#dean spade

[hippopopotame]

“The point for me is to create relationships based on deeper and more real notions of trust. So that love becomes defined not by sexual exclusivity, but by actual respect, concern, commitment to act with kind intentions, accountability for our actions, and a desire for mutual growth.” ― Dean Spade

[slugjehovah]

Not to compare or anything, it's just a thought and I'll end it at that, but Summer Hikaru Died is like if Stranger Things stopped looking for straight acceptance and actually gave its characters complexity to go with their personality.

Like, oh my fucking god, there's so much to understand here.

It does not spell out the ending like Stranger Things does.

It doesn't give the whole speech of "I'm just like you, see the reason why I should exist?" Instead, Summer Hikaru Died says "so fucking what if I'm a monster? My existence does not need to be justified. If I can't exist, I will drag you down with me because if I'm full of evil and wrongness, so are you."

And I love that.

It does not try to simplify the queer experience, it shows how disgustingly complex and traumatic it is growing up in a small town as a queer.

And it allows its characters to be overwhelmed and make irrational decisions and still face consequences!!!! It doesn't say "that doesn't matter now".

And holy shit, it does not leave loose threads and never pick them back up again.

There's so much here. So fucking much for the horror genre to learn from. Especially queer horror.

My main problem with Stranger Things and the way it handles queer folks is that it's main focus is saying "they're just like us, guys! No need to oppress them!"

Okay, but what if we're not like you? What if we are terrible people? What if us being queer inherently sets us apart from you?

It's nice and all to see queer people treated with respect and dignity, but here's the goddamn thing:

So often, queer folks are set apart as evil, disgusting beings that are inherently sexual and will destroy your life because we are oh so sensitive.

What if Will and Robin were the stereotypical queers of the 80s?

What if Will or Robin had AIDS?

What if Will was severely suicidal and made rash decisions and made everyone's life difficult?

Would he still be supported then? Would Robin?

The reason I love The Summer Hikaru Died is because it asks those questions. Yoshiki's body is still being corrupted with "Hikaru" through the "mixing" each time they have the not sex that is a metaphor for sex. Which could be an allegory for AIDS/HIV.

TSHD asks these questions because they are NEEDED. Queer peoples acceptance always fucking hinges on if we are loveable enough. If we're good enough people to be accepted.

But what Stranger Things does is say "our two faggot main characters are so fucking normal. They aren't noticeably queer" and yeah that makes sense. They live in small town Indiana and have to hide in some way, but it does send the message that a lot of queer people think for many, many years. That if we are as normal as possible, like the things that cishets do, make ourselves as small as possible, then we will be FINE!!!

BUT THAT'S A FUCKING LIE!

A LIE!!!!!

TSHD blatantly spells it out by using queerness represented as a globby monster that lives in a teen boys corpse. And this globby monster is so fucking queer. And Yoshiki, our main character, is constantly trying to get "Hikaru" to hide it, but for the life of him, he loves this monster so much. And he can't get that stupid thing to hide along with his own queerness and in the end, he discovers that it doesn't fucking work whatsoever.

"Hikaru" and by way of "Hikaru", himself, Yoshiki can't hide his queerness anymore. Because you will never be a "norm". Not in this timeline.

Sometimes, I start to wonder if queer people will ever be a norm. After the thousands and thousands and thousands of years of oppression by so many cultures, how can we actually be normal?

How can we use the "I'm just like you" argument when that's clearly not helping. What we need to do is to actually get it out there that we are weird little freaks.

Queer people are heavily involved in the "strange" subcultures. Furry, BDSM (kink in general), fanfic, and so many. We are strange little freaks and will always be and that's not bad.

If we actually want acceptance and equity, we have to stop fucking lowering ourselves for the straights to like. We don't need them to like us, we need to them fucking deconstruct their beliefs.

And a lot of the things I am saying here, a lot of it comes from years of looking into what BI-POC have been saying for years about their own liberation.

The fucking push that happened in the early 2000s/2010s in normalizing our existence in the public eye (that has slightly decreased since COVID began) was paved by many, many, MANY BI-POC queer folks. And godfuckingdamnit, they have been trying so hard for years, but capitalism always views us queer folk as either something to explicitly oppress, or to normalize for political and economic gain (which is still oppression. Even tho a lot of you think otherwise).

If we truly want acceptance, we need to get rid of the system.

The representation in Stranger Things is not bad or good. It's just inaccurate.

I notice this thing with gay men so often. Gay men get so scared to be their weird teen selves again, or just think about what it was like (because it was traumatic! I get it!). At least, the gay men out there that I have met. It's all party, hook up, date, situationships, listen to the next Taylor Swift or whatever mediocre white woman music there is out there's new album.

Sir, what about the 16 year old closeted you that read Naruto/Sasuke fanfic late into the night? What about the 14 year old you that was so sexually suppressed that you would fall asleep thinking of some random straight guy at school confessing his undying love for you and then fucking you in the janitor closet?

Why are you so scared of letting yourself acknowledge that you were a freak? That you were scared for the majority of your life? That you have to, absolutely have to, be normal and conform to some rule?

You claim to be supportive of the rest of us, but you still only view queerness as sex/romance or lack there of and refuse to believe that it has always been something so much more.

I think that's the difference between Will and Yoshiki.

Will tries to be normal and tell everyone that he's exactly like them, he just likes boys. Even goes on a one minute tangent talking about how fucking normal he is until he admits, in his own words, "I don't like girls". (Can't Stranger Things just say gay? Jesus Christ. It's not a dirty word. They refuse to call Robin a lesbian too.)

While Yoshiki on the other hand is such a freak that he likes putting his hand inside "Hikaru" and is turned on by the fact that he's feeling his best friend's(?) insides.

Queer people have been oppressed so terribly that our expression of sexuality/romance or lack there of, and gender is so different from the rest of the population. I think that's a good thing. The rest of y'all are boring with romance and sexuality.

And y'all keep thinking that bridging the cultural divide means sacrificing your expression of living your fucking life.

But queer people aren't at fault here. Seriously. It's always gonna be the people who try to negotiate our existence. Queer or not.

[cock-holliday]

I've shared it many times before, but please take a look at Pinkwashing: Exposed, the short documentary by Dean Spade [trans author of Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During this Crisis (and the Next)] about the attempts to soften Israel's image as a queer haven with one hand while carrying out occupation with the other.

I saw this great documentary in 2020-2021 and it was extremely informative towards my antizionist journey, because of how familiar the way zionists went after antizionist Jews was becoming to me. It was published to youtube in 2017, though I think released a year or two earlier? about events from 2012.

“Pinkwashing” is a term activists have coined for when countries engaged in terrible human rights violations promote themselves as “gay friendly” to divert attention from terrible human rights violations, in this case diverting attention from the brutal colonization of Palestine. Israel is the country most famous for pinkwashing, engaging it as a strategy in their rebranding campaign for the last decade.  Film Synopsis: In 2012, activists in the Pacific Northwestern region of the US responded to an Israeli Consulate-funded pinkwashing tour featuring Israeli gay and lesbian activists that was coming to the region. Local queer Palestine solidarity activists exposed the “Rainbow Generations” tour as pro-Israel propaganda and got some of the events, including the tour’s centerpiece event hosted by the City of Seattle’s LGBT Commission, cancelled. A significant backlash ensued involving the Seattle City Council and Seattle’s leading LGBT and HIV organizations. Through the inspiring story of these activists’ victory, “Pinkwashing Exposed” explores how pinkwashing works and what local activists are doing to fight back.

[sisyphusshrugged]

[ijustwannafallunderyrsawteeth]

make mutual aid a habit in 2026

hey y'all

one of my chronically ill beloveds is in a rough spot financially without a lot of supports, and could really use some help. she's been really struggling with her basics for a while and had a big unexpected bill dropped on her during a time of additional upheaval and scarcity.

i've been thinking a lot lately about how important collective care is in the shitshow we're all facing. we are gonna need all of us to get through these hard times and the times to come.

it would mean a lot to me if you'd consider donating, especially if you haven't donated to many mutual aid funds before. please help my friend get her basics secured during this hard time. reblogs would be absolutely welcome and helpful as well.

thank you so much for reading <3

venmo: spookitariat

gofundme

[smokey-eyes-and-bright-ties]

This past month I’ve been reading Mutual Aid by Dean Spade and yeah, this is a must read for organizers/activists.

[godzilla-reads]

“However, when we do our work from a feeling that there is not enough money, time, or attention to go around, we sometimes get competitive with other groups or with other people within our group, or we feel so much urgency about particular tasks that we don’t take the necessary steps to do our task well, and we forget about being kind to each other in our rush to get something done.”

—Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (And the Next) by Dean Spade

[kaliarda]