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trans-advice · 4 years

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WINDY CITY MEDIA GROUP

NATIONAL Biden tracker, Task Force, trans journalist, Cuomo, West Virginia

by Windy City Times staff

2021-03-14

GLAAD announced the launch of its Biden Equality Accountability Tracker—a real-time record of the Biden administration's executive orders, announcements, legislative support and speeches that impact LGBTQ people and rights, a press release noted. GLAAD has tracked at least 24 pro-equality moves in the first 50 days, as well as noted LGBTQ Cabinet and staff appointments in the first days of the administration. GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis introduced the tracker in her op-ed in Reuters, and in the statement. See https:// Article Link Here .

The National LGBTQ Task Force announced the addition of two new staff members and the consolidation of two departments as part of the organization's growth and restructure under the leadership of recently named Executive Director Kierra Johnson, a press release noted. Former Creating Change Conference Director Andy Garcia will now head a combined department of conference, policy and advocacy staff as director of the Advocacy and Action Department. Also, Ashawnda Fleming joins the Task Force Development Department and Leadership Team as the new chief development officer and Desiree Luckey has been appointed senior policy counsel, focusing on the organization's democracy work.

Trans sports journalist Christina Kahrl—a longtime ESPN senior editor and co-founder of both the Baseball Prospectus think tank and the Baseball Writers' Association of America—announced on Twitter that she will be the next sports editor of the legendary San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, Outsports noted. She will become the first out transgender editor of a major, metropolitan mainstream media outlet in the country when she takes the reins of sports coverage of the largest newspaper in Northern California. The Chronicle is the state's second major newspaper after the Los Angeles Times. In a message to Outsports, Kahrl said she recognizes the importance of her platform.

Many of New York's LGBTQ lawmakers are echoing growing calls for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign in response to numerous disturbing allegations of inappropriate behavior and sexual harassment, Gay City News reported. U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, became the highest-ranking LGBTQ elected official in the state to call on Cuomo to step down when he issued a statement on March 12—the same day that new allegations surfaced. Congressmen Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres have also asked for the governor to step down.

Researchers at UCLA partnered with a researcher at West Virginia University (WVU) to publish a report addressing discrimination against the LGBT community in West Virginia, WDTV.com reported. Some of the key findings were that LGBT people in West Virginia experience discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations. For example, data show 39% of LGBT adults in West Virginia reported having a household income below $24,000, compared to 26% of non-LGBT adults.

A Houston bakery is facing two separate lawsuits from former employees alleging they were fired due to anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, out.com noted. Gilbert Johnson and Katherine Phillips told OutSmart the Dessert Gallery Bakery & Cafe fired them because Johnson is gay and Phillips is a lesbian. Johnson further alleged he was fired in part for hiring a transgender employee. "We take seriously any allegations like those outlined in these complaints but stand firm that these allegations are simply not true," Dessert Gallery said in a statement. "We believe the proper place to disclose the facts of this case is in the courtroom and look forward to that opportunity."

A bill to strengthen the sexually transmitted disease public-health infrastructure of California is better than a similar effort that had initially been introduced last year, a principal co-author of the legislation told the Bay Area Reporter. Gay state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) co-authored Senate Bill 306 with Sen. Dr. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), who introduced it Feb. 4. According to a news release from Wiener's office, the legislation will "permit the Family [Planning Access Care Treatment] program to offer covered benefits to income-eligible patients, even if contraception is not discussed during the patient encounter; update California's [Expedited Partner Therapy] statute to include provider liability protections used in other states; permit HIV counselors to administer rapid STD tests; update state law to require congenital syphilis testing during the third trimester of pregnancy; [and] require coverage of home STD tests by public and private insurers."

Former First Lady Michelle Obama spoke candidly in a People Magazine interview about her struggles with low-grade depression during the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges of 2020, encouraging people to speak more openly about their mental health, CNN.com noted. Obama told People magazine that she "needed to acknowledge what I was going through, because a lot of times we feel like we have to cover that part of ourselves up, that we always have to rise above and look as if we're not paddling hard underneath the water." She added, "We had the continued killing of Black men at the hands of police. Just seeing the video of George Floyd, experiencing that eight minutes. That's a lot to take on, not to mention being in the middle of a quarantine."

Thousands of Texans are slated to lose their healthcare provider after Travis County Civil District Court Judge Lora Livingston allowed the state to remove Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid program, CNN.com reported. Texas has long sought to ban Planned Parenthood, which provides abortions in Texas, from Medicaid. Medicaid funding does not cover abortions except in cases of rape or incest or when the woman's life is at risk, due to the Hyde Amendment, dating back to 1976. In 2019, Planned Parenthood provided health care to more than 8,000 Medicaid recipients in Texas.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem signed Senate Bill 124, a religious refusal bill that could grant a license to discriminate against LGBTQ people across a wide range of goods and services in the state, a Human Rights Campaign (HRC) statement noted. HRC President Alphonso David said, "While she may see discrimination as a path to the national far right spotlight, she should understand the damage she is doing to the state of South Dakota and LGBTQ people who are simply looking to live their lives free of fear and exclusion." Noem also signed legislation that would bar transgender girls and women from participating in female sports leagues.

Over objections from Democrats, Georgia House Republicans passed a sweeping elections bill that would enact more restrictions on absentee voting and cut back on weekend early voting hours favored by larger counties, among other changes, NPR reported. The bill's sponsor—GOP Rep. Barry Fleming, who chairs the House Special Committee on Election Integrity—said the 66-page measure "is designed to begin to bring back the confidence of our voters back into our election system" after Republicans lost confidence in the GOP-backed voting system following Democrats' victories in the November presidential contest and both of Georgia's U.S. Senate races.

The National AIDS Memorial announced Isabel Fatima (Ima) Diawara, of Los Angeles, as the first recipient of the Mary Bowman Arts in Activism Award, a press release noted. The newly created and inspiring program, funded through a multi-year grant from ViiV Healthcare, offers support to artist-activists who are working and committed to making a difference in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The Mary Bowman Arts in Activism Award honors the life of Mary Bowman—a poet, advocate, author, singer and young person living with AIDS who passed away in early 2019 at age 30.

A statue of late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was erected in her hometown of Brooklyn on March 12—three days before her 88th birthday, USA Today noted. The unveiling also comes in the middle of Women's History Month as another way to honor Ginsburg's legacy and her fight for women's rights. The statue is part of a larger series called Statues for Equality, which has worked to increase the representation of women in public sculptures around New York City and beyond.

LGBTQ-rights advocates are uniting to support Noel Koenke, a former employee at St. Joseph's University who's appealing the dismissal of her LGBT-related anti-bias case against the university before it could reach a jury, Philadelphia Gay News reported. Koenke worked as an assistant director of music and worship at the university; however, pressure to stay in the closet eventually caused her to attempt suicide and resulted in the dissolution of her marriage�and she resigned in November 2017. Koenke filed suit in October 2019, claiming the university violated Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs receiving federal funds.

New York-based fashion designer Alexander Wang responded, again, to a growing number of sexual assault and harassment allegations, out.com reported. Wang had previously called the initial allegations "baseless," and said they were "fabricated"—but now, his tenor has changed starkly. On Instagram, he posted, "It was not easy for [the alleged victims] to share their stories, and I regret acting in a way that caused them pain. While we disagree with some of the details of these personal interactions, I will set a better example and use my visibility and influence to encourage others to recognize harmful behaviors. Life is about learning and growth, and now that I know better, I will do better." Attorney Lisa Bloom—who reportedly is representing 11 of those who have allegations against Wang—responded on Twitter, "We have met with Alexander Wang and his team. My clients had the opportunity to speak their truth to him and expressed their pain and hurt. We acknowledge Mr. Wang's apology and we are moving forward. We have no further comment on this matter."

Fox personality Geraldo Rivera posted a tweet announcing that he was pondering running for the seat that will be left vacant by retiring Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, who will not be seeking re-election in 2022, Yahoo! noted. Rivera—who regularly butts heads with Sean Hannity and Fox News contributor Dan Bongino for his moderate stances on things like immigration—said he would have run as a moderate Republican. But his political ambitions didn't last long as he posted another tweet less than 24 hours after the first one, saying that the run is not going to happen.

Lawyers for former U.S. Rep. Katie Hill and her ex-husband, Kenneth Heslep, told a Los Angeles judge that they remain hopeful of settling her allegations of harassment and years of abuse—but they still asked that the groundwork be laid for a possible trial of whether Hill's stay-away order should be extended, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lawrence Riff ordered both sides to prepare lists of witnesses and exhibits they would use during the trial and submit them a week in advance of April 8, when a trial-setting hearing is scheduled. The judge said he was extending the temporary restraining order Judge Anne Richardson granted Hill on Dec. 8 until April 30. Heslep has denied allegations of abusing Hill, who resigned her seat in 2019 after nude photos of her were published and news emerged that she had a three-way relationship with her husband and a female campaign staffer.

On March 8, the Cambridge (Massachusetts) City Council passed a historic domestic partnership ordinance aimed at recognizing and protecting polyamorous and other multi-partner families and relationships, according to an item from the Polyamory Legal Advocacy Coalition (PLAC). The ordinance was developed with detailed input from the PLAC, and is the first of what advocates hope will be a wave of legal recognition for polyamorous families and relationships in 2021. Last year, Somerville (also in Massachusetts) became the first U.S. city to allow domestic partnerships of three or more partners.

In California, the second annual "Pride Ride" returns to Homewood Mountain Resort March 25-28, The Bay Area Reporter noted. Along with skiing and riding, there will be a variety of mini-events on and off the mountain, including a dual slalom drag race, ski parade down Rainbow Ridge, virtual scavenger hunt and more. See https:// Article Link Here .

#usa centric #not trans specific

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withthekeyisking-writer · 4 years

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What’s a Batman story you wish someone else would write for you instead of writing yourself??

Gotta tell you, I got super excited when I got this ask, because there are so many things!! That I would love to see happen!! That I’ll never get around to writing!! So uh, strap in because this is gonna be a big ol’ list :) I’m gonna organize these so that it starts with gen ideas and then switches to darker ones (otherwise, really in no particular order). Also, because it’s me, many of these are Dick-centric.

1. First up is a Batfam Hogwarts AU, but with the specifications that Dick is a Slytherin, Jason is a Ravenclaw, Tim is a Slytherin, and Damian is a Hufflepuff. Skalidra actually made an amazing post about this that I agree with so fucking much, and I want a fic that does this justice.

2. Batbros are actually blood bros. I know there are a couple of these already out there, but not the way I picture it in my head, so here you go: Bruce knows about Dick while the kid is growing up, visits the circus any time it’s in town, takes Dick out for ice cream & shit like that, but Dick thinks this is just some family friend his parents like him hanging out with. It’s not until Mary and John fall that Dick learns the truth about his parents. For Tim – Janet never really wanted a kid, so when she and Bruce sleep together (up to you to figure out why) and got pregnant, she was like “okay brucie as soon as this pops out you can keep it” which, once Tim was born, Bruce did. Jason can go so many ways, so up to you!

3. Transgender Dick!! Yes, these are already out there. Yes, I want so many more! Give me the struggle of coming to the realization while amongst Gotham’s high society. Give me extra supportive Bruce or a Bruce that just can’t wrap his head around the concept and absolutely fails to be in any way a good parent of a trans kid. Or take the extra step and give me a non-binary Dick!!! I don’t know if I’ve ever seen one of those, and as an enby individual, I really would love to.

4. Jason as a teacher. Do whatever the fuck you want with that, but I want to see Jason teaching literature. Still in the superhero world, no alternate world where Batman isn’t a thing. I want a Jason who’s been Robin and died and come back and been Red Hood and is a teacher.

5. I had a dream about Dick being a clone, and then an idea popped up behind it: In the Young Justice cartoon world, the Light makes another clone of Superman. But this time, the human DNA they used to stabilize the Kryptonian part isn’t Lex Luthor’s DNA, but Batman’s! That Superman-Batman clone is Dick. While Conner gets rescued by the YJ team, Dick (or whatever title CADMUS gave him, like how Conner was just called “The Superboy”) isn’t found, and is trained to fight against the team of young heroes as the Light’s weapon. Dick gets captured eventually and Bruce&Clark find out about their clone baby. Throw in some Superbat if you feel like it, or just Two Bros And A Baby. Either way, I would kill for this.

6. Ok you know how at one point or another Damian, Jason, and Cass were all members of the League of Assassins? Well, what if there was overlap? I want the three of them working for the League and knowing each other. I don’t know if this even works out at all but I just think this would be kinda cool, especially if it includes Bruce finding out about Damian or about Jason being alive and gaining a daughter along the way.

7. While we’re on the subject of League of Assassins, all four of the boys work for the League!! Do with this what you will, I merely present the concept to you.

8. Secret Agents. Just…just give me them as spies. Pls.

9. Dead Robins Club that ACTUALLY INCLUDES DICK BECAUSE Y’KNOW HE DIED. It’s a pet peeve of mine, when people write these kind of fics and include Tim and Steph (neither of which actually died) but not Dick, even though he did die for at least a couple minutes. Please stop ignoring Dick’s trauma guys, I beg of you. There’s one amazing fic between Jason, Damian, and Dick, and I want so many more of stuff like that.

10. Greeks/Roman Gods AU where Dick is the God of Death and king of the Underworld instead of the springtime god. There’s a really great jaydick fic out there that has this, but it’s abandoned, and I rally really want more of a Dick like this.

11. AU in which Bruce is the youngest member of the Justice League, and is still the badass leader he is in canon. No one in the League knows the truth, but it’s not like Bruce ever said I’m in my 20s or older, he just. Never mentioned he just graduated high school and is working on his accelerated bachelor’s degree.

12. A fic that addresses the fact that Dick has, in canon, been buried alive. I might one day write this, but I have a lot of projects that I do know I’m going to write, so this is wayyyyyyyyyyyy down the line, long enough that I’d be very happy to see someone write it instead. Bonus points if it’s a fic about Dick and Jason, and the fact that Dick killed Joker also comes up.

13. Tamaranean!Dick. And I actually have a whole word/plot for something like this that I’m never gonna write so if you wanna do this hmu I have THOUGHTS

Ok boys and girls and enbys we’re about to hit the dark shit so turn back if you don’t want to have to read it. You’ve been warned.

14. Ancient Rome AU in which Bruce is a senator and owns his robins as slaves (gladiator-wise and otherwise) who try to earn their freedom but Bruce likes using them too much (both for himself and in gaining control over others, like sending one of them to seduce somebody to gain leverage or steal something or what have you) and so he keeps changing what will gain them their freedom.

15. Auction fic where Dick is drugged and kidnapped and auctioned off to a bunch of villains. Yes, fics like this exist. Yes, I would like Many More.

16. Brusladick where Bruce has some Bad Thoughts about Dick but can’t bring himself to act on them, but he wouldn’t mind letting someone else do it, and who better than Slade Wilson, who absolutely wants to fuck Dick. So Bruce sets up a camera in the room and gets off to all the hard shit being done to Dick, but Slade breaks their agreement a little and tells Dick that Bruce is watching.

17. In an ABO universe, Dick is an omega. The world is pretty modern overall, of course there will always be some level of sexism but it’s not a large issue. But there’s this far-right terroristic-type group that thinks omegas are just good for ding as they’re told and being bred and have made it their mission to “fix” omegas who think they deserve equal rights, and they get ahold of Dick, sending a video to Bruce saying they’re return Dick when he’s better. For some reason Bruce and Co can’t find Dick for a long time, and by the time they do Dick’s severely traumatized and been conditioned into obedience and submission towards alphas.

18. In the Young Justice cartoon world, while Kaldur is undercover in season 2, an interaction with Deathstroke reveals something horrible about Nightwing’s past, and Kaldur has to act like hearing these graphic, awful things about his friend. After it’s all over, he goes to Dick and mentions Deathstroke saying something and Dick kind of shuts down and says like “How many people heard what he said?” There is a twitter thread between me and a friend on this very subject if you need inspiration ;)

19. Something based on this amazing art

20. Bruce is hella abusive. Dick lets himself be Bruce’s outlet so he won’t hurt the others. This, of course, comes to light. Yes, shit like this exists. But I pose you a question – is there ever too many? And has it been done by you yet?

21. Brainwashing. Just, give me brainwashing. Turned against your family, used and mocked by your enemy, kneeling “willingly” at your enemy’s feet. Bonus points for all kinds of abuse.

Well, that’s my list!! Go off and do great things for me! Thanks for the ask!!

#anon ask #ask #writing #batman #fanfic question

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transheadcannon · 6 years

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In Honor of the end of pride month (darn) Everyone is trans and everyone is at Pride

Hunk

Trans boy (he/him)

Pan and ace

Is there with Shay his (trans) girlfriend

Total mom of pride

Is prepared for everything all the time no matter what

Has granola bars and water on him at ALL TIMES

Is constantly making sure that everyone is together and okay

Is especially worried about Lance and Pidge

Especially when they’re both together

Help Lance sew their pride capes

Definitely brought a frying pan

For the Pun

Has a shirt that says “trans boys do it better”

Or “Frying PANS who knew right?”

I love Tangled I’m sorry

Definitely is wearing at least on form of floral print

Is terrified of losing Keith in the crowd

Really wants to get those leash backpacks for kids but for his friends

Hunk is the main supplier of glitter

You can bet your boots this boy painted his face

Will not stop throwing Pancakes at people

His pancakes are Holier than thou

So people eat them no matter what

Everyone, and I mean E V E R Y O N E loves Hunk and will die for Hunk

Once, at pride, Hunk got knocked down by anti-lgbtq+ protestors

Everyone was there to make sure he was okay

A group of Drag Queens fought off the protesters

Those protesters never came back

Hunk will, without hesitation, punch any terfs he sees at pride

No exceptions

Probably brought a ukulele to play “Rainbow Connection” nonstop

Taking names, breaking hearts, Hunk Garrett

All the ladies are swooning

Shay once had to fight someone to get them off of Hunk

Hunk may be a bit less vocal about it but he his the happiest person there

Keith

Trans Demiboy (he/they)

Gay

VERY GAY

(would date Nonbinary people too though)

Wears Croc Heelys to pride

Has a tendency to wander off which is really not good for Shiro or Hunk

Was roped into letting Lance, Allura and Coran do their makeup

One eye is demiboy colors

The other is Rainbow

Flannel and a black tank top

Lipstick (any color it changes year by year) to complete the look

Everyone thinks he’s gorgeous

Gets asked out by at least three (3) people at pride each year

First time they go to pride they cry

Everyone was so nice and kind and accepting

All his friends were so flustered because none of them had ever seen Keith cry

Keith probably got his wolf a rainbow bandana

Keith’s mom ( a well seasoned gay) is definitely part of the “Where the Hell is Keith Now?” Squad

Keith is normally the one that eats most of Hunk’s Granola bars

He and Lance usually fight over the last one

Keith, Pidge, Lance and Matt are in a “Who can get more glitter on who” war

Keith usually wins because this kid has reflexes like no one’s buisness

The one year Keith didn’t win was because someone Matt accidentally hit Allura

No one stood a chance

Pride Month is what Keith lives for

Catch him at 3 in the morning June 1 vibrating after watching every episode of Queer Eye and drinking Shiro’s secret stash of Rebull

Keith, surprisingly, gets in absolutely no arguments (other than Lance) or fights during Pride

They don’t want to take away the safe environment young queers have

Definitely wears a beanie no matter what

He rotates his demiboy hat, rainbow hat, and trans hat

“Bro it’s like 100 degrees out aren’t you hot?”

“I’m dying on the inside.”

“Dude, just take off the hat”

“pain is beauty”

“Dude, you’re going to pass out”

“PAIN IS BEAUTY”

Lance once stole a beanie

It did not end well

Shiro

Trans man (he/him)

Bi (or pan whichever suites your fancy)

poly

Definitely has a baseball cap with Bi and Trans flags on top

The dad of pride

Definitely wears a fanny pack but only because they’re practical

He keeps cookies and tums in there

Makes a point to dress like a dad

One year, The Squad convinced him to do drag

The results were actually amazing and Shiro can really work heels

Shiro was very flustered but very attractive

That day was Lance and Allura’s field day

Shiro does his own makeup for pride

Once got in a muscle flexing contest and won

Matt buys him a “I flexed and the Sleeves fell off” tank top to wear the next year

Has a shirt that says “Hi Gay I’m Dad”

Has one of those beer hats with the straws but he fills them with redbull

Despite Hunk yelling at him not to

Drinks more juiceboxes than water

Gets proposed to nearly every year

Hissed at someone when they wouldn’t leave Pidge alone

Once brought his teacup Chihuahua Tito

The ladies were S W O O N I N G

Shiro and Krolia co-parent Keith in shifts

Shiro is Lance’s wingman

Or he tries to be at least

Most people are too focused on him

People always assume that he and Allura are together

They’re just wrestle buddies

Allura wins always and no matter what because Allura is a goddess

Matt and Shiro aren’t allowed to go anywhere together alone after The Indident

Basically, they both got wasted, ate a shit ton of sugar, and got lost

They also somehow ended up almost joining a cult

So yeah those two need to be monitored.

People have definitely bowed before Shiro

Everyone wants to be adopted by Shiro

Allura

Trans woman (she/her)

Lesbian

Is famous within the LGBTQ+ communtity

A true icon

Definite beauty guru and a GODDESS

Goes every year with her (trans) girlfriend Romelle

Refers to everyone as “my lovelies”

No one dares to flirt with her because she’s out of everyone’s league

Every time Allura breathes a terf gets punched

Every time Allura breathes a small trans girl gets her wings

Has her own float in the parade

Allura was Born on The First Day Of Pride

Allura also got in a muscle flexing contest and W O N

She hands out flower crowns in all pride colors

And she does it all IN 9 INCH HEELS

She and Romelle are a power couple

Taking names and Breaking hearts

Allura and Romelle

Dyes her hair pastel pink every year

Lance and Allura are unstoppable together

People always come up to her and ask her questions

She loves answering people

Haley Kiyoko is her anthem

Gets actual gifts from people

Coran is her gay uncle

Eats a crap ton of raisins

One year, a group of terfs came up to her to yell at her

They all walked away in love

Transphobes don’t stand a chance against Allura

No one stands a chance against Allura

She is a Very Powerful Woman

Allura, although regal and a goddess is actually is the most excited for Pride

It’s a cool fun environment for cool fun people

Allura loves meeting people

Even to this day she’s afraid she’ll somehow mess up accidentally

Everyone knows that’s bull though

She and Pidge are the loudest at pride

Kills it every year in a crop top

Helps every years queer prom happen

She’s so powerful

Matt

Trans man (he/him)

Wears Shrek merch nearly every year

No shirt

Has a speaker that plays nothing but Bo Burnahm’s “Everyone thinks I’m Gay”

And occasionally “All Star”

Was the biggest factor in why Shiro and Matt can’t hang out together

If he sees a bug, he WILL NOT let you stomp on it

No matter what age

At the end of pirde he’s always covered head to toe in insects and glitter

One year he ditched the Shrek merch in favor of dressing up as spider man

All of the kids swarmed him it was adorable

Another year he wore his fursuit and nearly started a revolution

Helps Pidge choose an outfit each year

Is also the one who buys all of Pidge’s pride things including glitter, flags, shirts

Other than Lance, is Allura’s biggest fan

Allura likes (platonic) him, but Matt is too thick to realize that

He got rainbow Shrek merch and cried

Is actually like the older queer brother

Like the nerdy one that’s too afraid to go outside

Every year never gets less exciting for him

He’s Lance’s slightly more successful wingman

Gets sunburn every year

Even in the Spiderman costume which covers him from head to toe

Socks and sandals

Specifically to bug people

Obviously those are Shrek socks

What are we animals?

Matt keeps at least 3 cookies with him at pride

For emegincies

Steals most of Shiro’s juice

On the first day of Pride month plays “The most wonderful time of the year” on repeat until Pidge tries to kill him

“It is NOT the time for Christmas music”

“IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE CHRISTMAS TO BE THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR”

Matt at 3 in the morning June first “IT’s the first day of gay lads”

He and Pidge always host a party after the Pride Parade

It mostly involves more glitter fights, except they get Shrio in on it too

Shiro, surprisingly always looses

When he hit Allura in the face with glitter he saw his life flash before his eyes

It was kind of pathetic

Definitely sneaks in Vodka in a water bottle

Pidge

Nonbinary (They/them)

Aro/ace

Before the Parade they roll in glitter to properly prepare

Once Matt had a “genius” idea

Let’s just say it ended with Pidge covered in cling wrap and glitter

Pidge wears sarcastic pride shirts and their floofy golf M.C. hammer pants

Pidge and Allura are devious little Shits

Allura taught Pidge how to walk in heels

Pidge taught Allura how to steal 50 candy bars without getting caught

They do both together

Pidge and Lance are mostly the reason why there are so many glitter fights

Pidge comes out again every year during pride month

Calls it their “Gender birthday”

Comes up with a new extravagant idea each year

Last year it was hot air balloons

This year they’re hoping to hack into NASA so they can rearrange the stars

Pidge pays for it out of pocket too though no one is sure how

Pidge drinks more juice than Shiro

Pidge will only refer to Shiro as “Papa Gay” during pride month

Lance is “ You Absolute Asshole Give Me My Rebull Back”

Tries to eat nothing but Skittles for the month but Hunk always catches them

Colors absolutely everything they can get their hands on rainbow

“Rainbow. The best color. The only color if you ask me.”

Has a shrine for Miles Mckenna

Marshmallows

That is all I must say

“Hey Pidge,I’m a lesbian”

“I thought you were American”

Hates getting Misgendered at pride

Because I guess people gender people at pride

Will punch a terf

Has a T-shirt that says so

One year Lance did their make up

Or tried to at least

It did not end well

Pidge wouldn’t stop moving

Pidge once did Lance’s makeup

It did not last well

Mostly because Pidge has no idea how to do makeup

Pidge also protects the bugs at pride from feet

Lance

Trans boy (he/him)

Lance uses the glitter the best

Very decorative

(until the glitter wars)

Sometimes steals Keith’s lipstick to use

Allura and Lance always have to go out for coffee before the parade

That’s were they gossip

Lance is Hunk’s impulse control

Namely, if Lance doesn’t do something stupid Hunk will

“It’s a heavy burden”

“Lance, no one made you eat that many granola bars”

Lance is Shiro’s source of Redbull

Lance usually wears a pair of booty shorts and no shirt to pride

Allura lets him borrow a pair of heels each year

Lance owns a pair of platform crocs for pride

Is always a close second in the glitter wars

Owns a shirt with the words “Papa Gay” and Shiro’s face

Is probably the most vocal at pride

Makes his own flags for pride

Always paints at least 50% of his body pride colors

Once brought powdered chalk

That did not end well

Even though Pidge messed up his makeup while doing it he still wore it out

Every year the children flock to him and every year he brings markers for the kids to doodle on his arms

Definitely makes signs each year

He saves them and hangs them up on his wall

His entire family came to his first pride

He was sooooo happy

Lance’s family was mildly concerned but happy

Lance almost got roofied one year

He smelt it though

He got that scumbag arrested

After getting top surgery and not needing his binders he did a huuuuge give away

He was pretty much chucking binders at people

Definitely the kind of guy to have the really extravagant patterned binders

People were crying and swooning

Has asked many times for Shiro and Matt to stop being his wing man

Everyone knew that wing man was Hunk’s job

Everyone knew that except Hunk

One year Shiro did his wings and he cried

I was going to do Coran but I ran out of space. I promise he’ll get his own post

#trans voltron #trans matt holt #trans vld #trans lance #trans pidge #lance mcclain #trans keith #keith kogane #pidge gunderson #hunk garrett #trans hunk #Willy’s thcs

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goforwardgreenwriter-blog · 6 years

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The Worm Reads: Empire of Storms, Ch 42 - 43

I AM ACTUALLY SPEECHLESS HOLY FUCKING SHIT

Manon Blackbeak cracked open eyelids that were too heavy, too burning, and squinted against the flickering lantern light that swayed upon the wood panels of the room in which she lay.

HHHH I’VE BEEN DREADING THIS. Please kiss the Manon we know goodbye, because we’re likely gonna never see her again after this chapter.

[Manon] bolted upright. Abraxos. Where was Abraxos—

Unghhh their relationship is too pure and wholesome for this shitty novel. I seriously want Manon to leave this series and go to HTTYD, it’s what she deserves.

(...) the chains now around Manon’s wrists, around her ankles—anchored into the walls with what appeared to be freshly drilled holes.

FRESHLY DRILLED HOLES. What did they use to drill those holes? Don’t tell me they popped down to Home Depot and picked up a brand new screw gun I am l aughing

Alien is there and already I’m seeing red please SJM i am begging u keep Alien’s crusty ass 100000 miles away from Manon

[Aelin] jerked her chin toward the floor. A pitcher and cup lay there. “Water’s next to the bed. If you can reach it.”

YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE YOU’RE GOING TO LET MANON DIE OF HYDRATION IF SHE CAN’T REACH THE WATER?? FUCK YOU, ALIEN, YOU MASSIVE PIECE OF SHIT.

And as it turns out, Manon can’t reach the water and passes out soon afterwards. Fuck Alien I can’t think of one character I hate more than her fucking selfish ass.

Even unconscious, Manon’s every breath, every twitch, was a reminder that she was a born predator, her agonizingly beautiful face a careful mask to lure the unwary to their doom.

idk this seems weird... Manon is passed out from pain but they’re all splooging over how hot and dangerous she is... idk...

They were nearing Banjali now—and Dorian had tried and failed not to think of his dead friend with every league closer to the lovely city. Tried and failed not to consider if Nehemia would have been with them on this very ship had things not gone so terribly wrong.

*sobs* I miss Nehemia.... she deserved so much better....

“Hello, witchling,” [Dorian] said. [Manon’s] full, sensuous mouth tightened slightly, either in a repressed grimace or smile, he couldn’t tell.

What the fuck is up with SJM making all her men horny for the women’s lips during situations that are in no way sexual?? Like Manon is a prisoner tied up and dying of hydration, why is Dorian thinking about her mouth this is so fucking weird

Dorian didn’t feel like mentioning that he’d been the one who’d jumped into the water [to save Manon]. He’d just … acted, as Manon had acted when she’d saved him in his tower. He owed her nothing less.

Ungh SJM is totally gonna make this a thing ain’t she. Like Dorian is just repaying her here but you know, you just know SJM is gonna use this for them to hook up.

Manon asks Dorian about Elide and the Thirteen and Dorian is like “who the hell are those guys” and Manon gets all sad and I’m :(((((

Whatever had happened, whatever [Manon] had endured … Dorian draped an arm along the back of his chair. “It’s coming in a few minutes. I’d hate for you to waste away into nothing. It’d be a shame to lose the most beautiful woman in the world so soon into her immortal, wicked life.”

Heh, that’s typical Dorian for you. Hey, maybe this ship won’t be so bad! Maybe they’ll become really good supportive friends who bond over all the trauma they went through and-

“I am not a woman,” was all [Manon] said. But hot temper laced those molten gold eyes. [Dorian] gave her an indolent shrug, perhaps only because she was indeed in chains, perhaps because, even though the death she radiated thrilled him, it did not strike a chord of fear. “Witch, woman … as long as the parts that matter are there, what difference does it make?”

WHAT

THE

ACTUAL

FUCK

SJM. ARE YOU EVEN FUCKING KIDDING ME. DO YOU KNOW TRANSGENDER PEOPLE EXIST?? THAT NOT ALL WOMEN HAVE VAGINAS??? ARE YOU FUCKING SAYING TRANS WOMEN ARE LESS OF WOMEN IF THEY DON’T HAVE BREASTS AND VAGINAS??? BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT IT FUCKING LOOKS LIKE TO ME.

I CANNOT FUCKING BELIEVE THIS IS IN AN EPIC FANTASY SERIES. SJM WROTE THIS, EDITORS EDITED IT, AND THEN IT WAS PUBLISHED, AND NOBODY THOUGHT “oh hey, the implications of this are reaaaally bad, let’s cut it”

DJFHSJDFHAFJ THIS IS SO BAD THIS IS REALLY REALLY BAD HOLY SHIT I THOUGHT THIS WAS JUST A BOOK WITH SHITTY PLOT AND WRITING AND CHARACTERS BUT NOW WE CAN ADD TRANSPHOBIA TO THE LIST THATS JUST GREAT.

Sorry about that little tangent but my jaw actually hung wide open when I read that line. Holy fucking shit this novel is going to put me in the ground six feet under.

Dorian offered a lazy grin in return. “Believe it or not, this ship has an unnatural number of attractive men and women on board. You’ll fit right in. And fit in with the cranky immortals, I suppose.”

I’m so heartbroken but... I have to disown my baby boy. Dorian was once one of my few favorite characters but SJM has killed him and replaced him with a transphobic asshole. I’m so sorry my baby boy, you flew too close to the sun. You are hereby demoted to Dorito.

Assdion rears his ugly ass head to be rude to Manon and kiss Alien’s ass before leaving. Bye bitch, hope you fall off the ship and drown.

“Then I suppose you and I are both heirs without crowns.”

Remember last time Alien said this and I defended Dorito, saying he deserved his crown? Oh, how I took those earlier chapters for granted......

The rest of the chapter is Manon angsting about all the shit she’s been through lately. Since I like Manon and she has reason to be upset, I don’t have anything to make snarks about so next chapter.

Lorcan was still wondering what the hell he was doing three days later

Oh fucking great, I just witnessed the murder of my son Dorian and now I gotta read in Lorcan’s POV? Just keep kicking me while I’m down why don’t you, SJM.

“It’s going to rain.” [Elide] slid a flat glance at him. “I do know what thunder means.”

Just fucking stop. This isn’t entertaining at all to watch two people bicker and made snarky remarks 100% of the time to one another and yet we’re supposed to believe they’re bonding I want to d ie

“Drink,” Elide commanded him. Lorcan debated telling her not to give him orders, but … he liked seeing this small, fine-boned creature in action.

What the fuck does that mean?? Fine boned?? Is that really a way people describe others???? What the fuck am I reading???

So Lorcan drank and watched [Elide] while she watched others. So many calculating thoughts beneath that pale face, so many lies ready to spill from those rosebud lips.

I’m so tired like. You guys have done nothing but argue and avoid each other and now Lorass is getting horny at the sight of Elide’s lips I’m so tired.

[Elide] was going to leave. Tomorrow, whenever the carnival rolled out. She’d likely hire one of these boats to take her northward, and [Lorcan] … he would go south. To Morath.

:(( the girl I emotionally abuse is going to leave after we both lied to one another :((( this is so sad can we get 100 likes

Elide talks to some people inside a tavern about Alien.

“Seems like the queen has a habit of showing up where she’s least expected, unleashing chaos, and vanishing again.

FINISH HER

Elide walked out of the third tavern, Lorcan on her heels. They hadn’t spoken once since she’d gone into that first inn. He’d been too lost in contemplating what it would be like to suddenly travel on his own again. To leave her … and never see her again.

I am utterly baffled you two have been nothing but assholes to each other!!! Like seriously you haven’t done anything nice for each other!!! Like wtf SJM is trying make us all :’((( about them splitting up but I can’t wait until this stupid subplot ends!

Elide reveals she can’t read to Lorass and he tries to compliment her, but...?

He wondered if he would have ever noticed if she hadn’t told him. “You seem to have survived rather impressively without it.”

I mean, good on him for not judging her, but like, she was locked up in a tower doing maid work? Reading skills really wouldn’t have made much of a difference there.

Turns out their carnival co workers ratted them out and sent guards after them. Lorass hauls Elide over his shoulder and makes a run for it.

“The gates at the city entrance,” [Elide] gasped as muscle and bone pummeled into her gut. “They’ll be there, too.”

Holy shit that sounds painful. She’s not a sack of potatoes Lorass, try some gentleness.

Lorcan pocketed the axe he’d thumbed free

You literally just took out your axe like two paragraphs ago on the same page. What was the point of this?

They find some rando and force him to get them the hell out of dodge on his boat. Elide hears a splash but doesn’t think anything of it until she sees Lorass again.

[Elide] glanced at the hatchet at [Lorcan’s] side as he strode out of the cabin. “You killed him, didn’t you?” That was what the splash had been. A body being dumped over the side.

So, just to recap, according to Lorass.... killing an innocent man who helped you escape the guards; completely justifiable. Stealing something you suspect is bad from a woman you don’t even like; evil, unacceptable, crossing a line.

“He might have had a family depending on him.” [Elide]’d seen no wedding ring, but it didn’t mean anything.

I was about to get tilted but SJM corrected herself. I hate the mentality that if you don’t have a spouse, you clearly can’t have a family who depends on you. Kids from previous relationships, parents, grandparents, siblings, they’re family too y’know.

Lorass finds out the Wyrdkey he carried is a fake and loses his shit.

Then Lorcan flung open the door, so violently it nearly ripped off its hinges, and hurled what looked to be the shards of a broken amulet into the river. Or he tried to. Lorcan threw it hard enough that it cleared the river entirely and slammed into a tree, gouging out a chunk of wood.

I enjoy his misery tbh. Lorass is so pissy he reveals to Elide that Alien was Celaena, or as I like to call her Celery, at one point.

“You knew, and you didn’t tell me. Why?” “You still haven’t told me your secrets. I don’t see why I should tell all of mine, either.”

I mean, yeah, hate to agree with Lorass but fair enough. You’ve both done nothing but lie to each other’s faces, why would he tell you that? I want to like Elide but all this shitty drama and bickering is making my affection for her wear thin.

Then - holy fucking shit, there’s like a bunch of huuuuuuge paragraphs of Lorass and Elide bickering and they’re so fucking big. This hurts my eyes to look at. I’m gonna screencap one of them, just to show you how fucking huge they are.

HOLY SHIT SJM BREAK UP YOUR BIG ASS BRICKS OF TEXT PLEASE. My eyes started to cross trying to read this, it took me like three tries.

tl;dr because of some bullshit Lorass is staying with Elide because they both have business with Alien. Fuckin’ great, I love everyone’s agendas revolving around the main special snowflake, just fuckin’ great.

There’d been nothing inside the amulet but one of those rings—an utterly useless Wyrdstone ring, wrapped in a bit of parchment. And on it was written in a feminine scrawl: Here’s hoping you discover more creative terms than “bitch” to call me when you find this. With all my love, A.A.G.

Maybe I’d find this amusing if Alien wasn’t a walking shitstain, but... I’m tired. I’m so goddamn tired.

[Lorcan]’d kill [Aelin]. Slowly. Creatively.

Damn wish you would fam, but Alien’s got plot armor bigger than her fuckin’ ego. Lorass ends the chapter by saying he’ll kill Alien, which we all know won’t happen. I’m betting money that there’ll probably be a Lorass/Rowboat/Alien love triangle once Lorass sees what an ~uhmazing~ queen Alien is. Don’t give me that look, you know SJM would.

#the worm talks #the worm reads: eos #anti sjm #anti tog #anti eos

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marymosley · 5 years

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What Bernie Sanders Has That Joe Biden Doesn’t

Below is my column for BBC on the Sanders campaign and my recent discussion of the election with over a dozen of his supporters at the University of Michigan. Biden is being portrayed as the effective nominee after last Tuesday and at least one Democrat is suggesting the cancelation of the remaining primaries. However, polls show a distinct lack of excitement about Biden as a candidate. His express selling point is that he is better situated to defeat Trump. That leaves an obvious vacuum on positive passion that was so evident at the Sanders rally that I attended.

Here is the column:

Standing in front of the library of the University of Michigan on Sunday, Bernie Sanders could be excused if he paused a moment to reflect on the estimated ten thousands of cheering supporters.

It was 60 years ago at the University of Chicago that Sanders began what he later described as “the major period of intellectual ferment in my life”.

Sanders joined the Young People’s Socialist League and other organisations and organised his first protest. He could only marshal a force of 32 students to occupy the administration building, but he ultimately prevailed. Sanders spent much of his life fighting for big ideas with small crowds.

Now, he has not just the numbers but the movement that he always dreamt of. Indeed, he is the movement. While some might not want socialism, everyone in this crowd desperately wants Sanders.

Watching from the edge of the massive crowd was one person who knew all too well what Sanders may have been thinking as he stood before this university crowd. Alan Haber smiled while holding fliers for Earth Day, wearing a tiny pin that simply read “SDS.”

The initials stood for The Students for a Democratic Society, a radical student organisation from the 1960s. Sanders was the national secretary for the SDS while Hader was its first president. Although others grew more moderate or conservative with age, Sanders and Hader continued to organise and agitate and wait for the crowd that might eventually form.

Those crowds got smaller and smaller for decades. Now the crowd was finally here and waiting for the first major presidential candidate in our lifetimes to call himself an unabashed socialist.

Most of Sanders’ supporters would not be born for decades when he stormed the UChicago administrative building. However, they identified with this 78-year-old radical in a way that Joe Biden can only dream of. Before the rally, I found two students setting up the stage hours before Sanders would emerge.

Arden Shapiro and Hazel Gordon are precisely why the Democratic establishment is so worried about this movement – and so seemingly incapable of tapping into its energy. While they would vote for Biden if forced to in an election against Trump, they see Sanders as the only true and clear voice in the race.

Arden said that she was “really angry” about the level of corporate control in our system perpetrated by both parties. A trans woman, Hazel said that she saw Sanders as the only person truly fighting to help people secure medical insurance, particularly mental health coverage.

Hazel said that she viewed Biden as taking the side of corporations and did not support anything she believed in. Arden would later help introduce Sanders at the rally and called on her fellow students to bring five friends to the polling places to secure a win in Michigan over the establishment.

Others were even more direct. There were the guys distributing “Eat the Rich” T-shirts. Another supporter carried a sign reading “Make Racists Afraid Again”. Those images unnerve many traditional Democratic voters who see this movement as potentially careening out of control.

Sanders has never done particularly well with people of his own age. Many of those who once joined his causes in the 1960s are now worried about their 401k accounts and social security payments. Sanders had to wait for a new generation and they are here in droves. The problem for the Democratic party is that they are including leaders like Biden in their fight against the “establishment”.

Indeed Sanders drove home that point in his speech where he denounced Biden and his “billionaire backers” for trying to kill this movement. The only reference in the speech that drew greater boos than Biden was a reference to ICE raids.

For them, the future lies with Bernie and younger voices like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who electrified the crowd. Whatever happens Tuesday, Sanders has found his audience and they are not going away. Sanders has shaped a rising generation that does not recoil from the term “socialism” and believes, as he did, that compromise only invites betrayal.

Every establishment figure now appears lined up against Sanders and over a dozen people told me that the concerted effort has only angered them more with the Democratic party. While half insisted that they would reluctantly vote for Biden if needed, half were not sure or outright refused to support Biden.

In other words, many are likely to stay at home. They are ready to storm the White House, the ultimate administrative building, for Bernie but not willing to walk into a polling place for Biden.

One former Michigan graduate wearing a homemade “Socialist Butterfly” jacket with Bernie’s picture on it said that she became a socialist after listening to Sanders in 2016. She is back again in 2020 with the same commitment. She still “feels the Bern” but feels nothing for Biden.

The Democratic establishment is hoping that the hatred for Trump will fill that void, but the co-ordinated effort against Sanders is only reaffirming the view that it is the establishment writ large that is the problem.

Jonathan Turley gives legal analysis for the BBC and is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He was called as a Republican witness to testify at the Trump impeachment hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.

What Bernie Sanders Has That Joe Biden Doesn’t published first on https://immigrationlawyerto.tumblr.com/

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rivalplatinum-blog · 8 years

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Pocket Ethics: Why Ash Won’t Date

-This is a repost from my amino blog-

Hey Guys,

It's Valentines Day tomorrow and love is in the air. So, what better way to celebrate than ruining all of your hopes and dreams about love in the Pokémon Universe. Today, I'll be examining one timeless question from a bit of a different perspective... Why Ash never gets a girlfriend. No, Serena doesn't count Amour Shippers. There's a difference between a relationship and an implied kiss. I welcome you all to the first ever holiday episode of POCKET ETHICS

!WARNING! THIS BLOG CONTAINS OPINIONS. I WILL TRY TO BACK THESE OPINIONS UP WITH FACTS. HOWEVER, IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE TO THE THOUGHTS OR FEELINGS OF OTHERS TURN AROUND NOW. FOR THIS BLOG WE WILL ALSO BE FOCUSING ON THE MAIN SERIES AND NOT THE MOVIES. SO ANY ROMANCE WITH A CERTAIN LATIAS IS TO BE DISCOUNTED. This topic is one very near and dear to my heart. I am trans-male, so if you want to make hateful comments this is not the place to do it. I feel as though everyone should know about this stuff, though. Exposure is the best way to combat hate. What is Socialization? According to experts at Palomar College, "The general process of acquiring culture is referred to as socialization," In this process we're taught everything from how our gender should behave to what is right and wrong. This isn't an exaggeration. Did you ever steal something when you were a little kid, get scolded for it when you were found out, then were told to return the item. That is a common example of socialization in action. There are several agents of socialization. The main one, when you're young, is your family. Be that (a) parent(s), older siblings, or guardians. As we get older, generally schools take over the role of the main agent of socialization. A school would be an example of a social institution. However, friends also begin to contribute at that point. There are other social institutions (Such as the Military or a Gang), and other types of agents of socialization (Co-workers and Bosses are a good example). But, keep a tab on those two terms: Agents of Socialization and Social Institutions. We'll come back to them later.

Ash/Satoshi Ash, or 智 (Satoshi) in the Japanese anime, is the main protagonist of the Pokémon Anime. Over the years he has traveled through the regions with various companions, on a quest to become a Pokémon Master. And, frequently these companions are female. So, why hasn't he actually romanced any of them? The Easy argument is that he's a prepubescent ten year old in most of the seasons, so he wouldn't feel sexual attraction to any of themes. But kids CAN actually feel romantic attraction. So, even if a relationship didn't go anywhere explicit, he still could have been proclaiming his love (love, not lust) for any one of his companions. Puppy love baby. Instead, Ash is possibly not romantically inclined to be in a relationship.

Gender Identity It's important to mention this. Gender is defined by what a person identifies as. Male and Female are both sexes. Man and Woman are both genders, or more correctly Cis-Male and Cis-Female. We haven't seen a truly transgendered or agendered character in Pokémon. Unless Ilima is hiding something from us. It's pretty safe to assume Ash's gender. That he's Cis-Male. This is likely partially due to the fact that he was socialized as a male. Professors, Gym Leaders, Champions, and the Pokémon League are all either Agents of Socialization or Social Institutions. Though it seems like a fairly equal minded organization, again, do we see any trans Gym Leaders? Nope. And Ilima is a Trial Captain. Which means they technically work with the Kahunas. Even if they aren't transgender or gender fluid or even agendered, let's face it, Ilima isn't a stereotypical male.

Sexuality Okay. So, sexuality is BIOLOGICAL. This is the perfect example of an aspect of ones identity being created by nature over nurture (Which annoys most Sociologists to no end). There's nothing one can do to change if they are physically attracted to a man, woman, someone who is non-binary, all of the above, or no one at all. In an article from Psych-Central by Elissa Malcohn on Neuroscientist Simon LeVay's book, Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why: The Science of Sexual Orientation, there is a brilliant quote, "Rather than ask, “What went wrong?” biological theories examine sexual variety as part of nature. Homosexual behavior is common among nonhuman animals. Graylag geese include male-male sexual pair bonds that can break up if females become available. Male and female bonobos freely engage in both homosexual and heterosexual behavior. Domesticated sheep include rams that refuse to mate with ewes, but that readily mate with other rams." These anecdotes both show that there is a spectrum of sexual orientations in nature. But, we can't say that Ash is homosexual (Though he might be asexual). He hasn't shown any sign of being attracted to Brock, Cillian, Clemont, or even the GLORIOUS Kiawe. And, isn't this piece about how Ash ISN'T attracted to women? The main sign we've seen of Ash liking a girl was in the last episode of XYZ where Ash is possibly kissed by Serena. And, Ash didn't initiate that action. It was Serena who did. So, he's likely not homosexual.

Romanticism Here's where the interesting part of the argument comes in to play. Ash is, likely, aromantic. For those of you unfamiliar with terms like this or Latin, the prefix "a" means "Not" or "Without". Aromantic means Not Romantic. Ash can be seen with two girls in particular who are shown to possibly (or actually) like him. Misty and Serena. These girls are in ways complete opposites. So you have a wide range of personalities for him to choose from. Serena made her interest in Ash fairly obvious, even if it was, at times, unintentional. Misty, on the other hand, acted more like a (please don't kill me for saying this) tsundere. She would slip a gushing line in occasionally, then act hot-tempered. Ash could have picked either of them. But, he didn't. In fact he was oblivious to most of their actions. So, he might be homoromantic? I doubt it. It's important to note that Ash hasn't made any romantic advances towards any male characters. Even if people do ship Ash and Sawyer. It's likely that we'll never know for sure, but I'm guessing that Ash would be aromantic. I hope you enjoyed this. See! I didn't ruin part of the franchise. Well... Unless you ship anyone with Ash. But it's still just an idea! Anyways, Happy Valentines Day! Peace Out, -Plat Sources Palomar College - http://anthro.palomar.edu/social/soc_1.htm Psych-Central - https://psychcentral.com/lib/gay-straight-and-the-reason-why-the-science-of-sexual-orientation/] Sociology in Modules

#Pokemon #PocketEthics #ash #ash ketchum #satoshi #misty #serena

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liberationsareinherentlylinked · 8 years

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Ericka Hart's Speech at the Philadelphia Women's March, January 21st, 2017

"Mesha Caldwell. Jamie Lee Wounded Arrow. Jasmine Sierra. India Monroe. Noony Norwood. Brandy Bledsoe. Jazz Alford. Crystal Edmonds. Lexi Seronan. Rae’Lynn Thomas. Skye Mockabee. Goddess Diamond. Sandra Bland. Mercedes Successful. Joyce Quaweay. Sierra Bush. Veronica Banks Cano. Maya Young. Korryn Gaines. Monica Loera. And more. And more. And more. If you do not recognize the names that were just called, I implore you to reconsider why you are here. Who is this for? My experience living in this country is likened to someone who has been emotionally abused. If I speak out against anything, I am told to be happy/content/complacent that it even existed in the first place. I speak out against the co-opting of the Women’s March. Black cis and trans women, femmes and non-binary individuals have been under attack against gross misogynoir, violence, and body terrorism. We see it everyday, even at this march. Not everyone who identifies as a woman has a pussy nor does your identity as a woman have anything to do with pussy. But, yet I see a sea of knitted hats touting the power of the pussy, when some of you will never have to ponder the anti-Black origins upon which gynecology was built – from Betsey, Anarcha, and Lucy to Sarah Baartman’s whole body and Henrietta Lack’s cervix. If you want to talk about pussy, then you must start with the black pussy. The trauma of the pussy did not begin with Trump, it began when such a high premium was put on the power of the white one. Who is this for? We have to stop being complicit in the same systems that gave Donald Trump platform to sanction and normalize sexual assault. No rallying at this magnitude happened for the 20+ trans folks who were murdered last year. Or the two trans women killed this year. Or when Sandra Bland was murdered. Korryn Gaines. If this march was for all women it would look a lot different and would have happened well before the day after the inauguration. I keep hearing that this march is for everyone, but that just can’t when WE (cis and trans women of color) were an afterthought. I might lose some friends after this speech, but I rather you not be my friend than see another black femme murdered, disregarded, not seen, hair non-consensually touched at the hands of white supremacy, appropriated. I stand here angry. Angry that it took a presidential election for droves of folks all over the country to believe what black femmes have been saying for more than twenty years. 2017 will mark the 20th anniversary of The Million Women’s March, which I will remind you was this march’s original name. A march created for and by black women that took place right here along this very route in Philadelphia. When will we stop ignoring black women? Who is this for? If you don’t like what I’m saying, you might consider you are not here for all women. I stand here for the people who couldn’t quite find the words to voice their concerns against this march. I stand here for the people who have been sterilized against their will in prisons. I stand here for incarcerated cis and trans women under The New Jim Crow. I stand here for the indigenous people’s still fighting to not have contaminated water. I stand here for the people of Detroit still fighting for clean water. I stand here for the cis woman who carried her mattress on her head across an Ivy League school campus just so people would validate her sexual assault experience. I stand here for the people who have had 1,2,3, or 4 babies before some presumed respectable age and are chastised for creating life in the process. I stand here for the little black girl thrown from her classroom chair by a police office for being on her phone. I stand here for the folks who are misgendered just by participating in this march. I stand here for sex workers and the women of the service industry for whom economic justice must be a reality. I stand here for the people who do not have access to political language or activism and for those whose activism lies in their continued existence. I stand here for the sexual assault survivors. I stand here for people with chronic illnesses and disabilities. I stand here for those who didn’t want to be here and chose not to. I stand here for those who did not receive marches all over the country when their bodies were under attack, those constantly on the front lines. Have you noticed who is NOT here? I ask that you notice moving forward and get intentional about inclusivity. Start asking in all of the spaces you occupy and take up: Who is this for? And then make it for them."

#women's march #women's march philadelphia #ericka hart #intersectional feminism #feminist

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argotmagazine-blog · 5 years

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Hysto

I had my reproductive organs voluntarily removed at twenty-two years-old. I’d like to imagine they’re pickled and floating in a jar waiting to be dissected. This is not the first time the distance between myself and my body has become literal; my perfectly healthy flesh and blood are my own worst enemy. My body is company I can only hold at this distance, like a prism against the ceiling light, a spectrum full of indecipherable color. A piece of me, somewhere, is gone.

There’s a lot of hand-wringing about what it means for a transgender person to have surgery. I had to refuse any and all food and liquid, a seemingly impossible task for raging coffee-addict. I gingerly walked up the women’s and infant’s clinic front-desk alone, and told them that I was indeed, the patient being operated on this afternoon. To any passing stranger, I was a young man asking about his partner, wife, child. The reality was I stumbled over my words, with sweat on my forehead as the clerk found my name and said I needed to sign paperwork.

“Are you the patient?” the clerk asked me. I don’t recall anything unique about her. She looked me over with the type of familiarity she might give an unpleasant co-worker’s child.

I say yes. At this point, there’s no going back.

Cue me being asked to follow the dotted yellow lines into a room where I’m met with a dark hallway—not unlike the one from Barton Fink. It was surreal and slightly off-putting, like a dim forgotten corner of a movie set. I walked into the office to sign the consent forms and am asked to follow more yellow dotted lines to another department. In a matter of hours, I would be put to a sleep and operated on, as if none of this preamble ever happened.

I couldn’t help but be reminded of the yellow-brick road Judy Garland and her dog dutifully traveled on to see the wizard, a mystical hermit in his emerald towers. The Wizard of Oz was an obsession in my single-parent household. The stripes on the floor are intended to guide patients and their families, but I went through this all alone, feeling like Dorothy after her house crashed on top of a poor witch. I want to apologize for intruding, for bringing this body into a women’s space, but because of my sex this is where the surgery must take place. It’s frustrating introducing myself; I’m ready as I’ll ever be for the procedure.

When a trans body enters a hospital, it’s as easy as being sucked up into a tornado. It’s swept away from a sepia-hued world into a hyper-visible, technicolor land of prying eyes and confused stares. It’s enough to give anyone cold feet. But there are medical fees for that. There are dollar signs flying like winged-monkeys everywhere. Legal paperwork saying I’m someone else might as well be a house dropping down on my head. That it clearly says they have the wrong patient.

But I had a letter saying I was supposed to be here, for this, I emphasized to the clerk, being as vague as possible. The surgery. I’m piss-broke and have just signed away a significant amount of money to pay for a surgery I would never be able to afford without my Ivy League college insurance.

Nice people get what they want and I wanted to have my organs removed to become a better, more whole person because of it. I was determined to find my ruby slippers, slap them together, and walk out to attend class next week like nothing happened. In retrospect, this is the apex of the overachiever mentality: going in for major surgery on Friday and talking about Foucault the following Monday.

I was used to trying to appeal to others for respect, so I smiled and nodded with every well- intentioned “miss” and “m’am” knowing all too well that the clinical description of “gender identity disorder” was stamped on every page of my paperwork. This was the nature of the beast, and I was lost in this Oz world, stumbling my way along, doing my best not to make myself too noticeable. All I wanted was to go home, metaphorically, into a body I could better recognize myself in. I had a big house crash in on my life and it was the body I lived in.

The DSM-5 now calls “gender identity disorder” “gender dysphoria disorder,” which supposedly lessens the stigma attached to transgender people. But bodies are messy and on principal, they’re subject to change regardless of how we choose to talk about them. This is inherently a problem with language and how culture violently twists and depicts trans bodies. I’m not here to entertain baseless arguments about people wanting to cut off limbs because they “think they should be an amputee.” Here was the brick wall in my transition: squishy organs, ripe for the picking.

Fixating on what people ought to do to their body isn’t new or exciting. I’m interested in the visceral messiness of the experience, the bureaucratic ritualism that preludes any endeavor to present ourselves to medical institutions. The mechanical process of sex-related surgery isn’t exciting. I doubt those other than the morbidly curious and skeptical would find the technicalities illuminating. It’s boring being a transgender person going under the knife. Waiting for surgery is like watching grass grow—nothing ever happens. It’s miles upon miles of dotted lines, signatures, and the sound of your own urine splashing against a measurement cup minutes before you’re on the gurney.

I spent my recovery watching gross, schlocky movies. It’s comforting losing myself in the screen, doing my best to get into another person’s head. It’s a good enough distraction from picturing the sinews of my abdomen healing together, my pelvic muscles recoiling after being sliced open for the surgery to take place. My gruesome tendencies go wild—I want to imagine all sorts of morbid transformations taking place where my uterus once was. I pictured it like the scene in The Fly, where Jeff Goldblum realizes he’s growing tiny insectoid feelers on his forearms. This scene is not unlike my own discoveries of individual chin hairs after years of injecting testosterone.

Compared to most transgender men, I’m about as masculine as a naked mole-rat. My body will now require synthetic hormones to be injected on a weekly basis in order to maintain itself. This is something I of course discussed at lengths for months with my doctor. There’s no problem here—I became obsessed with my own boredom waiting for my body to heal. I felt abnormally well.

I fantasized about a creature inside of me ready to burst out like an Alien parasite, announcing that I’m here, finally in this new home I call my meat and flesh. But no abomination will come tearing me open from the inside-out. Only my own ennui ready to swallow itself whole like Ouroboros.

The monster analogies are easy—Frankenstein, Chimera, test-tube creatures. Walking through the world with this body is the equivalent of hiding the fact you are, partially, the product of someone else’s handiwork. This is how I’ve come to terms with own sense of monstrosity, the jagged edges of my body that don’t quite all fit together.

Scholar Susan Stryker describes the trans body in her essay/performance piece My Words To Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix:

“The transsexual body is an unnatural body. It is the product of medical science. It is a technological construction. It is flesh torn apart and sewn together again in a shape other than that in which it was born.”

The trans body is both the site of medical and technological impact, crashing into each other violently to make beautiful results. The Frankenstein-qualities of a body that will need hormones to survive is admirable to me—it’s a powerful announcement of my own autonomy, the desire to live in a world constantly trying to kill me. I cut ties with the old biological demands of my old body for a new one, tailored to fit, in a form from “flesh torn apart.” This cycle began when I had chest reconstruction surgery and my hysterectomy is another symbolic middle-finger to the world. I have the agency to sew this body back together, transform it an optimized, beautiful living being.

When I inject my weekly hormones, I feel euphoria. I feel my body re-organize itself when I complete a dose. It’s an all-consuming experience that demands a concentrated up-keep of syringes, doses, needles, and gauges. To reject what I was given, I reach out for the tools at hand, become my own cyborg, someone who builds out of what’s despised.

From Testo Junkie by Paul B. Preciado:

“I’m not taking testosterone to change myself into a man or as a physical strategy of transsexualism; I take it to foil what society wanted to make of me, so that I can write, fuck, feel a form of pleasure that is post-pornographic, add a molecular prostheses to my low-tech transgender identity composed of dildos, texts, and moving images; I do it to avenge your death.”

Letting myself be used, medically, is an act of freedom. In his introduction to Testo Junkie, Preciado announces an “low-tech transgender identity” in conversation with the death of those he knows and loves. The consequences of dying, either on or off the surgery table, are all the same: the muscles give out and the body finally rests. Preciado and Stryker speak on the dissociation and pain of the trans body better than I ever could—the body isn’t one object, but a collection of “Frankenstein-qualities” and “dildos, texts, and moving images.” It’s an amalgamation of lost pieces sewn back together to make a façade that lasts just long enough, a shelter that endures just enough rough weather to survive. It’s a house, albeit one that crashed from the sky long ago.

Strewn on my bed, with my flesh bending itself back into shape, I couldn’t help but return to the image of bloodied meat. The recovery process is blinding, painful, and full of medication. My mind wandered to Elvira Weishaupt’s monologue in the climatic slaughterhouse scene of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s In a Year of 13 Moons, in which a transgender woman recounts her childhood nostalgia with a friend. The scene is brutal, with vivid, long shots of cows being partially decapitated, their bloody flesh bare as Elvira speaks. Elvira is abused and traumatized by the men in her life after genital confirmation surgery, after which she commits suicide. The film, released in 1978—only one year before Janice Raymond published her hateful The Transexual Empire—explicitly associates the transformation of Elvira’s body with the carnage and violence that comes with production-line slaughterhouses. The transgender body is a site of mutilation and damage—surgeries only leave emotional and physical gashes that cannot heal, according to Fassbinder. The sentiment of the film is not empowering nor approving of transgender people’s autonomy in determining their own biology. It’s a moment of disgust and the re-opening of traumatic wounds by recollecting memories of a past body, one that the speaker cannot cling on to anymore.

The body is easily destroyed. It is also easily rebuilt, as sinews and connecting tissue regrow, the body regenerates itself, waking up again after being dormant. It’s amazingly resilient. A new flesh can spawn from the shrivel and bloodied remains of the last occupant—the meat of the body isn’t a dying thing. It grows and becomes—my scars now are just that now, only scars.

I still don’t know what the proper response is when people ask about the surgery.

It’s just a pinch, I want to tell them. A snap of the wrists. A crack of the skull.

A bullet to the heart. A fist to the eye.

That word, transsexual, hanging heavy and wet on a company’s tongue, because you had the dollar to your name and the will to live. Sticks and stones.

My body is vetting itself down the yellow brick road, hitting all the speed bumps along the way. It’s as good as broken. I like it this way.

Blake Planty loves crawling the web at the witching hour. He has fiction and essays published and forthcoming in Nat Brut, DREGINALD, Heavy Feather Review, Waxwing, The Fanzine, Tenderness Lit, and more. Find him talking about cyborgs and coffee at @_dispossessed on Twitter and online at catboy.club.

#trans #transition #trans experiences #medicine #bodies #personal essay #survival #body image #Blake Planty

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scarletwelly-boots · 7 years

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Books Read 2017

I read 35 books this year. I'm about halfway done with #36, so I might make a smaller post later if I finish it before the New Year. I will also make a follow-up with the top ten so you don't need to read this whole thing. This post will briefly review each book (and damn I slacked this year; last year I got through 39 books).

As last year, each entry will include the title, author, and the entry of this year's reading challenge that it fell under.

1. All the King’s Men, by Nora Sakavic (A book that’s been on your TBR list for way too long). This is book three of the All for the Game trilogy, and holy shit you have to read this. It’s the best book in the trilogy. It is a series about a college sports team who play a made up sport called Exy, which is basically a more violent version of lacrosse. I’m not a huge sports fan, but the way she writes Exy matches had me on the edge of my seat. The team is made up of all “at-risk” students, the main character being a kid on the run from his mob boss dad. Trigger warning for the series for violence, sexual assault/rape, abuse, drug use, I may be missing some things. It was so good though.

2. Chopsticks, by Jessica Anthony (A book of letters). This book was recommended to me by a friend, and I kind of cheated on including this for this part of the challenge. It’s not entirely epistolary. It’s more mixed media. The story is told through pictures, letters, newspaper articles, notes, etc. It was good. It’s about a girl who’s basically this piano prodigy who meets a boy and falls in love.

3. East, by Edith Patton (an audio book). This year was going to be the year I reread books I haven’t read since junior high, but I kind of fell through on that, so I think this might be the only one I actually read. It’s a retelling of the Scandinavian fairy tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon, which in turn is basically a version of Beauty and the Beast. I was obsessed with Beauty and the Beast retellings (and fairy tale retellings in general) when I was fourteen. The book certainly holds up over time. I definitely recommend it.

4. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, by Benjamin Alire Saenz (a book by a person of color). Guys, everything you have heard about this book is true. It is so cute, and beautifully written. Two very different boys meet at a swimming pool when they are fifteen, and almost immediately become inseparable best friends. Also, if you can, the audiobook is surprisingly cheap on Amazon and read by el amor de mi vida, Lin-Manuel Miranda, so the book has that going for it too. 11/10 would recommend.

5. The Summer Palace, by CS Pacat (a book with one of the four seasons in the title). This is a short story in the Captive Prince series, and while it is absolutely adorable and so sunny, you need to read the trilogy to understand and appreciate it. It’s so sweet, with Laurent and Damen finally allowed to get to know each other and explore their personalities without the immediate threat of death hanging over them. Definitely recommended, but only after you read the trilogy, which I also obviously recommend.

6. The Course of Irish History, by TW Moody &co (a book with multiple authors). This is like 800-page textbook-grade Irish history, from the Ancient Celts to the Celtic Tiger economy in the 2000s. It is the leading book for Irish History courses, as I understand it. Guys. I loved this book. It took me forever to read, but I love Irish history books. It’s almost the only nonfiction I can sit through. Will you like it? Probably not. Do I recommend it anyway? Absolutely.

7. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire (a book with a cat on the cover). Might’ve cheated on this entry too. Okay, listen. I have zero interest in reading the other books in the series and I’m sorry, but the musical was ten times better. However, there are several things about this book that I love. (And I read this in January so how accurate my memories are is questionable.) Elphaba is absolutely bi/pan in this and you cannot convince me otherwise. There are two munchkins who aren’t in the musical but who are absolutely gay as the Fourth of July. I’m pretty sure I remember someone who could be read as trans. This book was very queer. I just have no attachment to the characters that I know will be in the other books. If you want to read it, I’d recommend it. If you have the opportunity to see the musical instead, go with that option even if it’s the more expensive choice.

8. Fence, vol. 1, by CS Pacat (a book by an author who uses a pseudonym): CS Pacat is back, this time with a modern sports comic about fencing. This is a literal comic book guys, so it was really short, but vol. 2 is out soon so it’s okay. I liked it. I like fencing and CS Pacat, so I enjoyed it. Too short, but I know that’s how comics work. Yeah, go read it and support comics.

9. The Raven King, by Nora Sakavic (a bestseller from a genre you don’t normally read). “This was a bestseller?” Yeah, okay, so I cheated a lot this year. It should have been a best seller. This is book two in the All for the Game series. I already explained this series above, but guys read it, it’s so good!

10. Turtles All the Way Down, by John Green (a book by or about someone who has a disability). Yay, John Green wrote another book! Yep, it’s a Green book all right. But it was really, really good. Yes, this is coming from someone whose favorite book is still The Fault in Our Stars, but listen. The main character has anxiety like crazy, and Green, having anxiety himself, writes it so well. Almost too well; the character’s anxiety was starting to give me anxiety. I loved it. Read this book.

11. A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson (A book involving travel), this is a classic. Bryson goes to hike the Appalachian Trail, which is very very long. He takes along his somewhat stupid friend from home. Another nonfiction book, but it was good and had no Ireland at all in it. It was really funny, too. I recommend the audiobook, because it’s really fast to get through, but good.

12. The Immortal Irishman, by Timothy Egan (a book with a subtitle). I know, but it’s got a subtitle actually but I just can’t remember what it is. Guys, I know it’s Irish history again. This book is whole leagues above The Course of Irish History. It’s not a textbook, and doesn’t read like one. It’s a biography on Thomas Francis Meagher, a revolutionary in Famine-decimated Ireland trying to free his dying and oppressed country from the English. It doesn’t go well. He’s imprisoned and sentenced to death. But instead of dying, he is transported to the Penal Colony in Australia, where he lives and works to free Australia from Britain’s clutches as well, before he escapes to the United States just in time to be a general in the Civil War. It’s really good.

13. Weird Ireland, assorted authors (a book that’s published in 2017). A very small, independently published book about paranormal, supernatural, and extra-terrestrial sightings in Ireland. It was okay. I finished it in two hours. I knew everything that was in it, and some of it they even got wrong. Even if you’re crazy-obsessed with Ireland like me, you can skip this one.

14. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the movie script, by JK Rowling (a book involving a mythical creature). Did you see the movie? Then you’re good, you don’t need to read the script. Bye.

15. Howl’s Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones (a book you’ve read before than never fails to make you smile). Did I say TFiOS is my favorite book? Sorry, I meant this one. Did you see the movie? Don’t care, book’s better, go read it. This may be my most frequently read book on my shelf. It’s sooo good!

16. Teacher Man, by Frank McCourt (a book with career advice): I hate to say this about a fellow Irishman and a celebrated author, but Frank McCourt? not a great guy. The book was good, because I’m also a teacher, so some of what he was saying was relatable to me. But the guy teaches high school English, and even though the book follows him from his thirties to like his sixties, he’s kind of salivating over the high school girls and it was making me very uncomfortable. He never actually does anything about his attraction (at least not in the book), but I was still like this is wildly unprofessional please stop.

17. Loki: Agent of Asgard vol. 1, by Jason Ewing (a book from a nonhuman perspective): This was the second-ever graphic novel I’ve ever read guys. Yes, I had a weeabo phase in junior high like everyone else, so I did read manga, but comics were never really that interesting to me. So I was Thor: Ragnarok six times this year. Why did I see it six times? I love Loki and their genderfluidity, even if the MCU won’t acknowledge that my love so obviously gf. So I decided to read all the comics where it’s canon that Loki is genderfluid. This book was so good, please read.

18. Graceling, by Kristen Cashore (a steampunk novel). Cheating again, sorry. This was more fantasy than steampunk. It was also a junior high favorite I’m reading again. In this world, there are people born with two eye colors that signify they have special abilities. Some are benign, like being an amazing baker or the ability to tell someone is lying to you, but some are more sinister. The main character, Katsa’s grace is for killing. It’s a good book.

19. The Irish Civil War, by Tim Pat Coogan (a book with a red spine). A very short book highlighting the Irish Civil War 1922-1923. I liked it, because the civil war is basically the only section of Irish history I was still a little foggy on, so it was helpful. Will you like it? Only if you’re into Irish history like me. This is not Immortal Irishman.

20. Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan (A book you loved as a child). We read this with my fifth graders last year. I loved this book when I was ten, but I got so much more out of it this second time around. It’s a really good book, even if you’re not a child. Esperanza starts out the daughter of a wealthy rancher, but when her father dies under shifty circumstances, she and her mother are forced to flee to America, where they live with their servants’ relatives in a migrant worker camp in California, facing hardship, discrimination, and immigration laws. It’s very good.

21. Cupid, by Julius Lester (a book with a title that’s a character’s name). This was okay. I thought I’d read it in junior high, but I had no memory of any of it. It’s a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, which is very similar to East of the Sun and West of the Moon. The author tried to be tongue-in-cheek in a few places, which I didn’t appreciate, but overall it’s a pretty good YA novel.

22. Loki: Agent of Asgard vol. 2, by Jason Ewing (a book with an unreliable narrator). Loki? Unreliable? Since when? Still good, still queer, Freyja pissing me off as always.

23. Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel (a book with pictures): Okay, I guess I lied, since this book was a graphic novel and I read it before Loki. It was really interesting. It’s autobiographical of Bechdel’s life and relationship with her dad.

24. The Pirate Queen, by Barbara Sjoholm (a book about an interesting woman). Not only was this about my favorite person ever, Grace O’Malley, stone in Britain’s imperial sandal, but also talked about the relationship between Atlantic-dwelling women and the sea. It covers goddesses, fisherwomen, pirates, adventurers, and sea-witches from Ireland, Scotland, the Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland. It was really interesting and I recommend it.

25. Timekeeper, by Tara Sim (a book set in two different time periods). Cheated here, too, don’t know what I was thinking. Anyway, this is a steampunk novel in which clock towers actually control time, which means that if there’s a flaw, it affects time itself in more literal ways. It’s about a clock mechanic and a clock spirit who lives in one of the towers and watches over the clock. They are adorably gay, but that’s more of a subplot because someone has been sabotaging the towers and throwing time into chaos. The sequel comes out in January. Good for a debut novel.

26. Across Five Aprils, by Irene Hunt (a book with a month or day of the week in the title). This is about a ten-year-old boy growing up in rural Illinois during the Civil War, so it talks about how it affects him and his family, as well as covers the course of the war in a more general perspective. It was interesting, and well written, but I think I prefer Hunt’s Up a Road Slowly.

27. The Adventures of Charls, by CS Pacat (a book written by someone you admire): Another Captive Prince short story that should be read after The Summer Palace. Where Green But for a Season (the first CP short story) was sad, and Summer Palace was passionate and cute, The Adventures of Charls is hilarious. Charls, the cloth merchant, was such a great side character in the CP trilogy, and telling the story from his perspective was great. It doesn’t have to be read after the Summer Palace, but at least the trilogy should be read first.

28. Wonder, by RJ Palacio (a book that’s becoming a movie in 2017). Did you watch the movie? Whitewashed, go read the fucking book. I read this with my fifth graders last year too, who loved it. It’s a very sweet story, and the movie was good, but it goes too fast and leaves out some scenes that I liked. Highly, highly recommend.

29. The Foxhole Court, by Nora Sakavic (the first book in a series you haven’t read before). First book (obviously) in the All for the Game series. What are you still doing here? Go start this trilogy!

30. Symptoms of Being Human, by Jeff Garvin (a bestseller from 2016). I think I cheated again, but this book should have been a bestseller. Quality of the story gets a solid 7/10, but this is the only novel I know of that has a canon human genderfluid character, and representation is so important and for a cis dude, this guy wrote genderfluid shockingly well. Characterization and representation gets a 10/10 because I just ignored the “I’m a whiny teenager, no one likes me, my parents don’t get me, woe is me” chorus. Some of it was justified, because they were being bullied, and they weren’t out to their parents, but still, the book was written very young adult-y.

31. The Story We Carry in Our Bones, by Juliene Osbourne-McKnight (a book about an immigrant or refugee). The subtitle describes the book best: Irish history for Irish-Americans. Down side: very watered down Irish history because it’s a small book and just an introduction to Irish history. Up side: More information and context of the history of the Irish in America, because my personal studies have pretty much entirely skipped over that aspect of my heritage. If you’re Irish-American and looking to learn a little more about your ethnic past, but don’t want to dive headfirst into the deep end of Irish everything like me, you should read this book. If you’re willing to study more in-depth Irish history, skip this book and I have some better recommendations for you.

32. Loki: Agent of Asgard vol. 3, by Jason Ewing (a book from a genre you’ve never heard of): Cheated; I know what a comic book is. This is the last volume in this series. My only qualm is a spoiler, so I’ll give it 8/10.

33. Original Sin: Thor and Loki in the Tenth Realm, by Jason Ewing (a book with an eccentric character): Who is more eccentric than Loki “Always-Extra” Laufeyson? This is the first comic I’ve ever read, and I have to say it was very good. Featuring genderfluid!Loki all the way, actual Father-of-the-Year this time Odin, Freyja’s shockingly shitty parenting skills (maybe this is a theme in the comics, but coming from actual-angel!Frigga in the MCU, this was upsetting for me), and Thor abandoning the Avengers in a fight to start another battle in another realm because Thor is a fucking over-dramatic bastard.

34. Huntess, by Malinda Lo (a book that’s been mentioned in another book). I read Lo’s Ash a few years ago and loved it. Huntress, while okay, didn’t quite live up to the hype I’d applied to it after reading Ash. It was good, and had a very mythical Ireland feel to it that I liked, and it was very gay, but I don’t know, it wasn’t quite what I was expecting.

35. Ever, by Gail Carson Levine (a book based on mythology). I read this book when I was fourteen, too (guess I did read a lot of books from junior high). I love this book. It’s about a young god who meets a monotheistic mortal girl and they fall in love despite the differences in their religion. I didn’t love it as much as I did in junior high, but it’s still good. Levine also wrote Ella Enchanted, which is very good and more well-known than Ever.

#books #book recommendations #book recs

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