a similar ilk.

The effects of the latest reactionary steps are already starting to show in the area of astronomy. The Diversity and LGBT+ channels on the Vera Rubin-LSST Slack (which is a Federal project, funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy) have already been deleted. A similar fate has befallen the Space Telescope Science Institute (funded by NASA). It seems to me unlikely that NASA itself will survive long as Musk will have his eyes on dismantling it and using its resources for his own vanity projects.

Over the past year I have given a few talks about my own career in research as an LGBTQ+ person; see for example here. In giving these talks I tried to strike a relatively positive tone, showing how LGBTQ+ rights have improved over the 40 years or so I’ve been involved in cosmological research since I started my graduate studies in 1985. I have, however, ended with a warning that the forces of reaction were gathering, and all the progress we have made could easily be put into reverse. That is exactly what is happening now in the USA.

The question in my mind is who will stand up for diversity? I can quote examples from my own life that prove that some individual institutions have never really taken LGBTQ+ bullying and discrimination seriously. Others may be genuinely supportive, but perhaps that is wishful thinking. It is notable how enthusiastically some US organizations have preemptivly cooperated with Trump’s edicts, even when paused through legal challenge. I grew up in the 1980s when the climate was filled with homophobic hate. It is naive to imagination that all that hate simply disappeared. We will find out very soon whether our self-styled “allies” have only ever been fair weather friends who will happily abandon us when we become politically inconvenient.

#ConvictedFelonDonaldTrump #LGBTQ_ #NASA #RubinLSST

Good news in Thailand

At least 200 couples were signed-up for a mass wedding at a popular downtown shopping mall, according to Bangkok Pride, at a rainbow flag-studded “pride carpet” event to see the likes of drag queens, celebrities and scores of newlyweds.

“We are all delighted and excited,” Siritata Ninlapruek, an activist in Bangkok, told LGBTQ Nation. “We’ve been fighting for our rights for over 10 years, and now it’s finally happening.”

Hundreds in Thailand to wed in mass ceremony as popular same-sex marriage law takes effect – UPI.com

#goodNews #lgbtq_ #transRightsNoExceptions

Este podcast de #RadioAmbulante me conmovió mucho. Tanta fuerza, tanto amor.

"Luana apenas estaba aprendiendo a hablar cuando decidió cambiar su nombre. Las consecuencias de una decisión tan íntima no solo transformarían su identidad y su familia, sino que cambiarían la discusión cultural de todo un país."
https://omny.fm/shows/radio-ambulante/yo-nena-repetici-n

#Argentina #transgenero #LGBTQ_

Challengers review: the girl is the game

https://oldaintdead.com/challengers-review-the-girl-is-the-game/

Mark Zuckerberg, Trump y la controversia sobre los tampones en baños masculinos

Mark Zuckerberg, director ejecutivo de Meta, está nuevamente en el centro de la polémica. La decisión de retirar tampones de los baños masculinos en las oficinas de la compañía ha causado indignación, especialmente entre la comunidad LGBTQ+. Este acto afecta directamente a los hombres trans que menstrúan y ha sido señalado como un retroceso en los esfuerzos por promover la inclusión. Sin embargo, el contexto político detrás de estas decisiones amplifica aún más las críticas. 

Cambios en Meta tras la reunión con Trump 

Según un artículo del *New York Times*, Zuckerberg adoptó un enfoque más conservador luego de visitar a Donald Trump en Mar-a-Lago durante el Día de Acción de Gracias. Tras esta reunión, convocó a un reducido grupo de altos ejecutivos para discutir un cambio radical en las políticas de la empresa, particularmente en cuanto a la expresión en línea. Posteriormente, ordenó que estas ideas se convirtieran en políticas oficiales. 

Pero la controversia no termina ahí. El artículo también menciona que Meta está eliminando iniciativas clave relacionadas con la diversidad, equidad e inclusión (DEI). La empresa informó a sus empleados que: 
– Eliminaría el puesto de director de diversidad. 
– Pondría fin a sus objetivos de contratación de mujeres y minorías. 
– Dejaría de priorizar a empresas propiedad de minorías al contratar proveedores. 

¿Un retroceso en inclusión? 

Estas acciones, sumadas al retiro de tampones en baños masculinos, representan un giro preocupante en los valores de Meta. Para muchas personas, estas decisiones reflejan un desinterés por las comunidades vulnerables y una alineación con políticas conservadoras que limitan derechos y refuerzan desigualdades. 

¿Neutralidad o inclinación política? 

Meta es una de las empresas tecnológicas más influyentes del mundo, y decisiones como estas no solo afectan su imagen, sino también la percepción de neutralidad en sus plataformas. Si dos de las principales redes sociales (Facebook e Instagram) adoptan ideologías percibidas como excluyentes, se corre el riesgo de alienar a millones de usuarios que esperan espacios seguros y diversos. 

Empatía más allá de la comunidad 

Es importante entender que, aunque las decisiones de Zuckerberg puedan ser celebradas por personas con pensamientos homofóbicos o conservadores, retirar medidas de protección para cualquier población vulnerable no es adecuado. No se necesita ser parte de una comunidad para sentir empatía. Al igual que no necesitamos ser palestinos para sentir empatía con ellos, o ser judíos para entender la gravedad de la persecución que vivieron durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, no es necesario ser parte de la comunidad LGBTQ+ para apoyar su derecho a vivir de manera segura y respetada. 

Zuckerberg y Musk: Los magnates de las redes sociales 

Con las recientes decisiones de Zuckerberg, ya sería el segundo magnate dueño de una red social de gran influencia que está tomando medidas alineadas con políticas conservadoras. El primero fue Elon Musk, quien adquirió Twitter (ahora X) y también ha implementado cambios significativos que algunos consideran contrarios a la diversidad e inclusión. Este fenómeno plantea la pregunta de si estamos viendo una tendencia entre los líderes de las grandes plataformas sociales de alejarse de la neutralidad en favor de posturas más ideológicas.

Reflexión final 

El reporte del New York Times revela una transformación profunda en Meta que afecta tanto a sus empleados como a sus usuarios. Estas decisiones no son solo temas internos, sino acciones que impactan directamente a comunidades enteras y envían un mensaje sobre los valores que la empresa prioriza. 

¿Estamos viendo el comienzo de un Meta más conservador y alineado con políticas MAGA? Solo el tiempo lo dirá, pero lo cierto es que estas decisiones han dejado a muchas comunidades sintiéndose ignoradas y vulnerables. 

#CambioSocial #ComunidadLGBTQ #CulturaDigital #DerechosHumanos #Diversidad #DiversidadEnElTrabajo #ElonMusk #Equidad #facebook #LGBTQ_ #MAGA #MarkZuckerberg #Meta #RedesSociales #ResponsabilidadEmpresarial #Trump #Twitter

Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?

My partner and I first broached the possibility that we might need to flee the country last summer. After election day, we began that preparation in earnest.

There’s a lot we don’t know. The incoming administration has threatened to do a lot of terrible things to transgender people; withholding medication; legislative erasure; forced detransition; mass incarceration; extermination. Many of these things, I’d want to stay and fight through. Others would make daily life impossible or unbearable.

We definitely agreed these categories existed, but I realized we had never discussed which was which. It was a difficult subject to be honest about; neither of us wanted to be responsible for making a decision that hurt the other. If I asked her to fight with me, she might be killed. If she asked me to leave with her, I’d be dependent on her work visa, isolated from anyone I knew. How can you meaningfully consent to either scenario? Nobody really teaches you how to navigate something like this.

Meanwhile, my partner was also struggling to explain to her company— to her cisgender, straight leadership— under which conditions we would be forced to evacuate. Corporations like predictability; are you leaving, or aren’t you? None of this if stuff. Either it’s bad enough for you to get on an emergency flight right now, or you’re overreacting and we don’t want to hear about it ever again.

But we aren’t overreacting. Several powerful people with the means and motivation to harm us have said that they are going to do so after a specific date. Maybe they’ll change their mind; that’d be great. I’d absolutely love that. Its easy for you to gamble on it, but if we choose incorrectly, we die.

Plus, for many of her peers this was the first they were learning about any of these issues. Paradoxically, while trans people are in the news a lot as objects or abstract matters of policy, the substance of our struggle is rarely reported on. Her boss didn’t realize things were this bad. I thought we were talking about being misgendered, or maybe someone saying something rude to you in an elevator. Once they were up to speed, they usually agreed that what we were concerned about (and what we were asking for) was reasonable.

We’d just have to explain it again, to their boss this time. And maybe their boss’s boss?

Great, okay, I can see where this is going.

To solve both problems at once, and save my partner the repeated labor, I decided to make a list. Here’s what I’m afraid of; what are you afraid of? What sort of reporting did I anticipate engaging in? What might the consequences be? How many Scovilles of spicy bullshit are we prepared to engage in to disrupt the system, and for how long?

We wrote down every scenario, read through them together line by line, and had an honest discussion about what we’d want or need. We summarized the worst case outcomes, sanitized it of gallows humor so corporate-types could swallow it, and she brought it to HR.

The exercise took a couple of hours to complete, but it was time well spent. We learned a lot about each other’s needs, and set clear expectations for the amount of risk we’re comfortable taking. It turns out that— had we said nothing— we were both prepared to over-compensate in prioritizing the other’s safety and happiness. We feel more in control, having a plan, and we’ve given the company what it needs to understand what’s happened if we go off the grid in a few weeks. Now we can focus on other things.

Speaking for myself, I am no longer afraid. Instead, I am angry; I am determined; I am organized; and I am dangerous.

Afterwards, my girlfriend ended up sharing the final product with a few of her friends. They found it helpful, and asked to share it, too. Apparently a lot of queer and trans people are struggling with this same uncertainty right now. Struggling to start this conversation with loved ones. Struggling to make their blissfully unaware relatives understand, or to convince their colleagues that they’re worthy of support.

We’re all doing the same work, over and over again.

So I thought I’d make it available for anyone here. It’s also available as a standalone markdown file, if you’d prefer to share it without my editorializing.1

I hope it helps someone.2

# Should I Stay or Should I Go Now 🎵This document is a safety plan. Its purpose is to establish firm boundaries and to outline under which circumstances we will flee the country, or otherwise engage in direct-action shenanigans._____________________________________________________________________## Format- Description of the thing we're worried about  - Nuance: **Response**  - Nuance: **Response**### Response Options- Evacuate Overnight- Move ASAP- Endure It- Stay and Fight__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________## TL;DR: We Need to Flee If1.2.3.4._____________________________________________________________________## Scenarios### Healthcare- An explicit, federal ban on hormone replacement therapy for adults...  - ...is proposed via legislation?  - ...is passed as federal law?  - ...is enforced extralegally via executive order?- An explicit, federal ban on hormone replacement therapy for minors...  - ...is proposed via legislation?  - ...is passed as federal law?  - ...is enforced extralegally via executive order?- Obtaining HRT is rendered functionally impossible via indirect means (FDA rescheduling shenanigans, use of the Comstock Act, etc)...  - ...is proposed via legislation?  - ...is passed as federal law?  - ...is enforced extralegally via executive order?    - Does the availability of gray-market alternatives change our answer?    - If our state circumvents federal interference (see: California producing their own insulin), does this change our answer?- Use of Medicaid for transgender people is forbidden.  - If HRT becomes more expensive, but doctors can still prescribe it:  - If doctors stop providing it entirely in order to comply:- The Affordable Care Act is modified...  - ...repealing it entirely?  - ...to exclude gender-affirming care?- The government explicitly demands medical records of people who have transitioned, or changed gender markers on documents...  - ...at a state level?  - ...in our state, specifically?  - ...at the federal level?- HIPAA privacy guidance covering abortion access, HRT prescription, etc, is rescinded.- New NIH administration begins publishing "breaking research" that being transgender is dangerous...  - ...but they're clearly just being petty about it? (ie no policy changes or accelerated media coverage)  - ...as a pretext for physical or legislative violence?_____________________________________________________________________### Human Rights Topics- The federal government erases the existence and/or rights of queer folks (Bostock v Clayton, Title VII/Title IX revisions, via executive order, etc).  - Supreme Court schedules hearing?  - Supreme Court returns issue back to the states?  - If anti-discrimination laws based on gender identity are struck down as a class of law?- The US government begins reverting names or gender markers on official documentation...  - At a federal level? (Passports, social security, etc)?  - At a state level other than our own?  - In our state?- The US government bars *future* changes to official documentation.  - At a federal level? (Passports, social security, etc)?  - ~~At a state level other than our own?~~ This has unfortunately already happened.  - In our state?- Federal government passes legislation defining "sex at birth".- Federal funding withheld from states that treat trans folks like humans (via withholding FEMA aid, infrastructure funding, etc) in order to coerce compliance...  - ...and our state continues defying it anyway?  - ...and our state caves?- LGBTQ+ right to marriage is revoked or previous marriages are annulled...  - ...at a federal level?  - ...in states other than our own?  - ...in our state?- Banning transgender people from the military (again)...  - ...is proposed via legislation?  - ...is passed as federal law?  - ...is enforced extralegally via executive order?- Banning transgender people from specific careers (teacher, librarian, etc)...  - ...is proposed via legislation?  - ...is passed as federal law?  - ...is enforced extralegally via executive order?  - ...is passed by states other than our own?  - ...is in our state?- Banning transgender people from public life...  - via bathroom bills?  - via women's sports?  - via Jim-Crow era segregationist policy?- Lynchings  - ...begin in other states.  - ...begin in our area.- Criminalization of being transgender...  - ...is proposed via legislation?  - ...is passed as federal law?  - ...is enforced extralegally via executive order?- Classifying being transgender as pornographic or obscene...  - ...is proposed via legislation?  - ...is passed as state law?  - ...is passed as federal law?  - ...is enforced extralegally via executive order?- Classifying being transgender as mental illness...  - ...because they just want us to be sad when we read the DSM?  - ...and someone is actually institutionalized for it?- Use of concentration camps (either explicit death or work camps, or through mass detention of residents without cause) for *any* community.3  - Rumors of construction?  - Verified construction?- Mass deportations begin.- "Right to Discriminate" codified into law for...  - ...commercial services?  - ...doctors and other healthcare?4  - ...housing?  - ...employment?- Christianity is codified as the national religion.- Freedom of the press scenarios:  - Legislation passes which diminishes freedom of the press, or ability to conceal identity of sources:  - If prominent journalists are being disappeared ("Where's Anderson Cooper?"):  - Localized police harassment:  - Vigilante heat (Chaya Raichik doxes Val personally or something):- Military crackdowns on protests, or making protesting illegal.- Ban on DEI programs- Nationalized version of right-wing book bans in Florida, "Don't Say Gay" laws?- Gender policy council dissolved?- Executive branch postpones or suspends elections and/or violates presidential term limits?- Alt-Right hate mobs mobilize in our area (see: Charlottesville)- What do we do if one of us gets hatecrime'd?  - Does the answer change whether it's you, or I?_____________________________________________________________________### Matters of Public Sentiment, & Signals of Impending Genocide- We wake up and see a slur painted on our door.- Mass media advocates for genocide of any marginalized group.- Without legal provocation, businesses or organizations begin to deny entry to any marginalized group.- Sustained police harassment / stalking for any reason other than journalist intimidation.- Queer businesses specifically targeted for vandalism.- Trans people, or US citizens more broadly, start having travel restricted by other countries._____________________________________________________________________## These Things Are Already Happening**You are not overreacting.**- At the last CPAC, the Trump administration explicitly called for the "eradication" of transgender people. <https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/human-rights-campaign-extremists-at-cpac-laid-bare-hatred-at-root-of-vile-legislation-targeting-trans-people>- The Heritage Foundation's "Project 2025: Mandate for Leadership" outlines many of the scenarios on this list. <https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf>  - Trump attempted to distance himself from the project, denying any affiliation. This was a lie. <https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/22/us/politics/project-2025-trump-heritage-foundation.html>  - After the election, he promptly appointed its authors to his cabinet. <https://apnews.com/article/trump-project-2025-administration-nominees-843f5ff20131ccba5f056e7ccc5baf23>  - His immediate orbit admits this was always the intent, because they cannot keep their mouths shut. <https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/11/project-2025-is-the-agenda-trump-what-is-trump-plan-after-win-steve-bannon/>- The "Protect Children's Innocence" Act aims to eliminate gender affirming-care through a combination of direct bans and withholding of federal funding. <https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3882637-marjorie-taylor-greene-takes-aim-at-gender-affirming-care-for-trans-youth/>- It is already a *misdemeanor* for us to use the bathroom anywhere in Florida. <https://www.aclufl.org/en/know-your-rights/know-your-rights-floridas-public-restroom-changing-facility-ban>- Ohio just passed a first-of-its-kind bathroom ban.  - <https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/ohio-passes-sweeping-college-trans>  - <https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/governor-dewine-signs-trans-bathroom>- Florida prohibits transgender people from being teachers via indirect legislation. <https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/florida-ban-teachers-using-preferred-pronouns-blocked-by-judge-2024-04-10/>- Immediately after the election of congresswoman Sarah McBride, Republicans implemented a new bathroom ban just for her. <https://apnews.com/article/sarah-mcbride-speaker-johnson-transgender-bathroom-f3943e1b3b2dc9c8d62d2ba6660aaf91>  - Nancy Mace, who had previously feigned concerns over "safety", later says the quiet part out loud. In an interview with Newsmax, she admits she is offended by the prospect a "man in a skirt" could be her equal, and claims being trans is a mental illness. <https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/nancy-mace-its-offensive-that-sarah>  - Mace went on to call a group of transgender protesters "trannies", and taunted them through a bullhorn. She took particular glee in the knowledge that those being arrested would be unlikely to be able to afford a lawyer, and was proud enough of her stunt to post it with full subtitles to social media, where it remains as of writing despite being textbook hate speech. <https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/12/nancy-mace-slur-transgender-bathroom-bill.html>- Texas AG Ken Paxton has already requested the DMV and medical records of transgender people, and may be making a list.  - <https://www.texastribune.org/2022/12/14/ken-paxton-transgender-texas-data/>  - <https://www.texastribune.org/2023/12/21/texas-attorney-general-trans-seattle-childrens/>  - <https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-sues-el-paso-doctor-prescribing-dangerous-gender-transition-drugs>  - <https://apnews.com/article/seattle-hospital-texas-records-paxton-e1d308835657c40e2e176d7f11d7f749>- Several states already prohibit (or are attempting to revert) changes to name and gender on official documents. <https://apnews.com/us-news/texas-gender-ken-paxton-general-news-4cdc4a9d4f6fbf4bf7853240b21209ff>- In 2022, Helen Joyce of The Economist called for "reducing the number of transgender people". <https://www.thepinknews.com/2022/06/03/helen-joyce-transgender-lgbtq/>- Fox News has already advocated for extrajudicial murder of transgender people.  - <https://www.foxnews.com/video/6324164359112>  - <https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-trans-movement-targeting-christians>- Queer communities of color are being threatened with detention and "re-education" via concentration camps following Trump's election. <https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/lgbtq-latino-communities-targeted-deportation-reeducation-texts-fbi-rcna180624>- This morning, a bill which restricts healthcare access for transgender service members passed the house. Despite being a Republican initiative, a disturbing number of Democrat representatives were happy to capitulate. <https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/12/house-passes-ndaa-bill-restricting-military-families-from-getting-trans-healthcare/>- Linda McMahon, an anti-LGBTQ think tank leader with absolutely no relevant experience, has been nominated by Trump to run the Department of Education. That think tank, the America First Policy Institute, seeks to erase queer students from classrooms and roll back civil rights. <https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/12/linda-mcmahon-will-support-donald-trumps-transphobia-in-the-department-of-education/>- The Supreme Court was largely unsympathetic to arguments that Tennessee's gender-affirming care ban was unconstitutional. They are expected to uphold the ban, providing a green light for states to follow suit. Expect this to occur next summer when the ruling is released. <https://apnews.com/live/supreme-court-transgender-care-updates>- Florida state prisons are forcibly detransitioning their inmates. Let's not mince words about it, this is a form of torture. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2024/12/10/new-florida-prison-policy-on-trans-health-care-like-conversion-therapy

It occurs to me that most families in America are not spending their Thursday nights this way. They are not planning when or how they might escape. They are not writing contingencies for legislative violence, or updating their wills. The majority of them are worried about whether their taxes will go up. Whether eggs will become marginally more expensive.

Meanwhile, I am packing a bug-out bag.

Meanwhile, I am purchasing a gun.

Meanwhile, I am checking the air in my tires. I am collecting my identifying documents, my pet’s vaccination records. I am slashing bills. I am hoarding medicine.

I am holding a framed photograph that I’ve been meaning to hang for ages, and wondering, why even bother? Because I don’t know if I’ll still live here in thirty days.

We are not worried about the same things.

We do not live in the same America.

1. Update: Thank you to Rylie for your help with formatting! ↩︎
2. Depending on where you live, you might be worried about different things. In the interests of opsec, I have also removed all of our specific answers. But there were some funny ones in there. Comedy is just how I cope. ↩︎
3. This one will probably be more straightforward for you. As a journalist I do intend to run toward certain fires. ↩︎
4. This question is really interesting, because almost all hospitals in this area are explicitly owned by Catholic organizations, and are already in the habit of denying health care to transgender people (whether that care is gender confirming or not). The ones that aren’t are systematically overcrowded, so we can’t guarantee we won’t be flown to a facility which will deny us care while unconscious and thus unable to explain why they shouldn’t do that. ↩︎

#Antifascism #HumanRights #LGBTQ_ #RealLife

Psicoanálisis y homosexualidad: Perspectivas de 1968

La perspectiva de la homosexualidad en 1968 según la revista Kena
En 1968, la revista Kena publicó una entrevista con el doctor Víctor M. Aiza, quien describió la homosexualidad como un «padecimiento emocional complicado». En su enfoque, comparaba esta orientación con «perversiones sexuales» como el sadismo y el masoquismo. Aunque afirmaba que la homosexualidad podía «curarse», dichas prácticas solían incluir técnicas de desensibilización similares a las vistas en la película La naranja mecánica. Esto evidencia un enfoque médico inhumano que, junto con los centros de conversión, refleja la violencia institucionalizada de la época.

La homosexualidad y el psicoanálisis: Una mirada desde 1968

En 1968, la revista Kena publicó un artículo titulado «Cada persona tiene su propia historia y es esclava de su propio pasado», que incluía una entrevista con el doctor Víctor M. Aiza. Este compartió sus opiniones sobre diversos temas, incluyendo la homosexualidad, desde una perspectiva que hoy resulta profundamente cuestionable.

Cuando se le preguntó si el homosexualismo era incurable, respondió:
«En primer lugar, la homosexualidad revela una perturbación interna. Es un padecimiento, un padecimiento emocional complicado. Sin embargo, no creo que el homosexualismo sea incurable. Yo he visto casos en los que, después del psicoanálisis, los pacientes solo logran conformarse con su propia realidad y se convencen de que nunca cambiarán. El psicoanálisis no es una labor de convencimiento. Con algunos pacientes que sufren una neurosis grave o un trastorno del carácter, tenemos que conformarnos, muchas veces, con que logren vivir de una manera más adaptable, menos angustiosa.»

Al afirmar que la homosexualidad era una «perversión» comparable al sadismo y al masoquismo, Aiza justificaba intervenciones que buscaban «curar» la orientación sexual de los pacientes. Entre estas se incluían técnicas de desensibilización que recuerdan a las mostradas en la película La naranja mecánica, donde los sujetos eran sometidos a estímulos traumáticos con el objetivo de condicionar sus respuestas emocionales. Estos métodos, que combinaban violencia psicológica y manipulación, buscaban imponer conductas aceptadas por la sociedad de la época, sin considerar el impacto devastador en la salud mental de los pacientes.

La Entrevista: Un Reflejo de su Época

Durante la entrevista, se abordó el tema de la homosexualidad desde la perspectiva médica de los años 60. El Dr. Aiza expresó opiniones que hoy consideramos obsoletas y científicamente incorrectas, como la clasificación de la orientación sexual como una «perturbación» o «padecimiento emocional».

Evolución del Pensamiento Médico

Es fundamental contextualizar que desde entonces:

1. La Asociación Americana de Psiquiatría eliminó la homosexualidad de su manual de trastornos mentales en 1973.
2. La Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) la eliminó de su clasificación de enfermedades en 1990.
3. La comunidad científica actual reconoce la diversidad sexual como una variación natural del desarrollo humano.

Los centros de conversión: un legado de tortura

Estas prácticas no se limitaban al ámbito terapéutico individual. En muchos casos, las personas homosexuales eran enviadas a centros de conversión, donde se utilizaban métodos comparables a experimentos de control mental, como los realizados en el controvertido proyecto MK Ultra. Estas «terapias» incluían aislamiento, manipulación psicológica e incluso procedimientos físicos que hoy serían calificados como tortura.

A pesar de que estas prácticas están prohibidas en muchos países, sectores ultraconservadores han intentado revivirlas, lo que ha encendido alarmas entre defensores de los derechos humanos y activistas LGBTQ+.

Reflexión final

La entrevista del doctor Víctor M. Aiza en 1968 es un testimonio de cómo la ciencia y la sociedad han evolucionado en la comprensión de la diversidad sexual. Lo que entonces se consideraba una intervención médica aceptable, hoy es reconocido como una grave violación de derechos humanos. Sin embargo, es importante seguir luchando contra los intentos de retroceso que amenazan los avances logrados.

#DerechosHumanos #HistoriaLGBTQ #homofobia #LGBTQ_ #RevistaKena

Liverpool Trans Day of Remembrance 2024

Liverpool Trans Day of Remembrance Vigil at the Museum of Liverpool. Over 426 trans/non-binary people have died this year. 309 of them were violent deaths. No-one should die because of who they are. We remember them.

#lgbtq_ #liverpool #museumOfLiverpool #nonBinary

My Old Ass review: touching and tender coming of age

https://oldaintdead.com/my-old-ass-review-touching-and-tender-coming-of-age/

Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralonghorn signed a same-sex marriage bill into law late Tuesday, becoming the first nation in Southeast Asia to recognize same-sex marriages.

The new law, which will take effect on Jan. 22, grants same-sex couples adoption and heritage rights and users gender-neutral language to replace “men,” “women,” “wives” and “husbands.”

Thailand legalizes same-sex marriage with king’s signature – UPI.com

https://chillysquid.com/2024/09/25/tie-the-knot-in-thailand/

#goodNews #lgbtq_

Too often in rock history, male drummers have received the spotlight. Well, listed below are my favorite women and non-binary drummers of today’s modern rock music. Each musician brings something special to their band from vocals, to lyrics, to other instruments being played, to being the very beating heart of each song as expressed through their drumming. These talented artists represent multiple nations (Canada, Ireland, the UK, and the USA)

Please consider giving each band a listen and see if you agree with me. Peace and rock on!

_______

Karah James of Valley

_______

Laila Wayans – Been Stellar

_______

Eliza Enman-McDaniel of The Beaches

_______

Rachel Lyons – Pillow Queens

_______

Ciara Doran – Pale Waves

_______

Danielle Haim of Haim

https://panethos.wordpress.com/2024/09/23/todays-amazing-women-and-non-binary-rock-drummers/

#BeenStellar #Canada #drummers #gay #Haim #Ireland #ladies #LGBTQ_ #music #nonBinary #PaleWaves #percussion #PillowQueens #rock #TheBeaches #UK #USA #Valley #women

Marching with Pride and the LGBT Foundation in Manchester

A wonderful day marching and photographing the queer joy with the LGBT Foundation at Manchester Pride.

View more on the blog

#commission #lgbt #LGBTFoundation #lgbtq_ #Manchester #photography #pride

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder review, YA tale about an amateur sleuth

I can see why A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is a hit with the YA crowd. Appealing diverse characters, some LGBTQ characters, interesting mysteries, a bit of romance, and high school shenanigans.

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder has all the right ingredients, especially the lead character Pippa played by an excellent Emma Myers. However, I didn't think the writing of the mystery part of the story was outstanding. There were too many crimes, too many perpetrators, and too many false clues. It [...]

https://oldaintdead.com/a-good-girls-guide-to-murder-review-ya-tale-about-an-amateur-sleuth/

When I play games on Steam I tend to naturally drift away from JRPGs. My Switch collection is so exclusively focused on those delightful Japanese games that I tend to forget that there’s so much delight to be found in games created in other places. There’s a striking difference between the way stories are told in Japanese visual novels (VN) and those created in Western parts of the world. Also, I enjoy how a short story created by an European, American or Australian indie studio (just to give some examples) can be much more relatable than a 50h visual novel created in Japan. Well, this is hardly surprising personally, but I only notice the breath of fresh air when I experience it. I’m sure there are Japanese visual novels in the same vein, indie titles made by inclusive people, with non-normative relationships (LGBTQ+ or not) exploring a variety of scenarios in a non-superficial mainstream way that don’t make their way into the West for lack of resources. I’m still unsure if the yuri VNs I enjoy so much are made with a lesbian audience in mind. Spoiler alert, many aren’t. Anyway, I’ve only slept 3 hours and I’m rambling. What I want to say is that in a Japanese game you can hardly call your boyfriend “baby girl.” Even in the two otome visual novels I’ve played (but didn’t finish) the guys are designed as those uptight princesses, but they act and behave like a man from the 50s. I don’t know why people spend 30 hours of their life reading that crap and unlocking routes from asshole to asshole. “Oh, I love that character who said that I didn’t need plastic surgery when we first met!” I want my money back. I’m glad I didn’t even pay for one of those VNs I played for like 5 minutes. It’s not that I don’t like the stories, but they’re obviously made with a target audience in mind. I’ll still continue punishing myself and consume content that was created within another set of principles just as an experiment on why it is so important the matter of self-identification with something to a certain extent. How we naturally engage with content that we feel was made for us and perceive content that wasn’t with a bias that hinders its enjoyment. To plunge into anything that wasn’t made for me is something I like to practice within reason, just not for 30 hours.

I’ve been enjoying these simulation games that play almost entirely inside a computer interface, a bit like Needy Streamer Overload. I downloaded a game called A Date With Death that is a bit along these lines. It’s a free game on Steam but we can buy a DLC to support the devs. It’s a cute chatting and dating sim where we are hacked by none other than the Grim Reaper saying he has come to collect our soul. We can troll him and tease him a bit, and call him “baby girl” because he’s extremely cute. He’s a powerful and productive reaper who has a plushie in his room called Azrael. The end-game is romance of course but it doesn’t feel forced, creepy, abusive or sexist. The player can do other things in the game like petting a cat (as one should), watering a plant and listening in on the neighbours from behind the apartment door. Inside the in-game PC there’s also a program to draw and to play videogames, and shortcuts for wallpapers, art and music. The character creator is diverse in terms of sex, gender and appearance. The game loop focuses mostly on petting the cat, watering the plant, listening to the neighbours and chatting with Grim Reaper through the computer interface. Like a VN, some choices will determine which ending we get. Grimmy is not like a man from the 50s, he’s just himself, beyond all types. Hell, I don’t even know how he identifies and that doesn’t matter at all. It’s a dating sim without all the crap and I enjoyed it for its simplicity. As a side note, since the game has a little program to draw, the community posts on Steam are packed with beautiful fan art made by talented people. I tried my hand at it but didn’t publish. I blame the mouse! 

Rituals in the Dark, a visual novel created by ebi-hime, is a short story contained in a neighbourhood in Scarborough, England. It focuses mainly on two characters – Aspen and Althea – and Aspen’s friends, Pipa and Lakhi. However, the story is not very character-driven – it’s more descriptive. Before Aspen does anything, she stops and reminisces about her life and relationships and about the people around her. As the reader, we are provided with a good psychological portrait of everyone involved and this also includes the characters that appear in the margins. Do you remember when you were little and had to visit old family members or old neighbours? The story starts like this. When Aspen was younger, she went to visit the next door neighbour, the old Mrs. Leigh. Since Mrs. Leigh enjoyed her company so much she asked her to visit every weekend. Aspen felt a bit anxious about what could happen to Mrs. Leigh during her visits. It was a normal concern from young Aspen considering that Mrs. Leigh was very old and needed help to go about her day. Unfortunately to everyone involved, Aspen ended up being the one finding a deceased Mrs. Leigh in the kitchen. The realisation that she was dead was very traumatic, especially after getting known in the community as “the one who found Mrs. Leigh’s dead body”. In order to deal with her trauma, and after the pressure from her peers in a game of truth or dare, Aspen decided to face her fears and get inside the vacant and now boarded up house where Mrs. Leigh lived. After dealing with her uncertainty and fears she jumped in, or rather, was pushed in by her friend Pipa, and landed on the kitchen floor. Instead of ghosts and other nasty apparitions Aspen found the whimsical and otherworldly figure of Althea sitting on top of an old washing machine. From here on, Aspen got a bit obsessed – who wouldn’t? – by the mysterious girl who happened to know an awful lot about her, creeping her out as much as seducing and manipulating her to an extent. The romance bits are pretty and Aspen’s future seems promising after the twist at the end. If that promise is good or bad, the game doesn’t tell. The story was inspired by The Cure and children’s tales from England, with focus on building the right atmosphere around the idea of decay, death and human connection. In sum, it’s a yuri VN without the usual tropes.

After playing this story I installed a game called Videoverse, another computer sim, if I can call it that, which immerses the player into a console system from yesteryear, from the 1-bit era. The console has a built-in system called Videoverse, a social network that connects players from around the world even though the story is focused on people from European countries. To the likeness of Steam, people have community boards, but in addition they have private chats with cameras displaying video only (sound wasn’t available yet) and integrated chat, profile pages and the possibility of adding friends. As with Steam, we get access to which games our friends are playing or have played in the past. Our objective is helping with the moderation of message boards to make the community safe and free from trolling. The company Kinmoku did release the gaming system Shark a few years before and now our cast of characters is experiencing the end of the system as the upcoming model – Dolphin – is making its way faster than expected. Emmett – our main character – is playing Feudal Fantasy in the Shark and, as he plays, we are graced with wonderful in-game cutscenes showing the epic story between the characters Hanzo and Nobunaga. In terms of connections, Emmett has made several friends with whom he shares his fan art and banter but he also gets to know someone that came a bit late to the party – Vivi. I can relate with her.

The game is focused on the relationship between Emmett and Vivi with all its limitations, since they’re both minors therefore meeting in real life and exchanging personal information is against the rules. Emmett experiences the end of a console generation that meant so much to him day after day, until the servers close and he loses contact with everyone. What happens in the future depends on our choices and attitudes during the game. I played the game two times: one “serious” playthrough, where I tried to clean as much as I could of toxic comments about gamer women, older gamers, and LGBT people as well as developing a close relationship with Vivi, and then another one where I was the troll, didn’t report anything and didn’t pay much attention to Vivi. There was a striking difference between the results of both playthroughs inside the Videoverse. I unlocked two endings, the first was the better one, and the second one was a bit stale but not exactly a bad ending. There’s a third ending, from what I’ve checked so far (it’s in the achievements) but I have no idea what to do to unlock it since there’s no written guide for the game. I think it could have something to do with the dataminer and hacker that sometimes interacts with Emmett, as I haven’t tried not to interact with him yet. This is me conjecturing because I honestly have no clue. In any case, the game is a very well hidden and not often mentioned indie gem and I couldn’t recommend it warmly enough. Prepare your tissues if you empathise with people with disabilities because the game focuses a lot on that, and it comes across as a theme that’s very significant to the developers themselves. All games should be accessible and playable by everyone. More often than not I use the accessibility settings to adapt different aspects of the gameplay to my needs and I appreciate very much when the devs think about controls, sound, phobias, colour blindness, flashes and glares (I’ve seen it in VNs), head bobbing (I usually disable this), camera shake (same) and whatnot. 

Videoverse goes a bit deeper and addresses situations where people with disabilities can find solace in video games and online environments, either only temporarily or on a more permanent basis. The world of MMOs or social networks are in fact populated by abled and disabled people and it’s important that all feel welcome. I’m not just pulling this out of my ass. IT’S IMPORTANT that all are welcome. This is why I don’t play MMOs. Well, first because I don’t have time to play only one game, and as obsessive as I am, I am better off staying away from MMORPGs for my own mental health’s sake. Second, because I don’t feel they’re welcoming places and that everyone is equally accepted. I’m sure things have changed since god knows when I played an MMO and actually interacted with people, but usually my experience isn’t good, even seen more from the perspective of a spectator than a participant. I just can’t stand the drama. In any case, I feel that disclosing my gender is easier now than it was 10 years ago, but I still don’t feel comfortable actually engaging with people, although social anxiety plays the main role in this limitation. Welcoming online environments in our nerdy spaces are important for they are, more often than not, the only social interaction many people have at the end of a difficult day. I’ve heard many good things about the Final Fantasy XIV community, to those interested in exploring a more social gaming experience.

My latest experience with computer simulators has been Home Safety Hotline where we play inside a 1996 operative system as a customer service employee that helps people with solutions to fix some common and less common household hazards. I’m almost finished with the main story but will eventually go back and play it again, now armed with deeper knowledge about the strange phenomena lurking into people’s houses. I hope I’ll never find a False Artifact in my house but if a cat goes missing we have a problem.

https://swordofseiros.wordpress.com/2024/08/03/short-stories-and-long-ramblings/

#aDateWithDeath #computerSimulators #consoles #Games #gaming #internet #japaneseGames #jrpgs #lgbtq_ #mmorpgs #onlineGames #otome #pcGaming #relationships #ritualsInTheDark #steam #theWest #videoGames #videogames #videoverse #visualNovels #yuri

Liverpool Pride 2024

Another joyous year. It rained and people laughed. The March was upbeat and proudly trans positive. I met and photographed girls, gays, theys, so many allies, friends, clients and charities doing good. 2 hours of life affirming fun. I can’t wait till 2025, the 15th anniversary of Liverpool Pride.

View more on the blog

#event #lgbtq_ #liverpool #photography #pride

DIVE BAR CLOSURE A SHOCK, BUT NOT A SURPRISE

https://communityedition.ca/dive-bar-closure-a-shock-but-not-a-surprise/

#2SLGBTQ_ #2SLGBTQIA_ #adamBryan #AdrianQuijano #bar #BrianScheid #diveBar #drag #KatarinaWex #LGBTBar #LGBTQ_ #LocalArt #LocalArtist #localBusiness #localBusinesses #localMusic #LocalMusician #Spectrum #triPride

TCE’S ONE HELL OF A DRAG SHOW  

https://communityedition.ca/tces-one-hell-of-a-drag-show/

#AdrianQuijano #AxelleWolfe #DallasRyder #drag #dragPerformance #ErosAsteria #KatarinaWex #kitchener #kwRegion #LadyLike #LGBTQ #LGBTQ_ #MannyManilla #Melona #nonBinaryBombshell #OneHellOfADragShow #Ontario #performance #pride #pride2024 #SashaTease #theWalperHotel #waterloo #waterlooRegion

EDITORIAL NOTE: UW’S RESPONSE TO OCCUPY UW IS DISRESPECTFUL TO THE STUDENTS AND TO THE COMMUNITY

https://communityedition.ca/editorial-note-uws-response-to-occupy-uw-is-disrespectful-to-the-students-and-to-the-community/

#2SLGBTQIA_ #AdrianQuijano #GazaHouse #GeovannyVillalbaAleman #GraduateHouse #HarleenKaurDhillon #injunction #Israel #LGBTQ_ #OccupyUW #Palestine #universityOfWaterloo #UW #wilfridLaurierUniversity

A topic that shouldn’t be all that controversial, but is, anyway. The topic of whether the act of having kinks, or sharing them in an event typically revolving around the LGBTQ+ community (that is going to be shamed and persecuted no matter what, anyway, until our society gets to grips with the fact that people are unique), is good or bad. A lot of talking points that sound like common sense on the surface, but are really just the talking points of people who would seek to eradicate the aforementioned community, at all costs.

There was a time that, I too, thought that it was just total common sense that you shouldn’t have your schlong whipping around on all fours at a public pride event, and then later, as I learned, and got a little bit older, and smarter, I realized that this is just a straw man. And even if it were something that was happening, who the hell cares?

Obviously, I have numerous claims of agency that allow me to speak on this topic, and if you doubt that agency, I would suggest that you follow me, my thoughts, and the way I’ve experienced my life just a little bit closer. But I’m not here to talk about myself. I do that enough on Mastodon.

Our society is riddled with sex-negativity, and it’s bursting at the seams. People are using it for engagement on social media, and they’re using it as talking points to run for political office. In a society, like America, where sex is a bestseller, it’s also a subject of constant shame, because we’re ridiculous like that, right? People have sex! Oh, SHIT!

But this entire debate, that goes on and on like clockwork, every year, every pride, is about respectability politics, as summarized by this Vox article.

One of the things that LGBTQ people quickly learn when they come out is that the “sex and respectability at Pride” discourse is like the villain in a horror movie who is never, ever truly defeated, even if you burn the bones.

Alex Abad-Santos, Vox

What are “respectability politics,” though?

The idea that you must act a certain way in order to be accepted, otherwise you’re tarnishing the fight for equality. Which, for real, is an extremely flawed point of view. As presented at the beginning of this post, people who want to persecute LGBTQ+ people are going to do so no matter how you act. Presenting to these types of people that you’re “one of the good ones,” will only ensure that you’re burned at the stake last.

Side-tracking to myself for a split second, I can say this fully wholeheartedly is true, because those who toy with respectability politics were instrumental in my eventual removal from the Twitter-Synthwave community. As detailed in a recent post, because I stood up for myself against transphobia.

Back to the topic of kink, though, you might be wondering, “Does this mean Quentin Tarantino is LGBTQ+-aligned, just because he likes suckin’ toes?”

No, obviously not, unless there are things about him that I’m unaware of. I’m pretty sure he’s just a straight guy.

The idea that kink belongs at pride, or that it’s an essential part of pride, is because it is something that has been part of people who belong to this community for more years than I can count, more years than I can currently fathom with my burned-out brain-juice. Because sex is part of being gay, or being lesbian, or bisexual, or trans, or pansexual, and even asexual (lack of interest in sex is still an attachment to sex). It’s a part of all of these identities just as much as it’s a part of being straight. I mean, isn’t that obvious? Do ya watch TV? Movies? Are we hollering about saving the kids from the evils of watching Pulp Fiction in front of them by accident?

Oh, no?

Okay, so then it just boils down to an obvious hate for the overall LGBTQ+ community, and a talking point that’s really easy to use to get those who do hate, riled up. That’s all it is. And there are definitely well-meaning people who latch onto these talking points, thinking that it’s all just common sense.

But it’s not.

It’s a psy-op, orchestrated by homophobes and transphobes, and hate-mongers. It’s about dividing and conquering, a strategy as old as time itself. And in the year of our pizza, 2024, I think it’s time to start breaking old habits, and getting smarter about this stuff.

Okay?

https://cmdr-nova.online/2024/06/10/does-kink-belong-at-pride/

#discourse #hate #homophobia #kink #lgbtq_ #pride #transphobia

DNA Says Love You: Episode 4

https://autisticgoblin.ca/2024/03/18/dna-says-love-you-episode-4/

DNA Says Love You: Episode 3

https://autisticgoblin.ca/2024/01/29/dna-says-love-you-episode-3/

Anonymous Submission to Jersey Counter-Info

“If the cops kill me I want you to riot
Burn down their stations and set their cars alight
Know that I went out fighting and wish we all
Could just have peace and be free”

…
We cannot have peace until this empire falls. Even then, peace takes work and freedom is a constant struggle. If the cops kill me I want you to riot, to kill as many of them as you can.” – Tort’s diary p. 121

Tortuguita lived and died fighting for the dispossessed, the wild, and the feral; against the world of empire, prisons, and police. It was a true warrior who made the forest its home, devoted their life to the struggle, and was willing to die a revolutionary death rather than be captured. We invite all those who knew Tort, and all who were impacted by its life from afar, to take the anniversary of their death as an opportunity to reflect on our own commitments and deepen our resolve, so that we might invigorate and intensify our conflictuality.

Rather than retreat into the bounds of comfort and safety, let us allow our memory of Tort to remind us of what it means to truly act in accordance with our values, and to challenge ourselves to follow through. We are rendered harmless only when we allow our fear of the enemy to eclipse our desires to defend the land and reduce this capitalist hellworld to ashes. Remember that the mechanisms of subjugation and control encroach all around us. Wherever you are, you need not venture far to find the veins of industry; go out and sever them.

We need not be concerned with optics and media portrayals. We have no interest in seeking validation, recognition, or understanding from the same media outlets — agents of the society we wish to destroy — that deadname and misgender Tortuguita and relentlessly whitewash its life as one of nonviolence and passivity. Additionally, to contort our actions to render them acceptable to the general public is to inevitably dull them to the point of irrelevance. To work only within the confines of the existent is to disarm ourselves completely. As anarchists, we are able to speak to each other in a language all our own. When we redecorate walls, shatter windows, and set fires, we speak to each other in ways that the media and the general public need not understand; we become beautiful. When we refuse legibility, when we refuse sympathy and demands, we refuse cooptation, we refuse recuperation, and we seek out life.

Avenge Tortuguita — Avenge the Forest

https://jerseycounterinfo.noblogs.org/avenge-tortuguita-avenge-the-forest/

#Anarchism #anticolonial #Antifascist #earthLiberation #general #LGBTQ_ #news #solidarity

I spoke to Casey about a lot of stuff including gaming, live streaming, being a VTuber, the origins of her avatars being a video game influencer, micro transactions, long term health issues and LGBTQIA issues we covered a LOT it’s a great chat, Casey is awesome you can catch her on Twitch here https://www.twitch.tv/caseyexplosion

https://michaelmuto.com/2024/01/02/interview-with-the-irish-vtuber-caseyexplosion-from-jan-2022/

#CaseyExplosion #interview #lgbtq_ #Twitch #videoGames #Vtuber

Deplatforming Myself: A Tech Manifesto

The internet has become one big roach motel.

I lay the blame for this development solely at the feet of The Platform; the proliferation of venture-capitalist backed walled gardens, which are incentivized to trap users inside and milk them like cattle.

They inflict violence on us when we use them, and again when they die. In between, they seek to become inextricably tied to our lives, as difficult to leave as possible, right up until the very moment they decide they’re done with us, and the owners abscond with a bag stuffed full of all the things we made for them.

And they’ve been dying one after another, recently. Faster than usual. We’ve been doing this technofuedalism thing long enough now to see the edges of The Platform life cycle.

I won’t mourn them. But it is undeniable that every time this happens, someone gets left behind. It’s usually the same someones.

This has me re-evaluating my relationship with The Platform, what I want out of the Internet, and who its meant to benefit.

I’ve decided: I think I want out.

The Magic Box

The first thing that you have to understand, is that you and I do not experience the same internet.

Not because we inhabit different corners of it; we almost certainly don’t. Perhaps we did once, decades ago, when the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan forum in which I might have made my home existed separately from your cooking blog. But not anymore.

To quote Tom Eastman, the internet is now roughly four websites, each filled with screenshots from the other three.

You probably use some combination of Twitter, or Reddit, or Facebook, or Instagram. So do I. If the internet had physical space to occupy, we would be closer than we’ve ever been.

And yet despite our proximity, you and I are functionally separated. If I scream, you may never hear it. On the internet of today, two people can exist in the same space but never perceive each other. Because I am no longer in control of who or what I see. And crucially: neither are you.

Those decisions are made by another being, its geometry eldritch and reasoning unknowable. It is named The Algorithm, and it is both god and king in its domain.

Algorithmic curation of content was invented, or if you prefer, inflicted by Facebook in 2011 as an update to its news feed. Instead of displaying your friend’s activity in a simple, reverse-chronological order, Facebook would first sort it on the backend to keep “the most interesting stuff at the top”. The specific details of how they calculated this, or indeed what interesting even meant in this context, were not provided. From the moment of its conception, the inner workings of the newborn Algorithm were closely guarded.

Attribution and academic discourse on this topic is tricky, because while it is clear that The Algorithm has changed many, many times in the years since, it is for the large part impossible to pinpoint precisely when or in what way. This lack of transparency is by design.

What we do know is that today the Algorithm has been given control over not only the order in which a set number of things appear, but whether a given thing can appear at all, and in a manner which often supersedes user preferences. The feed is infinite. It scrolls forever. And only some of what’s in it is actually for you, in your best interests or serving your needs. Connect with your neighbor if you want, but you might not hear anything they say if The Algorithm isn’t convinced you care.

By July 2022, CEO Mark Zuckerberg estimated in an earnings call that about 15% of the average user’s feed was comprised of algorithmically selected recommendations, from entities that they had not explicitly followed. The company’s stated goal is to more than double this percentage by the end of this year.

There’s a legitimate problem to be solved in this space. As Facebook themselves described it way back when, there was more content on the platform than any one person could consume. Things that were interesting to users were getting lost in the noise. Noise which Facebook chose to make, so you might say they created the problem, too.

But rather than empowering users to solve that problem for themselves, by giving them direct control of their reading experience and allowing them to curate it, Facebook decided it knew better. Or, more honestly, that it was financially beneficial for them to claim that they did, and shape it themselves.

And today, most of the major players on the internet have followed Facebook’s example, building The Algorithm’s of their very own. When we visit Youtube, what is shown to you versus what is available to me is determined by The Algorithm at the moment it is observed. In this way, the internet as a whole has become non-deterministic, in that even if you and I do the same thing, we will get different results. Hell, if you do the same thing twice, there’s a chance you get different results.

It’s Many Worlds theory made manifest, an endless series of parallel universes, your instance of Twitter and mine, arbitrarily constructed and destroyed by a pocket of code on a server somewhere with motives you will never be permitted to know. Because that’s someone’s IP.

The modern web is constantly, endlessly hoovering up massive amounts of data about you, only some of which is correct, and then feeding you its best guess of what will glue your eyeballs to the screen just a little bit longer, no matter what that is, whether it’s actually good for you or not.

There’s no explanation for its decisions, and you will never hold The Algorithm accountable. Its value to its owners stems from its inscrutability, and from the control it gives them over you. The asymmetry of it all is the point.

Everywhere you go, your “experience” is constantly being “personalized”, just not by you. Not even for you, even though they all like to say that. When you use the internet today, you are visiting a bespoke, ephemeral snow globe which has been arranged just so, because it’s convenient for someone somewhere that you will never meet, and the instant they’re done with it they will smash it on the floor so if you ever wanted to go back to that particular snow globe, too bad, fuck you, but wait don’t go you might also like…

Honestly, our concept of “the internet” as a singular entity is outdated. It always was, a little bit, just from the sheer scale of the thing, but it’s especially true now, because at even the granular level of the individual web page, there’s no telling whether we’re even looking at the same thing.

Not only are you and I on different internets, our internets are not equal.

The Dollar Bean Problem

See, the benefit of The Algorithm to its owners is that now they have something to sell. Namely, your attention, on your behalf, and often in the form of ad space. Ads aren’t new, but this method of targeted distribution is. The owners have some data that they claim can predict your behavior, specifically, and although they will never allow this claim to be falsified, they will sell access to it. Just a peek here and there, a glimpse for brands that want something from you.

Which means that the owners are financially incentivized not only to show you the things which you say you want, and which ostensibly make you happy, but things that make brands happy. And they’re similarly incentivized to minimize exposure to the things that brands don’t want to be associated with, regardless of your needs. At any given time, the (again, top-secret, completely opaque) Algorithm is being fiddled with to make the owners as much money as possible. That is, in fact, its entire purpose.

It’s not to provide exposure to new ideas, or spread opportunity. Opportunity on The Platform is more concentrated than it’s ever been, echo chambers abound. That’s all a con. The algorithm exists because money. It creates asymmetry of information, and shifts the balance of power to the person who owns it. It’s three card monte but you play it with a blindfold.

And whether it is explicitly intended or not, the result of this con is that the human beings who are already in society’s margins are disproportionately punished, and uninvited from participating fully in society.

Let’s have an example.

TikTok claims to have at least 150 million US users. Some of them are queer. And those queer users have learned that their posts will be suppressed if they talk openly about their queerness. But they’re still queer, and they still need to talk about it. It’s a communication platform, after all.

So they’ve developed Aesopian code phrases, algospeak, to get the message across contextually, substituting “lesbian” with “le dollar bean” or “legbutt” when they mean “LGBT” in order to avoid inciting the wrath of The all-seeing Algorithm. And this works for a while, until a brand gets pissed that their ad for holy water or whatever was displayed next to a video of a gay man living his best life, god forbid. And so the censors get updated, and the community invents new euphemisms and evades bans, and this bizarre game of 1337speak whack a mole continues in perpetuity.

The stakes are higher for these users than just burying a video diary, and this phenomenon is not restricted to TikTok. Youtube began mass demonetizing videos with LGBTQ subject matter to placate brands in 2017, in an event dubbed the adpocalypse by its community. Even when some of those rules were rolled back, it continues to have a chilling effect on creators to this day, who rely on this site to pay their bills and are now self-censoring everything that could conceivably be objectionable, prematurely, in order to protect their livelihood. One side, and only one side, can destroy the other at whim.

And so we all do this little dance, for our god king The Algorithm, who won’t tell us what it wants, ever, or what it intends to punish, so we have to guess. We have to guess what it wants today, and what it will want tomorrow, based entirely on superstition and personal anecdote.

Step out of line, break one of the unwritten rules, and you’re boned. You won’t even know it happened if your content is simply de-ranked. You have to guess from performance stats, if your corporate masters even deign to share those with you. Not just when it happened, but if it happened, so indistinguishable is de-ranking from just being unpopular or bad at your job.

And I just so happen to live at the intersection of several identities like this which are a) not particularly profitable, b) controversial to idiots, and c) impossible for me to switch off.

As a trans person, my very existence has become political. Any space that I am permitted to occupy becomes a statement to alt-right fascists (who apparently sit around all day thinking about other people’s genitals), and if there’s one thing no company wants to do, it’s stand for anything. To stand for one thing means to oppose others, and others have money, and companies can’t have just some of the money, they want all of it. So algorithms are swift and punitive when I talk about myself, and if I make enough fascists angry, which I always aspire to do, then The Algorithm determines that I am not 100% profitable, which may as well be 0% profitable, and therefore not worth seeing.

Or, consider the journalist, who exists to speak truth to power. If there’s a second thing no company wants to do, it’s have its power spoken to. That’s why The Algorithm is kept in The Box. If you knew how it worked, you might have opinions about it. Opinions are great when they they’re about other people, when they generate engagement and clicks and ad revenue, but not if they hold us accountable. Go hold somebody else accountable instead, and don’t forget to like and subscribe and smash that bell and Tweet about it when you do!

What I have found, through my own experimentation, is that I instantly become invisible when I cross the threshold into any community governed by The Algorithm. I can see everyone else, listen to their conversations, but they cannot hear me. I cannot touch them. I can pour out my heart as much as I like, but only to myself. I am a ghost. The internet becomes this lonely place, at once full to bursting with people and yet completely, soul-wrenchingly isolating.

I have experienced this on Twitter, on Facebook, on LinkedIn, on Youtube and countless others. Within the boundaries of those spaces, I cease to exist. I vanish. Poof.

But then, the moment I step foot in a community that sorts its content statically, chronologically, when I am given the same weight as everyone else, and users are permitted the agency to decide for themselves if they’re interested in what I’m doing, suddenly I exist again. This was the default of ye olde PHPbb forums, and more recently, on Mastodon. In those spaces, I can have meaningful conversations, participate in them fully, speak my mind without regard for the Great Internet Content Panopticon, and when I do, people seem to enjoy interacting with me. Sometimes they wonder where I have been all this time. And the answer, functionally, is the Ethereal Plane. Some asshole cast Blink on me I couldn’t turn it off.

The algorithm does not improve visibility. It was never meant to. It’s the bell in Pavlov’s hand, reinforcing behavior that its owner finds beneficial.

In the domain of The Algorithm, the common folk whisper its name in respect, and in fear. Whatever we think it wants, we do it, and we’ll bend ourselves into whatever shape we think we need to, hack off whatever limbs don’t fit, in order to appease it this week, because the consequence is exile. We are un-personed.

The internet used to be punk. It used to be a place for marginalized people to congregate and share things they were passionate about. Mostly cats, and hentai.

Now it’s just a conveyor belt. Of cats and hentai.

At some point we all became employees of a company we can’t even identify, that doesn’t even pay us for our labor. And nobody noticed the switch until it was too late.

Because that’s the other thing; they closed the door behind us.

The Prison Cell

The second reason that the modern internet no longer serves my needs, is its propensity to lock me in a room, before switching off the lights, and running away with my shit.

The one-sided nature of relationships with The Platform mean that once it has established your dependence upon it, it can change the nature of that agreement at any time, without recourse. Actually, that’s worth unpacking, because a non-zero percentage of people will read that word and lose all sympathy. Somewhere out there, someone just said, it’s your own fault for doomscrolling, loser, and that’s weird, why are you talking to your monitor? But also addiction isn’t the the only, or even primary way that The Platform facilitates dependence.

By centralizing a critical piece of infrastructure, by making its use ubiquitous in an industry or to some facet of everyday life, The Platform constructs a new, digital world where not using it constitutes a disadvantage. The steady consolidation of corporations only serves to amplify this. Am I describing The Platform, or the economic concept of monopoly? Yes.

Payment processing is a great example. I can make all the art in the world, but the instant I want to sell it and make a living, I must choose a The Platform to share a percentage of the profit with. Barring setting up my own payment processing company, I have no choice in this matter. I can choose Patreon, or I can choose Square, or I can choose Stripe, but one way or another I am tying my livelihood to another company. From that moment, their priorities and their decisions now impact me directly, and they are under no obligation to communicate when those change.

Crucially, I am not exchanging my power when I do this. It’s entirely one way. I am now, to some degree, at the mercy of Patreon; I must pray that they do not alter the deal, but there is no decision I could make which would affect them in turn. They can always tell me no and point to their TOS, and if I tried that, their lawyers would laugh at me. Well, probably they would just ignore it, but if they noticed the attempt I’m sure they’d find it very funny.

It’s not just payment processing that functions this way. The same can be said of any live service. It’s everything, every individual little thing that you need or do, and they all want a piece. If I have an Adobe Creative Cloud account to use my (haha “my”) copy of Photoshop, and they decide renewing my subscription costs triple this year, my options are to learn and fully transition to another tool very quickly, or pony up. If my audience has chosen Instagram as their favorite hangout spot, I am dependent on the (non existent) benevolence of Meta in order to eat.

Even if I research diligently, make smart choices as a consumer, I will inevitably get bitten by this. The longer a Platform behaves itself, and the longer my network is given to settle in, the harder it becomes to sever the relationship when the warning signs begin.

Even if a Platform I use to function in modern society reveals its Q3 roadmap is to implement AI generated NFT’s in the Metaverse, as long as they hold enough people or enough functionality hostage, there’s fuck all I can do about it beyond hang on tight and ride it out or take only what I can carry and flee.

Gloriously enlightened Neo-liberal types will tell me that’s just the free market baby, vote with your wallet and use another service, but ah ah ah! Another service, see? I actually don’t have any power in the end, except to whom I want to give power over me. It might have been a free market once, for somebody, but now it’s a free* market. A…fee…market? Free market (Pejorative)?

I’m not great at coming up with pithy names for these, but do you know who is?

Author Corey Doctorow observed this of the lifecycle of The Platform:

…First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.

He named this process enshittification, and chances are you knew that already. There’s a good reason the term has been adopted so widely, and so quickly. It’s concise, it’s accurate, and I don’t think I stand to improve upon it. In fact, at some point in the lifetime of his blog he has probably said everything I’ve said here, but better, so in the spirit of the old internet, and not locking the door behind users, here’s some traffic: if you’re enjoying this piece, then maybe you should go and read Pluralistic instead.

The Nazi Bar

Even if I had confidence that you and I were seeing the same thing, even if you solved the dollar bean problem, and even if platform owners weren’t blocking the fire escapes as they set the building alight, there is still one more crucial problem core to The Platform which necessitates my rethinking of my relationship to them.

The owners keep letting all their asshole friends in.

Much like their product roadmaps, making my home on a platform means that I need to trust the moderation strategy of the owners. And I don’t.

This was always a foolish thing to do. To the extent that any Platform is being steered at all, they are steered by executives and venture capitalists. Now personally, I believe that empathy is inherently incompatible with any position that hoards that much wealth. If you had even a shred of it, you wouldn’t be a CEO in the first place, for the same reason you wouldn’t be a cop. In that way, The Platform self-selects for the worst possible moderation decisions and the worldview of the very worst kind of person.

Plus, capitalists have this nasty habit of leaning ever more conservative as their hoard grows, because conservative policymakers promise to protect that hoard. Conservative leaning folks also happen to be the ones that so often want me, specifically, to die, and they just can’t seem to stop themselves from committing acts of neoreactionary and stochastic terrorism.

It used to be that if I got it in my head that I wanted to build a community around something, I could just do that, and I would get to make decisions about what I would and would not tolerate. But the moderation policy of The Platform is as opaque as the algorithms which manage its daily operation. I have no say over what is permissible, nor am I empowered with any way to verify whether the terms we (haha “we”) agreed to are actually being enforced.

Not even in the communities that I make within them; Reddit admins literally just seized multiple, user-created subreddits during the API pricing protests, on the grounds that actually, they’re all our subreddits, even the communities you built for products you own, we’ve been graciously letting you borrow them. And we can take them back whenever we want, for any reason, or no reason at all.

So even if I was allowed to speak my mind without fear of reprisal, and even if every single service in existence wasn’t cannibalizing itself trying to become the next 10x Silicon Valley unicorn money-printer and cash out, the fact remains that I have no say in the rules of The Platforms I join today.

To invest in The Platform is to subject yourself to the whims and morals of an organization that only cares about money, and will absolutely sell access to you for hate crime purposes if they can get away with it legally.

Over time, the Platform is doomed to tolerate the extremely specific set of all people who would revel in the opportunity to make me less happy and/or alive. Any platform that isn’t there yet, is only ever one leadership change away from it.

And it’s their house, their rules, remember. If you don’t like it, your only option is to leave, light an effigy to win the favor of The Invisible Hand, and choose another Platform to start over. And over. And over. And…

Or, We Could Stop This Madness

I think it’s time for creators to reassess our relationships to The Platform, begin to defend ourselves, and dare to imagine something better.

This is the one place where I disagree with Doctorow, who is much much smarter than I am but is also much much more optimistic that any legal body would willingly pass the required legislation to facilitate the deep changes we need.

To be clear, I’m not saying we should not work on that; I believe that while we do, we will have better luck starving The Platform; by building the better systems we actually want to use, by refusing the play the game, and by depriving the machine of our labor. That way, when the government is done failing spectacularly, we are at least in the middle of plan B.

What might an internet which meets our needs look like, then? It sure as hell isn’t this.

Well, my ideal internet would be open, with knowledge accessible to all. I’d like it to be interoperable, too. You should be able to set your own boundaries in how you use it and engage with others. Its development roadmap would be set or at least influenced by you, and if your experience is “personalized”, it’s because you personalized it, on purpose, and to meet your own goals. It should be private, that goes without saying. And above all it must be transparent, able to be taken apart, examined, and put back together to your satisfaction.

That’s a lot of things. And let’s be realistic, there’s no way I can personally deconstruct and reconstruct the entirety of the internet’s functionality to that specification, even if I had my whole life to do it. I just don’t have the skills necessary. The best I can program is terminal-tic-tac-toe, and that’s on a good day.

But what I can do, is clean up my own house. Bit by bit, I can cut my ties with Platforms and Algorithms and migrate to systems I own, control, and understand. That can be my contribution.

If enough of us did this, we could reverse the consolidation and enshittification of the modern internet organically. This could be the result of collective action, too, but honestly at this point I’m just going to start with me and see how it goes.

Okay, But How?

From now on, I’m making a point to avoid all Platforms on principle. I will resist creating accounts for any software that relies on The Algorithm to serve recommended content. I will replace each live service that I use today with open source alternatives, as soon as it is efficient and financially viable to do so. Where I must use closed source commercial tooling, I’ll opt for things I can pay for once, and chuck anything that pivots to a rent-seeking subscription model, not even because of the money, but because verifying whether or not I’ve paid my protection dues necessitates surveillance and control over my devices, which should be mine and serve me alone.

Since I’m already here and they’re adjacent topics, ads can blow me and so can DRM. I hereby give you, the reader, permission to steal the things you need if that’s the only way you can get it. When they arrest you tell them Val said it was okay and I dunno maybe they’ll be so stunned that you thought that would work, they’ll let you go.

And as an added benefit of all this, if I pull this off I’ll probably also leak a bit less of my personal data across the internet. That’d be nice.

There Are Risks

For one, people might just decide not to follow me. The core value add for users of The Platform is that all your friends are already there, after all. I will almost certainly be a smaller creator, forever.

But if people don’t want to visit my corner of the internet, and I end up talking to myself, that’s not really any different than my current experience on The Platform, now is it? I’m already not seeing those promises of lowering friction or increasing discoverability fulfilled. By taking this into my own hands, I can hardly do worse than the nothing I’m getting from the current deal.

And anyway, the whole of the internet used to work like this, so obviously, it is possible. One of my fondest memories of using the internet in a way that served me, and brought me joy, was the StumbleUpon Sleepover. Back then, it was a browser extension. My best friend and I stayed up literally all night and morning just showing each other cool stuff we found, hopping from one blog to another and developing new niche interests. The internet seemed so vast, and not just because we were younger, but because there were things to be found everywhere, linking to each other, that weren’t afraid to let users leave and which hadn’t had their rough edges sanded off by the need to be mass-marketable.

Incidentally, do you know what ended up happening to StumbleUpon? They took investment capital, wiped all their user-submitted content in 2011, and became a shitty Social Media Platform, of course! And then they died.

So yeah, as an invisible nobody, a hit to my non-existent discoverability is a risk I am willing to take. Next!

Another risk is that everything in my workflow will become just a little bit harder, and that will add up to impact my workflow. Not gonna lie, this one is legit.

Open source software doesn’t have Google money behind it, and this shows when it comes to UX, speed of development cycles, and yeah, sometimes quality. There will be bugs, things will break or slow down or become incompatible, there probably won’t be as many resources or tutorials to help me grow, and there will probably be some things I just can’t do.

But in exchange, I get to drive. It won’t matter what stupid shit Google decides to pull this quarter, because I won’t depend on them anymore. Fewer organizations will have the power to force changes in my behavior. What I lose in short-term stability, I will gain in the long term. While we’re using Google as an example, I also won’t necessarily be at any more of a risk of support for my tools being deprecated; they strangle at least a few things in the cradle per year.

I also figure that sometimes good things spring from limitations, too. Like dithering in classic pixel art, or the badass arpeggio of 8-bit chiptunes. In a world where everything is polished and shiny and uniform, maybe I’ll come to enjoy being a little grungy. My work might even benefit.

And technically, any problem I run into with open source software is within my power to fix, if I just got off my ass and submitted a PR myself.

So while I consider this to be the more substantial risk, it’s still one worth taking on.

How’s That Been Going For You?

Well, I’ve managed to make a lot of healthy replacements already; Mastodon, Firefox, Fastmail, Godot, Affinity Designer, and Scrivener, to name a few. I still have a ways to go. I’m desperately clinging to Atom, which is inadvisable as it was deprecated in December. I should really make finding another IDE I like a priority. I haven’t tried using Gitlab yet, either.

I’ve made a few, extremely minor contributions to the Veilid framework, which from a mission statement perspective is absolutely my kind of shit. I intend to continue volunteering with them when I have more time.

I’m also curious about building a Linux machine someday, which I’m sure I will regret immediately, but I’m also tired of nervously watching Microsoft chip away at the idea that I’m just renting my computer— oh, sorry, I mean “this PC”.

Platforms relevant to my work that I’ve sidestepped entirely include Medium and Substack. I’m sure eventually Discord will cross the rainbow bridge, too; it hasn’t been enshittified for my purposes yet but it’s threatened to before. When it’s finally time to replace, I think I’ll stand up an old phpBB forum instead. If you can’t tell, I miss them and I’m weirdly looking forward to it, even though I’m sure I’ll lose most of my audience when it happens. They’re just cozy, familiar lil’ guys, and they remain searchable and useful to non-members for a very long time.

Unfortunately I’m pretty well entangled with Steam at this point. If you aren’t yet, take a look at GoG and itch instead. Spotify though, I could work on that, and start owning my albums again. I already yeeted Netflix into the sun after The Closer and never really cared for TV.

That leaves my biggest points of failure today: Patreon, and Youtube. I don’t have a solid answer for either.

Patreon is by far the biggest risk to me personally. It’s raised a lot of investment, and has started to signal product panic in a way that is all too familiar to me as a TPM. The rollercoaster ride to the bottom seems increasingly inevitable. Trouble is, payment processing is one of those things you can’t currently do on your own. One thing I can do to help mitigate it, is keep prioritizing my own website, and pointing readers there whenever possible. If I only rely on Patreon for payment processing, and not as a portfolio like they’ve been pushing for, I can avoid at least some of the pain they will invariably inflict upon me.

I had cut Google out of my life a couple years ago for unrelated reasons, and so I only recently developed any need for Youtube at all, when I decided to start publishing video essays. There are a few semi-viable alternatives like Peertube, but they would necessitate sorting out my own hosting and would likely result in an extra decline in readership that I’m not sure is worth the trade. I’ve got my eye out for solutions but this one will take some time to bake. For now my mitigation is not to rely on Youtube for income. I may even opt out of ad revenue sharing if that’s an option. My understanding is it’s a pittance, and since I’m trans they were never going to recommend my work much anyway. I’ll rely on word of mouth.

The Internet Didn’t Always Suck

And I believe it can not-suck again.

I feel like I’ve been sleep-walking through its decline, but the domino collapse of Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit have snapped me out of it. It’s like realizing you’ve been playing that same MMO out of habit but have long stopped having fun with it.

It’s amazing to me that we can spend all this time and money and effort building technology that at the end of the day doesn’t even help the people it was designed for. It’s not like Facebook is the best we can do; we’ve been to the goddamn moon, we’re sequencing the human genome. If we really wanted to make a public-good communication platform that wasn’t especially useful for organizing genocides, we could absolutely do that. The trouble is just that there are all these grubby hyper capitalist systems in the way.

If “progress is inevitable” when it comes to things that actively do not do any of the things they’re hyped to, like LLM’s, then why doesn’t anyone ever say that with technology that we already have, which is failing in basic ways and could be improved? No, don’t answer that, I know the answer. LLM’s let businesses cut salaries, discipline workers, and pocket more money.

I can’t fix all of these problem on my own, but I can at least reduce my dependency on the corporations that manufactured them.

Maybe if I build a safe little corner of the internet, that imagines what the net could be rather than what it is, other people will find it and want to do the same. Or at least hang out for a while.

Citations

Alexander, Julia. “The Golden Age of YouTube Is Over.” The Verge, 5 Apr. 2019, http://www.theverge.com/2019/4/5/18287318/youtube-logan-paul-pewdiepie-demonetization-adpocalypse-premium-influencers-creators

Chung, Anna. “News Feeds, Old Content: A Brief History of Algorithmically Curated Feeds on Facebook and Twitter” Medium, 29 Apr. 2019, https://medium.com/@annawchung/news-feeds-old-content-a-brief-history-of-algorithmically-curated-feeds-on-facebook-and-twitter-85b5e5d8e30a

Doctorow, Corey. “Tiktok’s enshittification” Pluralistic, 21 Jan. 2023, https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/

Kan, Michael. “Facebook, Instagram To Show You More Content From People You Don’t Follow” PCMag, 28 Jun. 2022, https://www.pcmag.com/news/facebook-instagram-to-show-you-more-content-from-people-you-dont-follow

Lorenz, Taylor. “Internet ‘algospeak’ is changing our language in real time, from ‘nip nops’ to ‘le dollar bean’” The Washington Post, 08 Apr. 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/04/08/algospeak-tiktok-le-dollar-bean/

Oremus, Will & Alcantara, Chris & Merrill, Jeremy B. & Galocha, Arthur. “How Facebook shapes your feed.” The Washington Post, 26 Oct. 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2021/how-facebook-algorithm-works/

Tonkelowitz, Mark. “Interesting News, Any Time You Visit” Facebook, 20 Sep. 2011, https://web.archive.org/web/20110925211838/http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=10150286921207131

#Antifascism #Enshittification #LGBTQ_ #Manifesto #Tech #WhyDidYouBuildTheTormentNexus_