its goblin time

House Beneviento

For those who have trouble reading that:

Imagine being a black, gay drag queen in the 1800s after being born into enslavement AND having the style and cachè to throw soirées that the girls had to come to! That’s why I don’t want to hear this “we’re not our ancestors stuff.” You’re right!

From The Very Black Project Page- William Dorsey Swann was a gay liberation activist. Born into slavery in 1858, he was the first person in the United States to lead a queer resistance group and the first known person to self-identify as a “queen of drag”. Imagine the queenery of this icon.

He was a slave in Hancock, Maryland and was freed by Union soldiers after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect. During the 1880s and 1890s, he organized a series of balls in Washington, D.C. He called himself the “queen of drag”. Most of the attendees his gatherings were men who were former slaves, and were gathering to dance in their satin and silk dresses. William was arrested in police raids numerous times,including in the first documented case of arrests for female impersonation in the United States, on April 12, 1888. In 1896, he was falsely convicted and sentenced to 10 months in jail for “keeping a disorderly house” (running a brothel). After his sentencing, he requested a pardon from President Grover Cleveland. This request was denied, but but he was the first American on record who pursued legal and political action to defend the LGBTQ community’s right to gather.

He was known to have been close with Pierce Lafayette and Felix Hall, two men who had also both been slaves and who formed the first known male same-sex relationship between enslaved Americans.

When William stopped organizing and participating in drag events, his brother continued to make costumes for the drag community. Two of his brothers had also been active participants in his drag balls.

Imagine how intelligent and ambitious this man had to be to come up with drag balls in the 1800s! Imagine how many terrible concepts he had to unlearn by himself to be a confident gay black man who does drag in the 1800s! Imagine how courageous he had to be to fight for lgbt people as a former slave in America in the 1800s!

William Dorsey Swann is the original queen, the original drag mother, the original activist. Tell his story!

I assume these have been posted, but friends, you HAVE to see some more photos from this shoot:

they're texting each other

holy trinity

Kelly Rowland Texting Nelly Via Microsoft Excel And Then Getting Annoyed When He Doesn’t Text Back (2002)

based of this (link) video that i cannot stop fucking quoting

Caption: [I think I got pretty lucky to be a lesbian (laugh) ya know? Cuz I was always gonna look like this uhh and I think if I looked like this and my type was just like, dudes named Chad (laughing) I think I’d have a bad time! What anomaly that would be, if I wanted to hook up with Chads. If that was my thing. I dunno I just I just think that sounds way gayer than like the lesbian marriage I’m in right now.

I’m pretty sure God would be confused (laughing)if I dated a Chad. I think God would look at us as a couple and be like “Okay you’re a girl, he’s a guy. That’s pretty good, uhhhh somehow this is still a sin”. (laughing) This is SO unnatural! You guys think I could do it? You think I could find a Chad if I wanted one? The one Chad would be like “Baby, I don’t care that you look like Terk from Tarzan, I love you (kiss noise).

I know half of you aren’t even listening. You’re like “Dez, I thought you were a small Mexican boy this entire time”. No. Adult, Puerto Rican lesbian. Eh it reads the same. Mainly the difference is I have way more credit card debt than the average Mexican child, like WAY more.]

redditor who’s like “i’m an exclusive special type of human because i work as a software programmer” vs tumblr user who’s like “everyone writes fanfictions and ships anime characters right? that’s universal”

Musk & Grimes

this edible aint sh…….. corota toyolla

Ethereal being