These are things that are important. Or just interesting. Or educational. Or joyful. Or hilarious. Or pleasant. Or inspirational. Or thought-provoking. Or horizon-expanding. IMPORTANT.
ppl with really long queues amuse me, like, they will like your post and then you find out within 3-10 business days whether they also thought it worthy of reblogging
Guys if you want queer shit written by queers on our own terms you're going to have to start seeking out weird independent media. I'm sorry that's the only place you can regularly find it idk what to tell you, we can't keep acting like there's nothing if we're not getting blockbusters and triple A titles or whatever it is we're waiting around for. The thing you keep saying you want is already being offered for free by one person making a passion project on the internet and you would both benefit enormously if you interacted with it instead of lamenting that the only options we have for representation are pandering afterthoughts from corporate shit
I say this with so, so much care: Real queer shit written by real queers can and will sometimes make you uncomfortable. That's one of the defining features of weird, independent queer media. And weird independent media more broadly. Art that comes from true individual passion and authenticity has edges and bite to it that mass market corporate products intentionally do not. Has a rawness that can offend.
You are allowed to feel uncomfortable about it. But don't ask for queers to self censor for your comfort.
I hate you epitome of innocence being represented with blonde hair I hate you lightness representing goodness I hate you "angelic features" automatically being read as blonde hair and blue eyed with pale skin I hate you whiteness as the default for morality I HATE YOU I HATE YOU
this post isnt about blondes and how its so unfair to them that theyre always viewed as good healthy holy morally upright outstanding people no matter what this post is about racism its about colorism its about white supremacy making people with dark features and skin literally feel evil. this is not about your stupid disney princesses or achilles or your fave anime boys being allowed to be unhinged feral shitty awful people and this sure as hell is not an opportunity for blonde people themselves to show their entire pasty flat asses and beg praise for "breaking the stereotype" by being shitty unhinged people. fandom people you are 192% of the problem. white people in general you are 1,000% the origin of the problem. this site is so unbearably white my GOD
I can't remember where I read it last week, but the person discussed how when we think of chattel slavery in the US, we tend to think of massive plantations of cotton or tobacco, with one very rich white master or mistress with lots of land and lots of enslaved people. But we very rarely think of the many families that had just one or two slaves, in smaller homes.
Because it's not like you had to pay them, so once your family owned someone, they owned them and their descendants indefinitely. Could you pay and eventually free em- sure! You could also send them anywhere you want for any labor you want, could have an enslaved woman bred for more children, or maybe save up and buy new slaves and sell the old. Like cattle (thus, chattel slavery).
So it's interesting that many people go "oh well it's not like my family owned slaves!" Because like, one, how do you know that? Have you ever actually asked your grandmas about their grandmas? How many of your family members grew up with mammies? Have you ever asked? I wonder how many people have actually done the digging for the truth (or was it easier to just benefit). Because I've talked to my grandma, who picked cotton in the sea islands. She had to have been doing that for someone in the 1930s and 40s!
And two, it's easy to think that because your family (or someone else's) didn't own sprawling stolen land and generational blood money like a plantation owner, that it wasn't as important. But... It was. That was still someone's entire life. That was a person, whose labor benefitted and saved a family money that could be used in other ventures. How often do we think of them?
Transphobia is about to be signed into law in the UK. We can fight this.
I am begging the UK trans community and its allies to attend the Mass Lobby at Parliament on June 25th, 11am-4pm, organised by Trans Solidarity Alliance.
Last year we broke the record for an LGBT+ mass lobby of Parliament. Will you help us break it again? Join us on 25th June 2026 to demand be
The new EHRC Code of Practice pushes trans people out of toilets, hospital wards, and community spaces. It normalises gender policing based on appearance and stereotypes. It becomes statutory guidance in the UK by the end of June.
Trans people are now legally their assigned gender at birth and must join gendered spaces accordingly, but if they are perceived as their lived gender, they can also be ejected from those spaces. The guidance says: either break the law, or don’t pass too well.
A mass lobby is where you invite your MP to discuss your concerns with you in-person. Ask your MP to:
Demand full parliamentary scrutiny, debate, and use their free vote on the EHRC Code of Practice.
Support any motions rejecting the EHRC guidance. As of June 4th, Labour MP Nadia Whittome has submitted a prayer motion - Early Day Motion 240.
Write to Bridget Phillipson, the Minister for Women and Equalities about our concerns
Your MP does not have to be an ally, they do not have to respond to your email for you to show up and greencard them (details below the cut.) What matters is that as many people as possible show up.
I cannot stress this enough: Showing up in person matters. It is much more effective than petitions, emails, and letters.
It is a horrible, stressful time, and I am so sorry if you're trans and live in the UK. But I was at last year's mass lobby and the line for greencarding alone stretched around the back gates. It was a record breaking mass lobby and made us impossible to ignore. Let's do even better this time. Details under the cut:
Worried about what to say?
Bring your personal worries about transphobia being signed into law, and trans friends being excluded from public spaces. You are a living person who deserves dignity. Remind your MP of that. You will also get guidance and brochures from Trans Solidarity Alliance that outlines our demands. This is mine from last year.
Money issues?
Trans Solidarity Alliance provides a travel bursary that you can sign up for via the link.
Got a refusal or no response from your MP?
Come anyway! You can request a same-day appointment with your MP through a process called greencarding. They will come and see you if they’re already in Parliament. Even if they don’t, they’re made acutely aware of your cause because you showed up in person. This is my greencard from last year.
Here is the EHRC Code of Practice in full. It's a tough read, but some highlights are:
Organisations can’t provide trans-inclusive, single-sex services, or they risk being sued for discrimination.
e.g. domestic violence support for women including trans women, men’s rugby group including trans men (12.68).
Trans people will have nowhere safe to pee.
If you’re a trans man, businesses can't allow you to pee in the men's, and you can also be ejected from women’s bathrooms if you’re perceived as a man. Vice versa for trans women. EHRC suggests a ‘third space’ bathroom, which is discriminatory and unworkable for most businesses. (13.130-133)
Sports organisations must exclude trans people from single-sex competitions (13.73).
A women’s only sports competition must exclude trans women because of their biological advantage or face potential lawsuits (13.74), but a trans man who has undergone testosterone treatment can also be excluded based on fairness rules (13.81).
Trans women are stripped of the legal definition of ‘lesbian’, and therefore no longer have legal protections if they’re discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation. (2.50, 2.92).
Here is the Good Law Project's better explanation of the EHRC Code.
I have also made a PDF printout of QR codes for the government petition, email your MP tool, and mass lobby link to pass around your communities. DM me and I'll send it to you.
alright I've got to do some quick math to explain attitudes towards AI to my boss.
we're looking to create an AI policy, and when we were talking about this, my boss (older millennial) was genuinely shocked to hear that younger people do not (seem) to view AI positively (a la the recent commencement speakers being booed)
please rb for larger sample size!
Question 1/3
What is your age, and do you feel AI is a net positive or net negative in our lives today?
Random thing for people to consider is that since Laika is the saint of one way trips should Felicette be known as the saint of safe landings since she did make it back to the ground safely
tu LANCES félicette ? tu lances son corps comme la fusée ? oh ! oh ! prison pour les scientifiques ! prison pour les scientifiques pendant Un Mille Ans !
“Sworn Virgin” is the term given to a biological female in the Balkans who has chosen to take on the social identity of a man for life. As a tradition dating back hundreds of years, this was sometimes necessary in a society that lived within tribal clans, followed the Kanun, an archaic code of law, and maintained an oppressive rule over the female gender. Young girls were commonly forced into arranged marriages with much older men in distant villages. The freedom to vote, drive, earn money or own property was traditionally the exclusive province of men. A family suddenly without a patriarch or male heir would find themselves in jeopardy of losing everything.
As an alternative, a daughter could become a Sworn Virgin, or “burnesha”, elevating her to the status of a man and granting her all the rights and privileges of any man. In order to manifest the transition such a woman cut her hair, donned male clothing and sometimes even changed her name. Most importantly of all, she took a vow of celibacy to remain chaste for life. As modernization inches towards the small villages nestled in the Albanian Alps, this archaic tradition is increasingly seen as obsolete. Only a handful of Sworn Virgins remain.
As a portrait photographer with an interest in subjects that innately speak to the diversity of the human experience, I was fascinated with this story. This is historically one of the few examples of socially accepted gender change and it is rapidly disappearing. My desire to record the sacrifice, context and experience of these women/men set me on course to seek out some of the last burnesha. I was rewarded with a small collection of people who possess an indescribable amount 0f strength and pride, value their family honor above all else, and have few regrets for all they have sacrificed. Furthermore, their absolute transition is accepted, posited and taken without question by the people among whom they live. Photographing them was my greatest privilege.
Flesh-eating screwworm returns to U.S. after 60 years, threatening cattle herd
The case of New World screwworm was confirmed in a 3-week-old calf in La Pryor, Texas, near the U.S.-Mexico border, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said.
The case of New World screwworm was confirmed in a 3-week-old calf in La Pryor, Texas, near the U.S.-Mexico border, Agriculture Secretary Br
From the Louisiana ACLU's report linked in that article:
To increase immigration detention capacity, the Trump administration selected several sites in Louisiana for expansion. In September 2025, the Department of Homeland Security announced a new partnership with the state government to retrofit a formerly condemned dormitory that was colloquially called "the dungeon" for its inhumane and solitary confinement conditions into an immigration detention center at Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly known as “Angola.” A former slave labor camp, Angola has long stood for the most deadly forms of incarceration, recently referred to as “Hell on Earth.” The detention center at Angola, formally known as Louisiana ICE Processing Center but colloquially referred to as “Louisiana Lockup” or “Camp 57,” houses approximately 180 individuals daily, with capacity to more than double that number. Reports from the facility immediately highlighted substandard care, with a total lack of medical support, failure to provide adequate hygiene or medications, and a lack of potable water. Multiple individuals in the facility went on hunger strike to protest these conditions.
Louisiana is also where the ICE facility with a sexual harassment and forced labor program for transmasculine people and masculine queer women took place, by the way.
& the Angola camp was also discussed in this ACLU report on prison slavery in the US, because of the brutal slave labor (including literally picking cotton while armed guards on horseback watch you, in 100+ F / 40+ C degree heat, without water or bathrooms).
Immigrant detainees accuse the federal government of 'inhumane' abuse and treatment at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas.
Four detainees at the largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in the U.S. filed a federal lawsuit on Saturday alleging human rights abuses, "horrific" conditions and "severe medical neglect" at the facility.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, details "inhumane" treatment inside Camp East Montana on the U.S. Army's Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas. The suit describes a litany of abuse allegations, including a lack of medical care and physical violence at the hands of guards, and accuses the government of human rights and constitutional violations.
"Detained people are regularly subjected to severe beatings or sexual harassment by guards; squalid living conditions; spoiled and inadequate food; no meaningful programming or recreation; inadequate access to basic hygiene products such as soap, razors or nail clippers, outbreaks of disease; and limited or no access to sunlight," according to the complaint.
According to the complaint, the center's guards beat Gerald Akari Angye, one of the named plaintiffs, so severely he had to be hospitalized and placed in a wheelchair. Angye, who has been at Camp East Montana for just over a month, claims he was then locked in solitary confinement for 15 days.
"No human being should ever have to go through this," Angye said in a statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the organizations representing the detainees. "I have already experienced torture in my home country of Cameroon and I never thought I would experience such severely violent treatment by guards here in the United States of America."
Another detainee identified in the complaint only as Navdeep, a former mail handler with no criminal history, says he experienced dirty toilet water flowing into his sleeping area, difficulty accessing cups for drinking water and breathing problems because of excessive dust from the desert. Navdeep wore the same clothes, including underwear, for three weeks, according to the lawsuit.
"We could die here, and it feels like no one here would care," Navdeep said in the ACLU statement.
& from March 30 2026:
In El Paso, Texas, 911 calls reveal conditions in the nation's largest immigration detention camp.
VERONICA ESCOBAR: I have long been worried about a public health emergency within the facility.
KOCHERGA: El Paso Congresswoman Veronica Escobar has toured Camp East Montana several times since it opened last August. During a visit in late January, Escobar says she was warned to stay out of an area because of an outbreak of tuberculosis.
ESCOBAR: Oh, no, ma'am. You don't want to walk in there. No one in there has been tested for TB yet.
KOCHERGA: Escobar says she asked why none of the staff entering and leaving the area wore masks and was told using protective gear was a personal preference. There was also a measles outbreak in February. The calls to close the camp intensified after three people in custody died. DHS says two deaths are under investigation. Nationwide, more than two dozen people have died in ICE custody since October. Dulce says she's relieved she's been released and reunited with her family but worries about the women still at the camp.
DULCE: (Speaking Spanish).
KOCHERGA: Tears welling up in her eyes, she says they're people who also have families waiting for them on the outside.
given the current climate this pride especially i feel i must mention that i love my trans friends, i stand with trans people in the fight against transphobic legislation and those who would enforce it, and this blog is not a good place for you to be if you do not vibe with that
All California sheephead start life as female and move through an array of colors and body shapes as they mature. Some female adults may transition to male as social and environmental factors shift, balancing the delicate ratio of individuals in their population.
While male California sheephead are largest and easiest to identify at a glance, a closer look at the lively waters of our Kelp Forest exhibit reveals a variety of female sheephead swimming through these fascinating life stages.
Stream our Kelp Forest Cam and find peace in the beauty of a thriving underwater community. 🫶🌈
Fucking thank you. I literally cannot stand up for more than a few minutes at a time bc of nerve damage from having a tumor removed from inside my spine. The number of shows I've gone to and bought seated tickets and not been able to see...
... yeah.
Not quite as annoying as the bouncer at a comedy show who told me "We don't do that for sold-out shows*" about the ADA request for a booth that I'd been told by email months prior was totally fine and going to happen, but very close.
*I only barely kept myself from saying, "Oh, I didn't realize the Americans With Disabilities Act didn't count for sold out shows," and just went to find the house manager instead. That club fucked up so many times after assuring me I could sit in a booth instead of a wobbly chair that we just stopped going, though.
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