THEY (singular)

Writer & friend to all dogs. They/Them Pronouns.

[gahdamnpunk]

She didn’t have to flex this hard 😤😤

[strippr]

…who provide hard evidence that politicians who voted for SESTA/FOSTA engaged in their services. Identities protected and a legal team is on it. I found it on Twitter through SWOP Behind Bars and AVN so…do with it what you will, lovelies. I hope it’s legit.

[the-sexual-student]

the sex worker code of silence is one hundred percent null and void once you fuck us over. We will out you and we will shame you for your hypocricy. 

[kathereal]

Destroy them

[dragon-in-a-fez]

school districts and administrators are working hard to scare students out of protesting in the wake of the Parkland shooting.

don’t fall for their bullshit. you have the right to speak up and make yourself heard. a local superintendent doesn’t overrule the first amendment, much as they might like to.

and here’s an open invitation: I’m a teacher, recent PhD, one-time educational administrator (although not in a public school), and hopefully soon to be a college professor. if you need advice on navigating the crap your school is giving you or minimizing the impact they can have on your chances of getting into the college of your dreams, message me. I’ll help you find legal resources, write admissions essays, find ways to argue for your right to protest to your school board - whatever I can do.

please signal boost this, and if you’re someone who can help (civil rights lawyer? college admissions counsellor? experienced activist leader?), join in and let young activists know what you can do to help.

[drst]

Hi there is no such thing as a “permanent record” outside of the legal system. Your school records don’t go to the FBI or the cops.

Also if you get suspended or punished for protesting, call the ACLU. There’s case law protecting the first amendment rights of students. They can help.

[appropriately-inappropriate]

Not to mention,

“I see you got suspended. Why?”

“I got suspended for organizing/participating in a direct action initiative to address gun violence in American schools in the wake of the Florida Shooting.”

That shows an engagement with current events and an active participation in civil government. Trust me, colleges eat that shit up with a spoon.

[meangirlnurse]

the common application will specifically ask you to write an essay explaining why you got suspended, and you absolutely imagine you could use it to sell yourself as a candidate in this situation

[jenroses]

There are already colleges saying, “If you get suspended for protesting let us know and it won’t affect your admission.”

[ruinedchildhood]

“We want diversity, we want intersectional gender parity, we want equal pay.” Debra Messing drags E! while being interviewed on E!

[his-shining-tears]

Living With The Pet.

Artist Yaoyao Man Van

[theysingular]

@wildheartmp3 + ziggybb

[analyzingtaylor]

[freckletriangleofdoom]

Net neutrality is the principle that Internet providers like Comcast & Verizon should not control what we see and do online. In 2015, startups, Internet freedom groups, and 3.7 million commenters won strong net neutrality rules from the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC). The rules prohibit Internet providers from blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization—"fast lanes" for sites that pay, and slow lanes for everyone else.

John Oliver on the danger of ending net neutrality:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpbOEoRrHyU

On what ending net neutrality means for us:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexkantrowitz/fcc-moves-to-roll-back-net-neutrality?utm_term=.ds0OQ5QM#.djMoxJxy

Time to call your members of Congress, again.

[394627486283962718494]

I’m SCREAMING this girl just asked if I’m doing anything this weekend bc we could hang out and this dude was like “I’M NOT DOING ANYTHING” and she said “sorry I have a family thing all weekend I can’t get out of :/” and turned back to me and proceeded to make plans with me in front of him this is the “*visibly texting* I don’t have a phone” meme on crack

[theysingular]

was this you @wildheartmp3

[ithelpstodream]

“feminists reacted with outrage”

no. TERFs did.

[phoneticwisdom-deactivated20171]

As a bisexual woman, I can confidently say that the LGBTQ community has and is going too far, their agenda is erasing the concept of identity and soon their will be a generation of children totally confused about what they are. Be mad if you want, I don’t support this shit. People DON’T get pregnant, WOMEN do!

[ithelpstodream]

including others doesn’t erase identity. your identity is yours and it always will be and our children can be whoever they want to be.

“the only way to liberate others is to liberate yourself first”

you’ve got these words in your description, maybe one day you can rid yourself of your transphobia and live by them.

[darthvatrix]

If the trans ideology wasn’t so woman hating and determined to erase the female lived experience, OP wouldn’t be so corrosively hypocritical. We can’t help it that TW are only carrying a prostate gland. Women have 99.9999% of the live births. We’re going to get the language of female biology back. The administration is cutting funding on all programs for contraception both foreign and domestic. Abortion rights and bodily autonomy is in the balance. Afab spectrum we retain gender neutral language for their themselves. But the reproductive justice movement will have to use the language of female biology. THAT’S CHECKMATE!

[ithelpstodream]

get that checkmate bullshit out of here. when it comes to the reproductive justice movement it is imperative that we use gender neutral language because laws work best when they are as specific as possible. if we use the phrasing “pregnant women” this would exclude trans folk from having reproductive rights. by using the phrasing “pregnant people” we do not only include women, but also intersex people, trans men and non-binary and genderfluid folk. this has got nothing to do with hating women and everything to do with protecting our trans siblings.

[jenroses]

I’m nonbinary and was pregnant three times. 

[theysingular]

it blows my goddamn MIND that this rhetoric goes after TW for being women hating when actually isn’t “pregnant people” about making it inclusive of transmen and nonbinary and gender queer folk who may get pregnant?

NOT 👏🏼 ALL 👏🏼 TRANS 👏🏼 PEOPLE 👏🏼 ARE 👏🏼 TRANS 👏🏼 WOMEN 

That’s why anyone coming out against this and yelling at TW is transmisogyny and transphobia: you can’t even bring yourselves to acknowledge ftm/transmasc/nb experience because you’re so busy shitting on the transfeminine.

[ftmtranstastic]

Hi, so I lived in Ohio and my family wanted to go to this water park and so do I (btw I'm transgender ftm). So I bought swim short but I've been thinking what to wear for the top. I did some research on what to wear for the top but there is none. I hated to wear a bra or a bikini bra and I also hate to wear binder without a shirt on. So please give me advice on what to wear to the water parks. Thanks.

I suppose it also depends on your chest size but maybe a swim shirt? A full length binder that looks like a tank top? Or just a t-shirt, if your chest is small and you tape your nipples (make sure to do so safely!!!!!!!!! look up how to do it!)

I hope you find something that works!

- Emil

[theysingular]

ALSO MY DUDE MY PERSON MY GUY

http://www.underworks.com/sleeveless-swim-top is DABOMB, I have one, I feel badass in it bc it’s faintly superheroesque. However, take it from someone who definitely didn’t but also maybe did this - when you put it on, make sure you don’t tuck it in to do anything. Otherwise you will push through the water and your shorts will start to come off and lemme tell you, nobody needs that.

Or if you don’t need a tonne of support and just want the coverage in a way that’s comfortable, look at a “tankini”. I have longer shorts, but to me it feels like wearing a workout shirt and I don’t have to think about anything else.

[babyanimalgifs]

He’s scared of himself in the mirror

[2othcentury]

Pride, New York, June 1990

[quilavastudy]

I get really confused when americans, when talking about universal health care are like ‘yeh but it’s not free sweaty :) :) you have to pay it through taxes :) so gotcha!!’

and I’m like ….???? That’s the whole point??? Everyone pays their fair share so that no one has to be turned away because they don’t have insurance??? And no one has to set up a Fundraiser page just so that they DONT DIE???? So people don’t put off going to the doctor because they’re scared of going bankrupt?? Because healthcare is a RIGHT and should be free at the point of access?!?

[peccatopotpourri]

“So no one has to be turned away” she says hahaha go to a universal health care country and get a necessary operation in less than a few years and come back and talk shit.

Look at the cure rates compared to mortality rates in universal health care countries and compare them to ours, then talk shit.

Tear your ACL in a universal health care country and see what the people say if you should go to their hospitals or go to an American hospital, then talk shit.

[quilavastudy]

I do live in a universal health care country, actually. And I HAVE had a necessary operation here myself. I broke my arm years ago - the ambulance came within 5 minutes. I was seen in A&E by a doctor within 20 minutes. And I had the operation to put my arm back in place within hours - despite my condition not being life threatening. Hmm, don’t see what was so hard about that? And oh yeah, it was all free of charge.

You don’t seem to understand about how it works. Firstly, operations are prioritised. If someone comes in with an emergency, such as a ruptured aorta and bleeding out - of COURSE they will get an operation STRAIGHT AWAY. Like what do you think doctors do here, twiddle their thumbs while patients die? 

And if someone has something that is not quite an emergency, but is serious, such as a bowel cancer, they will have their surgery within 1-2 weeks of seeing a specialist. And it’s free. The poor patient who is already stressed and worried sick about their cancer, will NOT also have to worry about insurance and bills and going bankrupt.

Sure, some operations that are not quite as urgent will have waiting lists. My gran just had her cataract operation - this is something that isn’t life-threatening, not causing her pain at all, but of course is still affecting her life because she couldn’t see very well. She had to wait a few months, which of course in an inconvenience, but she still got her operation, and she definitely didn’t have to wait years (and I have never heard of anyone waiting years for an operation, and as a med student I have talked to a LOT of patients) so I don’t know where you got that from (probably some right-wing american media, I assume). And like, I’m sure most people would rather wait a bit longer than have to pay, or not ever get their operation because they can’t afford it?

And I’m not sure what you mean by your last bit. Are you really implying that countries other than the US couldn’t repair an ACL tear? Like, really? Do you think countries with universal healthcare have no resources or money? Sorry to burst your deluded bubble, but other countries can handle an ACL tear, and many other operations (even neurosurgery - shock horror!), just fine thanks. I’ve never seen a patient shipped off to America. 

[igeri96]

“I’ve never seen a patient shipped off to America” daamn, i love this post

[korvys]

Not to mention that in countries like Australia, there are *also* private hospitals. If you *want* to spend tens of thousands of dollars to avoid waiting, you can?

[cthulhucore]

As someone who would be dead, many times over, without universal health care, GET FUCKED.

[medschoolandthreequarters]

And for the record: the only private hospital in my hometown (apart from taking quick non urgent NMR because the ones in the public hospital have quite a long queue) really sucks. For every important/urgent/non-basic procedure you have to go to the public one, which is considered btw a national reference in certain departments. Years for an operation? Nop. Months, one year and a few months tops for non-necessary surgeries. Urgent and necessary? Hours.

Oh and about the talking shit thing…

But sure, the US wins it over in one thing: healthcare spending!

(Source here: http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2015/oct/us-health-care-from-a-global-perspective )

So yeah, tell me again why should i pack my things and move right away to the US where i’d die unless i’m shitting gold like a freaking Lannister.

[quilavastudy]

Reblogging because I love this reply

[rottenbrainstuff]

My favourite was that free health care would create death panels where people would judge if you were allowed to have the life saving operation that you needed.

Like

Dude

You guys have that there already, and it’s called fucking insurance companies.

[sharpestrose]

I live in Australia and at the end of November last year it was discovered that I had a fairly large and aggressively growing brain tumor. The only reason that I didn’t have neurosurgery until the very start of January (a whole month! after my diagnosis!) was because I requested to delay it until after Christmas for my family’s sake. Otherwise I would have had it sooner. 

Look up how much acoustic neuroma surgery costs in the US. Wait no, I’ll save you the trouble – it’s $100,000 USD. My mother would have lost her house, be hugely in debt, and I would have had a lifetime of guilt. 

Except! I wouldn’t have even KNOWN I had a tumor in the first place, because in the US the doctor would have gone “I can’t justify an MRI for these symptoms on your insurance plan” (yes, even if I’d been insured) and that would have been that, unless I felt like coughing up thousands for the test myself, which I wouldn’t have done because eh, if the doctor thinks the symptoms are nbd then it’s fine, right? 

I would be dying of a totally treatable disease right now if I lived in the USA, and I wouldn’t even know it. Or if by some miracle I did find out, my 68-year-old single mother would have no savings and no home now so that her daughter could have surgery. 

So shut the fuck up. 

[theysingular]

Does poetry play a role in social change?

Yes, where poetry is liberative language, connecting the fragments within us, connecting us to others like and unlike ourselves, replenishing our desire... [I]n poetry words can say more than they mean and mean more than they say. In a time of frontal assaults both on language and on human solidarity, poetry can remind us of all we are in danger of losing — disturb us, embolden us out of resignation.

[bofa-gender]

@People unsure of their trans status

I want to say a few things to people who may be where I was several months. Things I really needed to hear.  1. Not everyone’s story is “I always knew I was male, I had always had a strong, unmistakable desire to be male, my dysphoria was always strong and obvious, transition was a freeing and happy thing, the changes were welcome, and I had little to no fear or doubt in myself.” I doubted the fuck out of myself. I didn’t know I was dysphoric until my 20′s. Not all of my dysphoria was very obvious, but in hindsight there was subtle and obvious signs. Transition is scary and there’s things I’m worried about, and the changes are both euphoric and scary as fuck.  2. Again, doubt and fear are normal.  3. Your dysphoria will probably get worse when you realize you’re trans, when you realize you’re dysphoric, when you start transitioning, etc. Don’t mistake this for not being trans.  4. Don’t rule out being binary. I was convinced I was bigender for a long time. Turned out I actually just didn’t have bad bottom dysphoria about my vagina (clit is hella dysphoric before anyone calls me out) and liked penetration too much. I also wanted to be a more feminine male and confused this for wanting to live socially as female. That seems stupid and obvious, but dysphoria can be really hard to read.  5. New names and pronouns may totally sound weird or uncomfortable at first. You may wish you didn’t have to change your name or pronouns at all. You may not respond to them for awhile. My girlfriend started transition 5 years ago and still finds her name weird at times and still reacts to her name given at birth. 6. The transmasc/ftm hate is pretty much only a small part of the Internet. Most trans women and transfems do not hate or feel negativity towards trans men/transmascs. In fact, there’s often a sense of camaraderie for being in a similar (but also different) situation. I know there’s a lot of negativity here directed at trans men and often times transmasc people as well, but it’s not really a thing IRL or elsewhere. Tumblr harbors a really extremely, radical part of the trans community. 

[slightmayhem]

I didn’t have a word for dysphoria, I just was “unhappy” but like… Society says women are always unhappy in their bodies, so???. I suffered terribly, had a severe eating disorder, and other self-harm behaviors for a long time, before I recognized my feelings for what they really were. It made a lot more sense. It wasn’t an easy path, but oh am I glad I found it.

[bofa-gender]

I relate to your response a lot. I dismissed a lot of my dysphoria as internalized misogyny. It’s so easy to confuse the two. 

[are-you-even-gluten-free-bro]

do you want to know something?? I always wondered what the hell kind of hairstyle the Ancient Egyptians were trying to portray with depictions like these

and this

until I did my hair this morning and 

oh

welp

you can take the noses off our statues but until you find a way to take Egypt out of Africa we’re still going to find ourselves

[are-you-even-gluten-free-bro]

I’m reblogging this post without all the salty, racist commentary because I’m sick of looking at it. please spread this around again in its pure form for posterity.

What’s funny is that white people thought they were hats/crowns 😂

[esiuqram]

ESIUQRAM

[robosaurusrex]

Here’s a really good post about this.

And here’s some pictures of the Afar people, who still live on the horn of Africa today.

Cool, huh?

[theoriginalblackbarbie]

Beautiful

[jasoncanty01]

People thought it was Hats and Crowns? How could they not see hair?

[ohgodshesloose]

The same reason archaeologists, upon finding a woman’s skeleton in the grave of a famous Roman gladiator, immediately wondered where the gladiator’s skeleton was: Old Straight White Man™ brand denial.

[ororomunroedontpullout]

lol I did think they were hats because that’s what I was taught

[trueloveistreacherous]

[adayinthelesbianlife-deactivate]

The first Pride was a riot.

Wall sticker in Marlborough lesbian pub, Brighton.

[bisexualelsa-archive]

i’m actually realizing this now

but the original poster said “queer power” and someone erased that and replaced it with “gay power”

real classy

[barbidreamdumpster-deactivated2]

[wetwareproblem]

#is this real Well. I’m not exactly an expert at image analysis, but the bottom text in the first one looks much cleaner than the top text while the second one matches better. Also, the creases in the second one on the Q and U seem like the sort of detail that wouldn’t be faked. Finally, this actually matches up significantly better to “queer” politics than “gay” politics; it was always queers who advocated and took the front lines in direct action.

[vergess]

If you put the image in an editor or just view the full size of the first image, it becomes very obvious that the text on the bottom was added later: all of the vertical lines in every letter are pixel perfect straight lines. That is basically impossible with a photo of a poster that is both visibly at an angle, and has paper weathering and other distortion. Look at the verticals of the white text to compare. The only distortion of the text is the jpg artifacts we would expect in that level of contrast. There is no lighting on the pink text either, another highly suspicious trait.

Additionally, if you crop out the pink text in op and run an image search you get the second photo, as well as four or five other photos of the poster, all reading “queer power.”

With the pink text left in, however, the only version of the poster is this exact image, sourcing to op.

[wetwareproblem]

I want every single person who ever argued with me on That Queer Post to take a long, hard look at this. I have been told at least dozens of times that “nobody is saying you can’t identify as queer,” that I’m “ignoring history,” that they’re not trying to shift back to gay, etc.

Now, here’s this post, in which queer people are having their art defaced in order to rewrite their identity. Where they’re being forcibly rewritten as gay. Where history is being literally goddamn erased. It’s got three times the notes of That Queer Post, and as far as I can tell, @bifoxstiles is the first one to challenge this narrative. And I’m not gonna hold my breath on y'all to call out OP.

They’re literally stealing our history, rewriting it into a new version that excludes more than half of the community. And nobody’s challenging this. You’re too busy trying to shut down inclusive, egalitarian language.

Shame on every last one of you.

[o0osd0faosdf0aoga0sdof0aseo0ofa]

Queer is a slur and not everyone wants to identify as it stop using it as an umbrella term

[wetwareproblem]

MOTHERFUCKER don’t you start that here.

The people who made this poster? They wanted to identify as queer. How do I know? Because they fucking did. And now you’re supporting someone coming along after the fact and literally stealing their identity from them.

Here’s a better idea: I will continue using “queer” as an umbrella term for groups of people who happily identify as queer, and if you don’t like it you’re cordially invited to never talk to a queer person again.

Stop stealing our identities.

[o0osd0faosdf0aoga0sdof0aseo0ofa]

You are welcome to identify as queer if you reclaim it, and many ppl do, but that doesnt change the fact that there are plenty of lgbt ppl who think of it negatively (personally i am not one of these ppl so i cant speak for them, but i respect their wishes and i hope u will too). A better umbrella term to use is LGBT, imo.

[wetwareproblem]

That would be a lot more reassuring if you hadn’t shown up specifically to defend taking the word queer out of someone’s mouth and relabeling them as gay.

LGBT is a shit umbrella term. It prioritizes the historically-centered parts of the community over historically-marginalized groups, it completely leaves off swathes of the community, and these days it’s habitually used by the sort of gatekeepers who want to actually throw out sections of the community.

Again: If you don’t want to identify as queer, you don’t have to. But you don’t get to take that word away from any member of the community. If you don’t like it, just walk away and make your own shit.

I never thought I’d have to say this to members of the community, but: We’re here. We’re queer. Get used to it.

[o0osd0faosdf0aoga0sdof0aseo0ofa]

I’m not trying to take it away from people. If you want to reclaim it then good for you, but I’m just saying that not everyone wants to be called queer and using it as an umbrella term to include those who are potentially triggered by it or just dont like it is shitty. Also did u practically just say “Im using this slur as an umbrella term and if ur uncomfortable with it then get over it and walk away” or am i reading that wrong

[wetwareproblem]

You literally showed up to defend someone who had taken away a queer person’s words to put gay in their place. Stop pretending otherwise. If people don’t like that word, they’re fine not using it - but they can create their own works, rather than stealing and defacing ones made by queer people to erase us from them.

No. I said that if you’re not comfortable with someone using queer as an identifier, the responsible thing to do is disengage from them and make your own art, your own statements, instead of stealing and relabeling theirs.

If you’re not comfortable with someone else labeling you “queer,” you have zero right to label them “gay” without their consent.

[queerrussetpotato]

I feel the nuance that people keep missing here is that queer is not only acceptable to reclaim on a personal level, because queer groups exist. Groups that gather under that label exist. It is absolutely an umbrella term for those groups. Honestly people hear “umbrella term” and they lose their shit because they think umbrella terms can only be used to encompass the entire community instead of subsets of it, so that must be what you mean, and how dare you! :/

But, honestly, this isn’t a nuanced discussion – it’s an insistence that if you use queer to refer to more than one person at a time and that person is not your own self, you’re coercively labeling other people who don’t want that label. Except… this is incorrect. It is so incorrect it erases swaths of queer people who have been gathering in groups under the label for the last 100 years. It’s a push to eliminate the label altogether, by reducing it to something you have to keep to yourself.

The only coercive labeling going on in this entire post was the OP who changed the poster (and a little the person insisting on using LGBT). Queer is not a super-private self-identifier only that isn’t allowed to be used for finding community, ffs.

[wetwareproblem]

I would add something here, but there’s nothing left. @opalescentlesbian nailed it.

[mortiferamorphasmus-deactivated]

Not Gay as in Happy, But Queer as in Fuck You! Every time I think about the Queer Community this is the phrase that I think of.

Thank you @wetwareproblem for standing up for the rest of us.

[perpetuallyfive]

The Queer Community is a place. It is a people. Just because some of you don’t want to belong to it, that does not mean you get to deny its existence. Sorry, but no. We are here, we are queer. Queer as in fuck you.

If you don’t want to be a part of it, cool. (We don’t particularly want you or your negativity and tendency toward gatekeeping either.) But queer people are the ones who got out in the streets to get shit DONE so that the socially acceptable sanitized idea of LGBTQ+ sexuality consumable for a straight audience could wear glitter and flannel on a Sunday in June. 

Have some fucking respect, you know?

[racethewind10]

There have been so many good points on this post but I have to add how much I loathe this “if you want to reclaim queer, you can” nonsense. Yes, as individuals we wrestle with labels and our own personal feelings toward them and how they apply to us. But I - personally - am not individually reclaiming anything. The community has already done that. Take 10 minutes and look at the history of Queer studies and Queer theory, take a look at the history of the word Queer, basically just take a look at the history of our community instead of assuming that your own individual experience is paramount when grappling with the identities and experiences of an extremely diverse community.   When individuals say “oh you can claim queer but not everyone wants to” not only are they acting in apparent ignorance of their own community history, but they’re making themselves the arbitrary spokesperson for a whole lot of people who don’t agree with them. That’s not how this works. 

So instead,

If you want to think queer is a slur, fine, but stop assuming you speak for the rest of the community and trying to police others. 

Also full offense but as other people have pointed out, ‘gay’ has been used as a slur for decades in the US and yet weirdly no one is trying to say we shouldn’t use that term here so maybe think about why.