LGBT+

LGBT+ support blog! ------------ I'm Cole. I'm a Trans, Asexual Panromantic dude who just wants to make a support network for to fit the needs of less represented people.

[transgayloser]

College and being Trans

When you’re trans things are harder, everyone expects it and understands that unfortunately that is the reality of existing as a queer individual. Something people don’t usually mention is the aspect of higher education when you’re trans, the problems you face and the fortunate truths that come with being you.

College is an escape, a wonderful place where you can finally be yourself outside the eyes of prying parents and family members. The problems is when you go somewhere your very existence works against you. The dean of your college might leave you without a support structure that leaves you being attacked by some teachers and called the wrong name, while others leave you feeling so incredibly fortunate to exist when you do.

I go to an art school in New York, I’m not really one to speak on the unacceptance in my college, right..? I mean our online Canvas portal has a place for pronouns! Every teacher asked me on the first day, so things should be just fine and settled. The unfortunate truth is that it was all for show, the teachers constantly mis-gender me because they never bothered to memorize my pronouns. The sheer amount of times I’ve been referred to as “young lady” in a class is painful to think about.

Especially painful considering that I am not the only transman in my class. The real issue is that I don’t pass as well as they do, I have a high soprano voice and my hair is a wild funky color. I express myself ever so slightly more feminine and therefore I don't get to experience the freedom college promised. 

http://www.transgenderscholarship.org

[sky-chau]

Alright Lesbians, The Old Flag Sucks And So Does Our Approach To Fixing It.

So I’ve seen a lot of posts about how the L in LGBT is getting forgotten in posts about us and how people are using the fact we no longer have one unified flag to fly under, as an excuse. 

The lipstick lesbian flag was offensive but at least people knew what it was.

The new flags are inoffensive but unidentifiable. Straight people don’t know what our flag is when its two feet in front of them and that’s a design  problem.

So I’m here to explain why none of the flags suggested so far have really stuck in mainstream culture and hopefully fix it.

The main reason is our flags suck from a graphic design standpoint. Their purpose is not easy to figure out unless someone labels them. We’ve taken the bio hazard mode of symbolism; pick a sign that’s both memorable and meaningless and through cultural education, assign it a meaning. This is a terrible fucking approach and therefor bad design.

So here’s the checklist:

1) Flag must have meaning

2) Identifiable to everyone. A person who has no idea what a lesbian even is should know just by looking that this flag, is about girls liking girls.

3) Unique and Accessible. Can someone who is completely color blind tell that this is the lesbian flag and not the gay or trans flag.

4)Traditional Color Symbolism. Use the culture your currently in, not the culture you wish to create as no one will understand that yellow is suppose to mean femininity. For now stick with pink.

5) Not Eye Bleeding. No Neon.

6) Inclusive. This ain’t just a white lesbian flag, this is an all lesbian flag. If people feel the need to add another colored stripe after the fact to represent themselves, your doing it wrong.

So If We Must Ditch The Old Flag, Try Replacing It With This. I Think With Enough Signal Boosting This Flag Will Catch On.

Symbolism:

The brown fem sign represents all the women of color that first fought for our rights and acts as a reminder to lesbians of color today that they are welcomed.

The white fem sign represents our more privileged sisters who gave the movement numbers.

The interlocking design shows solidarity.

The Pink Triangle is an inversion of the more famous triangle used to label gays in Nazi Germany. Its a tribute to those who’ve been hurt and a light house for those of us that are still hurting today.

The top of the triangle points up and forward guiding us

The base of the triangle reminds us of where we have been and how far we have come

Also meant to look like a couple walking down a never ending street.

The black outline represents those we have lost.

The magenta stripe represents the love we all share

The light pink stripe represents all the trans lesbians that call the community home

The white stripe represents all the non-binary lesbians whom we accept with open arms

The dark pink stripe represents femininity in all it’s forms.

FEEL FREE TO USE AS ICON/HEADER/WHATEVER! LETS SPREAD THIS AND BRING UNITY! REPOST, REBLOG, LETS GET THIS FLAG OUT THERE!

ONE FLAG TO RULE THEM ALL!

[sky-chau]

Alright SO  many of yous got in a bit of a huff about it being too feminine despite me pointing out that “femininity in all its forms” refers to the entire futch scale because apparently butches hate pink. so here we go butches, I fixed it. I took your color suggestions.

2.0 is here

minor changes were made to the sizes of the stripes and the centering of the triangle.

Clarifications on Symbolism:

feminity in all its forms is now represented by purple.

When I say non-binary I’m referring explicitly to any identity that is not male or female. So that by default will catch all the intersex, genderqueer, agender, ect folk. Sorry for the confusion.

The size of the stripes is not indicative of importance, the small stripes are people and identities, the big ones are feelings and abstract concepts.It’s pretty simple. 

For all you knitters out there,

 the triangle and the pink stripe can use whatever pink you have on hand for the trans flag, which means you’d only need to stock one extra color pink to your yarn stash. for the harder parts of the design id just grab a piece of felt and stitch it into the item like crochet people do with toys.

how many colors does the flag need to have?: 5

2 shades of pink, one shade of purple, one shade of brown, one white. (black optional)

 so now that the flag is fixed we can get back to spreading the flag around and hopefully unifying under it.

[sky-chau]

NON LESBIANS FEEL FREE TO REBLOG! 

ITS A BIG HELP TO GETTING THE FLAG SPREAD ROUND THE COMMUNITY

[sky-chau]

ALRIGHT SOME OF YALLS DON’T LIKE THE FLAG BECAUSE IT WOULD BE HARD TO MAKE CHARACTER ICONS OUT OF. 

TO WHICH I SAY! YEAH! IT KINDA IS!

BUT I GOT YOU COVERED.

HAVE A TEMPLATE!

PUT THE CHARACTER A BIT TO THE SIDE AND MAKE SURE YOU CAN SEE AT LEAST PART OF EACH STRIPE,

LIKE SO!

HAVE A CHARACTER FACING THE OTHER WAY?

IVE GOT YOU COVERED THERE TOO!

WANT JUST THE STRIPES?

I GOTCHA

WANT JUST THE TRIANGLE?

YOU CAN HAVE IT! ITS TRANSPARENT TOO!

TAKE IT! HAVE  FUN YOU FUNKY LITTLE LESBIANS!

[hs-eggsprites]

Finally

[warmbrightedits]

Stills from A Year In Transition, which follows a transgender man throughout one year of his life, including hormone replacement therapy and top surgery.

The documentary was filmed by a gay trans man named Lorne Clarkson, stars Issa Ismail as the protagonist, and features numerous other trans men discussing their experiences with transitioning. I’ve never before seen a documentary that so closely follows the struggles, complications, and nuances of FTM experiences.

[sous-le-saule]

https://vimeo.com/259562788

[bearlyholdingittogether]

Chechnya detains people for being gay, renewing purge fears

The region has already carried out one gay purge.

This is still happening

This is still happening

This is still happening

[cinemaisgay]

Here’s a Canadian group working w Russian LGBT Network to evacuate gay Chechens

Donate to the Russian LGBT Network here

Here’s an org providing funds to Russian groups working to get Chechens to safety

[portergeiste]

Wendy Carlos

[ultraviolet-techno-ecology]

For people who might not know - Wendy Carlos is a trans woman who was deeply influential in early electronic music and hugely involved with the push to have synthesizers seen as real instruments.

[glompcat]

Some of the movies Wendy Carlos did the soundtracks for, that you may know:

A Clockwork Orange

The Shining

Tron

She has three Grammys, and a lifetime achievement award from the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States.

Oh and she also takes photos of eclipses that are so good Nasa uses them.

[yha-nthlei]

Her discography is here!

And here is a more recent photo of her with her cat, Pandora:

[goawfma]

a power move

[transhumanist-viking-deactivate]

Anti-trans group admits bathroom predator myth is made up

Empirical research shows bathroom predator concerns are baseless.

“Our side concocted the ‘bathroom safety’ male predator argument as a way to avoid an uncomfortable battle over LGBT ideology, and still fire up people’s emotions.”

COLOUR ME FUCKING SURPRISED

[profeminist]

New York City Just Passed a Gender-Neutral Birth Certificate Law

“New Yorkers should be free to tell their government who they are, not the other way around,” said Mayor DeBlasio.

[In October] “New York became the first city in the nation to pass a law offering gender-neutral birth certificates. The new policy will go into effect on January 1, 2019, and calls for the creation of a third gender marker — X — in addition to the current options of M and F.

The new law also mandates that people be allowed to choose their gender marker when applying for amended birth certificates, replacing a previous requirement that applicants provide letters from medical and mental health practitioners confirming their gender identity.

“New Yorkers should be free to tell their government who they are, not the other way around,” New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio said in a press release. “This new legislation will empower all New Yorkers — especially our transgender and gender nonbinary residents — to have birth certificates that better reflect their identity, and it furthers the City’s commitment to defending the rights of our LGBTQ community.”

Read the full piece here

See the video

[i-hate-chick-fil-a]

DOJ: Businesses Can Discriminate Against Transgender Workers (1) (1)

The Justice Department today told the U.S. Supreme Court that businesses can discriminate against workers based on their gender identity without violating federal law.

This is fucked up

Incredibly fucked up

[cpunks]

also if this happens a lot of trans people may end up homeless and the. the government turns the other eye- proves how much they hate us!!!!!

[2003hondapilot]

W o w

[entitledrichpeople]

Outcry over 'proposed change' to US trans law

A report in the New York Times suggests a government memo proposes fixing gender on birth genitalia.

This is a move to further re-entrench the discrimination and violence across all areas of life that contributes to extremely high rates of poverty and violence against transgender people.

[blankblog3212]

since it’s pride month how about we enjoy a list of over 900+ lgbt films it’s my big fat lgbt gift to all of you

[moonsilk-deactivated20200420]

remember to check doesthedogdie to avoid triggers like an lgbt person dying, extreme homophobia etc. have fun and stay safe!!

[i-hate-chick-fil-a]

“It was cool until it was ME”

“It was cool until it was ME”

“It was cool until it was ME”

[dontwantthenextcommanderiwantyou]

Didn’t care when he was trying to erase black people

Didn’t care when he was trying to erase Mexicans

Didn’t care when he was trying to erase Muslims

Didn’t care when he was trying to erase the poor

Didn’t care when he was trying to erase immigrants 

But you care when it’s your turn to be erased… qwhite interesting 

[24anddown]

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

[outofthebinary]

Ah my school has a GSA and it starts on the 30th

(Idk random update that’s gay 🏳️‍🌈)

[outofthebinary]

#wewontbeerased

💙💕⚪💕💙

[gaywrites]

Trump administration considers literally erasing the concept of trans identity, eliminating protections & recognition

The Trump administration is considering a legal definition of gender as immutable and fixed at birth, the most drastic in a series of moves against transgender people.

A terrifying New York Times article today announced that the Trump administration is considering “narrowly defining gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth,” a measure that would essentially eliminate any and all recognition of transgender and nonbinary people and, therefore, their civil rights. 

The memo from the Department of Health and Human Services claims officials need a clearer definition of gender. Their proposed definition “would define sex as either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with, according to a draft reviewed by The Times. Any dispute about one’s sex would have to be clarified using genetic testing.”

“Sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth,” the department proposed in the memo, which was drafted and has been circulating since last spring. “The sex listed on a person’s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person’s sex unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence.”

The new definition would essentially eradicate federal recognition of the estimated 1.4 million Americans who have opted to recognize themselves — surgically or otherwise — as a gender other than the one they were born into.

“This takes a position that what the medical community understands about their patients — what people understand about themselves — is irrelevant because the government disagrees,” said Catherine E. Lhamon, who led the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights in the Obama administration and helped write transgender guidance that is being undone.

Let me be perfectly clear: Being transgender is not something you can believe or not believe in, support or not support. It’s a reality. Trans people exist. Always have, always will. What this will do is make it infinitely *more* difficult than it already is to be trans in America. Violence, poverty, inaccessible healthcare, and a slew of other already-persistent problems will worsen. New generations of trans kids will be silenced in ways that date back decades, if not longer. 

We cannot under any circumstances allow this to happen. Vote. Protest. Cis folks, donate to trans-led organizations and trans individuals’ GoFundMe pages for medical care. Talk to your transphobic (or trans-ignorant) friends and family about what a policy like this would mean. And if you’re trans and need support today, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860.

Trans friends: I see you and I love you. We will not let them erase you. We will fight this with you. 

[bi-trans-alliance]

Victory Fund has backed 272 candidates this November in hopes of generating a “Rainbow Wave”

“Victory Fund staff say the record-breaking number of endorsements, shattering the old record of 180 set during the 2012 cycle, reflect the number of highly-qualified LGBTQ candidates seeking office this year. In total, more than 430 openly LGBTQ people sought some type of office this year.

The total number of LGBTQ candidates running marks a 24% increase over the number of candidates who ran during the 2016 cycle.

‘The dramatic spike in openly LGBTQ people running for the highest levels of government is thrilling but one-sided, with zero openly LGBTQ Republican Congressional or gubernatorial nominees.’ [Annise Parker, the president and CEO of LGBTQ Victory Fund, said in a statement]’.”  

Register to vote at headcount.org