#but this is everything to me

[buryme-atmakeoutdawn]

MY FRIEND IS ACTUALLY THE BEST PERSON ON EARTH I LOVE HER SM

[roblogging]

i JUST yapped about this on tiktok and i'm instantly here because oh my GOD.

(spoiler warning for heartstopper season 3 - episode 6)

ELLE AND TRANS ACTIVISM!? ELLE'S FUCKING STORYLINE!?

i'm crying and i haven't stopped crying.

i'm talking about the bit where she is brought on the radio to discuss her art. she's doing something that she enjoys, she's given a space to talk about it, and they make it about the trans "debate" (p.s bonus mention to "trans people aren't a debate, we're human beings")

i'm talking about elle LEAVING THE ROOM. and how fucking powerful and important and COMFORTING that is.

to have a trans person leave the room.

to have it shown that we don't all want to be activists, and you shouldn't expect us to. that we shouldn't need to be. to have media representation of a trans person choosing peace, and choosing what's best for her.

to have them specifically mention that a cis person was on the last show, and said transphobic things about same-sex spaces. to have it mentioned that the cis peson went first, and elle was brought on as a rebuttal. that she already had less power in this "debate" because they allowed someone with more respect in society, who isn't even part of the discussion, who wouldn't even understand the complexities of existing publicly as a trans person, to go first.

and to have her still. leave. the. room.

i've been on the radio nine times.

only three of nine discussions that i've had have been aired. why? because only three of them were meant to be about my identity. because that wasn't what i was there to talk about. it wasn't relevant.

and then to link it to everything now? to link it to all the massive discussions i've been having recently in this space? i'm sobbing.

trans people do not need to be activists. and i personally enjoy it! i enjoy talking about it - i hate that i have to, but i personally do enjoy being a loud activist (not that this is activism but yk, in my wider life) - but...

she came onto a space to talk about something she enjoyed, and ended up having to defend her right to exist.

and she left the room.

because the cis person went first. because that wasn't what she wanted to talk about. because it's exhausting having these conversations day in day out.

and most importantly, because she didn't have to speak on it.

and then, let's talk about the fact that she was only asked because she now had "influence". that her voice only matters now because she's "big", and it's insignificant otherwise. that a trans person with any kind of traction needs to be an activist - which we see SO much in the media! we see it so much online! that any successful trans person needs to be loud and active. that she was questioned about the meaning of her art only in the context of a political discussion on her right to exist.

so she left the room.

trans people do not need to be activists and they shouldn't be expected to be, and oh my GOD i'm so glad that we have that representation.

[ghostellie]

[amethysttribble]

It’s what he deserves! Him!

[midnightcowboy1969]

maybe horsegirls have rights

[ratherthanblank]

"ohhh daddy, now now, love me good"

[sleepy-bookworm]

I haven’t read the Harry Potter series. I haven’t read them because when the first book came out in ‘97, I was 3 years old. Fast forward to second grade. I think I was 6 years old then. The book to me, at that time was huge and filled with words I wouldn’t understand. So my mom suggested that my dad should read them to me as a bed time story. It worked for a little while. I don’t know what happened but he stopped reading them to me. I’d walk by his room before going to bed and see him reading the book and wishing I was there beside him. Something to bond over I guess. I haven’t read the Harry potter series because I guess I still hold onto the hope that one day my dad will start reading them to me again.