#it is pride month after all i should be inclusive

[romana-after-dark]

Dead Dove December 2024

Hello everyone! This December I’m hosting a multi-fandom event that I’m calling, Dead Dove December! From 12/01/2024 - 12/31/2024 I’m encouraging others to create something that expresses their deepest and (most importantly) darkest desires. I will be reblogging all pieces of art or fanfiction, and will post a masterlist in January.��or whenever i get around to it. i have not even done the pride masterlist bc I'm a disaster! But most importantly this will be for funsies.

I hosted this last year with just oscar/pedro Characters but Logan is my special guy so he's here now too <3

Details below the cut…

What is Dead Dove Do Not Eat?

Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, or DDDNE has its origins in one of my comfort shows!

The phrase comes from a meme referencing the 2003 Arrested Development episode "Top Banana", in which Michael Bluth opens a paper bag labeled "DEAD DOVE DO NOT EAT" and, upon discovering that there is a dead dove inside the bag, says, deadpan, "I don't know what I expected." - fanlore.org

In short, what you see in the tags is what you should expect to see in the fic. This can apply for any type of fic, including the fluffy ones, but it’s usually associated with darker themes. That being said, this is your warning that this is a DARK THEMED EVENT. If you aren’t comfortable with darker topics like non-con, excessive violence, blood/gore, death, toxic relationships, 18+ age gaps, and more, then I encourage you not to participate in this event.

How to Participate

For the month of December, post your Dead Dove fanfiction or fan art on your blog. Use the tag #deaddovedecemeber2024 and tag me. You can also send a link via ask or DM if you like! I will not be posting anything for you, just reblogging and linking. At the end of December I will post a masterlist with links to everyone’s works! Side Note - Since Tumblr doesn’t really allow for NSFW art, you can post your work on Twitter or any other site that allows it and just send me that link so I can add it to the masterlist.

Rules

You MUST be 18+ to participate. I will be checking your blog/social media to be sure. Please make sure your age is easy to find. If I find that you’re a minor or if your age isn’t readily present I will be blocking you and you will be unable to participate. You can just add that you are over 18 if you don’t want your age out on the internet. As the creator and promotor of this event, I need to know I’m not interacting with minors given the nature of this event.

The work MUST be dark in some way. There’s no limit to how dark your work needs to be or can be, but it needs to contain some sort of dark theme in order to qualify. If non con isn’t your thing, dub con via stockholm syndrome or brainwash can let you write a more comfortable scene while still remaining dark. Fics and art do not necessarily need to be NSFW. last year a friend even did cnc, where it was seemingly dark but then ended with it was Marc and reader ding a scene. Dark reader or oc is an absolute yes.

Your work MUST have an Oscar Isaac, Hugh Jackman, or Pedro Pascal Character. It can be x reader, x oc,xcanon character, crosoversec. If you want Joel Miller fucking the ghoul from Fallout (or both of them fucking a reader)you can even though Eddie doesn't exist in any Oscar Pedro Hugh content. If you want Marc and Logan to fuck, go nuts. Got a series you're already writing, and wanna submit a dark chapter or a dark Au to it? That's fine too! We're pretty open here.

Do NOT post anything before 12/01/2024. I will not count submissions prior to that date or after 12/31/2024. Masterlsit will be posted in January.

Your work MUST contain the proper tags. I won’t police how detailed your tags should be, but, for instance, if your work contains non-con, and you didn’t tag non-con then your work will not qualify. Please be inclusive in your writing where you can, but aware of POC queer and disabled people.

You may submit no more than two (2) pieces. This can include a fanfic and fanart, two fanfics or two fanarts. This is to allow someone to write a piece and make a work of art to accompany it. You can also work with another creator together.

I’m not going to yuck someone’s yum, but there are some things I’m just personally not comfortable with and since I’ll be reading/viewing/promoting all of these, I have a few things not allowed in the event. The list of what’s NOT allowed is shorter than the list of what IS allowed so here’s a list of the things that will NOT be tolerated in this event:

No underage/aged up minor content - To clarify, this includes things popular ships like - TLOU 1 or "Show Ellie" x Joel or Miguel O’Hara X Gwen Stacy. No "ageing up" minors for the purpose of a fic.

No Bestiality - To clarify, monsterfucking does NOT count as bestiality (at least to me). For example, werewolves, venom, Khonshu, e.t.c. are all allowed.

No incest - To clarify, step-sibling/step-parent relationships are permitted as long as everyone is 18+. Different age of consent in your state or country does not apply here, and frankly I'd prefer 21+ but I know there are younger people than me who write so I'm not gonna say you gotta write like that. Selfcest relationships are also allowed (like Moon Knight or Miguel with his alternate self, e.t.c.).

No necro/snuff. Plain and simple.

I have final say in what I want to promote. Is TLOU 2 Ellie an adult and not technically Joel's ctual kid? Yes. technically it fits all the rules but it gives me the ick so I'm not gonna accept it. I cannot possibly prepare for all scenarios, and i want to just be able to have fun here with yall.

If you’re unsure if something is allowed or not, you can send me a DM or an ask for clarification prior to posting.

You can use any prompts you want or none, you aren’t tied to any one idea but here are some to get the ideas flowing if you need them!

Also, you can absolutely use a fic to inspire your art, or art to inspire a fic! Your inspiration piece, whether yours or someone else’s does not have to be from December, but you MUST obtain permission from the original creator before I promote your work. Most creators are happy when their work inspires others, and all my fics are open to being used for inspiration, but please reach out to the creator first.

I’m very excited! This is my second year hosting this an I've hosted other events by myself or with friends so I'm happy to keep going, this time with Hugh Jackman bc i can't get Logan out of my head.

Dividers and header made by the amazing @melodygatesauthor

Please consider reblogging to spread the word!

I don't reall know many people in the logan/hugh jackman fandom so I'd love if this was an oppritunity to get to know yall too!

Dark prompt list to come, also check out #deaddovedecember2023 to see what last year had!

[incorrect-back-to-the-80s]

Lionel: We've already hit rock bottom.

Billy: I have a plan.

Lionel: We've found a lower level.

[popcornforone]

Pride

A Marcus Moreno Fic

Day 12 of Pedrotober (Rainbow Pants Prompt)

Masterlist

Well this I didn’t know who to write this for & then a friend online said they really liked Marcus Moreno & I was like ahhh this is gonna be a good idea for him with this prompt so here we go. Let’s have some fun with our super hero.

Also we are all allies, & all people. To the girls, guys, they, them & I’s, I love you no matter who you love or who you are. Never be ashamed to be you.

Synopsis:- Marcus is not happy with his new super hero outfit.

Word count:- 700

Warnings over & above:- swearing, that’s about it really, a bit of teasing.

Thanks for the read peoples, thanks for the prompt @norththelemon @alyssamariag . I’m having so much fun.

“The fuck” he says as he hold up his new super hero outfit. “What are you making me wear?”you giggle.

“It’s not just you Marcus” you try to not laugh as he actually takes his glasses on & off again to check he’s not seeing things & that it is that bold & colourful. “Everyone in the team has something similar, it’s pride month after all”

“I get that but these…” he shakes his head, he’s trying to remain angry but he’s also trying not to laugh “it’s a bit over the top”

“Please Marcus just try them on & you should be lucky you’re not Lava Girl, she’s already complaining about too much glitter” he rolls his eyes & grabs the rest of the bag & pulls the curtain in front of him in the locker room to change into his new super hero costume, that the team had been working on for the last 8 months for everyone. The message needs fo be very on brand, after last year a couple of the older heroic had comments that were not very inclusive & had old fashioned values. Something you have been trying to remind them about. One of these heroics has since retired.

5 minutes later out he step & you laugh, bending over as you can’t even Keep it calm or quiet. He puts his hands on his hips & pouts. He smirking, he can’t hide it.

“I don’t see what’s so funny, it’s atrocious” there he stands swaying about & bending to his knees in his new rainbow styled super hero suit. The rainbow trousers were boot leg cut & he just keeps looking down at them & shaking his head. The more he gets pissed at them the more you love them. “Stop laughing” he says trying not to join you, your laugh he always finds contagious.

“Sorry Marcus, but it’s so funny that mr serious who’s almost always in dark blue or black is now in the colours of the rainbow. It does look cute.”

“I’m not meant to be cute or a certain brand depending on it being National coffee day or international cat day, I’m the leader of the heroics, what will aliens think if they drop in & have to fight me?”

“They will go oooh he’s an ally” you try to stop laughing, your face hurts from doing to much of it.

“You & costume know full well if I go out in this to fight crime & save the world that I’ll become a meme”

“& is that so bad”

“I have a teenage daughter…”

“She knows.”

“What” Marcus has no idea that Missy has been in on all of this & wanted her dad to be as vibrant as possible. He then finally does look in the mirror looking at the whole thing.

“I mean I guess it’s comfortable, they’ve made some worse outfits, but why is it so… colourful?”

“Cos you’re meant to be proud & out there” you stand behind him & run your hands across the back of his shoulders. “ & you are out there Marcus” you whisper & he turns to face you, looking straight into your green eyes. “You keep the world safe, & Missy & me are proud of you for doing that” you slowly stand on your tip toes & gently kiss his lips & slowly run your hands through his hair as he squeezes your bum.

“Hmmm if you weren’t head of marketing & such a good kisser I’d be very disappointed in you for making me put this on”

“Would it help” you say as you undo his belt. “If I said you don’t have to wear this if you really don’t want to but that I also have a rainbow tie, cufflinks & glasses for the next month?” You smile at him & see his frown soften. He then cups your face.

“I’d much prefer than sexy”

“Good,” you sigh before he caresses your cheek before kissing you again. A deep & sensual kiss. “Now let’s get you out of this stupid outfit”

“Only if you help me out of it”

[different-pridemonthera]

Hello, I'm not a native English speaker, but as a part of the queer community, I'd love to write a lengthy post to express my thoughts on why I find it absurd for people to criticize an actual canon queer ship for a queerbaiting ship, especially during Pride Month.

Originally thought that since the season finale was coming, I wouldn't make sharp comments anymore. Just wait for Season 8. The ship war that has been bubbling with noise previously is actually quite boring, especially those who can't tell what status virtual characters really are, and insist on picking out character issues, hoping that the character will die as soon as possible. The even lower-intelligence ones are those who can't tell the difference between characters and reality, and rush to attack the actors, trying to drive the actors away. It only leaves people speechless, feeling like I am facing a group of stereotypical teenagers across the network.

Then, as soon as Pride Month rolled around again, the 911 twt community's largest fan news account stirred up controversy by including a photo of Buddie among a group of canon queer characters to celebrate Pride Month. Personally, I don't have strong feelings about it. Firstly, Pride Month is all about inclusivity and acceptance. Secondly, it's a fan account and they can post what they want. Thirdly, Buddie, being one of the hottest queerbaiting ships in the 9-1-1 fandom, would undoubtedly be featured during Pride Month. While this might have happened in previous years too, but this year was different due to a major development in season 7, Buck's bisexual awakening, along with a new canon queer ship bucktommy/tevan that's currently in development.

Firstly, I don't think that just because Buck and Tommy became canon, it means you can't still ship Buddie. Ship culture is basically about shipping anything you want.

However, I also understand why some people might have issues with celebrating Pride Month with Buddie after the Buck and Tommy canon. The reality is many people forget that Buddie is a classic example of queerbaiting (it even made it to Wikipedia's queerbaiting page as a typical case). Or, more accurately, many people don't realize that queerbaiting, as a marketing strategy, is actually harmful to the real LGBTQ+ community. From a queer perspective, queerbaiting is simply a way to attract viewers by consuming the LGBTQ+ community, and the characters involved are essentially detached from reality. In a sense, any interactions they have that seem chemically charged are meaningless. A more specific example would be in Season 7 when Buck comes out, and Oliver, the actor, immediately receives private messages from closeted firefighters thanking him. This kind of thanks would not have happened during any scene between Buck and Eddie in seasons 2-6, especially when both characters had girlfriends. There is almost no real LGBTQ+ person could truly relate to such scenes. However, the possibility implied by queerbaiting exactly hits their desire for resonance. This is why I believe canon is important, only through canon can characters connect most closely with the real LGBTQ+ community. How much can a queerbaiting ship (where Eddie doesn't even have a canon LGBTQ+ character identity) contribute to the real LGBTQ+ community? Especially when fans of this queerbaiting ship hope that a canon queer ship with a clear positive impact will bone? Now it's even starting to reject TV shows that show two men flirting with daddy issue jokes. I ship buddie for Almost 5 years, My personal reason for wanting Buddie to become canon besides the chemistry was largely because I didn't want them to continue queerbaiting: they should officially get together or clearly not be together. Now that Buck has become bi, Buddie has slowly shifted into a ship baiting nature, but it cannot be denied that Buddie was queerbaiting before.

And I've been thinking that Eddie is gay for a long time, even though some so-called "insiders" have recently revealed that the ana breakup line is a precursor to his being gay, I still don't understand the so-called queer code, can you call it a queer code when every heterosexual relationship doesn't end well? Then it seems that every scumbag is a queer code, not to mention the fact that Ryan himself explicitly mentioned the word heterosexual in his interview describing buck's coming out scene to Eddie. Do the people who think Eddie is gay really know what sexual orientation means? The point is to be sexually attracted to men and only men. Eddie has been shown enjoying heterosexual sex on more than one occasion so far, and even Michael (Athena's ex-husband) came out at the beginning of the show and then made it clear that he would never have sex with Athena again. is it okay for a gay man to have heterosexual sex? Maybe it is. But do gay people enjoy heterosexual sex? You've got to be kidding me! Eddie being a bisexual or pansexual makes a lot more sense to me than being gay. Secondly the speculation about Eddie being Demisexual, Honestly, I didn't understand the concept of Demisexual very well, but I really don't think he's very Demisexual, he and shannon got back together only by having sex when they had relationship problems, and now he and marisol are already having sex frequently without having progressed to the point where they can cohabitate, does that really fit the definition of Demisexual? I just not so sure.

And even if Eddie is gay/Demisexual doesn't mean buddie canon, another point I really want to say is that almost most buddie fans feel that the character's sexuality can only be a PLOT DEVICE in the service of buddie, which is why the atmosphere in the fanbase was still harmonious during the period after s7ep4 and before ep5, because in the interview tim mentioned that the next episode of bucktommy's date didn't go well, and everyone didn't take Tommy's character seriously, thinking that Tommy was a tool, and that he would leave soon, and then buck would go and develop buddie obediently, which is actually a very good indication that they didn't take buck's bisexuality seriously too, and then they found out that bucktommy's coffee date was thriving again in the ep5 finale, which immediately starts attacking the character tommy and the actor lou because they are in buddie canon's way. Oliver mentions that there was a bi buck plot in s4, and in the absence of any information mentioning eddie they immediately think it's buddie canon again, and that all of buck's and eddie's sexuality The correlation can only be to run to buddie, there is no possibility of the two of them each finding someone else. At the end of the day they see buck as eddiesexual and Eddie as bucksexual (in fact shannonsexual would seem to make more sense), come on it's not even a sexual orientation. It's funny how tim coming back and making buck bi but not developing buddie gets called out as well, and how some people think that everyone calling out KR before was actually wrong about KR, and how some people think that buddie is the right character and actor meeting the wrong author and writer, it's really humorous and interesting thought.

All in all, can you heterosexuals who love queerbaiting ship move aside during pride month and stop pretending to be ally while attacking a real canon queer ships? and can the queer who love queerbaiting realize the dangers of queerbaiting? ...... but at the end of the day they are all virtual characters and it's up to the writers to write them, I'd love to see them make Buddie canon, but it's not even close to that day, Let's really canon queer ship bucktommy have a good time with their first pride month please.

thank you for reading, happy pride month!🏳️‍🌈

[justinssportscorner]

Shruti Rajkumar at HuffPost:

After over a week of silence, Kansas City Chiefs’ kicker Harrison Butker publicly defended the controversial commencement speech he gave earlier this month at Benedictine College.

During the “Courage Under Fire Gala” hosted by the Regina Caeli Academy on Friday, the Catholic football player doubled down on remarks he made in his speech at the Kansas college that were criticized by the public as homophobic and sexist. “If it wasn’t clear that the timeless Catholic values are hated by many, it is now,” Butker said Friday evening at the address in Nashville, Tennessee. “As to be expected, the more I’ve talked about what I value most — which is my Catholic faith — the more polarizing I’ve become. It’s a decision I’ve consciously made and one I do not regret at all,” he continued later. On May 11, the Catholic football player’s commencement speech dove into a ring-wing, bigoted rant, during which he slammed abortion rights and dogmatized “dangerous gender ideologies” and the “tyranny of diversity, equity and inclusion.” Butker also called LGBTQ+ Pride Month “a deadly sin” and suggested that female graduates “embrace one of the most important titles of all: homemaker.”

“I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you,” he said in his commencement address. “Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.” [...] On Friday, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce weighed in on his teammate’s remarks during an episode of his podcast “New Heights,” saying that he believes Butker is “a great person and a great teammate” who he has seen treat others with “nothing but respect and kindness,” but that he disagrees with his views. “I can’t say I agree with the majority of it, or just about any of it, outside of just him loving his family and his kids,” Kelce said about Butker’s speech, but added that he doesn’t think he should judge Butker’s views, especially his religious beliefs. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes backed Butker, saying that he didn’t agree with all of his teammate’s conservative views but that he is a “good person.”

Chiefs K Harrison Butker continues to double down on his hateful and bigoted commencement speech remarks he made at Benedictine College that impugned women and the LGBTQ+ community.

[edgygayguy]

!!!JADE SHADOWS SPOILERS!!!

I played the quest and it was ok. Felt very polarized by it.

The Warframe baby is a very fucking crazy and unexpected idea, the consequences of turning a pregnant person into a Warframe are really interesting and I want more lore and I want it yesterday. It will probably take like 2 years to get back to that tho. I would be happy with just some relevant codex entries. Also the baby to me looked pretty ugly and idk why I focused so much on that detail, but the piece of cloth stalker held it in was just not it. Like why does it look like he knitted that for the baby in advance. I'd rather have the baby itself be more visually interesting and wrapped in just black.

The quest was way too short, if I wasn't following devstreams I would feel no attachment to Jade at all. She's just there and the only thing we know about her is that she and stalker are in love, had a pregnancy and then got turned into Warframes.

I still have a lot of questions that went unanswered. Did the orokin turn both of them into frames at once or did Stalker get turned after the fall? If so was it voluntary? Why does the stalker hunt the tenno so fiercely? We know now why he hates Warframes but weren't the orokin responsible for turning his love into one? My headcannon is that the conditioning the orokin used on the dax was very effective on him, he couldn't bring himself to hate the golden lords so he began hating the warframes and in turn the tenno. I think he voluntarily turned himself into a Warframe, but how? No idea, maybe he managed to seek out Ballas who decided it was a great idea to create a hunter for the ones hunting him.

We know that some frames didn't get piloted by a tenno, Kullervo, Jade and most likely also Dante. The stalker seems to be the same. These 4 somehow managed to maintain their sanity, unlike most of them. This is the only question the quest answered for me, but not really, it just solidified what we already knew.

I love the inclusion of the sisterhood and the dialogue from Parvos, Ordis and Hunhow.

While browsing through Tumblr I saw two popular opinions I didn't even consider.

The first one is that stalker should have been trans. At first I had no idea if people were serious about it or not. The only evidence I saw brought up is that stalker hates himself and in his dialogue with Hunhow there's some stuff that could be interpreted as trans allegory. The latter I do see on a second read, but the first one is just weird. Is deep self hatred on the level of Stalker really a prerequisite for transness? I'd hope not. People being mad about their headcannon not being realized in this instance is odd to me, yeah it is pride month but there's plenty of transness in Warframe already. Ticker and Sentients (especially Hunhow, a man who constantly reminds you of his womb) are the first things that come to mind. I believe that Warframe is inherently trans and has been since the begging. You control Warframes, you can easily swap between them and they are representations of both sexes (+Xaku and Equinox). After the second dream that gets even more reinforced, "dream not of what you are but of what you want to be". Transness is so prevelent in this game that the stalker not being trans isn't that big of a deal, it's not like all of this game's representation was hinging on this one character.

The second one is that Jade doesn't have autonomy, she's stuck suffering and exists solely to give birth. I believe this wouldn't be a problem to most if we got like 20 minutes of extra time in the quest, Jade herself and even smaller things like our operator's involvement felt rushed. From the flashback we see that Jade wanted the child, if anything the quest advocates for autonomy. They should have shown us more to make it more obvious. It was illegal for Jade and Stalker to love each other because of their caste, let alone have a child. If only the quest took a minute to shit on the orokin instead of hoping everyone does that themselves. While in our world the major issue with women's autonomy isn't "I can't have a baby" but "I'm forced to have a baby", I think that these are both sides of the same coin. The underline still is: a woman was stripped of her autonomy. The message unfortunately wasn't clear enough. Also it doesn't help that this is Tumblr and LGBTQ+ people don't usually have the best relationship with pregnancy. And we live in a world where people are being forced to have babies for literally no reason, so it's pretty logical that the thought of someone literally dying to give birth is very emotionally charged and polarizing.

No hate to people who think that stalker should have been trans (I just don't see it) and to people who think that the quest portrayed women's autonomy in a bad way, while I don't think it's the case the devs should have known better, speeding through such a relevant issue was not a good idea on their part. They should have made it clear that Jade really wanted her child and her autonomy was taken from her by the orokin (it would also have helped if we got more Warframe biology).

[barbielore]

Pride Month is again upon us so it is again my duty to note that there is technically no named character in the Barbie doll line who is unambiguously LGBT.

I have posted before about various LGBT / pride Barbies so just for reference:

Last year's pride month posts one and two

Lesbian Visibility Day post

Not discussed in any detail was Mattel's foray into dolls with customizable gender expression, the Creatable World line. Marketed as promoting creativity and customization, these dolls were designed to look more androgynous than either Barbie or Ken.

Inclusivity of gender diversity was explicitly a part of the brand statement for this line - Mattel designer Kim Culmone stated “Toys are a reflection of culture, and as the world continues to celebrate the positive impact of inclusivity, we felt it was time to create a doll line free of labels.” 

This caught some flak for "sinfully" suggesting that gender isn't as straightforward as Barbie and Ken make it look, with the One Million Moms petition protesting it saying, "Mattel has actually created a toy that glorifies gender inclusivity and ignores one's biological sex."

To me, that sounds like a selling point rather than a criticism, but I'm far from one of the One Million Moms.

Not all the backlash was conservative-driven: Devon Price wrote for Medium, while acknowledging why a great number of trans people find the line validating, raised some other criticisms, such as that the line reinforces the idea of "androgyny" as looking essentially like slim tomboyishness when we should be promoting the idea that bodies of all shapes do not have to be perceived as gendered.

I can absolutely see the point, though I personally wonder if that is a little high concept for Mattel, the company behind Barbie "Don't Eat" Roberts.

Either way the doll line has quietly faded away after two releases, with this being variously attributed to the backlash from conservatives, poor sales, limited access (as they were sold only in some retailers), to them not being interesting enough to grab the attention of children.

[thedreadvampy]

ok like not to be a cunt but day 1 of pride month During A Genocide, During An International Rollback of LGBTQ+ Rights In Europe And North America, and STILL all the Pride posts I'm seeing are either wahoo rainbow gay or rehashing the exact same 2 talking points as we go through every year for the last decade.

should there be kink at pride? (yes on fact there should be much more filth)

do ace/aro people belong at pride? (frankly at this point it's been about 8-9 years since I saw a single person not actively obsessed with this discourse say they shouldn't but ok)

don't get me wrong I understand why these things are important to people. but fuck man it is EXHAUSTING that in my entire adult life we haven't moved forwards and also that from 00:01 on June 1st the SAME EXACT DISCUSSIONS come so loudly back into rotation that basically nobody is discussing any OTHER imo slightly less uhhhh navel-gazey? issues around Pride, pinkwashing and the issues faced by LGBTQ+ people in our communities.

by which I mean not only are these two discourses stultifyingly static and unchanging, but also they're literally just about Who Goes To A Parade? there's shit that is directly to do with Pride which feels more relevant, like the idea of Pride as a marketing brand rather than a political or personal statement, or the fact that Pride events are being sponsored by companies like Barclays who are funding genocide, or how Pride provides pinkwashing cover for politicians, corporations, police and arms dealers. and we're also looking at that in a political climate where trans people in particular are having their rights and safety and access to public life removed, where homophobic rhetoric and violence is seeing a huge resurgence, etc. but no by all means let's for the billionth time spend the whole month rehashing who we think are the Correct Sort Of Queer in the exact same Sisyphean cycle with absolutely no movement or advancement of any side.

(my disdain for this shit btw is entirely unconnected to whether I agree with it. I personally think Pride should be a tits out leather chaps and kink gear challenge to what is and isn't considered socially acceptable sexuality, and I personally think that there's no serious reasons to exclude aro/ace people from People Pride Is For. but I think it's dumb as fuck to spend your whole time dying on that hill and it's dumb as fuck to spend your whole time dying on the opposing hills because after the 10th year doing this in circles it has truly got so old all round when there are other conversations at could be having that MIGHT ACTUALLY MOVE FORWARDS AT SOME POINT.)

(and the thing specifically about the ace inclusion at pride thing is - ace people ARE AT PRIDE and have BEEN PART OF PRIDE FOR YONKS. I've never been to a Pride event where ace people weren't both welcome and visible present in significant numbers. ace people are welcomed at pride by the vast majority of people. the war is won. bring the troops back home. can we please move on to some of the CURRENT problems that are happening NOW?)

[monkeyslunch]

The Plight of Pride

During and after Pride month and events every year, I hear many interesting things. I understand that you may have concerns and questions about Pride events and the LGBTQ2S+ community.

Do you know why Pride was formed? Or why it continues to exist today? 

Pride originally emerged as a response to the systemic discrimination, violence, and marginalization of LGBTQ2S+ individuals. From denial of service at businesses to being jailed for being gay, losing your job, and more. Pride provided a safe space to come together, celebrate identities, and demand equal rights and acceptance in society. Pride has always been about fostering inclusivity, promoting visibility, and advocating for the basic human rights that everyone deserves.

So why is it still necessary? Surely we’ve gotten past all that, haven’t we?

Let's address the misconception that LGBTQ2S+ individuals are constantly forcing their identities on others. It's important to recognize that Pride events and other awareness initiatives are not about imposing anything on anyone. They are held as a response. A response to the ongoing discrimination and threats to LGBTQ2S+ rights that persist in our society. Last year alone, a staggering 240 bills were proposed in the United States with the intent to strip away rights from LGBTQ2S+ people. Think about that. Even one bill could have life-altering consequences, yet last year there were 240. Similar challenges have been seen in Canada and many other countries. And when faced with such attacks on their rights, it becomes necessary for queer individuals to stand proud and assert their identities in the face of adversity. And that fight can’t be won without allies.

The goal is not to need events like Pride.

If we genuinely want Pride and other awareness events to diminish, we must understand the cause and effect at play here. Being an ally in the fight for equitable rights for all is crucial. When we achieve a society where everyone is truly equal and respected, events like Pride won't be necessary. By standing up against discrimination and advocating for equal rights, we can work towards a more inclusive society. Sadly, many of us don’t understand that and decide to do more harm than good with our time, attention, and voices.

Why not 'straight pride?'

Events like 'straight pride' and other reactionary movements do more harm than good. They do not recognize anyone’s struggle or any community’s adversity. No. And they aren’t formed out of a deep love for a culture either; let’s be honest. They are reactionary, ignorant, and bigoted. If you think you should have straight pride then you either don’t understand why Pride is even necessary, or you’re straight-up hateful. Initiatives like ‘straight pride’ perpetuate and normalize homophobic and other bigoted rhetoric, further marginalizing and devaluing the struggles of LGBTQ2S+ individuals. I have even heard people complaining that we should have holidays and celebrations for veterans instead. But these folks aren’t putting their energy into the veterans they claim to love; if they were, they would realize that holidays, months, and other events for veterans already exist (a simple google away). It’s not about veterans, though. Or straight pride. It’s about hate, intolerance, and discomfort, or sometimes worse: ignorance and apathy.

Said another way, straight people don't need 'Straight Pride.' 

No one is denying straight people services because they’re straight.  No one is telling straight people they’re an abomination because they’re straight.  No one targets straight people with hate because they’re straight. No court decides if you have the right to love because you are straight. No court decides if you have the right to exist because you are straight. No country is jailing you because you are straight. So again, if you support 'straight pride' or think you need it, you 100% miss the point.

It's essential to recognize that Pride is not about superiority or exclusion; it's about equality and acceptance. It's about acknowledging the diverse experiences and identities within our society and creating a world where everyone can live authentically without fear. Right now, people can’t. So we defend. If you want Pride, other events, social media campaigns, or any of it to stop, then help stop the hate.

We have Pride to raise awareness, normalize LGBTQ2S+ identities, and combat ignorance. It's important to remember that in certain areas, LGBTQ2S+ individuals are still fighting for their lives. Discrimination, violence, and mental health disparities disproportionately affect queer individuals, and Pride serves as a reminder of the progress that still needs to be made.

Empathy is key to understanding the struggles faced by marginalized communities. Put yourself in their shoes—imagine living in a society that doesn't fully accept or recognize your identity. Try to reflect on the impact of discriminatory legislation and its implications on real people's lives. What if you could be jailed? Weren’t allowed to marry? Could lose your job for being who you are? Were the subject of foul hate and harm just for existing? By embracing empathy and education, we can strive for a society that celebrates diversity and ensures equal rights and opportunities for everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or the many other identifying factors that make us human.

[brokegradstudents]

Pride Month Bloat Drive!

I want to do another bloat drive with Diet Coke and Mentos! Due to money limitations, I wanted to try something a bit different this time around!

Deadline for this bloat drive is June 19th, 2024 (1 week!) I should have that video uploaded to this Tumblr page by that weekend

Post interactions - 1 Mento each

New Tumblr Followers - 1 roll of Mentos (14 Mentos) each

OF subscriptions (new and returning) - 1 bottle Diet Coke (0.5 liters)

You can help out by claiming a free subscription below (and staying for the full price after the trial!)

Tipping gets you special requests. I'll do most special requests (I reserve the right to refuse a request due to boundaries)

As much as I'd like to have a limitless capacity for bloating, that's just not the case. If enough people follow, interact, and/or subscribe I'll make additional bloat videos as necessary!

Help me train my bloat capacity, assist me in staying financially afloat, and enable me to provide spicy content for your viewing pleasure!

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Douglas Murray

Published: Jun 24, 2023

If anyone reading this ever bought shares in the diversity racket, then I would suggest you start dumping them now. Not that I would blame you for having bought them in the first place. ‘Diversity’ has been the great mantra of our age. Like ‘equality’, it is one of those words set up to be impossible to oppose. What even is the opposite of diversity? Enforced sameness? Monotony? It is hard to say.

Nevertheless, everyone was encouraged to go along with the diversity racket. It didn’t matter who was in charge – Labour or the Conservatives. Diversity was said to be one of the defining virtues of Britain. Almost the aim of the place, in fact.

But as some of us pointed out way back, ‘diversity’ is not an unalloyed good. Not the least problem being the fact that diversity doesn’t even get along with itself. For years it has been the argument of the pro-diversity left that the more diversity you had, the more tolerance you would have – because diversity would somehow by its nature create more tolerance. But in fact not everybody in the diversity tent adores everyone else shoved in with them. The contradictions and tensions thrown up are legion.

Take just one of the tensions thrown up during this ancient and most holy month of ‘Pride’. The mayor of Keighley, Mohammed Nazam, resigned this week after being criticised for attending a Pride event. Photographs show the then mayor grinning with a bunch of other numpties holding the hideous new ‘progress’ Pride flag, with added triangles to encompass trans people.

This year’s flag is said by campaigners to be ‘the most inclusive ever’. Not for Mr Nazam it wasn’t. You might be able to guess why from Mr Nazam’s first name. Wiser readers may also know that the man after whom Mr Nazam is named was not wildly pro-gay.

There are no Hadith (the sayings of Mohammed) explaining what the original Mohammed thought of ‘non-binary’ people, but one can guess. Mohammed was in many ways a fan of binaries. He would likely not have been a fan of the Pride flag in any of its forms. And while there are interesting scholarly arguments about the exact designs of the flags that Mohammed and his armies carried into battle, scholars are in agreement that Mohammed did not smite his enemies while flying a rainbow flag of any kind.

So the mayor of Keighley came under a certain amount of pressure from the Mohammed-fanbase community, and in a Facebook post said that he should not have taken part in the ceremony. In fact he said he should have ‘respectfully declined’ the invitation to the Pride flag-raising because it ‘contradicts my religious beliefs’. He went on to describe his attendance as a ‘lapse in judgment’.

This in turn led to him being suspended by the Conservative group on Bradford Council. For Mr Nazam is in several senses a conservative. He subsequently quit as mayor, but not before issuing a second apology, this time saying that he ‘did not mean any harm to the LGBTQ community’.

Interestingly enough, similar cases on the other side of the Atlantic aren’t all leading to the same outcome. In Alberta, Muslim and Christian parents have come together to oppose the teaching of LGBTQ ideology in Canadian schools. Last week hundreds of parents gathered outside the city hall in Calgary to chant ‘Leave our kids alone’. So-called Liberal counter-protestors also gathered. One wonders if there was any cognitive dissonance as these ‘diversity’ protestors found themselves standing in a Canadian street screaming at a bunch of Muslims? Reportedly there was in fact a split in the local activist ‘queer’ community on this question. Some believed that opposing the protestors would be a defence of ‘queer’ rights, others felt it would be ‘racist’.

In Los Angeles things got a bit more heated, with parents protesting outside the largely Armenian school. Here parents were also saying that they did not want their children ‘groomed’ by the LGBTQ ideology being pushed in their school. And on this occasion some of the pro-diversity counter-protestors ended up getting into fist-fights with the diverse parents. Once again you have to wonder if the LGBTQ activists who were pummelling immigrant parents to the ground are absolutely sure that their ideas have brought them to the optimal place in life.

In one of the most Muslim-populated area of the US, in Michigan, parents are continuing a fight to withdraw their children from lessons on anything to do with sexuality or family life, while in Maryland hundreds of campaigners came out again this week demanding to remove their children from such lessons. As one Muslim commentator put it, supporting these parents: ‘As Muslims, we refuse to be coerced into believing something our faith categorically condemns. This is not a political stance. It is a moral principle.’

All of which adds up to a very fine old mess, about which there are a number of things to say. The first is that it should by now be abundantly clear that every letter after B in the LGBTQIA+ alphabet has made the argument for gay rights infinitely harder. In the hands of a new generation of activists the ‘live and let live’ argument has turned into ‘believe what I believe’ and ‘say what I say’. Meanwhile, the old argument that gays were just like anyone else has been replaced by the suggestion that LGBTQIA+ people are in fact practically a different species – people who must have their own flag and be celebrated or else.

Second, it should now be abundantly clear where part of this began going really wrong – which is the moment that gender-nonsense activists chose to target the children. To tell children that there was no such thing as biological sex. To pretend that we are made of Lego and can take parts off and put them on again at will. To replace biological reality with gender woo-woo.

One poll in the US this week showed that support for gay relationships is declining. I’m not surprised. When the shoe was put on the LGBTQIA+ foot certain people decided to indulge in a bit of good old kicking, in the name of diversity. Well, they should expect to be kicked back.

==

Intersectional math involves imaginary numbers. √-1

[miamignonette]

here’s some helpful pride month PSAs

a bisexual woman, brenda howard, organized the very first pride march one year after stonewall. she is known as the mother of pride.

bisexuality is all about freedom and fluidity! like, that’s the whole fucking point!

bisexuality forming its own community is relatively new, but bisexuals have always existed. lesbian and gay were both commonly used as umbrella terms that included bisexuals. we have always been femme, butch, twinks, bears, dykes, and fags; and no amount of crying about it on the internet will change that.

every attempt to redefine bisexuality (by non-bisexuals) is harmful. listen to us when we tell you what it means.

bisexual women love women just as much as lesbians do. bisexual men love men just as much as gay men do. we are not half of anything, we are fully queer.

“with respect to our integrity as bisexuals, it is our responsibility to include transgendered people in our language, in our communities, in our politics, and in our lives.” - naomi tucker, 1995

“being bisexual does not mean they have sexual relations with both sexes but that they are capable of meaningful and intimate involvement with a person regardless of gender.” - janet bode, 1976

“the bisexual community should be a place where lines are erased. bisexuality dismisses, disproves, and defies dichotomies. it connotes a loss of rigidity and absolutes. it is an inclusive term.” - k. martin-damon, 1995

and if you see these facts as “discourse”, you’re part of the problem.

happy pride to all bisexuals, i love us so much!!! 💗💜💙

[inaturalist-propaganda]

I love you trans people and I love you trans allies.

This original post will keep being updated!

tumblr made it so indented text removes line breaks so they're not all going to be indented.

some of the comments so far, June 10th 2023:

Pretty uncool to publicly support pride month after your PR disaster on the forum. Banning a user who was trying desperately to get you to understand that they were being misgendered, then rainbow washing on top of that? Come on, guys, this is shameful.

= = =

CAoS: Please do something about your child organisation, iNaturalist, for their continued and repeated attacks on myself and my fellow queer/trans/nb people. All we asked is for pronouns to be used as a part of their rule of "be respectful". Initially, Tony, paid Outreach Coordinator, denied this request, essentially saying being respectful does NOT mean you have to use someones correct pronouns. After almost a week, it was backwalked, to you can say you will not use but that is "not actually missgendering" becuase it "is just threatening it" instead of "actually missgendering". It has gone even worse now, with the person being missgendered being BANNED for continually asking for this basic respect. Now, our posts get hidden, or outright deleted. We need someone above iNaturalist to step in and do the right thing. I ask that you remove Tony from his Paid iNaturalist Staff position. A person who is literally the paid Outreach Coordinator should actually understand inclusion and diversity. I ask that you hire a queer bipoc person to replace him. This would be the first step in reconciliation that would show you mean what you say, and are not simply rainbow washing.

= = =

It's a little difficult to take this seriously when CAoS is the parent organization of iNat, whose PR team decided threats of misgendering trans people are not actually that serious. And, then, to make matters worse, removed a trans person receiving those threats from their forum, not the bully. It's easy to post a rainbow photo and say you support the LGBTQIA community, but the actions of iNat show otherwise. It's our actions as allies that matter most every day, not once a year pride posts.

= = =

I implore the California academy of sciences to admonish your child organization, iNaturalist for their repeated attacks on trans and non-binary folks in their forum. Their pride month posts are revolting when their staff is actively engaged in blatant retaliatory attacks against trans and non-binary people.

= = =

It would be great to see Inaturalist posting Pride month icons..... if it weren't for the disasterous behind-the-scenes transphobia that's rampant in the forums!

If this is your first time hearing it, paid staff on the inatrarlist official forums went out of their way to create a huge incident that alienated a good 90% of the queer community that was on the forums, by banning a trans it/its user who was being misgendered and refused to back down when staff refused to remove the 2 offending posts, despite multiple, *multiple* queer users telling staff all they had to do to resolve the issue was remove the two misgendering posts.

It took a full WEEK for anything to actually be concretely done, and that was only when the OP of the posts had to ask *permission* from staff to delete her posts because she realized what she'd done was wrong and hurtful, especially when the paid staff kept digging their heels in and insisting it wasn't *technically* misgendering..... somehow.

Staff kept digging their hole deeper, acting as though everyone was demanding they "police every single thing posted on the forums" and "act like a surveillance state" when literally from day one, alllllllllll they had to do was remove exactly 2 offensive posts that had been reported by multiple queer users. They staunchly refused to remove the posts or take *any* action other than to attack the very people who were the ones under attack, culminating in them literally banning the trans it/its user who was being misgendered all because, get this-- it refused to sit quietly by and have the posts remain up, and kept telling staff "leaving the posts up for everyone, myself included, the literal target of these posts to see with zero visible response from Staff for the blatant violation of TOS, is completely unacceptable".

Did I mention this happened in the forum thread DEDICATED to queer and LGBTQ Inaturalist users?

It was a forum thread DEDICATED to celebrating pride and queer identities?

And that the very Inaturalist staff who refused to do their jobs and remove two posts that violated their TOS because they didn't think it was a big deal for a trans user to be misgendered even after multuiple users explained exactly why that's so hurtful, the very Inaturalist Staff who acted like being asked to remove 2 posts was the equivilant of us demanding they police every single word posted on the forums-- were the very same ones asking queer Inaturalist users to volunteer for their Pride Month showcase.

What a joke.

If Inaturalist and the other paid staff behind it are TRUELY serious about diversity, inclusion, and welcoming their queer and LBGTQ users with open arms, then someone from higher up needs to take a SERIOUS look at the paid staff of the forums and how they ACTUALLY treat queer users when push comes to shove; they're more than happy to hide even the slightest, most mild critism of their moderation (or complete lack thereof) but refused for over 168 hours to do the most basic thing of hiding two posts containing hate speech and transphobia. That were in the LGBTQ thread, and had been flagged by multiple LGBTQ users, *including the it/its trans user who was the target of that hate speech to begin with*

but what did the forum staff do?

Did they remove the 2 posts that violated TOS?

Did they apologize for their mishandling of the situation?

Nope, they literally told us "if you don't like how we moderate, you go somewhere else" -- as though the literal LGBTQ thread was not EXACTLY where we were supposed to be protected from this crap.

Tiwane needs to be removed as paid Forum staff, and astra the dragon needs to lose moderation privileges, and ALL forum staff, be they paid or volunteers, need to go through a MANDATORY inclusivity and sensitivity training to properly handle the most basic aspect of their jobs., if you want your huge queer userbase to trust you again.

= = =

Wow. That's rich, given how you've treated LGBTQIA+ folks in your forums. If you want to be supportive of pride month, fire the team that's perfectly fine with misgendering people in comments. If not, this is just an ugly facade you're presenting to seem as though you support minorities without actually following through.

= = =

iNaturalist: you are NOT allowed to celebrate Pride Month because you continually create policies to harm queer/trans/NB members of your community. You allowed missgendering, saying it does not go against your rule of "be respectful". Then you back-walked it to it's okay to say you *will* missgender, or *will refuse to* use someone's pronouns, because it hasn't happened yet. Now, you are hiding or deleting all the callouts we are making of this issue.

iNat: STOP pretending to be an ally, when you are NOT. You are NOT an ally to the entire LGBTQIA+ community, only the ones you seem fit to bolster your public appearance during Pride Month, while all this goes on behind the scenes. Now we are no longer allowed any "political" posts - but we are only political in our existence because politicians and others would like us literally dead....If your "politics" denies people their personhood, your "politics" are utter shyte. The *person being misgendered* was *BANNED* for being rightfully upset about it while you sat back and did nothing other than, banning them, and allowing the continued transmisia/transphobia while *many of us* stepped up to say how wrong you were, and how wrong the entire situation was. Yet, you never stood up for us, and you continue to simply squash us.

Original LGBTQIA+ thread where the misgendering starts, followed by staff tone policing and pretending both sides are equally wrong: https://forum.inaturalist.org/.../lgbtqia-and.../23565/268

New thread to "discuss" the moderation issues, which is still just transmisia, tone policing, and bad-faith arguments on the part of the staff: https://forum.inaturalist.org/.../moderation.../42122 (pretending that asking them to remove exactly two (2) posts means we want them to become a fascist surveillance state and judge literally every post anyone makes...but now they just delete & hide our posts...hmmm.....)

= = =

As part of pride month you are actively discriminating against and attacking LGBTQIA+ members on your forum, in direct violation of your supposed policies. Despicable. Pretending to be an ally when you are actively attacking such people is an affront to the entire community.

= = =

[firstyearseminar6]

23 States and Counting

A person’s physical appearance defines the way that other people perceive them, especially before meeting them. This is especially important for transgender people like me. I am taking medication to help change my physical appearance, but I’m early on in my medical transition, so it will take years before my physical appearance will more closely match my gender. I haven’t begun to change my voice yet, but once complete, it will help others perceive me correctly once they have met me.

My relationships with my peers and the members of my family vary in terms of my gender identity, because there are some people that I choose not to tell about me being transgender, at least for the time being. Some members of my family are less accepting, and they’ll be the last to know about me. I have 2 moms, and when one of them chose to come out to her grandmother, she was disowned. Her grandmother refused to speak to her for the rest of her life. It’s things like this that keep me from coming out to everyone immediately. I find it best to be slow and careful before telling people. Thankfully most of my peers have been wonderful and accepting.

My interactions with school officials this year has, however, been especially strenuous. It came to a head during my First Year Seminar class, where the school’s broken and failed system leaked my deadname and other personal information to everyone. After exposing a second personal information leak to the school, they offered me a job with IT. I begin tomorrow. Really, this should not be my job to do. The school prides itself on being an open and inclusive environment, and on being welcoming to transgender people. They even published a guide on what to do if you are transgender. Unfortunately, it was all bark and no bite. It has been over a month now since I filed for my name to be corrected on school systems. My cisgender male roommate, as wonderful as he is, was not who I had in mind when filling out “Transgender Female” on my dorm application. The school’s systems retroactively modified my application to “Male”, because of course they did. My name correction has not happened, and at this point I have little hope of it happening at all. Hopefully with my new-found employment I can fix some of the issues or expedite my supposed-to-take-a-week name correction, but it really, really should not have come to this. In fact, I can name a better institution to attend if you want a seamless transition. UCLA has actually handled every single aspect of my medical transition thus far. As I write this, it’s my 100th day in. I cannot name a single better medical care provider in the whole city. UCLA Health leaves me smiling every time I need anything done, no matter what. My experience with the medical establishment has far exceeded my expectations, and I am very happy with it. If only Occidental could manage to call me by the right name, maybe I’d be less annoyed. It has been months, and I am exhausted. It should not be my literal, actual job to fix IT systems for transgender people. Programming is not something that every trans person knows how to do, and isn’t something that it should come down to in order to get a name updated. I would have been delighted to have a job with IT, but the way that it came to this has left a sour taste in my mouth regarding my interactions with school officials.

Because gender is a social construct and gender is only really made up of societal expectations, the way that each society views gender can have an effect on the way that its members, both cisgender and transgender, define their own identities. For me, part of that is the somewhat more welcoming environment that southern California provides. The state harbors more progressive communities, which allows people like me to feel comfortable asking questions to themselves about who they really are. If I were in somewhere like southeastern Poland where LGBT people are banned by law, or even worse, Florida, I don’t know that I would be in the position to question my gender in the first place. Communities and their cultures have had the most impact on the way my gender has been constructed.

Another thing that has impacted my journey toward discovering my gender identity has been “scripts”, or stereotypes. While my race today may be classified as “White”, for centuries Jewish people were in their own category, and were not considered White. Of course, we still are our own ethnicity and have our own communities, though if you’ve ever been down Fairfax in the last decade, you can see that gentrification had ripped through that like a knife. Regardless, Jewish people have many scripts associated with them. Of course there’s the prominent nose, but also some more harmful traits. We are blamed for every problem under the sun because people think that Jews run the world or have space lasers or control Hollywood. As a card-carrying scary boogeyman California Transgender, the list of scripts about my gender goes on for miles. People think that trans people are pedophiles and rapists, or that we’re indoctrinating children with “gender ideology” and our “liberal agenda” (which the California ID in my wallet certainly doesn’t alleviate). Transgender people are being scapegoated all across the country right now with Florida, as well as 22 other states, passing anti-transgender legislation. Being both Jewish and Transgender means that the “indoctrination” script becomes especially prominent, because many people think that Jews control the world’s governments, or that we’re putting “gender ideology” into schools to turn the kids transgender, or whatever other theory people can come up with. We execute those people with our space laser, generously donated by George Soros.

Most of the discrimination I face today stems from being transgender, though that’s not to say Jews don’t face it. If I were a different race or ethnicity, I would still face most of the discrimination I do today, unfortunately. Another aspect of my identity that draws discrimination and stereotypes is being asexual. People see asexuals as needing “fixing” or that they’re “broken”, which really does hurt. Combining that with my gender identity can make people believe that I am just “confused” or have some kind of “mental illness” as a way of dismissing my identity entirely, despite me just trying to live as myself.

Being queer is an uphill battle. It always has been, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. Maybe one day it’ll be as simple as being left handed, but for now, you can find me indoctrinating the children with the Jewish space laser.

[readyfreddy]

Pride nights in Hockey Update: 8/31/23

Hello everyone,

It's been a while since I've given an update in regards to my pride nights in hockey project.

In short, due to a variety of reasons out of my control, I was unable to present, there have been no further discussions regarding the matter with anyone. I am beyond proud of all the work I have put into this, even though the current outcome is not the one I was hoping for.

I will be sharing a modified presentation and data in the near future.

The last time I asked about my proposal was in mid-April of 2023, about 4 and a half months ago, and ownership was discussing how they want to move forward with their "theme" games for this upcoming 2023/2024 regular season. Apart from support from my one supervisor (whom I came forward to) and one office staff member, there was not much support. I'm sure that there is/was more support that I am not aware of, but I cannot confirm as I do not interact with office staff regularly and was not going to work after the team lost in the 2023 playoffs.

I understand that there are a lot of different aspects that go on behind the scenes to create a meaningful pride night. Financial, community and team involvement, promotion, and social media to name a few. I have never organized something this big and frankly have no idea what to expect, other than a lot of hard work.

There are many people in the hockey community, including fans, commentators, and players, who strongly believe that "politics should stay out of hockey" and that they "should just play hockey." The rights of millions should not be politicized yet in many places they are. Queer hockey fans and players exist now, in the past, and will continue to exist in the future: we have always been here.

One difficulty I knew that I was going to face, was dealing with handling players who are from countries with anti-LGBT laws and policies, people within the organization who are not supportive of the community or who may not come from supportive backgrounds and homes. The lack of support that players may face for being themselves is truly disheartening, the rink should be one of their safe spaces.

I also want to make sure that everyone involved is safe, including on and off-ice staff, fans, community organizers, and players. I understand many sides of the discussions involving hosting pride nights.

My goal for this project is to help create a positive and meaningful pride night that promotes education, inclusivity, and representation of the queer community. I also want to show and ensure young fans (who may grow up queer) that they are welcome here and in hockey as a whole. Showing younger fans that homophobia isn't tolerated at the professional level, will hopefully change hockey's homophobia problem from earlier stages of sport development to the top levels of the sport.

Once again, I am beyond grateful for everyone who has contributed. I could not have done it without you. I appreciate all the support that I've received over the past few months. There is still a long way to go with this project, as well as tackling homophobia in hockey. I am always more than happy to discuss my project with those who want to learn more.

Be loud, be proud, be safe 💛,

Kyle 🏒🐴🏳️‍🌈

he/him

[meevling]

Writing my thoughts here because I have no interest in creating a big scene and I know my audience on tumblr is small and wholesome but I desire to say some of my thoughts out loud. 

I am a queer creator. I make jewellery for a living. I’m in my first year of business of doing this full time and I am struggling as all new businesses do, but I’ve been applying to vendor shows that I think suit my work and doing my best to keep at it! 

So this June, I applied for a show in a local town. This show was made to be an inclusive pride-type event. Now, why I don’t say it is strictly pride is for several reasons. One, I know the people organizing the event and they are not part of the queer community. They did not feel comfortable running a pride event because they didn’t want to try and speak over queer people. A second reason is because here in Canada it is Indigenous History month. Now this town is undeniably built on the genocide and displacement of indigenous people. This is very important to acknowledge and talk about it. So these organizers were hoping to allow this event to branch out into not just pride, but also discussing diversity and lifting up marginalized people from all walks of life. Because of this, they advertised it as a celebration of diversity, instead of a pride event, simply hoping to open up more safe spaces for discussion of acceptance in our otherwise very white, very conservative community. 

I was very excited about this event. I am asexual, as is my girlfriend. We were both going to be running a booth together, me selling my jewellery, and her selling her book as well as books by other local queer authors. 

However, our local pride community saw this advertising, saw its vague wording, and immediately assumed that it was because they didn’t want to rub the more conservative locals the wrong way. I’m not here to say that this is completely wrong, nor am I here to discredit this concern. I also had a similar thought when seeing the first advertisements. I still believe that some mention of pride could even be added, but after speaking to the people running the event, I do also understand their feelings. They were also open with me about the fact that they would happily help groups such as this pride group to run events and organize a march. They had tried to reach out to the group but hadn’t received much communication back. 

Now this group has decided to protest the event. Instead of trying to reach out to the organizers and discuss with them the concerns they had, they went ahead and organized a protest/march on the same day at the same time and publicly made it clear that they disapproved of this event being wary of calling itself a pride event. Because of this, a large majority of the vendors have dropped out and now it looks as though the event will be cancelled altogether. 

I am absolutely defeated by this news. As an asexual, I have hesitated to try and involve myself in pride after so much erasure and gatekeeping that I’ve experienced. I’ve often been made to feel as though I don’t belong. With this being my first attempt at stepping into a more forefront involvement in the community, only to have it be cancelled by the very people who it was supposed to help bolster, simply makes me feel as though I will never be able to fit in. 

What frustrates me even more is the fact that it just feels as though the homophobes have won and they didn’t even have to lift a finger. This was going to be the first real pride I have experienced in this small town, and now it probably won’t happen. The goal of this event was to be INCLUSIVE and it feels so much like the gatekeeping I’ve already experienced that it’s being protested for this. Should pride not be about inclusivity? Should we not be able to celebrate marginalized groups from all walks of life? Why can’t the two coexist and help bring those together who have so often felt out of place and unwelcome here? 

I dunno. I understand why they were upset, I understand that these people are people who have had to fight tooth and nail for acceptance and inclusivity wherever they go and so often feel the need to start things with a fight, I’m just so tired of having to fight my own community. If we worked together, we could have created a wonderful event. I wish the pride group all the luck with their march and protest. I hope it goes well, I hope they are able to show people that queer people are allowed to exist as well, I just wish that this all didn’t come at the expense of other queer people.