#arizona gay travel

[gaytravelinfo]

Wandering Heart Adventures – Surprise, Arizona

Welcome to wandering heart adventures Featuring: Antelope Canyon Unique Sightseeing Arizona Day Trips Antelope Canyon/Horseshoe Bend Grand Canyon/Sedona and many more! Ask about private tours DAY TOUR PACKAGES: We offer six day trip packages of Northern Arizona and Southern Arizona. From Native American wonders of Tuzigoot and Montezuma Castle to red rock delights of the Sedona and the…

[1988hc]

Jonny is 36 and officially retired. They say you grow up fast when you first come into the league, that the NHL makes men out of boys. It's true. But Jonny likes to think he's done most of his growing in the past few years. The tough ones, when the glory of their cup wins started to slowly fade into memories of a different time, just as Crosby was celebrating his renaissance, as Tampa started making a name for themselves.

"You cannot coast on past achievements," his coach once told Jonny when he first made it into the Canada U17 team, uninterested to hear of Jonny's junior days. Who cares if you're a big deal in your precious little prep school league, that means nothing once you make it to the international stage. Back then he had a head full of dreams and a body that could get him there. Now all he's got is that ache in his knee when it rains and boxes of old trophies gathering dust in his parent's basement, the future stretching out before him like a fresh page without any pre-penciled in goal posts, terrifying in its blankness.

How do you know who you are when you could be anything?

"Just be happy," his mom said, watching him across the rim of her tea cup, as if life really is just that simple.

He goes to Arizona, to Costa Rica, to Salzburg. Travels the world, meeting up with old friends, guys he hasn't seen since he still lived in Winnipeg more than a lifetime ago. He surfs, he golfs, goes hiking and sightseeing, deletes Twitter off his phone and barely opens insta unless he gets a DM.

There's still a Hawks groupchat from 2010, even if it's grown quiet, short bursts of activities followed by months of radio silence. Pat only writes in there to chirp Hoss for getting excited over his ride-on lawn mower, or congratulate Sharpy for his new Flyers front office job. Every time he sees that name on his screen the same question keeps hammering in his mind, a nagging itch that won't go away.

Jonny spends nights awake staring at an endless black sky full of tiny pinpricks of light, wondering how much he's willing to risk, if it's worth it. It was easy to push away while he was still wearing four feathers on his chest, keep his head and down and focus on the game. But he's done a lot of soul searching in the last few years, finally admitting a couple hard truths to himself. It's not something he can shy away from anymore.

Anyone can cook, but only the fearless can be great.

He swipes back over to his text thread with Pat, heart in his throat, his finger trembling.

He's done this a million times already, hovering at the precipice like that, unable to push himself the last few inches past the point of no return.

Somewhere a tiny voice in the back of his mind from his media training days pipes up about never putting anything in writing that he wouldn't be comfortable seeing splashed across the cover of a magazine, but he doesn't think he can do this on the phone, doesn't trust his voice to hold up. So it's gonna have to be text.

Five months ago he stood in a tiny little souvenir shop in Bora Bora, wondering if he should just write it on a postcard and throw his phone in the ocean, but it had felt too much like a coward's move. How can he live his truth if he can't even stomach to see the reactions of the people he cares most about?

It's not what he really wants to say, the much bigger truth still held back behind his teeth. But it's a step, a first test of the waters.

I'm gay. Figured you deserved to know. Sorry it took me 16 years to say.

Too many words and yet still too few, not quite the right ones.

He stares at the text until it goes blurry.

Breathes in, breathes out.

And hits send.

[catspewer]

I'm writing a book!

Are you a fan of cowboys and outlaws? Like the Wild West? Cryptids? Religious imagery and symbolism? Gay things? They're all in store here! Welcome to New Arizona, where a human and an otherworldly creature travel together across the red desert on the run from a government organization called the People's Protection Department.

Enter Roscoe "Rocky" Jones' experience with finding out he loves his best friend and travelling companion, Riv, in more ways than one.

Come witness the notorious bounty hunter, The Coyote, come to realize the world isn't so black and white.

Watch Riv, the only one of his kind, learn that he can indeed love himself.

Welcome to the world of The Dust Devil!

Inquiries are indeed welcome! :)

[slutforsnow]

I swear im trying for chapter 6 of The Blue Note 😔 My fyp isnt giving more astv edits 🥲 anyways, to feed the twilight community im here to offer

.

.

.

.

✨️A JASPER X OC FIC✨️

A Cowboy's Dream

Character info:

Name: Eliana (el-e-anna) Smith

Nicknames: Eli (El-e), Ana, Silly, Star Girl

Insults: Accident, Freak, Weirdo, r-slur

Age: 17

Birthday: April 6th

Blood type: O-

Mental illness/disorder: Autism

Sexuality: Omnisexual

Gender: Female she/her

Backstory: Eliana was born in with a semi-normal family. She had a father, Michael, and a mother, Terra. When Eli had turned about 6 months old when Michael realized he was gay and wanted a divorce. Terra went along with it, as she was a closeted lesbian. She couldn't stand being in a marriage with a man, so once the divorce was finalized, Michael and Terra stayed friends but went to live on their lives. Terra kept Eliana, as Michael wasn't sure that traveling in a van would be safe for a 6 month old, and met her later wife -Vanessa- when Ana was 3. They got married on Eli's birthday, with her permission of course, and have given Eliana the world and more that a girl could ask for while living in Forks, Washington. Michael comes to visit Eliana for special days just whenever she wants to see him because Terra and Vanessa decided that it'd be good for her to have connection to her father, despite calling him "Uncle Mike." Eliana was diagnosed with autism at 7 years old after she had a meltdown about having to sleep on silk sheets in a hotel that the 3 women were staying at for a trip.

She's lived in Forks her entire life and doesn't mind the quietness or rain because at night, when the rain clears, she see the stars and often draws pictures out whatever shape(s) she sees in them.

START NOTE: IM AUTISTIC AND CAN RECLAIM THE R SLUR. I WILL AVOID USING IT AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE SO IT MAY ONLY POP UP 1 OR 2 TIMES. If people are uncomfortable, I'll remove the slur from the story entirely <3

First Meeting

"Do I not look Italian-?" Eli asked, laughing as Mike was in shock learning the autistic member of the group was Italian.

"No, you look white-!! Like, white white." Mike protested as Eliana walked with Bella to her truck.

"Bye bye, Mikey~!" She called as Bella shook her head and ruffled Eliana's dual colored hair.

"So, I'm guessing you and Mikey are close?" Bella questioned as Eliana moved closer to her to avoid bumping into the Cullens.

"Eehhhh, if you wanna call teasing each other like siblings close because you're both only children then yes...? Besides, we grew up neighbors, so we see each other every day and let me tell you- being surrounded by loud neurotypicals hurts like hell."

"Really?" Bella looked up at Eliana as the smaller female sat on the hood of the car. "I thought they were ok- a bit better than the people back in Arizona."

"Ehhh, depends on the person. Since I'm autistic, and I don't speak for every autistic person, I have sensory issues meaning I can't handle super loud crowds or friend groups. But they were my only friends, so I sucked it up as best as I could and dealt with it. You, however, aren't autistic and don't really mix with the loud crowd and tend to avoid them as much as possible," Eliana explained pulling a marker out of her patch-filled messenger bag and started to draw stars along her left arm.

"Oh.. that makes sense, yeah," Bella replied after a moment, watching Eliana draw on herself. Throughout the day, Bella noted that Eli would do this whenever a certain blonde was around. According to Jessica, Eliana has had a thing for one of the mysterious Cullens- Jasper. Yet, he was seemingly taken by Alice. It hurt Eliana, so she took to drawing on herself to avoiding staring at him and causing drama.

Yet, every so often, Jasper would catch himself staring at her and he looked away, attempting, and failing, to not be caught.

The reason why the pair did this was because Jasper saved her life exactly 3 years ago today.

"Are you serious dude? The Freak?" A student inquired, laughing his ass off as Eli walked passed, clutching her books and not noticing the 5 squares of toilet paper stuck to the bottom of her shirt.

"Yeah! I mean, besides, it's not like anyone's going to stand up for the retard and won't it be awesome to humiliate it in front of the whole school?" The student's friend spoke up, grinning and seeing Eliana walk to class faster to avoid being seen crying out of distress.

Later that day, Eli had forgotten all about the worry of being humiliated. She felt safe and at peace. Besides, she had gotten to talk to one of her more mysterious classmates, Rosalie, today and she promised to help Eli get a good hair-do that would make her feel happy.

Life felt perfect and completely worry-free... until one of her bullies kicked her in the back and caused her to trip down the stairs of the building and fall into the wet pavement.

She groaned, rolling onto her side and hugging her ribs as blood ran down her face from her nose and her head spun in dizziness. She was in so much pain that she didn't process a car come barreling down to her until she heard a large crash and a familiar voice yell.

Two sets of hands pulled her up, eliciting a cry of pain from the younger as pressure was put onto her right foot. One of the 'strangers' whom had helped her up, scooped her up bridal style as she began to fall in and out of consciousness.

After a few hours had gone by, Eliana woke up, groaning.

"Ah, I see you're awake, Eliana. You gave us a scare there," a gentle and friendly voice said earning a tiny smile from the teen.

"Hi, Dr. Carlisle..." She groaned out, putting a hand to her head and flinching in the process.

"Hi, dear," he greeted, sympathetically and gently running his hand through her long bright blonde hair. The doctor cared deeply for her and she loved him like he was her dad. "Can you tell me what happened this time?"

"I- uhmmm... I don't think I remember a lot of it..." She told him, honestly and shrugging a tad. Carlisle merely smiled reassuringly.

"It's alright, you don't have to try and remember all of it now, but would you be able to give me a gist of what happened?" He questioned, sitting in one of the rolly stools while checking her heartbeat.

"Uhmm... I think I tripped down the stairs... and then hit my head really hard, but I don't remember anything after that," She told him, trying to focus on the light he was using to check her eyes.

"You tripped? Eli... these injuries don't typically come from tripping down the stairs- accident prone or not," Carlisle started, looking at her and she moved her gaze to her hands. "Are you sure someone didn't kick you down the stairs or anything?"

Eliana tensed and stayed quiet. She didn't want the senior to get in trouble, but her silence did confirm that someone did kick her down the stairs.

"Eli..? Come on, you can't stay quiet for this, honey. Jasper and Rosalie already told Chief Swan everything that they know and he's waiting to talk to you downstairs, as he's wanting to know if your mothers will press charges against whomever hurt you and, apparently, tried to run you over."

"He's gonna kill me if I say anything though..." Eli buried her face into her knee that she could move and groaned audibly.

"But he also could be behind bars. Freedom from him, Eliana, wouldn't that be nice?" Ana paused for a moment and nodded a bit, earning a kind smile from Carlisle.

However, before Carlisle could continue, one of the Cullens entered the room with Eliana's stuff. This one must've been Jasper, due to the fancy shirt he wore and his wavy/curly blonde locks were pushed out of his face that as Rosalie had described.

"Ah, Jasper, here with Eliana's things. Thank you, son," He said as Jasper sat her bag by her shoes and nodded, then went to leave, not making eye contact with either.

"Hey, Jasper-?.. uhm... Thanks.. to you and the other person who helped," Eliana called. Jasper had froze at the door when she called his name. He'd never heard it said so... kindly and softly before. There was no sound of reassurance or manipulation behind it- just pure gratitude and the blonde could sense that from her, even without his power.

Partially turning to face her, he smiled at her kindly.

"You're welcome, ma'am. I'm just glad to see you're not bleedin too bad," He said to her, with his Southern accent coming out before leaving the room. This left Carlisle chuckling softly at his son for sneaking in a thank-you to her for not causing him to go feral and Eliana completely in love with him.

[jennyboom21]

Over the next two days, we’ll be getting into all that and more with hours of presentations and deep-dive analyses. This is set to be a smallish, grassroots-y gathering—only 25 in-person campers are enrolled plus a dozen or so volunteers running the show. Meanwhile, about 300 remote Gaylors have signed up for streaming access to the learning sessions, building on the success of a virtual Gaylor summit that happened last year.

As a Gaylor myself, I’d be here even if Cosmo hadn’t sent me. I introduce myself to campers as we craft cute name tags for ourselves in the lobby of the Craigville Retreat Center. I meet Morgan, 30, who came here from conservative small-town Wisconsin, where she’s been living with her parents due to some unspecified tumult in her life. “I am desperate to be around gay people,” she tells me. When she heard about Camp Gaylore, “I jumped at the opportunity to come here and feel a sense of community.”

Paris, 25, a Boston-based attendee who grew up in Arizona, agrees. “With everything that’s happening legislatively right now, it’s really important to be able to find spaces where you’re able to be with like-minded individuals and feel safe and comfortable expressing yourself.”

Nevada, 25, a newcomer to the Gaylor realm, tells me they were able to attend only thanks to a scholarship the camp offered to defray the $350 tuition cost. “I really thought this was a dreamland that was completely out of reach for me,” they say. Just being here, in congress with others, feels like some kind of miracle.

So maybe I should revise: This weekend is about decoding Taylor Swift songs...but only sort of.

I didn’t travel far to get here, but I’ve come a long way. Four summers ago, I left my marriage to a straight man, right around the time Taylor released Lover. I had a passing familiarity with her oeuvre but didn’t consider myself much of a fan. I was crashing with friends—a lesbian couple—while searching for a new home and striving to create a more openly queer life for myself. With its pastel cover and pro-LGBTQ+ anthem “You Need to Calm Down,” Lover got a ton of airplay in that two-bedroom apartment. And the breakup songs—“Death by a Thousand Cuts,” “I Forgot That You Existed”—certainly spoke to me. But given everything I was going through, Taylor’s music felt like little more than a fluffy distraction.

Jump cut to the following July, when Taylor surprise-released folklore. Every lesbian I knew seemed weirdly excited for this album. With my divorce freshly finalized, I now had the bandwidth to dig in. I discovered Gaylor theories on TikTok and plunged into Taylor’s discography with an eye toward gay themes. For the first time, I listened—really listened—to 2017’s Reputation, an album marketed as Taylor not caring about her press coverage but could just as easily be about a secret queer romance powerful enough to blow up her life. This notion, of hiding in plain sight while inhabiting a straight-presenting persona, resonates deeply for me in queer readings of Taylor’s work.

Here at Camp Gaylore (alternately known as GayloreFest), the analysis is served up with mock-academic gravitas. “We all love to cosplay that we’re professors in this field of Gaylor education,” explains Madyson, 23, a camp co-organizer who hails from New York. To wit, the workshop lineup includes sessions like: “Darling, Everything’s on Fire”: An Exploration of The Hunger Games Through Taylor Swift’s Discography; Unpacking Parasocial Relationships: A Conversation in Favor of Imagination & Community; Friends of Fletcher: Themes in the Music and Visuals of Sapphic Singers & Songwriters; and “Now I’m Your Daisy”: Reimagining The Great Gatsby as Gilded Sapphic Fantasy.

What’s happening here is really nothing new—Gaylors are performing the kind of close reading that happens in pretty much every English lit seminar. For campers like Amanda, 30, a longtime Swiftie who discovered Gaylor theories during the pandemic while awakening to her own queerness, this interpretative exercise is more meaningful than the objective facts of Taylor’s sexuality. “I’m not over here trying to convert people like, ‘Hey, Taylor is gay, and it’s really important to me that you believe that,’” Amanda says. “It’s more about Taylor being this incredible writer who intertwines all these incredible things into her lyrics.”

“We are not the first gaggle of gays to go book a conference center and hang out with each other for a weekend just to talk and gab,” Madyson says. “It just so happens that we all met because Taylor Swift put out some bangin’-ass albums.”

“I don’t even care if she comes out,” Madyson adds. “I actually would prefer she didn’t because I think it’s more fun this way.”

After I check into my single room—a rustic BYO-bed-sheets situation—I return to the common area and settle in for the afternoon’s presentations. Remote presenters will be streaming from all over. A few campers here will be presenting too—streaming from a dedicated quiet room elsewhere on the property. In the common space, all sessions will be projected onto a wall.

And here I have to admit that I end up…not paying much attention to the material. In the best possible way, neither do many of the other campers. I watch as they focus on making friendship bracelets, add artistic flourishes to Gaylor-themed coloring pages, and paint each other’s nails. Chatty groups check in on solo folks: “Are you good by yourself? Would you like to come over here with us?” Sometimes a comfy silence envelops the room. A few campers even nap on couches, the presentation audio forming a sort of pleasant background drone.

This dynamic is striking in its chillness—different from most camps and retreats, where schedules are packed with structured group activities. Kae, a 26-year-old from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, much prefers the format here. Although Gaylor TikTok was helpful in “expediting” her awareness of her own bisexuality, she finds the noise of social media kind of bad for her mental health. Camp Gaylore feels like the 3D version of a friendly Gaylor group chat she joined on WhatsApp a few months ago, she says. “It’s nice, having a much smaller source of information and also a place where you can just be yourself and be accepted.”

Presentation topics aside, Taylor’s aura at camp is surprisingly scarce. The aesthetic is one of nostalgic/analog summer whimsy. Think: String lights and wildflowers. Salt air and disco balls. Strawberries and rainbow balloons. An activity table set up by camp staffers includes a deck of botanical oracle cards, the social-bonding game We’re Not Really Strangers, and a handful of book selections ranging from Emily Dickinson poems to contemporary works by queer authors like adrienne maree brown.

It’s almost as though the organizers plucked a handful of nice humans off the internet and closed tab on literally everything else, a welcome break. Gaylorism in general is Very Online—born on Tumblr, increasingly huge on TikTok. Along with Madyson, camp co-organizer Katie, 30, recently wrapped a popular Gaylor podcast called The Archers, the duo’s contribution to a booming cottage industry of queer-minded Swiftie content. (Madyson has already launched another pod.) Tess, 30, a London-based camp co-organizer, is a prolific Gaylor creator too. This camp is the group’s way of passing the mic to others to invite their perspectives, to “recognize the brilliance and beauty of our community,” as Tess puts it. There’s even been talk of starting a literary-style magazine that goes beyond Taylor and into the open waters of, well, gay lore. That’s why the camp name has an “e” at the end—an indicator of deeper possibilities.

Gaylor subculture has now gotten big enough to attract coverage from major media outlets, some of it less than favorable—a Salon article last fall compared Gaylors to QAnon. Many face harassment from a hostile cohort of Swifties known as Hetlors, notorious for a queerphobic insistence that Taylor is straight. Bullying from Hetlors has driven some Gaylors to go dark and wipe their social accounts, which explains why most here at Camp Gaylore have asked that Cosmo publish their first names only.

Taylor herself is outspoken in her LGBTQ+ advocacy—granted, as more of an ally. “I didn’t realize until recently that I could advocate for a community that I’m not a part of,” she told Vogue in 2019. But as many Gaylors like to point out, that’s not quite the same as Taylor declaring she’s 100 percent straight and cisgender either. For now, the details of her identity remain anyone’s guess.

“In a cisheteronormative world, we are more likely to assume people to be cis and straight until told otherwise than to assume they’re trans or queer,” says Melissa A. Fabello, PhD, a sex and relationships educator. Her group coaching session this weekend, titled “The Bisexuality Crisis,” will address this very subject.

Camp Gaylore’s idyllic seaside haven is blessedly Hetlor-free. Madyson, who sometimes struggles to socialize in groups, tells me they feel “soothed” mingling on our private stretch of beach. This weekend has always been more about reinforcing the Gaylorverse than dissecting Taylor’s suspected queerness. “It is very much for people to meet and see each other physically and be like, This community is just as real offline as it is online,” Madyson says. In the sand, they spell out GAYLORE in dozens of tiny seashells.

We head to dinner in the large dining hall for a taco buffet—a communal setup that amuses Nevada. “This is so sweet, like the positive parts of going inpatient at the psych ward,” they joke. Then an earnest elaboration: “It’s just nice that other people understand what I’m thinking. I don’t have to explain a million things. I don’t have to be like, Okay, I guess I’ll let you ignore my pronouns. It’s a very good space.”

Afterward, we gather around an outdoor firepit for s’mores and impromptu performances. One camper breaks out an acoustic guitar and shares songs she wrote during a period of homelessness. Her voice is husky and powerful—a howl of survival. A few campers pass around a bong. Inside jokes are hatched. “As cliché as it sounds, I do feel like I’ve known these people forever,” says Lee, 33, a camper from California who credits Gaylor theories with fueling her lesbian awakening seven years ago. For her, this night is “cathartic.”

In the 10 o’clock hour, everyone heads back inside to watch the livestream of the Eras Tour. This has been a ritual for many of us since Taylor hit the road in March. Lots of campers have been tracking the surprise acoustic songs she performs each night—one or two per show, with no repeats from the pre-Midnights archive unless she messes up.

Tonight, Taylor is in Pittsburgh. One member of the Gaylor community—not at camp with us but someone who’s friends with a few campers—has been publicly campaigning for Taylor to play “ME!” at this stop, a track many Gaylors love (see: the big gay energy of its music video). Taylor playing “ME!” would be everything, a definitive acknowledgement of us.

As the livestream plays, campers string together bead bracelets with Gaylor references—the letters “SITBTTEBM” (“She is the best thing that’s ever been mine”), the phrase “WIDE EYED GAYS” (an intentional misspelling of the “All Too Well” lyric). Then the first surprise song begins: It’s “Mr. Perfectly Fine,” off Fearless. Everyone groans. The second song is a miss too: “The Last Time,” from Red. So much for “ME!”

Everyone is super bummed. A few campers even cry a little bit. But there’s beauty in the heartbreak too—something profound and unifying in our shared disappointment. “Even if Taylor were to go away and never do another thing, I feel like we still have this,” Amanda tells me later. “And that’s really cool.”

The big social event of the weekend, on the second and final night, is prom. Given that it’s being held in the retreat’s tabernacle building, camp staffers have printed out a color picture of Jesus, along with big letters that spell out “LYRICS TOO?”—a cheeky nod to the fact that we’re in a house of worship but mostly a deep-cut Gaylor reference (to something once uttered by Taylor’s pal and collaborator Jack Antonoff). A tattooed camp staffer DJs from a heavily stickered laptop, next to a whirling party light that scatters rainbow beams throughout the space.

Many of our prom looks are encoded with Taylor allusions. One camper wears a tiered, ruffled frock in pastel hues, à la Taylor’s Lover era. Another, channeling the Reputation album art, dons a matching corset and skirt in newsprint-pattern fabric. Still another is turned out in the crochet crop tank Taylor wore while promoting Midnights, its colors a near-perfect match for the lesbian pride flag tacked to one wall.

“Cruel Summer”—a Gaylor fave, theoretically chronicling Taylor’s rumored relationship with supermodel Karlie Kloss—blasts from the speakers. The dance floor fills up. We scream-sing the lines about sneaking in through the garden gate, about the shape of a lover’s body being new. As the song reaches its bridge, our collective joy turns incandescent.

“It felt like 70,000 of us in the room,” Lee marvels the next day as campers pack up to leave. “This was the most magical weekend of my summer—and I’ve been to the Eras Tour twice.”

Frankie de la Cretaz is the co-author of Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of The National Women's Football League. Their work has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, and more.

[wanderinguteruspress-blog]

I’ve been thinking about where splinter would be in my Rodeo AU and since the boys are grown I kept coming back to this idea of Splints and Drax living their best gay old man married life traveling like a couple of snow birds. And Heunin and Meunin (sp? I’m not looking it up ) filling the role of small yappy dogs (as they dreamed).

“Greetings from Arizona! “

Just picture them in a lil silver airstream being adorable old and gay.

[hospitalterrorizer]

diary290

7/5-6/24

friday - saturday

it is done!!!!!!!!!!!

i will probably do a proper post for it tomorrow, some time, like in the noon (not that it will get any people to listen really)

but here's the linxx!

and then here's the cover art!

#so funny (if you want to see what's going on, you should probably open it up in a separate tab and look at it zoomed in to see all the junk going on)

i'm glad i did the watermarks on the pics at the bottom there, it makes it kind of look uncomfortable, or like seedy i suppose, which helps a lot w/ what the cover is aiming for.

i think basically it's as good as i could have gotten it, the cover. i do like it, i feel like maybe i could do it better, if i planned it out more, maybe it looks like a mess to anyone else, it's kind of one intentionally but i mean, maybe in a bad way it's one too.

also, on bandcamp i wrote a big-ish thing about the album as it was made, here it is:

likely in progress since october of 2022, certainly in progress since november of 2022, finally complete in july 2024. these are songs about nothing especially. this album has seen: two apartments, one move, two jobs, a cockroach infestation, a mass shooting at the neighboring school of our last apartment, my girlfriend surviving the shooting because she was in a different building and he wanted to kill teachers because he did not get a job, the most traveling i've done in my life, myriad illnesses, various canker sores, working out through being sick, not recovering sooner because i had to work out because it would upset me to not complete the ritual as i normally do, the worst sore throat of my life, an ear infection, the starting of a public diary, the maintenance of a public diary, ants on the windowsill, ants in the flour, long standing friendships growing longer, shedding of irritability, regrowth of the irritability, self disgust of varying levels and varying causes, scrubbing the floor naked, bruising my knees at the melt banana show and bruising my knees doing kneeling squats and bruising my knees doing other things, the uneasy orbit of a sleep schedule (an asteroid almost, in capture, then, crashing), several remasterings, 2 computers, an apartment that's a single room, an apartment of multiple rooms cheaply constructed, inflation, grocery store packages changing graphic design, rotten fruit, eaten fruit, my girlfriend's mother loving then hating then loving us, rabbits in grass, rabbits on concrete, bird corpses and living birds and horses in a field for the rodeo and the bulls kept across from them moaning of a captivity under moonlight, the construction and completion of the las vegas sphere (orb of prosperity), numerous nightmares about being murdered, denver colorado, kyoto, tokyo, takeshita-dori street, all the green, a place where sad old gay men convened and sang karaoke remembering their youth in old mecha anime theme songs, a fashion magazine photographer speaking in english to me (stumbling in a beautiful way) "i hope to see you again one day", arizona and the asu campus, a strange fall fair where a woman told me to hold two pumpkins to my chest so it'd be like i had breasts (she seemed supportive), the strange trump-loving foodtruck that served elote that my gf liked, my most recent live performance with thomas since 2018, my girlfriend learning korean, completion of multiple books, falling in love with foucault as i did when i first read him in college, meeting people for the first time, meeting some for the second, sleeping on a bed in chicago, loving chicago, people staring at me in public, children staring at me, wondering if children hate me because at my root there is something wrong with me and everyone except me can tell, being published in various online journals, the coming first publication of my work in print, in a journal people hold in their hands of flesh, nothing special, everything special, stretches of relative silence, all the meaningless stuff, all the stuff i don't want to tell you because i like it too much. i already gave you too much, most likely. you will not have a sense of any of this as you listen to the record. i put it here, i don't know why. this album is 32 songs, 47-ish minutes long. you can click a button on a web site to listen to it, and you will hear it. 

credits

released July 5, 2024

Girlfriend - let me live, took me places, bought me food, let me cook, let me clean. m.b. ghul + clout jesus - voiceover/narration on track 1. please read his story here:

thomas / me and my kidney - let me use his microphone and audio interface to record extra vocals on panic! at the costco and au naturale. please listen to his music here:

georges bataille - wrote the sentence which i lifted for the album title (letter to kojeve where he begins talking about unemployed negativity) thomas hardy - wrote tess of the d'urbervilles which i quote on the final song. neighbors - let me scream and didn't ever complain or call the police. hospital terrorizer - i screamed and i wrote the songs and i made the cover and stuff.

but since i am on my blog i guess i can get into more detail about the record, and i also feel like anyone who reads this / has been reading this, you have actually seen what it's been like, the hostility of the little bit of writing i did for the album isn't really pointed back here, it's not necessarily a pose it's just like, i dunno, as a thing to make, there's so much time and effort, and most of that's invisible, that's not being said in a self pitying way, it's more about how that's the case for so much music, which makes it interesting, i think.

anyway, there's one song here called 'i didn't think before i started a diary' which isn't really about this diary, i wrote that song prior to even starting this, it's about something weird you can see w/ people who do have diaries on the internet, where some people like, years after they're done being updated, things like that, or even just posts / miniature diaristic stuff, of archiving all that, when really this is more about the practice/act than an archive to reach into history with. it was also inspired by a piece of poetry by a friend though i don't know if i could even find it. it's written from the perspective of someone wanting to archive a person, and i kept thinking about that from the other side. that's really the only song i have so much to say on i think, because the others are either a little more personal or a little more obvious, there's lots of political things, the song hell baby works off of a reference to hideshi hino's hell baby, the manga where a deformed baby is thrown into a dump and she is revived by flaming ghosts and wanders back to her family and then is shunned once again. it's really tragic.

anyway i know i said i'd have more pictures from yesterday to post but i've been busy all day with trying to get everything like ready enough, some songs feel a little odd still but that just seems like how they are, it's only 2 that feel a little odd and idk, if i really hate them eventually i will just remaster them and release them together or something but they sound good to me, i think i'm caught off guard by them because there's a newness about them, because i worked on one up to the last bit here, and another was the product of an error related to a crash where the .wav came out normal but the mp3 came out strange sounding i think, so i had to go back and re export. either way both sound good/cool just unexpected to me, and i am someone who had expectations that were precise about those songs, specific things about what frequencies were blasting when and how stuff sat, and then that's just new now.

tomorrow i have to make like... 3 posts inside the internet world, to make people maybe look at my album, and then it will be entirely/totally out of my hands, it will truly be over then, that's like the advertising period i get, lol, one day.

anyway i am super super tired right now, so i will sleep,

byebye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[crossdreamers]

Countries with  laws that target transgender and gender nonconforming people

Human Rights Watch provides and overview, with maps, over countries with anti-LGBTQ laws. 

The maps are helpful for queer and trans people who want to know where it is safe (or “safish”) to travel.

This is what HRC has to say about transgender and gender nonconforming people:

Among countries that expressly forbid expression of transgender identities, at least three, Brunei, Oman and Kuwait, have national laws that criminalize “posing as” or “imitating” a person of a different sex. Saudi Arabia has no codified law, but police routinely arrest people based on their gender expression. 

Malaysia also criminalizes “posing as” a different sex, not in its federal criminal code but in the Sharia codes of each of its states and its federal territory. Nigeria criminalizes transgender and gender nonconforming people in its northern states under Sharia.

In South Sudan, such laws only apply to men who “dress as women” and in Malawi, men who wear their hair long. Tonga prohibits any “male person” from presenting as a female while “soliciting for an immoral purpose, in a public place with intent to deceive any other person as to his true sex.”

In the United Arab Emirates, laws prohibit men “posing as” women in order to enter women-only spaces. The UAE has used this law to prosecute gay and transgender people even in mixed-gender spaces. Other countries with similar laws on “women-only” spaces have not done so, to our knowledge, and are not included in these maps.

Back in 2019, ILGA presented a report listing 13 countries with so-called “crossdressing laws”: Brunei, Gambia, Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malawi, Malaysia, Nigeria, Oman, South Sudan, Tonga, and the United Arab Emirates. Human Dignity Trust also includes Sri Lanka. 

Given these countries do not accept the identities of trans people, this means that all gender variant people are at risk, including transgender men and women who have transitioned.

In addition to these there are quite a few countries and states that have laws and policies in place that aim at marginalizing  transgender people, but who do not directly ban gender variance. This applies to destinations like Russia, Poland, Hungary, Texas and Arizona. 

HRC overview with maps here.

Photo: xijian

[zoxsansnc]

Get to know me (based on xxSabitoxx's)

❤️ how tall are you? 5'2 :(

🧡 what is your sexuality? lesbian

💛 what is your favorite feature on yourself? my eyes, I guess

💚 where are you from? Arizona

🩵 do you have any pets? 2 Shih Tzus and 2 cats

💙 do you have any siblings? older brother even older sister

💜 describe yourself in five words or less! gay ADHD One Piece obsessed

🩷 dream job? vet tech

🖤 Favorite hobbies outside of your blog? Marching band/regular band

🎂 when is your birthday? March 26th

🌙 your zodiac (Sun, Moon, Rising) Aries

💉do you have tattoos and/or piercings? got my ears pierced not that long ago

🚗 can you drive? no :(

✈️ favorite place you’ve traveled? Jerome, Arizona never been anywhere special cuz I hate flying

🎤 have you been to a concert? no, I plan to go to one though

🎵 favorite artists? Mother Mother, Melanie Martinez, Bo Burnham

🎧 last song you listened to? Goodbye - Bo Burnham

📺 last show you watched? One Piece

📝 last thing you wrote? don't do a lot of writing so it was probably something on my blog

🔐 something no one would guess about you? I have a girlfriend and we've been dating for almost 2 years

🧟‍♀️ The scariest thing that’s happened to you? My brother left me :( oh well, I got over it

🔥 craziest thing that’s ever happened to you? high school

🍓 favorite food? my mothers chicken alfredo (that shits better than olive garden)

🍅 least favorite food? spicy

🍊 favorite season? fall/autumn

🍋 favorite genre to read/watch/write? adventure

🍐 if you could make one character real, who would it be? Monkey D Luffy

🫐 someplace you’d love to visit? Chornobyl, Ukraine (after the war, for obvious reasons)

🍇 a word your friends would use to describe you? weird but fun

🍒 what is your earliest memory? walking into my brother's room and him sleeptalk saying "Elmo is that you?" funniest shit ever

🍌 what is one talent you wish you had? empathy I stopped giving a shit about people and their problems after July 5th 2020

💌 why did you start this blog? ZOSAN and Zolu but ZOSAN

✏️ when did you start writing fanfic? never started reading a little after creating a tumble account

🖇️ What are your favorite asks to answer? I don't get any :(

📚 how do you come up with the fics you write? don't write

📌 what is the fic you’re known for? don't write

🔍 what character do you enjoy writing for the most? don't write

🖊️ what character do you not enjoy writing for? don't write

💔 is there a fic you wish you didn’t write? don't write

❤️‍🔥 what character do you simp for most often? luffy cuz he's adorable

🧚‍♀️ favorite characters of all time? any of the straw hats they're so silly

🪐 favorite shows/series of all time? ONE PIECE

🌝 a show you would recommend to anyone? ONE PIECE

🌚 a show you’d tell people to stay away from? riverdale

🌹 favorite kinks to write for? don't write

🥀 kinks you would never write for? don't write

🌊 a kink you would like to write but you think you’d be judged? don't write

❄️ full fics, imagines or head canons? don't write

☂️ your favorite fanfic from another writer? time travel/speed run au

A couple of in depth questions!

🍄 what is something that’s happened in your life that you wish you could go back and change? imma trauma dump real

July 5th, 2020, my brother and I were visiting my dad when he (my brother) said he was going to stay with him (my dad) for 2 more weeks (I was still so upset) sooo, um, yeah it's been almost 4 years, they have been disowned in my mind :)

⭐️ What is one of your biggest accomplishments? Why is it so important to you? getting straight superiors in band MPA for 3 years in a row, and getting over depression ig

🪻what is the toughest thing you had to go through, but can say you’ve successfully overcome? my brother leaving me, but I'm a completely different person and for the better :) (I hate who I was before)

🌺 what is the best gift someone has ever given you and why is it so important? My girlfriend gave me a lion squish mallow with a rainbow mane and rainbow heart on its belly and I love it so much idk why I just love it

🍀 what is your comfort show/series and why is it your comfort show? How has it helped you? ONE PIECE shuns away the dark thoughts (except for marinefort), can't be having those

PLEASE MESSAGE ME I'M BORED ASF AND I WANT SOMEONE TO TALK TO (just comment or message)

[aurorawest]

Another reading update

Epitaph by Mary Doria Russell - 4.25/5 stars

Surprise queer love story at the end! Also made me regret that we didn't stop in Tombstone, AZ, when we drove by it on our vacation to Arizona last year.

The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem - DNF at pg 18

Prince and Assassin by Tavia Lark - 5/5 stars

This book was A DELIGHT. I didn't expect to love it so much because I've been burned by so many Rainbow Crate selections, but goddamn this one was good. I ordered the next five books in the series from the parking ramp where we watched the eclipse, lol.

Briarley by Aster Glenn Gray - 4.75/5 stars

The gay, WWII retelling of Beauty and the Beast you didn't know you needed. Really lovely novella.

New Adult by Timothy Janovsky - 4.5/5 stars

Time travel! Crystals! I'm a sucker for books where the main character realizes that their career isn't everything (clearly, since my debut novel is about that). I love Timothy Janovsky. He's so good at writing characters who are deeply unlikable but who you root for from page 1 to get their shit together.

Stars, Hide Your Fires by Jessica Mary Best - 3/5 stars

A Glorious Mess by Kennedy Sutton - 4/5 stars

This is a prequel to a series I haven't read, but I really enjoyed it!

The Midnight Kingdom by Tara Sim - 4.25/5 stars

This is another high fantasy where I was like, okay, what happened again in the first one...? It slowly came back to me, haha. I love Tara Sim and this book was just as good as the first in the series. Definitely excited for the conclusion.

The Body in the Back Garden by Mark Waddell - 4/5 stars

Cozy mysteries aren't really my thing, but I really liked this one. There was enough violence to keep it from twee overload.

The Bookseller's Boyfriend by Heidi Cullinan - 4/5 stars

The Path by Ariel Tachna - 4.25/5 stars

Aka, now I want to hike the Inca Trail. This was a great book about two guides on the Inca Trail in Peru (and if you know me you might know I have interest in guiding). Not only was the book just good, but I loved the exposure to a country that I don't know much about.

The Bachelor's Valet by Arden Powell - 5/5 stars

Hello????? This book is so good???? If you loved Freya Marske's The Last Binding trilogy, give this series a shot. It's very lighthearted, and I loved dumb, kindhearted Alphonse with all my heart from the first sentence. Also the cover is super pretty, I had to keep taking breaks to stare at it.

Assassin by Accident by EJ Russell - 4/5 stars

Tramps and Vagabonds by Aster Glenn Gray - 5/5 stars

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Okay so I knew I'd love this book, because I went feral for Honeytrap, which I read last year. God this one was so good too. It's about two young men who ride the rails in the Midwest during the Depression. James is homeless and Timothy has parents he could go back to...except he's in love with James, obvs. If you're a fan of Cat Sebastian's mid-century books (We Could Be So Good, The Cabots), PLEASE read this. Gray deserves to be much more widely read.

The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley (reread) - 5/5 stars

Here's my copy after rereading:

Those are all the spots that were particularly emotionally devastating. This reread secures The Kingdoms as my favorite Natasha Pulley book. Maybe my favorite book, full stop. Missouri and Joe, god be still my heart.

[zeawesomebirdie]

when is the gay rodeo??

Hello anon! These dates are pulled from the International Gay Rodeo Association's calendar! I've linked the websites associated with the various rodeos too for your searching pleasure ^.^

Bighorn Rodeo is September 15-17, 2023 in Las Vagas, Nevada

World Gay Rodeo Finals is October 27-29, 2023 in El Reno, Oklahoma

Then going into 2024 (remember that 2024 dates are subject to change):

Arizona Gay Rodeo is February 16-18, 2024 in Pheonix, Arizona

Texas Tradition Rodeo is April 12-14, 2024 in Denton, Texas

Rodeo in the Rock is April 26-28, 2024 in Little Rock, Arkansas

Bc I live in New York, the closest of any of these is Arkansas, but it's still one hell of a round trip train ticket, you know? Honestly a little homophobic that travel is so expensive 😔

[blackbird-brewster]

Getting to Know Me(me)

Found my original in my archives and thought it'd be fun to update this one! Original answers from 2015 >> New answers in 2023

Name: Kit  Age: 26 35 Persuasion: Homoromantic demisexual Queer Location: USA Aotearoa 10 Facts: 1. I have 25 35+ tattoos 2. I'm a full-time writer 3. I am on Tumblr more than I should be (still true) 4. I can get through the entirety of 'Fifty Nifty United States' in one breath 5. I have multiple mobility aids and they all have names. Cane: Elvira, Walker: Christopher Walkin', Wheelchair: Wheelie Boy 6. My partner (Doom Them) and I are the penultimate example of queer domestic bliss 7. I met some of my best friends through Tumblr! 8. I can solve a Rubik’s Cube in under 3 minutes (still true) 9. I used to be a professional actress (Still true) 10. I have travelled to 17 20 countries

9 Fandoms:

1. Criminal Minds 2. Doctor Who 3. X-Files 4. Bones Critical Role 5. Fringe 6. Community Dimension 20 7. the L word Warehouse 13 8. Legend of the Seeker 9. SVU Xena

8 OTPS:

1. OTP: Blackbird (JJ x Emily - Criminal Minds) 2. OTP: Burning Up a Sun (Ten x Rose - Doctor Who) 3. OTP: How Long? (Olivia x Alex - SVU) OTP: I Thought We'd Get Lucky (Tara x Emily - Criminal Minds) 4. OTP: I want to Believe (Mulder x Scully - X-Files) 5: OTP: Fringe With Benefits (Peter x Olivia - Fringe) OTP: It'd Be With You (Thirteen x Yasmin - Doctor Who) 6. OTP: I think you’ll know (Callie x Arizona - Grey’s Anatomy) OTP: Science Wives (Sam x Janet - Stargate SG1) 7. OTP: Blood and Battle (Lagertha x Ragnar - Vikings) Let's Go Steal an OT3 (Parker x Eliot x Hardison - Leverage) 8. OTP: Oatmeal (Holt x Kevin - B99) OT3: Je T'Emily (JJ x Emily x Tara - Criminal Minds)

7 Books:

1. Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling Heartstopper by Alice Oseman 2. Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins Wonder Woman Graphic Novels (Greg Rucka, Gail Simone) 3. Anita Blake Series by Laurel K Hamilton Nevermoor Series by Jessica Townsend 4. The Missing Piece by Shel Silverstein 5. The Witches by Roald Dahl Tiny Beautiful Things by Sheryl Strayed 6. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams 7. Bones Series by Kathy Reichs Gender Failure by Ivan E. Coyote & Rae Spoon

6 Foods:

1. Pizza 2. Protein Shakes Mac and cheese (Kraft blue box) 3. Hummus Strawberry Poptarts 4. Peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches 5. Cookies and Cream ice cream 6. Tacos

5 Things You Can’t Live Without:

1. Coffee 2. Netflix 3. My Phone 4. Music 5. Fanfiction * No changes from 2015 to 2023

4 Life Goals:

1. Finish school for Forensic Anthropology Find joy and contentment in all I do 2. Study abroad Fly my friends to Aotearoa for a visit 3. Visit every continent 4. Publish a novel (<<did it!) Live authentically, without regret

3 Characters You Relate To:

1. Temperance Brennan Thirteenth Doctor 2. Emily Prentiss 3. Jean Grey / Phoenix  Fox Mulder 2 Quotes:

1. Why waste your life being normal? 2. The entire poem of Invictus Be gay, do crime 1 Selfie (If you want):

2015 vs 2023

 Not tagging anyone, this one was completely self-indulgent so I could have the update in my archive <3

[moonssugar]

wip inspiration tag 🌟

got tagged by @encrucijada​

there are A LOT of places of inspiration for my personal writing project roadtrip! and if i had to list them all i’d have pages and pages of bits of inspiration from so many different places but i think i can gather the core wells of inspiration...

list: the Northern Lights trilogy, the Oh Hellos, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky and Sprited Away

ROADTRIP! : sam, a transmasc youth, and his furry ever-companion soulmate kaid live in sunshine arizona with their new rambunctious friend who moved into the neighboring town a year ago, chelsie who has two furry companions of her own named cosmos and chrysanthemum. high school hell, summer shenanigans, friendships, chaos and fun ensue until a girl named aubry shows up in the middle of the desert following a series of strange occurrences. a week later, the three of them take a short walk and don’t return home. they find themselves in a new world, and, well, quite a few new worlds after that. they need to find a way home and they’re determined that nothing stops them, so they journey into a ever shifting, strange, curious and beautiful multiverse that unfolds before them.

this story is about changes and grappling with them, queerness (trans, lesbian/gay mostly), self discovery and becoming, love, family born into, made and found, faiths, destiny is fake, essentialism is bogus, war is hell, different kinds of trauma, the pace of healing, growing pains, be gay do crime, love for humanity, displacement and belonging, oppression and fighting it, the power in being kind gentle and merciful, and how hugs, hand holding and forehead kisses go a long way. theres a lot more but the hugs are extremely important!

The Oh Hellos

entire arcs in this story have started as seeds planted by me listening to the oh hello’s but especially the albums eurus and the other four winds albums, dear wormwood, and into the deep dark valley. ive got a deep emotional connection to their music and since i found them back in 2019/2020 which happened to be the time i started writing this wip. there are whole albums in my character playlists. they are this music on a certain level. the grip maggie and tyler heath have on me is criminal

HDM

daemons, angels and the multiverse concept not only totally ripped completely off from this series but also extremely yassified and hit with a transgenderification beam. transdimensional travel as a metaphor for being trans. a angel fabricating a physical body as a metaphor for being trans. rainbow colored openings to other worlds hint hint nudge gay. answering the age old question “trans people daemons gender what?!” with “lol whatever i have a 4D understanding of gender you wouldn’t get it”. using daemons as a way to talk about queerness, gender etc etc. also us american evengalicalism fuckin sucks, lets talk about that and religious trauma without demonizing “religion” as a whole!! this inspired me to think about the beauty of faiths instead of its ugliest sides but also honor the horrific trauma a certain brand of christianity causes. also what if this multiverse concept was executed better and the story was actually satisfying??

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the sSky (and some other ghibli movies)

okay nausicaä actually inspired a big latter part of roadtrip, mostly its solarpunk elements and focus on ecology, post apocalyptic world and humanity. and insects! castle in the sky is where i got the floating island idea from. some honorable mentions are spirited away, its one of my earliest memories of other world concepts in fiction i remember from when i was a kid, ponyo which is the favorite movie of my character chelsie + some ocean imagery sprinkled here and there and sam loves princess mononoke (this movie helped radicalize me)

Ari and Dante

the slice of life vibes, desert setting but arizona instead of el paso texas, a mexican main character, just taking it easy and being emotionally honest when writing and telling a story is something i learned from benjamin alire sáenz because its one of the first places in literature it really stuck out to me. that you choose your own methods for writing, whatever works for you even if it strays from ‘traditional’ literature structure. realizing a chapter could be 1 paragraph freed me, but now i wish i’d actually let myself apply the guy’s advice. this book had a profound effect on me when i read it at 17, it got me through a lot and its lived inside my head and my soul ever since. rent fuckin free. changed me on a molecular and spiritual level and im so glad it did

honorable mentions: a bunch of different science fiction media, fantasy media, real life locations like arizona, my own state, cartagena columbia, costa rica, peru and about a thousand other places, ecology and the concept of interconnectedness herself, class struggle, queer history, catholic imagery, ‘80s aesthetics, many romance languages, my friends and their many backgrounds, many different cultures, angelology, world history, revenge and spite but also self indulgence and falling in love with writing

gonna tag: @shapeshiftersandfire​!

[sa7abnews]

55 Things to Know About Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’ Pick for VP

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/06/55-things-to-know-about-tim-walz-kamala-harris-pick-for-vp/

55 Things to Know About Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’ Pick for VP

Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, once said he never expected a former high school geography teacher would make it so far in politics. He couldn’t have imagined that he would some day run for vice president.

That changed Tuesday when the 60-year-old was chosen by Vice President Kamala Harris to be her running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket. Walz, who has gained a reputation as an energetic and plain-spoken champion of Harris’ surprise candidacy, emerged late in a highly compressed vetting process — edging out Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona.

Here — culled from articles about his 20-year career in politics — is a look at how Walz, a former non-commissioned officer in the Army National Guard, went from being the rare Democrat representing a conservative and rural district in Congress to becoming the progressive governor in his adopted state. It offers a glimpse of the person he might be if he becomes America’s next vice president.

1.

Walz was born in West Point, a Nebraska town of just 3,500 people. But he was raised in an even smaller town called Butte.

2.

Walz graduated from Butte High School in 1982. “I come from a town of 400 — 24 kids in a class, 12 cousins, farming, those types of things.”

3.

Walz credits his rural upbringing for his values: “A town that small had services like that and had a public school with a government teacher that inspired me to be sitting where I’m at today. Those are real stories in small towns.”

4.

Walz enlisted in the Army National Guard when he was 17.

5.

In his state Capitol office, Walz displays hundreds of “challenge” coins that he’s traded and collected for years around the world.

6.

Walz’s father, a school administrator, died of lung cancer when Walz was 19. Walz said this moment fueled his views on health care access: “The last week of my dad’s life cost my mom a decade of going back to work to pay off hospital debt.”

7.

Walz graduated with a social science degree from Chadron State College in 1989. He earned a Master of Science in educational leadership from Minnesota State University, Mankato in 2001.

8.

He spent a year teaching in China after college before returning full time to the Army. He traveled to China with one of the first government-sanctioned groups of American educators to teach in Chinese high schools.

9.

He still speaks Mandarin.

10.

He taught on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. “I tell folks that managing a high-school lunchroom for years trained me for the craziness that can overtake Washington, D.C.”

11.

He rose to the rank of command sergeant major before retiring from the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion in 2005. He served for a total of 24 years.

12.

Walz met his future wife, Gwen Whipple, a native Minnesotan, as they were both high school teachers in temporary classrooms. The first lady said she was irked by his loud voice disrupting her classroom.

13.

The two eventually moved to Mankato, Minnesota, where they both worked at Mankato West High School. “Gwen loved living in southern Minnesota. We jumped at the chance to move to Mankato and start our lives together.”

14.

Walz taught geography and coached high school football. “I don’t know if every high school geography teacher expects to be in this position at some point.”

15.

He was the faculty adviser for the school’s first gay-straight alliance chapter in 1999.

16.

7.

Walz graduated with a social science degree from Chadron State College in 1989. He earned a Master of Science in educational leadership from Minnesota State University, Mankato in 2001.

8.

He spent a year teaching in China after college before returning full time to the Army. He traveled to China with one of the first government-sanctioned groups of American educators to teach in Chinese high schools.

9.

He still speaks Mandarin.

10.

He taught on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. “I tell folks that managing a high-school lunchroom for years trained me for the craziness that can overtake Washington, D.C.”

11.

He rose to the rank of command sergeant major before retiring from the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion in 2005. He served for a total of 24 years.

12.

Walz met his future wife, Gwen Whipple, a native Minnesotan, as they were both high school teachers in temporary classrooms. The first lady said she was irked by his loud voice disrupting her classroom.

13.

The two eventually moved to Mankato, Minnesota, where they both worked at Mankato West High School. “Gwen loved living in southern Minnesota. We jumped at the chance to move to Mankato and start our lives together.”

14.

Walz taught geography and coached high school football. “I don’t know if every high school geography teacher expects to be in this position at some point.”

15.

He was the faculty adviser for the school’s first gay-straight alliance chapter in 1999.

16.

Walz, 60, has drawn criticism for appearing older than his age. Walz responded to this on X, saying that it’s because he “supervised the lunchroom for 20 years. You do not leave that job with a full head of hair. Trust me.”

17.

He has two children, Hope and Gus. Hope recently graduated from college in Montana, and Gus is in public high school in St. Paul.

18.

Both children were conceived through IVF and fertility treatments: “There’s a reason we named [our daughter] Hope.”

19.

Walz’s first job in politics was as a member of former Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. The campaign hired him to be campaign’s county coordinator as well as a district coordinator of Vets for Kerry.

20.

He said he was inspired to join Kerry’s campaign after he took a group of high school students to a George W. Bush campaign rally and security interrogated one of his students because he had a Kerry sticker on his wallet.

21.

Walz was first elected to Congress in 2006, in one of the biggest House upsets of the year. The district, home to both the Mayo Clinic and the Hormel meatpacking firm, had twice-voted for George W. Bush.

22.

He was the highest-ranking enlisted soldier ever to serve in the U.S. House and only the fourth Democrat/Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party member to represent his district.

23.

Walz defeated incumbent Republican Rep. Gil Gutknecht despite being outspent by close to a half-million dollar margin.

24.

Walz won re-election five times in southern Minnesota’s mostly rural, conservative 1st District, serving in the House for 12 years.

25.

When he arrived in the House, Walz was elected to share the freshman class presidency with Rep. Paul Hodes of New Hampshire.

26.

He was named the ranking member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs in 2017. He focused on issues such as veterans’ mental health, suicide and pain management. He also called for funding to research medical cannabis treatment for veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain.

27.

More than half of the bills Walz co-sponsored between 2015-2017 were introduced by non-Democrats.

28.

Walz once earned an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association and the group’s endorsement. In 2016, Guns & Ammo magazine included him on its list of top 20 politicians for gun owners.

29.

He later denounced the NRA and supported gun-control measures, such as an assault weapons ban. Duringhis first campaign for governor in 2018, the NRA completely downgraded his rating. “I had an A rating from the NRA. Now I get straight F’s. And I sleep just fine.”

30.

Shortly after the deadly Las Vegas shooting in 2017, which killed 59 people, he donated campaign contributions from the NRA to a nonprofit that supported the family of military members who died or were severely wounded while serving.

31.

Walz is an avid hunter and scoffed at JD Vance for talking about guns when “I guarantee you he can’t shoot pheasants like I can.”

32.

In 2019, Walz left the House to run for governor of Minnesota. He beat Republican Jeff Johnson by more than 11 points.

33.

Walz frequently defends his policies, such as the universal school meals bill signed into Minnesota law earlier this year, as common sense: “What a monster! Kids are eating and having full bellies so they can go learn and women are making their own healthcare decisions,” Walz said jokingly.

34.

Violence erupted after police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020, an incident that led to protests against racism and police brutality across the nation. Republican lawmakers issued a report later in the year, criticizing Walz’ administration for not intervening quickly enough to prevent looting and arson. “I certainly believe our administration … whether it be the National Guard, the State Patrol or the DNR [Department of Natural Resources], our front line folks responded in a noble and heroic manner. They saved lives,” Walz said. “A one-sided report coming out right before an election isn’t as helpful. But if there is helpful advice in there, I’ll certainly take it.”

35.

In recent weeks, Walz is credited for popularizing the Democratic Party’s latest line of attack against the Republican ticket, when he called Trump and Vance “these really weird people.”

36.

He told POLITICO in 2023: “When we’re running against the generic Republican, our races are always really close, but there’s no such thing [as a generic Republican]. These guys are weird. Once they start running, their weirdness shows up, and especially with the nominee on the other side. I don’t think it’s that surprising.”

37.

Walz told The New York Times that his comments about weirdness are about Trump and Vance, not Republicans generally: “And ‘weird’ is specific to him. I’m certainly not talking about Republicans. I’m not talking about the people who are at those rallies. I’m hearing this from my Republican friends, because the people at those rallies, they’re the ones that can most benefit from the message we’re delivering.”

38.

Last year, Barack Obama praised Walz when the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party gained control of the governor’s mansion, the state house and the state senate.

39.

Walz first met his lieutenant governor, Peggy Flanagan, when he attended Wellstone Action, founded after the 2002 death of Sen. Paul Wellstone to train progressive organizers, activists and candidates. “I showed up and had a fantastic young trainer who turned out to be Peggy Flanagan. That’s when we started our friendship.”

40.

After Minnesota legalized recreational marijuana last year, Walz appointed a hemp shop owner to be the state’s top cannabis regulator. The next day, cannabis entrepreneur Erin DuPree stepped down from the role after the Star Tribune reported she had sold illegal products at her hemp shop and had federal tax liens and judgments against her. Minnesota’s nonpartisan government watchdog the Office of the Legislative Auditor later found the governor’s office missed some standard background check steps before the appointment of DuPree.

41.

In December 2023, Walz was tapped to chair the Democratic Governors Association, responsible for defending and growing the party’s share of chief executives in the states. “I’m a firm believer now that governors do make a difference. We saw it in Minnesota, we saw it in Michigan, we saw it in Colorado. We see these trifecta states improving folks’ live.”

42.

His beverage of choice is Diet Mountain Dew. He got a DWI in Nebraska in 1995 before he quit drinking.

43.

Walz is a runner, who has participated in multiple competitions in Minnesota’s Twin Cities: “I’ve found that even before the most stressful events, if I’ve gone for a run, I’m calmer and more collected.”

44.

He likes to tinker on his vintage blue International Scout, a four-wheel-drive vehicle that International Harvester stopped producing in 1980.

45.

He has custom license plates that read, “ONE MN,” his campaign slogan for his gubernatorial bid.

46.

Walz promised his son Gus a dog if he won governorship in 2019. When the election was called, Gus exclaimed, “I get a dog!” Walz kept his promise by adopting Scout, a black lab mix, later in the year.

47.

Walz and Scout make daily morning visits to an off-leash Twin Cities dog park.

48.

Walz signed a bill last May expanding voting rights for an estimated 55,000 formerly incarcerated residents.

49.

Walz has met with the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States to sign a letter of understanding that creates an agricultural partnership between Minnesota and a northern region in Ukraine called Chernihiv. “Once we drive the Russians out, we will have some cooperation,” Walz said. “It’s a really important showing of friendship and a real important showing of ties.”

50.

In 2023, Walz signed an executive order protecting access to gender-affirming care. “As states across the country move to ban access to gender-affirming care, we want LGBTQ Minnesotans to know they will continue to be safe, protected, and welcome in Minnesota,” said Walz.

51.

His tater tot hot dish — the unofficial dish of Minnesota — won the Minnesota Congressional Delegation Hot Dish Off in 2014.

52.

He is a self-proclaimed sci-fi fantasy guy when it comes to books. “I just finished reading the four-book series Mortal Engines. I read a lot of these young adult ones, because I do it with my kids. I was reading that one with Gus,” he said in 2019. “And then I just finished one I would not suggest reading because it is terrifying: Command and Control. It traces the history of America’s nuclear arsenal.”

53.

His favorite song by Bob Dylan, one of Minnesota’s most famous celebrities, is “Forever Young,” which contains a “timeless message from a dad to his son,” according to Walz.

54.

He enjoys the all-you-can-drink milk booth at the Minnesota State Fair — so much so that he volunteered at the booth in 2022.

55.

Walz is a self-described optimist, but when it comes to government he tries to plan for the worst. “I think people should have an expectation of a forward leaning, anticipatory government,” he said as he took office in 2019. “A lot of things people write off as accidents or chance is really just poor planning and anticipation.”

[qnewsau]

Colorado is home to the longest-running gay rodeo in the world

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/colorado-is-home-to-the-longest-running-gay-rodeo-in-the-world/

Colorado is home to the longest-running gay rodeo in the world

The Colorado Gay Rodeo Association has held a gay rodeo every year since 1983, making it the longest-running event of its kind in history.

Their flagship event, the Rocky Mountain Regional Rodeo in Denver, is part of a circuit of rodeos that, at times, has stretched across the United States and into Canada.

Despite the cultural pushback these rodeos have faced, the legacy of the Denver rodeo continues as it celebrates its 41st anniversary on July 12-13, 2024.

We researched the origins of this rodeo for our book, “Slapping Leather: Queer Cowfolx at the Gay Rodeo,” which also explores how gay rodeoers were at the forefront of combating discrimination and the AIDS crisis.

Roots in Reno

Gay rodeo didn’t originate in the Rocky Mountains but instead was born in another mountain range further west – the Sierra Nevada.

Businessman Phil Ragsdale held the first gay rodeo in 1976 in Reno, Nevada, as a fundraiser for local community organizations.

Ragsdale faced some difficulties renting space and animals when arena owners and stock contractors learned the event was for queer people.

Nonetheless, Ragsdale’s first rodeo largely went off without a hitch. Soon known as the National Reno Gay Rodeo, the event expanded from the couple hundred spectators and participants who attended that first year to an annual event that sometimes attracted more than 10,000 people.

In 1981, John King opened Charlie’s Denver, a gay country western bar managed by Wayne Jakino. The venue provided a space for cowfolx – or queer ranchers, rodeoers and country western enthusiasts across the gender and sexuality spectrum – to gather and form a community. Friends who met at the bar traveled en masse to the 1982 Reno rodeo. In 1983, they held their own rodeo in Denver, calling it the Rocky Mountain Regional Rodeo.

The Denver rodeo was the first gay rodeo to take place outside of Nevada, but it was soon joined by others, with four additional rodeos taking place in Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Dallas by the end of 1986.

Colorado’s leadership

Thanks to the leadership of King and Jakino, the Rocky Mountain Regional Rodeo helped other gay rodeos get off the ground across the United States and Canada.

As Reno’s rodeo stumbled and eventually collapsed in 1984, Rocky Mountain Regional Rodeo members worked with groups in Texas, California and Arizona to form the International Gay Rodeo Association in 1985. Jakino took the reins as the organization’s first president.

Jakino was particularly interested in bringing a sense of professionalism to gay rodeo, though that emphasis was always balanced with fun, campiness and sexual freedom. In 1982, Jakino wrote a letter to Ragsdale in which he outlined his goal of promoting “the professionalism of gay rodeos and the enjoyment of our members and rodeo fans alike.”

Controversy in the Rockies

This emphasis on professionalism didn’t protect the International Gay Rodeo Association from anti-LGBTQ+ backlash.

The Colorado Gay Rodeo Association explained to its membership in a 1988 newsletter that the first year the group held the Denver rodeo, eight arenas turned them away because they were an LGBTQ+ organization – and that their current arena was barely on board with hosting them. The group called on its membership to prepare themselves for this kind of opposition and to come together in order to “be a constructive force in the well being of the gay community!”

Anti-LGBTQ+ hostility grew more heated in the 1980s as the AIDS epidemic spread across the country. Even as the Colorado Gay Rodeo Association fought to remain visible and present, its members were literally fighting for their lives. Two of the group’s founding members died of AIDS in 1986, and the organization directed its fundraising efforts toward helping with the HIV-AIDS crisis.

With the expansion of the Christian Right in the 1980s and ‘90s, Colorado experienced intense campaigns to oppose “the militant homosexual attack on traditional values,” as the Colorado for Family Values organization put it.

This group urged voters to pass Amendment 2, which would prevent towns or cities from creating laws to protect LGBTQ+ people and void the ordinances already in place in cities like Aspen and Boulder. Funded by national conservative groups like Eagle Forum and Focus on the Family, conservatives successfully passed the amendment in late 1992. This prompted a nationwide response called Boycott Colorado. The boycott cost the state roughly US$120 million in lost tourism. Boycott organizers hoped to deter other states from passing similar legislation, but the boycott also threatened queer-owed businesses in the state, including the rodeo.

While Amendment 2 was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1996 and never went into effect, Jakino and others were placed in the awkward position of having to ask their supporters to break boycotts to ensure their own economic survival.

In 1993, Jakino wrote to fellow rodeo associations: “We will not be driven out of Colorado or any other state and we pray that you will be there in even greater numbers as a message to Colorado and the nation – We will fight against discrimination and for our Equal Rights!”

For Jakino and many other gay rodeoers, their continued presence in the world of rodeo was a poignant act of resistance.

Gay rodeo’s future

Having survived AIDS, homophobic legislation and national boycotts, the future of gay rodeo – even such long-standing events like the Rocky Mountain Regional Rodeo – is far from assured. While the AIDS epidemic decimated gay rodeo in some ways, it also attracted people to its ranks who wanted to fundraise for their queer community. Similarly, homophobic attacks united gay rodeo against outside opposition.

Since the late 1990s, the International Gay Rodeo Association’s story has turned from boom to bust, with more associations shuttering each year. By 2013, there were more defunct associations than active ones for the first time in International Gay Rodeo Association history, and in 2019 the organization held just 10 rodeos versus 22 in its prime. The COVID-19 pandemic was a crushing blow to a group already struggling for survival.

Yet there is hope for the future, as more recent years have seen 12 rodeos back on the circuit. The Colorado Gay Rodeo Association packed stands at its 40th anniversary rodeo in 2023, but it may have a bumpy ride ahead.

This article was written by Rebecca Scofield, Associate Professor of History, University of Idaho and Elyssa Ford, Associate Professor of History, Northwest Missouri State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

[jimseestheworld]

An old traveling guy

So yeah. I'm old... 73 years old as I write this. I'm from the USA, but spend a heck of a lot of time in southeast Asia. I picked up the traveling bug in my 30s when the middle school where I taught awarded me a grant to study elephants in Zimbabwe one summer. Really. Since then I have been all over Africa, Europe, and finally Asia in my retirement. I'm gay, I've been together with my partner for 8 years now, and I am loving to learn about cultures foreign to me. When I'm not traveling you will probably find me riding my bicycle in the desert roads of Arizona; I try to get in at least 5000 km each year, but managed well over 10,000 km during the pandemic when travel was limited.