[sua-sponte-deactivated20200331]

I’m watching that documentary “Before Stonewall” about gay history pre-1969, and uncovered something which I think is interesting.

The documentary includes a brief clip of a 1954 televised newscast about the rise of homosexuality. The host of the program interviewed psychologists, a police officer, and one “known homosexual”. The “known homosexual” is 22 years old. He identifies himself as Curtis White, which is a pseudonym; his name is actually Dale Olson.

So I tracked down the newscast. According to what I can find, Dale Olson may have been the first gay man to appear openly on television and defend his sexual orientation. He explains that there’s nothing wrong with him mentally and he’s never been arrested. When asked whether he’d take a cure if it existed, he says no. When asked whether his family knows he’s gay, he says that they didn’t up until tonight, but he guesses they’re going to find out, and he’ll probably be fired from his job as well. So of course the host is like …why are you doing this interview then? and Dale Olson, cool as cucumber pie, says “I think that this way I can be a little useful to someone besides myself.”

1954. 22 years old. Balls of pure titanium.

Despite the pseudonym, Dale’s boss did indeed recognize him from the TV program, and he was promptly fired the next day. He wrote into ONE magazine six months later to reassure readers that he had gotten a new job at a higher salary.

Curious about what became of him, I looked into his life a little further. It turns out that he ultimately became a very successful publicity agent. He promoted the Rocky movies and Superman. Not only that, but get this: Dale represented Rock Hudson, and he was the person who convinced him to disclose that he had AIDS! He wrote the statement Rock read. And as we know, Rock Hudson’s disclosure had a very significant effect on the national conversation about AIDS in the U.S.

It appears that no one has made the connection between Dale Olson the publicity agent instrumental in the AIDS debate and Dale Olson the 22-year-old first openly gay man on TV. So I thought I’d make it. For Pride month, an unsung gay hero.

[is-the-post-reliable]

RATING: RELIABLE

you can listen to the clip of the 1954 interview here and find him on wikipedia here

[liberaljane]

[thehairiestfeminist]

me, consuming any piece of media with a woman in it: where is her leg hair

[circusheart]

I do think the post that's like "when they torture you to insanity and then torture you for being insane 😂🤣" is one of the most succinct and foundational analyses of interpersonal violence and conflict that had ever been written

[woodlandftm]

I wish being so acutely aware of sex based oppression wasn’t such a big deal. I cannot tell a single friend of mine what some of my genuine opinions are, because we were friends before reality hit me. Even the cis guys. They’re all, “Fuck terfs, trans women are great”, types. I think my sister might be a little understanding. I’ve opened up to my grandmother, she understood immediately. My friends don’t need to know everything about me, but if they were to see the wrong thing on my phone, my OCD could be acting up here but the urge to just nuke everything here and in my private writings and pretend I saw nothing and had no big new feelings about this. Just… go back. Because the bad thing is I do understand how they think I’ve become hateful, I’m not even a radfem but just saying I believe in gendered socialization and that oppression is based on sex, there are male socialization patterns among trans women that go unchecked, that’s all they think “TERF” is and “TERF” is a hate group that’s committing genocide, or so the idea goes. I think well maybe I am just hateful and genocidal, but logic kicks in of course and is like “you’re a female of a marginalized group growing resentment towards males of your group, that’s the most normal thing ever”, but I really do think of trying to make the new thoughts and feelings just vanish and I could go back and not worry.

[butchpeace]

One of the biggest problems I have with Radfems is when they call women who identify as trans “misogynistic”, or dismiss them as though they’re just being stupid.

Do you really think you’re helping anyone?

Story time…

When I was a teenager and first discovered radfem communities - this was before I transitioned - I felt just as alienated by them as I did by conservative women.

Because they didn’t understand me, they didn’t have any experience with how I felt, and they didn’t have any helpful advice for me.

At best, their advice was “learn to love yourself”. At worst, they were actively hateful towards women like me and called us names. Traitor, misogynist, etc.

No one gave me the empathy I needed. No one gave me any actionable steps I could take towards that vague goal of “loving myself”, which felt like an impossible thing to do at the time.

The feelings I was experiencing, and which I had been experiencing for my whole life, needed much more help than that. It needed people who cared and who wanted to understand what I was experiencing.

A big part of why I transitioned was because trans men were the first people who actually understood how I felt and had an answer for me as to how to cope with that.

The answer ended up being wrong of course, but I didn’t know that at the time. When you’re a kid and you’re just looking for someone who understands how you feel? And suddenly you meet all these women who live as men who understand you perfectly, because they’ve felt the same things…

Of course that’s the path you’re going to follow.

Radfems need to be doing better if they want to actually help women who are transitioning. My feeling is that many actually don’t want to help and don’t genuinely care about us.

But for those that do… in order to do better they have to listen to the experiences of women who have been through all of that.

We have to talk about the unique experiences of women who choose to transition in order to actually help the young women who are transitioning now.

If talking to trans identifying women makes you feel like you’re yelling at a wall, consider that maybe it’s not that the person on the other end is dumb - Maybe you’re speaking the wrong language. Maybe you should lower your voice. Maybe you should try to understand her.

Sometimes it feels like masculine women, women who transition, are the only ones who don’t get included in female solidarity.

[radrevoltz]

Be nicer to yourself and more mean to men.

[ferrethaver]

i love you lesbians and bisexual women in my phone you make my days brighter happy pride

[thehairiestfeminist]

Let me describe to you what kind of world gender abolitionists actually dream about:

When a child would be born it’s biological sex, being an actual physical reality, would be noticed but not a single assumption regarding the child’s personality would be made based on it.

Growing up, children would be free to chose what toys and clothes they prefer. If they want to play with toy trucks or dolls, it would be fine either way. If they want to dress comfortably or in frilly colorful dresses, it would be fine.

Certain personality traits would not be encouraged in members of one sex and discouraged in the other. Females would be free to be strong, brave and assertive and males would not be shamed for being shy and soft spoken.

No female child would be called a tomboy and no male child would be called a sissy. No kid would ever be bullied for what we in our gendered world call “gender expression”.

When children would reach puberty they would still be free to dress how they want. Females would not be pressured to wear clothes that reveal their bodies and males would not be shamed if they chose to. Everybody would have a free choice of accessories, which would not be categorized as “men’s” or “women’s” but people could should whichever they liked. Or chose to not wear accessories at all if that’s what they are more comfortable with.

Females would not be pressured to keep their bodies slim, soft and hairless. Males would not be pressured to be athletic and muscular. Expectations of femininity and masculinity upon the body would not exist and affect negatively people’s relationship with their own body.

Everyone could choose a career without fearing stigmatization within that particular field because of their biological sex. The most important thing would be competence and not what someone has between their legs.

Domestic work would not be considered “women’s work” and would be shared equally between the sexes.

Biological sex would only be thought about when relevant. And everyone would be free to be themselves without ever having to worry about gender expectations. Nobody would feel the need to repress certain parts of their personality and exaggerate others in order to fit into some gender role that is being forced on them.

Gender abolitionism is not about restricting people’s choices but about giving them greater freedom.

- http://burningax.wordpress.com/2014/10/06/a-gender-free-world-boring/

[confessionsofabutch]

FTMs I love you and I believe you. Fuck anyone who tries to tell you that your experiences and oppression aren’t real. GET BEHIND MEEE

[handoferis]

[girlboss-enthusiast]

Join me at free pdf of SCUM Manifesto :)

[theyrestnotdayandnight]

@cannabutch

[cannabutch]

BLESS YOU 🙏🔥❤️ if no one else got me i know you got me queen

[clarasunflowers]

these are the first, most popular tags that come up on tumblr when typing #women are

[naistensaari]

Curious. Very peculiar indeed. 🙄

(When tagging.)

[moth-attack]

And at least for me, the first one that comes up when you start typing "detrans" is "detrans kink" 😐😐

[confessionsofabutch]

Woaahhh R*ver G*unfeld post on my dash. Didn’t expect to see you in the wild sir. No surprise to see he still hates homeless people and immigrants. Really punching up these days, huh bud?

[female-uncle]

the TMAs could never make me hate Rocky horror picture show, not even when it was in vogue to do so. Never ever

[confessionsofabutch]

Something that never sat right with me about trans discourse was all the MTFs who would get on the internet and openly degrade FTMs who use “women’s resources.” They would say, “oh well WE can’t use women’s shelters or participate in women’s DV groups, but these evil faker trans men take advantage of these resources essentially cementing our ostracization. They’re MEN. They don’t deserve access to these resources.” And I remember thinking, well, there are no resources out there for trans men. If they’re trying to escape abuse or domestic violence they are essentially forced to use resources put in place by and for women. They’re not doing it to spite or isolate you. Don’t trans men deserve access to these resources? But I never said it out loud, because of course that would make me an evil terf who wants to kill trans women. Obviously everyone experiencing DV deserves resources. But we can’t ignore why these resources are created for and utilized by primarily female people. Because female people make up over 75% of domestic violence victims. No, a trans man is not misgendering their self by using these resources. And they’re not trying to push trans women out of women’s spaces. They’re trying to survive. Why is their survival not important to you? Oh, right.

[melancholic-whimsy]

they hate me for my flat facial expressions and inability to contribute to conversations

[confessionsofabutch]

There’s a LOT of thoughts rolling around in my head 24/7 but I never know what to actually say. Maybe one day I will be blogging think pieces like everyone else but for now it’s reblogs and rambling in the tags.