Left and Liberty @leftandliberty - Tumblr Blog

In recent years, lots of progressive people have been celebrating marriage -- when various states have passed laws recognizing same-sex marriage, when courts have made decisions affirming the legal recognition of same-sex marriage, when politicians have spoken in favor of it. At the same time, many queer activists and scholars have relentlesslycritiqued same-sex marriage advocacy. Supporters of marriage sometimes acknowledge those critiques, and respond with something like: While marriage is not for everyone, and won’t solve everything, we still need it.

What’s the deal? Is same-sex marriage advocacy a progressive cause? Is it in line with Left political projects of racial and economic justice, decolonization, and feminist liberation?

Nope. Same-sex marriage advocacy has accomplished an amazing feat–it has made being anti-homophobic synonymous with being pro-marriage. It has drowned out centuries of critical thinking and activism against the racialized, colonial, and patriarchal processes of state regulation of family and gender through marriage.

It is to such an understanding of marriage we first turn.

cocainesocialist

interesting how these liberals won’t cater to the white working class materially because of the belief they’re racist but will cater to affluent republicans, obviously the last bastion of anti-racism in america.

weaponized-androgyny

Feel free to share these images re: the upcoming transphobic debate being hosted by the University of Toronto. The safety and humanity of transgender, nonbinary and intersex students is #NotUpForDebate.

laundryandtaxes

Honestly I 100% support trans people lying to doctors about their experiences and identities to get health care and hormones from doctors who have granted themselves the right to decide whether people get hormones based on everything from what you wear to your sexual orientation.

fed-detector-deactivated2018030

Abolish the authority of doctors. Doctors should be healers, not cops.

commongayboy-deactivated2018082

postingwhileblack

42-year-old Betty Shelby was charged with first-degree manslaughter after killing Terence Crutcher, an innocent Black man in Tulsa on September 16, 2016. Betty’s attorney said that she received “an outpouring of support” from the law enforcement across the nation. The fundraiser has already had 56 donors and raised $3,706 of its $250,000 goal by Friday evening.

Tulsa police FOP President Patrick Stephens, who created the fundraiser, donated $100 and left a message on the site, saying: “This fund is to assist the Shelby family with their upcoming expenses. Betty is presumed innocent and needs your support. I Stand With Betty.”

It says “I STAND WITH BETTY”.

THIS EQUALS to “I support police brutality, I support no punishment for shooting civilians, I support deaths of innocent fathers, sons and nephews, I support violence.

Every cop who donated money approved Shelby’s actions and police killings in America.

This should be stopped. Immediately.

#StayWoke

swagintherain

make it viral!

thenationmagazine-blog

Shutting out third party candidates from debates obviously inflicts damage on the democratic process, but it also waters down the debate. Stein would have been a valuable asset to the dialogue…

—Allison Kilkenny

(read more)

zenvdaya

just-shower-thoughts

Not once in my life have I stepped into somebody’s house and thought, “I sure hope I get an apology for ‘the mess’.”

npr

Back in the 1960s, the U.S. started vaccinating kids for measles. As expected, children stopped getting measles.

But something else happened.

Childhood deaths from all infectious diseases plummeted. Even deaths from diseases like pneumonia and diarrhea were cut by half.

“So it’s really been a mystery — why do children stop dying at such high rates from all these different infections following introduction of the measles vaccine,” says Michael Mina, a postdoc in biology at Princeton University and a medical student at Emory University.

Scientists Crack A 50-Year-Old Mystery About The Measles Vaccine Photo credit: Photofusion/UIG via Getty Images

jessicalprice

Using computer models, they found that the number of measles cases in these countries predicted the number of deaths from other infections two to three years later.

“We found measles predisposes children to all other infectious diseases for up to a few years,” Mina says.

And the virus seems to do it in a sneaky way.

Like many viruses, measles is known to suppress the immune system for a few weeks after an infection. But previous studies in monkeys have suggested that measles takes this suppression to a whole new level: It erases immune protection to other diseases, Mina says.

VACCINATE. YOUR. DAMN. KIDS.

micdotcom

Another white rape case ends without jail time

David Becker, 18, allegedly sexually assaulted two women while they were asleep. He was charged with two counts of rape and one count of indecent assault and battery, he will receive just two years of probation. And if he doesn’t violate probation — the long term consequences will be even more lenient.