#care about trans black and brown queers or die

[lina-transverse]

Queer discourse on this site of fun cause it just turns into mostly White Queers just saying the same things over and over and no one is capable of understanding nuance or willing to consider the others point of view cause they're more concerned with "winning" the argument. Which is stupid and pointless because arguing is for idiots.

Y'all know we're on the same side right? There's no point in having discussions over 'who the most oppressed' is when it's obviously black and brown queer people, especially transfem black women.

This is a fact.

Do y'all even remember back in the late 2010's when the only time "transgender" or "transfem" trended n this site was when another black or brown sister was killed?

Do y'all even care about them? I've seen tons of posts for Pauly Likens which is great, but where's the outrage for Shannon Boswell, shot to death in the street while police denied said shooting even happened? What about Tayy Thomas and River Goddard, just children who were killed by their partners? Where's your rage for TK Hill, shot outside his hair salon? Or Africá Garciá, homeless and shot to death in a dirty street.

Last year 320 trans people were killed. Three-hundred and fucking twenty.

Of those deaths, 94% of them were transfem/ trans women and over 80% were black and brown people. Many were sex workers or homeless. Lots of them were degendered by the media and police in death. Even more deaths are unreported either due to degendering or their bodies not being found. So many of these people (again, mostly black and brown transfem's) are violated and horrifically tortured by their tormentors.

If your discussion of transphobia doesn't include black and trans people, if you cannot recognize this simple fact, then you're no ally to the trans community.

Community means you look out and support those that are the most vulnerable; it means you show the fuck up and speak the fuck up when you hear racist shit. It means you ABSOLUTELY DO NOT call the cops on a homeless person, it means you look out for those that have less than you, the disadvantaged and disenfranchised. White queers have white privilege! We still benefit from our whiteness (especially in the US) so fucking use that shit!

Get your heads outta your asses and actually be a part of your community instead of whinging and whining and wringing your hands helplessly while ignoring the ACTUAL dangers trans people face.

I'm gonna close this with a quote from a friend of África Garciá that perfectly encapsulates how the world views transfem's.

“A lot of trans women are on the streets and are made invisible because many people believe that their lives are worthless,” LeQueen, a trans artist and friend of García’s, told the paper. “They don’t give them the ‘spotlight’ that they deserve, and those men take advantage of that. They think, If I kill her here, no one is going to care.”

Source 1

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[ceilidhtransing]

The discussions around whether or not to vote for Kamala keep being dominated by very loud voices shouting that anyone who advocates for her “just doesn't care about Palestine!” and “is willing to overlook genocide!” and “has no moral backbone at all!” And while some of these voices will be bots, trolls, psyops - we know that this happens; we know that trying to persuade progressives to split the vote or not vote at all is a strategy employed by hostile actors - of course many of them won't be. But what this rhetoric does is continually force the “you should vote for her” crowd onto the back foot of having to go to great lengths writing entire essays justifying their choice, while the “don't vote/vote third party” crowd is basically never asked to justify their choice. It frames voting for Kamala as a deeply morally compromised position that requires extensive justification while framing not voting or voting third party as the neutral and morally clean stance.

So here's another way of looking at it. How much are you willing to accept in order to feel like you're not compromising your morals on one issue?

Are you willing to accept the 24% rise in maternal deaths - and 39% increase for Black women - that is expected under a federal abortion ban, according to the Centre for American Progress? Those percentages represent real people who are alive now who would die if the folks behind Project 2025 get their way with reproductive healthcare.

Are you willing to accept the massive acceleration of climate change that would result from the scrapping of all climate legislation? We don't have time to fuck around with the environment. A gutting of climate policy and a prioritisation of fossil fuel profits, which is explicitly promised by Trump, would set the entire world back years - years that we don't have.

Are you willing to accept the classification of transgender visibility as inherently “pornographic” and thus the removal of trans people from public life? Are you willing to accept the total elimination of legal routes for gender-affirming care? The people behind the Trump campaign want to drive queer and trans people back underground, back into the closet, back into “criminality”. This will kill people. And it's maddening that caring about this gets called “prioritising white gays over brown people abroad” as if it's not BIPOC queer and trans Americans who will suffer the most from legislative queer- and transphobia, as they always do.

Are you willing to accept the domestic deployment of the military to crack down on protests and enforce racist immigration policy? I'm sure it's going to be very easy to convince huge numbers of normal people to turn up to protests and get involved in political organising when doing so may well involve facing down an army deployed by a hardcore authoritarian operating under the precedent that nothing he does as president can ever be illegal.

Are you willing to accept a president who openly talks about wanting to be a dictator, plans on massively expanding presidential powers, dehumanises his political enemies and wants the DOJ to “go after them”, and assures his supporters they won't have to vote again? If you can't see the danger of this staring you right in the face, I don't know what to tell you. Allowing a wannabe dictator to take control of the most powerful country on earth would be absolutely disastrous for the entire world.

Are you willing to accept an enormous uptick in fascism and far-right authoritarianism worldwide? The far right in America has huge influence over an entire international network of “anti-globalists”, hardcore anti-immigrant xenophobes, transphobic extremists, and straight-up fascists. Success in America aids and emboldens these people everywhere.

Are you willing to accept an enormous number of preventable deaths if America faces a crisis in the next four years: a public health emergency, a natural disaster, an ecological catastrophe? We all saw how Trump handled Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. We all saw how Trump handled Covid-19. He fanned the flames of disaster with a constant flow of medical misinformation and an unspeakably dangerous undermining of public health experts. It's estimated that 40% of US pandemic deaths could have been avoided if the death rates had corresponded to those in other high-income countries. That amounts to nearly half a million people. One study from January 2021 estimated between around 4,200 and 12,200 preventable deaths attributable purely to Trump's statements about masks. We're highly unlikely to face another global pandemic in the next few years but who knows what crises are coming down the pipeline?

Are you willing to accept the attempted deportation of millions - millions - of undocumented people? This is “rounding people up and throwing them into camps where no one ever hears from them again” territory. That's a blueprint for genocide right there and it's a core tenet of both Trump's personal policy and Project 2025. And of course they wouldn't be going after white people. They most likely wouldn't even restrict their tyranny to people who are actually undocumented. Anyone racially othered as an “immigrant” would be at risk from this.

Are you willing to accept not just the continuation of the current situation in Palestine, but the absolute annihilation of Gaza and the obliteration of any hope for imminent peace? There is no way that Trump and the people behind him would not be catastrophically worse for Gaza than Kamala or even Biden. Only recently he was telling donors behind closed doors that he wanted to “set the [Palestinian] movement back 25 or 30 years” and that “any student that protests, I throw them out of the country”. This is not a man who can be pushed in a direction more conducive to peace and justice. This is a man who listens to his wealthy donors, his Christian nationalist Republican allies, and himself.

Are you willing to accept a much heightened risk of nuclear war? Obviously this is hardly a Trump policy promise. But I can't think of a single president since the Cold War who is more likely to deploy nuclear weapons, given how casually he talks about wanting to use them and how erratic and unstable he can be in his dealings with foreign leaders. To quote Foreign Policy only this year, “Trump told a crowd in January that one of the reasons he needed immunity was so that he couldn’t be indicted for using nuclear weapons on a city.” That's reassuring. I'm not even in the US and I remember four years of constant background low-level terror that Trump would take offence at something some foreign leader said or think that he needs to personally intervene in some military situation to “sort it out” and decide to launch the entire world into nuclear war. No one sane on earth wants the most powerful person on the planet to be as trigger-happy and careless with human life as he is, especially if he's running the White House like a dictator with no one ever telling him no. But depending on what Americans do in November, he may well be inflicted again on all of us, and I guess we'll all just have to hope that he doesn't do the worst thing imaginable.

“But I don't want those things! Stop accusing me of supporting things I don't support!” Yes, of course you don't want those things. None of us does. No one's saying that you actively support them. No one's accusing you of wanting Black women to die from ectopic pregnancies or of wanting to throw Hispanic people in immigrant detention centres or of wanting trans people to be outlawed (unlike, I must point out, the extremely emotive and personal accusations that get thrown around about “wanting Palestinian children to die” if you encourage people to vote for Kamala).

But if you're advocating against voting for Kamala, you are clearly willing to accept them as possible consequences of your actions. That is the deal you're making. If a terrible thing happening is the clear and easily foreseeable outcome of your action (or in the case of not voting, inaction), in a way that could have been prevented by taking a different and just as easy action, you are partly responsible for that consequence. (And no, it's not “a fear campaign” to warn people about things he's said, things he wants to do, and plans drawn up by his close allies. This is not “oooh the Democrats are trying to bully you into voting for them by making him out to be really bad so you'll feel scared and vote for Kamala!” He is really bad, in obvious and documented and irrefutable ways.)

And if you believe that “both parties are the same on Gaza” (which, you know, they really aren't, but let's just pretend that they are) then presumably you accept that the horrors being committed there will continue, in the immediate term anyway, regardless of who wins the presidency. Because there really isn't some third option that will appear and do everything we want. It's going to be one of those two. And we can talk all day about wanting a better system or how unfair it is that every presidential election only ever has two viable candidates and how small the Overton window is and all that but hell, we are less than eighty days out from the election; none of that is going to get fixed between now and November. Electoral reform is a long-term (but important!) goal, not something that can be effected in the span of a couple of months by telling people online to vote third party. There is no “instant ceasefire and peace negotiation” button that we're callously overlooking by encouraging people to vote for Kamala. (My god, if there was, we would all be pressing it.)

If we're suggesting people vote for her, it's not that we “are willing to overlook genocide” or “don't care about sacrificing brown people abroad” or whatever. Nothing is being “overlooked” here. It's that we're simply not willing to accept everything else in this post and more on top of continued atrocities in Gaza. We're not willing to take Trump and his godawful far-right authoritarian agenda as an acceptable consequence of feeling like we have the moral high ground on Palestine. I cannot stress enough that if Kamala doesn't win, we - we all, in the whole world - get Trump. Are you willing to accept that?

And one more point to address: I've seen too many people act frighteningly flippant and naïve about terrible things Trump or his campaign want to do, with the idea that people will simply be able to prevent all these bad things by “organising” and “protesting” and “collective action”. “I'm not willing to accept these things; that's why I'll fight them tooth and nail every day of their administration” - OK but if you're not even willing to cast a vote then I have doubts about your ability to form “the Resistance”, which by the way would have to involve cooperation with people of lots of progressive political stripes in order to have the manpower to be effective, and if you're so committed to political purity that you view temporarily lending your support to Kamala at the ballot box as an untenable betrayal of everything you stand for then forgive me for also doubting your ability to productively cooperate with allies on the ground with whom you don't 100% agree. Plus, if the Trump campaign gets its way, American progressives would be kept so busy trying to put out about twenty different fires at once that you'd be able to accomplish very little. Maybe you get them to soften their stance on trans healthcare but oh shit, the climate policies are still in place. But more importantly, how many people do you think will protest for abortion rights if doing so means staring down a gun? Or organise to protect their neighbours from deportation if doing so means being thrown in prison yourself? And OK, maybe you're sure that you will, but history has shown us time and time again that most people won't. Most people aren't willing to face that kind of personal risk. And a tiny number of lefties willing to risk incarceration or death to protect undocumented people or trans people or whatever other groups are targeted is sadly not enough to prevent the horrors from happening. That is small fry compared to the full might of a determined state. Of course if the worst happens and Trump wins then you should do what you can to mitigate the harm; I'm not saying you shouldn't. But really the time to act is now. You have an opportunity right here to mitigate the harm and it's called “not letting him get elected”. Act now to prevent that kind of horrific authoritarian situation from developing in the first place; don't sit this one out under the naïve belief that “we'll be able to stop it if it happens”. You won't.

[idkmynameiskat]

I love when people say they don’t want to talk about politics/“touchy subjects” bc they don’t want “conflict” on their social medias because I am so fucking insane about that shit on my socials I love it and I will gladly take the brunt of people thinking I’m crazy for all those who are too scared too 😂

I have NO shame being psycho about shit I personally care about and what my morals are and plastering that shit all over my socials. There is NO confusion on who I am as a person and what I stand for at all, and I love that for me.

You’re a shit person is you’re homophobic, transphobic, racist, etc etc etc and I have NO place in my life for people like that, and man I fucking love weeding those people out on my socials and kicking them the fuck out of my life once and for all if they are still somehow hiding on there.

For real though, just unfriending or blocking people who put hateful shit on their socials you don’t agree with, no matter who they are has lifted such a weight off my shoulders and I recommend everyone doing it. I no longer need to see hate spewed everywhere and can just focus on having people in my life that are truly good people.

The “don’t let politics/differences in opinion divide us” rhetoric is so overdone and such bullshit, in my opinion. There’s a difference between being friends with someone who doesn’t like the same cars you do and being friends with someone who thinks people shouldn’t have human rights or should die because they’re queer, trans, brown, black, whatever it is they don’t understand. If your views potentially can cause someone to fucking kill themselves, your views are shit, and you’re a shit person, simple as that 🤷🏽‍♀️

[frontlawnfood]

"Straight Pride"?!? HAHAHAHA, no.

You don't get straight pride because you don't need straight pride.

When you whine about "straight pride", you make common cause with bigots who openly declare that nearly 2.5 billion people in the world should not be allowed to exist. almost 45.5 milllion in the US alone. (Hi, that's more than the populations of NYC, Los Angeles, and Chicago combined.)

So until

- state governors & legislators pass laws that make it a crime for you, a straight person, to use the public toilet that matches your gender identity

- they pass laws that define existing as a straight person in front of your own children, or *allowing* them be straight, as child abuse

- you can be fired/not hired, evicted, barred from the military, banned from restaurants/businesses, or denied medical solely because an individual with power over you believes that straight people should not be allowed to exist

- the highest court in the land openly declares its intention to dissolve straight marriage rights

- existing as a straight person in the presence of a child is defined as a GODDAMN SEX CRIME

Until every one of those things plus an endless list more is true of you like it is true of us, you. do. not. get. to. have. straight. pride.

PRIDE is not pride in merely *being* queer, but in surviving as a queer person in a world that is actively trying to kill us, or at least criminalize us back into silence and fear, and we. will. not. go. We fight a daily war for survival and just being here is an accomplishment. PRIDE is celebrating that we've made it to today when so many of our kin have fallen.

PRIDE says here I am. Out in the open, broad daylight, your monster, your demon, your nightmare. I will no longer internalize your fear and hatred. I hold no weapon, I offer you no threat, I only want to live as freely as you do. But I will not lay down quietly and die. I will not go back into the dark unresisting. If you succeed in killing me, it will only be after I have screamed my right to exist to the heavens and clawed the evidence of my murder into your soul.

So do your worst, and die mad about it. ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ I am team rainbow capitalism because it means the bigots have been weighed, measured, and found to represent an insufficient market share. HOWEVER, it's better to directly support actual queer folx if you can. To that end, if you are a queer creator in my circle, please drop your pages, shops, subscriptions, channels, reparations & community aid spots, etc in the comments. Allies, drop your favorite queer creator links. Black & brown trans creators to the front! ************************************************************************ https://www.depop.com/risycat/ - Black Nonbinary Disabled Owned shop with *seriously* cute Pride beadwork and real four-leaf clovers mounted in picture frames & keychains. ************************************************************************ Black Moon Wolfdog Sanctuary - Queer, Black, Indigenous, Non-binary, Disabled Owned sanctuary for wolfdogs in need of quality care and sanctuary from colonial persecution/death. Owner is approved for urgent life-saving surgery to correct their hyperparathyroidism, but all funds must be secured in full 2 weeks prior to surgery. Surgery Costs Patreon - tiers start at $1/month & yearly discounts are available Revolutionary Mystic Shop - ritual tools including hand-poured candles, oils, and bath salts, as well as online classes & tarot readings. ************************************************************************ Purrfectly Fluid - Intersex Nonbinary Gay Disabled-Owned, fandom art & creations, fundraising to open an intersectional cafe in Brooklyn! Startup Costs ************************************************************************ Elise Primrose Black Genderqueer Disabled-Owned, original mixed-media art and digital prints. - Kofi Shopfront The T4T Project - "the t4t Project is a zine by, for, and about trans artists and storytellers of color. It is part offering, part love-letter to our kindred." ************************************************************************

[thisismisogynoir]

Fuck all of the trolls who drove @carlaerosie to suicide, seriously, she was such a darling but you people no no bounds. She was just a teen and yet she acted with more grace and maturity than most of the adults on here. Truly disappointing to see just how racist and sexist the Encanto fandom is. I don’t know what other way to say it but...ENCANTO IS NOT FOR YOU. If you’re white and queer/neurodivergent than this movie is not for you. 

Isabela didn’t want to marry Mariano because she didn’t love him and because she was under pressure to be perfect, NOT because she was a lesbian. 

Mirabel’s rainbow on her dress may resemble the bisexual flag and her voice actress may be openly bisexual, but it’s more so to represent the warm-colored family. NOT bisexuality. 

Dolores squeaks because it’s a common trait of Colombian women when hearing or sharing gossip and was actually developed as a coping mechanism so that European colonizers wouldn’t know what they were saying, it is NOT a tic! 

Luisa is NOT trans, women can be buff without having been assigned male at birth and this is obviously just a way for racist transphobes(the type who are too scared to say that they see trans women and Black/brown women as men) to come up with an excuse for her strength and buffness by deciding that she is buff because she’s “male” and thus masculinizing her. 

Camilo shapeshifting and suffering an identity crisis is NOT because he’s genderfluid, he has only ever been referred to as a BOY, and this one annoys me the most because at this point I honestly feel like the obsession with him being “so gender uwu” is just a tactic to hide or deny the fact that he’s male because that is the main reason you fuckers chose to obsess over HIM over the female characters, so you project traditionally feminine or gender non-conforming traits onto him so as to ignore the positive messages the female characters--as the center of the story--send about femininity! Y’all don’t care that Luisa can be both strong and feminine or that Isabela learns to embrace her own form of femininity by the end of the movie rather than the typical “not like other girls” form of female revolution, and is the pretty character of the story while also being a dark-skinned indigenous woman. No, it’s more crucial to try to force the animators to admit that Camilo might be wearing eyeshadow. I would be laughing if it weren’t actually so damn sad. 

Why am I saying all this? Because the minority of the fandom who gets it, particularly Latines and other people of color, have been saying it for ages, trying to call out the Encanto fandom on their blatant, blind-sided ignorance, but they didn’t listen. @carlaerosie was one of those people, and they decided that because she was fifteen they could talk down to her and take advantage of her! And what do you know, they took her life with this stupid bullshit. Why am I saying this on my main blog which is about Black women’s issues and not my Isabela Madrigal sideblog? Because the fandom racism, sexism, and misogynoir that is so present in this fandom is fucking gross and I am tired of it. You literally killed this young Afro-Colombian teenage girl because you couldn’t handle that this movie was not for yo pasty asses and because she had the ovaries to call you out on your blatant erasure and protect and defend her culture, so you decided she deserved to die. And it makes me sick. That’s why I won’t be associating myself with the fandom for now. I am truly just so repulsed and bothered and annoyed. 

I don’t have anything to say...I just need someone to talk to. If anyone’s DMs are open, I would really appreciate that. If someone else needs to talk to me, that would be a pleasure, too. 

But I don’t even know what to say now...just...yeah. 

I’m lost rn. 

[corduroygang]

This post is about abortion.

Between 1966 and 1975, the Black Panther party ran numerous free community health services known as People’s Free Health Clinics (PFHC) to serve Black and Brown communities from whom quality healthcare had been systematically denied. The Young Lords, a revolutionary Puerto Rican diaspora organization, expropriated a New York Department of Health van to run tuberculosis tests for community members who couldn’t afford to receive them at a doctor’s office or a hospital. Queer, poor guerilla scientists in the ACT UP movement to combat the AIDS epidemic were able to conduct extensive research with little resources about how HIV-AIDS harmed their community when the state and private capital allowed queer people to die in droves. Science and medicine are critical tools of class struggle, but the class who has a monopoly on the resources and accreditation power are totally content using that authority to deny people of their fundamental rights to health and bodily autonomy—a population that is slowly dying from environmental decay, addiction, domestic and state violence, poverty, and diseases of despair are that much less empowered to overthrow you.

The sad truth is that you basically can’t properly practice medicine without going through the ascribed processes of the capitalist class. But that’s not an absolute. When colonialism and imperialism leave indigenous populations void of medical training and experience, socialist revolutions and national liberation struggles have made it a top priority to guarantee access to education and medicine in the reconstruction process (Cuba being an exemplar). In the imperial core, however, there are scores of trained professionals who have the ability to turn bourgeois institutions of medicine and education into tools to help the masses of poor, working people. We just have to organize them. We’ll organize and agitate with doctors and nurses to disobey the fascistic laws denying people life-saving care. Organize lawyers and journalists to defend these practitioners like life depends on it, because in some states, it absolutely fucking does. Organize your community to fight back against the state when it decide to deprive us of what is truly ours (community self-defense classes are the shit). Organize students going into these fields to teach them about the radical frontiers of medicine, law, and reading, writing, and pedagogy. We’ll teach each other that the only way to escape the hell that we’re in is to force an alternative now. Whether its an attack on trans rights, reproductive rights, the safety of Black and Brown communities, people with disabilities, undocumented migrants and refugees, or any other marginalized group, we’re not helpless; but if we continue to delude ourselves into voting for the people who stood by and watched while these fascist attacked our rights, we are. A right that can be taken away isn’t a right, it’s a compromise, and we’re done compromising with these capitalist-fascist ghouls. In a perverse way this shit always gives way to revolutionary optimism—a rebuffed sense that we have what it takes to build a new world from the death knells of this one. You won’t see it on social media in the immediate aftermath of tragic news like this, but it’s out there, and you’re not wrong for feeling it. In the meantime, take care of your friends, your comrades, yourself, and donate to abortion funds if you have the ability. And [REDACTED] the supreme court.

[normal-thoughts-official]

Ur take on a malec beauty and the beast au please

ugh you got me in a difficult position here because on the one hand, i do love the idea of a beauty and the beast malec au. i just think the idea of a socially isolated person who thinks themself/is perceived as monstruous and who has locked away their heart and doesn't believe they could ever be loved fits magnus like a glove. but on the other hand, i don't want to make magnus, a brown character, animalistic, for obvious reasons. and i can't really think of a way to make him monstruous that doesn't fall into animalization/beastification (both racist tropes) or ableist tropes

so i'm thinking... maybe the spell is just that people are repulsed by him/fear him automatically? like it just creates this horrible almost impossible to ignore repulsive/fear/"fight or flight activating" aura around him for absolutely no reason and makes ppl be repulsed and/or hate him. even if it doesn't change his appearance at all. it's not really a changing or shifting spell, more like a spell of hatred

which like.... i know doesn't sound like anything poc/queer people don't already go through but there is a main difference which is that it makes it impossible to find a community. like even other brown and queer people look at him and feel this... huge disgust and even fear and might even hide and so the isolation is absolutely total and it fucking hurts. and besides it is one thing (a very bad thing) to walk around and have to be on constant alert because you never know if someone is going to be violent, and have to deal with occasional comments and disgusted reactions... it's another to consistently have like, children screaming and people cowering 100% of the time without exception, you know? he's basically living the life ppl with social anxiety think they live and he has nowhere to turn to, no one who understands or who's more likely to actually want to talk to him because of his differences. there's no one to lean on. even the people who love him aren't immune to it, even if of course they are not turning their backs on him

so anyway here are my thoughts: this was totally done by camille lol beacuse the whole backstory about being mean to an elderly lady doesn't fit magnus anyway and also i just like sprinkling camille angst where i can. so after magnus finally got himself free of her and her stupid claws she hexxed him back into isolation. both as punishment (a kinda "if you don't want me, then you have no one" logic) and just to make him more vulnerable because again, abusers want you alone and isolated and away from a support network so you are more dependant on them and more likely to buy into their thwarped logic if they can immerse you in it. so she's just trying to manipulate him into getting back with her, because she wants him and most of all his power

and basically you know the drill, if he doesn't find anyone who will love him romantically until the rose withers yada yada he will die. and again she just wants to make the spell so it constantly drives home how alone he is and how he can't find anyone who will love him (except for her), and make it so he's more and more likely to come back to her as time goes by because then the spell will be broken

(sidenote: camille obviously doesn't actually love him, because anyone who does that to someone doesn't love them. but as the one who cast the spell, she can lift it whenever she wants. so all she has to do is kiss him and lift the spell and be like "see, magnus? who else would love you like this, but me? even after all these years?". and honestly if it had come to that magnus would know she was lying because there is no way this is love, none. but anyway it doesn't come to that, that's just what her plan is)

anyway it still doesn't work because magnus is done and he won't get back to her, and he particularly doesn't want to get back with her after, you know, all this trashfire. and he just sets his jaw and is like "fine" and accepts that he will live however long he still has with his friends and people he loves and away from her, basically

and like gosh sidenote but this would have been so painful for his friends. camille very deliberately made it romantic love because she knows magnus has so many fucking people who love him, but him and the immortal squad have found family dynamics, not romantic ones. so there is nothing they can do even though their love for magnus is just... so real and pure and they hate to see him like this, hate to know that right when he finally got rid of her she made sure he still couldn't go out in the world. especially since magnus has always been so damn sociable, loved to be surrounded by people and to meet them and care for them. but here he is, walking as hidden as he can and with his head down avoiding eye contact because he knows the horror is there and some children run away screaming when they see him

and i just picture this desperate little scene with raphael in particular where he's just like.... "i'll try to kiss you. we have to try" and magnus is all, "my boy, you don't even like kissing, and she was very adamant that it had to be romantic" and raphael is almost in tears like "but i do love you, goddamn it! i should be able to undo this spell" and it's so sweet that he's trying and willing to be in this really awkward position where he kisses (yikes) magnus (which is just weird especially since magnus is kind of a father figure to him) because he's just... so desperate to have him free of her, finally, once and for all, you know?

but obviously it doesn't work, not even with dot, who had a kinda fling with him in the past but doesn't really feel Romantic Love™ for him even though she does love him, it's just... not what the spell requires. and it's unfair as hell and there are lots of tears but just the fact that magnus falls asleep surrounded in a teary cuddle pile after some of the absolute worst kisses of his life because his friends/family love him enough to put themselves in such an uncomfortable position in the hopes of making him free, is enough to make him feel a little better. and the fact that they are still there for him and obviously still love him so fiercely even though looking at him now literally evokes fight or flight instincts in them is already more than anything camille could ever give him. if anything, she's proven how loved magnus is

and that helps him get through it that day and is something he tries to hold unto in the worst days, but still, it's hard and it just... sucks. it's tiring to go out in the street and always have people staring at you and to see the horror in their faces and be so isolated and never really know what might happen, if he will be attacked or harrassed or what exactly will happen. so he isolates himself more and more and soon the only people who ever see him or visit him are his friends. and fuck, do they hate seeing him like this

things settle in a weird kind of way. magnus is still living his life and working as a wizard and etc and in a way the spell even helps him have some more credibility because you know, isolated scary person is kinda what ppl expect from wizards. but he avoids having contact at all costs and mostly sends the potions they request and stuff their way, and the only ppl he sees are his friends unless he absolutely can't avoid going outside. and he's fucking miserable. and every once in a while camille will come back to be like "so, magnus, are you ready to stop with this little tantrum of yours and come back to me now? how is the rose doing, by the way?" because god forbid he catches a break

also it turns out that magnus' adoptive streak becomes even stronger because he is 1- extra lonely; and 2- empathizing more than ever with the outcasts. don't get me wrong, he always has, he's a fucking brown, bi trans man for fuck's sake. we all see ourselves in the stray dogs and lonely people one way or another. but now this is turned up to a thousand, so, you know

so he has one (1) extra kind of contact in his life which is basically with stray animals (particularly cats cuz u know, this is magnus) that he finds around in need of help. they can all leave if they want, but a lot of them stay, particularly the black cats, disabled animals, and others that have a particularly hostile environment outside. you know

(not me again with my very specific hcs about deaf pitbulls who fall in love with my faves but LOOK pitbulls are very sweet and caring animals who don't deserve the fame of monsters that they have and if the idea of one being best friend's with magnus and them having a loving and caring relationship doesn't appeal to you then idk what the fuck to tell you)

this of course doesn't help his image cuz this guy is just going there and collecting black cats and snakes and has a huge pitbull around with him at all times but it's not like it can get any worse so magnus doesn't care, and besides, he can't just leave them out to die in the cold and harrassment of middle ages white ppl who think black cats are the worst possible thing but rats carrying deadly diseases are fine (and look, i know rats are also animals that get a lot of shit and persecution, but like, seriously, clean the streets)

and every once in a while there will be a person in need too, like a homeless person in need of a place to stay or some sick person who has been abandoned or something of the sort, so magnus brings them in as well and cares for them as well as he can, but also tries to maintain minimal contact because he's been burned too many times, okay

so like, cue alec! i know in the original BATB belle ended up with the beast to save her father's life but fuck that. i lowkey consider making it "izzy ran away from home so alec comes after her and they both end up staying with magnus" but i think i like it better if it's just alec who decided to leave. like he's done with the abuse both towards him and his sister and he wants to be able to live his life even if he's gonna have to start over in some other village all alone. anywhere but here and all that

and of course alec used to be plenty rich and he has a lot of skills that help him pass by - he's a good archer and hunter, he's a good leader and organizer so he could do wonders for a failing business, he's smart and cunning - but he also has, like, 2 gold coins to his name. maybe some more from stuff he took from home and sold, but still

initially he is living at a tavern and i guess i'm making simon, raphael, and maia tavern owners again! i don't even care anymore, it suits them. rapha is the cook and the three of them run the business and simon also makes musical appearances during dinners every once in a while, and they are living the happy queer polyamorous life of their dreams. we have no choice but to stan

anyway alec is staying with them and he becomes friends with i think maia in particular since, you know, she is the one with the most contact with the customers since rapha is in the kitchen and simon is up the stage most of the time. plus they are both the same brand of bastard and they have an easy understanding between them that just works

and look! simon, raphael, and maia are 3 trans, non-christian/non-white (unnecessary addendum: the concept of whiteness didn't exist until around the 17th century, but whiteness as a concept came basically as a substitute for christianity [link to source], so i'm counting the fact that simon is jewish and raphael and maia are not culturally european as equivalent to non-whiteness in this context) people, so it's not like they would ever kick a gay man running from an abusive home out. but you know what they also are? magnus' friends. and after a while of talking to him maia thinks he is trustworthy enough for them to send magnus' way, because magnus needs as many friends as possible. plus, he wouldn't kick a person in need out, so unlike with them magnus can't really push this newcomer away so he'd have more company. plus, the possibility that he might fall in love with magnus and undo the stupid spell is there, i'm just saying! i'm not saying it WILL happen but why not give it a fucking shot?

raphael in particular is of course super protective of magnus and he swears to god that if this guy gives him half a bad look raphael will end him, which earns him some pats on the shoulder for his troubles and "rapha, we don't want magnus to be hurt either"s. maia says that she's been assessing him for quite a while now and she's pretty positive that he won't be terrible to magnus, but if she's wrong, she'll kill him personally too. and rapha trusts maia. how could he not? she's maia

so, they send alec magnus' way. "i'm sorry alec, but we are struggling to make ends meet *hides gigantic gold stash* and the tavern is packed *raphael upstairs stomps at maximum speed to make it seem like their 13 empty rooms upstairs actually have people* and we really need your room to give to this customer *simon in a wig* BUT we have a friend who we're sure will give you shelter if you ask, it's not very far away, and once we have a free room we will let you know". and alec is just like, okay, because he's been staying there for free or considerably less than the usual fee/in exchange for some stuff he hunts for quite a while now, and they are nice, so it's not like he can complain

and they don't tell him about the spell exactly because it is not their story to tell but they do let him know what to expect re: magnus' vibes and say it's a spell. and alec's like ok i guess. alec's very practical, he doesn't really care, and it's not like it's the guy's fault anyway. which is exactly why maia is sending alec there

so they send magnus a heads up ("magnus this guy is HOMELESS and we are SOOOOO packed can you please give him shelter for a little while thx xoxo"). alec arrives there a while later carrying like 3 prime rabbits he has hunted as a thank you gift because he hates being dependant on people but it's not like jobs abound in the middle ages, and he is actually a little embarrassed to go in and ask this guy he doesn't know for shelter but he IS kinda desperate. for now

anyway he is standing there with his 3 rabbits debating whether or not to knock on the door and magnus just opens it magically like "i know you're there, dear, just come in" so alec does and awkwardly presents him the rabbits and shit and is all "thanks for letting me stay, uh. i can help you with food and taking care of the house and stuff" even though, you know, magnus has magic and doesn't need it

(and magnus appreciates it deeply, because it is tiring to do it all magically on his own but most non-magical people don't even consider that)

and like... it is very awkward at first because magnus does NOT trust at all and he mostly just wants to keep away from anyone who can... look at him. but they ARE living together (oh my god they were roommates!! just kidding they each have their own room but you get it) so it's inevitable. but like magnus' insecurity makes him keep to himself for long times and makes things awkward, kinda like how the initial days with the beast and belle the beast was rude and kinda shitty except magnus is not shitty, just... private

and maybe the subject even comes up like "thanks for the meal alec. i'll go eat it in my room" "i mean, you could eat here if you want" "and ruin your appetite? no thank you" and alec is just like "*shrug* it won't ruin my appetite. unless you are my parents, the concept of failure, or some girl wanting me to marry her, i don't think there's a lot the spell can do to make me scared. besides, you literally have a kitten on top of your head right now and you refuse to remove it and are using a spell to keep her from jostling when you move" "her name is Fluffy, and she is sleeping!" "right, my bad" "wait did you say the concept of failure?" "yea"

it's not that the spell doesn't work on alec; it does, just like it works on his friends. but he is willing to go beyond that initial repulsive reaction that he knows is illogical anyway (and alec is the kind of guy who is just like "if my feelings aren't logical, i don't listen to them" which in this case is useful lmao). and the thing is that once you get to know magnus there is nothing about him that is scary, and the feeling just becomes completely ignorable, because humans are nothing if not adaptable. but most people don't want to go through the trouble to try, and magnus himself doesn't want to let himself be vulnerable enough to give them a chance because there IS a great chance that he will be met with some level of aggression, even if it's an unintentional microaggression

and eventually they grow closer and build trust. i think this happens particularly when camille steps in for one of her regularly schedule shoving-it-in-magnus'-face visits and alec is just like. "hey why don't you just use magic to keep her away?" and magnus realizes that he never even THOUGHT of that and like, jesus, how much has he been unconsciously torturing himself? so he does it, and he ends up telling alec about the story of the spell, which might be the first time he's told someone that didn't know him before the spell was cast

(alec: "so she's basically just killing you slowly?" magnus: "don't be silly, alexander. torturing me first is the most important part". and he sounds self deprecating and almost resigned and god alec feels murderous)

ohh but wait bonus: magnus says that she will only undo the spell if he gets back with her, he doesn't mention that it technically can be undone by romantic love or whatever bullshit's going on because he doesn't believe it can happen anyway, so, who cares

anyway! time goes by. fun fact: alec and magnus get along really fucking well. magnus is so so smart and knowledgeable and he shows alec many of his inventions that never got to see the light of day or that were stolen by someone else who wasn't cursed and took all the credit. he also fascinates alec with his magic, but mostly with his personality. there's something just endlessly endearing about this guy who is so fucking proud of his puns and so so nice and gentle to every creature he encounters, be it a kitten or a pitbull, who's letting alec stay with him for no reason other than that alec needs it

and alec is so goddamn appreciative of it because like he IS and we stan! and he's always trying to give back to magnus which is kind of a rarity, but most of all he's also extremely funny beneath the whole no-bullshit attitude, he's caring and fierce and resourceful and strong (so's magnus) and they click so well. they can also talk about their similar experiences with like, abuse and trauma without making it super heavy and they're just,,, so supportive of each other. so like yeah surprise surprise they fall in love

but they don't really say anything because (on magnus' part) that's just fucking ridiculous, he's a monster; and (on alec's part) he will put magnus is a way too uncomfortable position if magnus doesn't like him that way and they will just... be living together. and magnus will feel like he has to compensate to alec somehow and alec doesn't want that. it's just complicated when one of them is dependant on the other, and besides, alec has had very little to offer magnus so far

(no, he has no idea how much his company means to magnus and has brighted his depressed ass life. he is stupid)

sometimes magnus' friends visit and they're always just so happy for him, to see how he's hanging out more and let someone into his life after so long. it earns him a lot of forehead kisses and "i'm so happy to see you like this". and over time he starts to invite them over more as well as just open up back to the people in his life :')

angsty but also kind of fluffy sidenote: i picture that every time they kiss his forehead or cheek or whatever they linger for a little while and then open their eyes slowly and sigh like "i had been hoping that it would work this time. magnus, you know i love you, right?" and magnus is all like "i know just from you saying that, darling. it's just not how the spell works" and aaa

and like to be extra clear im not saying that alec fixes him or romantic love heals him or whatever, just that having let someone in, someone who didn't know him before the spell, and have them completely accept him and realize how much he had been missing out re: touch and human contact helps him realize how much he misses his friends and how pushing them away is stupid when they've never been anything if not supportive of him. they don't care that he's cursed. and obviously magnus was already on the way to that if he even managed to let alec in anyway

anyway! dramatic healing scene. LOOK. usually i'd be all for "they don't change back actually because people don't have to look beautiful to be lovable". like the original BATB disappointed me sooo badly because i had just been hoping that he'd stay the same way and still be loved. but in this case it's not that magnus doesn't look beautiful! it's that the spell has made him be hated by people for no reason other than existing. and breaking the spell is not changing magnus himself, it's changing that hatred. so, yeah. i'm not saying it's a deep metaphor or anything, just, you know daudhasdja it's different from the usual monster thing

and i'm torn here because on the one hand i LOVE the drama of the original BATB where everyone decides to gather to kill the beast and belle saves him and shit, but idk if it fits with the vibe ive been building here. no actually @ me shut the fuck up. you know how i mentioned that they kick camille out with magic finally? i actually had no intentions of following through with this in any way but like of COURSE she would be absolutely pissed out of her mind and want to get back in some way, we already know she's vindictive. so i'm gonna use that. this is what neil gailman meant when he said that writing is just making a rough draft and then writing it again but like it's on purpose this time

anyway! so after they yeet her camille is obviously furious and fuming and it might have finally dawned on her that magnus will NOT fucking cave and she is losing power over him, not gaining it. so she decides to play a last card and get him to almost die so he kind of HAS to take her bid, you know? so she makes up some shit about how magnus has kidnapped the lightwood heir and she's only now hearing about it, and no one else is safe and yada yada. and she has "proof" because alec IS indeed there and again the spell just helps everyone easily agree with her that magnus is That Kind Of Guy or whatever, and middle ages ppl weren't exactly waiting for a good enough reason to grab their pitchforks. and they don't even KNOW about the spell, really. all they know is that he's very powerful, secluded, and they all fear and almost hate him just from one look

so camille makes up some bullshit story about how he made a deal with the devil to become extra powerful, and that the source of his powers is the rose, so they have to get rid of the rose to kill him. (sidenote: i never understood why the hell the rose was never used as a weakness against the beast. like was he keeping it super guarded and safe just for the fucking shits?) so they devise an attack so someone can sneak up and get the rose, and camille makes up some bullshit story about how they have to destroy the rose a specific way so it takes longer and she has time to manipulate magnus before he dies. man, it's easy to be a villain when your target is secluded

anyway! big attack at magnus' house. magnus' friends don't hear about it until it's too late because camille knows exactly who they are and warned them that they were on "the witch's" side. alec is maybe away hunting when it happens? camille obviously has magic in this AU so she can check for that information. maybe she even says that she will be the one responsible for finding the lightwood heir so there is minimal risk of him revealing that she lied lmao

oh no, violence! they battle and yada yada. catarina is probably the first one to realize what is happening because i figure she, madzie, and dot are the ones who live closest to magnus'. they send fire messages and get ragnor, simon, maia, raphael, and meliorn to help. oh yeah, and alec i genuinely forgot trust me to forget about romance in a romance-focused au. but alec is the only one of them without any magical resources and he's far away and on foot, so he's gonna be the last to get there, which camille had been counting on

but alec or no alec, they can keep the attackers at bay because they're all powerful and smart and shit and a lot of them have magic as opposed to the mundanes who don't, but of course that's mostly because they are holding off on attacking and the invasion is mostly a distraction because their PLAN is to use the rose. and camille tells them all to leave once the petal puckering starts so she can "protect them from any lashouts" (have her big villain speech). and it's not like any of magnus' friends is gonna leave to go after them when magnus is dying, bUT they also won't attack camille because she's his only hope. and they won't be able to get to stop the rose plucking in time because that's in another room and while she made it slower than something that the person can use to kill him in a second it's also not slow enough for them to get there on time (maybe there's a spell against magic use near where magnus keeps the rose? just for extra safety, so the ones with magic can't portal there or whatever)

anyway. big villain speech. magnus screams in pain every time a new petal is plucked. his friends are either running to the rose thing desperately or trying to get camille to stop this madness, she's going to kill him for fuck's sake. i don't know which chooses to do what so you can figure that out i guess. and for that extra drama, right when the last petal was going to be plucked, wee woo alec lightwood arrives! and he went straight for the rose because magnus had told him about it and he figured that there was a good chance the attackers might go for it. so he shoots the person's leg or something and gets them away from the rose and yay, day saved! mostly. because now there is only one petal left to fall before magnus dies, so at the very least, his lifespan has been shortened considerably. also, he is still in pain

i'm torn about what happens to camille then. on the one hand, i love killing camille! bonding activities for the whole family. on the other, she kinda is the only one who can save him now. they all know magnus won't want to get back with her, but hey, it's not like camille wants a relationship! she wants magnus to be her asset. a relationship was just the best way to get him to do that she had initially. but magnus doesn't want to cave and be dependant of her, so, you know. but maybe they can try to convince her to stop this fucking madness, god knows how

so okay yeah no camille-killing yet because they don't want to jeopardize magnus' safety, so she just leaves convinced that either way, she wins, and this might be the best possible scenario actually because magnus will have lots of times to think it over and be real desperate and come to her and strike a deal. so, yay her! she just needs to lie to the mundanes that the mission was successful or whatever, and it's not like that's gonna be hard because magnus won't want to be seen there again, so

we are all running to check up on magnus now. he's kinda like, on the ground coughing blood, but he'll live for as long as the last rose doesn't fall. still, they all settle on trying to help him, getting him in bed, tending to his wounds, etc. and thinking about what the fuck they are all going to do now. so you have raphael and maia making magnus soup, simon running his mouth as he throws around ideas on how they can fix this, ragnor, cat, dot, and madzie (who is here now that the danger is over ofc) checking and rechecking magnus' vitals for the billionth time and trying to figure out how much time they have, meliorn using their fae powers to stop his pain. and madzie is all snuggled in bed with magnus holding his hand and asking if he wants her to tell him a bedtime story, and magnus just... feels cared for and loved

alec meanwhile i think would tell what ACTUALLY happened to the person who was doing the rose thing - i actually have thought about it and think it might make sense for it to be luke. just because i love him and it kinda fits the whole "initially sided with shadowhunters, lately became a downworlder" thing. and like luke genuinely believed he was saving a person/people so alec brings him in too and magnus is all "catarina, dear, can you help heal his leg? i would, but i don't think i have enough magic right now" because he is the sweetest man immediately wanting to help the guy who almost killed him. and luke is in awe

(and alec brings him on purpose, too, because he knows that anyone who actually talks to magnus for a little while will see what an amazing person he is. and he hopes that luke, as a mundane, can tell the others that and turn them against camille)

and after that, of course, alec sits down by magnus' side and Does Not Leave. he's just there holding his hand and talking to him and magnus' friends, who are all also kind of. sitting there, trying to snuggle up in a gigantic pile of like 10 ppl to cuddle close to magnus and make sure he feels loved and cared for and that they know he is real. madzie gets special privileges in that sense because she's smaller and also a kid, so she gets to be kinda snuggled up with him. so alec has to be content with holding magnus' hand lmao (which he is, he's just happy that he's alive and okay. and he has a whole plan to get camille to undo the spell, mostly involving getting the mundanes against her and telling her that she is only safe for as long as magnus lives, because once he dies, she will have a bunch of ppl who will hunt her down to the faces of the earth to make her pay for what she did to him. the only reason they didn't do that yet is because she can still save magnus' live, so is she really going to let him die knowing that she will be next?)

so alec takes his hand and tells magnus that they will fix this, he promises, and give a little kiss on magnus' hand. just a little peck, no deep intentions, but magnus gasps a little because he feels something, and his eyes water a little bit because he's so touch starved and tired and hurt and alec kissed his hand and he can feel this kind of ache inside him, somehow a good ache, but he just can't explain it. and so alec notices his watery eyes and he very tenderly wipes his tears away and tells him that they're all on his side, will always be, and kisses him on the forehead. and this kiss? this kiss is full of adoration and love and purpose, and magnus gasps and the wounds that hadn't been healed suddenly mend together, and the petals that had fallen go back to the rose before it disappears in a beautiful flash of light, and suddenly magnus' magic is back full force and he just looks at himself for a second, and everyone erupts into joy because holy shit, the spell is broken

and alec is so confused because again! he didn't kNOW about the whole true love's kiss thing or he would have asked magnus to let him kiss him as soon as he learnt about his feelings, because even if magnus didn't feel the same way, alec could undo the spell. and he's like "why the hell didn't you tell me?? we could have fixed this months ago" and magnus is like "i didn't think it would make a difference. wait, you're in love with me? have been for months?" and alec is like "first of all, yes. second of all, i have nothing else to say, i just said 'first of all' because i was so indignant"

and magnus laughs and jumps on him and kisses him on the mouth this time and they are both smiling and laughing into it and so so happy. and raphael is kind of just peppering kisses on maia's face too, like, "you were right, he undid the spell, thank you" and maia was never sure that this would happen but she will take the credit actually please and thank you

and they all live happily ever after and kill camille together the end i guess. god this post was so long i'm so sorry

[obsessive-bear-walking]

Some of you guy's leftism starts and ends with cis white gays and you worship anyone who even says the bare minimum that gays deserve rights. People will really just erase all the horrible shit anyone ever did and defend them tooth and nail from any criticism because they "like gays", and we as a (western) society enable them. I also often get the vibe from super big white proponents of LGBTQ/Queer folks of like "I love gays, isn't that enough?"

These only a couple examples but there's many.

There was a celebrity I used to appreciate for their nonchalance about the gay community(Took their kid to pride, talked positively about the community, told people to fuck off if they disagreed, etc), but it slowly became obvious to me that it was their thing. But I very quickly(Like, super, super quickly) saw that they literally throw that up all the time but are absolutely disgusting and lazy when it comes to any other issue. Also have had actively racist moments too later on. Like derailing BLM discussions.

This was actually a wake up call for me because I usually don't accept the bare minimum, I should have kept my guard up and not been surprised by this and that's on me.

Anyway I'm seeing people lick the arsehole of another celeb who died who was vindictive old fuck in about a hundred ways just because they at some point in their lives changed their mind about whether or not queer folk are demons or something and did some good stuff for gay people or something.

This is so insidious. Why is whether or not someone likes gay people the bar for so many of y'all? We have so many horribly racist/ableist/transphobic gay icons that no one is ever allowed to speak ill of because of "what they did for the queer community". When you likely mean cis white gay men (and maybe lesbians) and how it somehow absolves them of any other harm that they done or their harm is ignored and you can't speak ill of them or whatever and it's honestly sickening.

I'm not even talking about expecting celebrities to be on top of every single issue the moment they're brought up.

White women are especially guilty of loving on gays when it makes them look good. As I said similarly in my last post about being an accessory to (mostly) white women. But you know what? I don't care if you "love gay people." Do you care about trans people? Do you care about queer poc? Do you care about women and children? I don't mean in a "Publicly react to every issue in the news" way, I mean on the most basic level.

Do you love us when we're not "fun" cis white men running around half naked at Pride trying to get married and adopted babies and be a "Nuclear family"? I mean when we're killing ourselves in masse because we're afraid of the world and are raised to hate ourselves, convinced that we're somehow broken and can never be fixed or accepted and in some cases that even gd doesn't want us and we're cursed to burn in hell? When our intersex sibling's genitals are mutilated at birth and being forced to conform to a fake box or we're getting murdered in the streets and thrown out by parents and landlords? Do you love my siblings who are Black and brown and/or who use pronouns/labels you don't understand? Do you like us when we're all that, and you can't bank on "helping" us?

Is your love intersectional or just for the bits that benefit you?

Do you love Black masc gay men?

Hell,

Do you love lesbians who aren't big masc butches with short hair?

He/him and they/them lesbians?

Trans women?

Trans lesbians of color who don't "look feminine"?

Jewish and Muslim queers?

Christian queers who don't fit into your "fuck religion" narrative?

Yes, aros and aces are queer.

I don't care if you "love gay people" and I wont lick your boots if you do the bare minimum. If you're a shitty person I'm gonna talk about how you're a shitty person even after you die no amount of love for white cishet gays will save you and if you have a problem with me talking about someone who "loves gays" being actively harmful to other groups of people then you need to take a long look at yourself, that's not my problem. Exclus and clowns get blocked on sight.

[catmaid-john]

Have some soulmate gretchella content courtesy of me (elliott) and em 👀 there was a lot of projecting as far as *ahem* character traits go, hope y’all enjoy!!!!

Summary: Gretchen has grown up with a less than ideal mindset about soulmates. How will they react when they meet their own?

Characters: Gretchen, Pamella, Marion, John, Jessique (mentioned), Vesna (mentioned), Eliza (mentioned)

Pairing(s): queer platonic gretchella

Warnings: subtle(?) homophobia and internalised homophobia, and that may be it but do read with caution as it’s pretty heavy. Let me know if I missed anything!!

Word count: 1,705

~

Gretchen was six when they asked about the red string on their finger.

“Daddy, what’s this?” they asked, holding up their pinky.

John sighed, closing his book he’d been reading in the study. “It’s a sign that you have a soulmate.”

“What’s a soulmate?”

“Someone meant for you. Like Vesna and I. We were soulmates, but didn’t let that define us.”

Gretchen tilted their head to the side. “What’chu mean?”

“Don’t let the world fool you. Everyone says soulmates are the most important part of life. They’re all wrong. You should focus on things like work and school, not some frivolous nonsense such as one person in all the world meant to be with you. Do you understand?”

Gretchen crossed their arms. “Okay, Daddy. Can we go fly kites today?”

“No, not right now. I have work to do. Maybe later.”

John hadn’t been doing work when Gretchen walked in.

They were ten the first time they saw a pair of soulmates first meet.

They were both boys. The red string that held them together turned white and they hugged.

Could Gretchen’s soulmate be a girl?

“Daddy?” they began as John drove them home from school that day. “I saw two boy soulmates today.”

John’s grip on the steering wheel tightened a bit. “I see.”

“Could my soulmate be a girl?”

“I’m not sure. I should hope not.”

Gretchen furrowed their brows. “How come?”

“Same sex soulmates have a higher mortality rate due to disapproval and lack of acceptance from peers. Not to mention they’re prone to… well, frankly, divorce.”

“But you and Mommy divorced.”

John’s grip tightened further, and Gretchen could see the marking on his pinky finger where his string once was.

“Yes, straight soulmates do divorce sometimes, but it’s higher in same sex soulmates.”

“Why? And what's morality?”

“Mortality. What I meant is that same sex soulmates more often die young and are even murdered. I don’t want that for you.”

Gretchen was suddenly scared. “What if my soulmate is a girl?”

“Don’t worry about that for now. It doesn’t matter.”

The conversation dissipated from there.

Gretchen was thirteen when they decided they didn’t want a soulmate anymore.

The odds of their soulmate being a girl were far too high. They didn’t want to end up like the dead soulmates their dad was talking about.

They took a pair of scissors and tried cutting their string. The scissors broke and clattered to the ground.

What? This had worked for John when he didn’t want a soulmate anymore. Were they doing it wrong?

They took a knife from the kitchen and sawed it across the string. The knife became ground down and dull.

They tried to untie the string but couldn’t find the knot. This soon became a game of finding the most slippery substance to help them slip out of the string.

Nothing worked. It was hopeless.

There was a chance that Gretchen was doomed to die young and there was nothing they could do about it.

Please let my soulmate be a boy, they thought. I wanna live.

They were seventeen when they stopped caring about what their father thought.

They also started using they/them pronouns alongside their step-sibling, Marion. John had married a woman named Eliza, who he claimed he met at a “gathering” for people who abandoned the soulmate life. Her kids were Marion and Jessique, who Gretchen liked much more than Eliza. Their dad had bad taste.

Gretchen was walking home from school when they felt a tug from their string. They usually felt an occasional pull from it but this was much stronger than that. It just about knocked them off their feet.

Before they could question it further, they were being pulled into the middle of the road. Luckily no one was driving, but Gretchen was still not having any of this today.

“Let me go!” they called uselessly.

It hurt to pull against the string but they really didn’t know what else to do. It was a little while before they suddenly collided with someone and was finally able to stop. Unfortunately the two of them crashed to the ground.

“I’m so sorry!” the stranger yelped.

Gretchen put a hand to their forehead, which had bumped into the stranger’s. “No, it’s all good. No harm done.”

“I should have paid more attention but my string was pulling me away and I—”

Gretchen finally took a look at the stranger in question. Bright orange hair overtook every feature and it was radiant as the morning sun. Eyes like drops of chocolate, enticingly sweet. She was too perfect.

Gretchen looked down at their string. It was white.

“Hi,” the stranger murmured. “I’m Pamella. I guess we’re—”

Gretchen got up and ran.

They were in tears when they came to terms with what happened.

They stood in the bathroom sobbing in front of the mirror. John’s voice echoed in their head.

Same sex soulmates have a higher mortality rate due to disapproval and lack of acceptance from peers.

They shook their head to rid themself of their thoughts. They didn’t care what their dad thought. They didn’t.

Same sex soulmates more often die and are even murdered. I don’t want that for you.

No. It was all stigma. It was all lies. Shut up.

You should focus on things like work and school, not some frivolous nonsense such as one person in all the world meant to be with you.

Shut up!

Gretchen was on the verge of screaming but kept as quiet as possible. They didn’t want to worry their siblings.

They didn’t care what their dad thought. They didn’t.

Even still they couldn’t accept what they have faced.

Gretchen was eighteen when they met their soulmate for a second time.

Perhaps not entirely true, given that they had spotted Pamella at school a few times since their run-in. This, however, was their first proper encounter since Gretchen ran.

“Uh, excuse me!” Pamella’s voice called out, catching Gretchen’s attention. They realised who it was and tried to walk away faster.

Go away, go away, go away—

“Hey!” Pamella caught up with them, standing in front of them with a shy smile. “So… I, uh… wanted to give you time to process everything, but I’ve seen you avoiding me like crazy. I just… wanted to know why? At first I thought maybe you were upset about me knocking you over, but I don’t know. Man, I feel like an asshole.” She chuckled awkwardly.

Gretchen blinked. “Sorry,” they said on instinct. “Uh… it’s not you, it’s me, I gotta go.”

They walked away without another word.

Gretchen was home alone with Marion when they confessed to what had been going on.

“Wow,” Marion murmured. “I mean, obviously I knew you’d met your soulmate, I just thought… well, I don’t know. Why’d you run?”

Gretchen buried their face in their hands. “It’s complicated.”

“C’mon, talk to me, bestie.”

Gretchen sighed and sat up. “My dad scared me as a kid telling me I was gonna die if my soulmate was a girl.”

Marion paused, their expression never changing. “The fuck?”

“He was talking about, like, mortality rates of gay soulmates and divorce and shit, so… ten year old me took it to heart for some reason.”

“Huh. So when you realised your soulmate is a girl… aw, Gretch.”

“I know, it’s stupid.”

“No it’s not. I promise you, it’s not stupid. Your dad is a piece of shit.”

Gretchen snorted. “Yup, sounds right.”

“Don’t let him ruin your experience with your soulmate. I promise you, if you let your parent try to run your life, it’ll just hurt. Trust me.”

Gretchen glanced over at Marion. They couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks, Mari.”

“You gonna go after your soulmate?”

“I might have to.”

The next day at school, Gretchen was the one to approach Pamella.

“Hi,” they murmured shyly.

“Hey,” Pamella replied with hesitation.

“I, uh… I know I’ve been a dick… but… I wanna… try this whole thing again. You deserve better from your… soulmate.”

Pamella was clearly shocked, and Gretchen gave her time to process what they had said. She took a deep breath and finally spoke.

“Hi. I’m Pamella. He/him pronouns.”

Gretchen blinked. That was unexpected.

“Oh. Uh, Gretchen. They/them pronouns.”

Pamella smiled. “Nice to meet you, Gretchen. I’m sure you’re a bit surprised that I’m… ya know, trans. I’m not out to my parents, so that makes it a bit hard to transition, not to mention I’m scared to get my hair cut.”

“I mean, you don’t need a haircut to be trans, though. Being trans makes you trans. I mean, I’m still feminine and nonbinary as fuck, they’re not mutually exclusive.”

Pamella blushed. “Thanks. I’m glad you get it.”

Gretchen grinned. Maybe having a soulmate wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Gretchen and Pam were twenty when they decided to label themselves as platonic soulmates.

They weren’t romantically involved and they were okay with that. Gretchen was aromantic and Pam didn’t care about relationships. He really just wanted to be with Gretchen in a platonic way. They were all he needed.

They had tried to make it work as romantic soulmates, which didn’t last long.

The one thing they continued to do in their platonic relationship was cuddle.

Gretchen laid on top of Pam, who laid on his back and ran his hand up and down their back. Gretchen was having a difficult day and all they needed was cuddles on the couch with a movie on the TV.

Gretchen looked up at Pam, his new haircut still ravishing in their eyes. Gretchen had been tempted to shave their head but decided against it since they liked how they dyed it. Black on one side, their natural brown on the other.

“Pam?” they murmured.

Pam glanced down at them. “Yeah?”

“Do you think we’re soulmates because we just understand each other so much?”

Pam smiled. “I think we’re soulmates because we complete each other in a way no one else gets.”

Gretchen smiled back. They laid their head back down and closed their eyes, Pam running a hand through their hair.

“I’m glad we crashed into each other.”

Pam chuckled. “Me too, love.”

@nachosforfree

[siriuslyblack12]

high school paracosm

this might be the start of a mini-series where i share little bits and pieces from my paracosms/paras out of all of my current paracosms, this has the least world-building yet the most character development. it’s my second-oldest and definitely has a special place in my heart (i would literally die for any one of these characters lmaooo). it’s essentially about a group of british high school students dealing with all kinds of angst, drama and a fair amount of happiness.  i’m very scared to post this so we’ll see how it goes.

vanessa pierre

cis woman

bisexual disaster

dating cass johnson 

scouse

bottom set

she’s a natural ginger but dyes it black. blue eyes. white.

funniest person you’ll ever meet

shitty home life (to be specific, her dad left and she hasn’t seen him in years and her mum is addicted to alcohol and drugs. she tries to help her mum, but a lot of the time she has to sleep at cass or ruby’s house, or in the worst circumstances on the street.)

because of this, she always gives spare change or food to homeless people even if she didn’t have much to begin with.

her home did get better after her mum’s new boyfriend daniel checked her into rehab and group therapy to get help. everyone’s trying their best to make it work.

dyes her own hair. it’s part of her aesthetic.

friendship wise, she is closest to ruby. although she loves cass more than she loves herself.

cass johnson

non-binary 

attracted to women but doesn’t really label it.

dating vanessa pierre

top set

light brown hair with an undercut. brown eyes. mixed race.

the literal kindest, most caring and least judgemental

has a good relationship with their parents and 12 year old sister violet who are all very supportive of anything they do. definitely the type of family to  buy out the front row of every concert cass is in.

their biggest passion is musical theatre. a very talented actor and singer, their most notable role being ‘belle’ in the school production of ‘beauty and the beast’ that they also directed.

animals are also another big interest. when they get out of school they want to become a vet to help and care for all kinds of animals, and throughout high school donates any spare change to animal charities.

they’re pretty close with everyone, but particularly ezra and jonah

quite insecure about their body, but masks it with positivity and kindness. 

makes everyone around them happy.

ruby diaz

cis woman

straight and a very big ally

dated jonah blue for a year or so, but currently single

top set, very much what people would label a ‘tryhard’, ‘sweat’ or a ‘nerd’

dark curly hair. freckles. latina.

twin sister of asher diaz

she’s a very empathetic person, more often than not putting everyone else’s needs above her own. this could be to her detriment, but she’s making an effort to balance her own mental health

divorced parents, but she stays positive. goes to her dad’s house on weekends.

she likes to think she doesn’t care, but at heart she’s a hopeless romantic. the biggest shipper of every couple in the school, but particularly her brother asher and cole.

speaking of her brother, it’s one of those dynamics where they play fight constantly but would certainly die for the other

the cutest pet dog lmao

she’s a very outspoken activist, often lecturing her mum and older family members about their implicit biases

closest to vanessa and asher

asher diaz

cis man

gay

dating cole harrison-singh

middle set

dark hair. blue or brown eyes. latino.

twin brother of ruby diaz

coming out was really hard for him, as it is for a lot of queer people. he hated the fact that everyone made it such a big deal, and that they treated it as this big thing even though he’d been feeling this way for as long as he can remember

plays guitar and sings quite well, in the school band

his relationship with cole is tentative, but once they figure out their dynamic they’re extremely cute. we love to see it.

he was more affected by the divorce than his sister, and now feels quite protective over her as a sort of father figure that they no longer really have. definitely some issues he needs to work on.

very athletic

him and ezra are best friend goals, and he’s also obviously close to ruby

jonah blue

cis man

pansexual

dated ruby diaz, but currently dating erin saeli

top set, but one of those people really talented people that can get good grades without breaking a sweat

shaved head. brown eyes. darkskin black man.

his main hobby is swimming and he’s on an elite team that probably trains 6 or 7 times a week. sometimes he finds it hard to juggle that and school and a social life but he could never give it up

art is his hidden talent. mainly because he keeps it personal, but also because no one really expected someone as confident and outgoing as him to enjoy drawing and painting.

he and ruby stayed really good friends even after their breakup

if anything it made them closer 

closest to cass

ezra cheung

trans man

aro/ace

single

bottom set

dark hair. blue eyes. chinese.

he first figured out he was aro/ace when he was about 14/15 and everyone around him started to feel more comfortable in their own sexualities. his friends would talk to him about crushes and he’d just smile and nod.

mental health is something he really struggles with. fitting his life around bad days and episodes is a chore in and of it’s own. 

but he’s trying his best to get the help he needs and reach out to his friends whenever he needs someone to talk to.

would punch transphobes except he’s too nice

closest to asher and cass. him and cass bond over gender and cute kittens.

minor paras:

cole harrison-singh

cis man

gay

dating asher diaz

top set

brown hair. blue eyes. white.

adopted by lesbian mums, lily harrison and naveena singh. these two are an absolute power couple

he and asher met through the school band and he’s a very skilled piano player. despite this, he gets very shy when it comes to performing in front of other people so doesn’t do it often.

experiments with genderless clothing and makeup

just an all around good person

martha quinn

cis woman

straight

single

top set

ginger!! blue eyes and lots of freckles. white.

a teahcer’s pet to her core, would sell anyone out for validation (honestly me too)

doesn’t get along well with any of the other paras, but does warm up to them and make an effort to be a better person eventually. character development

crushed on jonah when he first moved to the school but got over it quite quickly

erin polka

cis woman

bisexual

dating jonah blue

middle set

long dark hair. thai.

works at mcdonalds part time

a girly-girl who is no less amazing and strong than the other women (i will have no internalised misogyny anywhere near me thank you very much)

big introvert. when she does speak or show passion in something you know it’s well thought out and communicated.

very very pretty. if she was real i would date her.

[bleeding-star-heart]

YA ALIGNMENT CHART

Before we begin, let’s clarify what each section of the chart means: 

Problematic: The story is chock-full of harmful messaging from start to finish. It  contains harmful stereotypes about racial minorities, LGBTQIA+ folks, disabled people, the neurodivergent, religious minorities, or any other marginalized group. It spreads misinformation, leans into harmful tropes, and teaches morals that perpetuate oppression. 

Prob-Spiring: The story is a mixed bag of both positive and harmful messaging. It has both messages that inspire positive social change and morals that inspire allyship and help unlearn internalized bigotry as well as potential harmful stereotypes, misinformation, and/or morals which help perpetuate oppression. 

Inspiring: The story is relatively free of harmful messaging. For the most part, it inspires positive social change, helps people unlearn internalized bigotry, and inspires people to be allies to the marginalized. A story in this area is not perfect, and may contain small, minor problematic elements, but for the most part, the creator has done their research and has been careful to avoid putting harmful messages in it. 

Regressive: The creator is DELIBERATELY attempting to teach morals which uphold oppressive systems. Any content that supports oppression is put in the story on PURPOSE. The creator either does not understand why these morals are harmful, or does not see the oppressive systems they are upholding as wrong.

Neutral: The creator is not trying to teach any moral that is either progressive OR regressive. They are neither upholding nor trying to dismantle oppressive systems. The work is meant to be entertainment; any morals that arise are accidental. 

Progressive: The creator is ACTIVELY trying to dismantle oppressive systems/teach morals that dismantle oppressive systems through their work. Any harmful content is most likely accidental. 

Now for the explanation of why these works fall into specific categories: 

Twilight, obviously, is Regressive Problematic because it contains harmful messages, and because those harmful messages were intentional on the part of Stephanie Meyer. 

The Mortal Instruments falls into the Problematic axis because its main queer couple is a highly pedophilic ship (Alec is a teenager where Magnus is a centuries-old adult), the bisexual half of that couple, Magnus, is a stereotypical Promiscuous Bisexual, and because the characters of color are treated terribly. Oh, yes, and it also romanticizes incest. However, it is Neutral Problematic not because of its content, but because Cassie Clare does not appear to be trying to teach a moral with these books. 

The Throne of Glass series is Progressive Problematic because while SJM is trying to teach feminist messages with it, she fails on every level, causing the story to be laden with harmful messages. Imperialism is glorified, abuse is glorified, guardian/ward sexual tension is glorified, black characters die solely to further white characters’ arcs, and the heroine spends the entirety of at least TWO books utterly stripped of agency. 

Chronicles of Narnia is Regressive Prob-Spiring, because C.S. Lewis actively attempts to uphold oppression with everything he does, and his children’s series is no different. On the good side, we have four strong female leads in Lucy, Susan, Jill, and Aravis. Aravis is especially good because she is brown alongside being female, and strong female characters who happen to be brown are RARE.  It also somewhat positively depicts an interracial relationship. On the problematic side...The Calormenes are portrayed in the most racist manner possible most of the time, the characters actually don BROWNFACE in the final book, the story, despite the awesome female leads, manages to be amazingly sexist in places, and the rulers of a country deny schooling to a specific group and that is portrayed as a GOOD thing. Hell, school/education of ANY kind is portrayed VERY negatively, which is a bad message to send to children. Yes, I know C.S. Lewis had a bad school experience, but that doesn’t excuse the anti-education slant. 

Harry Potter is Neutral Prob-Spiring, because it does use fascism as a plot device, it is not trying to dismantle oppressive systems that AREN’T fascist. Those are mostly left in place, neither challenged nor supported, so it’s neutral. The inspiring: Hermione Granger. The problematic: Rowling’s opinions on trans people. The anti-Semitic caricature that is the goblins. 

Percy Jackson is Progressive Prob-Spiring because unlike Harry Potter, it is, in a way, attempting to dismantle SOME parts of the oppressive system. Not all, but the story was intentionally written for the purpose of learning disability representation, and has very anti-homophobic themes. Of course, RR’s characterization of Piper is racist-there is no denying this-and the portrayals of the PoC women are colorist in that they make sure PoC characters are as light-skinned as possible.The characterization of Aphrodite is also very misogynistic-in canon, Aphrodite is a bad mom, despite this not being mythologically accurate-parenting was actually one of Aphrodite’s strengths.  She is painted as shallow, and Hephaestus’s entitled Nice Guy attitude is NEVER examined (because Hephaestus is an absolute Nice Guy).

Regressive Inspiring, you will observe, does NOT have an example, because it is IMPOSSIBLE to deliberately teach oppressive morals AND have a product that has positive, anti-oppression morals. It’s just not. Thus it’s a unicorn, because unicorns are fictional. 

Divergent is Neutral Inspiring, and that might make some people mad. But it is that because while the author does not appear to have given it a purpose either way, the story does accidentally have some uplifting messages. Allegiant especially rightfully points out that it is wrong to discriminate based on genetics, and that all people are equal, a moral that is very necessary for today’s world.  While it may have a small anti-intellectual bent, Roth herself acknowledged this and did better later on. Also, it has an anti-conformist message, and a message that people in general are complex and cannot be pigeonholed. 

And The Hunger Games is Progressive Inspiring because while there may be some anti-femininity messaging by accident, in general the book is all about those progressive themes. It critiques the glorification of violence, too much obsession with women’s love lives, and has a brutal anti-war stance to boot. Plus, a heroine who is mostly likely a PoC, too. 

[nandalorian]

Since I posted my thoughts about how Roswell has adequately represented queer men on the show and completely shit the bed on their representation of most everything else, I need to address the epically fucked-up treatment of female queerness and the queer female gaze in the context of Isobel and Rosa. This has been bugging me for a few weeks, and the reveal of Noah as the fourth alien pretty much cemented my feelings on the matter. I know there are people who feel the way I do about it, but if there’s another post on the subject I just haven’t seen, please link me. And if you disagree completely about this too, that’s cool. Let’s discuss.

While in my last post I applauded the show on its treatment of Michael’s bisexuality, I still don’t feel great about the introduction of a Michael/Alex/Maria love triangle. It’s one thing for Carina to double down on her defense of love triangles and insist they are not an overused and biphobic trope in popular media--news flash, it is, and in this case it’s also potentially damaging to the one black woman on the show, who will almost certainly bear the brunt of fans’ ire for “stealing Michael away” if they go through with a Maria/Michael relationship. I’m sorry if I don’t take a random straight white woman’s insistence to the contrary as gospel. Saying your formative years were shaped by straight love triangles doesn’t change the fact that it’s an insulting trope to women and an outright damaging one to queers, not even taking into consideration how the two intersect, or further when you consider POC characters, etc. You can’t compare straight relationships with queer ones, in the same way you can’t compare white experiences with nonwhite ones. To insist otherwise denies a whole system of privilege that drastically shapes and influences people’s lived experiences. 

But that isn’t what I want to address, because it’s another thing altogether to come for female sexuality and queerness. If I was willing to maybe give Malex a pass on the good-intentions-written-badly front, this is a hill I’m ready to die on. Isobel’s arc in season 1 of RNM demonstrates a lack of understanding that these are identities equally vulnerable to attack, exploitation, and misrepresentation--maybe even more so--as male queerness. That the outrage about Malex drowns out this other but no less important conversation kind of reaffirms the point I’m trying to make.

More under the cut.

Female sexuality has always struggled to find positive representation in popular media, no matter the time period or culture. Compared to male sexuality, it is not taken seriously, always played against the male gaze, or disregarded altogether because it excludes men. Queer female desire challenges societal structures around male desire and sexuality because it just… doesn’t require men to function and in fact actively rejects them. This is obviously a problem because the patriarchy loves it when men are shown to be extraneous and irrelevant. 

A lot of us know what it is to be invalidated as queer women, socially and sexually. Put your hand up if you’re a woman (in which I include cis and trans women, of course) or nonbinary individual who desires women and has been told, oh, you just haven’t met the right man yet, or oh, you’re just putting on a show for male attention. We have all been there and experienced this kind of erasure to various degrees of aggressiveness. This refrain is especially loud for bisexual women, who suffer erasure and ridicule from queer and straight communities alike, but the fact is, women’s sexuality has always been portrayed as less than or dependent upon that of a man’s. That isn’t to say bisexual men don’t also experience bi erasure. They do, and this is as much a product of homophobia as it is the primacy of the queer male gaze even within queer spaces and contexts. But in this case I’m addressing that of female and nonbinary bi-erasure and biphobia.

Furthermore, the role of queer women in society and popular media has always been underrepresented compared to that of gay men, or seen as more harmless or less significant, groundbreaking, or offensive for a couple of reasons: namely that a lot of people have played down or played off the existence of female sexuality and desire because they doubt its validity to begin with, or it’s “allowed” because it’s desirable to the male gaze. In some ways this has worked in our favour because subversive or queer female behaviour and desire in media have been able to fly beneath the radar, but it’s still a symptom of a greater problem.

I include this preamble because the writers of Roswell New Mexico have stunningly managed to ignore or remain ignorant to this context. The straight women on the show are shown to express their sexuality in upfront or positive ways, even opening up conversations about kink and reversing gender roles, but often in problematic ways too. The show sometimes fails the Bechdel Test or reduces characters, especially WOC like Maria, to having no purpose but to desire male characters and be desired by them, or portrays them as unable to want sex without quickly falling in love the way Maria seemingly has done with Michael. They’ve known each other for over a decade, and yet Maria only catches feelings after they’ve had sex, a night that, supposedly, meant nothing to her but quickly is revealed not to be the case. Interesting.

But beyond even that, my beef is with the whole Isobel-might-be-bisexual-and-in-love-with-Rosa-Ortecho storyline. I was excited about it at first; I couldn’t believe our luck that we had not one, but two bisexual characters on the show, and one of them was a bisexual woman married to a really awesome and seemingly caring South Asian man. But it was not to be, and this to me is ridiculously tone deaf and offensive in light of the fact that she was possessed by a male alien the whole goddamn time.

This tells us two equally disturbing things about the writers’ take on the queer female gaze and queer female sexuality: a) according to them, in this context, it literally doesn’t exist, and b) it is wholly a product of and subject to the male gaze.

From the promo for 1x12 it looks like they are going to delve a little bit into the mindfuck around consent due to Noah effectively brainwashing/tricking Isobel into marrying him, but one aspect of this I’d be surprised if they acknowledge is how he has also robbed Isobel of agency over her own sexuality. Not only has she been in a nonconsensual relationship with Noah this whole time, but he’s stripped her of the ability to discern whether her desires are her own, including the possibility that she is bisexual. As a woman, how can Isobel take her own sexuality seriously/see it as valid when she’s been forced to reconcile with the fact that, until now, it hasn’t been?

And that’s not even scratching the surface of the fact that a man used a woman, against her will and without her knowledge, to kill another woman. All over the simple fact that Rosa didn’t desire him/Isobel by extension. This stupid-as-fuck storyline is literally about weaponizing queer female sexuality in order to do violence against women. 

Just think about that for a second.

To make matters worse, Noah is a South Asian man and represents a community that is already marginalized in white media and society. Brown men have, in white culture, been relegated to two-dimensional stereotypes, rejected as love interests, and often portrayed as villains, and instead of positively developing an Indian character in a multiracial relationship and using that representation for good, he’s been made to violate his wife and use her to kill another woman. My girl @insidious-intent has written a really fantastic post to that end and I’d encourage you to read it. According to Carina, hiring Karan Oberoi to play Noah was colourblind casting. But viewers aren’t naive enough to buy that it’s ever that simple, or it shouldn’t be. I don’t see how you can write a nonwhite character the same as you would a white one and not expect it to have deeper or more damaging implications.

So my point, or at least one of them, is this: the failure of Roswell New Mexico to its queer viewers isn’t just that they’ve desecrated a ship as sacred as Malex or, at best, totally failed to do it justice. Roswell has failed us by invalidating and retconning female sexuality, and if this isn’t something we should all be angry about, straight and queer viewers alike, I don’t know what to tell you. While people are justified in expressing their anger to Carina about Malex, I think it’s also important to acknowledge and protest JUST AS LOUDLY the queer female angle. When you are thinking about how to represent, express, and phrase your disappointment to the production team, remember this goes far deeper than Malex. She has let us all down in ways that have nothing to do with our ship potentially not becoming a reality by the end of this season. She’s let POC viewers down just as resoundingly hard, both distinctly and factoring in the intersectionality of their writing choices.

All writers make mistakes. I want to put that out there. And I also want to put it out there that the issues around queer and POC representation are serious and disappointing, but not insurmountable if the writing team shows a willingness to learn, improve, and listen if the show is greenlit for season 2. But that isn’t what they’re doing. Carina has taken a stand, via Twitter, that they’ve done nothing wrong, and that is a big red flag that the writing team isn’t as woke as it likes to pretend and definitely not interested in listening to criticisms about their politics or how they try to convey them. So are her efforts of trying to silence bisexual viewers with legitimate criticism, or POC viewers doing the same thing. She and the writers would rather praise themselves for their token representation than acknowledge, listen to, and learn from real people expressing real concerns and sharing lived experiences.

[dykeabetic]

gail's ocs :^)

a masterpost of my ocs because im on mobile and my oc page is outdated

cain ornigana

aka cain gilmore

there r so many cains because i use them as an insert LMAO so this will be generic info that fits most of them.

agender (they and sometimes he pronouns)

bi and mlm

mixed cuban/brazilian/white

most cains are in their mid-late 20s/early-mid 30s. there is one version of them (the original, actually) who is 18.

has anxiety, adhd, depression and insomnia, along with type one diabetes because i give them everything i have

very kind and passionate! often very emotional. loves their friends so damn much.

#cain ornigana; #cain gilmore; #runner 5; #courier six

aerial whitton

there are like.... 3 versions of her rn lol!

cis girl (she pronouns)

bi

mixed black/samoan

around the same age as cain..... the original is 17.

autistic

super sweet and full of life! also really loves her friends. literally wants nothing more than for the people she loves to be happy! :^D

#aerial whitton; #lone wanderer

keira lowenfall ornigana

technically not my oc, she actually belongs to amanda, @kid-icarus-uprising-addict, but i stole her so shes mine now. originally amanda's d&d character. she and cain are a package so if cain exists in a world, keira's probably there too

also keira lowenfall gilmore, keira whitton ornigana, etc. she always has a lot of names.

girl, probably (she pronouns)

doesnt know what her orientation is, doesnt care. shes too young and has more fun things to care about

8 - 13 years old depending on the source.

in d&d, she is the run-away child of some nobles, and was adopted by cain and their husband. in my original works, she is cain and aerial's daughter. she is very excitable and hyper, always moving, very sweet but also very blunt!

#keira lowenfall gilmore; #keira ornigana

quinn marton

trans girl (she pronouns)

lesbian

black

18

literally so wise, very kind and gentle and always gives good advice. wants to make the world a better place.

#quinn marton

autumn primrose alvarez

cis woman (she pronouns)

bi

mixed white/peruvian

in her 30s

very kind but takes no shit. a very loving but will throw hands if youre not careful! would kill for her friends and family

#autumn primrose

yivian schmidtz

not cis (they/she pronouns)

queer/gay (doesnt know if shes into dudes or not. she might be!)

white

19

adhd and type 1 diabetes

loves to party and have fun. very nice. good to rant to, very ride-or-die. loves to make friends!

#yivian schmidtz

hira karki

cis woman (she pronouns)

lesbian

nepali-american

20

amputee; has a prosthetic arm

i just made her so im still making her personality! shes yiv's gf though

riley winters

a final fantasy vii fan oc; i have an original story for her too though

trans woman (she pronouns)

lesbian

mixed filipino/white

in her 30s

has adhd and cystic fibrosis

literally the physical embodiment of stereotypical adhd --- very energetic and excited and passionate! a joy to be around and talk to.

#riley winters

ahn "stella" duong

transfem and nonbinary (they pronouns)

lesbian

vietnamese-american

in her 30s

disabled and in a wheel chair

very fun to be around, nice and has a great sense of humor! loves their friends, loves to give hugs

#stella duong

april adams

nonbinary (she/they pronouns)

lesbian

white

15

adhd and probably other undiagnosed things

april is the angriest fifteen year old that you will ever meet. she's like those mean goth girls from like 80s movies. if you gain her trust and love she will kill for you. as of now the only person she loves is my brother's oc june, her girlfriend! can see ghosts, and is easily possessed

#april adams

june rosewood

like i said, june is my brother's oc! but im putting her here just because

trans girl (she pronouns)

lesbian

mixed japanese/white

14

june is very very sweet! kind and gentle, june is a ray of sunshine in contrast to april's constant gloom. her kindness and authenticity can make just about everyone love her -- hence her winning even april's heart! has visions of the world ending, and can see ghosts.

#june rosewood

august "auggie" francis

another oc my brother and i share

cis boy (he pronouns)

gay

deceased; died when 14; a ghost

auggie is a sweet but very anxious and timid boy. gender nonconforming. does not remember anything from when he was alive. can be seen by april and june; really likes them, but is very intimidated by april, who does not like him.

#auggie francis

caelyn valya

caelyn is a d&d character i made but havent used yet! she's a spring eladrin (an elf who was born in the faewild) and a ranger

cis girl (she pronouns)

lesbian

she's the child of sun elves so she has light brown skin. also, since she was born in the faewild, she's covered in green freckles

in her early 20s

adhd

caelyn spent all of her life in the faewild, where her parents were in hiding. because of this she is a bit sheltered and niave now that she's in the material plane! she's VERY sweet, a bit too trusting, and incredibly excited to be somewhere new. (you should ask about her knives)

#caelyn valya

kahayag nakamura

ok tbh..... kahayag is a minecraft oc. im still trying to work out what i want her story to be but i always saw minecraft as some post-apocalyptic world or something so im thinking she's one of the few survivors of the apocalypse

nonbinary woman (she / they pronouns)

lesbian

mixed filipino/japanese

19

i mean..... she survived the apocalypse so like..... shes probably got something

kahayag lives on her own with a dog in the middle of nowhere in a world where humanity is basically extinct. before the apocalypse, she was known for being nice, cool, and funny. now she doesnt talk much, but would still do anything to help her fellow man!

#kahayag nakamura

i have..... many more ocs, some of which are on my oc page (their info might be incorrect though), but these are the ones im gonna want to talk about!

edit 11/28: added hira!

[radicalrosesrevolt]

Milwaukee Pride is a Fucking Disgrace to Stonewall and Here's Why:

Milwaukee Pride is a fucking disgrace to what Pride is all about and where it fucking started. There are too many reasons that I can name off,  but I will just name a few of the pressing issues of this festival we call "Pride".

makegayhistory.org, Sylvia Rivera with banner.

milwaukeepride.org, Pride Fest 2019.

Milwaukee Pride is a celebration of overpriced fried food dipped in rainbow capitalism and drenched in the tragedies and issues of young queer and trans people (ESPECIALLY TQPOC) being swept under the rug.  

I'm writing this article because I am fucking tired of Milwaukee Pride being a

cis white passively racist gay man's fantasy.

I'm writing this because I'm tired of the fact that there's less than a crumb of an attempt at a safe all-gender inclusive bathroom and that I have to see TGNC people lined up at the only single stall bathroom by the youth area with looks of discomfort and disappointment. Which leads me to my first issue:

1. No real gender-neutral / all gender inclusive bathrooms, No fucks given about what trans people have to say!

There are various reviews and comments on Milwaukee Pride / Summerfest’s social media pages addressing their inability to make an actual attempt at creating safe bathroom experience that have been ignored or deleted..  “Um, what the hell do you mean? There’s huge signs saying you can use WHATEVER bathroom you want! You should be grateful!” you might say. There’s still multiple “MEN’S” and “WOMEN’S” signs that are visible around these bathrooms; we aren’t actually creating a gender inclusive bathroom experience if cis men and women are basically still going to their designated gendered bathrooms. This is an issue because it causes trans people to stand out and continue to be targeted.

I speak from experience when I came out as trans last year and was more “androgynous” looking and decided to use the “gender neutral” men’s bathroom. One man commented on how my breasts looked nice and another man came out of a stall and made eye contact with me. Then, he came over and shouted,  “Y’KNOW, WHY NOT HAVE GIRLS IN THE MEN’S BATHROOM?!” while throwing his arm around me and chuckling while I stood there uncomfortable and feeling unsafe.  Milwaukee Pride needs to do better for trans people because we literally wouldn’t have pride if it wasn’t for black and brown trans womxn.

2. Pride was a RIOT. The Police were MURDERING US AND BEATING US: WHY TF ARE COPS AT MKE PRIDE?   

I reached out to trans and queer people on social media asking what their experiences were at Milwaukee Pride and how safe they felt. Almost instantly, the response was about how bigots in Blue Lives Matters shirts and religious zealots violently screamed at black and brown QT people to repent for their existence during the Pride parade. Another QT Indigenous POC reported violent transphobia at a block party that happened after the pride parade. In all these violent accounts of racist, pro-police bullshit, the police of course stood by and did nothing. This is nothing new. We all know the cops don’t protect anyone and just enforce violence and mass genocide of black and brown people, so why the fuck are they at Pride? Have we really fucking forgotten the origin of all of this? Having cops at pride events erases what our trancestors and trans elders fought for in the first place.  

3.  Rainbow capitalism, alcohol and anti-lgbtq+ vendors: Stop profiting off of our queerness!  

If having the same white DJs playing shitty EDM and 1 Cardi B song, despite her being transphobic, while a drunk man is grinding on your back without consent is not annoying enough for you - let’s dive a little deeper into MKE Pride’s non-sober space issue! Honestly, I don’t even know where the fuck to start because it’s such a fucking mess.  “LADIEEEES!” vendors left and right cat-call at me and my black trans/nonbinary friends and continue to misgender us and meet us with disrespectful glares when I snap back saying we’re not girls. Bitch, do you even know where you are??

  Milwaukee Pride forces already poor and working class LGBTQ+ people of color to pay an outrageous price of $18 just for corporations and vendors to cat-call and misgender young trans people because all they care about is getting a dollar in their pocket. Miller Lite doesn’t give a fuck about us not having sober spaces. The lack of sober spaces for young QTPOC alone in Milwaukee is alarming and dangerous. Isolation and depression is more common among QTPOC (ages 18-24) in this city than you think. Isolation and depression are main factors that lead to alcoholism, drug addiction, and suicide.

Young LGBTQ+ community members already face so much isolation, hate, and violence, and being outcasted left and right. They don’t have spaces to be themselves and for a lot of young people, their first time at Pride is something sacred. It’s a space that’s decorated in what seems like an invitation to be yourself and be safe doing so when it’s not. This reflects on both Milwaukee Pride being a dangerous non-sober place and the fact that Milwaukee is such a terrible place for young LGBTQ+ people, especially young black and brown lgbtq+ people.

When I went to go see Kim Petras at Milwaukee Pride this year, there was a couple wrapped in a trans flag holding each other behind me, and next to me was my partner. Even though I was being approached by white people all day asking me racist questions like if I knew how to “ninja stuff,” and asking me if the plastic sword I was carrying was a “katana,” I felt relief. I thought, finally, I can dance and have a good time and see an amazing live trans pop artist up close! It wasn’t even mid-concert when a tall drunk man shoved his way through the young LGBTQ+ people around him to get to the front. He was behind me, yelling, and began pushing his crotch against my back. Trying to not make a scene, I kept trying to move forward with the little space I had. Maybe he just balance issues, I thought. He brought his hand up to my side and started to touch me under my muscle tank before I jerked away and yelled at him to stop touching me.

I’m fucking tired. This is the 2nd year I’ve been sexually harassed and inappropriately touched at Pride. Why do I always have to be in fear of my trans body being violated, whether it’d be verbally or physically, at pride? 

I wrote this not to shame Milwaukee Pride go-ers. I went this year. But, there needs to be change. There needs to be a call-to-action. Stonewall is an important part of our history and to capitalize off of a riot where police were beating our trans elders who demanded our rights, just to have marginalized identities get harassed and abused at Pride is a disgrace to what Pride is. Stonewall is still now. Stonewall is legacy that can not die. I’m urging this city within and outside of the LGBTQ+ community to reflect on what Pride is all about. I have never left Milwaukee Pride filled with so much shame. Many of us have walked away from Milwaukee Pride traumatized and violated.

I was surrounded by the smell of alcohol and drugs, in a fever dream of EDM feeling the weight of Stonewall’s history in my heart, thinking of how disappointed and disgusted Sylvia and Marsha would be, and the lives of so many black trans womxn that we lost. Milwaukee Pride is a fucking disgrace to the Stonewall Riots and contradicts everything the Stonewall trans activists stood for. You cannot run from our history. You can not deny our history. We Will Rise.

“This Queer Liberation movement is not over. It  never ended. Stonewall is NOW.” - Still Here: Trans Alliance for Trans Rights.

[rgr-pop]

I need an ENTIRE afternoon wall of noise. 4/3 music library on shuffle until I hit a killdozer song.

the thermals - “god and country” reset - "double cross" nirvana - "polly" (1986-88 home recording) nirvana - "radio friendly unit shifter" (2013 mix) peterbuilt - "sateliteyes" the dickies - "got it at the store" apocalypse hoboken - "box of pills" fiona apple - "slow like honey" tex & the horseheads - "big boss man" everclear - "the drama king" anti-flag - "america got it right" neil young - "tonight's the night, pt. ii" everclear - "brown-eyed girl" noooooooooo oh my god no please millencolin - “israelites" listen you know that i'm p tolerant when it comes to this subject but why specifically did you boys do this. specifically you useless id - "note" never accuse me of pop punk nationalism again! that's three of global pop punk the selecter - "selling out your future" built to spill - "some things last a long time" holidays - "proof" let's wrestle - "bad mammaries" radhos - "one breath" ween - "boing" bracket - "g-vibe" local h - "'cha!' said the kitty" sublime - "40oz to freedom" failure - "saturday saviour" blink-182 - "don't leave me" (tmtts live take) why did they make this live album, they were so bad live shrimp boat - "melon song" interpol - "not even jail" the ataris - "angry nerd rock" 50 million - "superhero" skankin pickle - "violent love" the breeders - "put on a side" all - "honey peeps" the commandos (suicide commandos) - "weekend warrior" suicide machines - "friends are hard to find" the eclectics - "laura" good ska block! love this band pansy division - "jack u off" rocket from the tombs - "ain't it fun" dynamite boy - "devoted" young pioneers - "downtown tragedy" the breeders - "so sad about us" fenix tx - "jean claude trans am" fuck i love this song nofx - "bob" hickey - "happily ever after" bob dylan - "tangled up in blue" (bootlegs vol. 2) gas huffer - "king of hubcaps" tullycraft - "crush this town" atom and his package - "goalie" faith no more - "the real thing" carly rae jepsen - "tell me" bis - "listen up" one direction - "still the one" mtx - "she's no rocket scientist" eugene chadbourne - "roger miller medley" grouvie ghoulies - "carly simon" white town - "thursday at the blue note" gas huffer - "moon mission" rx bandits - "sleepy tyme" everclear - "rocket for the girl" failure - "kindred" blood on the saddle - "johnny's at the fair" the distillers - "red carpet and rebellion" cruiserweight - "dearest drew" stp - "plush" everclear - "wonderful" (live, from the closure ep) (don't hate it) new found glory - "sonny" everclear - "otis redding" (impure white evil demo) (BEST song) stp - "adhesive" incubus - "have you ever" cub - "tell me now" everclear - "short blonde hair" i simply do not hate it letters to cleo - "happy ever after" amazing transparent man - “the ocean is a fuck of a long way to swim” nerf herder - “(stand by your) manatee” kitty kitty - “ab tokeless” osker - “the mistakes you made” perfume genius - “hood” radhos - “shut up & deal” (welcome to the jungle take) osker - “the body”  gas huffer - “the sin of sloth” the fall - “bombast” excuse 17 - “code red” mad season - “lifeless dead” unwritten law - “differences” hanson - “two tears” the eyeliners - “anywhere but here” moby grape - “lazy me” brian wilson - “wonderful” 88 fingers louie - “something i don’t know” sicko - “wisdom tooth weekend” the replacements - “love you till friday” suicide machines - “green world” midtown - “another boy” hickey - “cool kids attacked by flying monkeys” the roman invasion suite - “carnations” the beat - “tears of a clown” local h - “24 hour break up session” okay i’m awake i want to end this now toots & the maytals - “funky kingston” local h - “strict-9″ his name is alive - “her eyes were huge things” nirvana - “frances farmer will have her revenge on seattle” slapstick - “almost punk enough” urge overkill - “bionic revolution” janet jackson - “you want this” piebald - “long nights” small brown bike - “now i’m a shadow” the story so far - “left unsaid” crj - “more than a memory” tracy + the plastics - “my friends end parties” liz phair - “6′1″“ fastbacks - “555, pt. 1″ this mix is feminist now swindle - “one track” shockabilly - “burma shave” temple of the dog - “say hello to heaven” amazing transparent man - “shove” cool soul asylum cover from dekalb illinois :)) the vindictives “eating me alive” midwests only!! the judys - “radiation squirm” gulfs only!! frogpond - “sleep” flipp - “rock-n-roll star” throwing muses - “red shoes” everclear - “santa monica” throwing muses on summerland??? mekons - “atone & forsaken” holidays - “take me home country roads” this is a good tone to lead up to killdozer... true believers - “all mixed up again” prince - “adore” beulah - “queen of the populists” eveclear - “rocky mountain high” (99x live acoustic--I don’t have a date for this actually) of montreal - “dustin hoffman thinks about eating the soap” heatmiser - “stray” rickie lee jones - “woody and dutch on the slow train to peking” tar - “viaduct removal” common rider - “carry on” the frogs - “u bastards” mudhoney - “this gift” hammerbox - “outside” fuck my mom would have loved this song if it had gotten the airplay it deserved in 1993... hammerbox on summerland!!!! letters to cleo - “little rosa” kay hanley on summerland!! nine pound hammer “wrongside of the road” hanson - “with you in your dreams” (3cg demo) hamson on summerland!!! fastbacks - “555, pt. 1″ again... fastbacks on summerland!!! face to face - “sensible” soul asylum - “happy” soul asylum on summerland!!!! television - “see no evil” pinq - “careful not to mention the obvious” the dickies - “nights in white satin” tar - “mel’s” truly - “chlorine” babes in toyland - “deep song” hole - “berry” hellbender - “half driven” hammerhead  - “new york? ...alone?” everclear - “malevolent” guzzard - “last”  archers of loaf - “tatyana” hum - “stars” hum on summerland die kreuzen - “don’t say please” this is not fair joanna newsom - “sadie” down by law - “peace, love and understanding” nirvana - “aneurysm” (1990 demo) hovercraft - “endoradiosonde” modest mouse - “cowboy dan” rage against the machine - “born of a broken man” skatalites - “scandal ska” pylon - “driving school” the vindictives - “babysitter” jimmy eat world - “ten” the get up kids - “lowercase west thomas” oh we’re doing this now? hot rod circuit - “knees” fine triple fast action - “the rescue” FINE  full disclosure i do skip emo diaries tracks at my discretion the amps - “bragging party” everclear - “am radio” this is not fair mxpx - “middlename” MXPX ON SUMMERLAND chokebore - “your let down” bob dylan - “you’re a big girl now” helmet - “primitive” pond - “filterless” blink-182 - “all the small things” local h - “ralph” tar - “over and out” pearl jam - “black” the gits - “sniveling little rat faced git” local h - “eddie vedder” >:) tar - “flow plow” i always misremember this as a subpop single so i’m like “i’m not amphetamine reptile biased?” but it was an a/r release, lol. brad wood produced it. lake michigan as hell  unicorns - “jellybones” this song makes me sad ever since i didn’t get to adopt the jellybones cat oblivion - “clark” desmond dekker - “jeserene” veruca salt - “one last time” veruca salt on summerland!!!! dead moon - “dead moon night” extremely dead moon on summerland fishbone - “i like to hide behind my glasses” dead moon - “on my own” paw - “sleeping bag” tar - “goethe” doc dart - “casket with flowers” smashing pumpkins - “zero” i don’t want billy corgan on summerland and i am sorry for that kicking giant - “&” kicking giant on summerland lmao shockabilly - “pile up all architecture” ween - “sorry charlie” sublime - “april 29, 1992 (miami)” heatmiser - “blackout” the clash - “pressure drop” hellbender - “pissant’s retrospective” the queers - “i won’t be” the vindictives - “circles” the beat farmers - “selfish heart” screaming trees - “end of the universe” 7 year bitch - “second hand” bourgeois filth - “above” nirvana - “scoff” the breeders - “cannonball” saturday looks good to me - “save my life” cara beth satalino - “good ones” communique - “dagger version” soul asylum - “sometime to return” sublime - “jailhouse” tullycraft - “twee” nuns - “wild” beyonce - “countdown” the replacements - “sixteen blue” living colour - “what’s your favorite color” britney - “why should i be sad” mdc - “church and state” alice in chains - “junkhead” rage against the machine - “mic check” everclear - “nervous and weird” soundgarden - “fresh tendrils” helmet - “army of me” the gits - “it all dies anyway” pansy division - “smells like queer spirit” mtx - “i’d do anything for you” 5 year sentence - “just a punk” pennywise - “nothing” mudhoney - “thirteenth floor opening” yesterday’s kids - “eighteen” mxpx - “punk rawk show” small brown bike - “zerosum” incubus - “trouble in 421″ hanson - “speechless” incubus - “circles” dead moon - “my time has come” (!!!!) first of all is this killdozer blink-182 - “here’s your letter” everclear - “electra made me blind” (nervous & weird take) saves the day - “through being cool” groovie ghoulies - “don’t go out into the rain (you’re gonna melt)” babes in toyland - “never” husker du - “target” guzzard - “biro” fairweather - “next day flight” mcr - “house of wolves” broadcast - “until then” liz phair - “never said” the dicks - “rich daddy” quasi - “the iron worm” mustard plug - “not again” janitor joe - “boyfriend” snapcase - “new academy” neil young - “someday” blindsided - “spaceman” placebo - “without you i’m nothing” the creeps - “lakeside cabin” solomon grundy - “time is not your own” the clash - “the card cheat” silversun pickups - “common reactor” lagwagon - “leave the light on” denali - “where i landed” system of a down - “highway song” sprinkler - “personality doll” the vindictives - “structure and function” unplugged” the queers - “ursula finally has tits” we’re entering no repeats territory  buffalo springfield - “expecting to fly” hit squad - “pictures of matchstick men” cows - “almost a god” hop along - “young and happy” pixies - “i’ve been tired” the fall - “spoilt victorian child” camper van chadbourne - “knock on the door” queens of the stone age - “tension head” choking victim - “war story” cool that we have gotten to drop by the greatest song ever recorded :) guttermount - “happy loving couples” audio karate - “nintendo 89″ tad - “pork chop” the kelley deal 6000 - “where did the home team go” colorfinger - “hateful” :} man or astroman - “evil plans of planet spectra” pere ubu - “arabian nights” accepting repeats for  new found glory - “my friends over you” cool moving on american steel - “optimist” tom petty & the heartbreakers - “even the losers” meat puppets - “another moon” black cat music - “wine in a box” wallside - “ready” crucifucks - “pig in a blanket” the bananas - “my charmed life”

KILLDOZER - “EARL SCHEIB,” UNCOMPROMISING WAR ON ART UNDER THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT, 1994. KILLDOZER ON SUMMERLAND

[sataniccapitalist]

The True State of the Union

“All the pomp and circumstance of the State of the Union speech was present last night — the introductions, the stage-managed applause, the honored guests — and this: Donald Trump giving the crowd his profile like Nero, sneering and gesticulating at the Democrats, clapping and clapping and clapping into his own microphone to keep the applause lines going like some starving seal in a two-bit circus. Standing under the lights last night, he looked like a new penny at the bottom of a truck stop toilet bowl, all copper sheen and the stink of ammonia.”

I wrote that a year ago about the last State of the Union address, and I have no reason to doubt tonight will prove to be any different. These addresses have been, by and large, wildly overwrought exercises in fiction, ego-inflation and ersatz patriotism since Ronald Reagan decided to go big with them four decades ago. Now that Donald Trump has lumbered onto the scene, however, the charade has become quite completely surreal, a festival of lies, bombast and full-throated nonsense that beggars likeness.

They will stand, they will sit, they will clap, they will leave, and nothing of substance or import will have been imparted to the people. Therefore, my colleagues and I at Truthout have endeavored to compile a collection of facts about the actual state of the union, and indeed the world, as a companion piece to the speech.

What follows does not cover every topic and crisis worthy of attention. The ongoing calamity of for-profit health care, attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, racist police violence, Yemen, the Forever Wars and other vital subjects will be discussed in a variety of articles to come. Here is an incomplete yet all-too-necessary look at a few of the most pressing concerns we face. Here is the truth, as best as we can state it, about the state of things. It is not pretty, not without hope, and exactly what you deserve to hear.

— William Rivers Pitt

The Climate Crisis Grinds On

Since the Trump administration began, it has launched a wholesale war against any legislation, laws, or other actions aimed at regulating, mitigating or stemming the tide of runaway climate disruption. At a time when governments around the world should be making managing the impacts of climate change their highest priority, given that the very survival of the human species could well depend upon it, they have instead:

Withdrawn the United States from the Paris climate accord;

Waged a war against climate science by cutting budgets for data and analysis on the subject;

Eased carbon emission rules for new coal plants;

Issued an executive order calling for a sharp increase in logging on public lands;

Nominated coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler as acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency;

Rolled back Obama-era coal rules that served to restrict greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants;

Delayed a climate change lawsuit brought forward by 21 youths;

Approved the first offshore oil wells for the Arctic, and so much more.

All this, despite the fact that the Trump administration has also predicted a seven degree increase in global temperatures by 2100.

— Dahr Jamail

The Racist Underbelly of Immigration

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has continued its campaign of anti-migrant violence unabated, deporting record numbers of people in 2018. In only the past week, we’ve learned that the agency created a fake university in order to incarcerate over 100 immigrants. ICE has confirmed that it is force-feeding at least nine detainees.

We’ve also recently observed the second anniversary of the shameful executive order known as the “Muslim ban.” Meanwhile, the administration’s assault on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), which protects approximately 700,000 immigrants from deportation, is momentarily halted by various court orders.

Although Trump has not deported nearly as many people as did Obama — the deporter-in-chief — the current administration has laid bare the depths of racism that underpin our immigration system.

The US tortures migrants. It traumatizes children and their families. It allows private prisons to exploit them as slave labor. It lets them die in detention.

Our nation’s immigration policy will not attend to what matters most — human lives — until it starts from the roots of the crisis: decades of US invasions and interventions throughout the Middle East and Latin America, including the 2009 US-backed coup in Honduras; and a neoliberal trade policy that displaces, dispossesses and immiserates workers and Indigenous communities. We must also ask what another US-backed coup, such as the ongoing attempt in Venezuela, would do to deepen the crisis.

The two parties continue to approach immigration from the point of view of security, but fail to address the far greater threats — or actual threats — posed to our lives, such as fossil fuel executives, white supremacists,nuclear weapons and Wall Street.

Our nation’s immigration policy will not attend to what matters most — human lives — until it starts from the roots of the crisis.

The truth is that caravans will continue to come to our borders for years to come. The construction of walls, whether in the form of Trump’s “vision” of actual barriers, or the Democrats’ Silicon Valley wet dream, will not address the crisis. The movement of peoples spawned by capitalism and empire will not end with a fence or “comprehensive immigration reform.”

This past month, the Trump administration used federal workers as a bargaining chip in its quest to fund a racist border wall, which is nothing more than a monument to anti-immigrant racism. Millions of workers have suffered, and millions more might not be paid for their labor. But when workers threatened to withdraw their labor, they shut down the shutdown.

As we’re likely very soon to hear about a “state of emergency” at the border that once again renews the attacks on immigrants, herein lies the real power to fight back — the organized masses of workers and oppressed communities. Only together can we demand the most humane immigration policy: Let them all in!

— Anton Woronczuk

The State of the Prison Nation

This past year, the state of prison reform reached peak hypocrisy. Donald Trump signed the First Step Act — a much-celebrated bill that offers meager reforms and an expansion of mass surveillance — the day after implementing a draconian new anti-refugee policy and affirming he wouldn’t sign a budget bill without wall funding. Congress rallied around the First Step Act with bipartisan cheer. Trump is likely to mention it in tonight’s State of the Union address.

Meanwhile, it will do practically nothing to alleviate mass incarceration, and will deepen the reach of racist, insidious prison-like mechanisms like electronic monitoring. This type of tinkering around the edges does not address our shameful reality: The state of our “union” is a state of pervasive imprisonment, both inside and outside the walls and bars. Almost 2.3 million people are trapped in prisons, jails (including immigration jails, Indian Country jails and youth jails), military prisons, civil commitment centers and psychiatric hospitals.

At least 80,000 of them are held in solitary confinement — a practice widely recognized to be torture. Immigrant jails saw a record highpopulation this year. The impact of incarcerative punishment reaches far past the prison walls: More than half of the people in the United States have a family member who is or has been incarcerated.

Meanwhile, about 4.5 million people are under “correctional control”: parole or probation. About 438,000 children (and increasing) are ensnared in the foster care system — another branch of the prison nation, as criminology scholar Beth Richie has pointed out. And 3.2 million children have been caught up in often invasive, and even abusive,child “protective” services investigations.

The prison, policing and surveillance systems are not only a feature of our society, they saturate it.

Police are nearly everywhere in our society. Approximately 10.6 million arrests take place each year, and last year, cops killed 1,166 people. More than 40 percent of schools have police on site. Moreover, an increasing number of people are being placed on surveillance devices, such as electronic shackles,that stretch the reach of the prison nation even further.

The prison, policing and surveillance systems are not only a feature of our society, they saturate it.

Black and Brown people, as well as other marginalized groups, are overwhelmingly impacted by these systems. The relevance of race and marginalization is not just a question of disproportions. The prison and punishment systems are built on a foundation of white supremacy, born out of slavery and colonialism, fueled by anti-Blackness and racism. These are systems that punish people for their poverty, their disabilities, their addictions. These are systems that persecute and torture trans, nonbinary and queer people.

Even as Donald Trump endorses (extremely limited) reforms, he’s enthusiastically supporting the capture, confinement and punishment — in one form or another — of many millions of oppressed people. Regardless of what Trump says tonight during his speech, he is presiding over a “union” whose veins pulse with torturous punishment, whose lifeblood is oppression, and whose bones are bars of steel.

— Maya Schenwar

Strange Days on the Media Front

It’s been something of a best of times/worst of times situation on the media front. The media landscape has never been so vast and infested with landmines. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has killed net neutrality for the moment. The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) and the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) are hurting more people than helping. Corporate media continue to revel in corporate-media-ness (the wall-to-wall coverage of a coffee chain billionaire taking his ego for a walk serving as a sample platter). Journalists are losing jobs left and right — Buzzfeed reminded everybody on hard news shortly before laying off 200 employees in the name of profits.

Even when it’s good — even when it’s great! — much of blockbuster cinema perpetuates authoritarian, reactionary and monarchical narratives. The threat of a certain kind of magical thinking spilling over from pop entertainment into real-life decision-making can be overblown in many arenas, but it can be unnerving to consider wealthy tech brosmistaking themselves for Tony Stark and mistaking that for a good thing. It’s not reassuring that our most popular narratives extol the message that “only a handful of ‘better’ people can save us, if only we didn’t hold them back with pesky rules.”

One could feast exclusively on free (often donation-funded) video essay content endlessly on YouTube. The rise of BreadTube and the like has led to massively entertaining and educational content receiving a larger audience and support. Just a tiny sample from this past year: Shannon Strucci’s illuminating work on parasocial relationships; Lindsey Ellis’sdocumentary-length treatise on The Hobbit films making a surprising pivot toward labor concerns; Donoteat explaining why highways never solve the problems they’re prescribed for; Contrapoints, raising the aesthetic bar for the rest of YouTube with her videos, including those on incels, Jordan Peterson and capitalism… the list of amazing essays released in the past year is intimidating.

A downside: it’s become impossible to spend any amount of time on YouTube without having “alt-right”/anti-feminist/white supremacist/conspiracy garbage force-fed to your stream. Let one slip through on an auto-play and all of a sudden, the algorithm’s decided it’s true love and opened the sluice gates.

The networks we build offline and online between each other remain essential.

It’s another sign of the undeniably strange times we’re living in. While many are trapped in information bubbles formed by culture as well as by algorithms, the possibilities of media have reached weird and inspiring heights. For instance: H. Bomberguy’s Donkey Kong 64 stream in support of Mermaids, a group that helps out trans youth, was both heartwarming and surreal. Who could have expected to see some of the most entertaining, left-leaning YouTubers on the same stream as Chelsie Manning, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the guy who made DOOM, all cheering on trans rights and a sleep-deprived YouTuber playing a 90s video game?

The messages that support progressive causes and human empathy may win out in value, but if they are not communicated well enough, far enough and often enough, they will lose out to messaging that preys on fear, hatred and greed bankrolled by billionaires. It is both a thrill and a relief to see more effective progressive messaging reach larger audiences through a growing, more diverse and more empowered chorus of voices. However, platforms are not our friends, and we need to be prepared when the ground beneath us shifts. From platforms to platform games, there are helping hands there for the taking. The networks we build offline and online between each other remain essential.

— Jared Rodriguez

The State of the Unions Is (Surprisingly) Strong

While Trump touts the economy, the most recent jobs report reveals that the new jobs being created under his administration pay much less than existing ones and are less likely to be unionized. Wage growth has just barely ticked up to 3.2 percent over the last year — remaining lower than where it was before the Great Recession. Further, many of the 800,000 federal workers who spent more than a month locked out of their workplaces during the longest partial government shutdown in history have yet to fully recover, with the recent rise in unemployment being attributed to furloughed workers who reported being unemployed in January.

It’s clear workers still aren’t reaping the rewards of their labor since Trump took the White House, and these conditions are increasingly driving worker militancy under an administration determined to crush organized labor. In fact, labor has seen a stunning resurgence under Trump even after the passage of Janus v. AFSCME, which gutted unions of their ability to collect “fair share fees.”

Teachers are on the front lines of this labor resurgence.

Teachers are on the front lines of this labor resurgence. Building on the momentum of historic teacher strikes last year, teachers are wasting no time in 2019. Educators in Los Angeles launched a successful six-day strike in January, as teachers in Denver and Oakland are now gearing up to follow their lead with strikes of their own in the coming weeks. These “Red for Ed” educators are leading the labor movement, showing unions how to push back against tax cuts for corporations and privatization efforts that hurt communities. The state of the unions looks strong, despite the administration’s tremendous efforts to quell worker dissent.

— Candice Bernd

The State of the Fascist State

Disturbingly, the psychological impacts of the Trump administration’s more fascistic policies seem to have diminished in the last year. One need only examine the difference between the public upheaval over child separations in 2018 and the far more subdued condemnations we witnessed over the weekend, as word broke that the Trump administration has disclosed that there are thousands more separated children than was previously acknowledged, and argued that locating the children may not be “within the realm of the possible,” since authorities did not track where the separated children were being placed.

A similarly subdued public reaction was on display during the government shutdown, when Trump threatened to circumvent Congress by declaring a state of emergency in order to build the wall. While furloughed federal workers protested the shutdown, and grassroots efforts opposing the violence of the immigration system have been ongoing, these efforts were not met with the high level of public participation we saw in earlier protests of the Trump administration’s policies. Even as some warned that an emergency declaration could have major authoritarian consequences, the country did not erupt in the kind of protests we witnessed earlier in the administration. This process of normalization is symptomatic of fascistic politics, and should be viewed as an alarming symptom of the United States’ social and political decline.

Our success or failure in proclaiming that right and wrong exist may be the defining struggle not simply of our times, but of all of human history.

The Democrats’ newfound dominance in the House, coupled with a focus on 2020 Democratic candidates, has fueled complacency, with many liberals viewing Trump’s agenda being hampered by Democratic gains. While some Democrats believe Trump is on the ropes, with the Mueller investigation, yet again, supposedly nearing its end, we would be remiss to see the threat Trump poses as diminished by Mueller or recent Democratic gains. As Trump has repeatedly established, he is willing to act unilaterally in his attacks on the environment, civil liberties and the social safety net — and the cultural impact of his racist, xenophobic rhetoric has not been lessened by the trials he has faced.

If anything, attacks on Trump appear to rally his base. The valorization of white rage continues unabated by his followers, and escalations should be expected from Trump’s supporters as Democratic attacks on Trump’s presidency and agenda continue. While the House may be able to push back against Trump’s legislative impacts, the culture war between white supremacy and those who oppose it has been accelerated past the point of legislative interruption.

While some continue to speak to a need for unity, the need for further polarization in response to the global rise of fascism continues, and with climate change on the table, our success or failure in proclaiming that right and wrong exist, and that evil must be opposed, may be the defining struggle not simply of our times, but of all of human history.

— Kelly Hayes