#I can't believe we're both gay and trans

[nerdylittleguy]

trans masc barney and trans femme gordon do you see the vision

alyx is a communist (I started playing hl2 today)

[saltedsolenoid]

WAS I RIGHT AT ALL?

Not really. But I'm still proud of you.

[endusviolence]

Rowling isn't denying holocaust. She just pointed out that burning of transgender health books is a lie as that form of cosmetic surgery didn't exist. But of course you knew that already, didn't you?

I was thinking I'd probably see one of you! You're wrong :) Let's review the history a bit, shall we?

In this case, what we're talking about is the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, or in English, The Institute of Sexology. This Institute was founded and headed by a gay Jewish sexologist named Magnus Hirschfeld. It was founded in July of 1919 as the first sexology research clinic in the world, and was run as a private, non-profit clinic. Hirschfeld and the researchers who worked there would give out consultations, medical advice, and even treatments for free to their poorer clientele, as well as give thousands of lectures and build a unique library full of books on gender, sexuality, and eroticism. Of course, being a gay man, Hirschfeld focused a lot on the gay community and proving that homosexuality was natural and could not be "cured".

Hirschfeld was unique in his time because he believed that nobody's gender was either one or the other. Rather, he contended that everyone is a mixture of both male and female, with every individual having their own unique mix of traits.

This leads into the Institute's work with transgender patients. Hirschfeld was actually the one to coin the term "transsexual" in 1923, though this word didn't become popular phrasing until 30 years later when Harry Benjamin began expanding his research (I'll just be shortening it to trans for this brief overview.) For the Institute, their revolutionary work with gay men eventually began to attract other members of the LGBTA+, including of course trans people.

Contrary to what Anon says, sex reassignment surgery was first tested in 1912. It'd already being used on humans throughout Europe during the 1920's by the time a doctor at the Institute named Ludwig Levy-Lenz began performing it on patients in 1931. Hirschfeld was at first opposed, but he came around quickly because it lowered the rate of suicide among their trans patients. Not only was reassignment performed at the Institute, but both facial feminization and facial masculization surgery were also done.

The Institute employed some of these patients, gave them therapy to help with other issues, even gave some of the mentioned surgeries for free to this who could not afford it! They spoke out on their behalf to the public, even getting Berlin police to help them create "transvestite passes" to allow people to dress however they wanted without the threat of being arrested. They worked together to fight the law, including trying to strike down Paragraph 175, which made it illegal to be homosexual. The picture below is from their holiday party, Magnus Hirschfeld being the gentleman on the right with the fabulous mustache. Many of the other people in this photo are transgender.

[Image ID: A black and white photo of a group of people. Some are smiling at the camera, others have serious expressions. Either way, they all seem to be happy. On the right side, an older gentleman in glasses- Magnus Hirschfeld- is sitting. He has short hair and a bushy mustache. He is resting one hand on the shoulder of the person in front of him. His other hand is being held by a person to his left. Another person to his right is holding his shoulder.]

There was always push back against the Institute, especially from conservatives who saw all of this as a bad thing. But conservatism can't stop progress without destroying it. They weren't willing to go that far for a good while. It all ended in March of 1933, when a new Chancellor was elected. The Nazis did not like homosexuals for several reasons. Chief among them, we break the boundaries of "normal" society. Shortly after the election, on May 6th, the book burnings began. The Jewish, gay, and obviously liberal Magnus Hirschfeld and his library of boundary-breaking literature was one of the very first targets. Thankfully, Hirschfeld was spared by virtue of being in Paris at the time (he would die in 1935, before the Nazis were able to invade France). His library wasn't so lucky.

This famous picture of the book burnings was taken after the Institute of Sexology had been raided. That's their books. Literature on so much about sexuality, eroticism, and gender, yes including their new work on trans people. This is the trans community's Alexandria. We're incredibly lucky that enough of it survived for Harry Benjamin and everyone who came after him was able to build on the Institute's work.

[Image ID: A black and white photo of the May Nazi book burning of the Institute of Sexology's library. A soldier, back facing the camera, is throwing a stack of books into the fire. In the background of the right side, a crowd is watching.]

As the Holocaust went on, the homosexuals of Germany became a targeted group. This did include transgender people, no matter what you say. To deny this reality is Holocaust denial. JK Rowling and everyone else who tries to pretend like this isn't reality is participating in that evil. You're agreeing with the Nazis.

But of course, you knew that already, didn't you?

Edit: Added image IDs. I apologize to those using screen readers for forgetting them. Please reblog this version instead.

[aptericia]

Not proud to be here.

--

Ok, here goes draft like 5 of this fucking post. I spent 4 hours tossing and turning in bed last night thinking about this, and then this morning I found a tumblr post that really helped me understand what I was trying to say.

The post talks about how aromantic "advocates" claim that "aros don't take up resources, so there's no reason not to include them!" And if that's actually what people believe, I think I can finally articulate why it is that I feel so alienated in queer spaces.

It's because aspecs in general aren't "welcomed" by much of the queer community. We're tolerated. We perhaps get the luxury of not being contradicted on our own identities, or not being specifically kicked out of LGBTQ-only spaces, but that's the whole point: what we get out of the queer "community" is people NOT doing things, not actually doing things FOR us. And that, frankly, is not enough. We deserve conversations about us. We deserve to have others consider our feelings, even when making lighthearted jokes. We deserve varied, respectful representation in media. We deserve the active deconstruction of amatonormativity in society. We deserve to have space made for us, rather than at most being told we should "go take up more space!" ourselves.

Of course, the reality is that my being aspec is a personal matter that does not inherently affect anyone else. But the same can be said for literally any queer identity. Your being gay doesn't say anything about me, so of course I shouldn't hurt you for it, but why should I help you either? Because your happiness and comfort are important. The same goes for aspecs.

And most of the time, I don't even need anyone to make space for or expend resources on me; I can live fine in everyday, non-queer-specific places without mentioning my identity at all. But it's the queer community that claims it will make that space for me, doesn't, and then acts defensive and morally pure if I call out the hypocrisy because "we're queer too, you can't erase our identities to advocate for yours!!!!"

Again, this post isn't about specifics. I have queer friends who are incredibly thoughtful and supportive about my identity, just as I have non-queer friends who are. I find more solidarity in aspec-only communities, as well as trans/genderqueer ones, although there are still many exceptions. This post is also not about amatonormative ideology, which is extremely common from queer and non-queer people alike. This post is about the reason I've felt so betrayed by the queer community.

--

On a personal note, I remember being so excited when I started identifying as aromantic (and later asexual). Fitting myself into labels has been a lifelong struggle for me; to this day I still can't confidently say if I'm White or PoC, neurotypical or neurodivergent, abled or disabled, cisgender or not cisgender. I continue to struggle making friends because I don't fall into social cliques. To discover that I officially, certainly, was LGBTQ+ lifted a huge weight off my shoulders. And now I'm just so sad to find that despite that, I'm still stuck in the middle. I didn't get rewarded with a community. I still feel alienated from both queer and non-queer people. I know it was silly to get my hopes up when there's such vast diversity in both groups, but it really was a disappointment. Going to my first Pride parade last year was really the moment where I realized this.

[tirfpikachu]

Oh we're doing radbrl hot takes? Gladly. I've been lurking on here for 5 years and I've things to say.

Sex dysphoria can be innate. It's rare and the ROGD is bullshit, but sex dysphoria is as real as other mental illnesses. We have Body Integrity Identity Disorder cases to prove that.

It's good to share more awareness to possible consequences and realistic outcomes of GRS + to the fact that it is a dangerous, experimental surgery that may not provide relief. But if you're arguing for banning it altogether you're insane. People have the right to bodily autonomy 100% of the time which includes the right to do dangerous and dumb shit to themselves. If you advocate for banning trans surgeries might as well sign your rights to tubal ligations away because they rely on the same fucking principle.

While we're on that topic you people treat detrans people like shit 90% of the time and only pretend to be normal about them to win detrans people over. Pick one. Also you refer to detrans peoples' surgeries with whichever term the person discussed uses. If they say it's mutilation, it's mutilation. If they say it helped, then it helped. Idgaf.

If I see one more radbrl account fakeclaiming autism (+ others) when it's a well-known factor women are underdiagnosed with it in ASTRONOMICAL NUMBERS I'm going to fucking snap. "But autistic men"- autistic men aren't on tumbrl or tiktok they're on Reddit. Next.

R-word usage. Spesks for itself.

Personality disordes (BPD, NPD, whatever) aren't "just hysteria". In a way that I believe they are because they're poorly named, understudied, disregarded and weaponised by psych industry. These diagnosed have been turned into a target on women's back it's true. And they're almost entirely truama-based. However people with these diagnosed do experience a specific set of issues and symptoms that can't be showed into CPTSD alone. Nuance. We're finally approaching the moment where we can give a name to (usually female-specific) responses to the extreme trauma caused by psychiatry and y'all aren't helping by saying it's fake.

Radbrl is rampatly pro-psych when you'd think they'd be against it and examined women's history with it. Any reasonable radical feminist should be at least psych-critical, end of.

Not done yet! 8) Q+ movement has completely screwed over actual asexual people in every way possible. But actual asexuality (what q+ would define as "aroace") is natural and normal. It's a way for nature to regulate population just like gay and bi sexualities are. Radbrl is both arguing that asexuality is inherently trauma based is just wrong and also borrowing conversion therapy rhetorics lol. 9) You can criticise annoying "ace" people all you want and they are partially responsible for LGB struggles right now but at the end of the day they're just teens on the Internet you're attacking for being traumatised and also even if it is trauma... So then what? They're obligated to recover from that now? How come? Towards which purpose? How would you personally benefit from their healing and that they have sex now? Most likely with men while being women? That what you want? Trauma recovery can be re-traumatising yk. Why'd you wish that on anyone. 10) Women abroad (especially woc) don't have radical feminsm (except maybe 4b which is more based on our rhetorics), they have normal feminism that hasn't been divided into lib and rad because rad is closer to the general feminism that the circus that libfem is. But you still use them as pawns lol. 11) Huge ableism problem, huge racism problem, huge intersexism problem as well. Not intersex so won't speak on that but oh god you're no better than TRAs sometimes. 12) American centrism despite claiming otherwise. 13) Radbrl is Not Immune to Russian Propaganda and can't understand ethnic dynamics in europe en-masse (ref to that one Ukraine poll where a russian radfem was more self-aware than everyone else. Embarrassing eh?) 14) The banwaves took most of the good ones and many TEHM voices that were important for us so now Radbrl is a pathetic shadow of what it used to be debate-wise and takes-wise. Most of discourse now is just regurgitating the same arguments. I haven't read something eye-opening or refreshing in a long while which is why I left. This isn't everything yet but I think others have already said other things I wanted to mention. Maybe I'll pop in later with part3

[s0fti3w1tch]

"I can't believe we're both Sep AU Leos and trans!"

We realized that the Losers™/Friendship Bracelet duo (left to right: Trainee, my AU - Tentative Devotee - Leo, and Green, @raymustardd's The Night AU's Leo) were both gay trans men.

And so now we have this image :>

[ohnoitstbskyen]

I was watching your Udyr video, and it's fantastic. I really love the section about Udyr and Lee. I went to check out the skin spotlight video with all his new voicelines, and made the cardinal sin of looking in the comments for other excited queer people.

They were there, but there were so many people screaming about how they are Just Good Pals™, which was made doubly funny when I saw tons of people talking about how Udyr and Illaoi would make such a good couple and no one was busting out the dissertation on Platonic Heterosexuality on that one. We're stretching on "my spirit" but yeah, this woman he's never met would be PERFECT for him.

Anyway, I know you must see this stuff a lot in your videos, but I really appreciate you being so vocal about queerness in video games. It's really great to see

I mean, it really does sometimes feel like I am going insane when I point out the glaringly, WILDLY obvious queer subtext-- or, no, you know what, not even subtext: text -- in League of Legends characters' stories and relationship and a thousand of the most obtuse motherfuckers on the planet instantly materialize in my comments section to complain about how "why can't characters just be friends anymore?????"

I have never, not even once, had anyone post shit like that in my comments when I discuss a straight romance in anything, weirdly. It's very strange. They seemed so concerned about the sanctity of friendship. Maybe they just missed those videos.

Also, I have it on extremely good authority that Udyr and Lee Sin's relationship is romantic, it's meant to be understood as romantic, and they love each other in explicitly romantic ways. Like, Udyr's voice lines compare him to Kalkia very, very much on purpose. It is text, not subtext.

Additionally:

Lux's story is a metaphor for queerness

Neeko is lesbian

Nidalee is not straight

Taliyah is trans

Miss Fortune is turbo-sapphic, but too busy with vengeance to do anything about it

Graves is a disaster bisexual and Twisted Fate is his non-married husband

Taric is pan

Ekko and Ezreal are not straight and have a bromantic romantic on-again off-again disaster relationship in the Pulsefire universe

Caitlyn and Vi are deeply in lesbians

Draven is aro/ace but will make an exception for Draven

Diana and Leona are not sisters (please for the love of god stop believing this) and they are extremely bitter, toxic exes

Fiora is not interested in dating men, take a wild guess why

Varus is aro/ace, and he's got two wolves inside of him who are both gay

Irelia has at least one girlfriend

Seraphine and Zaun Diva, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i... well, actually they're probably singing a distressingly beautiful romantic duet of some kind

Vladimir is the queerest Dorian Gray motherfucker who ever walked on Runeterra's green grass. I can't justify this with lore, it is just obviously true

[nelbrokeloose]

*prompt I have written in my drafts*

*gay male cowboy and gay ftm trans gardener are working on the same farm. They frequent the empty stables to fuck. 9months later the gardener is bent over in an empty pen with his massive twin belly hanging low as he crowns his first baby. While the cowboy supports him.*

Oooo that's hot! More of these kinds of asks, pls! Ok, here I go

"We can't let anyone hear us." whimpered Sebastian soon after a contraction hit him.

"Don't worry about that for now." Chris said rubbing the sweaty back of his lover "Just try to breathe."

They tried to hide the pregnancy, but it became impossible on the last few months. Sebastian started getting bigger overalls and shirts but his belly would not stop growing. Soon he had to stop working on the garden and Chris took over his duties until the delivery.

"Chris, I'm scared." he said with tears in his eyes.

Chris knew they should have called someone to help but Sebastian said it was fine, he didn't want to bother anyone else on the farm.

"You're doing great, sweetie!"

"It hurts so much!"

"I know, but it will be over soon, I promise!"

Sebastian also insisted in giving birth at their love nest, precisely at the same pen they fucked for the first time. Chris' cock was bulging in his tight jeans and Sebastian's clit jolted when he saw his lover sweaty from work taking off his shirt.

Things were different now but they were closer and more intimate than ever. Chris had never seen anyone as beautiful as Sebastian having their child.

The labor was going on for the last 4 hours. Chris never left Sebastian's side and showered him with kisses, rubs and words of encouragement.

"Oh, fuck! I think it's coming out! AAAAARGH!!!" Sebastian said squatting lower and opening up his legs.

Chris squatted behind Sebastian and placed his hand over the gardner's bulging pussy. He felt the baby's hair and tears of joy ran over his cheeks.

"Push, honey! You're doing amazing!"

Sebastian was holding the pen door so tight that his fingers turned white. He didn't care anymore if anyone else would hear them. He emptied his lungs with a primal scream while he pushed.

Several minutes passed. Sebastian pushed, screamed and cried as the head reached the widest point. He thought the gravity was going to help him but he was exhausted. Chris hugged him from behind and occasionally would feel the crowning vagina to update Sebastian on the process.

"Just a few more pushes, come on!"

Sebastian pushed and the head was out.

"Keep going! We're almost done!" Chris cupped the baby and with a few more pushes the rest of the body came down.

Chris placed the crying baby boy on Sebastian's arms and hugged them both.

"You did it!"

"Thank God it's over." Sebastian laughed and lay down on a pile of hay. "I don't wanna do this again anytime soon..."

Chris kissed him passionately.

"You don't have to do this ever again, I promise."

"I don't know..." Sebastian caressed the baby's hair. "He might get lonely. Can you believe something so small made my belly grow so big?"

"Yeah, it's unbelievable."

Their moment of peace was soon over when Sebastian felt another contraction.

"What is this?" Sebastian said holding his massive belly.

"You're delivering the placenta, everything is fine." Chris assured stroking his lover's hair.

Sebastian started pushing again.

"Hmph! Is it supposed to be this painful?"

"I don't know, love."

Chris went down to the birth canal and watched as the vagina contracted with the whole belly. He then noticed Sebastian's pussy bulging again as he pushed hard and screamed in pain.

"Sebastian..."

"Ugh! Is everything fine?"

Chris heart skipped a beat when he noticed another slit of hair peeking out of the vagina.

"I think we're already having another."

[aurlieanbeloved]

I want to be explicitly clear, I don't like jkr, I fucking hate her. And this is not a safe space for terfs, and If you don't understand what I say when I say that, you have bigger problems. The amount of laws right now in the UK that are part of quite literally making it illegal to be trans and basically fucked over trans Youth and trans adults , that JKR very publicly supports , and has caused so much harm to actual people both gay and trans with the shit she says (she has compared trans women to being men in dresses, and trans men to being poor brainwashed autistic women (and that's just fucking insulting cause that also implies that she thinks that all autistic people can't make their own medical decisions ethier) and while we're at it let's talk about how she publicly announced Dumbledore is gay, and then decided in the movies (i believe this is during fimling fantastic beast) that no actually he's straight, or the incident where she compared being a wear wolf to having aids while talking about Remus. Jkr is actually a fucking terf, and I love that whenever people bring it up she loses her shit. So no this bolg isn't for you I'f you even remotely like her. I make fics for the girls and the gays and that's it.

Anyway do your own research if you don't believe me, she did write a very funny self insert fic of herself where she acts like " woe is me and Draco malfoy called me a terf and thats a slur" on Twitter (might have to scroll a bit, this was like around the beginning of the pandemic i belive)

[prosecutors-path]

i can't believe we're both gay and trans!!

[namitomoon]

Wallace: "My top surgery went really well"

Ramona: "That's great! My bottom surgery is next week"

Wallace: "I can't believe we're both gay and trans"

Scott Pilgrim: "I'm minor attracted"

[deuynndoodles]

[id: a colored, digital drawing of legend, marin and ravio from linked universe. it is a redraw of the "i can't believe we're both goth and trans" meme.

legend gestures proudly to himself and says, " my top surgery went really well!" marin leans over, listening intently. "that's great!" she says, "my bottom surgery is next week."

simultaneously, they exclaim, "i can't believe we're both gay and trans!" at the bottom, ravio gives a thumbs up and says, "i'm a capitalist". end id]

u see, ur honor, i love them

[transmascpetewentz]

Moving The Goalposts: Infighting, Exorsexism, and Transandrophobia

I want to start this off not by getting directly into the meat of my theory, but instead by showing all of you a post that I came across today that illustrates exactly what I am talking about when I say that transandrophobes, and specifically TEHMs in this case, move the goalposts in a way that causes infighting within the trans(masc) community. This is a post by a pretty well-known TEHM whose blog I've been watching for a while.

What Jackson is doing here seems pretty obvious on the surface. He's making fun of nonbinary people who were AFAB because he perceives them as fakers and/or trenders. However, when you take a look at some of the other things that he believes, you realize that it just isn't that simple.

This is a post by one of Jackson's mutuals on here. If you don't know what some of these phrases mean, "trans heterosexual" refers to gay trans people (in this case, it's likely focusing on transmascs, but this rhetoric harms transfem lesbians too), and "trans homosexual" refers to straight trans people. What lavenderlad is trying to do is infantilize non-straight trans people, acting like we are complaining about nothing (maybe hysterical, even) for pointing out the oppression that we face from cishets and cis queers alike.

But it goes even deeper.

This right here is a very interesting post, specifically because lavenderlad seems to have changed his tune completely. As opposed to infantilizing us like in the previous post, he has now switched to transandrophobic conspiracy theories about how we are apparently some sort of dominant societal force despite being less than 2% of the population. My antisemitism radar is going off right now, too, because this sounds suspiciously like your average antisemite talking about Jews. He went very quickly from treating us like we're little girls who can't do anything to treating us like evil, scary men who are trying to invade his space.

He moved the goalposts because it was convenient for him at this moment to contribute to the oppression of gay trans men.

To elaborate, there's a specific type of transandrophobia seen in these circles that Jackson and lavenderlad are using. They are applying both maleness and femaleness to us. They infantilize us like we are women, and use our perceived femininity to justify gatekeeping us out of their spaces, while also using very common anti-gay male and generally anti-marginalized male stereotypes such as us being inherently aggressive, invaders, our bodies disgusting, etc. It's exorsexism, plain and simple.

And I feel like these posts show us how transandrophobes and transphobes in general can cause infighting within the trans community. A feminine nonbinary person might look at Jackson's first post and go "see! trans men have so much better than me!" but in fact, trans men, both binary and nonbinary, aren't actually treated any better. The grass is not greener. Trans men who try to conceal our birth sex and/or transness are considered liars, trying to invade spaces we don't belong, and more; but trans men and transmascs who do not try to pass, who don't try to conceal our transness, are accused of being "not really dysphoric."

Do not be fooled into thinking that transandrophobes would like you better if your gender expression was different. They don't want trans men to be displaying our transness, they don't want us to go stealth, and they don't want anything in between. They want us to be cis. Do not argue with your trans brothers about who society hates more; because society will see you as whatever will prove a transandrophobe's point. Address the root problems of patriarchy and transandrophobia instead of letting infighting eat us alive.

[the-gay-disney-games]

Round 1A: The Little Mermaid (1989) vs. The Great Mouse Detective (1986)

Propaganda:

The Little Mermaid:

“It's an allegory about transitioning under the Benjamin Standards actually.”

“Like. c'mon. the original fairytale its based on was literally written by a closeted gay man as a metaphor for how his love for another man was doomed. also ursula is a drag queen”

“She's trans-human, or something. The Queer experience of wanting to know what else is out there, if there are people like you, like you in your soul, put there. Of wanting to go to a place where you are safe to ask everything you want to ask and be whatever way you want to be.”

“any movie howard ashman writes lyrics for is gonna be pretty gay”

“The trans metaphor is right there, guys!! Plus Ursula being based on a Drag Queen. And most importantly: Howard Ashman.”

“The original story is about Hans Christian Andersen being in love with a man but knowing he could never be with him. And the movie itself is very queer. You could read queerness into Ariel’s fascination with the human world and wanting to be part of that world rather than the one she “belongs” in. Being willing to cut off contact and move far away from your family because you’ll never be accepted by them, especially after a parent violently rejects something important to or about you. Ursula.”

“a lot of ink has been spilled on why the little mermaid is a metaphor for internalised homophobia, with hans christian anderson's own thoughts regarding his bisexuality coming through in the character of the princess (ariel) who wans to be a real woman so she can be with the man she loves. this also lends itself ot trans readings in the mdoern day. of course, the 1989 film was written by howard ashman, himself a gay man, and it is possible to read the alternate, happier ending to this film adaptation as a hopeful retelling for gay people towards the end of the 20th century. its gay”

“Part of Your World??? Ariel literally transitioning from a mermaid to a human. bYE”

“Girl have you Seen or Heard the behind the scenes of Ursula”

“Ursula literally being based on the drag queen Divine”

“The whole plot is a trans allegory imo. Ariel feeling like she’s be happy with “just one day on land” screamsssss trans person wanting to be seen as their gender. Plus she literally got “bottom surgery” lmao. (Tl;dr: I’m trans and it’s my fav so I say so. /j)”

“hans christian anderson wrote the little mermaid as an allegory for being gay. therefore these films are literally gay. disney swept it under the rug but i will not. also that "i can't believe we're both goth and trans" post”

The Great Mouse Detective:

“The protagonist, Basil, and antagonist, Ratigain, are practically bitter exes. Basil literally has a giant photo of his “���””enemy”””” above his fireplace, come on!”

“Vincent Price as Ratigan is so obviously over the top queer coded, but this is one of the few Disney movies where the protagonist, Basil, is also queer coded. It’s more subtle, but all Sherlock Holmes type characters are queer coded. Also the movie ends with Basil asking Dawson, this movie’s Watson, to stay and live with him so yeah”

“As per usual, Basil (Holmes) is V queer. Confirmed bachelor, immediately ready to play happy homes with Watson, Ratigan is Basil's flamboyant ex.”

“i can't explain it but basil the mouse is gay and so is the vincent price rat”

“It’s based on Sherlock Holmes so right away the Basil/Dawson relationship is. Very queer. Also Ratigan is a queer-coded villain.”

[iraprince]

From what I've seen from surveys and bits of news, Spain seems like it's pretty good with trans acceptance and stuff. Is that true?

Relatedly, you've said you started in Ohio and ended up in Spain. How would you reccomend someone else from Ohio do that?

oof, haha. this is a tough time to ask this -- for the past three years that i've lived here my answer would have been an enthusiastic and pretty confident yes, but recently we're all pretty worried bc in recent elections there have been gains made by the far-right + conservative parties. things where i live are still okay, but in other regions there is reason for concern. if you end up seriously planning on moving to spain, i would heavily advise you to do research on the political situations of different autonomous communities (essentially like provinces or states; catalonia is the community i live in, valencia is a community, madrid has its own community, etc) bc they all have individual governments and the experience of living in one community can be vastly different from another regardless of what's going on on a federal level. as an example, madrid is only a 2 hour train ride away from where i live but in comparison covid has been a million times worse there, absolutely fucking nightmarish, bc they have an extremely conservative government and their healthcare systems were privatized + managed differently by that government in a way that caused a lot of suffering.

i would still say it is resoundingly better than the united states, especially on the front of LGBTQ+ safety. i'm not "visibly trans" -- i believe 99% of the ppl who see me out and about probably perceive me as a cis woman -- but i'm very visibly gay, my wife and i are often affectionate in public, and the worst we've ever personally gotten have been frowns and disapproving glares. most of the time, even when ppl stare at us, it's more harmless curiosity than anything else. this doesn't mean hate crimes and discrimination never happen here, bigotry is everywhere, but in comparison i am frankly in a constant state of anguish and fear about what's going on in my home country.

(asked my wife to read this over for accuracy and offer his input and he wants to add that while on a legal level things are pretty stable -- a lot of laws that have been passed that protect LGBTQ+ rights would be difficult to revoke or repeal -- on a social level things have gotten noticeably worse and violence has objectively risen over the past few years. 2022 was the most violent year in a decade, specifically in terms of homophobic hate crimes. we both feel that this is more about rising fascism worldwide than about anything specific to spain, but still.)

as for immigration, i'm afraid i can't really offer any help or advice on that one! my residency here is based on my marriage to my wife, who is a spanish citizen, so i have no knowledge at all on other methods of obtaining residency.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hi I'm thinking about BBC Sherlock again, after all the great queer rep we're getting. And I want to scream in your inbox about it if that's alright.

And you'll have to excuse me because it's been years since I last read the discourse.

I just feel like, and call me a conspiracy theorist, that it was a bit of the show runners not wanting johnlock, and a bit of the BBC just not wanting queer rep in their big show.

Like the BBC has notoriously not been okay with LGBTQ topics (specifically on their news side, the recent trans lesbian article and the thing of their staff, I think specifically reporters, not being able to go to pride parades), it just screams some higher up going "nonononono we can't have a gay in our hit show!!"

Idk maybe I'm just a very-tired-of-the-bbc queer, on Terf island LOL but I just feel like the BBC has more to do with why we didn't get johnlock then people have brought up.

Like of course the show runners had to do with it, (I can't remember their exact reasoning but I know it was dumb), but in my gut and tin foil hat, I know it was some homophobic higher up too.

Anyway, sorry, this got long lol. I hope that made sense

Hey Nonny!

All good, and an interesting topic that we're always trying to work out, even all these years later. I lean on the "it was both Mofftiss and the BBC" side of it all... I've my own tinfoil theories about all THAT but it's mostly gossip and hearsay, so my opinion's kinda moot.

With regards to the BBC theory, though, I will say that, if I recall correctly, there was a big changeover in upper management between TAB and S4, AND the production time between TAB and S4 was about a year, with rewrite happening HOURS before filming, so like... eeeeeeeeee, Mofftiss isn't innocent in all this either. There was a lot of behind the scenes shit going down that I'm sure we're never going to know about until some NDAs expire, PLUS a huge breakup was happening that I think influenced a LOT of the decisions made. BUT that's my vagueblogging gossip I will leave at that.

And Mofftiss were really high on their own farts after the success of TAB, believed they didn't need a third writer because of it, and *waves vaguely* we got that.

Anyway. *shrugs*