#marginalized orientation flag

[genderdenied]

☆ㅤfrilly HPD alt

pt: frilly HPD alt :end pt

!!ㅤ;ㅤfor : anon

﹒ ㅤdefinition :

a cute frilly pink alternative flag for anybeing with HPD, because pink frills !! :D

; userboxes by ghosting-plural-userboxes

; copy-pastable IDs && pt below !!

header id: A lace header, it curves downwards and is coloured with pastel pink. It has multiple outlines going dark pink, white, baby pink, dark pink. In the center is the words " frilly HPD alt " coloured white and outlined similarly :end id

divider id: A simplistic orange divider. It has an orange crescent moon on each side and is all outlined in brown, white, orange and brown again. In the center is the word " genderdenied " outlined similarly :end id

flag id: A decorated rectangular flag, it has 5 variously sized strips with different colours and patterns respectively. Going in top-to-bottom order they are: large baby pink with frilly border, medium pastel pink, small pink tinted white, medium pastel pink, large baby pink with frilly border. At the top and bottom of the flag is a strip of frilly darker pink coloured semi circles with hearts and dots decorating them. In the very center of the flag is the HPD symbol coloured white with a pink tint and pink outline :end id

footer id: A lace footer, it curves upwards and is coloured pastel pink. It has multiple outlines going dark pink, white, baby pink, dark pink. :end id

userbox 1 id: A red fox themed userbox. The picture is of a red fox sleeping peacefully, tongue sticking out slightly. The text reading " This being appreciates reblogs and comments " :end id

userbox 2 id: A red fox themed userbox. The picture is of a red fox having it's head held. The text reading " DNI: Radqueer, TransID, Syscourse and NSFW " :end id

pt: for anon. Definition, a cute frilly pink alternative flag for anybeing with HPD, because pink frills !! :D[happy face] :end pt

; tagging : @radiomogai @liom-archive

; quick mention !! while Myles is neurodivergent && does have (a) suspected personality disorder(s), xe does not have HPD specifically. xe made this flag as requested by somebeing who hadn't been able to find many flags for HPD like this, which is why xe feels ok posting this. /info /gen ( xe js feels the need to say this ( ˃ ˂ )[distressed-ish face] )

[cinnabutcringy]

[ just a small cw; i'm gonna be talking abt racist stereotypes, not very in depth but still ]

i said this on twitter but i'll say it here too: reverse1999 is NOT a perfect game and i think people should stop acting like it's "the exception" because of the devs doing the bare minimum when it comes to some of the representation.

like, it's okay to like these characters. hell, if you're part of the groups that they represent (indians, for example) then i'm not gonna tell you that you can't like them or find them decent representation. i also understand the feeling of "i take what i can get" when it comes to representation in media of marginalized groups.

but at the same time, i think it's important to acknowledge that there is genuinely criticisms to be had of this game and its way of handling non-east asian poc.

for one, there's only about 4 characters that have dark skin (i would not personally consider joe to be one of them but i'm counting him just bc i forgot to in my twt thread and also to just cover my bases.) kaalaa baunaa and kanjira do not have dark skin. has no one considered why this is???? at all???

and on the topic of kanjira, she also is a character full of orientalist stereotypes. i like kanjira, i think she's a sweet kid, but aside from that, she's written to be a thief, con artist and is illiterate and homeless. i'm not saying that that's not a reality for some kids, but the fact that she was deliberately written this way is kind of a red flag.

there's also some smaller things that people have pointed out like most of the representation in this game of those cultures being things like the characters naming off foods, or just saying small phrases (i.e. centurion talking about burritos and enchiladas, and leilani saying "aloha!") and not actually having many cultural references nor speaking a lot in their language

don't even get me STARTED on the lack of african or african american representation in this fuckin game.

again. i don't want to say that no one can like these characters. i don't want to say that people cannot relate to these characters, or that people can't think they're good representation. that's not my call especially not if you're part of the groups of ppl they're representing (i.e. latin americans, hawaiians, indians, etc.) but i think it is important to realize that like

well, for one, no group is a monolith. there are probably ppl who feel this way but either don't get heard or are too scared to say so.

and two, even if you're not a part of these groups, you can still recognize the flaws in something and acknowledge that, most likely, it's part of a bigger problem in society--colorism, orientalism, whatever. it's in many gacha games and will continue to be, and r1999 is not an exception that should be justified or ignored because "it's better than genshin impact"

[transfemme-shelterdog]

I was an active participant in the ace/aro discourse on the side of aces and aros and tbh the reframing of it as “mean stinky asexys bullying trans women” is… this wasn’t history so historical revisionism isn’t right. Tumblr lore revisionism?

1. We saw multiple TERFs admit they became TERFs after becoming ace exclusionists because they found the arguments they were making for kicking asexuals and aromantics out were also arguments they could use against trans people.

2. I can think of multiple transfems who supported aces and aros. This may be a blind spot on my end, but the only transfem exclusionist I can think of was discourseprincesa who later turned out to be lying. She claimed to be an Afro-Latina Jewish intersex trans lesbian and every time someone tried to call her out from the perspective of a different marginalized group she’d suddenly reveal she had a connection there too. She was infamous for being a raging ableist who regularly suicide baited and harassed people, sometimes to the point of panic attacks and mental breakdowns, but her accidentally posting on the wrong blog where she’s honest about being a cis perisex white woman was what got every exclusionist to finally stop supporting her.

3. Wait, I almost forgot the other transfem who was an ace exclusionist. She was best known for dating the person who accused aces of stealing the color purple from bi people. Aside from those two, the majority of aphobes I saw and encountered were cis women, transmascs, trans men, and nonbinary people who either didn’t list their agab or were afab. This is not surprising when you’re on a website that is predominantly those who were afab. These demographic numbers would look a lot different if it took place on Reddit.

4. The entire ace discourse was nothing more than a site-wide bullying campaign against asexuals and aromantics, with any Ace or aro who was too open about their orientation risking getting mountains of anon hate and harassment, suicide baiting, etc., and even something as harmless as “cake and dragons” was open to receiving a slew of aphobic bullshit, to the point where aces and aros basically couldn’t have anything. We saw a lot of aces and aros go from being out and open about it to suddenly being so much quieter and hesitating if they even wanted to go to queer events at all, as they learned from years of harassment that they weren’t welcome there. Given how one post that sticks out to me is a person saying that if they saw an ace lesbian holding an ace flag at pride they’d punch her for it, I can’t say I blame them.

So, that’s all entirely from memory! I’m sure someone else can fill in additional details if they’d like.

Important history right here

[she-is-ovarit]

It's all connected. Corporations began marketing gay pride themed merchandise. An increase in "I-identify-as" populations began to flood gay bars and events, where outward appearance (marketed as "gender expression") became heavily emphasized.

Commercial visibility and marketability does not equal human rights progress.

Ability to consume does not equal citizenship to an oppressed group.

Biology, (referring to sexual orientation and sex) is not a brand you can buy into or boycott out of.

Corporations selling rainbows do not reflect our values.

The churning out of new "all inclusive" pride flags to pledge allegiance to is not indicative of liberation.

A historical homosexual slur being sold by the multi-billion dollar media obfuscates predominantly lesbian relationships ("queer women", "queer relationship") and retraumatizes many gay and lesbian people.

Gay pride only extending to people able to purchase detracts from the meaning of gay pride and distracts from the struggles of the most vulnerable. It positions the most privileged within marginalized and oppressed groups as those who represent the whole.

And associating body modification, aestheticism, and "expression" with self identity turns the lived experiences and material realities of entire subgroups of people into niche market categories that people who aren't even a part of these groups can identify into and out of based on social trends.

Biology becomes devalued, overshadowed by the social and manufactured "genders". Infinite genders means infinite target audiences. Lived, material realities of certain groups of people become materialism.

Human rights movements are becoming human rights industries, with the wealthy more directly capitalizing off of the exploitation of the poor, of the homosexual, of the female, of the immigrant, of the dark skinned, of the mentally ill, of the disabled, of the sick, of the marginalized and oppressed.

Don't buy into it.

[a2p3nn]

Anti Endo Marginalized Orientation Gender Alignment and Intersex (AEMOGAI)

AEMOGAI is a term for people who are apart of the MOGAI community and are anti endo since i was told the original label of MOGAI is pro endo :3

The orange stripe in the flag represents anti endo systems, the blue stripe represents anti endo singlets, the white stripe represents solidarity between the two groups and the symbol in the middle is the MOGAI symbol !!

[obnebulant-mogai]

Linear and Non-Linear!

[plain text: Linear and Non-Linear! /end plain text]

Linear and Non-Linear are terms I coined to serve as alternatives to queer and not queer, in case someone is uncomfortable due to queer formerly being a slur.

Linear - a term to describe a person who does not have a marginalized gender expression or identity, orientation (for any attraction type), and is not intersex or altersex.

[ID: A flag with five horizontal stripes. In descending order, there is a thin dark green stripe, a thin green stripe, a thick white stripe, a thin green stripe, and a thin dark green stripe. End ID.]

Non-Linear - a term for someone who has at least one marginalized identity or expression type, whether it be gender or orientation (for any type of attraction), or is intersex or altersex.

Obviously, I can't touch upon every type of identity, but those who are alterhuman, neurodivergent, or feel like they deviate from the societal norm in any way may also use this label if they wish! No gatekeeping allowed!! The only requirement is that you support other non-linear folks of all communities :)

[ID: A flag with five curved, diagonal stripes. From top left to bottom right, there is a thick purple stripe, a medium light purple stripe, a thick white stripe, a medium light purple stripe, and a thick purple stripe. End ID.]

I chose the terms "linear" and "non-linear" because linear is seen as straightforward, and non-linear deviates from this in a variety of different forms, such as quadratic, exponential, etc!! I'm a bit of a math nerd, as you can see.

P.S. These labels do not need to be mutually exclusive! Experiences are complicated, feel free to mix and match these however you wish!

[ID: A divider that consists of a thin white line with three stars on each side. End ID.]

Flags by me, tagging @radiomogai.

[archive-of-archives]

Any / General

[Plain text : Any / General end plain text]

@amazingly-specific-microlabels - reblogs LIOM / MOGAI microlabels / terms / identities

@archivecyclone - reblogs MOGAI terms / labels / identities

@archivinguy - reblogs LIOM / MOGAI+ / QAI exclusive labels / terms / flags that are exclusive to certain communities

@aspectsofidentity - reblogs MOGAI / LIOM umbrella terms / labels / identities

@beyond-mogai-pride-flags - "Pride flags for marginalized orientations, gender alignments, intersex, and beyond!"

@discrophy - reblogs flags / terms / identities / labels

@gender-archival - reblogs genders / umbrella terms / gender systems / alignments

@gender-jargon - "A Collection of Information on Transgender Terminology and Vexology"

@gonearchive - reblogs MOGAI+ / LIOM terms from deactivated blogs ~

@imoga-pride - reblogs MOGAI+ / neolabel / LIOM terms / labels

@in-nature-archive - reblogs GINgenders / in nature terms

@io-archival - reblogs LIOMOGAI terms from deactivated blogs / deleted posts

@jims-archive - reblogs LIOM / MOGAI terms / labels / identities / genders , primarily focused on deactivated accounts

@justanotherliomarchive - reblogs LIOM / MOGAI terms / labels / identities

@lgbtqiarchive - reblogs LGBTQIA+ / MOGAI+ terms / orientations / labels / flags ~

@liomarchival - reblogs LIOM terms / identities / labels (2022 and before) ~

@liom-archive - reblogs LIOM flags / terms (some 18+ terms)

@liom-flags - reblogs LIOM flags / terms (some 18+ terms)

@liomipsum - reblogs LIOM / MOGAI terms / genders / labels / identities

@liom-mogarchive - reblogs LIOMOGAI terms / identities / genders

@liomoth - reblogs MOGAI / LIOM terms / genders / labels ~

@localflagdealer - reblogs flags related to LGBTQ+ identities from inactive / deactivated blogs ~

@massivewardrobe - reblogs LIOMOQAI+ flags / terms / labels related to hyperfixations

@masterlisthound - reblogs terms / identities / orientations / genders , intends to be a masterlist ~

@mogai-database - reblogs MOGAI+ / LIOM / QAI terms / labels / genders / identities ( sometimes reblogs 18+ )

@mogailog - reblogs MOGAI / LIOM terms / flags ~

@mogai-teamup-archived - reblogs terms from the mogai teamup event

@mogai-tome - reblogs "lexic genders, emojic genders, omninouns, nounself pronouns, many role and gender systems, quoteic/lyrica genders"

@neopronouns - not necessarily an archive , but this blog has MANY terms / flags / labels of many kinds!

@obscurian - reblogs LIOM / MOGAI terms / labels / flags that don't fall into @io-archival

@poofusarchival - reblogs LIOM / MOGAI flags

@prideflagarchival - reblogs pride flags ( 2022 and before ) ~

@pride-flag-fag - reblogs LGBTQIAP+ / MOGAI / LIOM terms

@radiomogai - reblogs a LOT of MOGAI / LIOM terms , extensive tagging system , 50 posts and day

@songdogs-archivist - reblogs terms / flags / id packs / alterhuman labels / genders

@synodian - " reblogging flags/terms for identity alignments "

@temparchive - archive for MOGAI+ labels / microlabels from before 2022

@term-repost - reblogs MOGAI+ terms , mainly from deactivated accounts ~

@the-gender-archiver - reblogs any / all MOGAI/LIOM/QAI terms ( THERE ARE SOME TERMS WITH NSFW IMPLICATIONS , BUT NOTHING EXPLICITLY SO )

@the-mogai-archives - reblogs MOGAI terms

@undeadarchive - reblogs terms from accounts that have since been deactivated ~

@variant-archive - reblogs MOGAI / LIOM and variant terms

@xenogenderarchive - archive of various xenogenders from 2019 and before ~

[rjalker]

well I'll assume I also forgot to post this....

if I ever say I'll post something after I post something else, assume that I will forget to do that second part lol. ADHD brain says oh, the first task is done? then all of it's done. forget it exists now.

This design is public domain, feel free to use.

[ID: Digital reference art for an original design for the Sphere from the book Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, named Kormance, whose pronouns are xet/xev/xel/xevself. A small key on the side shows how to use these pronouns, with each corresponding word color coded: Replace he with xet, replace him with xev, replace his with xel, and replace himself with xevself. The bottom of the image is black, with the colors showin first in a scribble of the character, then in near boxes. The top of the image is blue, showing the character from six different angles. Kormance is a Sphere with a base of light red. First we are shown xev from the front, showing that xet has a single oval shaped eye like a cyclops, with a diamond shaped iris and pupil. The iris is made of different shades of dark blue. Xet has two arms, with the right one ending at around the elbow, in a congenital amputation. The other arm ends in a simple three-fingered hand. Arranged around the eyes are different mirrored geometric shapes, each conntected to the eye by a line of the matching color. On the upper sides of the eye are two dark red diamonds. On the lower sides are dark navy blue circles. Above the eye on the top of the head is the start of a navy blue circle, and on the cheeks and belly are red circles with blue spots. Kormance grins with xel mouth open, revealing sharp teeth like a cat, with a light pink tongue and darker red inner mouth. When viewed from the side, we can see large red spots with lighter blue spots inside, with the left and right side having slightly different arrangements of the blue spots. The one on the belly is shaped more like a long oval than a real circle. The back of Kormance is mostly taken up by a navy blue spot that continues up to the top of the head where we see it from the front. On the back is a large dark red diamond, with a paler red diamond inside, and a navy blue center. Scribbled in the margins are more drawings of the character. One shows xev smiling with xel eye closed, one fist raised in celebration. Another shows xev sleeping in a bed with a purple blanket. A third shows the narrator of Flatland, a Square, saying, "4D plox", with Kormance throwing xel arm into the air and exclaiming, "That's nonsense!". A smaller drawing next to this shows xel eye as seen from the side. The pride flags listed along the bottom are, from left to right: Omni-oriented: with stripes of pink, dark pink, blue-black, medium blue, and light blue. Transgender, with stripes of purple, black, blue, pink, white, yellow, black, and brown, with rings in the center in black, purple, and gold. Gendernull, which has a black field with a white diamond in the upper left corner, and small diagonal stipes in the lower right of light grey, grey, red, and black. Disabled, with a dark grey field, and diagonal stripes in the center of desaturated red, yellow, white, glue, and green. The last flag is Nebularomantic, with stripes forming a gradient from dark red to white, to blue, to blue-black. End ID.]

[maaarine]

On Freedom (Timothy Snyder, 2024)

"We say that a symbol stands for something, but all too often a symbol merely stands in for something.

The American flag is supposed to stand for freedom, but it can very easily stand in for freedom.

In singing the anthem, we treat its values as permanent, or as if they were enacted by song. But praise is not practice.

By no meaningful index are Americans today among the freest peoples of the world.

An American organization, Freedom House, measures freedom by the criteria Americans prefer: civil and political liberties.

Year after year about fifty countries do better than us on these measures. Our northern neighbor Canada stands far above us.

In a recent ranking, the United States shared a place with South Korea (a country Americans fought for), Romania (a post-communist country that few Americans would see as a peer), and Panama (a country that the United States called into existence in order to get a canal built).

The truth about the “land of the free” is more sobering still.

Most of the countries with higher rankings than ours in civil and political liberties would surpass us by still greater margins in the measures that their citizens would consider elements of freedom, such as access to health care.

If such measures were included, we would fall even further down on the scale.

The countries where people tend to think of freedom as freedom to are doing better by our own measures, which tend to focus on freedom from.

That should give pause for thought.

Political systems that are oriented toward freedom to are doing better than we are on freedom from.

This suggests that there is no contradiction between the two. Indeed, it suggests that freedom to comes first.

That is not what we are used to thinking or want to think. It helps to look at others if we want to understand ourselves.

We tend to think of freedom just as freedom from, as negative.

But conceiving of freedom as an escape or an evasion does not tell us what freedom is nor how it would be brought into the world.

Freedom to, positive freedom, involves thinking about who we want to become. What do we value? How do we realize our values in the world?

If we don’t think of freedom as positive, we won’t even get freedom in the negative sense, since we will be unable to tell what is in fact a barrier, how barriers can be taken in hand and become tools, and how tools extend our freedom.

Freedom from is a conceptual trap. It is also a political trap, in that it involves self-deception, contains no program for its own realization, and offers opportunities to tyrants.

Both a philosophy and a politics of freedom have to begin with freedom to.

Freedom is positive. It is about holding virtues in mind and having some power to realize them."

[lugagl]

ITSS TIMMEEEEEEEEE!!!~/ref

Over the past couple days I have been working on four queer headcanon flag charts with the overarching theme being Intermission/Problem sleuth. I AM FINALLY POSTING THEM AFTER AROUND FIVE DAYS OF WORK.

without further ado, THE CHARTS!!! :

extra info under the cut! :o)

HI!! These are queer headcanon charts! I very commonly find myself making these with my interests, favourite characters, and my own and friends oc's. I use these to have a vauge headcannon understanding and baseline for my interpretations on the queerness of characters. It helps me when writing fanfics, drawing, aswell as discussing headcanons with others! it also makes me INSANELY happy to make them and put labels onto characters without a universally agreed way of self expression. Throughout making this batch of charts, especially towards the end, i did a LOT of reasearch on different sets of Neopronouns, Neurogenders, MOGAI [1] terms of expression, aswell as just general queer labels. which is why towards the end especially there is a large jump to neopronouns aswell as complexity in their associated flags.

Extra fun tidbits of info!!: The one that took me the least amount of time was the extra felt members page, with only five characters taking only 23 minutes to complete. THE ONE THAT TOOK ME THE LONGEST, BY A LANDSLIDE, WAS THE PROBLEM SLEUTH CHART WITH *FIVE AND A HALF HOURS TOTAL TIME.* ll In order from first started to last finished, these charts go in this order : The general felt chart/Leprechaun chart, The extra felt members chart, The general carapace chart, and last but not least the Problem Sleuth chart. || I myself personally identify very strongly with multiple items under the MOGAI umbrella, which is a large reason I love doing these charts and including identities from the MOGAI microlabels! || Items under the MOGAI unbrella used in the post above include but arent limited to: Xenogender, Neurogender, and Egogender. || If you use/check Alt Texts on posts, you'll notice this post doesnt have alt text for any image given. That is because I plan to make an entire post dedicated to a image ID for the four photos, including: What the flags are, What they mean, Who theyre next to, What pronouns does each person have, aswell as where the images end and go onto the next image. The reason an ID isnt included in this post is due to purely how outrageously long it is, however I look forward to writing the ID/Alt text to this post sometime within the next few days.

Did you catch the little bracketed one next to the first time I used MOGAI in this post and come down here looking for a citation? if so, here you go! Items under the [1] are copied directly from the LGBTQIA+ Wikipedia page on the MOGAI umbrella term!

[1] : MOGAI is an acronym for Marginalized Orientations, Gender Alignments, and Intersex. MOGAI is an umbrella term for people who are not cisgender and/or heterosexual and/or endosex [2]

[2] : Endosex is a term used to discribe those who are not intersex and whom are born with typical sex characteristics that fit the Male/Female binary.

[genderdenied]

☆ㅤfrilly ASD alt

pt: frilly ASD alt :end pt

!!ㅤ;ㅤfor : anon

﹒ ㅤdefinition :

similarly to the HPD alt posted yesterday, this is a cute frilly pink alternative flag for anybeing with ASD, because pink frills ^_^

﹒ ㅤmight make more of these alts, because everybeing deserves a cute frilly flag if they want a cute frilly flag !!

; userboxes by ghosting-plural-userboxes

; copy-pastable IDs and pt below !!

header id: A lace header, it curves downwards and is coloured with pastel pink. It has multiple outlines going dark pink, white, baby pink, dark pink. In the center is the words " frilly ASD alt " coloured white and outlined similarly :end id

divider id: A simplistic orange divider. It has an orange crescent moon on each side and is all outlined in brown, white, orange and brown again. In the center is the word " genderdenied " outlined similarly :end id

flag id: A decorated rectangular flag, it has 5 variously sized strips with different colours and patterns respectively. Going in top-to-bottom order they are: large baby pink with frilly border, medium pastel pink, small pink tinted white, medium pastel pink, large baby pink with frilly border. At the top and bottom of the flag is a strip of frilly darker pink coloured semi circles with hearts and dots decorating them. In the very center of the flag is the ASD infinity symbol coloured white with a pink tint and pink outline :end id

footer id: A lace footer, it curves upwards and is coloured pastel pink. It has multiple outlines going dark pink, white, baby pink, dark pink. :end id

userbox 1 id: A red fox themed userbox. The picture is of a red fox sleeping peacefully, tongue sticking out slightly. The text reading " This being appreciates reblogs and comments " :end id

userbox 2 id: A red fox themed userbox. The picture is of a red fox having it's head held. The text reading " DNI: Radqueer, TransID, Syscourse and NSFW " :end id

pt: for anon. Definition, similarly to the HPD alt posted yesterday, this is a cute frilly pink alternative flag for anybeing with ASD, because pink frills ^_^[joyful face]. Might make more of these alts, because everybeing deserves a cute frilly flag if they want a cute frilly flag :end pt

; tagging : @radiomogai @liom-archive

[artgsposts]

Francesco Hayez

'The Kiss' (1859)

☆ Historical context:

After the defeat of Napoleonic France in the 19th century, the Congress of Vienna was held in 1815 to redraw the map of Europe. Italy had a very marginal role compared to other European countries and was slated to be divided into several states. Every state was ruled directly or strongly influenced by the Habsburgs of the Austrian Empire. That fragmentation went against the growing nationalist sentiment for��Italian unification and caused the creation of secret societies with democratic and radical orientations, such as the Carboneria and Young Italy. Although those associations were unsuccessful, their role was fundamental in shaping public opinion.

The first war of Italian independence (1848) was a failure, but, by 1859, a secret agreement between Napoleon III and Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, stipulated the formation of an anti-Austrian alliance. The contribution of France was considered crucial because the Austrian armies were defeated by the alliance in the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia in the empire. That victory initiated the unification process, and the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed a few years later, in 1861.

It was during that period that Francesco Hayez painted The Kiss. Mindful of the bloody repression of the nationalist movement, Hayez decided to disguise the ideals of conspiracy and the struggle against the invaders by a representation of past events. The use of ambiguous, opaque metaphors allowed the artist to avoid censorship by the authorities.

♧ To be precise, there are three versions of this picture. In the first and official one, made in 1859, the woman wears the blue dress, while the young man's suit is characterized by green and red; the colors of the Italian and French flag, united by an alliance. In the second, made in 1861, the woman's dress is white and that of the young man remains red and green, the three colors of the Italian flag. In the third and last version of 1867, the colors of the young man's dress remain the same, while the woman's dress is again blue but, next to their feet, there is a white veil on the ground.

[just-antithings]

Just Anti Things: "I don't want people with ~bad ships~ to follow me or interact with me, but I sure will design a pride flag for my marginalized orientation I want all of us to adopt! The possibility of people sharing my marginalized orientation and having ~bad ships~ has never occurred to me!"

every damn time

[mariacallous]

In recent days, hundreds of thousands of Georgians have taken to the streets of their country’s capital, Tbilisi, to protest a controversial draft law being debated in the Georgian Parliament. The government, led by the Georgian Dream party, calls the draft law the “Transparency of Foreign Influence” bill. Opponents refer to it as the “Russian law” because it mirrors a Kremlin law designed to silence, stifle, and shut down political opposition. In the latest escalation overnight, Georgian police used water cannon, tear gas, and rubber bullets to break up continuing protests against the law.

If passed, the law would require all nongovernmental organizations to declare if they receive a certain amount of their funding from abroad. Opponents of the bill argue that these measures will weaken civil society and threaten freedom of speech. If the experience in Russia is anything to go by, their concerns are well founded.

Last year, the Georgian government introduced similar legislation, only to withdraw the bill from Parliament after several days of major demonstrations. The new bill is basically identical to last year’s draft. The difference this time is that the demonstrations—supported by opposition politicians and civil society groups—are larger and the public outcry greater than before. Georgian, Ukrainian, and European Union flags are commonplace among the crowds, where young people are heavily represented. The bill already passed its first reading in Parliament. This week, the draft law passed its second reading, and Georgian Dream bused people into Tbilisi from around the country for a rally in favor of the bill. In a fiery speech, Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili promised “punishment” to the main opposition party and civil society groups speaking out against the government.

The third and final reading of the bill is expected to take place around May 17—another expected flash point on Tbilisi’s streets. After the bill’s likely passage, it will be sent to Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, who has promised to veto it. Georgian Dream can then use its majority in Parliament to override the veto and bring the bill into law.

Georgia’s Western partners are ringing the alarms. Today, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned the latest violence against protesters. Earlier, European Council President Charles Michel stated that the draft law “will bring Georgia further away from the EU.” A U.S. State Department spokesperson said: “We are gravely disappointed by the Georgian parliament’s decision to advance Kremlin-inspired ‘foreign influence’ legislation.” Javier Colomina, NATO’s special representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, posted on social media: “This draft is a step backwards & does not further [Georgia’s] Euro-Atlantic integration.” Considering that almost 80 percent of Georgians see their future in the EU, the mass demonstrations against the draft law are not surprising.

Meanwhile, there has been nothing but support for the Georgian government from Moscow. Outspoken Russian philosopher and Kremlin insider Alexander Dugin declared that “Georgia is on the right track” with the reintroduction of the law. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov blamed the West for provoking “anti-Russian sentiments” among Georgians. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, too, has publicly defended Georgia’s draft law.

After entering office in 2012, Georgian Dream led a coalition that proved to be a good partner for the West. Even though there were always elements inside Georgian Dream whose sympathies lay with Moscow, they were kept marginalized by the coalition’s Euro-Atlanticist mainstream. Over the years, however, the pro-Russian elements of Georgian Dream worked their way to the top while pushing Western-oriented members out of government.

The result is a Georgian Dream that looks nothing like it did in 2012. The party now pursues policies that unfairly marginalize the political opposition. While the government’s official policy remains for Georgia to join the EU and NATO, little is being done to achieve this goal. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Georgian government questioned Western sanctions against Moscow, refused to join, and instead increased trade with Russia. Senior Georgian Dream officials have publicly ridiculed successive U.S. ambassadors. Georgians fighting for Ukraine as volunteers are scorned by the government.

You can bet that the Kremlin is closely watching. The moment it appears that Georgian Dream is losing its grip on power, there is a high likelihood that Moscow will intervene—especially if the government’s downfall comes as a result of mass demonstrations, which, in the Kremlin’s obsessive worldview, would be a “color revolution” conspiratorially engineered by the West. And if you believe that a Russian invasion scenario is unrealistic, you have not been paying attention in recent years. Russian advisors and security forces helped prop up Belarusian dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko after mass protests following stolen elections in August 2020. In January 2022, Russia led a military intervention in Kazakhstan to restore order after several days of political violence. And Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014 followed the Maidan Revolution that deposed a Russia-friendly president. There is no reason to think that Russia would not do any of these things in Georgia.

Russia already occupies 20 percent of Georgia’s territory, following its 2008 invasion. Another Russian incursion—triggered by an impending downfall of Georgia’s Kremlin-friendly government—could take a number of forms. Since Georgian Dream likes to portray itself to the Georgian people as the only thing standing between them and another Russian invasion, Moscow might calculate that a military provocation from Russian-occupied South Ossetia or Abkhazia, if it is dramatic enough, could frighten the Georgian public to fall back in line with its government.

Another scenario involves the hundreds of thousands of Russians who have moved to Georgia in recent years. Even if many of them did so to escape military service and economic hardship in Russia, it is impossible to know the extent to which the Kremlin’s security and intelligence services have infiltrated this diaspora. Moscow’s track record shows that it could intervene to “protect” the Russian minority, especially if there have been accusations of mistreatment of Russian citizens.

In the most extreme scenario, Russia could attempt an invasion to bring Georgia fully into the Kremlin’s orbit. This may be a low-probability scenario given Russia’s challenges in Ukraine, not least its vast losses of manpower and equipment. But just as Russia’s full-on invasion of Ukraine in 2022 surprised even the most seasoned experts, nothing can be ruled out. Although there are few public details, it is known that Russia has been militarizing the occupied regions of Georgia in recent years, even if some Russian troops based in Abkhazia or South Ossetia have been sent to Ukraine. Around 2,000 Russian troops are now leaving the Karabakh region in neighboring Azerbaijan, and it’s anyone’s guess where these soldiers will be going next.

Of course, a large number of Georgians would resist a Russian intervention. The Georgian armed forces are better trained and equipped than they were when Russia last invaded in 2008, and there are more soldiers with combat experience, mainly from Afghanistan. There are also thousands of Georgians fighting as volunteers in Ukraine who would be itching to defend their motherland.

Another Russian move into Georgia could have implications for U.S. interests in the region. For example, controlling Georgia would give Moscow access to more Black Sea coastline at a time when its navy is being pushed out of the western Black Sea, including the ports in occupied Crimea, by successful Ukrainian drone and missile strikes. Occupying even a small additional slice of Georgia would also give Russia control of every major oil and gas pipeline that connects the vast energy resources of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to Europe; at their closest points, both Georgia’s main east-west highway and several energy pipelines almost directly abut Russian-occupied South Ossetia. Any disruption would create significant energy problems for Europe and by extension NATO and the United States.

Finally, Russian control of Georgia would establish a much-desired land bridge with Moscow’s ally Armenia. This, in turn, would create a direct land and air corridor between Russia and Iran at a time of deepening military cooperation between the two countries. Looking at a map, such a corridor between Russia and Iran would allow Moscow to control much of the east-west transit on the Eurasian landmass. Crucially for Russian President Vladimir Putin, a lightning intervention into Georgia could give him a much-needed geopolitical victory after more than two years of being mired in Ukraine.

In a park overlooking the banks of the Kura River in Tbilisi, there is a bronze statue of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan. It is perhaps no coincidence that the statue shows him facing north—toward Russia. The statue could be seen as a reminder for Georgians of how far they have come since the oppressive days of Soviet rule. Before Russia is tempted to intervene, Georgian Dream should stop the escalating confrontation on Tbilisi’s streets and withdraw the bill. This is the message that Western capitals need to be urgently sending.

[thescaryhyperfem]

hii ooomf!!! so two questions and i'm asking via anon because i don't wanna be yelled at :( BUT YEAH TWO QUESTION!!

1. What's MOGAI??

2. uhhhhmmm how does kinning work because i don't feel comfortable with a statement i made on discord back in 2023 if it's way more serious than looking at a character and saying "shit that's me" so yeah sooorryy aaa

:33 💙👁️

1. MOGAI is an acronym for Marginalized Orientations, Gender Alignments, and Intersex. I don't really know how to explain it further other than, from my experience, we be coining terms

2. I describe being a kin as having a deep connection with something (a concept, a fictional character, etc.) Example: Someone has a deep connection with the color red. They feel as if it's connected to them in a special way, so they might call themselves "redkin" or similar.

Honestly, don't take my word for any of these explanations, I'm not like a MOGAI or kin expert, I'm just a guy who makes flags and struggles with her own identity. peace <3

[hero-israel]

In defense of anti-Israel people, it doesn't seem the fairest to consider any of their political art to be antisemitic for showing the Star of David in a negative light (such as censoring, breaking, being stabbed, etc) when that *is* the only symbol for the State (save for stripes, which I've seen represented too but less). How else are they supposed to criticize it visually? You can only use Netanyahu as a strawman so many times. The institutional and historical issues are more extensive than him or anyone like him. The recent branding with the Star of David of a Palestinian by an Israeli cop (assuming that's true, which looks like it as far as I can tell) shows the symbol can be used for evil. We should maybe make some exceptions to what we might otherwise consider antisemitic. I'm reminded of a graphic novel I read called "Dictatorship: It's Easier Than You Think", which mostly sarcastically criticized and compared various historical regimes. I felt it was a little too biased in a lot of ways, but it made one point I find relevant here. It said that populist ideologies create symbols that represent large swathes of marginalized people so if you criticize that ideology you can be framed for being prejudiced. It talked about how the communist/Soviet symbol was hammer and sickle, representing workers, so if you opposed communism/Soviet Union/etc., they could just say you were classist. (I personally have more sympathy for communism/Soviet Union so I somewhat disagree but I believe you said you're more anti-communist than I am so this might be more agreeable to you). To pull this back to my main point, maybe it isn't fair to have a historically violent nation be able to always have the ability to attribute criticism of it to one of the world's oldest bigotries? Don't get me wrong, I am a Zionist and I do think there's value in Israel asserting itself as Jewish and representing Jews. Enough Jews get associated with Israel by antisemites when they have no affiliation with it or even oppose it, so there's not much real value in trying to separate. And I do believe criticism of Israel and Zionism crosses over into antisemitism more than critics would like to admit. But I'm just making a point about iconography here. I half-wish that Israel went with one of the earlier flag designs of the Menorah or Lion so iconography could be more clear-cut. But maybe it shouldn't be.

A few thoughts on this:

The menorah would be functionally identical to the Magen David in terms of potentially causing confusion / inspiring hate from critique. The lion just isn't as good, though YMMV

It isn't hard for cartoonists to caricature political leaders like Netanyahu, it is in fact their job, if you can call it that.

if someone can draw a Magen David, they can draw it in blue and put in the stripes to remove all doubt that they mean the modern political entity and not the human ethnic group / religion

I don't recall seeing as much specifically blood- and killing-oriented imagery around Muslim crescents. The flag of Pakistan has the crescent on it, people making a cartoon criticizing Pakistan would hopefully not leap to showing the crescent as a knife beheading someone

All things are not equal and the political artists just have to cope with that and work a little harder. It does make a difference that Jews are a persecuted, frequently-genocided group controlling such a tiny land area. If the hammer-and-sickle was only used as the flag symbol of North Korea, which was the only Korean country, and most ethnic Koreans lived there after having been wiped out everywhere else, maybe people would have to be more careful with how they negatively portrayed that symbol.

to reiterate point 1 - it is good that artists and activists should be expected to work hard to avoid bigotry in their critiques