I'm Carson, he/him, 23. I follow with dioxazine-dude. FTM, T start date 2/14/19! I just needed a spot to store all the posts that I want to keep track of! Iâm mostly using this space to bookmark transmasc resources that I find useful, but thereâs also: art references, fic recs, tip lists for how to be an adult, mental health advice, and a hell of a lot of other queer shit. I'm an artist so feel free to hit me up if you want any art info. Inbox is always open!
can we likeâŠget rid of the so-called leather and rubber âpride flagsâ ? itâs honestly ridiculous and offensive to the lgbtq community. those arenât pride flags.Â
The leather pride flag is the second oldest pride flag. It has been at almost every single US pride parade and protest in history.
Itâs older then you are, itâs older then I am. The leather community is responsible for pride. Leather daddies were the ones chasing away cops when they tried to arrest us for being queer in public back when Pride Parades were illegal in the US. They are still the ones chasing away cops and corporations from smaller pride events and those that arenât sanctioned by Wells Fargo. The leather community is essential to the queer community and has a long and rich history.
Please fuck off if youâre not going to learn the actual history of pride.
And donât fucking out your hate in our tags, asshole.
The leather pride flag represents an expression of self which is inherently queer, and a community which has been around for generations. It is not offensive to the LGBT+ community in any way. I have seen cis gay and bisexual men standing shoulder-to-shoulder with trans men, all of them united by their leather community roots. The leather community is more diverse and nuanced than you perhaps know, but that is no reason for you to shit on a community you donât understand.
Here is a photograph from 1998, displaying the leather pride flag, the bear gay pride flag, and the rainbow flag. This is our history.
Source.
Here is a photograph from 1987: three queer women entering into the Ms. National Leather Association Contest, or simply gathering as spectators.
Source.
A flyer from 1989, rallying the leather community to march in a Stonewall anniversary protest.
Source.
A photograph from 1988: Tony Deblase, the creator of the leather pride flag, and a gay man, embracing a fellow member of the leather community. Over his shoulder is Judy Tallwing McCarthy, a Native American woman who was part of the leather community from 1959. She co-founded the first lesbian BDSM group in Portland, along with her partner, Sashie Hyatt.
Source. Source.
Just because you donât know the history, doesnât mean it isnât there. Be humble, and always assume you have more to learn. Hatred, and outright dismissal of communities you know nothing about, is the most aggressively anti-LGBT thing I can imagine.
The leather community has always included trans people, lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals. The leather community is global and nuanced. The leather community is where many of us encounter our found families, and our lovers. For you to dismiss that is cold-hearted and ignorant. Just because queer sex is involved, doesnât make the community dirty or bad.
Iâm again fucking begging the baby gays to read/watch/listen to How To Survive A Plague.
Do you have any. Any idea. Any god damn clue. How kink intersects with LGBT and queer community. Queer history. Do you know why the community pushed for, and against, closing the bathhouses during the 80s? Do you know who organized awareness campaigns about HIV, even way back when it was still called GIRD. Do you know who created the safe sex pamphlets, the classes, who pushed for disclosing your health history to partners, who distributed contraceptives and condoms and dental dams at parties and meetings and baths? Do you even know where the safe sex education we have now comes from? Do you know where a bulk of the language about consent came from? Do you have any good god damn idea what the kink communities have done for us, and continue to do for us?
Keep their names out of your mouths because you clearly donât know what the hell youâre talking about
If there is one thing I could say to young queer folks, especially young queer folks in the U.S. who are coming of age in a world that is more accepting than the one I knew growing up, itâs this:
Donât be so quick to sanitize your queerness and make it corporate pride daytime TV-friendly. Donât be so quick to jump on the purity bandwagon. Donât be so quick to speak on what your community should look like before youâve actually learned the history of your community, and always be aware that there are things you probably donât yet know.
These things will not protect you. They never have. And all youâre doing is isolating yourself from community, from support, from the strength we all have when we stand together in a world that would gladly pick us off one by one.
Queerness isnât as hidden or embattled now (in some places) as it once was, but make no mistake: when our existence was illegal everywhere the people you have this knee-jerk âhide the weirdosâ reaction to are the very ones who wouldâve had your back against the cops and the gay-bashers.
The people who made me feel safe to come out in my 20s flew the rubber and leather flags alongside the rainbow flag and often the trans flag as well. You donât get to tell any of them they donât belong anymore just because you donât understand.
The Leather Pride Flag (1989) was created 12 years after the Gilbert Pride Flag (1977). The next widely-recognized flags were the Rubber and Bear Pride flags in 1995, followed by the Bi Pride flag in 1998, the Trans Pride flag in 1999, and everything else thereafter.
Opinions that not only can but actually need to coexist:
Internet smut and fetish content shouldnât be so strewn around and unfiltered that children can trip over it on the way to a Minecraft stream.
Social media brands have been cracking down on adult content in alarmingly regressive ways that empower anti-lgbt agendas, criminalize an ever broadening definition of âsex work,â and yeah, on a lesser but still meaningful note, strangle a lot of art and expression that wasnât even as lewd as what you can still catch on TV.
This thing where everyone feels shamed into taking one of two extreme sides about every sexual topic, like in this case youâre allegedly either standing with homophobic puritan troglodytes or with incest fanfic NAMBLA troglodytes, has been been around for eternity but it sounds like itâs about to go more mainstream than it ever has before, thatâs gonna a fun next few years maybe.
âwow man last year i was sleeping on my sisters floor, had no money, struggling to get plays on my music, suffering from daily headaches, now iâm gay.â âLil Nas X
i am so so sick of white gay ppl trying to make antiracism movements about them like if i see one more motherfucker on tiktok respond to a pocs video with the FUCKING âuwu but i have adhd and im gay / trans how can u say im not oppressedâ like shut up this is not about u and just because u are queer does not negate the fact that you benefit from white privilege stay in your fucking lane and check urselfÂ
i made some edits of these versions in the styles of the philadelphia inclusive pride flag and daniel quasar's progress pride flag if anyone would like to see/use these as well!
[ID: A 6-panel, black and white comic. The panels are as follows:
1. The text âThere is only one pronoun in Cantoneseâ next to that pronoun, äœą, written in grid paper.
2. White text against black. It reads, âNot neutral as in a statement. Neutral as in ânever consideredââ
3. A child on the ground, laying on their stomach with a pen in hand, in front of the paper with äœą on it. Text next to them reads, âI think thatâs part of why I didnât consider gender much as a kidâ
4. Someone wearing a qipao and two braids, drawn from the neck down. They put a hand up in a âstopâ gesture at someone elseâs hand, which reaches towards them from offscreen. Text reads, âBut like the Mandarin ä» / the white people came / split ć„ł from äșșâ
5. Text reading âSplit into ä»Â ć„čâ The two pronouns are written so that they form the labels of bathroom doors.
6. A person gestures forward. Blood drips from their mouth and the center of their palm. Text reads, âI gender myself in a tongue that is not my own / and taste the bitterness of colonizationâ
Something I find incredibly cool is that theyâve found neandertal bone tools made from polished rib bones, and they couldnât figure out what they were for for the life of them.Â
Until, of course, they showed it to a traditional leatherworker and she took one look at it and said âOh yeah sure thatâs a leather burnisher, you use it to close the pores of leather and work oil into the hide to make it waterproof. Mine looks just the same.âÂ
âWait youâre still using the exact same fucking thing 50,000 years later???â
âWell, yeah. Weâve tried other things. Metal scratches up and damages the hide. Wood splinters and wears out. Bone lasts forever and gives the best polish. There are new, cheaper plastic ones, but they crack and break after a couple years. A bone polisher is nearly indestructible, and only gets better with age. The more you use a bone polisher the better it works.â
Itâs just.Â
50,000 years. 50,000. And over that huge arc of time, weâve been quietly using the exact same thing, unchanged, because we simply havenât found anything better to do the job.Â
i also like that this is a âask craftspeopleâ thing, it reminds me of when art historians were all âthe fuckâ about someoneâs ear âdeformityâ in a portrait and couldnât work out what the symbolism was until someone whoâd also worked as a piercer was like âuhm, heâs fucked up a piercing thereâ. interdisciplinary shit also needs to include non-academic approaches because crafts & trades people know shit ok
One of my professors often tells us about a time he, as and Egyptian Archaeologist, came down upon a ring of bricks one brick high. In the middle of a house. He and his fellow researchers could not fpr the life of them figure out what tf it could possibly have been for. Until he decided to as a laborer, who doesnt even speak English, what it was. The guy gestures for my prof to follow him, and shows him the same ring of bricks in a nearby modern house. Said ring is filled with baby chicks, while momma hen is out in the yard having a snack. The chicks canât get over the single brick, but mom can step right over. Over 2000 years and their still corraling chicks with brick circles. If it aint broke, dont fix it and always ask the locals.
I read something a while back about how pre-columbian Americans had obsidian blades they stored in the rafters of their houses. The archaeologists who discovered them came to the conclusion that the primitive civilizations believed keeping them closer to the sun would keep the blades sharper.
Then a mother looked at their findings and said âyeah, they stored their knives in the rafters to keep them out of reach of the children.â
I remember years ago on a forum (email list, thatâs how old) a woman talking about going to a museum, and seeing among the womenâs household objects a number of fired clay items referred to as âprayer objectsâ. (Apparently this sort of labeling is not uncommon when you have something that every house has and appears to be important, but no-one knows what it is.) She found a docent and said, âExcuse me, but I think those are drop spindles.â  âWhy would you think that, maâam?â  âBecause they look just like the ones my husband makes for me. See?â They got all excited, took tons of pictures and video of her spinning with her spindle. When she was back in the area a few years later, they were still on display, but labeled as drop spindles.
So ancient Roman statues have some really weird hairstyles. Archaeologists just couldnât figure them out. They didnât have hairspray or modern hair bands, or elastic at all, but some of these things defied gravity better than Marge Simpsonâs beehive.
Eventually they decided, wigs. Must be wigs. Or maybe hats. Definitely not real hair.
A hairdresser comes a long, looks at a few and is like, âYeah, theyâre sewn.â
âDonât be silly!â the archaeologists cry. âHow foolish, sewn hair indeed! LOL!â
So she went away and recreated them on real people using a needle and thread and the mystery of Roman hairstyles was solved.
She now works as a hair archaeologist and I believe she has a YouTube channel now where she recreates forgotten hairstyles, using only what they had available at the time.
Always question anything labelled as for a ritual or religious purpose without explanation because itâs very often shorthand for âwe donât knowâ as if humans have not been the same since forever and have either made things for specific purposes or simply because they like making them (aka ART. Some things are simply art yet heaps of old research refuses to recognize this possibility.)
okay yâall its pride month, time to expose yourself to what some actual trans/nonbinary biâs have to say about bisexuality
written essays by @mediumkravitzââ
revisiting âbothâ definitions of bisexual
why attraction to nonbinary people doesnt make you bi or pan
why the bi in bisexual doesnt mean two genders
why bi and pan are the same
the myth of bisexual/straight passing privilege
the bisexual history they dont want you to know
why bisexuality is not transphobic
on reclaiming âbisexualâ
why bisexuality is inherently nonbinary
video essays by @verilybitchieââ Â Â
on ârampant transphobiaâ in the bisexual communityâs history
bi vs pan as labels
why we hate bi women
why we hate bi men
the compet masterdoc and bisexuality + comphet vs compulsory heterosexuality
the history of the word bisexual
the bi-cycle
posts on tumblr by various trans/nb bisexuals
another explanation of why bi and pan are the same
on the dismissal of bisexual suffering in the community
bi/trans solidarity from 1993
statistics on the effects of biphobia
more on bi vs pan as labels, and another and another
on peoples reactions to bi women abused by men
on biphobia and separatist ideologies in wlw communities (i wrote this!)
on âsluttyâ âbadâ bisexual women
scapegoating of bisexual men during the aids epidemic
statistics on sexual violence against bi women
on the reclamation of slurs by bisexuals
the negative perception of femmes as bi womenÂ
on defining bisexuality as âtwo or moreâ and another one
on choosing sexuality based on what âfeels rightâ
on how âsexuality isnt a choiceâ manifests biphobia
why erasure of bi mens struggles is harmful
on bi people âhaving it easierâ than gay people
in general just go through the #bi tag on @bifeyââ and @biexboyfriendâââs blogs as well as posts from @mediumkravitzââ and @verilybitchieââ whose essays were included above, feel free to add on if you feel you see anything else relevant from trans/nb bisexuals specifically
im not interested in hearing about how you didnt bother reading anything/taking anything in bad faith based on whatever.Â
and remember!
[ID: a banner that reads "this post is about bisexuals do not derail" on a background that fades from pink to purple to blue. /end ID]
hey if you appreciated this post maybe consider throwing me some money, Iâm disabled and Iâm not working so I have almost no money in my bank account right now, its not an emergency but it would make me feel safer
ko-fi
paypal
and who knows I might make another post like this on a different topic sometime
gameshow called 'pride or prejudice' in which the contestants are presented with a gay joke and have to guess if it was made by a queer person or a homophobe
man i really hate those posts that are like "you can only use the word terf to mean someone who excludes trans women specifically" when that is definitely not the only belief that terfs espouse. these people have an entire ideology that is predicated on biological essentialism and fascist ideals and claiming that all they do is hurt trans women is only gonna help them push those ideas into the public space
ppl: "literally the only thing that makes a terf a terf is excluding trans women. nothing else. otherwise their beliefs are completely indistinguishable from normal trans inclusive feminism"
also ppl: "wait why are cryptoterfs so good at invading supposedly inclusive spaces spreading their idealology and recruiting ppl??"
like headsup maybe ur inability to recognize terf shit has to do with. dismissing half of terf shit as "not really terf shit because its not directly and obviously and overtly connected to excluding trans women". dogwhistles arent limited to single word easy to recognize codewords, you gotta put work into recognize the broader shit that contributes to their beliefs so you dont dismiss people as "not terfs because they said the words 'i dont hate trans women' once"
Coincidentally when I search "transmisogyny" on OP's blog, the first result is a post about how trans men don't benefit from being men and Really, We Can't Say Trans Women Have It Harder. Completely ignoring transmisogyny, a word these people never use.
While TERFs do also hate sex workers with a background buzz of other reactionary ideas, people strongly for defining hatred of trans women out of the term are - surprise! - usually motivated by other things.
i have talked quite a lot about transmisogyny on my blog, because i am a trans woman. in fact one of my most popular posts is abt transmisogyny within the lesbian community specifically. idk what other things u think im motivated by here, but the number one thing i am motivated by is trying to make my communities safer. im not trying to define the transmisogyny out of terf, but i think its important to acknowledge the other ways that terfs hurt ppl, including ppl who they claim to be on the side of.
also what do u mean by âthese peopleâ???? what âthese peopleâ am i a part of here???? cuz i want u to know i am a whole ass trans woman. so i sure do hope you arent lumping me in with terfs here cuz that would make me pretty fuckin upset
While we're on it, I don't know maybe using conversations about transandrophobia and the sorts prejudices trans masc folx face to score points off some broader conversation about general trans rights issues isn't the approach to take? Not to go off on a tangent but I'm pretty tired of seeing our own community try and make the Oppression Olympics out of different trans experiences and tossing other trans people under the bus for not being oppressed enough (usually trans masc or trans off the binary). That's part of the problem. We don't experience real world trans issues in a vacuum, they're not boxed into discreet packs by transphobes. It's a broad brush and I promise they genuinely don't care what sort of trans you are. TERFS in particular and radical feminists in general oppose any and all rights for any trans person - for anything that doesn't conform to a simplified binary essential gender, which includes being opposed to rights and bodily autonomy for intersex people while we're on it.
And if that's not enough, let me once again cite JK Rowling's infamous anti-trans manifesto, which may go down as the most singularly damaging piece of anti-trans writing in the modern age, which was almost completely focused on trans men! It was like... a year ago? Less? It's massively circulated and I don't get how it can exist and anyone still says terfs attack only target trans women.
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