#Pride Month Takeover!

[starsandmarsbars]

If aroace people took over the world I’d vote for them 100%

[feeling--pink]

They committed the worst crime of all: being silly AND goofy 😔😔

…But don’t worry! Jancy will bail them out! :)

[lazymonth]

Draw for pride month...?

I know it's kinda ridiculous compared to the main universe, but it has a ship for these two 💀

;Sweet ride ↷

Old man yaoi.

Dynamic between Turbo and KC in the AU is literally super opposite from The maine universe

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

How Pride became a carnival of homophobia | Andrew Doyle

So, Pride Month is finally over. The flags, the rainbow bunting, the corporate drag shows, all of it is being wound down for another year, and many people will be breathing a sigh of relief. Gay people included.

For what began all those decades ago as an annual demonstration against homophobic bigotry held to commemorate The Stonewall riots of 1969, has descended into a month-long orgy of virtue signaling. Far worse than that, due to Pride's embrace of gender ideology, it has helped to fuel a new form of homophobia in faux progressive garb.

The impact of the riots at the Stonewall Inn in June 1969 has often been overblown. Those few summer days when the beleaguered gay community fought back against the police on the streets of New York is rightly considered a milestone in the struggle for equal rights. But gay equality was truly achieved by the activists who persisted in the aftermath, harnessing the energy of the uprising and changing the world forever. Perhaps a more important milestone was the march organized by a handful of campaigners a year later. Veteran gay rights activist Craig Rodwell wanted to hold a yearly commemoration of Stonewall, building on the annual reminder picket events he had been organizing on Independence Day in Philadelphia.

The first New York Pride March, as it was later rebranded, was held on the 28th of June 1970. It was called the Christopher Street Liberation Day and was organized by Rodwell, Fred Sargeant, Linda Rhodes and Ellen Broidy. It was an audacious display. Police hostility to gay people was rife at the time, the local media were overwhelmingly unsympathetic, and there were fears of violent repercussions from observers. Nevertheless, the day passed off peacefully, perhaps because of a general sense of astonishment that thousands of gay people would assemble so openly. At the head of the march, Fred Sergeant carried a bullhorn and called out instructions to the marchers as they made their way from the West Village to Central Park.

Fifty-four years later, and Pride has transformed from an important act of gay and lesbian resistance into an event full of heterosexuals calling themselves "queer" or "non-binary," desperate to identify into an oppressed group. Progress Pride flags flutter from every High Street store. This relatively new design, a kaleidoscopic eyesore that has replaced the traditional six stripe pride flag, is emblazoned on schools, universities, hospitals and civic buildings.

In the city of Arlington in Texas, this year's "family friendly" Pride event included displays of dildos, half- naked drag queens and human dogs in bondage gear. And it was all spon.sored by Lockheed Martin, the world's largest producer of military armaments.

In London, pedestrian crossings have been repainted with the Progress Pride motif. Police horses find walking across the colored stripes confused and disturbing, so the animals had to undergo special training to overcome their fears. After all, it is essential to address the rampant homophobia within the equine community.

What might the thousands who turned out on that summer day in New York in 1970 make of this distorted version of Pride? Those gay men and lesbians who risked social ostracism and physical violence to gather in public have little in common with this garish and unsettling facsimile.

A poll from 2021 determined that almost 40% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 now identify as LGBTQ. And given the vast majority of them identify as "trans," "non-binary" and "queer," this means that gay people are now the minority in this coalition. The early pioneers of gay rights didn't risk so much for their movement to be usurped by fetishistic heterosexuals with a martyr complex.

A recent poll on X asked a simple question: "Do you want Pride anymore?" The response was overwhelmingly negative. But while social media polls are notoriously unreliable, it is surely significant that this one was reposted by Fred Sargeant and that his answer was a resounding "no." That the man who led the first Pride March, bullhorn in hand, should now reject the annual event that he co-created is far from trivial.

[ Continues... ]

==

Note: This is a video version of an article by Andrew.

Update: It's funny that this video has been age-restricted by YouTube, given it just depicts events at public Pride parades.

[abbyslev]

just wanted to give an extra special happy pride to my lesbians🩷 this community has helped me so much and i simply cannot believe how much love and support fellow lesbians have. i was always taught that being lesbian was a “dirty” thing and wasn’t beautiful, but as i accepted being one i realized being lesbian is a statement, a beautiful feeling nothing else could compare🩷 thank you to everyone in this community and thank you to all my lesbians for being strong out here, i love you all and my dms will ALWAYS be open to anyone who needs to talk🩷

[emohimiko]

[jadebunbun]

EVERYBUNNY it's time for Genshin Impact 🎴🐇⭐♥️

EVERYBUNNY I'm playing more #GenshinImpact 🎴🐇⭐♥️

[totalcl0wn]

Pride month doesn't really feel like pride month this year ive seen barely anything 😭

[sovpologist]

"While the exact details of Sony’s deal to acquire Bungie remain unknown to the public or employees, sources say they were told by leaders that the current split board structure is contingent on Bungie meeting certain financial goals. If Bungie falls short of certain financial thresholds by too great an amount, Sony is allowed to dissolve the existing board and take full control of the company."

"According to those still with the company, employee frustration and sadness in the days and weeks following the layoffs was met with a surprising amount of indifference or even outright flippancy or hostility from management. Several people we spoke to told us that leaders had reiterated, across multiple meetings, that they couldn’t guarantee there wouldn’t be more layoffs, with two specifically recalling chief people officer Holly Barbacovi outright stating that layoffs were a “lever” the company would pull again."

"Others said they were rebuffed repeatedly and discouraged from even discussing the layoffs whenever they tried to ask questions. Employees in one department recalled a post-layoffs Q&A session where a department head was asked if leadership taking salary cuts to prevent layoffs had been considered, only to respond that Bungie was 'not that type of company.'"

"Several people we spoke to expressed anger at the layoff of Bungie general counsel Don McGowan, who played a key role in Bungie winning an historic suit against a player who harassed a Bungie developer. Others laid off included a noticeable number of members of Bungie’s DE&I clubs, including co-heads of Pride@Bungie, Women@Bungie, and Accessibility@Bungie. When combined with other recent resource cuts, these dismissals have led to fears these clubs might be shut down."

"'I’m angry. I’m upset. This isn’t what I came here to do,' one person said. 'It feels like many higher ups aren’t listening to the data and are like, "We just need to win our fans back, they still like us." No. They don’t…We got rid of some of our most knowledgeable beloved folks who have been here for 20+ years. Everyday I walk in afraid that I or my friends are next. No one is safe.'"

[uselessbard1031]

Every Rose Has Its Thorns (Ambessa X Black Rose Spy! Reader C1)

Trying a new thing where I cross post on Tumblr and Ao3. (Ao3 link at end)

C1:

Everyone is sleeping with someone and beds can bury many secrets under the covers. Secrets like the Demacian lover of a famed Noxian assassin. Secrets like the Trifarix takeover of Grand General Darkwill. Secrets like the Crimson Circle’s leader planning another coup. These secrets stick to the thorns of those special redolent rose colored lovers tangled up in the sheets with generals, captains, and house heads. Those lovers whose special magics put the guile in beguiling. 

Your job is a florist -- a host handing out roses and collecting the pricked off secrets those roses gathered. A job you do well. Not every flower at your shop is a rose. No. There are delusional daisies and desperate daffodils. There are illusions of irises and professional pansies. But those are all a cover for the sweet pollen of your roses. Rose roots, as most know, are everywhere once they're planted. They sap the nutrients from every other flower nearby -- they have the power to consume. To consume secrets of the rest of the garden. 

One day about a month ago a daisy had earned the affections of a general so much so that she had begun buzzing about her life like a little pollinator. The rumors stuck to the rose roots within your brothel and thus came to you. You saw to it that the general’s lover was upgraded to a rose still suiting of her tastes. The daisy, you had said, was bought by someone looking for a bouquet in their home. The general had not minded in the slightest which was no surprise. If she'd have genuinely cared about losing the flower, you would have simply spliced the daisy in with a rose, given it thorns, and kept it pricking. Instead, your mother has taken it and all of its intel too. 

So now, for a month, a rose has been sticking into those secret filled covers. A rose who is very good at his job. A rose who is…marching towards you with a bruise beneath his gold-lidded eye and a fuming gaze?

“What's happened?” You ask, quirking a brow.

“I'm done,” he snaps, his voice as pretty as his feminine face. 

“No you're not. Where's the client?”

“In my room. Wants someone else.” He looks down the hall of doors and rooms before leaning in to you. “I pressed about the son, like you said. She wants nothing to do with me now. I'm burned.”

“And bruised. Go get some ice.”

He storms off to nurse his wound and you bite your lip, scanning through your mental inventory. All of your research says he's her perfect type. Skinny. Benign. Docile. Pretty. Your other effeminate male rose is currently assigned elsewhere. Though if she comes another day, he may do. You know she likes women as well. Ones with strength. No. Power. Weapons of women and flowers of men. But muscles alone won't do. You have many talented mages, sure. Perhaps one of them could peak her interest. But none of them have what she truly craves in a female lover -- someone with superiority -- someone chosen -- someone capable, with control and, well, power. Someone like…

You glance back at her room. It's an idea, but is it one you're willing to dedicate to? You grin, imagining how your mother will react to the news. She'll be amused more than anything. Impressed, you think. Proud. Guile means more to her than pride so to sell yourself as a flower, as a rose, someone so unobtainable that the general will feel oh so special to have you. Yes. You'll earn your mother's pride for this clever little play. 

You switch the sign on the front door to closed and head back to the retired rose’s room. With a breath of confidence, you knock, a smile glazing over your lips already. 

“Enter,” a voice like broken glass on a gravel path orders from the other side.

You open the door, heading inside but paying her no mind. Not yet. Something small first, a show of your magical power to aid your social power. You twist your hand absentmindedly around a healthy pothos hanging from a ceiling hook. A shadow creeps down its long vines, blazing a trail of withered brown and fallen crinkled leaves behind it until it slithers all the way to the new growth at the tip. 

“You've given one of my top earners a black eye,” you say, still not facing her.

“Your whore ,” she growls the word, “was testing my patience and good nature. I pay for pleasure, not for interrogation.”

“He's chatty.”

“I don't care for chatty.”

“Your last lover was chatty.” You toss her a look over your shoulder. Then sigh and go back to the pothos, killing another vine with darkness so deep it drains all the stored sunlight away with ease. “You liked him. I assumed this would be a good match for you.”

“I have been employing your brothel’s services for near a decade now. Yet, I don't believe we've ever spoken.”

You turn to her now. Your eyes trace the hem of red cotton that drapes over her muscled thighs. They slip up to her red painted lips on her glass of posca. They twist through curls of grey hair leaning against a headboard, twirling a strand by her scarred umber face. She really is attractive, now isn't she?

You glide up to the bed, taking your time. “We may have never spoken, but that doesn't mean I haven't kept tabs on you.” 

As you reach her, you sit on the mattress, just out of reach, teasing the edges of her aura with your own. You bring shadows from the corners of the room closer. Snakes of black curtain around the bedframe and lurk on the floorboards. One tickles across her leg and she shudders, though she hides it. Her gaze falls on you, curious, interest piqued, but wary and ready for battle. 

“You are strong,” you say. “Stronger than most. In will. In might. Ah, but you already know this. It makes you difficult to please. You've been unhappy with my business twice now. I do not wish to leave you dissatisfied a third time.” You lean just a bit closer, fingers tracing lightly around a scar by her knee. “So perhaps something off menu would better suit your unique tastes?”

Her gold flecked eyes darken a shade and she smirks. Humming amusedly, she asks,”Mm and what may you be offering, off menu, exactly?

A shadow follows your hand, reaching forward with you to brush hair from her face and tuck it behind her ear. “I've always preferred female lovers, and I've heard rumors that you enjoy both sexes.”

“The rumors are true”

“Please then, allow me to apologize for the chatty whore. Have a night on the house. With me.” You lean closer still, your lips ghosting her own. You think for a moment to leave the choice to her, to allow her to seize you, claim you. But then you think about how attracted she is to women in control so you seize her instead -- kissing her before she kisses you. 

And boy does she kiss you.

A calloused hand finds its way to the back of your head, fingers knotting in your hair. She chuckles, hungry mouth against your own, her tongue rolling along your bottom lip. It's not a fight for dominance. No. It's a test to see if you will yield it. You don't. Which spurs her to smile more. She pulls away from you, eyes finding yours with a bit of a glimmer. 

“You are curious, little flower,” she says. 

“As are you, general. Tell me, how does a wolf stalk its prey?”

She chuckles again, a low rumbling noise. “Deliberately.”

“And how does it attack?”

“Without mercy.”

Her claims prove valid when she attacks, mercilessly, your lips again. Your neck. Your shoulder. You allow her to guide you to your back, pulling the darkness around you entirely so that the only light in the room is the halos you allow around her and around you. You keep the spell the entire night you spend together. With every talented curl of your finger or quivering shake of your orgasm she grows more and more intrigued by you. By your focus and your abilities. Good. Your roots are being planted. In time, your thorns will prick those secrets from her.

In time, turns out to be a patient six months. You've uncovered much of her story but only the outer shell. Her loyalty to family. Her desire for legacy. And just now, a few days after the six month mark, she finally gifts you the information your mother has so wanted.

“Daughter,” the voice greets you in the pale red darkness of her illusion. How can it be pale and dark? Well, how can anything be mutually exclusive when it comes to her? A woman with a million faces yet not known for a single one. The Faceless.

You take a knee before her, her silhouette shifting between heavy and light, brawny and slender, masculine and feminine. “Mother,” you greet, “I come with the information you sought from Ambessa Medarda.”

“The one whose love child is of our own kind? Now that is interesting.”

You stand. “The son, Kino, he is in Nava on a diplomatic mission for their house.”

“Are you certain?”

“Would I lie?” You smirk.

She steps forth from her illusion, a pale face with a bob of blue hair and dark purple lips that smirk right back at you. 

“You've done well, daughter,” she says, thin white fingers tilting up your chin. “I knew there was a reason I took you in that century ago. Just a bawling little infant then. Look at you now. All grown up and covered in thorns. Our agents in Nava will capture the wolf pup. He will be tested and, if potent, used. The Black Rose will bloom again.”

“What about the alpha wolf? Have we any further use for her?”

“Perhaps. The future is all smoke and mirrors. So play your part. Keep her leashed. Remember that there is still a second child we may require if this one proves to be the wrong one.”

“Understood.”

She sighs, releasing you and turning to the warping edges of the nothingness around you. Turning to some door in some far off room. With a wave of her hand a magician’s staff appears between jeweled rings on her thumb and index finger. Without looking back at you she says, “I’ve got to go. The assassin’s are due at Swain’s doorstep any minute now.” She glances over her shoulder, a purr and a grin, “it's how he knows I care.”

With that, the void disappears and so does she. You're left alone in your bedroom with its stone walls and silk sheets. 

You gaze out over the city through your window. Noxus Prime. All these years and it hasn't changed much at all. Then again, neither have you. Your looks are still that of your youth. Easier, then, with bright eyes and a light face, to manipulate the shadows behind Noxus’s big red curtains. All these banners and blood and war. How trivial. Those two men your mother works alongside on the Trifarix are nothing more than puppets in a big show. One day, they'll be gone -- bone and ashes -- just like the man before them and there will be another puppet and another. All marionettes, dancing by the pull of their strings. Dancing, by your mother's hand. Dancing, for the Black Rose.

[jgroffdaily]

A few things we learned about Jonathan during the promotion of ‘Merrily We Roll Along’:

1. He’s in therapy. He told Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez during a Tonys Instagram takeover that he had therapy that morning, and was feeling “very processed”. Video below.

2. In the ‘Out’ Magazine interview Jonathan said he wants to buy the first bar where Barbra Streisand reportedly first sang publicly, which is now an occupied restaurant.

The actor wants to one day buy a Village restaurant called & Son Steakeasy, which used to be the site of the Lion, a gay bar where Streisand first sang publicly during a singing contest (according to a plaque there, at least). His goal is “turning it back into a gay bar and calling it BARbra.” A neon “BARbra” sign even hangs in his Merrily dressing room as a reminder of this dream.

3. In the same interview, he says he's happy to remain single or be in a relationship:

“I’ve been single now for a couple of years and I’m feeling…ready and open for anything. If that’s continuing with that, if that’s a relationship, I’m cool with that.”

4. At the Out Magazine Pride Cover Party he said:

“I’m single. I’m feeling full of pride. And PrEP.”

Bonus quote from the Buzzfeed puppies interview:

"I’m clearly the single one of the three of because the puppies know. I need love.”

5. In the New Yorker interview, he discussed moving to New York at 19:

The first month that I was here, feeling so lost and confused, I pulled the Bible that my Mennonite grandmother gave me off the bookshelf. She gave me that Bible before I left town. I was alone in the apartment thinking, What the fuck am I doing in New York? Or not even “what the fuck”—I didn’t swear until “Spring Awakening,” and when I would sing “Totally Fucked” I would get beet red. And I remember putting the Bible down and thinking, This is not the answer. This is not making me feel good. And then running to Central Park and standing in front of the Bethesda Fountain. I was nineteen, and I was, like, This feels better—but, like, What? Who am I? What am I doing here? I know I want to act, but I’m so scared. And gay. But it was something—some voice, some passion, some inspiration. Some something brought me here.

6. He's very competitive: asked how ambitious he was on a scale from 1 to 10 he says a 10 (to Broadwaycom at the Tonys junket).

7. He says he's “not really a dog person” in the Buzzfeed interview.

8. He talked more about his relationship with Gavin Creel in interviews with Out and Interview than he has previously, including this quote to Interview:

GROFF: I froze. I hadn’t even thought about coming out as a public person. She [interviewer] was like, “Oh my god, never mind. I’m so sorry.” And then she moved along. And I really remember this moment of looking over to the right and seeing Gavin. He had also just recently come out a year or two before, and seeing him with a bullhorn corralling the people, god, I was so in love with him. I was like, “Oh my god, I am coming out. I’m coming out. I’m coming out.” So I went back over to her and I was like, “Hi, please excuse my hesitation, I’m gay.” And that was how I came out publicly at the March on Washington for Marriage Equality.

9. His 30th birthday alone was a happy birthday (in the New Yorker):

I remember it vividly. We were at the Public Theatre. There was a fire in the East Village, and the show was cancelled that night. I got a cupcake at the deli around the corner from my apartment, on Sixteenth Street, and ate it by myself. I can be a bit of a loner, so that was a happy birthday for me.

10. He said in the Buzzfeed interview the best present he has received from a fan was a signature of King George III, and he hung it in his apartment.

[alienpossession]

Body a Day 27: Closet

I think it's convenient that these humans can be called in a whim and they will just come with no suspicion whatsoever that I need someone to fix my walk-in closet every single day. Well, I did call different companies in rotation and came up with different excuses or details, but so far, these handyman really proven themselves to be handy bodies to be worn by my people as they entered my walk-in closet with their gears eager to do their work and walked out already wrapped under our control

So after around a month or so, I already built a sizable group of our kind's first colony on Earth. So I couldn't really control the type of bodies of the people I called to come, but I think this blue-collar sector filled with fit people with muscles that is not just for vanity but indeed useful and filled with strength. Some of them walked out gingerly after the possession, but some other just dashed out confidently as if they've never been possessed

A few of them even outlandishly wanted to have sex with my vessels right off the bat after the takeover, it's like as if they directly wired to their human's lustful desire and let it control them rather than they override it, which is disappointing because we shouldn't degrade ourselves as if we're really human. We just used their body because it's easier for us to navigate this planet in their skin undetectable, and well, lucky that we ended up right away in a rather fit compound of people. Let's just say that I punished the morally-depraved right away and force them to be above their desire and not let their dick do the talking

Anyway, the colony that we established slowly yet surely expanded because the work of these blue-collar worker exposed them to the home of the rich and famous around this neighborhood, which is known to be the most expensive zip code in this country. They sometimes left their original vessel to acquire the more socially endowed ones while leaving the rugged empties just a mere husk they can tell to do their dirty work. So, upon looking at their upgrade, you could say that I was inspired to get my very own upgrade, after all I'm the oldest colonist, I need to establish my dominance over these youngins, right?

So, right before Christmas, this huge guy walked in after I asked some help in my bathroom. I never expected such fine older person would casually walk in as this person couldn't be just a regular handyman. But I realized that he came down to my house because my vessel used this guy's service for the bespoke bathroom before.

Being the prideful business owner that he is to the craft and services he provided, he decided to oversee the whole repair process. He came along with this other big, fully-tattooed guy that resembled more of the kind of people that I expected to come instead while the owner could talk his way to me about doing some other renovation in this house that his services can handle. Sizing him up and sensing his strength, the big guy seemed like a tough nut to crack in 1-on-1 battle, because.....just look at the guy, he's easily towered over any of us at 6'5" and that shoulder is as wide as a professional swimmer or something. I glanced around at the hard-working handyman kneeling to fix one of the broken tiles and started plotting. I decided to use the help of the tattooed bufffoon by taking care of him first, so when his boss was busy with another client call (I made another member of the colony to distract him), I asked him to came along with me to the walk-in closet in my bedroom as I need some help. Upon entering, one of my kind latched itself to his head and started crawling for control. He tried to swat my insectoid fella away, but he was not fast enough before the 12-legged-freak managed to get inside the buffoon. It was quick, just around a couple minutes or so and he's ready to help me get my upgraded body

When his boss returned from the call, all in a sudden, he choked his boss and easily lifted the 250 lbs muscle mountain with just one hand.

That's when I crawled out from my vessel and with the help of the vessel's hand that still moved under my will, he grabbed my form and landed me right on the service owner's nose that I learned to be named Youssef. My used vessels then said stoically

"Well Youssef, you should rejoice, because you've been selected to serve a bigger purpose. Your service will be helping us tremendously to expand further, so let's crack that mouth open so I can squeezed in---"

---

That was a couple days ago. Now, I'll let you be the judge. I look way better now, right?

[feeling--pink]

The official Pride Month (+ a little bit of July) haul!!! Thank you all for sticking with me (pun intended) :)

[the-golden-comet]

✨Thankful Thursday/Favorite Fiction Friday✨

Hi everyone! This week has been kind of crazy, but I haven’t forgotten. June’s a fantastic month for many different reasons: Pride, end of the fiscal year, for some it’s the end of the school year. But, there are many things to be thankful for.

I will start with, a MASSIVE thank you to @autism-purgatory , who made me fanart of Peter Hart that I am still gushing about and showing to my husband. You took time out of your day to draw my characters and make me smile, and I cannot thank you enough for that. I know how much joy it brings to see your characters come to life, and really inspire people. Thank you, G.J.

HUGE thank you to @thatuselesshuman who made me laugh from this meme about my stories, because it is entirely accurate and hilarious. Another one for my collection ✨

Gigantic thanks to @gioiaalbanoart, @wyked-ao3 and @sunglasses-in-the-bentley , who are reading Peter Hart for a second time (anyone else who is, please let me know too!) To read my works the first time is a gigantic honor; to go through the adventure again is one of the highest praises for an author, next to receiving fanart, fanworks, and fanfiction.

Thank you to this kind stranger, who made me beam all day from this comment. And thank you this community, who has shown so much kindness and support that I wonder why I’ve kept my talents hidden so long. Well, NO MORE. You will get art, you will get stories, you will get support, the best way I know how. I will do my best

Okay, enough gushing. Here are my favorite authors, and my favorite fiction from them:

@autism-purgatory — Loop Of The Hollow

@alinacapellabooks —The Tengu and the Angel

@gioiaalbanoart — Too Far Gone?

@justabigoldnerd — I Am Your Lover (I Am Your Jailor)

@fortunatetragedy — Doom Metal Love Story

@wyked-ao3 — Tuesday event or is it

@poorreputation — Dimples

@sunglasses-in-the-bentley — I Won’t Hurt You

@pippinoftheshire — Sing Me A Lullaby Before I Go

@lychhiker-writes — Snippet Dump

@brigidfromthecelts — The Devil’s Sonata

@dyrewrites — Before Deluca

@froggy-pposto — oblation

@deanwax — Cycle’s End

@far-cry-from-finality — The World’s Not Ending As Long As We’re In It

@theverumproject — The Verum Project

@snugglesquiggle — Hostile Takeover

@zackprincebooks — Dear Heart

@bookish-karina — Your Average Fangirl

@glasshouses-and-stones — The system’s breaking down

@thatuselesshuman — Bloody Hands are Kind

@piscesapplelady35 — As Lethal As Holy Water

@shards-things — Meant To Be

@sic-sempervirens — Taarasthari

@katenewmanwrites — Whispers In The Moonlight

@noblebs — Everything With Teeth

I’m most likely missing a few, but if YOU know of some amazing authors and literature, feel free to add to this list and spread the positivity!

For everyone reading this: Your fiction is fantastic, your stories are inspiring, and you are an amazing writer, artist, and human on this planet. Thank you for everything. 💫

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Andrew Doyle asks: Remember when the pride flag made sense?

Remember when the pride flag made sense?

It was designed by an American Artist called Gilbert Baker in 1978. It was originally an eight-stripe rainbow but was soon refined into the six-striped version that was the norm for many decades.

At a time when gay people couldn't hold hands with their partners on the street, this flag served a useful purpose. It meant that you could easily find gay pubs or other places where no one had to pretend to be something they weren't. The rainbow symbol was a simple and effective concept that conveyed positivity and unity.

And then some activists came along and said hang on a minute, why are there no black or brown stripes in the rainbow flag? See, for some reason they were under the impression that the gay flag was a literal representation of the range of skin colors that are acceptable in the community. And so we got this.

Okay then, I mean, well, there weren't any white stripes in the original one either. But most people understood that it was symbolic with that we were all included already, irrespective of our race.

But then after this, trans activists came along and said, why aren't we in there? So we got this one. And this was the chevron with the pink white and blue, which was based on the trans flag.

But surely this eyesore couldn't get any worse, could it? Well, it could, because activists were then concerned that it was excluding intersex people, so they added this symbol.

Okay, it's getting a bit out of control now. But then last year, some bright spark added a red umbrella to represent sex workers.

Now, if you thought this was getting out of hand, last year then we had Microsoft. They designed a new version to incorporate all the other multiple sexualities and genders that have been invented over the past few years. Let's have a look at that.

I mean, what the hell is it? It looks like a space ship going at warp speed through a Care Bear's bum hole.

Identity politics in its current form is an ever expanding beast. Pride used to be just one day. Then it was a month. And now Pride events have been scheduled all the way from March through to September. As one sign in a shoe shop pointed out Pride never stops. If only it would.

The initialism as well that's expanded too. First we had LGB, and then it became LGBT, then LGBTQ, then LGBTQIA. The Canadian government currently favors 2SLGBTQIA+, although even its prime minister finds that a bit of a mouthful.

Similarly, Pride started out as an important protest against injustice. When the original Pride March took place in London in 1972, homosexuality had only been legal for five years, and the prospect of gay marriage or even an equal age of consent, seemed impossible. Only 2000 people turned up to these protests.

But by contrast, the Pride parade in London in 2022 attracted over a million. And of course, most of those people aren't even gay. It's become a family day out, a huge party.

And what's so wrong with that, you might ask. And that's a fair question. If people are celebrating and having a good time, that's great. Except that's not necessarily what's going. Increasingly, gay people no longer feel welcome at Pride. I spoke to a representative from a lesbian group on this show last year who had been moved along by police when trying to protest at Pride. But isn't Pride meant to be a protest, not a party? What's going on?

The answer is that pride has been hijacked not once but twice.

First by avaricious multi-billion dollar corporations who are able to pose as virtuous by posting the pride flag. Only, they don't do it in the branches in countries where homosexuality is still illegal. After all, you wouldn't want to fly the flag anywhere which might actually make a difference.

I'm old enough to remember that corporations were certainly not celebrating Pride quite so openly before section 28 was repealed in 2003, or before the age of consent was equalized in 2001, or before the decriminalization of homosexuality in Scotland in 1980. So, these corporations' commitment to LGBT rights apparently only manifests itself when it's likely to make them a profit.

And then there's the second hijacking. See, whereas the original Pride was about agitating for equal rights for gay people, it's now been taken over by activists who are obsessed with group identity and who believe that gender is more important than sex.

That's why the British library, to celebrate the advent of pride month this week, posted a thread on Twitter about the sex life of fish, and how some species have been known to change from male to female.

I mean, what's that got to do with Pride? Why have Librarians seemingly forgotten that human beings aren't the same as fish? Now, they've since deleted those tweets, because well, you know they're bonkers. And although we might laugh at that kind of nonsense, the ideology it promotes is actually rather sinister, particularly for gay people.

See, in her book, "Time to Think" by Hannah Barnes, she found that between 80 and 90% of adolescents referred to the Tavistock pediatric gender clinic were same-sex attracted. Studies have long confirmed a correlation between gender non-conformity in youth, and homosexuality in later life. At the Tavistock, staff used to joke that "soon there would be no gay people left." Somehow the medicalization and sterilization of gay people has been reframed as progressive.

Even Stonewall, the UK's foremost LGBT charity has redefined the word "homosexual" on its website and promotional materials to mean "same gender attracted." Its CEO, Nancy Kelly, has claimed that women who exclude trans people from their dating pool are akin to sexual racists. There's been an intense resurgence of old homophobic tropes online from gender ideologues that believe that "genital preferences are transphobic" and that lesbians who don't include men in their dating pool must be suffering from trauma.

Gay rights were secured by recognizing that a minority of people are instinctively attracted to members of their own sex. And the new ideology of gender identity rejects this notion entirely, and actively shames gay people for their orientation.

So, when you see this flag, try to understand that many gay people consider it to be a symbol of opposition to gay rights, Women who are concerned about their rights consider it a symbol of misogyny, because it promotes an ideology that denies the reality of sex-based oppression, and yet most people, gay people included, haven't even noticed this transition from the pro-gay rainbow flag to this anti-gay imposter.

And that's because it all happened so quickly, and activists are playing on good intentions of a public who don't want to be seen to be on the wrong side of history. Well, I would suggest that upholding the rights of women and gay people and protecting gender non-conforming children and opposing the hypocrisy of corporations is the truly progressive approach.

Anyone who spends any time on social media would have seen that homophobia is clearly on the rise. It's coming from the reactionary elements of the right, who are now holding gay people responsible for sexualized drag shows for children, and the proliferation of sexually explicit books in school libraries. But of course, they've fallen for the trick. This isn't gay people. That's gender ideologues who've convinced everyone that the LGBTQIA+ movement is one big happy family, when it isn't.

And we know this because homophobia is also on the rise among gender ideologues themselves, who frequently go online to tell gay people to kill themselves. Some of them have said that they celebrate AIDS as a good thing. And this isn't just a few mad activists, there are thousands of examples of this if you've got the stomach to look them up.

So whether it's coming from those who consider themselves right wing or left-wing, anti-gay sentiments are back in fashion. And the best way to combat this is to remind everyone that that Progress Pride flag, and the corporate orgy that accompanies it, is not in the interests of gay people.

And if it's too late to reclaim the original Pride flag, we can at least ditch the new one.

[pixely-jack]

I finally drew something for pride month…

It was rushed- (Seaguide takeover)