Queer Is Out There

"هذا البيت باقٍ فلسطيني"

would encourage people to follow @ booksagainstgenocide on instagram. they post about the big five publishers’ complicity in israeli apartheid and occupation of palestine + western literary culture’s broader participation in legitimising israel as a state and zionism as an ideology

"irreversible side effects of HRT" all of life is irreversible. i cannot go back a single second in time

also i know what i want. i know the risks. everything has risk. i am already living! why am i living half a life because of what YOU fear? stop talking down to transsexuals

Just as the invasion of Rafah has had horrific consequences that we are trying to take back control of, the invasion of El Fashir promises a horrifying outcome for the people of Sudan and Darfur. I urge you to donate to Islamic Relief's campaign in Sudan to help prepare for this horrible scenario.

Link:

Canada link:

My friends' stories from the past couple of days, and links to help them.

Nael Helles: One of the first people to be affected by the invasion of Rafah. Nearly as soon as it began, the house next to his family's camp was bombed, and they were buried under the rubble. They dug themselves out to the surface, but they are all injured. Words cannot describe the anguish I felt at this news. Please support them in their journey to recovery and safety.

Mahmoud Qassas: During the invasion of Rafah, he described to me the horrific sounds in the early hours of the morning. The quadcopters were firing and the zionist terrorists' gunshots were audible from their tent. I worried that any message he sent me may be his last. He is now left with no choice but to move again and use some of the gathered funds to do so. Please support his move to a safer place in Ghazzah.

Mohammed El Shaer: After the zionist terrorists had retreated, he went into the street looking to help people. What he found was body parts strewn around, and the headless body of a young man. Words do not suffice to describe the images forever etched into his mind. Despite the horrors that surround him and his family, they have nowhere to go, they are stranded. Please help them while they figure out what to do.

Mona Abu Hamda: My lovely dear friend Mona, the one who's helped countless families survive this horrific genocide and the starvation campaigns. The one whose efforts I posted, and the one whom you all donated to and sent wonderful messages to. I haven't heard from her since the invasion began. Whatever has happened to her, she and her family will need the funds to survive.

I hope that you can read their stories and understand the urgency of this situation.

I am very close to finish all the commissions, in the meantime I give you sketches.

I will reopen commissions on May 17

Omfg Brian David Gilbert got a whole ass article in the Johns Hopkins magazine

Fig time!

Here is a photo of myself, Reem, standing before a painting of a man who embodies a profound narrative connected to my name, echoing the tragic yet touching story of another Reem from Gaza.

My name is Reem, like the little girl whose story echoes through the pain and beauty of loss. In Gaza, a grandfather mourns his granddaughter, his "soul of my soul," under the harsh reality of conflict. As bombs fall, his world crumbles, but his love stands immutable amidst the ruins. With each heartbeat, he carries the weight of her memory, her smile, her dreams unfulfilled.

He speaks of her with words heavy with grief but also with an immense love that transcends the boundaries of life and death. He calls her 'the soul of my soul,' a phrase that captures the essence of their bond, unbroken even by the brutality of war. Their story is not just a tale of loss but a call to remember the human spirits behind the headlines, the names, and faces of those who pay the ultimate price.

As the world moves on, their story persists, a poignant reminder of the resilience of love against the backdrop of despair. Let this image serve not only as a reflection of a shared name but as a tribute to every innocent life lost, every dream shattered, and every heart that continues to beat in defiance of oblivion."

I've never loved anyone as much as I love Ursula Le Guin

Today's martyrs were celebrating the ceasefire decision yesterday.

i couldn't even appreciate the artistry behind the clothing designs this year at the met gala because my bitterness and anger toward the exorbitantly wealthy has grown too much to be contained i try to say ooo pretty gown but all the black hateful bile starts oozing out from under the lid of its container. 7 months of genocide and the largest homeless camps my city has ever seen and food banks in the universities and baby formula locked behind glass and stomach gnawing guilt over a $7 latte and rent is always late and always behind on electricity bills uh ohhhh summer is here time for another wild fire. oooo pretty gown. the next met gala theme will be bear spray and what happens is i bear spray inside the gallery. i can't even force a sort of healthy detachment anymore like "haha oh well i guess that movie actor is rich it's not like they're an ultra wealthy bazillionaire oooo pretty gown" they're all worms to me vile beasts i look at them in their isolated imagine john lennon covid song bubble and i feeeeeel the milk of human kindness curdling within me. how can you smile at the camera. we are all dying girl. isn't there a protest not even a block away from you guys? protesters and riot cops and homeless ppl in the streets. i guess that's unfair you guys deserve a night of glitz and glamour and getting away from it all as if you're not constantly away from it all. girl we are dying. sick sick world. sick dying world. anyway i didn't watch the met gala this year

This a a reminder to not fall victim to the sunk-cost fallacy. Just because you invested time and energy into something, does not mean you should indefinitely waste more time and energy on it, if you decide it’s not what you want anymore. This goes for anything, from books, to relationships, to jobs, to hobbies, etc.

If it’s not serving you anymore, move on.

This is honestly one of the places I find Marie Kondo's advice most helpful. I stop, look at the thing I've spent time and money on only to realize I dislike, and I say, "Thank you for teaching me something about myself and my preferences. I think I've learned this particular lesson and we can part ways now."

And then I don't feel like I "wasted" things or made a mistake. I just tried one path of learning about myself, learned something, and now it's time for a different path. Works a lot better for my brain.

One of the quotes I think about pretty much nonstop is a frequently misattributed translation but I love it: “We must be ready at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we may become.” (Charles Du Bos, not Charles Dubois, apparently.)

Can’t do that if you can’t let go!