hi as pride month draws near for june reminder that cishet aces/aros are not LGBT and don’t belong in our spaces

And like, just a reminder that people like op are the people I don’t want to share my spaces with.

Every time I see an exclusionist on here and I click their profile they’re like 17 or 19 or maybe 21 at best. 

And that’s fair- it’s not like people that age can’t have opinions or be right, they’re people.

But when I think about how long it took me to work out my own damn sexuality, gender, and all that crap, and how gently I stepped once I realised I was queer, and how much listening to people I did to see who the hell was out there…how much I am STILL learning about people who have different experiences…

…it feels really odd to see people this young being so secure in their belief of who should be excluded from the community. 

Not how to support and include, to help and support, but how to exclude.

Like…being confident in your own sexuality at 19? Fuck yeah, good for you, I’m happy you had a better chance and an earlier start than I did.

But… telling other people they’re not queer enough to be in ‘your’ space?

Your space? Not mine anymore? Huh.

I’m over here at 35 still listening and learning and trying to understand everyone’s perspectives, discovering that sexuality is even more complex and nuanced than I know…and all these people barely out of their teens are talking like they know everything there is to know about being LGBT, ever. Like it’s all been written down, stamped, sealed, confirmed by some Authority.

Mmmm. No. Just… have an ounce of humility. Try gaining some perspective, please.

You haven’t lived long enough to even really listen to real life aces, to really think about what LGBT means. I don’t mean this as an ageist insult, I just really think that this kind of shit deserves TIME- hell I know it deserves time and thought because I am STILL unlearning bad assumptions and behaviours, and STILL meeting people who define themselves outside of the frame that I was once taught meant ‘LGBT’. And you, a teen raised in a world that’s still pretty fucking homophobic and doesn’t recognise half of what the LGBT community itself has taken years to acknowledge, you think you know it all?

Because you’re online? While you’re here, read some posts where ace people talk about how they’re treated. Forget semantics for a while: read the experiences. I’m online too, I have been for some time. Doesn’t make me right, but experience is of some value. Experience in listening to queer people who aren’t quite like me, that is, in trying to understand how I am similar, instead of trying to figure out how they do not belong. In how people rework things, figure out how they can be less harmful, more inclusive, more representative of all those who are marginalised. See, Q is queer but also often Questioning. It’s still important to let people be Questioning, there is an astounding amount of queerphobia in the world and we are NOT done working out the labels. We may never be. Not so long ago, the T in lgbt was under question. Bisexuals are still being excluded.  So I’m being told I don’t matter by people who weren’t even born yet when I realised I wasn’t straight. They’re skipping right over all the reflection and going straight to self-affirmation by exclusion. 

Which, again- if you are born into a world where you never have to question your identity, oh good grief I hope that’s real for everyone some day. But we’re not there yet, yanno? And I resent being told that after all these years of soul-searching and careful, very careful questioning of whether I belong and how I can be a good member of the community, people arrive so 100% certain of their claim to being LGBT that the first thing they do is try to kick others out.

tl;dr I was here first and I’m not amused.

My general feeling when These Kids start yelling about who does or doesn’t Belong in the collection of the broken, hurt and strange that is the queer community:

Pride month is an especially shitty time to tell queer people that they’re not queer enough and that they’re not welcome.

I’d like to take this opportunity to invite any exclusionists following me to kindly eff off (and also unfollow me while you’re at it :) Happy Pride!  

that weird adhd grey area where your brain is understimulated in some areas and overstimulated in others. i open tumblr for distractions. but i scroll past almost everything bc i’m too stressed to process Reading and Comprehension. i’m in hell.

Professor Doctor Sir Terry Pratchett OBE, born this day (28 April).

OP and this art by Paul Kidby.

This pixel art by CoffeePoweredMachine.

Hate diet culture so much bitches will b like “don’t eat processed carbs they’re so bad for you” like and??? So what?? God did not give us grain and stone to grind it with for no reason. Bread is inevitable. Bread is food for the heart and the soul. U think I’m gonna give that up in pursuit of instagram fitness?? U think I’m gonna deny myself the simple pleasure of toast with jam so I can endlessly chase an ever-shifting standard of beauty that ultimately means nothing? In 20 years I will no longer be beautiful and in 60 my body will be vacant food for other, smaller creatures. But the taste of fresh bread? Of homemade donuts and still-warm pie? I will carry the taste on my tongue into whatever follows this life. So like. Stop telling me I should diet lmao. I’m not abt to martyr myself just to get a man to look at me.

Op genuinely thank you for this

“bread is inevitable” is our household motto now

Link to donate to KhalsaAid

https://www.khalsaaid.org/donate

Khalsa Aid is fucking amazing. They're who you want to donate to, period.

This is one of the few cases where I advocate donating to organisations rather than individuals, because right now, in India, the breakdown of medical infrastructure is so bad that money won't help you. The effort is being carried out now by volunteers who are coordinating resources.

Khalsa Aid is a very old and proven and beloved organisation with absolutely no ties to the hindu government. In fact they have extensive ties to the still-ongoing farmer's protests. They are effective, established, trusted, and sound.

Link to donate to KhalsaAid

https://www.khalsaaid.org/donate

Remember that Euros and American dollars go really far in India. Even a very small donation can literally save someone's life.

Seen at the entrance to my local liquor store

[Image description: Text written on a whiteboard reads "Beer is cheaper than gas! Drink! Don't drive!" End description]

Must be some dank beer if it’s that cheap.

have you seen the price of gas?

We don’t need more diverse Disney movies, we need Disney to be shut down and broken up so that it stops dominating entertainment and choking out smaller creators and studios.

Also get rid of their insane manipulation of copyright

The best things Disney has made, the things people enjoyed and loved, that make them so nostalgic and protective of disney? Those things…weren’t made by Disney. Disney doesn’t MAKE things, it hires people to make things. Those directors and writers and actors and musicians could still make those magnificent films. There is no reason on earth that they need Disney involved, except that Disney monopolizes the filmmaking industry.

If we got rid of Disney, not only would we STILL have EVERYTHING they’d made, but it would be free for people to reuse, alter, and publish in new ways. The people who had created it, if they were still alive, would be free to publish anything else they’ve made that was related, which until now they’ve been required to keep under wraps lest it be out of step with corporate marketing.

Ending copyright protection in a world where corporations own everything perversely gives content creators MORE control over their content.

hello children

a lot of young teen lesbians on tumblr r aligning with the terf ideology without knowing properly what it stands for. so as an Older Lesbian with some 6 years of Being Out Experience i wanna clarify some things for you.

nobody is forcing you to be attracted to anyone

nobody is saying that if you aren’t attracted to [insert a trans woman name], you’re automatically transphobic and a terf. nobody is saying you have to have sex with trans girls if you aren’t attracted to them. just as nobody is saying you have to be attracted to every cis woman. and nobody is saying you have to have sex with gay girls you aren’t attracted to.

we are only asking you to respect trans women as women

and that’s really the least you could do! trans women (trans lesbians and wlw in particular) are just other girls out here trying to survive in this hetero world. and it’s hard being a lesbian already - but being a trans lesbian is so much harder. don’t make these girls feel even more alienated, don’t contribute to the hate that is turned against them. 

“but i don’t wanna have sex with someone with a penis”

if you end up never sleeping with anyone w a penis, that’s okay. being a lesbian isn’t just about who you have sex with. it’s also about who you love, who you’re attracted to and who you date. and one day you might find yourself falling in love with a trans girl. 

if that happens, just like in any relationship, you can negotiate your limits in sex. there’s no point in saying “i am not attracted to trans women” - because it makes it seem like trans women are inherently so much different from cis women, makes you sound like you think all trans women look/are the same and like you think of women as walking genitals. which is pretty misogynist! 

so please just don’t listen to terfs. protect your trans sisters because they need it and they will always be there to support you if you support them too. 

if we establish a system in which we use already existing empty housing to house homeless people…. it wont matter if the housing market crashes because were proposing the housing being free…..

like how do u get so stuck seeing housing as only a commodity that even when we discuss how housing should be a right and not a commodity, u think “that wouldnt work, because its a commodity” qualifies as a response

I haven’t looked into it very hard, but just a cursory glance around, aren’t most of the empty houses (not including airbb) not in any kind of proximity to the actual concentrations of homeless people?

Not really true.

Homelessness is basically an urban problem.  While the homeless do exist in rural communities, the rates are/may be lower (it’s a lot harder to quantify), with rural homeless possible being as low as 4% in completely rural areas, and maybe about a third is rural or semi-rural areas (numbers may have changed since that study).

cool thank you for the info

if we establish a system in which we use already existing empty housing to house homeless people…. it wont matter if the housing market crashes because were proposing the housing being free…..

like how do u get so stuck seeing housing as only a commodity that even when we discuss how housing should be a right and not a commodity, u think “that wouldnt work, because its a commodity” qualifies as a response

I haven’t looked into it very hard, but just a cursory glance around, aren’t most of the empty houses (not including airbb) not in any kind of proximity to the actual concentrations of homeless people?

or is it just western washington that has near zero empty houses available.

if we establish a system in which we use already existing empty housing to house homeless people…. it wont matter if the housing market crashes because were proposing the housing being free…..

like how do u get so stuck seeing housing as only a commodity that even when we discuss how housing should be a right and not a commodity, u think “that wouldnt work, because its a commodity” qualifies as a response

I haven't looked into it very hard, but just a cursory glance around, aren't most of the empty houses (not including airbb) not in any kind of proximity to the actual concentrations of homeless people?

It is increasingly concerning to me to see more and more “sustainable” and “cruelty free” food alternatives & legislation that aims to ensure that small farmers cannot raise and/or hunt their own food. So many of these alternatives focus on corporate sold/lab made foods and legislation that will ensure only large corporations are the only ones that can afford to keep producing food.

Food is a human right. You should not have to pay a massive corporation to be able to eat. Legislation that makes it harder for poor people to keep and raise their own livestock is harmful. Legislation that excludes indigenous peoples from their native hunting lands & food species is harmful.

How to Stop Republicans from Stealing Elections

Republican-controlled state legislatures have introduced over 361 voter suppression bills in 47 states, and some states, like Georgia, have already enacted them into law. 

There’s only one way to stop this assault on our democracy. It’s called the FOR THE PEOPLE ACT, and the window for Congress to pass it is closing.

These Republican voter suppression bills are egregious —they shrink early voting periods, add onerous voter ID requirements, limit eligibility for mail-in ballots, ban ballot drop boxes and drive-through voting, and even make it a crime to give voters in line water.

The FOR THE PEOPLE ACT, on the other hand, would prevent these tactics and make it easier to vote. In addition, gerrymandering would be reduced and the power of small political donors would be amplified.

It could not come at a more critical time.

The Republican assault on our democracy is based on the lie that there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. Multiple recounts in battleground states like Georgia found nothing. Investigations by the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department found nothing. 61 out of 62 courts found nothing.

Republicans claim they’re just listening to the concerns of their voters and restoring “trust” in our elections. Rubbish. The real purpose of these restrictions is to hamper voting by Black people, people of color, young people, and lower-income Americans. 

After Black voters and organizers in Georgia flipped the state blue for the first time in decades, the GOP is pulling out all the stops to prevent the same from happening in other states. The situation is even more dire given the upcoming once-in-a-decade redistricting process, allowing Republican-controlled states to further gerrymander congressional districts.

Their assault on the right to vote is a coordinated, national strategy led by top party leaders and outside dark-money advocacy groups like the Heritage Foundation. That group is working directly with state legislatures to provide them with “model legislation” and gearing up to spend $24 million in eight states to advance these bills ahead of the midterms.

Unless the FOR THE PEOPLE ACT becomes law, these restrictive state bills will go into effect before the upcoming 2022 midterm elections, and entrench Republican power for  years to come. So it’s essential we protect voting rights now, while we still can. 

This is not a partisan fight. It’s a battle between forces that want to go backward to an era of Jim Crow, and the majority of Americans who want to build a more inclusive democracy.

Yet the FOR THE PEOPLE ACT faces an uphill battle in the Senate because of the archaic filibuster rule that requires a 60-vote supermajority to pass legislation.

The good news is Senate Democrats have the power to end the filibuster and thereby allow the FOR THE PEOPLE ACT to become law. It’s time for Democrats to unite on this, without hesitation. 

The stakes could not be higher. Simply put, it’s democracy or authoritarianism.

just gonna leave this here

I’ve said this before, possibly even on this post, but this also means throwing out that shitty attitude of “You can tell this was made by cishets for cishets” just because it doesn’t relate to your specific queer experience. I have seen works created by queer creators based on their own experiences get labeled “by cishets for cishets” because it didn’t reflect a particular experience/reflected a different experience from that of those criticizing it. There is no universal queer experience. Just because it’s not YOUR experience doesn’t mean it’s not queer.

Im' pretty sure it's more like someone worth $100,000 complaining about paying $0.01

It's so hard to grasp how much more a Billion is.