#like most republicans have to at least pretend not to be homophobic these days which

[strawberrymilkshakeearrings]

i know im complaining abt this on the gay website so im preaching to the choir but im just absolutely exhausted at the fact that im seeing literally almost word-for-word the same arguments against trans people that i used to hear about LGB people fifteen years ago. cant we just skip to the part where its at least socially unacceptable for a politician to pubically campaign on that platform.

[qedmirage]

As most of my international followers know here in the US we're having a presidential election this year. Well, that means each major party has to select their candidate, and the process for that has been going on for a while now. See, in the US, state-level parties have a lot of say in how they select candidates, so they randomly jockey for more important slots than each other, and this is why the party elections for their candidate take months and not, like, a week. Well for the past several months, in the lead up to actual voting, we've been obligated to pretend that several people with a snowball's chance in hell were serious candidates to control the world's [EDIT: second-] largest nuclear arsenal. I want to briefly commemorate/memorialize one of those candidacies, that of Ron DeSantis of florida.

See just a few days ago we had the iowa caucuses, a silly way to select presidential candidates that is ALSO unrepresentative of who the final nominee will be, as the winner secures an objectively tiny amount of points (called 'delegates') towards gaining a party's nomination and the system is designed to make it impossible for introverts to participate. You get like a tiny sliver of a party's membership voting in caucuses and it's weighted to favor the freaks and fanatics. And yet that simple, first contest, was enough to cause all but two of the field of GOP candidates to give up and go home. Because throughout the pre-pre-election season they would give fawning, obsequious praise to Donald Trump - the best president since Washington, possibly even better - and then be asked: "Isn't he also running for president? Why should people vote for you over him, if they like Trump?" to which the answer would be some vague mumbling about his legal challenges or age or how statistically most of the country wants to murder him with knives. (The notable exception here is wannabee mafioso Chris Christie, who at least does not forgive trying to kill him). Anyways, in final results Trump got 20 points, Ron DeSantis got 9, Nikki Haley got 8, and 4chan shitposter Vivek Ramaswamy got 3. Of those, only Trump and Nikki Haley didn't immediately give up. So anyways. Ron DeSantis. Actually presently a governor of a major state, and Florida at that - one which has shifted from 'swing' to 'republican' over his tenure. You could be forgiven for thinking he's a skilled politician. And yet. He repeatedly promised that his first day in office would start with war with mexico, which he never described in those terms. Rather he'd just

blockade mexican ports

shoot mexican nationals on the southern border without a trial ('people who have backpacks', apparently)

Send US military forces into mexico to kill more mexican citizens without trial

Cool. Normal. We're allies with that country, you know? He'd say such policies were informed by his military service as a lawyer in Iraq and then (he does not mention this part) Guantanomo Bay. Yeah, I bet they are. Though, for some reason, he always leaves off the "as a lawyer" part. DeSantis's team also produced some of the most deranged and openly fascist ads of a major candidate. See, the DeSantis campaign was oriented around "the war on woke", his efforts to use state power to roll back civil rights in general, progressives existing in government, and the rights of LGBT people in particular. Already cloaked in the language of online reactionaries it was always gonna attract freaks, and as a result, the ads made by younger staffers (released, not by the official campaign, but to pro-DeSantis meme accounts secretly run by his staffers) are totally deranged. Here's one of them; I'm going to warn you, it's intensely homophobic, to the point that a republican presidential candidate had to apologize for the homophobia.:

crazy ass moments in american politics on X: "The Ron DeSantis campaign team post a Trump attack ad feat. phonk. (2023) https://t.co/cwaWnZInG7" / X (twitter.com)

For those who don't wish to watch such things, the core thesis of the ad is that the republican party under Trump was captured by and coddled LGBT people, and DeSantis will restore strong masculinity and crush LGBT americans. DeSantis is paralleled to noted straight Achilles, those sigma chad memes, and fictional murderer Patrick Bateman, all while heavy bass music plays. My personal favorite stills:

Again, these are from an ad for a guy who quit after literally the first contest. Truly a fighter.

But even that pales in comparison to the "running up that hill" ad. That one is one of the most straightforwardly fascist pieces of advertising a modern american politician has made. While perhaps less directly offensive, viewer be warned, this is nazi shit: Luke Thompson on X: "The @desantiscams account just deleted this video after at least one campaign staffer RT'd it. I wonder if this was also made in-house. https://t.co/JA1D9qqONF" / X (twitter.com) (It was, in fact, made in-house).

The esoteric nazi symbolism did not go unnoticed. Nor the fact that it ends on DeSantis's paramilitary "florida guard" (not the national guard!) marching forward into a bright dawn while he looks down approvingly. The aide who made that video was fired, but it's no wonder he felt at home; DeSantis's whole appeal is about threatening to use extralegal power against conservatism's enemies. He tried to revoke Disney's special tax statuses based purely on an extremely beige statement in support of LGBT rights they issued, and again, established a paramilitary force under his command. There are far more examples than those two. Not a 'normal' politician. Aside from setting millions of dollars of republican donor money on fire, DeSantis's campaign leaves behind a legacy of the various 'posting is life' type laws he enacted in Florida to raise his public profile. These include a raft of laws that target and victimize LGBT americans: [Thread of several such stories, reported in major outlets]

And he was also a noted figure in the conservative turn against COVID precautions, defenses, and vaccinations. While we'll never know such things to precision, Florida's COVID deaths record was considerably worse than many other states, despite its wealth and good climate. They chose not to pursue safer methods so as to buoy DeSantis's future presidential ambitions, now dead in the street. Like most failed presidential primary candidates he will probably not have a long future in national politics; DeSantis is a weirdo who eats pudding with his bare fingers, he's profoundly uncharismatic, and he's fought against his team's de facto leader. But before it's all consigned to dust of history, I'd just like to take a moment to remember all the real people who have suffered for his campaign, and for what? So he can make a 72 second ad with him shooting lightning from his eyes, get 21% of the vote in Iowa, and give up after 8 days.

A statesman for the ages, truly.

[kaythefloppa]

Hey, saw your posts with Kash and wanted to say I'm so sorry all that happened to you - I admittedly was in a drama group years ago where she was very active and it's not at all surprising that she continues to behave like it's 2012 and triggering the SJWs was the hot thing for edgelords. Also very not surprising she's now the person who whinges about cancel culture.

You don't have to respond to this, just hope you're doing alright and any backlash from making that call out has died down by now.

Thanks for sending this. I know it was a year ago but thank you.

Admittedly after all the shit that I endured in the months following the call-out, it’s made me consider leaving the LK fandom — It was what ended up making me leave the MLP fandom as well (it was that bad that the shit had crossed over there, you likely know about it from the tags but if not, you can DM me for context) but I stayed anyways because admittedly, I’m TLK trash and there were some things about the online community that I genuinely liked.

Though it’s still taken a toll on me — Because every day there’s some new shit-storm in regards to racism or pro shipping, stuff which I want to contribute to people speaking out against but can’t because “look how well it happened last time.” (I had to stay off the TLK tag for a full day on my birthday because of this, yay! /s) It feels like I’m the odd one out, though in reality that’s likely the perception that I’ve created in my head because of it. And yeah, I still get some backlash from making it and was even blocked by some creators I followed, but it says more about them than me if anything.

And at this point, nothing I hear about Kash surprises me. Nowadays her whole blog is basically defending proshippers, scapegoating “antis” (I don’t like using that term, I’m against proshippers, but I don’t think something called “anti-SHIP” should be a phrase for people who are against specific, awful ships, my two cents), likening them to fascists, Republicans, puritans, media illiterates, cults, and homophobes (that last one cost her a few followers and was what motivated me the most to make the call-out and she unsurprisingly enough didn't address that little comparison, I doubt she ever will), and blanketed the term “fandom cops” onto people who were calling out micro aggressions. Again, nothing that surprises me, and I’d be beating a dead horse if I went any further and would probably end up on the front page of Laughable-lion-king-art if I did but it's nothing that nobody else doesn't already know.

I'm not gonna blissfully pretend that the callout-fallout didn't completely fuck up my mental and emotional wellbeing, but I am at least glad that I took some initiative and ended up gaining closure in the end. And given how many people really had it out for me last year, I'm glad you're among the people who are willing to support me. Thanks again.

[wherepoetswentodie]

This is a thing I’m working on that will not see the light of day for ages because I feel guilty for being bad at updating and also this seems to be the only thing my brain likes to write at the minute so

----

Connor McKinley did not see the point in health class, virtual baby dolls (that might have been possessed by Satan himself, or at least a close friend) and going to BYU in the fall. What he was going to do, however, was go to health class, look after a virtual baby doll (that might have been possessed by Satan himself, or at least a close friend) and pretend he was going to BYU when (if) his parents asked, but actually get into the University of Michigan. 

But as he sat in health class - a class of six people, so he wasn’t sure it could even be called a class - he was beginning to think that maybe he’d prefer to be at BYU. Which may or may not have been a death sentence for him. He had never quite worked out how homophobic it really was and  hoped that he never would have to. 

“Do you think this teacher is ever going to turn up?” Nabulungi, his best friend and ‘girlfriend’ when his aunties were curious, asked. 

“I hope not,” Connor sighed, “I don’t trust babies,” 

“They’re not real babies,” 

“Somehow that makes it worse,” 

He glanced around the class, trying to remember if anyone there had ever thrown homophobic abuse his way. Chris Thomas and James Church definitely hadn’t, considering they were his best friends and Chris was practically sat in James’ lap. He looked towards the back of the room and immediately groaned, shocked that he hadn’t heard Arnold Cunningham before he’d seen him. Or maybe his best friend, and unfortunately attractive republican, Kevin Price had finally worked out how to keep him quiet. 

Connor might have actually tried to talk to him if it weren’t for the fact that his dad was the (incredibly homophobic) Governor of Utah

“Arnold Cunningham is in this class,” Connor muttered to Nabulungi who immediately brightened up and turned around to grin at him. 

“He’s cute,” she whispered. 

“No.” Connor said, “Nabulungi. No. Don’t. No. Don’t even look at me. I can’t believe - him? You think he’s cute?” 

Nabulungi rolled her eyes and suddenly had a coughing fit that sounded an awful lot like “Steve Blade,”. Connor tutted and turned back to the front of class, if not just so he could pretend that his best friend didn’t have a crush on Arnold Cunningham of all people. He thought that he’d be able to deal with her liking Kevin, and that would probably come with a healthy dosage of hate crimes for all involved. 

“You know if the teacher doesn’t turn up in 15 minutes we’re legally allowed to leave,” Arnold piped up. 

Connor rolled his eyes and Nabulungi had the nerve to laugh and turn around to talk to him. Deciding that he should try and stop her before things got too serious, Connor turned around, only to lock eyes with Kevin who was looking between Nabulungi and Arnold like he’d never seen them before. Or maybe he was just shocked that someone was actually showing interest in Arnold. Perhaps he was just glad to find someone who might take Arnold off his hands. Connor had never really understood why the two of them were friends. 

“You know Naba likes Arnold?” Connor whispered to Chris and James. 

James frowned at him, “Who do you think she was out with when she couldn’t come out with us last weekend?” 

Connor gaped at him, “Seriously? Are they - Are they dating?” 

“I hate you,” Chris said, “Do you ever listen to any of us? That was their first date!” 

“I thought she was joking,” Connor muttered, slumping in his seat and trying to block out the sounds of his best friend flirting with someone who dressed up as Luke Skywalker when he went to Comic-Con. 

God, he hoped that Nabulungi wasn’t going to start going to Comic-Con with him. He was pretty sure that he’d have to stage an intervention. A little bit like the one that she had staged for Chris after his sugar addiction had stopped being a cute personality trait and had become a genuine health concern. 

“Did you ask me to take this class because of Arnold?” Connor asked quietly. 

“No, I asked you because someone needed another class to graduate or someone won’t be tap dancing around Michigan next year,” 

“Are you going to Michigan, buddy? So’s Kevin!” Arnold said excitedly. 

Connor froze and turned around to look at Kevin, who’s eyes were also wide, “University of Michigan or Michigan State?” 

“University of Michigan,” Kevin said quietly, “You?” 

“Same,” Connor mumbled, “I’m guessing you’re not doing musical theatre?” 

“Probably economics. Or business. Or whatever else it is republicans do,” Chris said, “Oppress minorities?” 

Before Kevin could argue back, presumably to tell them that he wasn’t going to be majoring in oppressing minorities because Connor didn’t think that was a valid major (if it was, he was definitely going to the wrong university), the door opened and their teacher, Mr. Name-Connor-Couldn’t- Be -Bothered- To- Learn walked in. 

And even though Connor wasn’t going to bother to learn his name, he was thankful that he was their teacher. He was old, and retiring that year, which meant that he was long passed caring about actually teaching and would most likely pass them all without even looking over any of their work. They had basically signed up for another free period, and Connor was already planning on using this hour to work on his book and maybe even convince James to take some new headshots for him. Surely looking after a fake baby doll wasn’t going to be that hard. There was probably an off button that Connor was more than prepared to utilise. 

“Get in pairs,” the teacher grumbled at them, “I don’t care who,” 

Connor turned to Nabulungi with the intent to ask if she would grant him the honour of being the mother of his baby, just as she turned to Arnold to ask if he would be the father of her baby. He watched in horror as Arnold gleefully nodded his head and proceeded to stand behind Connor’s chair in a way that he understood meant ‘Please move’. 

“Chris,” Connor said quickly, “Wanna-” 

“No can do, buddy!” Chris said brightly, “Price needs a partner though,”  

“I hate you both,” Connor told them before sitting in the seat that Arnold had previously. 

The fact that Kevin didn’t seem all too excited about their predicament didn’t make Connor feel much better. Sure, he didn’t want to partnered with Kevin, but that was because he didn’t want to work with a raging homophobe and Kevin probably didn’t want to be partnered with him because he didn’t want to work with a raging homosexual. 

Not that Connor really thought that he was a raging homosexual, but he had long since learned that homophobic republicans (Governor Price sprang to mind), didn’t see a difference between the tiny pride pin that Connor dared pin to his jackets and the Drag Queens that worked in gay bars. It was oddly progressive, in a way. 

“Can you at least pretend to not hate me?” Kevin asked, “It’s not my fault Arnold’s dating your best friend,” 

Connor rolled his eyes, “Can you actually not hate me? It’s not my fault I’m gay,” 

Kevin glared at him for a second before he stood up to go and grab a baby off Mr. What's-His-Face’s desk. He completely bypassed the lone ginger baby in favour of one with dark hair, which Connor took as the first hate crime of the project. Perhaps he could do a second, smaller project on the side where he kept a tally of how many hate crimes Kevin committed over the next week. 

And when Mr. Name-Connor-Really-Should-Learn told them that they would have to stay over at each other's houses in an attempt to really drive home the experience of parenthood, Connor predicted that the final total of hate crimes would be a lot. 

“Sir?” Kevin said, sticking his hand in the air, “Why do we have to stay at each other's houses?” 

“Because, Callum, we don’t want to encourage single parenthood,” 

“My names Kevin,” he said impatiently, “But you’ll encourage gay parenthood?” 

“He didn’t mean it like that!” Arnold said quickly, turning around to glare furiously at his best friend, “He just - He meant...He meant from like a Mormon point of view,” 

“So still a homophobic point of view?” James asked lightly, “I’m not gonna sit and listen to him whilst he constantly attacks who I am!” 

“I wasn’t attacking you,” Kevin snapped, “I’m just - my dad would-” 

“-kill us all given the chance?” Chris said. 

“My dad wouldn’t like it if he knew!” Kevin said quickly. 

“Don’t tell him, Corey. What do you think he’s gonna do? Kill you?” Mr. Connor-Wanted-To-Say-Brown said, “You’re practically an adult, sort it out yourself,” 

Connor sighed and slumped in his chair, glaring down at his desk. He wasn’t sure what was worse; spending a week with Kevin at his own house with his homophobic parents, or spending a week with Kevin and his homophobic parents at their house. Both seemed equally as bad and a very good excuse to throw himself in front of the school bus. 

“You’re not staying at my house,” Kevin said quickly. 

“Cute that you think I want to stay there,” Connor said, “I’ll give you a ride home,” 

“I’m at swim practice after school so I’ll meet you there,” 

“I have rehearsal,” Connor said, “I’ll meet you at my car. It’s the-” 

“I know what your car is,” 

“Oh,” Connor said with a frown, “Oh. Okay. Well, I’ll...I’ll see you later,” 

--------

“Do you think I could steal this dress once we’re done?” Nabulungi asked, twirling around in her Belle dress. 

“When are you ever gonna wear a bright yellow ball gown again?” 

Nabulungi shrugged, “Target?” 

Connor snorted and turned to stare at himself in the mirror. Playing the Beast was fun, but the costume certainly wasn’t. He blew some fur out of his mouth and turned to glower at Nabulungi, as though his quite terrible costume was all her fault. 

“I’m uncomfortable,” he said, taking the mask off and dropping it onto a chair, “It’s really annoying that I can’t turn into the Prince halfway through instead,” 

“That defeats the point of the show though. She falls in love with him when he’s a beast, not when he’s a Prince,” 

Connor scrunched his face up, “That feels illegal,”

“It’s not real,” she reminded him. 

“Never realised that, thanks,” he muttered, eyes darting around the room until they came to stop where they always did: on Steve Blade. 

When talking to any of his friends, Connor assured him that he was very much over Steve Blade and was not at all bitter about the way that everything ended. In reality, he was very much not over Steve Blade and was extremely bitter about the way everything ended. It made playing the Beast opposite his Gaston extremely easy; their fight scene never felt forced and Connor felt like he didn’t need claws to rip his head off. Spite was enough. 

Nabulungi tutted when she saw where he was looking and punched his arm. 

“No.” she said, “Stop thinking about Steve Blade!” 

“I’m not!” Connor exclaimed before very casually adding, “He text me last night,” 

“If you text him back-“ 

“I didn’t,” Connor said, lying effortlessly, “I ignored him. I’m not gonna go back to him,” 

Nabulungi huffed a little, “Good. He got what he wanted from you,”

“My virginity?” 

“Yes,” Nabulungi said bluntly. 

Connor sighed and turned away from Steve, thankful that he hadn’t done anything that suggested they had been talking for most of the previous night. Though that might have been because he was terrified of Nabulungi, Chris and James and didn’t want to get on the wrong side of them. (Again). 

Not that Connor himself wasn’t scared of his friends, sometimes. Especially where Steve Blade was concerned. Still, there was nothing quite as terrifying as an extremely irate Stage Manager in the form of Chris Thomas. The only person he hadn’t shouted at all day was James, even though he was extremely behind in his set painting duties. Connor had gotten one entrance wrong and Chris had described, in great detail, how he was gonna murder him. 

“Oh my god,” Nabulungi said in a hushed voice, “Did you know Elizabeth was still choreographing?” 

“Huh?” Connor said, “I thought someone else had taken over. Chris said she was too ill,” 

“Well, she's here,” 

Connor glanced over at the door and unintentionally winced as Chris wheeled his twin sister in. She looked worse than the last time he had seen her, and even then he had found it too difficult to look at her. 

The school had invited her back to choreograph the show (an unspoken “one last time” hanging in the air), and she had gotten through the first two weeks of rehearsal before she had to leave. Now, with only one week to go before their first performance, having her come back seemed pointless. As he thought about it, Connor realised it only seemed pointless to him because he (hopefully) had more shows in his future. It was very unlikely she had any. 

“Hey, Liz!” Connor said cheerfully as Chris wheeled her over, “How are you?” 

“Dying,” she said bluntly. 

Connor froze, immediately looking up to Chris for some help. Elizabeth laughed and rolled her eyes. 

“It was a joke,” she said, “Sort of. How are you finding the choreography?” 

“Fine,” Connor said quickly, happy to steer the conversation away from death, “Yeah, fine,” 

“‘Fine’ unless we’re talking about Tale as Old as Time,” Nabulungi said, “Which is really all he needs to do,” 

“Drop me in it, why don’t you?” Connor muttered. 

Admittedly, Connor was terrible at ballroom dancing. If he wasn’t tripping over his own feet, he was tripping over Nabulungi’s feet and if he wasn’t tripping over Nabulungi’s feet he was tripping over her dress. It only served as a reminder that he probably shouldn’t have been playing the Beast. He would have been more than happy with the ensemble, or maybe LeFou at a stretch, but Nabulungi had convinced him to audition for the lead, just because they’d probably never have a chance to play opposite each other again. 

“I prefer tap dancing,” Connor said after Nabulungi had finished explaining that the rather large bruise on her thigh was a result of Connor falling right on top of her when he had tried to pick her up. 

“Come on, then,” Elizabeth sighed, slowing getting to her feet, “I’ll help you,” 

“Uh, what are you doing?” Chris asked. 

“Teaching Connor how to dance, why?” she asked, taking Connor’s hand. 

“You can’t! The Doctor said that-“ 

“-I still have 6 months,” she reminded him, “What’s one ballroom dance going to do?” 

“Drop her, and I’ll kill you,” Chris snapped, before rushing off to snap at the poor lighting techs. 

Elizabeth rolled her eyes at the back of Chris’ head as she placed Connor’s hand on her waist and began counting him through the steps. It was a lot easier, being taught by someone who actually knew what they were doing (the new choreographer had not offered much help outside of ‘smile!’). 

“You are good at this,” she told him once the song had ended, “All you need is more confidence in yourself,” 

“I don’t think ballroom dancing is my thing,” Connor sighed, “and also not dressed like this,” 

“Dancing is your thing, Connor,” she said firmly, holding onto his arm as she, if possible, grew paler, “By the time you finish college, you’ll be top of your game,” 

Connor smiled and helped her back to her chair, hoping that Chris wasn’t going to commit a crime because he had tired her out. Not that Connor could blame him for being so overprotective; he couldn’t imagine watching his siblings slowly die, and he didn’t even like them that much. 

“You didn’t have to be here,” Connor said, sitting next to her and watching a run through of Gaston. 

“I know, but Christopher can’t say no to me anymore,” she said, “and he always drives me to McDonalds afterwards. Plus-“ she broke off suddenly, frowning, “I can hear a baby crying,” 

“Wha - oh, shit,” 

Connor jumped to his feet and hurried underneath the bleachers. He had hidden Brigham the baby underneath there in the hopes that he wouldn’t be too loud. Kevin had point blank refused to take him to swim practice, and Connor was starting to think that he would be learning what it was going to be like to be a single dad. 

“Sorry,” Connor said, awkwardly rocking the doll, “It’s my baby,” 

“Health class?” she asked. 

“Yep,” Connor said miserably, “He’s called Brigham,” 

“Who’s your partner? Naba?” 

Connor scoffed, “I wish. No, it’s Kevin Price,” 

“The Governor's son?” 

“Yeah...” 

She stared at him for a moment before bursting into laughter, “I’m sorry. I know it’s not funny but - oh, sweetie. Are they still doing the thing where you have to stay with your partner?” 

Connor sighed and nodded, “I’m not going over to his house. Lord knows I don’t need to meet Governor Price,” 

“So...he’s going to yours?” she asked in a small voice. 

“It’ll be fine,” Connor said hurriedly, “My parents don’t need to know,”

When Connor finally got out of rehearsal and spotted Kevin awkwardly hovering by his car, he thought that his parents probably wouldn’t be too angry if Kevin was the boy he brought home. As this thought crossed his mind, he remembered exactly who his parents were and what they expected of him. They’d probably get angry if Joseph Smith himself was the boy he brought home. 

Not that Connor would want to bring Joseph Smith home. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to deal with the whole Prophet thing. 

“How are we gonna bring him home?” Kevin asked. 

“I don’t know. He’s a doll. We’ll just put him in the back,” 

Kevin tutted, “You can’t drive a baby home like that! I’ll hold him,” 

“You know he’s not a real baby, right?” Connor asked slowly. 

“I’ve never failed a class in my life, and you’re not about to make me,” Kevin snapped, taking Brigham into his arms. 

“Alright, chill,” Connor muttered, “It’s not that deep,” 

Kevin spent the majority of the car journey to Connor’s house glowering out of the window, Brigham held tightly in his arms. If it weren’t for the fact that Kevin was also male, it might have been the closest that Connor ever got to being straight. He had lost count of the amount of couples he had seen (mainly at Church), who so obviously resented each other but had had a child together so that they could live up to the Mormon standard.

It was probably the life that Kevin was going to live, and Connor felt sorry for him until he realised that he was homophobic and suddenly couldn’t care less. 

As soon as Connor pulled up outside of his house, his mouth went dry and his palms became sweaty. This was not at all unusual, but it was even worse with Kevin being there with him. 

Taking a deep breath, Connor got out of the car and waited for Kevin to do the same. He was taking an awfully long time, holding Brigham close to his chest as he carefully got out, and Connor wasn’t sure he could last a whole week without committing a felony. Or if Kevin could last a whole week without committing a hate crime. 

“Are you gonna come in?” Kevin asked. 

Connor’s neck snapped up to face Kevin, who was standing on the front porch. 

“Get off there!” Connor hissed, lurching forward to grab his arm and yank him backwards. 

“Watch the baby!” Kevin yelled. 

“Shush!” Connor whispered, glancing up at the house and dragging Kevin around the side of the house when he saw someone inside - probably his mom - start to pull the curtains back, “Don’t yell!” 

Kevin frowned at him, “What the heck is your problem, McKinley?” 

“How long have you got?” Connor muttered. 

He walked around the back of the house to where the basement door was, quickly unlocking it and shoving Kevin through it before one of his parents made an appearance in the back garden. And he couldn’t help but curse his best friends, because it would have been beyond easier to have just moved in with Naba or Chris for a week. 

Kevin stood awkwardly in the middle of the middle room and it suddenly occurred to Connor that he was probably used to places that were more...grand. 

“Is there a reason we’re in your basement?” Kevin asked, “Are you going to murder me?” 

Connor tutted and walked over to his makeshift kitchen (a mini-fridge, kettle, toaster, microwave and mini-grill on top of his chest of drawers), beginning to make his usual after school snack of two Poptarts and a can of Redbull. If this was also occasionally his dinner, no one needed to know. 

“Do you want anything?” Connor asked. 

Kevin shook his head as he gently laid Brigham on Connor’s bed, “I brought something,” 

“You don’t trust my cooking?” 

“I follow a strict diet,” Kevin said, “I’m a swimmer, remember?” 

“Oh, yeah...” Connor muttered, dropping down onto one of the beanbags that Mr and Mrs Thomas were kind enough to donate to him, “There’s an airbed for you. I’ll blow it up later,” 

Kevin nodded and perched on the edge of Connor’s bed, his eyes darting around the room. Connor picked at his Poptart, feeling increasingly awkward. He would suggest that Kevin stay at his own house and lie to Mr. Teacher-That-Connor-Would-Probably-Never-Know-The-Name-Of, but he had a feeling that Kevin was not one to ever break the rules. 

“Why are we actually in the basement?” Kevin asked, “Shouldn’t you tell your parents your home? And that I’m here?” 

“No,” Connor said, “If it were up to them, I wouldn’t be in the house,” 

“Um...” 

“I’m gay, they don’t like it, they moved me into the basement because it makes them feel less guilty than if they actually kicked me out,” Connor shrugged, “on the rare occasion that I do actually see them, they remind me that once I’ve left for college, that’s it. I’m out, for good,” 

Kevin stared at him, his mouth hanging open. Connor clenched his jaw and looked back down at his Poptarts, wondering if there was a worst person to have this conversation with. He didn’t even like talking about it to his friends, never mind someone he barely knew and who definitely hated him in the same way that his parents did. 

Thankfully, Brigham started wailing and Kevin was too distracted to ask Connor anymore questions.

 It was definitely going to be the longest week of his life. 

[orionsangel86]

Currently there are several same sex relationships on the CW. So what do you think makes Destiel different in the minds of the suits. Destiel has been slow burning longer than any of the other shows have even existed.

Now this is all just my opinion, and assumptions that I am gonna make based on many different factors...

Most shows with LGBTQ+ characters and same sex relationships have those characters and relationships established at least somewhat early on. There are exceptions to this rule: Rosa from B99 and even Ellen were brought out of the closet far later into their shows than is common. Generally though, shows introduce the LGBTQ+ stuff early so they can attract the right fanbase, and ensure that the audience isn’t going to feel “cheated” by bringing a character out of the closet really late in the day. 

Look, the one thing we need to face here is that Supernatural has a lot of straight male fans in the general audience. It also has a large republican fanbase and probably an awful lot of homophobes who watch Dean Winchester in particular because he is “such a cool dude” who they identify with. If you don’t believe me all you need to do is go check the comments on a Supernatural Facebook group *shudder*.

To bring Dean Winchester out of the closet in season 15 is going to be an extremely bold move. Regardless of the 15 years of subtext which indicate he is very much bisexual - none of these straight men and homophobes who watch the show will have picked up on that, because they live quite nicely in their cotton covered heteronormative world. 

If the suits give Destiel and by extension Bi!Dean the green light - those people are gonna be mad. They are gonna feel completely cheated by a show which they considered “safe” and outside of the reach of the “rainbow agenda”. (Yes I too would laugh at anyone thinking SPN was a totes straight dudebro show - but there are actually people out there who watch it like this). This isn’t even about the antis in fandom - they can all see Destiel and its why they are so SO angry all the time and scream PANDERING at Andrew Dabb on Twitter so often it makes me giggle. 

This is about the general fans - the ones who have never noticed the homoerotica embedded in the shows subtext, if they have, they have laughed and treated it like a fun joke. 

We cannot compare SPN to the newer shows on the CW which have clearly established themselves as diverse and willing to attract a younger, more open audience. Because a large portion of SPNs audience would never watch those newer more diverse shows. So what the suits need to do is weigh up the benefits of bringing Destiel to canon, against the potential losses they could face from those people who will feel “cheated”. 

Personally I still believe the benefits would greatly outweigh the losses. But we have to accept that this will be a factor. The world outside of Tumblr is still very narrow minded on these matters. 

I hope this makes sense. We all want to laugh and brush off the influence of homophobes, but we can’t bury our heads and pretend they don’t exist. There will be plenty of people watching SPN who would recoil in horror at the idea of Dean being bisexual and two of the lead characters of the show entering a romantic same sex relationship. If the show was younger, or had established Dean as bisexual textually to begin with, it wouldn’t come as such a shock to those people. No matter how much we claim that Destiel is a slow burn and is pretty damn obvious, there will still be those people who will just automatically reject the concept of it because gay = gross. 

I would love to say that the network would ignore the opinions of homophobes in the audience, but there is still a chance that even if Andrew Dabb pitched Destiel to the suits, that they would come back and say “whilst we are totally fine with newer shows exploring more diversity to reflect our message, it’s just not acceptable to take this path on a show in its 15th season and for these well established chars.”

Of course if they do make that decision, it will destroy the show. They will literally kill it by crowning it the king of queerbait television. it will become synonymous with that word for all time and future generations will use it as an example of what NOT to do. I am sure that no one wants that to be Supernaturals legacy, but by rejecting Bi!Dean and Destiel that is exactly the legacy they will have.

I feel like we all need to write letters explaining this to the CW execs to ensure that they make the correct decision to be honest. Because if they haven’t realised that yet, they are terrible business people. 

[kaypeace21]

Ted Wheeler is a Russian Spy (Theory)

A lot of people make fun of Ted, saying how useless and unassuming he is but I honestly think this framing of his character is being done divert suspicion, not only from the viewers but from other characters in the narrative. So lets get into the possible evidence...

We are told by Mike that his father told him the Department of Energy is making “weapons to fight the commies”.  Which is in fact proven to be the case . But how does Ted know the intentions of such a secretive government facility? We aren’t sure about What Ted does for a living but whatever it is- makes a considerable amount of money- possibly something in the technology sector. Mike’s interest in tech (being the leader of the AV club) and also him knowing all about the newest technologies to a similar aptitude as Bob, who's job is related to tech -could very well show Mike inherited/was taught such traits from his father. The first scene we see of Ted is with him finicking with a tv ... and being a tech wiz would be extremely useful as a spy.

Also, it seems like Ted generally misses a lot of social cues- I don't know much about Russia, but I suppose this could be due to cultural differences. Believe it or not, Ted has been shown to care about his kids. When Will dies he asks if he should  “go talk to Michael”, and only doesn’t do so because of Karen’s advice. The next day Karen tells Mike “if you need anything, you call your father”- which implies not only did Ted tell Karen that’d he’d talk to Mike about his grief at work, but possibly go home early to help his son. Also, he helps Mike fasten his tie, and when Mike says “it’s too tight”. Ted just simply loosens it a bit and says with a smile “it has to be a little tight”. We then pan to Jonathan who can’t keep his tie on- because it not even a ‘little tight’ and is too loose.

Most of the things that people criticize about Ted seem to be due to Ted just not  understanding social cues. In s1 when Mike is yelling, saying “I’m the only one who cares about Will!” And Ted says in a deadpan tone “That’s not fair son, we care too” and plops a piece of chicken in his mouth. Causing everyone to leave. He seems genuinely confused .And says “what did I do?” And then dejectedly drops his fork. 

Generally, his tone and inflection come across as extremely deadpan/uncaring at times, which could simply be because this isn’t actually his first language- or because if he gets too emotional his accent will seep through . 

Also in s2, when Mike is acting out and Ted is giving horrible advice filled with  football/coach analogies, and the old phrase “if you’re friend jumped off a cliff would you do it too”, seemed so forced- like he was just repeating what he heard on tv. I MEAN, let’s be honest, does Ted come across as any type of ex football-star-athlete to you?! Or, does he come across, as someone who would of been a tech-obsessed nerd in high school (just like his son). Who, in cannon, is the least athletic of all the boys- he has terrible aim (he completely missed throwing a rock at a bully) and when the boys ran to the trashcan to see what Max threw in it (if you rewatch the scene, Mike is literally 20 paces behind everyone else, but the only one out of breath XD) and he canonically hates sports. We actually know nothing of Ted Wheeler’s highshcool or college days (as an athlete), only what he’s told his family- since Karen met Ted when he was already working. 

Also if we’re supposed to genuinely believe Ted is supposed to be this macho dad who wants to force his son to be a stereotypical ideal of manhood-like his football pep talk implied. I find it interesting how other macho fathers responded to their sons not acting in lines with stereotypical masculinity. Billy and Will’s father’s were verbally and physically abusive calling them “fags and queers”. While Ted simply jokes “Impossible ... our son with a girl” laughing at his own joke. (Lol, he probably didn’t mean it like that ... but let’s just pretend it’s cannon that Ted is the least homophobic dad in Stranger things XD)

Also, him pretending to be a a Regan supporting republican makes a lot of sense, since it would of been the polar opposite ideology of communists. Regeanomics “was the belief that tax breaks and benefits for corporations and the wealthy would trickle down to everyone else”. While communism’s economic model (in theory,not practice) was “designed to allow the poor to rise up and attain financial and social status equal to that of the middle-class landowners. In order for everyone to achieve equality, wealth was redistributed so that the members of the upper class are brought down to the same financial and social level as the middle class.” Another caveat is the fact that republicans (and most people at the time) were extremely racist- and conservatives like Regean at the time deemed Nelson Mandela a “terrorist”. In opposition to this, the Soviet Union was at the forefront of the anti-colonial and anti-apartheid movements and the Soviet Union was also the biggest benefactor of the African National Congress (ANC)- that Mandela was a member of. During a state visit, Mandela even expressed gratitude for the “solidarity of the Russian people in the South African fight against apartheid and for freedom.” 

 So if Ted has an actual conservative ideology, and not the more communist one. Why does he have no problems with living right next door to a black family. And not only that, having Lucas be one of his son’s best friends who spends almost every weekend at their house for 8-12 hours a day? While Billy, who probably emulates his father (who seems old fashioned and conservative) said about Lucas “those aren’t the right people to be associating with”.If Ted was a communist who believed in the idea of a world “devoid of sexism, racism and other forms of oppression”, some of his contradictory behavior would make much more sense. 

His good old “republican-patriotic attitude” almost seems like a characture of what a Russian would assume they’d be like. The fact that his first comment about seeing Eleven was “My god, is she Russian?” , without any proof, seems almost like he was trying to divert suspicion. Or, this is how he assumed a real republican would act amidst all the “Russian hysteria”. The fact that Ted says “They’re our government we can trust them”, may have very well been been a calculated maneuver on his part-if he assumed his house (like Hopper’s) was bugged. Also in s2, when the government says not to tell anyone of the incident, he salutes them (again very over the top). But, he later tells a coworker about “the Russian girl who stayed in their house”. Why would he do this if he’s an actual ‘over-the-top republican patriot’, who trusts his government ? 

Well,  I actually think he was taking a well calculated risk-  exposing such government secrets would clearly be illegal, but why would a Russian spy talk to his coworkers about accidentally housing one? He may of even played it up talking about the ‘Russian threat’. He knew it would get back to the Government agents- and this would divert suspicion of him being part of a sleeper cell. 

*Also, if Ted is a good old republican conservative, I find it interesting that we never see the family pray or see a single cross in their house.

Essentially I believe Ted does care for his family, but a lot of himself is a fake facade- his past as an athlete and his republican affiliation/values are all there to build the allusion of what Nancy describes as the perfect “nuclear family.”

[edeneben]

My Coming Out Story

⚠️//TRIGGER WARNINGS: Homophobia, Sexual Assault, rape, depression, self hatred, and suicide//⚠️

If you know me, you know I’m pretty flamboyant and pretty open about how the fact I’m pretty flipping queer. But I haven’t always been very happy being like this, as most other queer people also aren’t and this is basically the story of how I accepted that.

Second grade; the point and time in most people’s lives that is mainly a blur of silly bands, crayons, and story books. For me personally, it was the start of absolute hell.

So I was raised in a pretty religious family. I would end up praying before every meal, before I go to sleep, and at least three times a week at church functions. So really early on I heard a lot of really gross and disgusting things. (Not to say all religious people are bad, it’s just I was raised in a conservative republican town were Friday nights are spent at youth group by most high schoolers) so by the age of seven or eight I heard the words “faggot” and “queers” thrown around a lot and the whole “All homos deserve to burn in Hell and be stoned.” Though, I did’t really understand the concept of being gay, or love in general.

So you could sarcastically say I was off to a great start.

In elementary school we would read these short stories in these obnoxiously massive books, and one of these stories was about a hedgehog or something baking a yellow cake. As a fun activity my teacher Mrs.Blair has us bake a cake in groups of four. We didn’t pick our groups, she just kind of shoved our desks together and said “have fun.”

In my group it was two boys, a girl, and me. The two boys were kind of annoying and I basically ignored them the whole time, but the girl was a different story. I noticed that she had short, messy light brown hair, very pretty greenish eyes, and a very cute smile. I took a liking to her pretty quickly and I started sitting with her at lunch instead of with my friends. I knew I really enjoyed being around her and that I thought she was the actual prettiest person I had ever seen. Though, I didn’t get why.

Then my friends started talking about boys and crushes. I couldn’t relate to anything they were saying before but after I met the girl, I did start to relate. But I related in a different way. Everything they said about the boys they liked were how I thought about her. Wanting to hold her hand and play house with her and crap. (We all know playing house together was the way to flirt back then)

So inevitably I was like, “Oh. Why am I the only one thinking about girls? Am I weird?” And then I kind of understood I was the bad thing they talked about in church all the time. I was the evil horrid thing that didn’t have a place in being there. Which, was a horrible thing to think about.

This was when self hatred really set in. Not only did I deal with that crushing reality, but my teenage brother also started arguing with my parents a lot and hearing the fights really hurt me mentally and I started crying myself to sleep.

I was eight. None of that stuff should have been a problem, though of course it was. *** Then in third grade I started praying a lot more and I joined an after school church club thing ran by my church.

Every time we would meet, Father Michael would ask those of us who haven’t been saved to go to the back of the room and pray with him to get saved. He kind of knew something was up when I went back there every single meeting, but he never asked. Probably for the best in all honesty.

Then I was like, “Yeah okay all of the praying has to be working by now and I’m totally not a homosexual now lmao.” Which, obviously not but I pretended to like guys anyways. (Ey Tyler waddup bud, yeah that was you. Jokes on both of us were both gay now love youuuu)

The day I told everybody I totally definitely liked him was the day before he moved away so I wouldn't have to deal with it. So. Yeah. *** Fourth grade was more of the same, just sadder tbh. Oh and I got another crush on a girl named Kayla I dated twice. Almost three but let’s not get into that. ( @kayla-le-queen ) *** Fifth grade was the first time I ever said I liked girls out loud. Though I kind of lied to myself and said “ha ha I like both.” Which I didn’t, but I had convinced myself that I was slightly ‘normal.’

It’s kind of a weird story as I had just been swimming with my other religious friend in their pool and I was like “oh by the way-“ Which, describes how awkward I am perfectly.

This is also the year I started making internet friends who had the same interests and experiences as me and I was sort of getting my footing with myself. *** Nothing prepared me for the absolute shit storm that was sixth grade.

Not only did I deal with hitting puberty, drama, a new school, and the surfacing of panic attacks, I had to deal with getting outed. Yep. Let’s get into it shall we?

Sixth grade. I came out as bi to a couple of my friends and stopped going to church. Only low key though. I wasn’t looking for my entire life to be flipped upside down. My parents were casually homophobic and my peers were actively expressing that.

Still, I decided to start dating someone.

Remember my friend who I came out to in the pool? Yeah, them. I dated them.

BIG MISTAKE.

As soon as we started dating, they told everyone. I told them “no one needs to know, we should keep it private you know? For safety.” They refused to listen.

By the end of the day everyone in my grade and even some upperclassmen knew that I was bi. Though the message got messed up and everyone thought I was a lesbian. (Which made me uncomfortable because I was still mfnsjsjjd about gender and stuff) (that’s a whole other coming out that I don’t want to get into in this as the whole thing is not anywhere near over)

Then the bullying for it started happening.

I was the first “out” kid in my grade so of course I was met with a bunch of crap.

Girls in locker rooms would yell at me for looking up at all, and there was one incident were a girl decided to come up to me, grope my chest and laugh about it with her friends because, “I was just a dirty lesbo pervert who probably enjoyed it.”

Guys would say repeatedly they could make me straight and also would do similar things to what that girl is.

Did I tell my parents? No of course I didn’t. I wasn’t out and I needed it to stay that way. My dad had anger issues and he had once hit my brother out of anger. So, I didn’t really feel completely safe to be quite honest. (It’s kind of better now. He still gets angry easy but he only had one more incident and that was years ago.)

I ended up breaking up with that person because I clearly couldn’t trust them and I was very upset with them. I still blame them. *** Then seventh grade happened. As per usual things got worse.

My parents found out about my internet friends and read all of our messages and I got outed to them.

Then my parents never trusted me again and took away the one good thing I had in my life that was consistently there for me and genuinely made me happy and feel safe.

Their homophobia also worsened. They also outed me to all of their friends and family. (Thanks mom)

I also attempted suicide for the first time. My parents and friends still don’t know about that. *** Eight grade was the worst year of my life. In eighth grade I kind of realized I was ace and came out to my friends and the girl I liked at the time.

I kind of blocked out homophobia at that point. Yes it was still happening to me and it had gotten worse, but eighth grade was a blur for me.

I can’t really remember much of it.

My English teacher who was a mother figure, Mrs.Freeze, who was the first adult to accept me, died during the last two weeks of school.

As well as an extremely traumatic event happened.

I might delete this part when I upload it but if I don’t I want you all to know that this is where I’m warning that sexual assault victims might want to click away at.

I decided to go on the Washington DC trip with my school and the girl I liked went with me.

By the time we got back to the hotel, I hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours so I was asleep rather quickly.

It was four girls to a room, two to a bed. The two other girls left to hang out with their friends and it was just me left alone with the girl I liked and was out as ace to.

She took it upon herself to try to “fix” me.

I woke up while she was doing it and I eventually got her off me and escaped to the bathroom and cried.

I didn’t tell any adult on the trip and I just told a girl that I wasn’t comfortable around that girl anymore and thankfully she didn’t ask why and just switched seats on the bus with me and beds.

I still deal with trauma relating to this everyday, and I still have extreme panic attacks because of it. I lost physical trust with people for a while and I couldn’t be touched by anyone until recently.

This event also drove me to another suicide attempt.

That’s all I can say about that. Acephobia does exist and it can be extremely violent and damaging to people, so please just kindly shut up about ace discourse. *** During freshman year I was finally starting to be accepted by my parents, I came out as queer and ace officially, joined the GSA, met some more gays and life has been a bit better since then. *** My life isn’t perfect and homophobia is still a huge part of it and a lot of trauma surrounding my experience is still yet to be dealt with but I’m getting there. *** So my labels?

Queer and Ace-spec. That’s as specific as I can get I don’t know what you want from me lmao. *** Conclusion? Life does get better and eventually you will find acceptance and peace within yourself. I know you might be an extremely dark place with what looks like no chance of happiness or safety, but I promise you will get it eventually.

I love all of you and I wish you all the best in your own journeys.

Happy pride month.

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜💙💚💛🧡❤️

[meetnategreen]

5 Things You Should Know About Mike Huckabee

This post was updated at 12:15 p.m. E.T. Tuesday

When former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee ran for president in 2008, he surprised many political watchers with a big a victory in the Iowa caucus. "What we have seen is a new day in American politics," he said after he was declared the winner. "This election will start a prairie fire of hope and zeal."

An ordained Baptist minister, Huckabee drew in one of the party's key constituencies — evangelicals. Of course, John McCain went on to secure the Republican nomination, and Huckabee went on to become a talk-show host.

Huckabee didn't run in 2012 but he's attempting a comeback in 2016 — he announced his candidacy Tuesday in Hope, Ark.

Here are five things you might not know about the former governor:

Huckabee ran the Marine Corps Marathon in 2005 (of course, a medical condition known as Flat Feet prevented him from serving with the Marine Corps....But He Like to Play Pretend).

1. He's run marathons.

In 2003, Huckabee took up running after, he says, a doctor scared him straight about his weight and he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. He's run marathons in Arkansas, New York and Washington, D.C.

"I didn't want to be one of those obnoxious reformed people. I'm just a beggar telling other beggars how to find bread — whole grain, of course," he told Runner's World in 2005. "I'm someone who did it wrong for 47 years, digging my grave with a knife and fork."

2. He commuted the sentence of a man who later allegedly killed four police officers.

Huckabee's pardon record has been scrutinized and could very well come up during a 2016 run. As governor, he issued more than 1,000 pardons and commutations — more than his three predecessors combined, per the Washington Post. One man was later suspected of shooting four police officers in Tacoma, Wash.

"If I could have known nine years ago this guy was capable of something of this magnitude, obviously I would never have granted a commutation," Huckabee told Fox News.

3. He has a $3 million beachfront home.

The home was subject of a Reuters investigation last year, which reported that it lay on a severely eroding beach, where state regulations wouldn't have allowed him to build. However, permits were approved after he agreed to move the homesite back by 5 feet. As Reuters wrote, Huckabee and his neighbors have "been able to work around some of the most restrictive beach development laws in the country."

4. He plays bass in a band called Capitol Offense.

Huckabee has played music since he was 11. The band was formed in 1996 with members of his staff. "In the course of our playing ... we offend just about everybody," he said of how the band got its name.

5. He had a beef with Beyonce.

Huckabee criticized a provocative Grammy performance by Beyonce and Jay Z. Huckabee wrote:

"Beyonce is incredibly talented — gifted, in fact. She has an exceptional set of pipes and can actually sing. She is a terrific dancer — without the explicit moves best left for the privacy of her bedroom. Jay-Z is a very shrewd businessman, but I wonder: Does it occur to him that he is arguably crossing the line from husband to pimp by exploiting his wife as a sex object?"

He told NPR earlier this year that the comment was not a value judgment but that he was trying to point out America's cultural divide. "What is completely, maybe, normal and not the least bit distressing to people in the cultural bubbles of New York, D.C. and in Hollywood," Huckabee said, "is appalling to those who live out here and have to pay for this nonsense."

Addendum:

6. He Worships/ Idolizes Religious Con-men who Have Sex with Little Girls.

7. His Daughter Suffers from “Stockholm Syndrome,” Allegedly.

8. He Avoids Paying Taxes by Posing as a “Christian Minister.”

His voting record indicates he is a hated filled racist homophobe who understands nothing about Christianity or Humanity. Looking at his life-long legacy of exploiting the elderly and uneducated, it’s pretty obvious he does not believe in Hell.

[nobszone]

Y’know, I was hoping we could avoid this. I was hoping that considering all the positive vibes coming from the left that we could avoid this lazy narrative.

But, I can always count on my “friend” Michael Moore to stir the pot.

Not that I’m shocked by the reaction here from Michael, or from the left in general. It’s really become their shtick as of late. When people vote the way they want them to, it’s “democracy.” When people don’t vote they way they want them to, it’s “extremism” or “Russian hacking.” And sure, the right does this as well, but people don’t take them as serious since apparently right wing extremism is more dangerous now than left wing extremism (despite most of recent history suggesting otherwise).

Look I don’t live in Alabama so I’m not going to act like I know the ins and outs of this election or what particular issues were important to voters and it would be irresponsible for me to pretend that I did know. 

What I do know is that Doug Jones seems like a pretty standup guy. He was appointed as District Attorney by President Clinton and jailed two KKK members for the 1963 Baptist Church bombing, and indicted Eric Rudolph, the Olympic Park bomber. Unsurprisingly he’s very big on Civil Rights and used the recent incident at Charlottesville as an example of the need to tackle ongoing race relations in this country. While he opposes the GOP’s tax plan, he also supports reduction of corporate taxes and no tax increases. He also supports the ACA but says the health care industry as a whole needs to be fixed.

He calls himself a Moderate Democrat, and it certainly seems like it. He’s actually the kind of Dem that I might vote for.

And in the other corner, we have Roy Moore. This is a guy who has called America an “evil empire” for “exporting homosexuality”, has said we really don’t need any Constitutional amendments besides the Bill of Rights, says teaching the theory of Evolution has resulted in more drive-by shootings, was Chief Justice of Alabama’s supreme court until he was told to fuck off for trying to block gay marriage after SCOTUS legalized it, that 9/11 was punishment by God (and, for that matter, so was Sandy Hook), and he’s also a big fan of Comrade Pooty-Poot.

Oh and there’s also the whole Sexual Harassment thing, in which several women accused Moore of engaging in inappropriate behavior with them, including one who claimed to be sexually assaulted by Moore when she was 14 (the age of consent in Alabama is 16).

I mean, who would vote for a guy like that, right?

Well, apparently, 650,436 people would.

Let’s be clear. For all of his outrageous statements, Moore wasn’t some buffoon like Trump. This guy was actually smart. He was charismatic, he was articulate, he knew how to win despite all the stuff against him.

And thank God he didn’t, because if he did then all we’d hear for the next 11 months from the left would be endless diatribes about “extremism” and “nationalism.” So I guess, instead, we’ll have to settle for the typical narrative of “white people.”

But either way, it still doesn’t address the problem.

Hey, Michael, buddy, pal, here’s a fucking thought. You’re a smart guy, hell you went on TV the day after the election last year to explain why you were the first person to predict Trump was going to win.

So why not put that brain of yours to fucking use? Why not look at why people are voting for these candidates, instead of writing tweets with John-Oliver-tier self-righteousness?

If Roy Moore really is a hard-right homophobic creationist extremist who can’t keep his dick in his pants (and I’m not saying he isn’t), then why did he still manage to get over 48% of the vote?

Why did 63% of White Women say that a man who has multiple allegations of sexual harassment (and one allegation of statutory rape) against him was their desired choice to represent Alabama in the Senate?

Well if your name is Michael Moore, or Rachel Maddow, or Hillary Clinton or Shaun King, or if your Twitter handle contains the word “RESIST” your response is probably something along these lines:

“Because they’re all racists/sexists/idiots and I’m not prepared to engage with someone who could even consider voting for Moore, or Trump, or the GOP in general.”

Well, you got away with it tonight. But only by the skin of your teeth.

1.7% of the vote was write-in candidates. Which means that if 22,819 don’t vote for Nick Saban, Moore might actually win, or at least force a recount.

You can’t rely on that come next November.

Look, I’ve been telling you Dems all year now. 2018 is set up for you to destroy the GOP. With this victory tonight, their majority in the Senate is now down to two seats. This means that you could, theoretically, win a majority in BOTH houses. Donald Trump could be made a lame duck in just under 11 months.

But you need to change the way you deal with the American people.

You need to accept that not everyone who votes GOP is a xenophobic bigot.

You need to accept that not everyone who voted for Trump is a literal Nazi.

If that’s still your analysis of America’s political landscape come next November, YOU LOSE.

And you know what? Republicans need to learn this as well. I mean sure it’s not like we have an election staked on this belief, but it’s never a bad thing to learn.

You republicans need to accept that not everyone who voted for Obama hated white people.

You need to accept that not everyone who voted for Clinton hated men.

You need to accept that not everyone who votes Democrat (or just opposes Trump) is a Communist that hates America.

It’s too fucking easy to berate people for voting the “wrong way.” It’s fucking LAZY.

Those 650,436 people in Alabama did nothing more than exercise their democratic right as citizens, just as 63 million Americans did last November.

And the left has the audacity to berate them for voting “the wrong way.” 

Well, it didn’t work in November. It barely worked tonight. Had literally any other Republican run beside more, Alabama wouldn’t have its first Democratic Senator in 25 years. 

So maybe instead of spending the next year calling these people “Nazi’s” or “redneck’s” or “deplorables”, why not ask them why they vote for people like Donald Trump or Roy Moore.

Because by doing that, you’ll actually learn what they want, as American citizens.

And then, and only then, will you be in a position to offer something better.

[spanishmossshea]

So this was a response I had to a reddit post asking where "detrans" comes from and it turned into a dissertation. TW: EXTREME TRANSPHOBIA, HOMOPHOBIA, MENTION OF KILLING, MENTION OF CONVERSION THERAPY

Or, as I find is more often the case, it is specifically part of a delegitimization campaign fronted by tokenized right-wingers.

For example, the recent controversy surrounding Milo Yiannopoulos, where he "came out as ex-gay." Is he really no longer gay and once was? Is it that he never was gay in the first place? It's hard to say. He did have a husband, but in his own words that man was recently "demoted to housemate."

What is easier to say is that he is definitely surrounded by and on the side of people who see gayness (and frankly, any other minoritized quality) as an inherently bad thing. It's not hard to look to the right-wing crowd and find many examples of people being homophobic, transphobic, what have you.

So it's not hard to imagine that through either internalizing those same views of those who surround him as "gay = bad," or he's conscious of this bias and is merely conforming to his peers as part of a grift, to ingratiate himself to the bigots who pay his bills.

What's worse is that either way, it's allowing him to push an incredibly harmful, anti-LGBT message: "Conversion therapy works." It gives right-wingers an example to point to and go "See? We can fix the gays! And you already know how we feel about the 'should'!"

I'm sure I don't have to delve into just why that's a terrible and also incorrect message, but I can and will should someone need me to. But even if we know how terrible that is, many people either don't know and will be swayed by this faulty logic, or they are already actively pushing it, both of which set our community back leagues.

I personally don't know of any detransitioners, but I think I can predict one; Blaire White.

Now for those who don't know, Blaire White is a conservative transgender woman who creates YouTube content. Some of her recent videos include taking a political compass quiz and lying about the results to make herself seem further right-wing than her answers would indicate, and another going to bat for the recent super-straight movement (pronounced "Not-see bul-shit") where she spouted the rhetoric behind said movement, that trans people aren't the gender that they, for lack of a better term, identify as (I'm sure they mostly mean trans women because that's who the bigots almost always focus on).

Less recently, her channel is usually dedicated to the same sort of delegitimization of trans people in much the same vein as Milo does for gay people. She'll spout transmedicalist bullshit, point out whenever a trans person does anything bad, back up TERF talking points, etc. Basically, much the same as Milo, trying to (virtue) signal to the right that "You're right to think trans people = bad, except me that is, pick me, I'm on your side.'

And if that weren't bad enough, the most recent thing I've seen involving Blaire was a right-wing debate panel featuring herself, Karlyn Borysenko, a self-proclaimed "conservative liberal" who by her own admission is only a right-winger because she went to a Trump rally and people were nice to her, John Doyle, unabashed fascist chud who recently made a two-hour video on "why porn bad", and Lauren something-or-other (idk, her last name was probably "Braun" or something like that judging by her views), a mostly unheard of nazi and looks-wise, literally Hitler's wet dream.

Now you may be wondering; how can so much cringe exist in one place without passing critical mass, creating a black hole, and swallowing the solar system, leaving not even a memory? Scientists are still stumped to this miracle of physics, so don't feel bad if you don't know either.

Anyway, why I think Blaire is going to eventually, if not soon, be the next detransitioner to be decrying trans people as a concept, is that she already was in this debate. Several times during the panel, Lauren brought up incredibly mask-off criticisms of Blaire and trans people in general, citing the "40%" statistic, saying that Blaire was encouraging children to be trans, and at one point literally saying (SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE EXTREME TRANSPHOBIA, also I'm paraphrasing a little at the end) "the best thing you could do [for the republican party] is to grow out your mustache and stop pretending to be something you're not."

Now, in the face of such horrid hatred, did Blaire stand up for herself, or indeed other, possibly even conservative, trans people? Nope. Capitulated to her point. Said that she was the biggest advocate for children not to transition. That she didn't want people to be like her. And it was like this for the entire gut-wrenching panel. Two fascists and a fascist-friendly moderator berating and laughing at anything that wasn't white, cis, and hetero, versus one idiot arguing (ironically pretty pragmatically) for a bigger-tent strategy, and a token trans woman buttoning her lip as she and everyone like her were being barraged with hatred.

So, it seems Blaire, and other right-wing trans people like her, are faced with a choice: Either A) Realize that these people hate her guts and will gladly take her vote and then legislate against her existence, and stop associating with them at the very least, B) Continue to air-headedly go to bat for these people while dissonantly holding onto her identity, right up until the day it's her own turn in the showers, or C) and I think you know what's coming here: Detransition to ingratiate herself to the people who hate her for existing but pay her bills. And I'd like to think it's not hard to imagine how likely option A is. And when she inevitably takes option C, those same nazis will have another example to point at and say "See! We can fix the transes!"

So to cap it off, I think that's essentially where the bulk of "detrans" comes from. Don't buy into it. If someone really does realize they weren't really trans, then good for them. But I think it would be worth it to examine whether those are genuine feelings, and where they're coming from.

Sincerely,

A Proud and Out Trans Woman

[echoboots]

Advocating to Callous Listeners: Five (Not-So-Easy) Steps

This is a very strange Martin Luther King Day.  In my lifetime, we've always had a long way to go on race relations--I think most people agree we were not enjoying a post-racial society before the November election--but this is the first time that a President-Elect picked a fight with a civil rights legend the weekend before his inauguration.  And, more importantly, this behavior does not exist in a vacuum--our President-Elect ran on a blatantly racist, homophobic, ableist, and Islamophobic platform, and though he did not win with a majority, he did win.  And his victory (such as it was) emboldened racist people throughout the country to say what they really think--or, as was the case in many school bathrooms and Congressional floors throughout the country, do what they really think.  And most of us who are decent human beings are horrified by this, and want it to change.

However, when many of us with these reactions tried to talk to our family/colleagues/friends/garbagemen who supported Trumpian politics, we had a second horrifying realization:  This person we were speaking to did not care about fellow human beings.  "The Black Lives Matter movement started because people are dying," we told them, and to our abject horror, they just didn't care. Appealing to a sense of humanity did not work, because the listener did not view the subject population as people. 

And this is the point where many of us well-meaning advocates, and especially allies, start to draw a blank about what to even do next.  Recognizing the humanity of fellow human beings is so basic to us that we don't know what to do when someone rejects it--the carburetor in our brain stops turning over, and we stand there sputtering, "But they should!"  And we're right--they should--but they still don't.

I know something of this challenge, because I spent four and a half years writing about mitigating factors of very marginalized and vulnerable people for a living.  Talking to people about their experience above has made me realize it might be helpful to talk about my trial and error process.  To that end, I’ve drafted a quick primer on an unofficial five-step process I’ve identified over years as a professional advocate. Though this is by no means exhaustive and makes certain assumptions about the relationship between the speaker and the listener, I’m hoping it’s a helpful start for the average ally and advocate.

1.  Let Go of 'Should,' And Recognize 'Is'

This is the first step, but it's also by far the hardest--if you can manage it, the rest becomes much easier.  Probably most people reading this know that anyone with the empathy God gave a grapefruit thinks that other human beings dying is bad.  The natural corollary there is that this person we are speaking to does not, in fact, have the empathy God gave a grapefruit.  There's a real impulse to reject not just that person, but the whole rest of the process--"Well this person is terrible, so until they aren't, I'm done."  And I hate to break this to you, Dear Reader, but if you have set out to advocate you are not, in fact, done--or at least, not just because this person should have empathy and doesn't. Nobody is going to make those people play by the rules of basic humanity. People who lack the empathy God gave a grapefruit still sometimes need to be dealt with, and walking away in those situations is a luxury we're losing the ability to exercise.  You gotta even.  I'm sorry.

This doesn't mean that you have to think this person is wonderful, of course--as soon as you are done interacting with that person in that context, it is appropriate (and even healthy) to blow off steam about how awful it was to engage with them.  It's part of the human condition.  But you definitely can't have a win condition without even playing the game, and that means recognizing the reality in front of you.  

2. Identify Goals (Ahead of Time, if Possible)

You'll note that I said above, "People...sometimes still need to be dealt with."  The obvious corollary is that sometimes, they don't.  The best way to avoid banging your head against a human brick wall for an hour is to have a good idea of whether you need to deal with this person--and the easiest way to do that is to identify your goals.  And even when you do need to talk to a person, having a firm understanding of what you're trying to achieve helps you get in, say what you have to say, and get out--so it's very helpful to know going in.  What are you trying to achieve by talking to this person?  Do they control access to a resource you need?  Are they engaging in a damaging behavior you want to stop?  Are they voting all of our human rights away in the first week of their first session before your eyes?   (Spoiler: If your answer is "I want to let them know that their ideas are bad and and they should feel bad," I recommend walking away.)

To help you see what I'm talking about, let's go through an example scenario--for the purposes of this essay, let's pretend we are members of Congress, which is both a helpful universal and a pleasant daydream.  Mitch McConnell, racist walking dumpster fire held together by rubber bands and hypocrisy, is holding another Senate vote about the Affordable Care Act.  The Senate committees have come up with alternate legislation, and it's just the phrase "Hahahahaha poor people amirite?" for forty straight pages.  People may die if we can't convince some of the Republican Senators who voiced early opposition to the lack of "replace" in the phrase "repeal and replace" to vote differently this time around.

3. Look for Carrots and/or Sticks

Okay, so:  You've accepted that the obvious appeal to humanity won't work, because the listener is a jerkfaced jerk.  But they're a jerkfaced jerk who has a thing you need.  Now what?

Here's where the first thing I mentioned becomes really important--because figuring out what is going to be effective requires an understanding of what motivates that person.  Please note that I am not adding my voice to the chorus of white people saying that everything will be fine if we just give white supremacists more empathy, which I believe is a dangerous and inherently racist model of thought.  But in order to advocate, you need to know what a carrot and/or a stick would look like for this person, because everybody has their own carrot and stick--and you can bet that a racist callow person's stick and carrot probably don't look like yours.  (Pull your mind out of the gutter and stay with me here.)

To continue the example above, let's talk about what would constitute a relevant carrot and stick for your average Republican Senator.  Let's assume the carrot probably looks like money, or political capital.  The stick probably looks like being voted out of office.

So as we're navigating negotiation with these Senators, we need to either figure out why the ACA will save/earn them money or figure out why they should fear what their constituents will do if they accept this legislation.

4. Offer a Carrot or Raise A Stick, and Preferably One that You Believe

This is another hard but crucial step, because it requires you to take on this person's paradigm long enough to persuade them.  It honestly does help to believe what you are saying, for several reasons.  First of all, a credible argument tends to carry more weight; a thing even you don't believe is generally not that persuasive to other people.  But more importantly, an argument you can accept as true helps you remember is that speaking this person's language doesn't mean you hold their values, or that you agree with them--it just means you need something from them and you have to figure out how to coalition-build in order to make that happen.  It's helping them figure out why they want to do this thing you want them to do anyway.

Let's go back to our Poor People Amirite Replacement Plan vote.  Though I'm generally a carrot person by personality and trade, in this instance I think the stick is easier to argue.  Preserving the ACA probably will not save these Senators money, but constituents relying on the ACA will not be happy to see their health insurance evaporate--even if they currently don't know it.  Elaborating on that is where the advocacy starts, and ideally is the vehicle by which change happens.  Awesome and canny Senators that we are, we talk with the folks who are already wavering about why their instincts are good and this move is risky.  We note their specific reelection dates.  We note how long it would take the ACA to be effectively repealed.  We observe how close the end date will be to their campaign season.  We heroically refrain from yelling at them.  We generally try to persuade them that their scary inhuman boss won't even be their boss in two years if they do this now.  In an ideal world, we are successful.

5.  Take Care of Yourself After the Rinse/Repeat Cycle Ends

Most people's minds aren't changed in a single five-minute session; it takes a lot of work and internal screaming and fantasizing about shaking them by the shoulders.  This process is hard on a person, and appropriate self-care should be treated as a necessary step.  Do what you need to do in order to stay healthy, and that tends to be different things for different people.  I encourage you to think of self-care as the final step of the advocacy process, because it's that crucial.

To wrap up, let's talk about final steps in the Congress scenario.  After several grueling hours of arguing convinces my Republican colleagues to vote against the bill, I am tired and hungry.  So I reward myself.  By eating their share of the vote-o-rama pizza.