gaydar williams

just really queer

[gaydarwilliams]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

It’s been an age, but I’ve finally got an update on my “The 100″ Gladiator AU. Maybe I’m the only one excited about that (it’s been a ridiculously busy few months), but on the off chance you’d like to continue on this little adventure with me, please do go check it out.

I am determined to finish this thing before the one year anniversary of having begun it (June 30). If I’m on my shit, it’ll be even sooner than that. ;)

Happy New Year!

[gaydarwilliams]

if this ain’t me

[ill-matic]

[gaydarwilliams]

Rise Up, My Queers

Happy National Coming Out Day! I am a genderqueer, bisexual, poly human. My pronouns are she/her. I'm out because I can't imagine living any other way, and because I've never been a particularly subtle person. I'm also out because I have the privilege to be. I don't face immediate bodily or emotional harm for being open and honest, both because I'm lucky about where I live and who I get to call family and friends, but also because I am a white, reasonably middle class, educated person. I have access to quality resources and support.

Not everyone has that. Too many people are still unable to live authentic, open lives, because too many other people have been taught to hate and lash out at anything that's perceived as different or "abnormal." Because we live in a deeply racist, sexist, homophobic, and transphobic society. Because we live in a culture that still embraces toxic ideas of masculinity, and is run by a violent patriarchal system.

But that's why it's all the more crucial for those of us who can be out, to be not just out, but OUTSPOKEN. To be visible. To be beacons, imperfect though we all are, for those who are still forced into dark closets.

This morning I had a stark reminder of this truth: I went to leave my house and found a young man hiding on my front porch. He was soaked through, covered in burrs and other debris, and clearly shaken. He apologized immediately for being there, but explained that he had been jumped by a group of men, beaten up, and chased for quite some distance before he'd been able to outrun them and find that hiding place. Why had he picked our porch, of all places? "I saw the rainbow flag and the Black Lives Matter sign and I thought this would be a safe place to wait."

I put the Pride flag and the sign on the porch back in June, to celebrate LGBTQ Pride month. Even then, I had to stop and think about how doing so might put a target on our house, that it would make it somewhat more likely someone would vandalize it or even harass us because of it. But I did it anyway, in spite of that, as a "fuck you" but also as a beacon. It's hope. That we can and will be better, as a society, as more and more brave people come out and live authentically and with love. I have to believe that. I've seen it.

If you can't be out, because it isn't yet safe, do what you can with you what you have, and know that you are loved, and your feelings and your identity are real and valid and valued. If you *can* be out, know that even the most mundane seeming existence is revolutionary as long as it's honest, and that you are a role model, a beacon of hope and possibility to someone else, whether you know it or not.

Take care of each other, even and especially when it's hard. That's how we make something better. That's how, some day, it won't require great privilege to live an open and authentic life. xoxo

[quillemons]

YALL STILL STRAIGHT??? IN THIS ECONOMY???

[gaydarwilliams]

Good question

[dekoi2501post]

[dangerbooze]

OH MY GOD

[zionthepansexual]

[gaydarwilliams]

Yass

[gaydarwilliams]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Oh hey a new chapter of my t100 Roman/gladiator AU is up. I may be taking my time, but I am gonna finish this sucker, by gum! Enjoy. :)

[thecoggs]

So apparently last year the National Park Service in the US dropped an over 1200 page study of LGBTQ American History as part of their Who We Are program which includes studies on African-American history, Latino history, and Indigenous history. 

Like. This is awesome. But also it feels very surreal that maybe one of the most comprehensive examinations of LGBTQ history in America (it covers sports! art! race! historical sites! health! cities!) was just casually done by the parks service. 

[tarastarr1]

This is really great??

Chapter 1: Prologue: Why LGBTQ Historic Sites Matter by Mark Meinke

Chapter 2: Introduction to the LGBTQ Heritage Initiative Theme Study by Megan E. Springate

Chapter 3: Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) History in the United States by Leisa Meyer and Helis Sikk

Chapter 4: The History of Queer History: One Hundred Years of the Search for Shared Heritage by Gerard Koskovich

Chapter 5: The Preservation of LGBTQ Heritage by Gail Dubrow

Chapter 6: LGBTQ Archeological Context by Megan E. Springate

Chapter 7: A Note about Intersectionality by Megan E. Springate

Chapter 8: Making Bisexuals Visible by Loraine Hutchins

Chapter 9: Sexual and Gender Diversity in Native America and the Pacific Islands by Will Roscoe

Chapter 10: Transgender History in the US and the Places that Matter by Susan Stryker

Chapter 11: Breathing Fire: Remembering Asian Pacific American Activism in Queer History by Amy Sueyoshi

Chapter 12: Latina/o Gender and Sexuality by Deena J. González and Ellie D. Hernandez

Chapter 13: “Where We Could Be Ourselves”: African American LGBTQ Historic Places and Why They Matter by Jeffrey A. Harris

Chapter 14: LGBTQ Spaces and Places by Jen Jack Gieseking

Chapter 15: Making Community: The Places and Spaces of LGBTQ Collective Identity Formation by Christina B. Hanhardt

Chapter 16: LGBTQ Business and Commerce by David K. Johnson

Chapter 17: Sex, Love, and Relationships by Tracy Baim

Chapter 18: LGBTQ Civil Rights in America by Megan E. Springate

Chapter 19: Historical Landmarks and Landscapes of LGBTQ Law by Marc Stein

Chapter 20: LGBTQ Military Service by Steve Estes

Chapter 21: Struggles in Body and Spirit: Religion and LGBTQ People in US History by Drew Bourn

Chapter 22: LGBTQ and Health by Katie Batza

Chapter 23: LGBTQ Art and Artists by Tara Burk

Chapter 24: LGBTQ Sport and Leisure by Katherine Schweighofer

Chapter 25: San Francisco: Placing LGBTQ Histories in the City by the Bay by Donna J. Graves and Shayne E. Watson

Chapter 26: Preservation of LGBTQ Historic & Cultural Sites – A New York City Perspective by Jay Shockley

Chapter 27: Locating Miami’s Queer History by Julio Capó, Jr.

Chapter 28: Queerest Little City in the World: LGBTQ Reno by John Jeffrey Auer IV

Chapter 29: Chicago: Queer Histories at the Crossroads of America by Jessica Herczeg-Konecny

Chapter 30: Nominating LGBTQ Places to the National Register of Historic Places and as National Historic Landmarks: An Introduction by Megan E. Springate and Caridad de la Vega

Chapter 31: Interpreting LGBTQ Historic Sites by Susan Ferentinos

Chapter 32: Teaching LGBTQ History and Heritage by Leila J. Rupp

[kingjaffejoffer]

Top 10 Twitter thread in history

[drhds]

I know like 6 of these people

[theblairwitchboy-deactivated201]

Screaming

[sourcedumal]

I know the Free Speech White, the Fiscally Conservative white, the Social Justice white and the Preppy White. All got cut out of my life.

[nevver]

Bee butts

[gaydarwilliams]

Sent my very first literary agent query in the hopes of getting representation to publish my first novel. I suspect there will be many, many more to come but hey, it's a start. Fingers crossed! Booze and writerly sadness/frustration on standby.

[gaydarwilliams]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapter 12, after much delay, is now live.

[gaydarwilliams]

You taught me language; and my profit on’t

Go read this thing, this thing is beautiful and gutting.

I am folding our mother’s cloak over the passenger seat headrest, admiring its rich green against the beige polyester upholstery, the carved bone clasps glinting in the streetlight, when he stops me.

“Babe, keep that thing on at dinner tonight, OK? My friends, they talk …” He grimaces, searching for the words. “…about how you’re hollow from behind.”

Now that I know his language, I can hear how often I fall short.

[questionall]

[luchagcaileag]

This isn’t because Burger King is nicer in Denmark. It’s the law, and the US is actually the only so-called “developed” country that doesn’t mandate jobs provide a minimum amount of paid vacation, sick leave, or both.

[pillowswithboners-deactivated20]

kinda debunks that claim that they can’t afford to pay their workers those sort of wages and still make a profit

[heidiblack]

Its corporate greed, plain and simple.

[queerspeculativefiction]

It is the same in Sweden. It is so funny every time an american company opens up offices here and then tries to do it the american way and all the unions go “I don’t think so”.

Like when Toys ‘r Us opened in sweden 1995.

They refused to sign on to the union deals that govern such things as pay/pension and vacation in Sweden. Most of our rights are not mandated by law (we don’t have a minimum wage for example) but are made in voluntary agreements between the unions and the companies.

But they refused, saying that they had never negotiated with any unions anywhere else in the world and weren’t planning to do it in Sweden either. 

Of course a lot of people thought it was useless fighting against an international giant, but Handels (the store worker’s union) said that they could not budge, because that might mean that the whole Swedish model might crumble. So they went on strike in the three stores that the company had opened so far.

Cue a shitstorm from the press, and from right wing politicians. But the members were all for it, and other unions started doing sympathy actions. The teamsters refused to deliver goods to their stores, the financial unions blockaded all economical transactions regarding Toys ‘r Us and the strike got strong international support as well, especially in the US.

In the end, Toys ‘r Us caved in, signed the union deal, and thus their employees got the same treatment as Swedish store workers everywhere.

The right to be treated as bloody human beings and not disposable cogs in a machine.

[iopele]

and that story right there? is exactly why Republicans in the US work so hard to bust unions. it’s because unionizing WORKS and they’re terrified of workers actually having some power.

[gaydarwilliams]

Union forever

[gaydarwilliams]

fuck this world

[nevver]

Rone, Melbourne

[gaydarwilliams]

Beautiful.

[songsforgorgons]

International Women’s Day posters, from the AOUON Archive at the Oakland Museum of California.

[gaydarwilliams]

Here for it