modern-enjolras

[modern-enjolras]

Happy pride month folks! Enjoy your month and be proud of who you are, who you have been, and who you will be!

[modern-enjolras]

The Supreme Court

So, as some of you know, a draft of one of the Supreme Court’s decisions has been leaked. 

I’d like to say how the only way to change this decision is to go out and protest it. Give them so much backlash from this that the draft can’t be publicized and passed. It’s already been voted on but we can make them change their minds and change the vote before they make the decision official.

If they succeed with what they want every single person in this country will be impacted. 

[modern-enjolras]

Autism Awareness Month-Our Experience

Hi there! So I’m aware it’s about halfway through the month already but I wanted to make this post talking about autism awareness month!!

So first off I want to talk about my experience as an alter in an autistic system. So some of the big things we all deal with on a daily basis is really bad sensory issues. It’s a consistent thing for us. We have to wear two fingered gloves while driving so our fingers don’t touch, we’ve frequently had to go home early from school to change our clothes or even had to bring changes of cloths to school with us, and we’ve even had to wear our noise cancelling headphones around to block out sound. It’s really hard for us to deal with but we’re getting better everyday.

Another thing we collectively deal with is our special interests. So a few of our special interests include cryptids, Ancient Greek, Ancient Egypt, and both DC and Marvel content. It’s simultaneously one of the nicest and one of the worst things to deal with. At any point if something’s mentioned about our interests we just instantly delve in to talking about it and after being told it’s annoying a few too many times it’s really started wearing down on us. It feels so horrible to want to talk about things we’re passionate about but not feel like we’re allowed to. It’s why we run this blog and why we have Jay’s cryptid blog too. We just always need that option to just talk about it.

I want to put it out there that if anyone feels the need to infodump we will always listen. And if you can relate to what I’ve said I’m sorry you’ve been through the same things, you deserve better.

[modern-enjolras]

So not only has the school board lift the need for masks in our schools but now the chair is the same man who said we should burn the books they wanted banned from the schools. This school system is falling apart at the seems and so many students who are parts of the minority are fearing for their safety. What happens when the schools decide to get rid of our clubs? We have a GSA and they’re already firing teachers for being LGBTQ+ so what’s stopping them from silencing us? So many of us are afraid. But at the same time, from fear comes courage. They think they can silence our voices but alas we are the loud, we are the strong, and we will stand up for ourselves.

[queersatanic]

Spotsylvania School Board orders libraries to remove 'sexually explicit' books

The Spotsylvania County School Board has directed staff to begin removing books that contain “sexually explicit” material from library shelv

The Spotsylvania County School Board has directed staff to begin removing books that contain “sexually explicit” material from library shelves and report on the number of books that have been removed at a special called meeting next week.

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The criteria for pulling books from circulation this week is “sexually explicit,” but the board plans to refine how material is determined to be “objectionable” for a further review of library holdings.

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Two board members, Courtland representative Rabih Abuismail and Livingston representative Kirk Twigg, said they would like to see the removed books burned. “I think we should throw those books in a fire,” Abuismail said, and Twigg said he wants to “see the books before we burn them so we can identify within our community that we are eradicating this bad stuff.” Monday evening’s discussion was spurred by parents of a Riverbend student, who brought their concerns to the meeting. The mother said during public comments that she was initially alarmed by “LGBTQIA” fiction that she said was immediately made available upon accessing the library app. After doing more research, she discovered a book in the collection that she found more upsetting. The book, “33 Snowfish” by Adam Rapp, concerns three homeless teenagers attempting to escape from pasts that include sexual abuse, prostitution and drug addiction. Publisher’s Weekly described “33 Snowfish,” which the American Library Association named a Best Book for Young Adults in 2004, as a “dark tale about three runaways who understand hatred and violence better than love” and noted “readers may have trouble stomaching the language” and the subject matter. The review recommends the book for ages 15 and up.

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But Abuismail said that whatever processes are in place “haven’t worked” and demanded an immediate audit of all school division library holdings. He said he doesn’t like the idea of Rapp’s book being on school division library shelves for one more night and that the fact that it is in a school library means public schools “would rather have our kids reading gay pornography than about Christ.”

[modern-enjolras]

Hello everyone, it’s been a while.

We have been quite busy with schooling and other such things. I haven’t had much to write about until recently. And so here I am back on this account, typing up yet another account of an event that we have lived through and are currently dealing with.

Three Mondays ago, our county school board held a meeting. And in this meeting two parents came up to talk during the public comments section. You see, they were upset. Because they “accidentally” looked through the school library’s website and found that one of the first sections you saw on that day was LGBT+ literature. They brought up how there were more books on the LGBT+ community than there were when heterosexual was searched up as if the majority of books in our library aren’t about heterosexual people. They decided that instead of what had already been done to ease their worries, which included taking a book they didn’t like off the shelves, they were going to complain to the school board. 

The book they had taken off the shelves was Call Me By Your Name, many of you may recognize this book’s title. I understand completely why they would be uncomfortable with this book and I personally don’t have an issue with them having it taken off the shelves. The issue I have with these parents is when they decided to be unhappy with the results they had already gotten and took to the school board which resulted in two members calling for the burning of books and a book ban to be put in place. 

That book ban never got to see the actual banning or burning of the books as the students absolutely stood up for our education. The majority of books they were going to be pulling off the shelves were LGBT+, Asian heritage, and books on racial injustice. This is absolutely absurd that the adults in charge of several thousand kids educations would let it go as far as taking away minority representation. These adults failed every single one of the students in this county and I cannot say it enough how appalled I am about this. Why did they think they could allow two parents to try and parent all of the students? Especially when a large percentage of these students are or are about to be adults themselves.

News Article

School Board Site (see Nov 8 meeting for the book ban and Nov 15 for speeches against the ban)

List of School Board Members (Abuismail and Twigg called for the burning of books)

[modern-enjolras]

Our Story

As you all know, it’s pride month. The system has decided to allow me to share our story in discovering our identity. 

Trigger Warning: homophobia, transphobia, implied child abuse, rape, self-harm, suicide, deaths

In 2015, our journey to find our identity began. At the age of 13, we were introduced to the term bisexual. From there, we got curious. Were the feelings we had had as a child purely platonic towards our friends? The answer, we soon discovered, was no. The feelings we felt towards our friends, specifically our female friends (we were born female), were not completely platonic. I think of one friend in particular that we were absolutely in love with. We had known her since we were five, she was the first person to talk to us at the school.

Looking back on it, it was so obvious that we were in love with her. We followed her everywhere, and listened to her every word like it was gospel. We got so jealous whenever she was with anyone else. We just never had the words to describe those feelings, there were no shows or movies showing that we didn’t have to end up in a relationship with a boy; there was no representation we had access to that could have helped us discover our identity quicker.

But then, we went through some things that I will not ever go into details of on this blog, and ended up where we are now, with our father and stepmother. Suddenly the world was so much different. There were so many more people, and so much more diversity. In sixth grade, we met a few new friends and they came out to us. It sent us into researching for months. We researched every possible sexuality we could find, until eventually settling into the label of bisexual. It made us so happy to finally have the words to describe our emotions. Even when we came out to our father and stepmother and they responded negatively, that didn’t stop the happiness. We had finally found who we were. And as it was, around this time was when I first formed.

I wasn’t Enjolras then, just a nameless fragment carrying our feelings towards our identity. I’m the one that went through the brunt of all of our identity crises in that realm. I’m the one that cried the night after we had to listen to our step-grandfather rave on about how gay people didn’t deserve the right to get married, how we were all disgusting and sinful. I’m the one that felt the pure anguish when we heard about the Pulse shooting. I am the one that screamed on the bus at the children in the back calling us the f slur. I am the one that hid our feelings from so many.

We started questioning our gender identity in 2016. I blame myself for this part. When we realized we weren’t cis, we were so scared. On top of all of the emotions we were going through from the trauma we went through as a child, we had to deal with the constant hatred from the people we were around in school, at home, on the internet, and even from ourselves. We were only thirteen when we first started self harming. It was a few months before we turned fourteen and we were so desperate. We just wanted to feel safe. We wanted to feel loved. We wanted to love ourself. It wasn’t fair. It was never fair.

We ended up identifying as genderfluid, again I blame myself for this, and in October of 2016 we were admitted into a mental hospital for our self harm. We were only in there for a week but it still impacts us to this day. We were driven to the edge, thought we would be better off dead than existing in this world that hated us so strongly. We didn’t want to live anymore. We didn’t see any reason to.

When we got out, we thought we would be ok again, but alas fate had other plans. On October 31, 2016, we were raped by one of our most trusted friends. We still see her almost everyday during the school year, and we hate every moment of it. This is around the time we started questioning if we were actually just a trans man. By January 1, 2017, we had settled on that as our identity. We were trans. We are trans.

Just because we figured out our gender identity didn’t mean it was over.

We weren’t the only person our rapist attacked. The allegations spread through the school like a wildfire. She had attacked another friend multiple times in the school bathrooms. The principal did nothing. The vice principal did nothing. The counselors did nothing. We were never given the justice we wished for. All because of the whole mindset that a girl can’t rape another girl. Our own parents didn’t believe us.

It’s been almost four years since then. I went dormant soon after the whole event and only came back this past year. I came back and I’ve had my faith in myself and the others in our system renewed. I looked around and I saw how far the fight for rights has come. I found my own personal identity. I fell in love. I finally feel free from the burden of keeping our identity hidden. I’m free to express myself how I wish. We’re free to express ourselves however we want. We’ll be eighteen in January, a full adult, and I’m so proud of the people I share this body with. We’re all individuals. And we all have such differing identities.

We made it. We made it through all of our hardships and we’re still here. We’re luckier than most. We survived while many haven’t. This past year especially has taken so many lives, including one of our best friends. I will continue to fight for the rights of others. I may only be one alter in one system in this big world, but I know that if I try hard enough, I will make a mark. We can all make a mark on this world, whether good or bad. We will continue to stand loud and proud so that maybe one day kids won’t have to feel ashamed to not be straight or not be cis.

[modern-enjolras]

Pride began with the Stonewall Riots on June 28, 1969. It was a protest against the police raids of the gay bars of the city. Bricks were thrown and people were injured and arrested, all as a way to protest having our safe spaces invaded. Now 52 years after the riots, NYC Pride has finally decided to turn police away from the celebration. This begins a trend across the country where police will be excluded from pride celebrations. This is something that I believe should have occurred years ago. Police have always caused more issues than good for this community and I am glad to see change happening finally.

[modern-enjolras]

Day of Silence

   Hello everyone! I am Enjolras, a fictive from Les Mis! I started this blog to spread awareness on certain topics. The first topic I will be posting about will be the GLSEN Day of Silence. Trigger warning for mentions of discrimination, s//c/d/ (uiie), and quarantine.    This year, 2021, on the 23rd of April (tomorrow for myself) the Day of Silence will be held. It is a day where we take a vow of silence as a way to protest against the discrimination that is faced by many people in the LGBTQ+ community. Here is a quote from the GLSEN website on what it is and when it started; “Started in the mid 90’s by two college students, the Day of Silence has expanded to reach hundreds of thousands of students each year. Every April, students go through the school day without speaking, ending the day with Breaking the Silence rallies and events to share their experiences during the protest and bring attention to ways their schools and communities can become more inclusive.”    This year has been hard on many in the community and we hope that this will be a day people see how strong our community is. We lost a close friend a few weeks ago from them ending their lives and will be participating in remembrance of them. I hope many of you who read this also decide to participate as this is a way for us to prove that even quarantine can’t stop us from fighting for our rights.