Politics and Prose

what my twitter would be if I wasn't "keeping it professional"

[cowpokeprose]

The preacher may never marry us and my mama may never know you but I can kiss you over a flask of whiskey and dance with you under the stars and if that isn’t marriage I’m not sure what else God is looking for. 

[ezrazo]

Sorry if we're all collectively on the TZP as Flynn Rider train, I need someone to draw or write an AU where Alex and Henry go as Flynn and Rapunzel for Halloween. Alex in the white suit from the end of the movie, and Henry in a lavender moment. I NEED IT

[our-queer-experience]

the same webisite also has a free pdf of kate bornstein’s “gender outlaw” which i consider essential reading on trans theory + trans history and is, like i said, free. transreads.org is a fantastic fucking source if you don’t have money for these things or an accessible public library

[ezrazo]

Love Letters

they make me want to write love letters, but we are not in love. so instead I write poems, odes to the way they make me laugh or their smirk when they’re being particularly witty. Day dream hazed sonnets about the way it feels when we dance, when our hands touch, when we lock eyes across a crowd. I want to write about love, but we are not in love, so instead I learn to let myself love without expectations, and I do not ask for more. We may never be in love, but I will have love for them regardless, because what am I if not an instrument by which the universe cares.

e.z.

[ezrazo]

I Don't Know How to Write Poems Anymore

I don't know how to write poems anymore, I am too angry. Every edited line feels too cliche, every perfect metaphor feels like it is pushing me further away, feels too sanitized, too idealized.

If screaming into the void counts as poetry, then I've never been more poetic in my life. When I wake up in the morning, when I try to write, when I spend too long online bearing witness,

I am screaming

I am screaming

I am screaming

I want my words to make people feel something, do something. But I've never felt more speechless.

I don't know how to write poems anymore, I am too sad. I cling to others' words like a lifeboat, hear them say young people give them hope, and think that maybe sometimes hope looks more like stubbornly refusing to die than rainbows and sunshine.

I don't know how to write poems anymore but life keeps on going anyway. So instead I write about how the ground is hard at the encampment. How the people I chose are harboring the same hatred that's been pointed at us for thousands of years. How my brothers and sisters write lawyers’ numbers on their arms in case they are arrested or their names in case they can no longer be identified. I write about how I don't know how to write anymore, and then I keep writing anyway.

e.z.

[ezrazo]

Dear Texas State Legislature

Dear Texas State Legislature

You view our joy as a protest, a revolt against your norms. I say, our joy is like alcohol during prohibition, queer bars like speakeasies, publicly criticized, privately revered, everyone wants a piece of our joy.

Every Wednesday night the queer dancers of 412 step storm the dance floor of Belvedere's Ultra Dive for a few hours of a literal boot-stomping good time. I am spinning on the dance floor in my favorite dress, more focused on the fact that I look good as hell rather than if I look masculine enough because who the fuck needs to put a gender label on the way my soul feels when Im dancing.

Our backs are pressed against each other screaming the lyrics to lay all your love on me in our favorite DC gay bar and I know in that moment there is no romance I ache for that could match the love I have for my best friend.

When trans kids are attacked and killed in their schools, when we are targeted online, when the same institution I break my back to make better stands determined to strip me and my friends of our rights, I hold fast to these pockets of joy like collectibles, little trinkets I spend the currency of my time on.

Keeping who we are from the world is a half-life of anxiety, and fear, and watching our every move. We refuse to keep hiding. Bricks were not thrown at Stonewall so that I could be quiet. Or maybe they were! Maybe bricks were thrown at Stonewall so that I could do whatever the fuck I want!

Somewhere in the future, I see myself at a party. I kiss a pretty girl, I sing along to all of my favorite songs. In the morning, I arm myself with the cheek-aching smiles of a perfect night, I will not go down easy. Queer joy is resistance against oppression. You'd do well to remember the first pride was a riot, and our fight ain't over yet.

e.z.

[ezrazo]

Liminal Spaces

Liminal spaces definition. A place between places, of transition or nostalgia.

I think my favorite queer bar on 5th Street is the most liminal of places. I found myself in the sharpied messages on the wall of As You Are. Found that the name I chose didn't matter when we were all screaming along to ABBA, when I caught the gaze of a pretty girl, when I lived my trans tenor dreams on the karaoke stage. Found that no matter the identity I was debating, the bartender was always happy to see me (unless I stole their karaoke song). This in between place, tucked into a pocket away from a world that always wants answers.

a place that always feels like June. Like a sunset. Like a million possibilities. Like the part of myself that doesn't care about putting a label on anything. Where they mean it when they say come As You Are.

e.z

[many-sparrows]

I'm very tired of this "queer college students should stop supporting Palestine, they'd kill you there!" I watched a hijabi ask a trans man, "but what name do you want to go by?" A butch giving a woman their hoodie so that she could keep her hair covered after the cops took her scarf. Muslim girls making sure the lesbian couple got through the system together. Religious men making sure green haired protestors got out safe. A Palestinian girl with an ex-southern baptist fiance, who definitely isn't a practicing Muslim, whose parents were raising hell for her. I don't want to hear it. Solidarity forever, free Palestine.

[burntlikethesun]

if you're just joining us, george takei is having to educate jk rowling on holocaust denial

[rozentias-deactivated20240103]

in the latest cyber-news: the internet archive has lost their case against 4 major publishing houses (verge article). they’re going to appeal, but this is still a bad outcome. the fate of the internet is currently hanging in the balance because 4 multibillionare publishing groups missed out on like $15 of combined revenue during the pandemic because of the archive’s online library service. it’s so fucking stupid.

for those who don’t know what the internet archive is, it’s a virtual library full of media. books, magazines, recordings, visuals, flash games, websites - a lot of these things either don’t exist anymore or cannot be found & bought. heard of the wayback machine? that’s part of the internet archive. it is the most important website to exist, and i don’t say that lightly. if the internet archive goes down, the cultural loss will be immeasurable.

so how can you help?

boycott the publishing companies involved in this. they’re absolute ghouls, frankly, and don’t deserve a penny. the companies involved are harpercollins (imprints), wiley (imprints), penguin random house llc (imprints), and hachette book group (imprints). make sure the websites are set to your location as it may differ worldwide.

learn to torrent. download a torrent client (i recommend transmission), a vpn (i recommend protonvpn - sign up and choose the area that’s closest to your continent/country), and hit up /r/piracy on reddit for websites. with torrenting, you can get (almost) any media you want for free in high quality, with add-ons such as subtitles, and with no risks of loss. i would also recommend getting into the habit of watching stuff online for free. the less you can pay to a giant corporation, the better.

get into the habit of downloading and archiving materials. find a TB external hard drive, ideally the higher the better. it’ll probably cost around $60 for 1TB and continue to go up, but they’re so so useful. if you can’t afford a drive, look for any GB harddrives or memory sticks you have lying around and just fill them up. videos, pdfs, magazines, songs, movies, games - anything you can rip and download and fit on there, do it, because nothing is permanent.

donate to the internet archive. this is the most important option on the list. the IA relies entirely on funding, and it’s going to need more to fight this case. whatever you can donate, do it. i promise it’s helpful.

and finally…

[charaznablescanontoyota]

cannot stress enough that donating to the internet archive to help them appeal this without going broke is the most important thing you can do right now. my day job revolves around fulfilling digital article and book scan requests at an academic library and a huge part of that is borrowing from other libraries that do controlled digital lending (incl. the internet archive!). copyright law is already hugely restrictive on what we can and can't lend, and we absolutely don't have the option to pirate anything for our patrons due to being a large academic institution. it's difficult to overstate just how bad this ruling could end up being for libraries that have digital lending programs, esp ones that rely on CDR for old/archival/hard-to-find texts.

[montyshistoryblog]

I'm incredibly fucking disappointed at the bootlickers in the comments claiming that the IA steals from small creators. Eliminating a valuable research, academic and cultural resource because you've bought into the fiction that "potential sales" are lost sales is exactly what these big corporations want. You aren't saving small creators by swatting down a non-profit, you're allowing ginormous publishing monopolies to consolidate even further while they smile a snake's smile over independent creators.

[llyfrenfys]

The Internet Archive is absolutely vital for my work and research. Without it, a good chunk of Welsh LGBTQ+ history would be inaccessible. The Welsh books hosted on IA are indexed and searchable, meaning any Welsh LGBTQ+ terminology can be searched for. Otherwise, me sitting down to read every. single. Welsh book ever published *just in case* it contains one of the terms in my data is an impossible task (Welsh books have been published since 1546) . In fact, this is something I refer to in my methodology for this very reason.

I'm also broke as hell rn but when I get the chance I'm gonna donate. Without IA, you can kiss goodbye to a *massive* chunk of academia. My lecturers use IA. So not just like, undergrads and PhD students, but seasoned academics will lose access to a major resource if IA stopped existing.

The argument of "potential sales lost" also makes no sense from an author's perspective. Published authors are usually paid an advance before publication. After that point, they would have to sell an obscene amount of books to qualify for extra pay from those sales, so many authors are unbothered by someone reading their book for free. Libraries allow people to read books for free and IA is essentially one giant library. It even has a feature where if you're reading a book and "check it out" for an hour, no-one else can read the book your reading until the time runs out. Just like a normal library. Potential sales lost to the company is just like when companies claim to have lost millions at a start of the year when they haven't actually lost any money at all. They just didn't earn as much money as they were predicting.

IA provides a vital service and we should be fighting to ensure it isn't lost.

[isabelofwraithmarsh]

Seconding all of the above -- Since the IA lost its case, I've noticed a number of books have rapidly become inaccessible for me. The negative impact this has had on my work can't be overstated, as I've been left without a crucial resource for my research. I don't believe there's a single article I've written that hasn't been impacted by this, with me often having to scrambling to get access to sources that are rare and/or our of print. I have the advantage of a well-stocked uni library that is good at ILLs, but this is a taste of what's going to come if this isn't resolved in the Archive's favor.

[escuerzoresucitado]

[ezrazo]

A few photos from the liberated zone at the University of Pittsburgh. All power to the people!

[aaronstveit]

"if i was orpheus i would simply not turn around" yes you would. if you were orpheus and you loved eurydice, you would. to love someone is to turn around. to love someone is to look at them. whichever version of the myth — he hears her stumble, he can't hear her at all, he thinks he's been tricked — he turns around because he loves her. that's why it's a tragedy. because he loves her enough to save her. because he loves her so much he can't save her. because he will always, always turn around. "if i was orpheus i would simply —" you wouldn't be orpheus. you wouldn't be brave enough to walk into the underworld and save the person you love. be serious

[ezrazo]

I'd be the dreadful need in the devotee

That made him turn around (hey ya)

And I'd be the immediate forgiveness

In Eurydice

Imagine being loved by me!

[willgrahamscock]

Why bother arguing in support of trans people if you’re not trans?

very simple concept called believing in human rights

[10-days-of-freakin-olives]

[ezrazo]

Y'all I took a few weeks off of LSAT prep to focus on work and I come back to find out they're REMOVING the section I've spent the most time studying? Hoping this means it gets a little easier but oh my GOD.

[ezrazo]

Edit: It’s confirmed that Erika and Lou weren’t in the room when it was recorded and also no one look at me, Aabria liked my post 🫣

Desperately wanting to know if the conversation Suvi @quiddie had with Steel about the nesting doll plan is the one that’s been kept under wraps this whole time. Did that catch Lou and Erika off guard as much as it caught the rest of us off guard???

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

"The trannies should be able to piss in whatever toilet they want and change their bodies however they want. Why is it my business if some chick has a dick or a guy has a pie? I'm not a trannie or a fag so I don't care, just give 'em the medicine they need."

"This is an LGBT safe space. Of COURSE I fully support individuals who identify as transgender and their right to self-determination! I just think that transitioning is a very serious choice and should be heavily regulated. And there could be a lot of harm in exposing cis children to such topics, so we should be really careful about when it is appropriate to mention trans issues or have too much trans visibility."

One of the above statements is Problematic and the other is slightly annoying. If we disagree on which is which then working together for a better future is going to get really fucking difficult.

[june-egbert-official]

Someone who says they don't care if dudes wear dresses and makeup is a better ally than someone who says they're a safe space for women and non-binary people. I am not joking.

[redrook]

yeah I went to a gay bar recently with my husband tumblr user beemovieerotica, and a VERY confused capital S Southerner straight man in cargo shorts and a trucker hat showed up

apparently he (who through my drunken memory I remember only as Earl) liked some woman, and she told him that he wasn't cultured enough and needed to attend his first drag show (she also flaked on him)

Now I'm reasonably androgynous and was wearing makeup, a short leather skirt, and black heeled boots, but still when this guy came up to me when I was standing off alone and asked "So. Do you come here often?" with a very earnest expression, I thought. Surely not. This guy doesn't think I'm a straight woman does he????

Anyway I start talking with this guy and he has no idea what the fuck is going on but he is just a very kind and earnest dude and asked a lot of questions (while asking if it was alright if he asked those questions). I track down my husband and friends and I'm like y'all. We need to make sure that Earl has a Good Fucking Time tonight.

Man was completely out of his depth. At one point they put on a puppy auction to raise money for Pride, that started with a 6 ft drag queen in all her glory leading a leather pup out on a leash to the tune of that damned RSPCA "in the arms of the angels" song

We look at Earl. Nervous. He squints, laughs, and then goes "I was wondering why people were dressed like that!" He turned to me and asked "So they're like dogs?" And I said yeah pretty much. And he just chuckled and went "Yeah I thought so with the tails! Never seen this before!"

When the first drag king came out, Earl looked at me wide eyed and went "There's a dude version too?!" And I said yeah they're called drag kings. And he said, low, "Drag kings."

During one of the queens performances, he frowned, shook his head and told me, "Your legs are better than hers." in a tone that implied he thought there was some travesty taking place and I should also be getting paid

When he found out I was there with my husband (and that I am not a woman) he profusely apologized and said "I'm so sorry, it's dark in here and I thought you were a hot chick! I wouldn't have said nothing if I knew you had a husband, I'm so sorry about that."

When beemovie invited me to the dance floor with him later and I still had a drink in my hand, Earl said "Oh don't worry about that I can hold your drink, you get on out there and shake your ass with your husband!" Then before we left, Earl bought me drinks for "Putting up with me all night and answering everything. Y'all helped me have a great time tonight."

like. You gotta recognize there's going to people who have never had interacted outside of their of their own community. This includes you. And just because your community is familiar with all the right vocabulary and how to correctly say something, it doesn't mean they're actually going to support you. If someone like Earl shows up, confused and out of their depth but kind and curious and earnest, you gotta have patience and truck through the small things, so when he goes back to his friends and his coworkers and they snicker asking how the drag show was, he can genuinely talk about how included we tried to make him feel and that he had a great time

The person matters more than the language

[little-trash-ghost]

I will reblog this EVERY TIME.

Sanitized language is a tool of oppression, always has been and always will be.

And yes, I get being pissed off by slurs. I do. But in the times we are living in right now, we really need to all pivot our priorities to safety.

"Earl" will talk to all his Busch drinking, tractor-pulling, gun toting, conservative voting friends about the nice and friendly and harmless trannies he met, and they will understand him.

They do not know what gender non-conforming, trans-femme/masc, demiboy, agender genderqueer bisexual lesbians are, and quite frankly, they do not need to.

What we need from Earl and his friends is for them to feel neutrally enough about us to not become violent with us, and to spread the idea that violence against us is not necessary or warranted. They are simply not going to do that in a language that is not their own.