#//the transphobia is the most minor of these

[magicisrealandsoismyally]

Okay, thought we were being like, chill, but I guess that's a kindness only afforded to people you consider to be women, so I'm gonna break this down piece by piece here, a lot to address.

"purposely obtuse or intellectually dishonest"

right off the bat the fact I disagree with you means I'm being intentionally wrong and evil. There's no room for me to be misguided, or making mistakes, or being uninformed, I'm either playing stupid or lying. Got it.

I "either hate AFABs, or don't take harm against them seriously". Once again, another false dichotomy. I take harm against women incredibly seriously, I just don't think the biggest threat to women is trans women. I think we have the same enemies, conservative men in power. I said you were fueled by fear because I was trying to be nice. It's not just fear. It's anger. Misdirected anger. You, and many others, have decided the easiest thing to do is hate.

Yeah. It is in fact transphobic to demand sex segregated spaces given that a true biological sex isn't fucking real. That's why it's "Assigned male at birth" or "Assigned female at birth". I've been assigned a lot of things throughout my life. So have you. Are you going to tell me those assignments were always accurate? I mean hell, with the amount of cis people out there, their accuracy rate is definitely above 50%. Still not accurate tho.

Transphobia is both the people trying to murder us, and the people, who don't want us in spaces that are away from the people trying to murder us. You are aware that the same cis men wanna kill us both right? You've arbitrarily drawn a line in the sand because you are grossly misunderstanding how trans people work. The number one piece of advice I see on this site from transfems, is how to avoid being SAed. By cis men, by cis women, by trans men. It's so common, that it makes me question if I even want to be in spaces with y'all. You wanna talk about fear? I'm fucking terrified. All the time. The instant I come out to the world, I get to spend the rest of my life, knowing that at any moment, someone says anything negative about me? and my life is over. Because people like you, will believe them. Because the scary transfem must be the person oppressing you. Because its easy, to villainize the minority. And it's easy to decide he's a monster. And all the while, she loses everything just for being an easy target.

You wanna talk physical safety? 83% of genderqueer victims of fatal violence are trans women. People love to kill us.

AMAB privilege is not real. I was not socialized male. I think you have a perspective on how the patriarchy functions that hasn't seen the other side of the fence, so let me go ahead and elaborate on that. Being a Man, is something you can fail out of in the patriarchy. It's a club that is nigh impossible to enter, but really fucking easy to fail out. Under the patriarchy, I am not a man. I failed out of that shit at the age of 8 when I said I didn't like sports. When I did anything "girlie" at all. When I cried. I was a crybaby (according to my family) and a faggot (according to the other kids at school). And from that moment, I was a target. Always have been. I wasn't socialized male, I was socialized as a failed man. Most trans girls are treated that way from a young age. I did not benefit from the patriarchy I was shoved around. I have gotten into an absurd amount of fights that I never started because some fucking asshole decided to beat the shit out of the fag. I spent like a week on tumblr before hearing other shared experiences about this kinda thing. Literally not hard to talk to trans women about this stuff if you, yk, try.

"We don’t need to check genitals I would have no problem with the manliest most masculine most passing trans man in an afab space because no matter what hormones or surgery are involved they cannot rape and impregnate me with their penis the same way an AMAB person could."

How do you know he's trans. How. Tell me right now how you tell the difference between a cis man and a trans man with bottom surgery. Do that without being transphobic, please. Find a way. I'm looking for something hilarious to read today, it's been a long one. Because if you don't have a way, your entire transmisogynistic utopia falls apart here. You can't tell if someone is trans. It's about identity. You cannot tell if someone has a penis. No matter what you do. You cannot tell someone's assigned gender at birth.

And how wonderful, you mentioned prisons, just read about this one. Did you know when transfems are imprisoned they get placed with the most violent cellmates? It's a tactic to reduce prison violence. Give the most violent people their own live in target. They get called prison wives. It's called V-Coding. So yeah, prisons are messed up. For both of us. If only we could talk about that and unite to fix that oh wait that's literally the whole point of having transfems in feminist spaces, crazy how that works.

"Also trans AMAB people commit sex crimes at an even higher rate than cis AMAB people"

WHERE IS THE FUCKING SOURCE. I am tired of TMEs and their constant stream of libel demonizing trans women. All of your nonsense statistics is so fucking stupid. Where are you getting these numbers? The sex offenders list? The one that as recently in the 80s included anyone who crossdressed or hit on a person of the same gender even if they were reciprocating? I literally have heard cis lesbians complain about that shit on this site, you're not even being a feminist by citing sex crimes, you're being a cop. Fucking being trans counted as being a sex criminal for most of American history. Drag queens, trans women, and crossdressers get accused of sex crimes all the fucking time, you have no critical thinking god fucking damn.

"which again did not START segregated they became that way because AMAB people could t be trusted not to rape/assault AFAB ones"

Yeah no lmao, (this next paragraph is going to be USAmerican centric because yk, that's what I learned about growing up) they kicked literally all queer people out when women got the right to vote, both lesbians and bi-women had to fight their way back into these spaces in the decades prior. I feel like we forgot about the Ellen Show or smth? Like feminists did not fucking go to bat for her after she came out. Groups will turn on their supporters the instant they decide they don't need them. Mainstream Feminism turned on people of color and queer people who put their own movements on hold to support the women's right to vote so fucking fast. It's American history too, all I had to do to learn this was have a pulse in my US history class.

Also “capitalism is real because it impacts me in a negative way but all other forms of oppression where I might be considered the privileged one in the dynamic is just hysterical people distracting from capitalism”

Girl, reading comprehension, try it out for size. I did not say these systems of oppression are not real. I'm saying demonization and fear of minorities (like, yk, trans women) is a tool of the existing power systems to make you hate us and not your actual enemy, the people in power (like, yk, rich people who are usually cis white conservative men). You keep bringing up how awful existing systems like prisons are but you just, do not analyze who fucking set those systems up. Private prisons are owned by the rich, not by the trans woman you're yelling at who is 4 bad days away from giving up and killing herself.

If trans AMAB people don’t want to be housed with cis ones, they can do the legwork and create those spaces for themselves like AFAB people did they do NOT have the right to commandeer our movement and literally erase our rights and protections because not allowing AMAB people into these vulnerable spaces might give them the big sad.

Okay so first you tell me feminist spaces weren't originally segregated by sex, and now you tell me it's an AFAB only movement? Because I know for a fact trans people have always been at bat for feminism. American white women said the same shit to women of color between 1920-1965. Cause the instant we become expendable, y'all throw us aside.

commandeer our movement

Really? Do you genuinely think trans women could ever outnumber cis women? What cartoon candyville are you from where there are more trans women than cis women? How the fuck are we going to commandeer the movement? We're like, 0.3% of the population at most. What are you talking about.

YEAH MY GUY IM FORCED TO LIVE LIKE A FUCKING PREY ANIMAL!!!

Okay so for starters, transwomen are also in constant fear. We have literally been hunted, this is just, like, a historical thing. Second, I'm not a guy. Don't call me that. You cannot honestly tell me you're not transphobic and then proceed to use exclusively masc terms to refer to me. That's just wild. Playing along with the tranny does not make you not a trans ally. You're still a transphobe just cause you're fine with trans men.

Some fear is completely rational

Yeah. We're both completely justified in our fear. I do not build my politics off my fear. You do. That's the difference. No matter how terrified I am of TMEs, I still fight for y'all. Always have, always will.

Gender is literally fake and varies from culture to culture. Sex based oppression is real and fucks over the lives of AFAB people worldwide.

Ohh, damn, so close, you'll get it next time I'm sure. See the trick is BOTH OF SEX AND GENDER ARE FAKE. Genderqueer people just admit that it's about self expression. You literally just described how fallible sex assignment is by talking about intersex people, it's like, hella cultural. Sex based oppression is real. So is Gender based oppression. Because people are shitty about fake shit, all the time, we're on tumblr, the "death threats over shipping" website.

You cannot tell me you think you're not transphobic and then claim gender oppression isn't real. I feel bad for any trans people who have the misfortune to interact with you. I hope one day you realize you fought on the wrong side of history. And if not? I hope they speak of you in the same breath as the grown adults trying to stop Ruby Bridges from attending school, in the same breath as the cops at Stonewall. You have an excellent day. I probably won't, but what's new. I'm sorry you're so afraid. I'm sorry you fell for it when they told you who to be afraid of. I'm sorry I couldn't do more. If anyone wants sources on this stuff, i'll add links to posts getting into it, a lot of it's screenshots and i'm not about to make this any longer than it is. There's more ofc, but I can only cite what links I have on hand, y'all can do your own research, read like, any transfem blog while they still exist. https://www.tumblr.com/honeylemony/767694258735136768?source=share https://www.tumblr.com/marxism-transgenderism/767536279224270848/okay-ive-said-before-that-part-of-why https://www.tumblr.com/girldogmystic/766813723287502848/i-wanna-get-more-specific-with-this-according-to

"OP is a terf" is a thought-terminating cliche meant to keep you from questioning the status quo and keep you afraid of being labeled a heretic should you come to your own conclusions about anything.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Michelangelo Signorile at The Signorile Report:

There have been many postmortems on the outcome of the election for Democrats, looking at how certain minority groups voted—and how they supposedly shifted their vote—but there’s been very little written about one particular minority group: LGBTQ voters. And yet, in context, LGBTQ voters displayed the kind of influence as a bloc that politicians should be paying attention to moving forward. I suspect part of the reason they’ve not been focused on is because these voters don’t fit an overwhelming corporate media narrative that positions Donald Trump as having broadened and diversified his coalition—because LGBTQ people actually went the other way. According to the NBC News Exit Poll, LGBTQ people doubled their share of the electorate, from 4% in 2020 to 8% in 2024, which is nothing to sneeze at. (Researchers have shown the percentage of the LGBTQ population appears to be roughly equal in all of the states.) And 86% of LGBTQ people voted for Kamala Harris—well over 10 million voters—a big increase from the 71% who voted for Joe Biden in 2020. Donald Trump saw a sharp decline in support from LGBTQ voters, from 25% in 2020 to just 14% in 2024.

[...]

But regarding LGBTQ voters, the shift in the national exit polling is big enough—and the growth in the percentage of the electorate is large enough—to assume that something happened. While many other groups moved toward Trump a bit—or saw less turnout in some places—LGBTQ people went in the opposite direction. I believe a few things came into play. The toxic masculinity that marked the Trump campaign was as threatening to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people as it is to many women. (Harris overwhelmingly won Black women, and, though Trump won white women, Harris did better with white women than Biden did in 2020). The Trump campaign’s bro culture on steroids, exemplified by the white supremacist elements of Trump’s base as well as among the many young right-wing and even independent male podcasters Trump courted, often telegraphed homophobia and transphobia. Even when it wasn’t overt, it sent a message that you’re not included if you’re queer. And the blatant anti-trans messaging from Trump and the GOP—and the vicious ads they aired in media markets—horrified almost the entire LGBTQ community.

[...]

First off, as far as many in Trump’s base are concerned—including the aggressively anti-LGBTQ Christian right—there is no “normal” gay anything. They believe we’re all abnormal—freaks and sinners. Secondly, the idea that some great majority of queer people—or the “normal gay guys”—would vote for Trump because they were eager to throw trans people under the bus is clearly false. I’m not saying all cisgender gay, lesbian, and bisexual people support all trans people—there are fissures, as there are in any movement—but I believe most do, understanding the clear connections we have about our bodies and our privacy and about how those who hate us view us.

Beyond that, Trump and the justices he put on the Supreme Court are a threat to marriage equality and anti-discrimination laws protecting gay, bi and lesbian people, especially in public accommodations. Kamala Harris, meanwhile, was marrying gay couples going back to 2004 as a district attorney in San Francisco—before being shut down by the California Supreme Court—and enforced protections as California attorney general while being outspoken as a U.S. senator. The other thing I would say is that queer people know a fascist when they see one. They know what it’s like to be scapegoated. And, if they know their history, they know the brutality and violence LGBTQ people experienced in the past at the hands of strongmen. So do Jews, of course, who also voted overwhelmingly for Harris—by 79%—which must have angered Trump, who demanded their vote at rallies and even berated them, claiming they owed it to him for his support of Israel.

While most demographics moved to the right this election to varying degrees, this key demographic swung left: the LGBTQ+ community.

This is due to the fact that LGBTQ+ issues got more attention this election, thanks to the GOP’s hate-fueled anti-LGBTQ+ (and especially anti-trans) campaigning.

[troublewithvampires]

salvatore siblings mega post.

just realized i've never made a post talking about sal's siblings? wack.

anyway, i don't have drawn visual references for sal's siblings, but i do have like. approximations. these aren't completely accurate but they're definitely close. (picrew link)

sal has three siblings, of which he's the youngest: jesse burke, beth armstrong (formerly burke), and martin burke. in modern day, beth and martin are still alive, but jesse died in the late 1990s.

more info and approximate faceclaims and picrews under the cut! this is really fucking long, though, so no one is obligated to read all of this. it got out of hand very fast.

short summaries:

jesse was a stockbroker who was involved in a lot of white collar crime and helped establish some of sal's mob connections. he and sal were closer than the other siblings, who were pretty distant. after sal went missing, jesse investigated himself and found out he was murdered--shortly after, victor had him... eliminated.

beth is retired now, married to her long-time best friend and mother to three children, who each are adults now with their own children. she became a mother younger than she was ready to handle, but she was determined to do right by her daughter and make a good life for herself.

martin is an army veteran, having fought and lost a leg in the vietnam war. in modern day, martin is happy with his long-time romantic partner, a man named carson, and their six dogs. after sal disappeared, martin and beth became close again, talking after years of bitterness.

content warnings: non-graphic talk of drug abuse/overdoses, suicide, terminal illness, transphobia, and abuse.

jesse burke - 1934-1999 (died age 65)

(approximate faceclaim: eric stoltz) (age in picrew: 35)

jesse was very close with beth and martin when he was younger, but after their father's death he began emotionally drifting apart from the family. he never had much of a chance to bond with baby salvatore, but he did what he could to help out around the house.

from the age of 16, he was basically the man of the house, despite being only a teenager at the time.

still, the moment he could, he left home to attend university (studying finance and business), and he found it was a breath of fresh air. he had a lot more to worry about with his studies, but he felt like he could breathe for perhaps the first time. so while he stayed in touch with his siblings, he rarely, if ever, came home after he left to go to school.

very book-smart and charismatic, very good at finding the right people to be friends with and making sure to leave an impression on them. though he was very intelligent and a hard worker, his greatest skill was identifying the right people to mingle with and making the right impressions on them. truly a king of networking.

this charisma helped get him in the door with the right people to get his foot in the door in wall street, and by the 1970s he was working with a prestigious stockbroking firm. jesse got to live his best 'wolf of wall street' life, without a care in the world.

as an adult, he actually was on pretty decent terms with salvatore, unlike his siblings. sure, they rarely talked, but he really respected what sal was doing. it wasn't legal, sure, but they were both making names for themselves away from their family. they were both businessmen, and jesse thought that was all that mattered.

jesse also was pretty accepting of sal being a man. he didn't *get* it, sure, but he saw no reason to question it and never made a big deal about it one way or the other. his little sister was actually his little brother? oh, cool. well at least he's making something of himself, unlike the other two.

he was so impressed with sal, in fact, that he helped sal with networking. jesse is the one who introduced salvatore to mario gianette, aka nickels. he was the *in* sal needed to finally start working with the boss he worked with until he died.

in the mid 70s, sal completely cut ties with their mother and other siblings. jesse reached out to him after this, and the two had a drink together. they didn't talk much, but they enjoyed each other's company.

in the early 80s, sal introduced jesse to his closest associate, victor bonicelli. jesse and victor got along very well and started working very closely together. sure, jesse wasn't directly involved with any of the *super* illegal shit (in his words), but he helped keep the operation running financially.

when sal disappeared in the mid-80s, jesse was devastated--much more than he was when his mom passed the year before. he had a very public breakdown and was strongly urged by his bosses to take a break from work. for the first few months, he tried to use his money and influence to *find* sal, to no avail.

in the meantime, he ended up leaning a lot on victor. sal was victor's best friend, right? so they could grieve together.

a few years later, jesse discovered that victor was behind salvatore's disappearance. before he could do anything with this information, though, victor had him taken care of.

in the late 80s, jesse's firm was the subject of numerous criminal investigations into his mob connections. before he knew it, all of his business partners were turning against him to save their skin, and he became the scapegoat for all of the debauchery he and his associates had been up to for years.

jesse was arrested and spent ten years in jail, losing basically everything he had in the process. during this time, he wrote dozens of letters to salvatore--he knew sal would never read them, but the guilt for working with his brother's killer was eating him alive and he had to atone *somehow.*

when jesse was released in 1999 on parole, he just kinda... fell off the map. about a month later, he was found dead in a hotel room after an overdose.

beth armstrong - 1938-present (still alive)

(approximate faceclaim: jane seymour) (age in picrew: 32)

beth is the middle child, and she certainly acts the part. with an inferiority complex a mile wide, she's always been keenly aware of the fact that she's not as impressive as her siblings in many ways. she's not as nice as martin, not as smart as jesse, not as hard-working as salvatore. she was just beth.

beth has never been very family-oriented, but as the siblings' mother had to spend more and more time away from home to earn the money to care for them, she was often stuck caring for her younger siblings.

she began to resent this as she got older. she'd always been outspoken and fiery (how else would anyone pay attention to her, after all?), but she became doubly so during her teen years and into her early 20s. she threw herself headlong into activism, right around the beginning of second-wave feminism and the flower power movement.

beth still lived at home in this time, helping take care of her younger brothers and the house when she could, at least up until she was 23 and their uncle clarence took sal away and enlisted him to work with his mob buddies. at the time, beth was fucking pissed at her mom for allowing it, which led to them having an explosive argument one night.

beth said some things she regrets, calling her mom an irresponsible cunt who never should've been a mom, and anna fired right back--she told beth to her face that she didn't know the first thing about motherhood, so she had no room to talk. she was *nothing* and would always *be* nothing to the people around her unless she got her shit together and stopped being such a self-righteous little bitch. after that, they nearly stopped speaking altogether.

about a week later, beth left home, moving out to live with a friend for a few months before getting an apartment by herself. she was determined never to go back.

for a few years, beth took a few odd jobs to get by, never really settling into one career. she tried to keep in touch with her siblings, but jesse was an asshole and martin seemed to be turning the same way. as for sal... beth never really understood him, and she was fine with that. she never approved of the shit he was involved with, but she knew he didn't have a choice. i think beth pitied him, but there was a part of her that was bitter. sal was at least *something.*

(and in regards to sal being trans... beth never knew about that, really, and as far as she knew, he was a cis woman forced to dress as a man to make money for their selfish irresponsible mom.)

then, when beth was 26, she had a drunken one-night stand with a man named robert, which resulted in her getting pregnant. robert gave her no way to contact him, and she couldn't find him in the end to tell him about his baby.

she didn't know what to do, and for a time she spiraled, terrified of what the future held. she couldn't have this baby! she couldn't be a mother. she didn't want to be a mother. but it seemed she didn't have much of a choice--abortion wasn't legal at this point, and beth couldn't in good conscience put the baby up for adoption.

eventually, she moved back in with her mom--anna seemed eager to meet her grandchild, enough so to forget about the previous animosity. by this point, sal had moved out entirely, but beth didn't pay much mind to that. she figured he was fine, happy somewhere with their uncle. aside from the money he sent each month to support her and their mom, she didn't care at all.

before she knew it, beth was back where she was before, living with a mother she constantly butted heads with. however, this time around, her priorities were different--she had her own kid to think about. beth was determined to be a better mother than anna, no matter what.

her daugher, allison, was born in early 1965, a tiny girl who screamed and wailed from the moment she was born. and beth... was apprehensive, but she loved this baby. and as she held her newborn, beth promised her in a quiet voice that she'd give her a good life. allison would never grow up feeling unimportant--beth would make sure of it.

in the years that followed, beth began throwing herself headlong into being a family woman. the same passion she once threw into activism was now dedicated to making sure this was a healthy, stable household for her daughter. she didn't always succeed, though, and in her desperation to make things be okay, she drove the family apart. martin moved back in for a short time, and he grew angry and bitter at her constant fretting that they needed to be a family and she needed to take care of them. she couldn't understand why he wouldn't cooperate with her, and he couldn't understand why she cared so much.

when her mom got sick, beth became even more entrenched in being a caretaker for those around her. she and her mom never got along, sure but the idea of living in a world without her made beth's head swim. she was constantly stressed trying to keep things together, but still, they fell apart.

in the mid 70s, beth ended up in a screaming argument with salvatore about this very issue. she thought he was being selfish for not wanting to come home and see their mom before she died, even though beth had once been the same way. by the end of the conversation, beth was in tears, and she told sal to go fuck himself. he told her to do the same. and they never spoke again.

beth kept living with her mother up until 1977, when allison was 12. that year, anna passed away. about a year before that, beth met a man named joey at her job as a waitress, and they'd hit it off right away. he was the new cook, and he was the first person in a long time to treat beth like she really mattered. they were fast friends, and they had a close bond. thicker than thieves in every sense of the word.

so, when beth came to joey in tears after her mother finally passed, joey had no problem moving beth and allison and into his place right away. not as a romantic thing, but to make sure his friend and her daughter would be okay. they had nowhere else to go, after all, and he had the space and money to be able to help them out.

beth, joey, and allison settled into their new life together gradually, soon becoming a close little family unit. joey and beth's relationship remained platonic for years, but they co-parented allison very well. for all intents and purposes, they were her parents.

to make things easier, eventually joey and beth decided to get married. not out of any romantic interest in each other, but just to make sure they could take care of allison and be there for each other. while living with joey, beth was allowed to really be herself, not forced to take care of everything and keep a splintering family together against all odds. it was... freeing. beth had two more children with joey (a boy named scott in 1979 and a girl named rebecca in 1982), though no romance blossomed between them still. they were happy to coparent as friends, with no spark of anything between them.

so freeing, in fact, that beth decided to leave the past behind. she wasn't interested in the sinking ship that was her old family--she had a new family, after all. one that loved and appreciated her.

still, she wanted to do right by her siblings, so she did keep in touch with them, to some degree. she never spoke to salvatore again, but she did send him one last letter that their mother had written him, as an attempt to offer some kind of closure. she never heard back, but she didn't think much of that.

... until sal went missing one year later. beth was shocked when she heard the news, and she spent the evening bawling into joey's chest. though she hadn't spoken to sal in years and had written off her old family for the most part, she couldn't help but wonder what could've been... sure, salvatore was an asshole, but still! it put something into perspective for beth: even if her old family was shit, they were still family, and she didn't want to lose them.

in the aftermath of salvatore's disappearance, beth reached out to martin, and the two started talking. they caught up, and over time they began to mend their damaged relationship. it wasn't perfect, especially because jesse never returned any calls from either of them, but it was real. the road was rocky, but it was there. for the first time in decades, beth's family began putting itself back together.

in modern day, beth is still married to joey, has retired from a fulfilling career as the manager of a grocery store, and her three children are now all adults with their own children. she is loved, and she is happy. she's had a lot of hardships in her life, but she's satisfied with where she is now.

martin burke - 1944-present (still alive)

(approximate faceclaim: paul blackthorne) (age in picrew: 33)

the youngest of the burke siblings, and the one who was hit hardest by their father's disappearance. martin always idolized their dad, and he never had much time to process that grief.

as a child, martin was always very kind and pacifistic, but both of those qualities certainly became less prominent with time. the older martin got, the angrier and angrier he became, and by the time he was an adult, he was *deeply* cynical and bitter towards those around him.

almost the moment he turned 18, martin left home to join the military. he grew up on stories about his cousin, scott, who was (in his father's words) a war hero during world war 2. martin was never close with scott, but he wanted to follow in his footsteps regardless.

after all, dad always talked about how great scott was. maybe becoming the kind of man his dad could be proud of would make martin feel closer to the old man.

anyway yeah lmao martin fought in the vietnam war. he was never particularly patriotic, but he went into the war thinking he'd be a *hero* and could *be a great man* just like scott. that didn't happen, though--instead, martin was severely injured in his first battle, and soon after he was medically discharged and sent home.

for the first few months after he came home, martin lived with his mom and sister beth while he recovered. his left leg was completely fucked, and ultimately it had to be amputated. he had to re-learn how to walk and function, and he also had to deal with his family.

during this time, he interacted with salvatore a few times, and he grew to resent sal for the pure, simple fact that sal had an *out.* he didn't *have* to be there, because he had a *job* and a *life* and *friends* who loved him, and he could just fucking go and never come back.

one day, martin met a man named carson, a nurse at the local hospital who was charged with helping martin with his physical therapy. immediately, martin was a huge dick to him--what kind of man took a job as a fucking *nurse* outside of combat?

carson quickly put that bitch in his place and martin shut his mouth REAL fast haha!

eventually, carson and martin became very close, and over the course of several years, they fell in love. eventually, they moved in together in the late 70s. after that, martin mostly stopped talking to his mother and sister, though he keeps in touch sometimes. he's much happier with carson's family.

when sal went missing in the 80s, martin was... unsurprised, but he was definitely upset by it. for a good few weeks, he wondered what could've been if he'd stayed in touch. maybe he could've done something. ultimately, though, he decided to just... move on and not dwell on it too much. enjoy the moment with the love of his life.

he had similar reactions to the deaths of jesse and his mom--sure, it sucked, but he had to keep going. and at least he had carson to lean on, as well as other friends he made over the years.

carson and martin are like... that old gay couple that's been together for decades, married in all but name. they're bonded for life, and they're enjoying growing old together with their dogs. (they have six dogs total: bandit, roger, pirate, zeus, ziggy, and princess)

modern day martin is still a little jackass, but he's settled down. he's no longer as angry and bitter, and now he's just like. a sweet old man.

[trans-androgyne]

To the trans boys looking at news on transphobia and transandrophobia today, please don’t. The most important thing in the whole world to me right now is that you take care of yourselves; you’ve been on my mind all day and you will be for much longer, I love you so deeply and I’ll do anything I can to support and protect you. Trans guys and transmascs have an especially high rate of self-harm and suicidal ideation, and with certain fearmongering you may have heard around our community by certain groups specifically, that may be much worse right now. It’s entirely possible your life will be negatively affected for a while, including possible transition delays. But this is only temporary, for your current and future self and every trans person out there I need you to do your best to keep up hope. There is so much trans joy to be had in your life, I promise you. I’ll be there right by your side, and I’m sincerely here to talk if you need me.

[rebellum]

I feel like... Perhaps... Arguing that transphobia is defined by murder and that anything other than murder doesn't even matter... May NOT be conducive to fighting for trans rights.

Like... people want the right to exist as they are. They want to have access to hrt and surgeries and prosthetics. People want access to clothes that fit them and reflect how they want to be seen. People want access to medical care (eg. Getting screened and treated for sex-based forms of cancer can be impossible if you have the "wrong" sex listed to receive those tests). People want to be respected and treated well. People want to not be sexually assaulted and beaten and abused. People want to have access to housing and jobs, and the protection to not lose those things for being trans. People want access to shelters for homeless people or survivors of domestic abuse. People want name changes.

Acting like all of those things don't matter because at least they weren't murderered by an individual (and instead die of suicide or state violence, or survive and suffer) isn't okay.

[not-poignant]

Okay! Didn't want to have to say this but I'm going to say it!

Don't send me transphobic nonsense in your anon asks to me. Don't send your TERF thoughts to me and end your anon message with 'no hate' when you've just been hateful and invalidating. You might not be aware of this, but I'm a trans person, and this space on Tumblr and on my AO3 isn't a democracy and TERFs will not get their voices heard here. Good luck, keep trying, I love blocking bigots.

If you're transphobic and you read Underline the Black and I realise you're transphobic, I'm just going to start blocking you outright, deleting your comments. In this day and age, transphobic, hateful nonsense is everywhere, but it doesn't get to be here.

You don't have a right to have a voice here, you don't have a right to have your anonymous transphobic asks answered here, and you don't have a right to expect your comments to stay on my AO3 stories when they happen. And if, if by some chance, you have no idea you're a complete transphobe and you find your comment on Underline has been deleted? The only person you need to be angry at is yourself.

I'm trans, and I have too many trans followers to give any kind of airtime to transphobes.

Antis I will happily take on when I have something productive to add to the conversation.

There is nothing productive for me personally about giving space to transphobic views on my blog.

(And for everyone else, no this isn't currently a huge problem, but I've had about two borderline transphobic comments on Underline the Black and I've now gotten a transparently transphobic anonymous ask about it. I'm dealing with it now, and also making my stance clear. TERFs are banned in the Discord, you can expect that I maintain this view everywhere, including here and on my AO3.)

[radelenagreco]

it sucks so bad to see intelligent women talk about transmisogyny

[bucketspammer4life]

☆ punch out sexuality headcanons ☆

im running out of funny things to say help me, also tw for mentions of homophobia & transphobia

Glass Joe

- aromantic asexual (sex neutral, romance positive) + trans, he/him

- Just because hes ace doesnt mean he doesnt make inappropriate jokes on a daily basis, if there was a ranking of who made the most sexual jokes he'd be at the top

- when he came out as trans to his parents they were suprisingly supportive even though they didnt understand much, it just went like: "mom, dad, im a boy and if you dont like that too bad" "we dont care as long as you dont murder anyone" And they were generally chill with him

- when he first binded he used bandages & cloth instead of a actual binder (before he came out) and due to that he almost wasnt able to get top surgery

- has faked a lot of crushes to fit in during his childhood, ended up dating 3-5 people he didnt even like

- thought his gender envy was attraction until he just asked himself "do i wanna be them or be with them" And boom, gender confusion

- fell down the "im not like other girls!" to "im not a girl." pipeline

Von Kaiser

- demiromantic, demisexual + bi with a preference for men, he/they

- when he didnt know the demi labels he just saw himself as a picky dater, when he saw the demi labels he was like "Wait thats me" And pretty much ascended on the spot

- thought everyone just liked both men & women until he said it out loud and got met with pure shock

- his first crush was a famous model he saw in a fashion magazine, also slipping down the "do i wanna be them or be with them" pipeline

- his dad wasnt really supportive but became a bit more open minded once he realized that his hatred distanced himself from his son even more

Disco Kid

- nonbinary,gay, he/she

- okay with both feminine & masculine terms

- somebody tried to call him "princess" to insult him when he was little, instead he took it as a compliment and saw them as a friend, still in contact with said person & theyre besties now, the princess thing has become a nickname for him

- when he first came out his parents were like "the closet was wide open" and were not suprised at all, they saw it coming 1000 miles away as soon as he started it out with the "i have to say something important"

- started doing make up & playing around with dresses thanks to a close friend of his (the childhood friend) , when he first put on a dress he was like "i think i realized something"

King Hippo

- #1 label hater + all pronouns

- if he were to use labels, he would count as gender apathetic and pan oriented aroace

- labels are for losers to him

- not out but his parents know that he doesnt give a shit about labels, they first found out when he didnt care about being called "queen" and liked it, they have no problem with it

Piston Hondo

- pan, cis (?) + he/him but likes to refer to himself with feminine pronouns in japanese

- not out to his parents but dropping hints, theyre struggling to pick up on it and hes going mad over it

- going through some major gender questioning™

- playing around with dresses & femininity and enjoying it

Great Tiger

- polysexual (prefs are enbies, men & genderqueer ppl), genderqueer + all pronouns

- closeted it but trying to make it clear hes not straight,its just flying over his parents head like "oh me oh my our son is sure close with his friends!! Such close bros"

- likes dresses not only for spinning skirts but also how comfy they are

Bear Hugger

- gay, bear (ITS IN THE NAME. COME ON THE CLOSET IS GLASS), trans + he/him but ok with they/them

- when he first came out there was a lot of crying, not in the "i wont accept this wahh" way but more in the "i cant believe you trusted me enough to tell me this" way

- didnt know he was trans until he said "yeah i like being called son, yeah i like being called manly, im a girl though" out loud and he was like "wait a minute"

- has had 2-3 boyfriends during his teen years and is still in touch with them since the break ups were done without any harsh feelings & grudges, hes the only person that can see his exes all chatting together and not die of a heart attack on the spot

Don Flamenco

- gay, trans + he/they

- got called gay way before he knew it since he kept calling his male friends handsome often, always passed it off like "cant a man call his friend handsome?"

- the only feminine terms he will accept is queen and aunt, refer to him as anything other than that and he will punch you to orbit

- cut off contact with his parents since they didnt accept him & kicked him out, the only person who took him in was his aunt, she helped him get t & bind safely before he got top surgery

Aran Ryan

- genderfluid, pomosexual + all pronouns

- label hater but still uses them because why not

- came out in the most casual way possible, was just chilling on the couch with his dad and he just said "i kinda like being called miss sometimes" from boredom just to see dad go "huh??"

- sometimes does drag when he feels fem

Soda Popinski

- gay, cis + he/him

- Rocky dating history, most break-ups of his were really sad since it was either forced by family members or over arguments

- exes with bald bull but they still get along & dont care about their past, they just had better platonic connection and decided together

- out but not, making it clear hes a bit fruity but not too much for it to snowball into "the rumour come out: does soda popinski is gay?"

Bald Bull

- Boyflux, gay + he/they

- flamboyantly gay and cannot hide it no matter how much he tries, the closet is not even present, show him someone he has a crush on and you'll hear the gayest squeal in your life before he evaporates into thin air and holds you at gunpoint

- has the Don Flamenco issue going for him, compliments his male friends and calls them handsome wayyy too often, this time its 99% more obvious

- either really bitter with his exes or close friends, no inbetween, if you tell him "yeah your exes asked about you, theyre there" theres a 50% chance its gonna have his soul physically exit him and another 50% chance hes gonna walk right over to them and say hi

- not out publicly since it would cause a shitstorm, only out to a few people he trusts, has issues trusting people to not say his secrets since a close friend of his outed him during his teen years

Super Macho Man

- bi (slight pref for women), cis + he/she

- didnt really come out, he just showed up to his parents door with his (now ex) bf and was like "heyy say hi to my boyfriend" and everyone just kinda accepted it

- thought the attraction to men was envy for a long time until he learned the fact that wanting to be lifted into the arms of a man and making out with said man is not really straight

Mr Sandman

- gendervoid, demiromantic, acespec, pan + all pronouns

- feels like he should be more masculine but cant bring himself to it,he cant force his behavior to act in a way that doesnt fit him

- out and about, hes not repressing himself for anyone

[lesbiansanemi]

Gay trans men be normal about women challenge. Especially trans women and lesbians

[mx-paint]

terfs are so fucking weird they'll see a butch complaining about how she can't go into the restroom without getting pepper sprayed and be like "all because of them nasty transexuals 🤬🙄" my sister in Christ YOU are the reason she's getting assaulted

[familiaralien]

I think the most nonsense part of numbnuts insisting cis is a slur is other marginalized groups also have terminology for "not part of X group". Its super obvious people arguing that words is a slur are just trying to use their position of power over trans people to silence them.

For example if I was being a little antisemitic dipship and a Jewish person replied to me with something like "Gentiles learn to shut the fuck up: challenged impossible" I couldn't insist (in good faith) that gentile is a slur. Like it be self evident I'm just trying to derail the topic of addressing my (hypothetical) antisemitism by being arguably even more bigoted toward Jews. A word that just means "not Jewish" is clearly not offensive even if the person using it did so in anger.

Basically in summary a slur is suppose to be disparaging in of itself! Feeling uncomfortable with the notion of not being seen as the default and sole "correct" human experience is not actually being disparaged: that's just you being a sensitive little snowflake that needs to suck it up.

[ssaltlicker]

People will be like no im not lesbophobic i just automatically categorize all lesbians as violent evil predatory misandrists and will frame everything they say as violent and hateful without actually learning if its accurate first. I also assume anyone that uses or includes lesbian-specific terms in their identity irl or online is evil. Why would that be problematic in any way

Terfs rot in hell btw

[emawinslow]

went out to dinner with sarah suitemate today and she was genuinely personally offended that someone in our class on monday said that they didn’t like rich, white, cis, straight people. like girl. would you get over yourself

[annoyingloudmicrowavecultist]

ugh i can’t vote for anyone in the tboy swag semifinals bc i have a grudge against all of them. joking i love them but. doof took out apollo, miles took out barney, link took out mettaton, sonic took out apollo in the general trans swag competition. my approach to these polls has always been pettiness first and who i think should win second and im not changing now

[void-thegod]

I just don't get what humanity's deal is.

[digitalcockroach]

idgaf about the terminology used tbqh but idk how u can say trans women & transfems face a specific unique flavor of transphobia and nonbinary(etc) genders face a specific unique flavor of transphobia but somehow trans men & transmascs only experience like "normal" transphobia how does that make any sense to anyone