#justice for queer kids

[thatonesapphicfilipino]

think i mentioned this before but i am so happy that kids now hv positive queer media

like for me the first queer person i saw on tv was prob cyrus from andi mack and that was like one of (if not) the first openly queer person in a disney channel show

and back then cuz that was the only openly queer media i had i was honestly confused but yk inference skills and at this time i was prob like just younger than my sister is now

(ngl when cyrus first said “i like jonah” (like the guy at the school) i was like “doesn’t everyone??”)

then obviously when it came to my personal self discovery it was/has been very hard to find the right words for how i feel bc of the communities i’m in irl

like when it came to gender i was so confused for so long and i remember finding the term that fit me and just smiling so hard my cheeks hurt for the next hr or so (i’ve realized not that i’m not so comfy with that term but wtv)

even now i’ve had some issues with being bi cuz of my very little interest in masculinity and just recently thats to this place i’ve found (at least rn) security in my sexual and romantic orientation

now compare that to my younger sister

she has all this queer media around her and has come out to me at such a young age

like she is so good abt peoples pronouns and will point out gender queer representation when she sees it

ex. 1 watching zombies 3 cuz why not and theres a non binary character cuz yk aliens or smth and my dad walks into the living room and a character goes “…they…” and my sister goes “DADDY DID U HEAR THAT THEY” or smth

ex. 2 she got a plant as like a give away thing and she comes up to me and my friends and goes “this is @&£]*% thye use they them pronouns” and yes it’s a plant but yk the lorax spoke for the trees we’re gonna go with it

and she’ll watch shows with queer people (mostly cuz i watch shows with queer people) and join me in the shipping or wtv and just be wholly and completely fine and understand this

that goes to show that if kids hv these resources they will understand it i didn’t grow up with this up she has

⚠️tw mentions of homophobia and religion⚠️

now a bit more serious but

my sisters queer is into queer media and yk knows of queer music

and if u know toh (the owl house) u know that early on in the show a character in the show was very much associated with the song little miss perfect so i showed it to her (and obvi ordinary when it came out)

now at one of the first days of school that year she told her class at our catholic school her favorite songs were little miss perfect and ordinary

at this time she didn’t know abt homophobia and i am so glad for it but obvi very religous school with tons of parents who hv more rightist views so i tried to explain to her infront of our parents that there were tons of people who didn’t like queer people at school

it absolutely sucked telling my sister that she had to hide who she is bc some people suck

⚠️tw stuff done with⚠️

this is all to say that for the next generation, can we pls make so that they don’t hv to hide who they r for their own safety can we pls make things like being queer more out there so people don’t hv to look everywhere for a place that fits them

for the next generation can we pls make the difference

[caesthoffe]

One of our siblings was murdered recently, and you need to know about it.

TW // transphobia and violence against trans people

Brianna Ghey was a 16-year-old trans girl from Warrington, England. On Saturday, February 11th 2023, Brianna was found dead on the side of a park with multiple stab wounds. Two 15-year-olds have been taken into custody in connection with her murder.

People in the Warrington area have alleged that Brianna was being bullied in school, and that neither the administration nor the police did anything.

Despite this, local police have said there is no evidence that the attack was hate-based and most news articles don't mention her status as a trans woman. This is deliberate. This is genocide by the hands of transphobes and TERFs.

Britain does not have gender self-identification (your legal gender being determined by how you identify and not any arbitrary medical requirements), meaning even in her death she will be deadnamed and misgendered on her death certificate.

She deserved so much better.

Mourn the dead, and fight like hell for the living.

EDIT: A verified GoFundMe has been set up for Brianna.

[non-binary-lil-star]

Watching 13 year old Dick Grayson in Young Justice is everything. That more-or-less-resposible, more-or-less-reasonable big brother nightwing Dick, was a menace as a kid. He's so sarcastic, such a little shit, I love him.

[transformationsproject]

Need Some Good News?

We are kicking off this week by celebrating good news from Louisiana! Learn more below.

[queeryouthautonomy]

We're starting a protest!

Visit queeryouthassemble.org to learn how to join us, and send us an ask or email us at march@queeryouthassemble.org with any questions!

Photo credits and alt text available under the cut:

📸 credits, used with permission: 

All art by the incredible @jesseyoungpaulson 

Slide 6: @cpagsa during their walkout, March 2022

Slide 7: @lgbtatorr during their walkout, as QYA Head of Teams @alia.cusolito gives a speech, March 2022

Slide 8: @briggs_padilla from their walkout, March 2022

Slide 9 and 10: @alia.cusolito from Let Trans Athletes Play, August 2022

Alt text:

Slide 1

A digital art piece showing a diverse group of queer youth is overlayed with text reading, “March for Queer & Trans Youth Autonomy, March 31 2023, All 50 States, Uniting as One.” 

Slide 2

The background is a rainbow gradient with  a digital art piece showing three queer youth. The text reads, “It’s time we create one of the largest queer youth marches in history! Uniting every queer and trans young person under the common goals of safety, autonomy, joy.” 

Slide 3

A rainbow gradient with a small digital art piece in the corner of three queer youth. The text reads, “The queer & trans community has been upended by a series of devastating laws, detrimental legislation, and queerphobic attacks designed to make the lives of queer & trans youth as unbearable as possible. Each and every queer & trans youth serving org has  responded in their own ways, prompting walkouts, protests, legislative challenges, organizational statements, and other rebuttals in an attempt to swing the momentum. Now it’s time to unite our communities powerful work and collectively advocate for youth as one!”

Slide 4

A rainbow gradient overlayed with text reading, “This march will center the voices of queer and trans youth.” This is followed by a bulleted list saying the following, “Marches will be held at capitol buildings & in major cities in all 50 states. Queer & trans youth will share their stories, experiences, and demands to the masses.  Everyone from adults to allies to politicians will march in solidarity. State & national orgs will organize these marches, while students will organize walkouts at their schools.”

Slide 5

A rainbow gradient overlayed with text reading, “Queer and trans youth will receive the spotlight to advocate for their safety, their joy, and their autonomy. The tidal wave that these marches will create, combined with the  political & media spotlight on queer & trans youth, will drown the conservative narratives that have dominated the fight until now. In their place, queer & trans youth voices, stories, interviews, testimony, films, books, will all rise to show the lives and share the stories of queer & trans youth. We will be front and center.” 

Slide 6

An image of students from @cpagsa during QYA’s National Queer Youth Walkout is overlayed with text and a list of checkboxes reading, “Youth! If you are an activist, are in your school’s GSA and/or have been impacted anti queer & trans youth speech, legislation, or laws then we invite you to join our queer & trans youth led march planning committees! Visit queeryouthassemble.org for more information.” 

Slide 7

An image of students at Old Rochester Regional’s walkout, with QYA Head of Teams Alia Cusolito giving a speech, overlayed by text which reads, “ Queer & trans youth listening sessions. January 7th, 2023, 4pm EST, January 11th, 2023, 8pm EST, January 15th, 2023, 4pm EST, and January 21st, 2023, 10pm EST. We invite queer & trans youth across the country to join us at our march listening sessions, where we will be brainstorming a list of demands for the march. Once completed, the list will be circulated across the country, and signed by politicians & organizations to pledge their commitment to queer & trans youth. Register by clicking the link in our bio or visiting queeryouthassemble.org. 

Slide 8

An image of students during the walkout in March, overlayed with text and checkboxes reading, “Adults! If you have an LGBTQ+ kid, support queer & trans youth autonomy, and/or want a safe and loving future for your children then we invite you to donate to Queer Youth Assemble! Visit queeryouthassemble.org to donate.”

Slide 9

An image of queer youth attending Queer Youth Assemble’s Let Trans Athletes Play event in August overlayed with text and checkboxes reading, “Orgs! If you support queer and trans youth autonomy, have BIPOC, trans, or disabled leadership, and/or have experience planning marches or major events, then we invite you to plan a March at your state’s capitol/major city! Visit queeryouthassemble.org to sign your org up. 

Slide 10 

An image of queer youth attending Queer Youth Assemble’s Let Trans Athletes Play event in August overlayed with text and checkboxes reading, “What can I do? Visit queeryouthassemble.org, share this post on your socials, and/or donate to support the march.”

[steph-the-4th-robin]

Day 42 of Characters That Are Definitely Queer but Comics Won’t Let Them Be:

Wally West

[melonlthawne]

my very mediocre contribution to bartkon week just in case I have no time or energy to contribute during the week bc of class. you can guess whose drawings these actually are doesn’t really matter. Hope my silly little pathetic fanarr makes someone smile

[whereserpentswalk]

It’s fascinating that you think trans people’s names come to them like wands in Harry Potter, you can’t just culturally appropriate bc you’re trans

Ok, this is about comments I made like a year ago on a comedy bit. While I stand by my feelings that the bit was bad and transphobic, my reasons why are a lot diffrent.

When I first wrote the comments my arguments were very thermian. I treated the story the comic was telling as if it was real and objective. Which feels right for most people, because stand up comedy is often presented like conversation, where we do treat stories like that as real things. But that's not how comedy works, comedians don't tell stories the way we do in conversation, they're creatives, the stories they tell are basically fictional, the art form might look like real conversations but it's not.

Comedians want to make you laugh, and sometimes want to send a message or make you think about things in a new way, but they have no reason to want to portray events accurately. They might be basing some things off of real experiences, but that's true for everyone, Tolkien might have chosen to explore his experience in world war one in lord of things, that doesn't mean we have to argue about orcs as if they're real entities when we're talking about if those books were racist.

So let's actually look at the skit, and analyze its outlook on trans people keeping in mind its a story that a cis man is telling, and not actual events: So the summery of the skit is that a white trans man comes out to his to his family, and he picked a name you'd expect a black person to have. He has older black relatives (who are implied to fully accept him, which would make him possibly the only trans person on earth with a fully accepting family) who refuse to use this name, and instead call him "the boy". The sketch ends with the comedian saying he should pick a name like Kevin, because even if he's trans he's not interesting (keep your thoughts on that last one).

Now, ignoring how this would play out in real life, what does this as a peice of fiction say about trans people:

First off: it's creating a plausible but unlikely situation where the woke thing to do is to not respect a trans person's identity. A lot of political humor exists to call ideas into question with hypotheticals, and the idea being questioned here is the idea that trans people's identities deserve respect.

Second off: it's creating a situation where a trans person is entitled and arogent for wanting his identity respected. In the fiction this trans person is that. But it's promoting the idea that they are in real life. Transphobes will show you a lot of spooky examples of trans identities that are unreasonable to respect, but that's not useally ever what it's like in real life. (An otherkin robotgirl isn't going to demand you communicate with her through beeps and boops, she probably just wants you not to laugh at her.)

Third off: it's pitting minorities agaisnt eachother. Conservatives love this, but it's super common when people try to convince progressives to a specific group from their advocacy. It shows us a world where trans rights and poc rights are at odds with eachother, in the real world they aren't, in the real world they're part of one larger struggle and diminishing one is diminishing the other. A lot of people do this with different identities, lgb types do it with gayness, terfs do it with womanhood, class reductionists do it with class, trscum do it between trans people. But it doesn't help one oppressed group when you shit on a diffrent oppressed group in their name. It's white conservatives who love it the most when trans people and poc at pit agaisnt eachother, and it's trans poc who suffer the most.

Fourth off: it's feeds into a very old myth amoung queerphobic progressives, which is the idea that queer people are privileged people looking to pose as the marginalized to get special rights. This is a myth we really have to get over, because its been internalized by a lot of people, and we get these hunts for fake minorities. This is why the "you're not interesting" line sticks out to me. Most trans people don't give themselves inappropriative names, but trans people as a group constantly get accused of trying to steal other people's struggles. This is a myth that preys on the fact that white skined white colar queer people are more visible, and its one that is based on treating that disparity in visibility as a fact. We have to cut this out, nobody fakes minority status to get privileges because minorities aren't privileged. It's not true for queer people, even the queer people other queer people hate like bi people and ace people. It's not true about mentally ill and ND people, or converts to non Christian religions, or East Asian people, or anyone who gets accused of this. Stop it dearly.

Fifth off: this entire sketch is based in the idea that families can accept their trans kids, but only conditionally, only if they prove themselves to be doing it for the right reasons, and they please their family's whims. This is a transphobic idea, it's a transphobic idea most neolibs hold. Comedy bits are a lot like story books (no shade at either) where a problem is presented at the beginning, and a solution at the end, that the audience is expected to take for their own problems. And the solution here is a form of transphobia, the idea that trans people aren't owned acceptance, they need to earn it. I've seen a lot of trans people tormented by their families over that idea. And when a person of color goes and stage and wraps that idea in racial justice, it's young trans poc who get hurt by it the most.

Sixth off: not a huge point, but I feel like a cis black man, of all cis people, should be the most likely to understand that calling a trans man a boy is dehumanizing and insulting. I guess this goes to show he's not interested in thinking about how trans people's struggles are like his, he stands alongside a lot of marginalized trans people there.

Finally I kind of don't know how to end this. This is long. Really long. I don't know whose going to read this, because its a lot. Hopefully you got a bit of media literacy from reading all of this. Early on in my tumblr career, when I had just moved from Brooklyn to Manhattan, I had read an essay by @wifelinkmtg about a concept called the ditch. The idea was we often argue about media wrong, talking about things in hyper literal cannon obsessed terms, and that was the ditch, the ditch we dig for ourselves when we ignore things like themes and audience experiences. Hopefully this series of words dug less of a ditch than my words did a year ago. Sorry I don't have the actual sketch on hand. Mabye I'm wrong, but if someone wants to prove me wrong I'd rather they do it outside of a ditch. Mabye the ask wasn't even about that post. Mabye I'm tired. Maybe you should be tired too.

Sorry for the long post. Media literacy matters. Black trans lives matter. Goodbye, enjoy your night well.

[mxshr0mz]

What I've seen people fail to mention is that Nex, after regaining consciousness, went to the nurse’s office who then refused to call an ambulance. Their death is also due to the negligence of the school.

[sleeplessdreamer14]

I made the mistake of looking at politics first thing in the morning and now I feel like I’m gonna vomit please for the love of god we’ve just gotta grit our teeth and vote

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

K, you know what? I'm gonna say it. I think this new Julian character should date Bart. I don't typically have preferences when it comes to shipping (and tbh if Bart got another love interest I'd be for it too) but I think DC should confirm Bart as Queer and that's sure as fuck not happening without a love interest (unless they pull a Hawke which I would love but unfortunately life isn't that nice to me)

DC isn't gonna fuck with other 'families' so they'd either keep the love interest in house or make up a new person but uhhhhh Jules is honorary Flash fam and a Force user. And a Central resident. Dude does rodeo shows. Jules is a country boy. Bart is a country boy.

I just, I don't know, I think it'd work!

Also I don't want Julian to have the same fate as Jess and Hartley and literally only get featured during pride month. Setting up a mini series or something would be good for the character I think. I really like Jules and I want him to stick around and be in stuff.

[transformationsproject]

Good News Folks!

This week, Milwaukee County declared itself a sanctuary for gender-diverse people! Learn more here! 🏳️‍⚧

[steph-the-4th-robin]

Day 9 of Characters That Are Definitely Queer but Comics Won’t Let Them Be:

Bart Allen

[melonlthawne]

happy early pride !

(my commissions are open! )

[caesthoffe]

to all of the TERFs who are reblogging my post about Brianna Ghey saying, "why would you make this about feminism?" or "wow using a girl's death to further your agenda" i want you to stop and seriously reflect.

it's not about feminism. it's about Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism. TERF-ism is inherently transphobic. it is all about treating trans women like men based off of right wing talking points under the guise of feminism.

you can call me all the names in the world, it doesn't change that your ideology kills just as many trans and non-binary people as the alt-right.

answer me this: why are all of the biggest TERFs always friends with pieces of shit? JKR is buddy buddy enough with Marilyn Manson that she sent him flowers. an actual predator being sent flowers by a fucking TERF.

i will reiterate what i said in my original post. you all contributed to the transphobic society that allows crimes like this to happen.

you. have. blood. on. your. hands.

[arthurbutus]

For clarification: I filmed this a while ago and at the time, I was under the impression that Nex used they/he pronouns. I am now aware that he was trans masc and generally preferred masculine pronouns, but I'm choosing to keep the video as-is. It's my very raw, honest reaction to hearing what happened to him, and re-recording the voiceover feels disingenuous.

Also this piece is not for sale. I've been in contact with someone who knows his family and am hoping to gift it to them once the media storm has fully subsided and they've had some time to process.

Cherish your trans loved ones, folks. The world is an especially scary place for us right now.