My Queer Heart

John. Feminism, Queer Activism.

[myqueerheart-blog]

Repeal The 8th. Free Safe Legal. Abortion is healthcare.

[beyondthebinaryuk]

Non-Binary and Relationships: What Do I Call You?

[myqueerheart-blog]

“I think it’s time to give women a say over their reproductive rights.”

Safe Free Legal

[stavvers]

Dear Sussex University, remove Lee Salter

Dear Sussex University, remove Lee Salter

Content note: this post discusses violence against women and institutional misogyny This letter has been sent by email to [email protected], and to the Vice Chancellor [email protected], with the subject line “Lee Salter” Dear Sussex University, Sack Lee Salter, effective immediately. The urgency of this situation calls for a directness some may find uncomfortable. In your employ is a…

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[redlightpolitics]

Now, imagine for a second, my face when I recently found out that there is a vast array of merchandise that bears those words and my name for sale on the internet. T-Shirts (more than one model actually), pins, tote bags (you, too, can go to the market sporting a durable canvas bag with a slogan!), posters (hello #wokebae whose image was poorly photoshopped with my name on a poster!), coffee mugs, cross stitched frames (I cringed when I saw my name listed on a “graduation present” listicle on Bustle on par with women I only dream of ever emulating). The most egregious of these items is probably this cutesy little pin with a blond little girl picking flowers (I mean, really?! have you seen a photo of me with my very curly, thick black hair?!). Sometimes they do not even spell my name right.

My feminism will be capitalist, appropriative and bullshit merchandise — Medium

I wrote about finding out that my work is sold as “feminist merchandise”, with my name on it vs. the material realities of my life and what it means to be broke.

(via redlightpolitics)

[myqueerheart-blog]

[cnlester]

Agony Auncle: I'm finding it difficult to explain my gender to my mother

CN Lester is here to answer your problems! If you have anything you’d like to ask about being non-binary, submit your question to [email protected]. Read more here. Dear CN, About two mon...

“We talk about ‘coming out’ as if it’s a single, fixed moment or action. Throughout my life, I have found it to be neither of these things. “

[myqueerheart-blog]

Too often I see people who think it’s cool to joke about “breeders” and how “gross” kids are. They just hate kids! But not yours…of course. I will never understand this horrible attitude. But I’m always especially surprised when I hear these comments from activists, and those in social justice circles, and from people who consider themselves feminists or allies. Because – you do know that nothing keeps women more isolated than feeling like they can never take their children anywhere right? And as a social group children are abused in huge numbers. They’re also silenced by those who are meant to protect them (from parents to politicians) and also by the fact that under a certain age they can’t talk at all or people think it’s cute to pretend not to understand what they’re saying. They’re also excluded from so many places already. And I mean – there are literally people who march in the street for the right to physically hit them. But umm you’re the oppressed one because you can’t enjoy your long black because a child is existing in your presence?

http://www.emilywrites.co.nz/i-love-children/

[myqueerheart-blog]

[myqueerheart-blog]

“I find this offensive”: How “offense” discourse traps us into inaction

"It has to be one of the most significant rhetorical own-goals of the Left since the 1960s: allowing the word “offend” to become the go-to way of describing the harms of prejudice. “This content offends me,” “your words are offensive,” “his conduct gave offence to x,” etc. What this has always facilitated is the commonplace reactionary response to such moral injunctions, defending some imagined noble right to give offense lardered with smug Stephen Fry image macros. Cue “free speech” arguments ad nauseam that resolve into garrulous nothingness." - Katherine Cross  http://feministing.com/2015/02/12/i-find-this-offensive-how-offense-discourse-traps-us-into-inaction/

[myqueerheart-blog]

Please support inclusive Gender Recognition legislation for Ireland.

[myqueerheart-blog]

Children Are Not Property: Respecting the Agency of Young Black Girls

"Please, listen to your children. Before you insist upon wrapping them up in a big hug, try asking the child first. If they say yes, proceed. But if they say no, respect their wishes and their space. This is how we teach young children—especially young girls—that they own their bodies, that others must respect their decisions around their bodies, and that their consent is valuable. We need these healthy conversations in order to remind ourselves that children are not property, but that they are very much people too, and that their feelings are valid." - Kinsey Clarke    http://www.forharriet.com/2015/01/children-are-not-property-respecting.html#axzz3QclPTOTE

[myqueerheart-blog]

Enda Kenny gets served ProChoice Knickers for Dinner

[tonidorsay]

There’s a culture war happening right now. It’s happening in games, in film, in journalism, in television, in fiction, in fandom. It’s happening online, everywhere. And everywhere, sexists, recreational misogynists and bigots are losing.

They are losing, and they don’t know why.

I’ve been thinking a lot, this week and last week, about what it is that’s changing in culture, about what women are doing, and what is being done to us in revenge. I’ve been thinking about what happened to Jennifer Lawrence; about what happened to Zoe Quinn; about what happened to Anita Sarkeesian; about what’s been happening to every games and culture writer with the gall to be female or to defend feminism; and I’ve been thinking, unavoidably, about what’s happened to me, over the course of three years of harassment and abuse.

This a song we know by now. It starts and ends, almost always, with attacks on our sexuality, on our bodies as meat and function: our sexual and relationship history is broadcast everywhere, which is what happened to games developer Quinn, after an ex-boyfriend posted a disturbed, disturbing novella-length attack on everything she is and everything she stands for. The gamersphere then collectively wet its knickers over not being allowed to mercilessly slut-shame their chosen target without being called out, because freedom of speech.

More at the link.

[myqueerheart-blog]

CN Lester - You

[its-almost-as-if]

Funding for Help Ari Make Bills & Rent

I’m raising money to pay for my outrageous bills and rent, now that the government has decided I’m not entitled to any help at all. Please bear in mind I am currently unemployed and working on recovering from clinical depression. If you can’t give, please share it! And there’s rewards! Here’s the blurb:

My name is Ari Silvera. I’m a migrant trans woman, activist, writer and performer based in Glasgow. In the past year, my capacity to do work has been greatly diminished due to my clinical depression.

I am fundraising to cover my rent, bills, and huge council tax bill I need to pay. I have been on benefits until recently, which significantly reduced the amount of council tax I needed to pay. However, my benefits have been suspended, and it is quite likely I am no longer entitled to receive benefit. For your information, I was not sanctioned, the way benefits work for EU citizens that are not native to the UK has changed recently (I’m afraid I can’t discuss any further publicly).

I am currently in the process of becoming self-employed.I am raising money for rent, bills including electricity (crucial in cold cold Glasgow) and internet (crucial for all the work I actually do) as well as that dreaded council tax bill to the tune of £700. I’ve also budgeted a bit extra to help pay for counselling, as I’m currently seeking a local counsellor but, alas, free counselling is in very short supply. With your help, I hope to not only cover my bills and rent, but also to use this money to help me get my life back on track through counselling. I am currently working day to day on my mental health, as well as trying to find jobs I can do, but that is also quite difficult.

[myqueerheart-blog]

"Where women are permitted access to contraception and abortion, that access can't be made easy - we must never forget that our limited sexual freedom is the gift of powerful men, who can take it away again if we don't behave. We cannot fight this backlash by being polite. In a culture that wants us cowed and afraid, women and girls must weaponise our shamelessness."

Laurie Penny (Unspeakable Things)