#brazilian lesbian movement

[lurxv]

Print publication of the brazilian bulletin called Outro Olhar (en: Another Look) by GALF - Grupo Ação Lésbica-Feminista (en: Lesbian-Feminist Action Group) from São Paulo, Brazil.

[aibazuos]

Just a WIP

Honestly this is looking… rough

Brook looks like the walten files blue bunny thing

Zoro looks like a lesbian

Franky’s face is a mess on it’s own

And Usopp looks, like, twinkysh(?)

This is all to say that I’m going to clean this up (maybe even do it again bc I don't know I don't like it the more I look at it) before i try to use watercolors on it bc i’ve been having some fun with water colors

Also, since this is still me fangirling over my own brazilian au in the middle of the dictatorship this is most obviously based on a brazilian thing, i explain more bellow

(And, please, give me some ideas on who I could put on the portraits bc I have no idea right now)

Ok, so, here’s the reference

Ok so, me yapping abt brazilian history, let's go.

This is Tropicália (or Tropicalismo). Basically this was supposed to be a mix between traditional manifestations of Brazilian culture, more specifically the vanguard movements, with foreign trends. That's why they look like hippies from the US.

So all of this combinations of styles ended up on the LP "Tropicalia ou Panis et Circencis", released in 1968, that had various artists' songs.

This guy on the front with portrait of Capinam is Giberto Gil.

The girl sitting at his side is Gal Costa

By her side is Torquato Neto

Behind him is Tom Zé

On Tom Zé's left is Sérgio Dias

By his left is Rita Lee (love of my life)

By her left is Caetano Veloso and his holding the portrait of Nara Leão

By Caetano's side is Arnaldo Baptista

And on front of him is Rogério Duprat

At that point in time Sergio Dias, Rita Lee and Arnaldo Baptista were in a band together called "Os Mutantes" (The Mutants)

They fought a lot against the military dictatorship and a bunch of them were arrested or even put themselves in exile for some time. Also, this LP and the rest of their songs are on Spotify, go listen to it, it's fucking amazing.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

LGBTQIA+ Pride Day: Fight for rights in Brazil goes back a long way

In the 1990s, parades showed pride and demanded rights

“Visibility” is a word that permeates the history of the LGBTQIA+ struggle in Brazil. Not even during the most violent and authoritarian times—such as the military dictatorship—was there silence or inertia. In the attempts to form national meetings from 1959 to 1972, in the creation of Grupo Somos and the newspapers Lampião da Esquina and Chanacomchana in 1978, in the lesbian uprising at Ferro’s Bar in 1983 and in the years-long pressure to remove homosexuality from the list of diseases—which finally came to fruition in 1985—rights activists took the lead in mobilizing and putting up a fight.

It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the main date for celebrating sexual diversity in Brazil is June 28, in reference to a riot that took place in New York City in 1969. On that occasion, regulars at the Stonewall Inn, one of Manhattan’s popular gay bars, resisted a violent police raid. The protest became a milestone in the LGBTQIA+ movement for rights in the US and is now celebrated in many other countries, including Brazil, as International LGBT+ Pride Day.

“These dates can and should be celebrated. But not everything began at Stonewall and not everything was settled there. Many other episodes need to be remembered so that we have a more collective, plural, democratic, and diverse memory of the struggles of the LGBTQIA+ community,” said Renan Quinalha, law professor at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) and head of the LGBTQIA+ Memory and Truth Group, under the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship. “We end up being influenced by North American cultural imperialism. This makes some national milestones invisible, which we also need to celebrate as advances, achievements, and references for memory in this political construction of the community.”

Historian Rita Colaço, an LGBTQIA+ activist and director of the Bajubá Museum, argues it is necessary to direct less attention to the US as a reference point and more to elements within the Brazilian movement.

Continue reading.

[zolusbian]

there is this fantastic term used in lesbian* brazilian circles: desfem, short for desfeminino, which literally translates to "unfeminine" but is less of an adjective (although it is) than a noun describing a process. like, to be desfem doesn't necessarily have one single aesthetic, although there are commonalities (no makeup, no shaving, etc) but instead it's about removing yourself from femininity / feminine gender roles. it's about like, just being a person first instead of a gender. it's a political statement as much as an aesthetic. and it's great! i wish the west had an equivalent term and movement!

[marlesbian]

Random marauders era characters headcanons

- Remus and james are vegetarian, lily became a vegetarian after she married james

- James speaks many languages, including english, spanish, french, hindi and german

- Sirius is also multilingual but speaks english, french, italian, russian and german and can read japanese

- Lily's mom is spanish but she never taught her how to speak it properly, but when she started dating James he started teaching her

- Mary is brazilian and speaks portuguese

- Marlene loves muggle things and she loved studying geography and maps

- Dorcas doesn't actually really listen to music, but marlene and mary on the other hand are obcessed

- Mary is the kind of person to always be singing something (she was actually good at it)

- Marlene was very musically talented and could play any instrument with the least amount of practice and learnt things very fast

- both Marlene and James have adhd

- Lily loved frogs

- Dorcas was very rich like her family had so much money, they came from a lineage of royal pureblood witches from the Kingdom of Dahomey (currently Benin)

- Remus was a marxist and sirius was an anarchist very much into the punk movement in the 70s

- Sirius loved going out to muggle London to do regular muggle things.

- As much as Sirius rebelled against it he never got really away from the aristocratic way he was raised.

-Marlene was short and buff. She had short thick thighs and a long torso and those muscular arms that are hard and defined when flexed.

-James and Marlene grew up together and had a bunch of inside jokes that literally nobody else understood

- Marlene got super jealous of Sirius at first because she felt like he was stealing him from her

- In the first year of school, Marls only wanted to hang out with james and the boys bc she was that kind of lesbian that "boys are just better friends than girls" but later she became literally inseparable from Lily and Mary

- Lily and Mary instantly clicked on the first moment they saw each other, they became super friends and were always doing each other's hair and nails, always walking around school holding hands.

- Marlene actually had a deep dislike for Lily in the first months bc she didn't like james and was ALWAYS complaining about him, and that annoyed Marlene bc her and james grew up together). Marls was also the biggest jily shipper because she knew them both so well

- Sirius and Lily were incredibly close friends and bonded over their terrible siblings and their undying love for them despite it all. Lily hated Regulus and Sirius hated Petunia, it was a solidarity thing. He was the big sibling she needed and she was the little sibling he deserved.

[dollyboned]

welcome to my place!

soph | minor | neurodivergent | poc | agender aroace lesbian [she/her/doll | they/them/spirit] | brazilian portuguese & english (learning spanish!)

☆ DNI:

basic dni criteria, TERFs, zionists, bigots, ableists, anti goth/punk movement, leorio, gon & killugon hater, doesn't tw, pro-shippers, pro-ana, pro animal testing, right-wing, lesbophobics, dream fans, acephobics, paranormal things and porcelain dolls hater, witchery hater, doesn't tone tag sarcasm or jokes, constantly joking about suic*de. (intrusive thoughts vent allowed because it's not a joke)

☆ BYF:

communist, goth punk for music, books and sociopolitical views, fanfic writer, i don't play about killugon yuri usually offline & when online reblogging a lot about autism and killugon. ♡

☆ BYI:

i have trouble with tones, english isn't my first language, if killugon is the topic im prone to get really excited. usually missing letters or whole words when talking even if i reread a lot before posting. sometimes brutal honest with no intent to harm; will apologize if you explain to me that you felt bad about it. not interested in flirting and will feel really weirded out if you do so. probably going to remember the most not related topic during a conversation. i can tolerate criticism if you're not mean. rejection sensitiveness dysphoria and "sorry i didn't message before, i forgot you existed for a while /lh /gen" combo. amazingly good at being bad in retaining information unrelated to my sp/in.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ(via kamal fareed on pinterest)

☆ special interests;

killugon. my own fanfic (mother arcade), specially killua from mother arcade. paranormal life, haunted dolls, kelsi davies paranormal investigations, soulmori's haunted house, my own haunted doll, malice mizer.

☆ hobbies;

writing. ballet (beginner). drawing. collecting pretty rocks and crystals. music, probably going to learn violin. singing (im an alto!). beginner at crocheting too. writing letters.

☆ music favorites;

goth/v-kei: malice mizer, kaya, buck-tick, scary bitches, siouxsie and the banshees, this mortal coil, type o negative, bauhaus, london after midnight, xmal deustchland, rammstein.

pop/indie/etc: laufey, wave to earth, grentperez, rocco, beabadoobee, wasia project, chappell roan, the marías, her's, lyn lapid, hozier.

brazilian music: gal costa, maria bethânia, alceu valença, chico buarque, elis regina, maria rita, caetano veloso, raul seixas, milton nascimento, rita lee, gilberto gil, belchior, gonzaguinha, djavan, legião urbana.

timeless: michael jackson, jackson 5, george michael, etta james, aretha franklin, louis armstrong, chet baker, ray charles, stevie wonder, michael bublé.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ(lyrics to seasons, by wave to earth)

thank you for reading! i hope we can be friends. ♡

[brookston]

Holidays 3.7

Holidays

Alexander Graham Bell Day

Arbor Day (California)

Be Heard Day

Bird Day (California)

Bloody Sunday Anniversary Day (Selma, Alabama)

Chamorro Heritage Day (Guam)

Cybercombine Day (Prudentianopolis)

Doronicum Day (French Republic)

Equal Pay Day (Gleicher Bezahlungstag; Germany)

Finnmarkslopet Dog Sled Race (Finland)

First Planting Festival (Elder Scrolls)

Get Grandma To Write Down Her Meatloaf Recipe Day

Hamilton Lavity Stoutt Day (British Virgin Islands)

International Brick Maker Day

International Day of the Anti-Fascist Woman

International Women’s Day (Angola, Tajikistan)

INTERPOL International Day of Remembrance for Fallen Officers

Jose Abad Day (Philippines)

Liberation of Sulaymaniyah (Iraqi Kurdistan)

Mahasivarathri Day (Sri Lanka)

Maritime Day (Slovenia)

Masaryk Day (Czech Republic, Slovakia)

Maslenitsa (Russia)

National Ben Day

National Carol Day

National Cooper Day

National Day of Lesbian Visibility (Argentina)

National Heroes and Benefactors Day (Belize)

National Sauna Day (Japan)

National Sharon Day

National Slam the Scam Day

National Teresa Day

Neil Diamond Day (Las Vegas)

Nones of March (Ancient Rome)

Plant Power Day (UK)

Say Hello Day

Suez Canal Day

Teacher’s Day (Albania)

Texas Energy Day (Texas)

307 Day

Transport and Telecommunication Workers Day (Turkmenistan)

World Oneness Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

National Cereal Day

National Crown Roast of Pork Day

National Flapjack Day

Punsch Roll Day (Sweden)

1st Thursday in March

Kid Lit Art Postcard Day [1st Thursday]

Nametag Day [Thursday of Name Week]

National Hospitalist Day [1st Thursday]

National Vending Day [1st Thursday]

White Ribbon Day (Massachusetts) [1st Thursday]

World Book Day (Ireland, UK) [1st Thursday]

Independence & Related Days

Aleutian Islands (Declared; 2020) [unrecognized]

Sulaymaniyah Liberation Day (Iraqi Kurdistan)

Festivals Beginning March 7, 2024

Antikmässan (Stockholm, Sweden) [thru 3. 10]

Brazilian Beer Festival (Blumeneau, Brazil) [thru 3.9]

Cincinnati International Wine Festival (Cincinnati, Ohio) [thru 3.9]

Crufts Dog Show (Birmingham, England) [thru 3. 10]

Eastern Bison Association Winter Conference (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) [thru 3.9]

Fulton Oysterfest (Fulton, Texas) [thru 3.10]

Limassol Carnival (Limassol, Cyprus) [thru 3. 17]

National Coffee Association Convention (Nashville, Tennessee) [thru 3.9]

New England Brew Summit (Portland, Maine)

Red, White & Snow (Park City, Utah) [thru 3.9]

Sustainable Wine Dinner Series (Los Angeles, California)

The WhiskyX (Miami, Florida)

Feast Days

Ardo (Christian; Saint)

Barbara Eden Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Billy (Muppetism)

Boris Kustodiev (Artology)

Contradiction Day (No It’s Not!; Pastafarian)

The Devil Is God Reversed Day (Everyday Wicca)

Drausius (a.k.a. Drausin; Christian; Saint)

Empodocles (Positivist; Saint)

Edward Landseer (Artology)

Esterwine (Christian; Saint)

Festival for Vedovus (God of the Dead & Volcanic Movements; Ancient Rome)

Impeachment of March Goblins (Shamanism)

José Olallo (Christian; Saint)

Junoalia (Old Roman Festival to Juno)

Leonid Feodorov (Russian Greek Catholic Church)

March Storms and Blasting Rods Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Milton Avery (Artology)

Paul the Simple (Christian; Saint)

Perpetua and Felicity (Christian; Saints & Martyrs)

Piet Mondrian (Artology)

Psyche’s Day (Pagan)

Pierre-Henri Dorie, Siméon-François Berneux (Christian; part of The Korean Martyrs)

Theophylact (Christian; Saint)

Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church (Christian; Saint)

Treachery Day (Church of the SubGenius)

Tuan Reincarnation Day (Celtic Book of Days)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Sakimake (先負 Japan) [Bad luck in the morning, good luck in the afternoon.]

Umu Limnu (Evil Day; Babylonian Calendar; 11 of 60)

Premieres

Alice the Collegiate (Disney Cartoon; 1927)

The Caine Mutiny, by Herman Wouk (Novel; 1951)

Coal Miner’s Daughter

Foxes (Film; 1980)

The Edible Woman, by Margaret Atwood (Novel; 1969)

Erlkönig, by Franz Schubert (Lied; 1821)

From Genesis to Revelation, by Genesis (Album; 1969)

The Golden Eggs (Disney Cartoon; 1941)

The Grand Budapest Hotel (Film; 2014)

Grateful Gus (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1958)

Highlander (Film; 1986)

The Home Guard (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1941)

The Long Goodbye (Film; 1973)

Mame (Film; 1974)

Mickey’s Grand Opera (Disney Cartoon; 1936)

Mirror (Russian Film; 1975)

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Film; 2008)

Mr. Peabody & Sherman (Animated Film; 2014)

My Beautiful Launderette (Film; 1986)

The Nude Who Never, by Ted Mark (Novel; 1965)

The Old Mill Pond (Happy Harmonies Cartoon; 1936)

Olive’s Sweepstake Ticket (Fleischer Popeye Cartoon; 1941)

Our Lady of the Flowers, by Jean Genet (Novel; 1943)

Page Miss Glory (WB MM Cartoon; 1936)

Pistol Packin’ Woodpecker (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1960)

Post Office, by Charles Bukowski (Novel; 1971)

A Room with a View (Film; 1986)

Royal Cat Nap (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1958)

Sailor Moon (Japanese Anime Series; 1992)

The Six Million Dollar Man (TV Series; 1973)

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost (Poem; 1923)

Taboo (Adult Film; 1980)

Things Ain’t What They Used To Be, recorded by Johnny Hodges and his Orchestra (Song; 1941)

Way Out West, by Sonny Rollins (Album; 1957)

Young Americans, by David Bowie (Album; 1975)

Today’s Name Days

Felicitas, Perpetua, Reinhard (Austria)

Bogoljub, Felicita, Perpetua, Teofil (Croatia)

Tomáš (Czech Republic)

Perpetua (Denmark)

Ralf, Raul, Rolf, Rudolf, Ruudi, Ruut (Estonia)

Taika, Tarja, Taru (Finland)

Félicie, Félicité, Nathan (France)

Felicitas, Felizitas, Perpet, Reinhard, Volker (Germany)

Evgenios (Greece)

Tamás (Hungary)

Quintilio, Tommaso (Italy)

Ella, Elmira (Latvia)

Felicita, Galmantė, Rimtautas, Tomas (Lithuania)

Are, Arild (Norway)

Felicja, Nadmir, Paweł, Polikarp, Tomasz (Poland)

Efrem (Romania)

Tomáš (Slovakia)

Felicidad, Perpetua (Spain)

Camilla, Ottilia (Sweden)

Davon, Devan, Deven, Devin, Devon, Devonta, Devonte, Devyn, Dewey, Lothar, Luther (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 67 of 2024; 299 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 4 of week 10 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Nuin (Ash) [Day 19 of 28]

Chinese: Month 1 (Bing-Yin), Day 27 (Geng-Wu)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025)

Hebrew: 27 Adair I 5784

Islamic: 26 Sha’ban 1445

J Cal: 7 Green; Sevenday [7 of 30]

Julian: 23 February 2024

Moon: 10%: Waning Crescent

Positivist: 11 Aristotle (3rd Month) [Thucydides]

Runic Half Month: Tyr (Cosmic Pillar) [Day 13 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 78 of 89)

Week: 1st Week of March

Zodiac: Pisces (Day 18 of 30)

[derschwarzeengel]

LGBTQIA+ History in Germany 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

Since it's Pride Month, I wanted to write a post giving a very brief overview of LGBTQ+ rights in Germany and go over queer rights movements that aren't centered in the USA.

Also because I'm German-American, have queer German friends, am queer myself, and my muse is a bisexual German who grew up in the 1800s.

This post will focus primarily on the 19th - 21st centuries, as the first queer rights movement in Germany really began in the 1860s.

1860s

1864: Lawyer Karl Heinrich Ulrichs confesses, under the pseudonym Numa Numantius, his secret homosexual inclinations in his first two books in the 12 book series entitled Forschungen über das Räthsel der mannmännlichen Liebe (Researches on the Riddle of Male-Male Love). He proposes a concept of third gender identity through the term urning.

1867: On August 29, 1867, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs became the first self-proclaimed homosexual to speak out publicly for homosexual rights, when he pleaded at the Congress of German Jurists in Munich for a resolution urging the repeal of anti-homosexual laws.

1869: The term "homosexuality" appears in print for the first time in a German-Hungarian pamphlet written by Karl-Maria Kertbeny (1824–1882).

1870s

1870: Friedrich Christian Oppenhoff mentions Paragraph 175 in Das Strafgesetzbuch für den Norddeutschen Bund.

1871: Homosexuality is criminalized throughout the German Empire by Paragraph 175 of the Reich Criminal Code. Homosexuality was already a criminal offence in all territories of Germany, but it was regulated by the state authorities separately.

1890s

1896: Adolf Brand founds Der Eigne, the first worldwide gay magazine, in Berlin

14. May 1897: Magnus Hirschfeld founds the Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee (Scientific-Humanitarian Committee) in Berlin, the first queer rights movement in history (it fought for the rights of not only gay men, but bisexual men and women, transgender people, intersex people, and lesbians).

1900s

1903: The advocating organisation Gemeinschaft der Eigenen was founded in Berlin.

1906: Brazilian countess Dina Alma de Paradeda poisons herself in Breslau, and a doctor reveals that her body was male, causing a media sensation. De Paradeda becomes one of the first transgender women known by name in the entirety of central Europe. Her history is later often recalled by Dr. Hirschfeld in his research and works.

1907:  Adolf Brand, the activist leader of the Gemeinschaft der Eigenen working to overturn Paragraph 175, publishes a piece "outing" the Imperial Chancellor of Germany, Prince Bernhard von Bülow. The Prince sues Brand for libel; Brand is sentenced to 18 months in prison.

1907 - 1909: Harden-Eulenburg Affair in Germany

1910s

July 6, 1919: Magnus Hirschfeld opens the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft in Tiergarten, Berlin. The Institute also housed the main offices for the Scientific Humanitarian Committee (the first homosexual righs organization) and the World League for Sexual Reform.

Anders als die Andren (Different from the Others), one of the first explicitly gay films, is released. Magnus Hirschfeld cameoed in the movie and partially funded its production.

August 1919: gay magazine Die Freundschaft is started by publisher Karl Schulz in Berlin.

1919: The Bund für Menschenrecht (BfM), a gay rights organisation, is founded in Berlin under the name Deutscher Freundschaftsverband (DFV).

1920s

1922:  Dora Richter becomes the first transgender woman to undergo gender reassignment surgery in Hirschfeld's Institute, the first operation of its kind in the world.

1924: The first worldwide lesbian magazine, Die Freundin, is founded in Berlin.

1929: On October 16, a Reichstag Committee votes to repeal Paragraph 175. The Social Democrats and other leftist parties backed the repeal, while the Catholic Center party and other right-wing parties opposed the repeal. The Nazis' rise to power prevents the implementation of the vote.

1930s - 1940s

1931:  Mädchen in Uniform, one of the first explicitly lesbian films and the first pro-lesbian film, is released.

1933: The Nazi Party bans homosexual groups. Homosexuals are sent to concentration camps. Nazis burn the library of Institute for Sexual Research and destroy the Institute.

1937: First use of pink triangle for gay men in concentration camps.

1945: Upon the liberation of Nazi concentration camps by Allied forces, those interned for homosexuality are not freed, but required to serve out the full term of their sentences under Paragraph 175

1950s - 1960s

Throughout the 1950s until the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany repealed the Nazi-era laws, reverting to the pre-WWII sodomy law (which only criminalized penetrative sex).

By 1957, East German officials stopped prosecuting consensual adult same-sex relationships.

1951: homophile magazine Die Freunde is first published by Johannes Dörrast

1968: Paragraph 175 is eased in East Germany, decriminalizing homosexual acts over the age of 18.

1969: Paragraph 175 eased in West Germany

1970s - 1980s

1974: General Gay Association, the second openly LGBT rights organization in German history, is established.

1985: Herbert Rusche becomes the first openly gay member of the Bundestag.

1987:  Jutta Oesterle-Schwerin becomes the first openly lesbian member of the Bundestag.

1990s - 2000s

1994: After German reunifaction, the Supreme Court rules that the age of consent for sex must be equalized, although its unclear what part of the Constitution the court based its ruling on.

11 June 1994:  Germany deletes the Paragraph 175 StGB (Strafgesetzbuch), which under changing conditions made sexual acts between men a punishable crime.

2000: The Bundestag officially apologizes to gays and lesbians persecuted under the Nazi regime, and for "harm done to homosexual citizens up to 1969".

2001:  Germany recognizes civil partnerships for same-sex couples (without joint adoption until Oct 2004, then with step-adoption); Klaus Wowereit becomes the first openly gay politician elected mayor of Berlin (and, by virtue of Berlin's status as a state, one of the two first openly gay premier of a German state; also makes Berlin the largest city in the world with an openly gay mayor); Ole von Beust becomes the first openly gay mayor of Hamburg.

2004: Same-sex stepchild adoption is legalized; Guido Westerwelle, leader of the FDP, becomes the first leader of a major party to come out.

27 May 2008: the Memorial to the Homosexual Victims of Nazi Persecution is handed over to the public in Berlin.

2009: Westerwelle becomes the first openly gay member of the Federal Cabinet (Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister under Angela Merkel's coalition government).

2010s - 2020s

2013:  Barbara Hendricks becomes the first openly lesbian member of the Federal Cabinet (Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety under Angela Merkel's coalition government)

June 2017: the pardoning of men convicted in the postwar era under Paragraph 175 was passed by law in the Bundestag. One week later, a majority of Bundestag MPs voted in favor of a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in Germany and granting homosexual couples full adoption rights.

2019:  Conversion therapy is completely banned for minors and partially banned for adults in December 2019.

2021: In May, a bill passes in the Bundestag that provides compensation to LGBT servicepeople in the military for past discrimination and harassment.

Pride Events

Christopher Street Day (CSD)

CSD Berlin

Cologne Pride

Munich Pride

Stuttgart Pride

Hamburg Pride

Life Ball in Vienna, Austria, is the largest charity event in Europe supporting those with HIV or AIDS; it started as a small event within the gay community.

Sources:

Timeline of LGBT History in Germany

LGBT rights in Germany

The first institute for Sexual Science (1919 - 1933)

From persecution to pride: the history of LGBTQ+ rights in Germany

LGBTQ+ in Germany [History, Rights, Marriage]

Stanford scholar explores the history of gay rights in Germany

How 1890s Germany led LGBT+ rights charge

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 3.7

Holidays

Alexander Graham Bell Day

Arbor Day (California)

Be Heard Day

Bird Day (California)

Bloody Sunday Anniversary Day (Selma, Alabama)

Chamorro Heritage Day (Guam)

Cybercombine Day (Prudentianopolis)

Doronicum Day (French Republic)

Equal Pay Day (Gleicher Bezahlungstag; Germany)

Finnmarkslopet Dog Sled Race (Finland)

First Planting Festival (Elder Scrolls)

Get Grandma To Write Down Her Meatloaf Recipe Day

Hamilton Lavity Stoutt Day (British Virgin Islands)

International Brick Maker Day

International Day of the Anti-Fascist Woman

International Women’s Day (Angola, Tajikistan)

INTERPOL International Day of Remembrance for Fallen Officers

Jose Abad Day (Philippines)

Liberation of Sulaymaniyah (Iraqi Kurdistan)

Mahasivarathri Day (Sri Lanka)

Maritime Day (Slovenia)

Masaryk Day (Czech Republic, Slovakia)

Maslenitsa (Russia)

National Ben Day

National Carol Day

National Cooper Day

National Day of Lesbian Visibility (Argentina)

National Heroes and Benefactors Day (Belize)

National Sauna Day (Japan)

National Sharon Day

National Slam the Scam Day

National Teresa Day

Neil Diamond Day (Las Vegas)

Nones of March (Ancient Rome)

Plant Power Day (UK)

Say Hello Day

Suez Canal Day

Teacher’s Day (Albania)

Texas Energy Day (Texas)

307 Day

Transport and Telecommunication Workers Day (Turkmenistan)

World Oneness Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

National Cereal Day

National Crown Roast of Pork Day

National Flapjack Day

Punsch Roll Day (Sweden)

1st Thursday in March

Kid Lit Art Postcard Day [1st Thursday]

Nametag Day [Thursday of Name Week]

National Hospitalist Day [1st Thursday]

National Vending Day [1st Thursday]

White Ribbon Day (Massachusetts) [1st Thursday]

World Book Day (Ireland, UK) [1st Thursday]

Independence & Related Days

Aleutian Islands (Declared; 2020) [unrecognized]

Sulaymaniyah Liberation Day (Iraqi Kurdistan)

Festivals Beginning March 7, 2024

Antikmässan (Stockholm, Sweden) [thru 3. 10]

Brazilian Beer Festival (Blumeneau, Brazil) [thru 3.9]

Cincinnati International Wine Festival (Cincinnati, Ohio) [thru 3.9]

Crufts Dog Show (Birmingham, England) [thru 3. 10]

Eastern Bison Association Winter Conference (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) [thru 3.9]

Fulton Oysterfest (Fulton, Texas) [thru 3.10]

Limassol Carnival (Limassol, Cyprus) [thru 3. 17]

National Coffee Association Convention (Nashville, Tennessee) [thru 3.9]

New England Brew Summit (Portland, Maine)

Red, White & Snow (Park City, Utah) [thru 3.9]

Sustainable Wine Dinner Series (Los Angeles, California)

The WhiskyX (Miami, Florida)

Feast Days

Ardo (Christian; Saint)

Barbara Eden Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Billy (Muppetism)

Boris Kustodiev (Artology)

Contradiction Day (No It’s Not!; Pastafarian)

The Devil Is God Reversed Day (Everyday Wicca)

Drausius (a.k.a. Drausin; Christian; Saint)

Empodocles (Positivist; Saint)

Edward Landseer (Artology)

Esterwine (Christian; Saint)

Festival for Vedovus (God of the Dead & Volcanic Movements; Ancient Rome)

Impeachment of March Goblins (Shamanism)

José Olallo (Christian; Saint)

Junoalia (Old Roman Festival to Juno)

Leonid Feodorov (Russian Greek Catholic Church)

March Storms and Blasting Rods Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Milton Avery (Artology)

Paul the Simple (Christian; Saint)

Perpetua and Felicity (Christian; Saints & Martyrs)

Piet Mondrian (Artology)

Psyche’s Day (Pagan)

Pierre-Henri Dorie, Siméon-François Berneux (Christian; part of The Korean Martyrs)

Theophylact (Christian; Saint)

Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church (Christian; Saint)

Treachery Day (Church of the SubGenius)

Tuan Reincarnation Day (Celtic Book of Days)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Sakimake (先負 Japan) [Bad luck in the morning, good luck in the afternoon.]

Umu Limnu (Evil Day; Babylonian Calendar; 11 of 60)

Premieres

Alice the Collegiate (Disney Cartoon; 1927)

The Caine Mutiny, by Herman Wouk (Novel; 1951)

Coal Miner’s Daughter

Foxes (Film; 1980)

The Edible Woman, by Margaret Atwood (Novel; 1969)

Erlkönig, by Franz Schubert (Lied; 1821)

From Genesis to Revelation, by Genesis (Album; 1969)

The Golden Eggs (Disney Cartoon; 1941)

The Grand Budapest Hotel (Film; 2014)

Grateful Gus (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1958)

Highlander (Film; 1986)

The Home Guard (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1941)

The Long Goodbye (Film; 1973)

Mame (Film; 1974)

Mickey’s Grand Opera (Disney Cartoon; 1936)

Mirror (Russian Film; 1975)

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Film; 2008)

Mr. Peabody & Sherman (Animated Film; 2014)

My Beautiful Launderette (Film; 1986)

The Nude Who Never, by Ted Mark (Novel; 1965)

The Old Mill Pond (Happy Harmonies Cartoon; 1936)

Olive’s Sweepstake Ticket (Fleischer Popeye Cartoon; 1941)

Our Lady of the Flowers, by Jean Genet (Novel; 1943)

Page Miss Glory (WB MM Cartoon; 1936)

Pistol Packin’ Woodpecker (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1960)

Post Office, by Charles Bukowski (Novel; 1971)

A Room with a View (Film; 1986)

Royal Cat Nap (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1958)

Sailor Moon (Japanese Anime Series; 1992)

The Six Million Dollar Man (TV Series; 1973)

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost (Poem; 1923)

Taboo (Adult Film; 1980)

Things Ain’t What They Used To Be, recorded by Johnny Hodges and his Orchestra (Song; 1941)

Way Out West, by Sonny Rollins (Album; 1957)

Young Americans, by David Bowie (Album; 1975)

Today’s Name Days

Felicitas, Perpetua, Reinhard (Austria)

Bogoljub, Felicita, Perpetua, Teofil (Croatia)

Tomáš (Czech Republic)

Perpetua (Denmark)

Ralf, Raul, Rolf, Rudolf, Ruudi, Ruut (Estonia)

Taika, Tarja, Taru (Finland)

Félicie, Félicité, Nathan (France)

Felicitas, Felizitas, Perpet, Reinhard, Volker (Germany)

Evgenios (Greece)

Tamás (Hungary)

Quintilio, Tommaso (Italy)

Ella, Elmira (Latvia)

Felicita, Galmantė, Rimtautas, Tomas (Lithuania)

Are, Arild (Norway)

Felicja, Nadmir, Paweł, Polikarp, Tomasz (Poland)

Efrem (Romania)

Tomáš (Slovakia)

Felicidad, Perpetua (Spain)

Camilla, Ottilia (Sweden)

Davon, Devan, Deven, Devin, Devon, Devonta, Devonte, Devyn, Dewey, Lothar, Luther (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 67 of 2024; 299 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 4 of week 10 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Nuin (Ash) [Day 19 of 28]

Chinese: Month 1 (Bing-Yin), Day 27 (Geng-Wu)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025)

Hebrew: 27 Adair I 5784

Islamic: 26 Sha’ban 1445

J Cal: 7 Green; Sevenday [7 of 30]

Julian: 23 February 2024

Moon: 10%: Waning Crescent

Positivist: 11 Aristotle (3rd Month) [Thucydides]

Runic Half Month: Tyr (Cosmic Pillar) [Day 13 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 78 of 89)

Week: 1st Week of March

Zodiac: Pisces (Day 18 of 30)

[boundtoconstantcraving]

Hm, as a Brazilian lesbian I thought it would be interesting to share a few entries from newspapers about the lesbian scene in 80s Brazil and the GALF, wich translates as "group of lesbian feminist action", and their own independent newspaper ChanaComChana, wich translates as PussyOnPussy.

Here's an entry from 1983, on newspaper O Mulherio (something like women alliance), from São Paulo, that says:

Lesbian's magazine - The GALF, from São Paulo, just issued, last March 8, the second edition of their magazine ChanaComChana. The magazine brings an editorial on the denial of homosexuality, poetry, a commentary on the book "A queda para o alto" (wich is an autobiography from a transmasc brazilian poet that inspired the movie Vera [1986]), an interview with a member of the "housewives association" and several other informative notes. The magazine's first issue had come out back in February of 1981.

Here, we have an entry also from 1983, in that same newspaper O Mulherio, but post the Uprising of Ferro's bar, an event some would call "brazilian's little stonewall", when lesbians who were regulars in a bar/restaurant in São Paulo's central area - in a street that was then known as a "lesbian ghetto", filled with bars that had tons of lesbian customers and where they weren't super bashed and could have some sort of social life - actively revolted against the prohibition from the bar's owners of selling the magazine ChanaComChana.

This uprising originated the national lesbian pride day, celebrated on August 19!!! (for more information about this uprising, check this great post)

Anyways, the text says:

Lesbians × Ferro's - August 19, a cold Friday night in São Paulo. The tables inside Ferro's bar, traditional lesbian ghetto, started to fill up with a different clientele: civil rights activists, feminists, men who are activists of the homosexual movement; they were invited to ensure the selling of the magazine ChanaComChana. That's because for the past months, the activists of GALF have been suffering from beatings every time they tried to sell their newspaper inside the bar. This series of aggressions culminated on July 13th, when the group was almost thrown out of the bar by one of it's owners, security and police; the expulsion didn't succeed solely due to the union of lesbians in defense of the group. The GALF wanted to put a stop in this situation and show the non-activist lesbians that they too can fight for their rights and freedom of speech. That's when they organized the 19th protest. Thanks to the support received and the presence of the press, the uprising ended with the liberation of the magazine's selling and the strengthening of the GALF amongst lesbians. For the group, this accomplishment made room for them to spread their ideals, such as combating institutionalized heterosexuality, supporting lesbianism as a political identity and disseminating feminism as a perspective on transformation of society, especially amongst the male homosexual movement.

Also, here's an ad for ChanaComChana, with information about how you could buy the magazine. It's interesting to notice that part of the ad says "the checks or postal orders should be named solely after the acronym GALF", specifying that subscribers shouldn't use the full name of the group (lesbian-feminist action group) so that they wouldn't be exposed as a homosexual organization.

I hope this was interesting to someone! Looking for a bit more material on brazilian lesbian history, although there's very little documented stuff, especially considering the dictatorship that took place in Brazil back in the day....

Also, I'm working on translating the ChanaComChana magazines in case anyone's interested in reading their work!!!

[lurxv]

Brazilian Lesbian Pride Day ⚢ 🧡 💛 🤍 🩷 ❤️ August 19

Editions of the Chanacomchana (en: pussyonpussy) zine of the GALF - Grupo Ação Lésbica-Feminista (en: Lesbian-Feminist Action Group) during the 1980s.

⠀⠀⠀

Rosely Roth (1959 - 1990), brazilian lesbian activist and pioneer in the history of Brazilian Homosexual Movement, reading a Chanacomchana zine issue.

[petbrain]

i dont have any spoons left to make this pretty so i will fix it later (lie)

hi!!! im Hound or Houndie or Lia and im a 19yo brazilian butch lesbian of color. im an artist and a cosplayer, a MUNkid and musical theathre enthusiast, and im in college for veterinary medicine. im an ENFP, 9w1, sanguine: i cant remember any other personality tests but thats the spirit, a people-person who is strongly passionate about stuff.

i am a psychological poly-suntherian, having a strong identity as a mutt stray dog and a weaker reptile theriotype, specifically a gecko. i experience phantom shifts but no mental ones as i am constantly "shifted" (suntherian). i found the community in september 2017 if i recall correctly, and in the meantime i had many changes in my belief system and identity.

i mainly use she/her pronouns but i like he/him as well. i am a cis woman and would consider myself gender non-conforming. i have had mogai identities in the past but i no longer identify with any of them (its just not for me, but i still respect everyone).

i have ehlers-danlos syndrome that causes me a bunch of weird ass symptoms including moderate to high chronic back pain and difficulty walking; i use the label disabled for myself. i have been diagnosed with other disorders that also affect my day-to-day life but unfortunately i won't be adding my entire medical history to a byf post.

stuff youd probably want to know about me (for your dni purposes)

-i am into feminist, LGBTQ+ and racial equality movements. i am still researching about disability activism and dont consider myself knowledgeable enough about it yet.

-i have been involved in trans discourse around 2017 when i thought i was trans. i dont speak on trans issues anymore, because i dont think its any of my business. all i can say is that i will respect your name and pronouns and gender no matter what.

-i use swear words and all caps constantly, and often have a hard time explaining the exact tone i want to convey in a post. i dont use tone tags all the time but i can "tone tag" something if you ask me to.

my own dni

-pedo/maps, zoo/zetas and supporters. i hate you

-pro-shippers. makes me uncomfortable. thank you

-discourse blogs. i am tired

-transracial/trace (not the adoptees, the trans ethnicity people. also no problem with systems etc). weird as fuck sorry!!!

-anyone who is going to harass folks on my posts for whatever reason.

-nsfw age/play, specially dd/lg. makes me very uncomfortable

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

So, in Brazilian elections news, the country's Landless Workers' Movement, aka MST, is launching candidates for state and federal deputies, an unprecedented move by them.

The MST is a left-wing social movement in Brazil, one of the largest in Latin America with an estimated informal membership of 1.5 million across 23 of Brazil's 26 states. Its defined goals are access to the land for poor workers through land reform in Brazil and activism around social issues that make land ownership more difficult to achieve, such as unequal income distribution, racism, sexism, and media monopolies, striving to achieve a self-sustainable way of life for the rural poor. They're known for occupying idle farming land, using Article 5 of the Constitution (demanding owned land to have social use) to back them up, and have provided settlement for 450,000 families.

Their praxis is mostly beyond partisanship and elected offices, but Bolsonaro's administration's work benefiting large land owners have encouraged the movement to launch electoral candidacies. All of them are through the Workers' Party (PT).

There will be five candidates for Congress and five for state deputies, in Rio, Federal District, Goiás, Pernambuco, Bahia, Maranhão, Rio Grande do Sul, Sergipe, and Tocantins. These are some of them:

Rosa Amorim

She's a 25 year old Afro-Brazilian lesbian who will run for the Legislative Assembly of Pernambuco. She is the daughter of agrarian reform settlers and from an early age she was rocked by the ideology of the MST. In addition, she works in Levante Popular da Juventude and is director of the National Union of Students.

Ruth Venceremos

Ruth Venceremos is a 37 year old Afro-Brazilian drag queen who will fun for the Chamber of Deputies in the Federal District. Interpreted by the pedagogue from Pernambuco Erivan Hilário dos Santos, the character has been seen for ten years in the struggles for human rights in the federal capital. She was settled from 2006 to 2017. For her political activism in favor of minorities, Ruth was awarded the Human Rights Award by the Federal District Government in 2019.

Marina dos Santos

Marina dos Santos is a daughter of peasants and former nun who will run for Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro. She's been in the MST for 33 years, since she was 14, and her father lost land due to debt when she was a kid.

Vera Lúcia Barbosa

Vera Lúcia Barbosa will run for the Legislative Assembly in Bahia. She's been in the MST since she was 16 and her main work has been about women's rights.

Gilvânia Ferreira

She'll run for the Chamber of Deputies in Brasília. For 30 years, since she was 21, she acted in the MST working for the democratization of land access. She says she'll focus her work as deputy in the formalization of quilombola territories (lands of descendants of escaped slaves) that still face pending issue, the demarcation of indigenous lands, and the recognition of babassu reserve areas in Maranhão.

(x, x, x)

[prettyperfectdoll]

HEY HI HELLO

Are we mutuals?

Are you from a latin american country other than Brazil?

Would you be willing to help me with a research about lesbian movements in LATAM?

Then I'd like you to please reach out!

I'm currently trying to start my thesis about the lesbian movements of latin america but the thing is it's very hard to find materials online, most of them have not yet been digitized. I've found the existence of some things in Chile for example, but I'm not in Chile nor do I know anyone from Chile (yet!) so!

If you could please help out a lesbian radfem trying to bring lesbian movements' history to the academic scene it would be so so so great! We could share resources, I have quite some stuff about Brazilian movements already and I'm filling up my (virtual) library with whatever I can find, but it's not easy, so yeah...

Anyway please please please please do reach out!

[artificialqueens]

Karma is a bitch, Chapter 1 (Multi ship) - Flor

A/n: Olá! I’m your resident ball of stress and anxiety posing as a your average brazilian uni student trying my hand at writing fic in english after literal years writing solely on my mother tongue, how yall doing? Anyway that is just a very long way of saying i can’t promise perfect english and that i’m very nervous and very excited about posting this. There will be a lot of ships and queens so i’m just going to tag them as they appear, thanks and enjoy!

Summary: Manila being in love with her best friend is just proof that Karma is real and getting back at her for laughing at her coworkers and teasing them over their lack of guts to act on their obvious feelings. Surely that’s it, a cruel joke of the universe and something she will get over with time so in meantime she just needs to focus on something that isn’t Raja. Naturally playing cupid is exactly what she needs.

Chapter summary: Raja breaks up with her girlfriend, swears off dating and Manila has a existential crisis, or several, but who is counting anyway?

***

Manila is not a useless lesbian.

Well she is a lesbian. And okay she can be a bit slow and useless in certain circumstances, sometimes hidden jokes and social clues will fly over her head, but it happens with everyone okay, it’s not that big of a deal. But those two characteristics together? No ma’am, Manila considers herself a pretty sharp lesbian, especially since she works with several textbook representations of useless lesbians. Her workplace is filled with useless lesbians.

RuPaul’s Look Race started small and easily lost in the big Los Angeles scenario, a modeling agency born of spite aimed to the outcasts of the fashion world like the founder herself and it quickly won over the hearts of all the models who used to the racism and homophobia of the fashion industry saw themselves drawn to what promised to be a safe accepting spot. With care it grew exponentially in a short space of time attracting not only clients but also employees who failed to check most of the box on privilege, Manila was hired on the third year of existence of the agency and she saw as it grew and grew until they became the name in everyone’s mouth, the first place that LGBT models turned to, expanding its wings until they started to gather to artists in general rather than only models.

They are an one of a kind business, no one does as much as them, no one attends to so many different artists in so many different fronts all at once so of course they are a big deal, especially when you consider how inclusive they are.

It makes for a very livid, very gay, workplace and Manila would not trade it for the world. The longest living unofficial rule of the place is “LGBT+ until proven straight or cis” because she could easily count how many of her coworkers don’t fit under the rainbow. It feels good to be out and proud of her sexuality, her own personal bubble in a world that wasn’t always kind to her. One of the most unexpected consequences of working on the gayest business in America however is the ridiculous amount of pinning she gets to watch unfold before her daily.

Manila can give you examples of actual useless lesbians until you are begging her to stop and she knows as a fact that she is nothing like them, she doesn’t do those things they do, she knows how to flirt and she damn well knows when someone is flirting with her, and more than that she always knows what to do in those situations.

Until now.

Because Raja broke up with her girlfriend and Manila is facing a life crisis where she doesn’t know what to do with herself.

It’s not like this is the first time this has happened, it’s nothing really new to be honest, Manila has know Raja for almost 10 year and she cannot count how many partners her friend had in those, this is far from the first breakup Manila has lived through and at this point she knows their routine by muscle memory alone.

Raja for someone who is actually quite polished and has her life together has quite a problem with keeping a stable relationship for long periods of time, Manila is sure that in those 10 years of friendship the longest relationship lasted a bit more than 2 years, but at the same time Raja is the type of person who doesn’t like being single for too long what may explain everything. 

So Manila is well versed in post-breakup Raja.

She knows that her friend was the one to end it simply because she texted her asking to come over, it’s just one of her things. If her partner was the one to break things off Raja would seek Raven’s company so both of them could curse and complain and Raven in all her sharp tongued abrasive self would point out all the flaws in the ex until Raja felt better about it, they always showed up with killer hangover after those talks but the older woman always looked better and less down after yet another rejection when Raven was done with her.

But when Raja was the one to break it off she always went to Manila because Raven couldn’t see the point in getting sad over something you choose, for good reason, to call off. Manila knew that just because you were the one to pull the plug doesn’t mean you aren’t hurting and sad to see it gone no matter how bad things had become or how better in the long run the decision is.

If she is selfishly honest Manila sorta likes those post breakup hangouts they have, she likes the intimacy and closeness they bring to their friendship. Raja is not shy with her affection but she hardly is the most touchy person either so the younger woman relishes on those nights where Raja will curl her long limbs in her couch touching Manila’s side and resting her head on her shoulder, sometimes playing with her fingers or just holding her hand.

It’s good, Raja always smells like subtle spicy perfume and her skin is soft and impossibly warm at all times. It’s also very normal and very platonic. It’s not like how Katya will take any and every excuse available to touch Trixie even if for a few seconds, hands itching towards her every time they get together to discuss something or just casually talk, the blonde Russian cleaning her schedule for those meetings and pretending no one knows about it.

It’s not like that for Raja and Manila. If Manila rests her own head over Raja’s, well it’s just a comfort thing, and if she takes a deep breath so the other’s perfume is all she can smell, who can blame her? It is a good perfume.

So this time is no different from any other time. Raja shows up at her door, defeated expression looking so out of place in her angular features, Manila ushes her inside and they almost cuddle on the couch while some stupid comedy plays in the background.

“Do you want to talk about it?” She whispers softly even if it’s not necessary.

She feels more than sees Raja sighs.

“Not sober.”

“Gotcha.”

Manila nudges her a bit so she can get up already missing the warmth and rushing to her kitchen so she can find the wine she knows it’s Raja’s favorite. That’s another normal, completely platonic thing Manila does, keeping Raja’s favorite drinks and food around even if she isn’t particularly fond of it herself.

It’s not like she is like Shea who buys or makes tea for Sasha every time she gets coffee for herself, completely unprompted, just so she can have a excuse to go to her and chat for a few moments, smiling dumbly as the Russian smiles that bright kind smile of hers that could melt ice and melts Shea’s heart like butter. It’s not like that because Manila doesn’t go out her way to buy those things or uses them as an excuse to talk to her friend, she just buys it with her own groceries to keep it around if needed, and it’s good to have food your friend likes around right? Especially for moments like this!

Patting herself on the back for being such a prepared friend Manila goes back with two glasses and two bottles of wine feeling like one is not going to be enough. The smile that Raja gives her when she reads the label could make flowers grow. 

She pours them full glasses before sitting back on the couch, Raja automatically curling back into her side and even if her elbow is kinda uncomfortably pressed against her side and her hair is trickling her neck Manila would never make any movement or say anything to make her change positions. They drink in silence, finishing several cups before Raja lets out another long sigh.

“I broke up with her after a date. It just kind of hit me as we were leaving the restaurant that we spent basically the whole meal in silence, she kept looking at her phone and it didn’t bother me at all. We used to turn out our phones during dates.”

“I’m sorry Raj, falling out of love sucks balls but you know it was for the best for the both of you. It wouldn’t be fair to keep going like this, relationships shouldn’t be something you are having out of convenience, and hey now you both are free to find someone new.”

Saying those words leave a sour taste in her mouth, the idea of Raja once again going out on mindless dates with random women, falling in bed with them until one catches her attention enough for her to try yet again to have an actual relationship, is making her heart clench in her chest.

Platonically of course. 

Manila is simply tired of seeing her friend meet dead end after dead end and find herself on her or Raven’s couch drinking away the pain. It’s not like there is any hidden motive for that feeling, Manila knows herself, knows her own heart, if there was anything more than best friend concern she would surely know. It’s probably not different from what Jujubee and Raven feel for each other.

“It’s the same thing every fucking time Nila, it doesn’t matter if I’m the one dumping or the one dumped the reason is always the same we just fall out of love, for fucks sake why can’t i get regular messy breakups once in a while? Why can’t I get cheated on?”

“Why exactly would you want to get cheated on? I, just like every normal person, prefer clean breakups but you seem to think they are overrated.”

“Like you are anywhere near being normal Miss Pineapple Dress for a Fancy Work Party” Raja laughs lightly, Manila feeling it with her body

“That dress was fucking awesome and i will not be shamed for being a fashion icon ahead of my own time.”

“Whatever you say” The fond amusement in the taller woman makes her smile wider, allowing herself to relax even more against the warm body

“You still didn’t answer why somehow getting cheated on would be better than a nice clean breakup.”

“Because then i could explain why it happened, I could get mad at someone else because it wouldn’t be my fault.” Raja’s voice is softer than it was the whole night, barely over a whisper “You know why i got dumped last time? Because she said i was never really there, that i never allowed her to actually know me.”

Automatically and uncaring about the awkwardness of the position Manila throws her arms around Raja hating the way her voice sounds and hating the words even more. Maybe she is biased, maybe she isn’t really trying to put herself in the ex girlfriends shoes, but she just can’t phantom why anyone would say that about Raja of all people.

Her best friend is intense in all the best ways, she puts herself into everything she does to the point someone will eventually have to drag her away from her projects, she may look unapproachable and regal with her beautiful features and high fashion clothes but she is one of the biggest dorks Manila knows, full of passion and bad jokes. And yes she is a bit hard to know, it takes time to take her down her walls and see beyond the carefully crafted poise and sharp words, but she is worth every minute spent trying.

“And i guess she was right, i guess i do this all the time because it’s the same thing now, someone falling out of love with me because i wasn’t giving them enough. Maybe I’m just not meant for this.”

“This?” Manila tightens her arms around Raja like she is trying to squeeze that resigned tone away

“Love, relationships, the whole nine yards. Meaningless one night stands are clearly more of my thing since they are the one thing I can successfully manage.”

“That’s not true! You of all people shouldn’t be selling yourself this short you big idiot, you are amazing and people should be lucky to have a shot with you. You just haven’t found the right person yet.”

“Are you taking life advice from those stupid romcoms Vanessa is obsessed with? Because it sounds like it.” Her words lack the necessary bite to sound like a insult even if she snorts disbelieving and Manila slaps her chest without breaking the hug

“Okay edgy lord maybe you should watch one of those and lift your spirit because this talk is not like you at all.” 

She goes for a joking tone, poking Raja again but is glad the older woman can’t see her face and the way her brows are furrowed. This is new. Unfamiliar and uncomfortable in a way that those post breakups encounters never were, not even in the beginning of their friendship where Manila was still testing the waters and what worked with her friend. Raja was always sad, though she only cried twice in 10 years, and her smiles never quite reached her eyes even if they softened a little when Manila said something funny or ridiculous, but never like this, never truly defeated in this raw way. Raja hardly ever gets this low in her self esteem anymore and never about her love life and the fact that she is, is throwing Manila out of her loop, this is new territory.

“Maybe I should take a page out of Violet’s book and just give dating up altogether, she is young but is clearly into something.”

“Really? Because as far as i know if Violet wasn’t so open about how anti dating she is then either Pearl or Max would have totally already made a move and we wouldn’t have to watch them dancing around each other like that.”

“But that’s the thing, the problem with Violet doing it is that someone is in love with her and I think we have established that no one is in love with me.” And before Manila can say the obvious Raja beats her to it “And i don’t think anyone ever will.”

I am.

The thought almost makes its way out of her mouth before Manila stops herself, biting her tongue so hard she can taste blood.

It comes out of nowhere and everywhere at the same time, a certain that just overtakes her body and sets on her bones like it belongs there, like it was just laying under the superficie waiting to make itself known. Her breath catches on her throat and she must make some sort of chocked sound because Raja cranks her neck to look at her, sad eyes and soft smile making Manila want to scream.

“It’s okay Nila, don’t take me too seriously, I had a couple of shots before coming here so I’m just being drunk.”

Manila just nods, words stuck in her throat in fear of what will come out if she let them out, Raja sighs again and even in normal circumstances her words would not make the younger woman less worried, the excuse of drunkness not erasing the self deprecating voice and sad tired eyes, but now they just make her heart ache even more.

God. 

This is fucked up.

Fucked up and so, so right. 

Of course she is in love with Raja, of course there is nothing really platonic in a lot of her actions, in the way something ugly and heavy curls inside of her when Raja gets another girlfriend, in the way that her chest feel warm when Raja smiles at her in delight, how her laugh can light up her day, how her hugs can make the bad days look less dark, how having her arms around her feels good, how warm she feels in the places they are touching.

Manila thanks whatever deity is watching her that the realization stucks her when Raja is already drunk and half asleep, curling even more on the couch, letting her weight rests fully against Manila as her breathing gets deeper, and that she didn’t decide to lay down facing her because Manila doesn’t know how she would hide her reaction.

Karma is definitely a bitch she decides almost hysterically as her bitten tongue slowly stops bleeding.

This is karma for laughing at her friends, she is sure it is, what else can explain the universe punishing her with this? With those feelings? Clearly she cracked one too many jokes about Crystal and Gigi being oblivious, or rolled her eyes too much when watching Shea and Sasha, or Trixie and Katya, or maybe she snickered too loudly watching Vanjie and Brooke or maybe she gave Jinkx shit romantic advice or something she can’t even remember. Maybe, she muses, it’s a combination, all those little things piling up until karma decided to get her for them all at once and landed her in this mess.

She is in love with Raja.

Wonderful, clever, talented, beautiful Raja who struggles to maintain meaningful romantic relationships.

Raja who is one of her best friends. One who basically decided to give up dating 10 minutes ago.

What the fuck Manila is supposed to do now?

~~~~~~~~

Manila decides after a bad sleep night in an uncomfortable position in her not so soft couch that the best course of action is doing nothing.

She needs… She needs time to process this sudden epiphany, to analyze their interactions and her actions and try to pinpoint when exactly platonic friendship transformed itself into something she never expected or intended to, something she is too afraid to name. Gather her thoughts and her emotions in a more organized way than the panic and confusion of last night.

She also needs time for Raja to get over the breakup, again this is a familiar scenario and Manila knows what will happen, has watched as her friend tried to drown herself into work until the sting of another failed relationship disappeared multiple times and understand that is the worst possible moment to try to act on those…. feelings. If, and that is a big gigantic if, Raja takes her mind away from fashion for one second to seriously consider Manila’s hypothetical words there is the risk of being a rebound fuck, a distraction.

Manila is not sure of many things about those feelings but one that she knows with clarity is that she doesn’t want to be a one night stand, a band aid to help with loneliness, Manila is not that girl who will let herself be used as a mean to something else, she has more self love than that. She wants the real thing, the full experience. If she can’t have that she will not settle for scraps, her heart is not strong enough to deal with that.

So when her alarm blasts, too soon she laments as her eyelids seem to be glued shut and her brain protests that she sleep too little and too badly, she is relieved Raja choose to end things in a Sunday because that means Manila will have work to distract her mind and stop her from spending a day long pity party overthinking all her feelings like a lunatic. 

At least she hopes so.

Raja is already up and moving around in the kitchen by the time Manila drags her body away from the couch feeling places she didn’t know could hurt screaming in protest. Shit, she needs a better couch, she feels bad for letting her friends sleep in that now. The dark haired woman makes her way to the kitchen and is not prepared to have the air sucked out of her chest by the vision in front of her.

It’s ridiculous. It’s not something new, some groundbreaking scenario that she never got to witness, some hidden part of Raja that she didn’t know existed. It’s ordinary, familiar in a way that makes her insides all warm and fuzzy and that’s the problem.

It’s familiar, it’s domestic.

There is something in the way that Raja moves around her small kitchen making toast and sipping coffee from a bright yellow mug, clearly fresh showered with her hair still damp, not even pausing to think where things are or what ingredients Manila will have that is so right. It feels right to have her there, so comfortable and at peace in a place Manila considers so intimate, so personal. Raja looks at home and the domesticity of it makes something in Manila ache.

This is what she wants, she realizes, to wake up and find Raja sipping coffee or to wake first and make her something to eat or to spend a lazy morning together.

“Good morning sleepy head.” Raja says when she realizes Manila is there snapping the other back to reality “You know seeing how late you set your alarm I can totally understand how you are always late.”

“My alarm is set at the perfect time, it’s not my fault LA’s traffic is more unstable than Gia Gun’s eyelashes.” The answer comes easily and she thanks a higher power that she can act like a actual human around Raja

“Well maybe that’s a sign that you should set it earlier, it wouldn’t kill to arrive earlier in the good days.”

“And how would you know? I don’t think you even know your actual work hours anymore.”

“Raven told me” Raja smiles cheekily, sipping from her mug to hide it “Want me to make you some toast while you get ready?”

“Sure”

She says and does her best to not look like she is bolting the fastest she can because while it’s the truth it doesn’t mean she wants Raja to realize it. It’s the domesticy again, the easiness and calm that comes with having Raja there offering to make fucking toast like she belongs in her home.

Manila lets her forehead rest against the shower wall as the water falls on her back trying to get her shit together before she faces her best friend and new found love again. She will not freak out, she will not over analyze shit or stare like some sort of lovesick fool with no self control.

She is a grown up woman and she knows how to behave when she is attracted to someone.

At least that is what she tells herself and what she fails to do almost instantly. Because as Manila dresses herself she can’t stop thinking about the fact that Raja has clothes at her place. Clothes. And Manila has clothes at Raja’s place as well and that’s… that’s not really a really platonic thing is it? Manila doesn’t have a drawer full of her things in her parent’s house for fucks sake. 

This is karma she swears to herself, this is karma for laughing at poor airheads Crystal and Gigi for being oblivious, this is the universe getting back at her and making her the stereotypical useless lesbian who doesn’t even really she is in love and practically dating her best friend.

But at the same time she can’t help but wonder if that means something as big as she thinks. So they have clothes at each other’s houses and Manila doesn’t do that with anyone else, but what if that’s something regular with Raja? Does she leave things in Raven’s or Delta’s houses too? Is that something special they share or it’s just one of those Raja things that make Manila smile fondly when she thinks no one is watching?

Fuck, Manila is really turning into one of those people. She makes a sound of frustration in her chosen shirt, pressing the fabric to her face and trying to block everything but the pleasant smell of the shirt and take a few deep breaths to again get her shit together.

When she finally finishes her makeup and makes her way back to the kitchen she is ready to face the day and suppress her feelings like a normal woman. 

Things go smoothly after that and Manila shots down the voice in her mind whispering that that is a good sign, they eat among small talk and Raja mentions her breakup only once when she mentions her ex will go pick her things when she’s at work and she’s relieved they will not have to have another face to face conversation, Manila holds her hand and squeeze giving Raja her best comforting smile not letting go until the smile she gets in answer doesn’t look fabricated.

On the way to work their topic of conversation changes as they begin discussing their agendas for the day trying to squeeze a joint break. They don’t have many reasons to interact during work hours, Raja, along with Bianca, run their fashion department dealing with clothing most of their non model clients while Manila works exactly with the modeling section of the business and since both are high up on the hierarchy there is really not much leeway to go hang out at each other side of the building, having to settle for lunch wherever work allows them to leave at the same time.

“You want to go to that new Italian place down the block?” Manila asks as they get close enough to see their workplace towering among others

“Rain check.” Raja says as she twists her thick hair in a bun that somehow manages to look elegant rather than messy “Willam got a show coming up and i have to meet her to brainstorm concepts for the looks.”

“Oh… we can go after you finish?”

“We are meeting for lunch actually.”

“Right…” Manila kicks herself as soon as the word leaves her mouth, her disappointment so thick she can almost taste it and it’s fucking ridiculous

“We can go tomorrow if you like?”

“Maybe, we have a photoshoot tomorrow but it looks like Dahlia is sick and if she can’t make it i need to be there to find a quick replacement.” Ugh sometimes being the official problem solver sucks

“That’s okay we can just try again another day.” Raja smiles at her then, all white teeth and soft eyes, and her hand rests on her shoulder as if she can sense that Manila is unhappy

And maybe she can because if her face is showing half of what she is feeling then Manila is officially looking like a pooting teenager and that is not a flattering look on someone her age. Again she feels like screaming because the universe is clearly trying to rub her face in her own obliviousness about her own feelings, again this is not new, there were times they had to cancel lunch plans when the other was already seated because something urgent came up, and neither is the disappointment and mildly annoyance in her chest when she realizes she will have to spend a day without sharing a part of her day with Raja, but now, now that she is painfully aware of the exact nature of her feelings there is another layer to that disappointment that she was unaware of and doesn’t really like.

It doesn’t help that it’s Willam that Raja is going to meet.

Don’t get her wrong, Willam may be a diva and a pain in the ass, the cause of many tears on their PR department because of her crude and biting humour, but she is not the worst client they ever had and once you get used to her particular brand of vulgarity there is a lot of fun to have with her. But Willam is, above everything, a self proclaimed slut.

There is an ongoing joke that the reason she gets so many gigs as an actress in crime shows is because she doesn’t really have to act as a prostitute or young slut, she just has to be herself. Willam is very confident and very comfortable in her sexuality and Manila is actually impressed with that, she really is, but that doesn’t mean that she wants that energy around post breakup Raja right after Manila discovered she has more than platonic feelings for her.

It’s a receipt for disaster, well, actually it’s receipt for sex what in her books are exactly the same thing.

She forces that stupidity down as hard as she can. There is pinning and then there is suffering for imagining your… crush having sex with someone else and Manila is not going to be that person, she really isn’t. The younger woman sighs quietly and grips the steering wheel glad that Raja is too busy dealing with loose strands of hair to pay attention to her reactions.

“If i’m free tomorrow i will shoot you a text” She says going for a smile

“Great! I will keep my agenda free then.”

Manila’s heart totally doesn’t skip a beat.

She is so fucked.

[butimacommander]

I made a post a while ago about some of my favourite wlw movies, and I though I’d continue this list by sharing some more of my favourite movies, both wlw and mlm. 

The Way He Looks (2014)

This Brazilian movie is about a blind teenager who is trying to find his independence and falls for the new guy at school. This movie is so good and heartwarming and it gives us some much needed disabled lgbtq+ representation.

The Handmaiden (2016)

The whole stereotype that we can’t get a movie that’s 1, good 2, gay and 3, that has a happy ending was destroyed latest with this movie. This movie is beautiful, deep and genious and i won’t even try to explain its plot because i wouldn’t do it justice. A TW for physical, emotional and sexual abuse though.

Maurice (1987)

Maurice is one of my favourite movies of all time. It’s set in 1910s Cambridge and tells the stories of two university “friends”. Young Hugh Grant is so incredibly beautiful in this movie that I’m second guessing my sexuality. This movie was directed by James Ivory who also wrote the screenplay for the movie. James Ivory also wrote the screenplay for Call Me by Your Name 30 years later and this movie really is the Call Me by Your Name of the 80s. 

Call Me by Your Name (2017)

Is Maurice the Call Me by Your Name of the 80s, or Call Me by Your Name the Maurice of the 2010s? Anyways, if you’ve somehow managed to avoid this movie, now it’s about time to watch it. I think this movie actually lives up to the hype and even if you wouldn’t care about the plot at all, it’s so so beautiful to watch.

A Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

Speaking of beautiful movies, this is probably the most beautiful movie there is. A painter is hired to paint a picture of a woman so that the painting can be sent to a possible husband and plot twist they fall in love. This movie is all about looks and looking and about being seen. This movie will make you want to listen to classical music and move to a remote island. 

Gia (1998)

Gia is a biographical movie about one of the first supermodels Gia Marie Carangi. The movie is about her rise to stardom, her struggles with addiction and loneliness and her relationships with the people around her, most notably with her on-off girlfriend Sandy. Angelina Jolie makes one of the greatest performances of her career and this movie has an ending that will follow you for weeks. Also, Mila Kunis plays young Gia.

Pride (2014)

Pride tells the true story of a group of lesbians and gays coming together to help miners during the 1984 miners strike in the UK and forming the Lesbians & Gays Supports the Miners movement. That this is a true story is absolutely mind blowing and a testament of how two very different groups of people can come together to help each other. This movie is both extremely funny and moving as hell. 

Carol (2015)

This movie is already a wlw classic and if you didn’t love Cate Blanchett already, you will after this. Controversial opinion though, I didn’t fully understand the hype around this movie when it first came out, but it’s growing on me more and more and I do see where all the Carol fanatics are coming from.

Show me love (1998)

This Swedish movie tells the story of two teenagers, their self-discovery and relationship, and the struggles that come with being a queer teenager in the 90s. I remember watching this movie at school in Swedish class when I was 13 and honestly I don’t even remember if the actual movie was that good, but I remember how it changed my life and that’s why it deserves its place on this list.

Handsome Devil (2016)

Handsome Devil is an Irish comedy-drama and the perfect movie if you just need something nice to watch. The movie is set in an Irish all boys boarding school and tells the story of the ostracised too cool for school but then again not cool student Ned and his friendship with the school’s new star rugby player. This movie shows queer friendships and identities so well, and we get mlm room mates and a mlm teacher, and none of these people end up together. Wlw movies could never. Oh and Andrew Scott plays the teacher.