#protections for lgbtq+ rights are my main concern

[notherpuppet]

I’ve never had a big following before and it’s really important to me to try to use the platform I have to promote harm reduction:

@ the U.S. followers I have; VOTE HARRIS

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:

We must make our focus keeping the barbarians outside the gate, not figuring out how to lessen the damage once they are on the inside. That was my immediate thought Sunday when I read NY Times in-depth article, “The Resistance to a New Trump Administration Has Already Started.” The piece featured a wide network of Democratic officials, progressive activists and more who are engaged in “extraordinary steps to prepare for a potential second Trump presidency.”  Examples include Democratic Governor Washington State Jay Inslee’s efforts to make the state a safe haven for women seeking reproductive freedom to an organization hiring a new auditor in case a second term Trump directs the Internal Revenue Service to target them. On one hand, I truly applaud these officials and organizations for grasping that Donald Trump back in the White House poses a unique threat to our freedoms and democratic Republic. Far too many don’t understand this threat.

But on the other hand, the only certain way to prevent Trump from using the government to wage a campaign of retribution, ending civil service protections so that only Trump loyalists will be in key positions in the federal government--as well as ushering in a far right wing agenda being peddled by his allies--is to defeat him this November. Again, we must make our focus keeping the barbarians outside the gate, not figuring out how to lessen the damage once they are on the inside. Trump is telling all who will listen his dark goals for a second term—from mass deportations to building in essence concentration camps for migrants to expanding executive power. There’s also Trump’s deeply concerning vow to “liberate” America from those not loyal to him. We first heard this during his 2023 speech at the conservative gathering CPAC where he promised his supporters to be their “retribution.” He then alarmingly  vowed that if elected to target Democrats, “the fake news media,” Republicans in name only, the globalists and others who oppose him, bellowing, “we will liberate America from these villains and scoundrels once and for all.”

He has repeated this pledge to “liberate” our nation from those who oppose him, including at a rally last month in Wisconsin.  When have you ever heard an American political figure speak about “liberating” America from those who politically oppose him or her?! You can’t find it because we never had an aspiring fascist—who has pledged to be a dictator on “day one”— lead one of the two main political parties. To be blunt, the forms of resistance utilized to stymie some of Trump’s agenda in the first term are unlikely to work against this bitter, angry convicted felon who is hellbent on retribution and purging America from those who won’t bend a knee to him.

[...]

From a legislative point of view, If Trump were able to win and his MAGA GOP were able to also take control of the House and Senate, we can expect him deliver for them on a laundry list of right-wing policy dreams from national abortion and birth control bans to further weakening civil rights protections for LGBTQ and Black Americans and worse. This won’t be like Trump’s first term when some Republicans stood up to him to block his radical agenda—with the most famous example being the late Senator John McCain preventing Trump from repealing the Affordable Care Act with his vote.  The Republicans who have dared to stand up to Trump are almost all out of Congress or now capitulated to his undemocratic goals. Of the ten House Republicans who voted in  January 2021 to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection, only two remain in the House. Senator Mitt Romney--a vocal critics of Trump--will be leaving office  this January. Even GOP Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell who slammed Trump on the Senate floor after the Jan. 6 attack with the words, “There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day,” last week met with Trump and dubbed  it “entirely positive.”

[...] If Trump wins, there are few things that can rein him in. That is why diverting efforts at this point to second term resistance strategies is dangerous given the threat Trump poses. Rather, the top and only priority must be utilizing all resources to defeat him. Nothing else matters.

Dean Obeidallah dropping truth nuggets in his latest Dean's Report post on why defeating fascist felon Donald Trump is imperative to save our nation.

See Also:

CNN: Opinion: Don’t focus on bracing for a Trump win

[leon-on-the-froggy-chair]

this is just a leon on the froggy chair lore post. not a vent at all, just a silly story i felt like sharing. feel free to ignore.

cw: mentions of homophobia/transphobia, that kinda stuff

So lemme set the stage, i was still in school and it was the start of the 2nd semester. And we come out of the school to old men with megaphones in our faces screaming at us calling us homphobic and transphobic slurs. Parading signs littered with radicalist religious propaganda. Essentially shaming those with mental health issues, disabilities, anyone LGBTQ+, women, non white people, "good people"??? (Idk it was on their sign that said BEWARE HELL AWAITS), and anyone not Christian. Quickly figured out they were literal cultists and their main guy was some ugly ass old man with a megaphone.

Law enforcement show up as with school security and school officials. Guess what they do? Thats right. Nothing. See technically it was public property and law permitted these people to yell in the face of minors, condemn them for their identity and threaten them with Hell. And they did nothing and anyone making attempts to counteract them was quickly shut down.

Now this just sounds awful. Because it frankly was. And what could I do about it?

Let me preface with saying this behavior was incredibly stupid esp since i live in a conservative area and I am visibly queer and bROWN. And I wouldn't encourage it. I was not in the best place mentally and frankly didnt give a shit LMAO.

So.

Naturally. With security in my face telling me off for what I was doing and a multitude of white men screaming bigoted rhetoric at me and my friends. I made a sign out of stapled papers in my bag. With a huuuuuuge PP on it. I made several small ones for those who saw and wished to accompany my effort. And I set up right across from them. Because the law that protected them technically protected me.

And see, thanks to my theater kid background, i have MAAAAD vocal projection. And law prohibits ceetain volumes on megaphones. So I preached very loudly, over the megaphone, about how I would clap their God's cheeks so hard they'd hear it through the thunderclaps. And then proceeded to go on about what I would commit upon their holy saints in great explicit detail for an hour. The absurdity of my behavior interrupted their script and they could not get their message out whatsoever. And I know this because when outlets and other students tried to report on what propaganda they were yelling about, no one knew. This routine proceeded for the next week. And quickly their main guy started specifically targetting me. Naturally. My response is to flame him on his clothing choices every time he tries to shame me and shout the lyrics to the big time rush theme. Until I was eventually pulled away because he showed signs of aggression to my statements but yeah. Over the course of 2 weeks and persistent trolling I had discouraged them rather noticeably. Their faces of visible annoyance upon seeing me set up right across from them with my infamous penis sign was truly a treat. And the time they spent in front of the school got shorter and shorter each time they showed up.

Was it annoying? Yeah.

Was it funny as fuck?

Yeah.

This of course. Reached the mayor. And this brings me to why I'm even typing this up. I came back across this video of my local mayor talking shit about me and remarking upon my behavior as crude LMAO. Stating: "back in my day i wasnt even a good kid but i wouldve never talked to an adult that way." In reference to police recording of me being "highly disrespectful" to the main guy when he got in my face. However our mayor made no statement of concern about his aggression or about the cultists being there in general. Only complaint about the behavior of the "kids". Or in other words. Me.

I however was not discouraged and continued until the school finally stepped in under order of the guidance counselor (whomst i was close with from another protest at our school i was involved in. Lore for another time).

I didnt know this would be the last day they showed up. But after days of figuring out the timing to the song. I got in the car with my dAd (who was quite unaware of everything) and blasted 4 big guys. Timing it so they would be subjected to the beat drop and first verse.

But yeah. Funny shit. Most memorable moment of my highschool career. Havent seen em since.

Eventually after things cleared up, a smaller christian community group made their own protest that was supportive of lgbtq+ kids and gave out free hot chocolate. So the community is not all bad.

[ikeagunpla]

im gonna attempt to engage in good faith with the idea of voting for the "lesser evil" here.

the idea that drives this impulse to vote for the democratic candidate is mostly that however bad said candidate is, the republican one is going to be worse and more dangerous. on a face value i can see where that argument comes from, the rhetoric from the republican party is explicitly reactionary, riling up their base with racist, transphobic, homophobic, and all other sorts of bigotry. and im sure this will translate to dangerous legislation being passed to protect bigots and push vulnerable groups further into dangerous situations.

the main thing that makes this argument invalid to me is that the democratic party has proved time and time again that their purported concern about these causes is purely aesthetic. they only claim to want to protect these vulnerable groups to get more votes out of them. a lot of the harm done to these communities in the past decade has either NOT been rolled back by the current democratic government, or has happened under them while they show no desire to stop any of it. during the last election cycle in the USA there were claims from liberals that "we were going to push biden left". this has clearly not happened. and if anything the biden administration seems to be falling more to the right with each passing day.

and that's like. my main point with this. biden has explicitly said he doesnt believe his bad poll numbers (not gonna link it im lazy just google it) amidst a significant movement against a genocide that he is funding. the left (or the "left" as liberals refer to, aka a mishmash of anything from liberal progressives to actual marxists) is only ever brought up by the democrats in a scolding tone, swearing that if they lose it's somehow The Left's fault. they have no interest in moving left and in fact seem to always do the exact opposite.

so voting for the lesser evil here means putting up with whatever atrocity the democratic government commits, seeing them do next to nothing to protect the people they claim to care about, even while things happen under their government that directly threaten these groups, only in the name of "ok but the other guy is worse tho". think for a second. if they continue drifting to the right and continue winning, are they gonna suddenly start pandering to the left? or are they going to take these wins as proof that their strategy of moving right is working. that they dont have to do anything to protect vulnerable groups. that they can go overseas and bomb whoever they want. that they dont have to care about whose rights are infringed upon.

TL;DR, the democratic party's on a rightward shift and they have no incentive to change, and voting for them again is not going to give them this incentive, its going to make them think their strategy of moving right is working. if they wanted to do anything to protect the rights of poc, the lgbtq+ community, or any other minority group, they wouldnt be sitting on their asses and letting their opponents spread misinformation and violent rhetoric.

[broomsticks]

me, seeing if i can bait anyone into diving into BL fandom drama with me 😈

transcript (pdf) here

v interesting episode bringing together some really different perspectives! podcast hosts are australia-based academics who usually focus on china politics—i haven’t listened to any other episodes but they’re definitely on my to-do.

they also brought on an american(?) scholar of chinese history/ art history lecturer at HKU, who reads fanfiction and is interested in chinese tv dramas from the state censorship/regulation pov — and a(n asian?) BL (+ thorki, johnlock, etc) fanfic author 幻想症患者 (love the nick. means smth like ‘suffers from delusions’)

it’s no easy feat to be the lone fanfic writer in this discussion, to have to fairly represent the many aspects to these really complex issues, and there were a couple of rather - honestly not even fandom 101, more like fandom 100-level type questions you’d only get from people with no fandom experience.

on the whole though the hosting was good, you can tell the hosts did a lot of prep on the untamed show and the controversies re. the actor and his fans/his real-life fans fandom

though, on that note, i thought the discussion was a bit muddled between these different groups of ‘fan/fandom’. i have no doubt that everybody in the discussion was clear that these were separate things and which they were talking about at any point in time, just maybe didn’t have the language to signpost/ organize it more clearly, but i could’ve used more structure imo.

• • •

i especially appreciated huanxiang’s point about how (very grossly paraphrased) there is safety and protection and freedom in nicheness and obscurity and (less grossly paraphrased) drama draws unnecessary attention from outsiders who don’t understand fandom - particularly this bit:

I would be very, very careful to link [fandom trends and phenomena to anything (LGBTQ issues etc) in real life], not that it cannot be done. But please don't do that before like, before you have finished like 100, 200 BL novels or something like that with like a full understanding of the space

understanding before judgment! please! yes!

but also — while n=1 is just that, n=1, but i’d be lying if i said i didn’t giggle a little at the undertone of the cultural value(?) that attention, standing out, is a negative thing and viewed with this like default-aversion/suspicion. idk

that said, my main thought re. this hesitation wrt people who don't belong to this community and understand the norms of this community wasn’t so much kinks and fantasies and premier zhou/chairman mao RPF, but rather not showing celebrities rpf of themselves / creators fic of their characters. neither type of wank is great, obviously, and the two types do often go hand in hand, but i’d almost rather wank be brought into the community than leak out of it

• • •

another point alluded to (not really discussed) on the pod that might be new to western media fandomgoers/ my usual mutual circle is that the untamed netflix tv show originated as original fiction published on a site that hosts both OF and FF both pay- and free-to-read. there were fan translations and all, that were taken down after official translation rights were sold (there is a lot of wank & drama on this issue. a lot.)

a 2019 censorship crackdown on the site, unrelated to (predating) the untamed/xiao zhan controversy discussed on the pod

anyway, point being - the coexistence of the two camps — intended-for-commercialization amateur fiction, presumably sanitized and lowest-common-denominator and all that, and niche not intended for wider popularity-type writing — is fascinating. good to know that they can stably coexist in some form, given how much concern there often is re. commercialization of fanworks that the former will outcompete the latter!

• • •

BY FAR THE BEST TAKE - MY FAVE part of the podcast - was dr angie baecker’s response to the question is BL (response is also applicable to slash fic) subversive?

BL is and can be an extremely subversive space. But I also think BL can replicate a lot of structures that are not subversive. I also want to draw attention to the fact that many people in the LGBTQ community, some enjoy BL, some read it, some don't, some hate it.

when you have largely straight women writing romances about gay couples without having much access to knowledge about what those relationships are like, I think that there is [huge potential] for misunderstandings about queer identities and the LGBT community

It can be really freeing to see [to see the range of different types of M/M relationships], to explore not just homosexuality, but also homosociality

But at the same time, when you have such an emphasis on the male relationships, like everyone in the Untamed is a gay man or in an M/M relationship, that often comes at the cost of erasing a lot of female characters. And so you have this drama that may have started in some ways from the lack of agency given to female characters, but then it replicates a lot of the erasure of women as centres of agency within stories, too. So, I think it can be subversive, yes. And it could be very unsubversive, actually.

definitely some food for thought there. obligatory (and i do mean it!!) preface that fandom is not meaningful activism, does not have to be, you are not a bad person for not engaging with it — but i do wonder… in my view, there’s an element of - ‘with how oppressive the power structures of mainstream media, wider society, etc can be… why not take the opportunity to push back against them a little, here in this space where we can?’

• • •

also had a laugh at dr baecker’s unfortunately prescient prediction, their hesitation, that while I feel like right now we're really on the cusp of a rising trend in terms of seeing BL represented in pop culture - we're only going to see more and more of it -

I am a little worried that there might be some kind of like a foreclosing of this space because there's always this kind of Icarus phenomenon of when something gets too popular, right, it gets clipped back a little bit. So, I do worry about that.

😬 hahaha. that aged well.

• • •

misc pieces of fun fandom drama:

whether character name tags should include diacritics/tone marks! on the side of no: convenience - up until recently, tone marks wouldn’t autocomplete correctly. and for all the incorrectness, it’s not (any more) ambiguous. on the yes side: tone marks are objectively (more) correct. does their omission amount to racism?

it seems like (some sections of?) chinese webnovel fandom apparently have the fandom culture of not messing with the creator’s stated preferences — not just canon ships, but sexual preferences (topping and bottoming). fascinating!! fandom etiquette 👀

[jounetsunosymphonia]

putting my bad news image here too. for context, hitoshizuku's main tweet about this and the clarification.

listen it hurts me too as someone who grew up on her work as well but it's right there in plain text how she just doesn't understand lgbtq+ issues, thinking that they're not discriminated against in japan, and her main concern is classic terf juice of "we have to protect the women from the men who would lie about being trans to commit sex crimes!!!!" as though men don't even need to dress up to do that.

sorry if you had to find out this way at least i didn't use the spn confession meme

edit: she's since deleted the notesapp tweet so i'll have screencaps under the cut for context and posterity

[pashterlengkap]

Nonbinary son of Montana’s GOP governor is lobbying their father to protect trans people

David Gianforte, the nonbinary son of Montana’s Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte, has been lobbying their father to oppose the legislature’s anti-trans bills. 32-year-old David’s conversation with the Montana Free Press was the first time they spoke publicly about their gender identity. They said it felt like their duty to speak up and use their influence as the state legislature contemplates three bills to ban gender-affirming care, outlaw drag performances in front of minors, and define sex as exclusively binary and biological. --- Related Stories Montana GOP bans trans lawmaker from House floor after protest & “blood on hands” comment Zooey Zephyr said she would “continue to make the difficult moral choices” to represent her constituents despite the ban. --- “I feel like I have a voice and I can be heard,” David said. “And I feel, not only in communicating with my father, that’s not necessarily the main point, but also just showing support for the transgender community in Montana, I think that could be meaningful, especially at this time.” David met with their father during the workday like an average constituent. They said their family doesn’t talk much about politics or their identity, and they felt coming at this in a more professional manner made the most sense. “He was very willing to meet with me,” David said. David told their father that the bills “would significantly directly affect a number of my friends” and “are immoral, unjust, and frankly a violation of human rights.” According to David, the governor was very open to hearing his son’s concerns but ultimately decided to express support for the gender-affirming care ban and even propose amendments to strengthen it. In his letter to the legislature, Gov. Gianforte called the term gender-affirming care “Orwellian Newspeak” that “masks its true nature of permanent, invasive, life-altering medical and surgical procedures on children.” All of this, even though minors almost never receive gender-affirming surgery and instead are treated with reversible puberty blockers. Additionally, major medical organizations like the American Medical Association, American Psychological Association, and American Academy of Pediatrics support age-appropriate gender-affirming care. In the same letter, the governor claimed his “heart goes out” to trans people and that they “deserve love, compassion, and respect.” David blasted the hypocrisy: “It’s bizarre to me to read the press release that my father put out. He talks about compassion toward children, the youth of Montana, while simultaneously taking away health care from the youth in Montana. It’s basically a contradiction in my mind.” They also posited that their father is under immense pressure to follow others in the Republican Party. “He is concerned about his career. He has particular issues that he focuses on, such as jobs and the economy. And he’s aware that being able to stay in the position of governor is dependent on him staying in favor of the Republican Party, and I believe that that affects his decisions on some of these bills.” David has also been speaking out to support trans Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr (D), who Republicans just banned from the state house chamber in retaliation for supporting protestors who shared her opposition to the anti-trans legislation. “I stand in support of @ZoAndBehold and the entire LGBTQ+ community of Montana,” David tweeted last week, “which includes myself and many of my friends. I have worked to oppose bills in the current MT Legislative session including SB 99 and SB 458.” I stand in support of @ZoAndBehold and the entire LGBTQ+ community of Montana, which includes myself and many of my friends. I have worked to oppose bills in the current MT Legislative session including SB 99 and SB 458.— David Gianforte (@davidfg4) April 20, 2023 http://dlvr.it/SnCPt2

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

do you have any resources on why the Episcopal church in America is LGBT affirming? I'm catholic and I'm trying to understand from a theological standpoint how the Roman Catholic church and the Episcopal church come to such different conclusions.

Hey! I dug a few things up, but I'm posting this to see if anyone has more info.

Here's the Episcopal Church's webpage about their history of LGBTQ inclusion.

"In 1974, Louie Crew founded IntegrityUSA, a non-profit organization with the goal of full-inclusion of LGBT persons in The Episcopal Church. The next General Convention, in 1976, adopted resolutions stating that “homosexual persons are children of God who have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral concern and care of the Church” (1976-A069), and that they “are entitled to equal protection of the laws with all other citizens” (1976-A071). ...

...Finally, in the summer of 2015, just five days after the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that same-sex couples had the legal right to marry, General Convention voted to amend the canons of The Episcopal Church that regulate marriage, permitting any couple the rite of Holy Matrimony. They also called for a name-change rite to honor an important moment in the lives of anyone claiming their true identity."

This website, meanwhile, goes into more detail about just how complicated the move to become affirming was — cw for religious homophobia. It only goes up through 1999, however.

-----

Overall, I think the main difference between the Episcopal Church and the Catholic Church in this and many issues involves who is allowed to join the debate & who is allowed to vote on issues.

The Catholic Church is much more hierarchical and the men (and it's all men making the decisions, right?) at the top are more or less picked by others at the top.

Do some research on the EC's General Convention to see how they're different in that regard.

...

I also have opinions about how all the Catholic Church's stances on sexuality are interwoven, so that they can't, say, announce that contraceptives are fine for married couples, actually, without also saying that gay couples can get married...

Their stances against extra-marital sex, against same-sex marriage, against contraceptives within marriage, against masturbation — all these things hinge upon the claim that sexuality is a gift from God meant exclusively for procreation.

You "shouldn't" be having sex that you wouldn't joyfully welcome turning into a pregnancy — or that could never result in a pregnancy because the partners' genitals don't "match" that way.

(This is of course all related to their anti-abortion stance — not only is sexuality for procreation only, but the creation of life is a super big deal so you can't abort a fetus)

So yeah, it would be a mess and require a huge revamp of allll their theology around sexuality to become LGBT affirming

And they don't want to do that because the men in charge are happy with the way things are now —

but also because Catholic views on how that theology developed places a lot of reverence on that development (which involves Saints as well as scripture — to start casting big swathes of theology into doubt also impacts views of the Saints who helped develop it, I'd imagine).

Thus the Catholic Church doesn't change theological positions without a huge reason to do so, or without ton of reflection and discussion (think Vatican II and their stance on Judaism)

This is all super over-simplified and messily written haha but hopefully you get the picture

...

But yeah, this kind of polity stuff isn't my specialty — anyone else have info or thoughts?

[qicc]

As someone who struggled with accepting themselves and their sexual orientation their entire childhood/adolescence, I am completely devastated and shocked by the anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda bill that just passed in my country yesterday. This bill was supposed to "protect children" while it does the exact opposite. For some people, it's already incredibly difficult to come out and find self-acceptance and this new law is going to make it even harder. Young LGBTQ+ people are going to feel more isolated, more lonely than ever like they do not belong in this country like this country doesn't want them.

To anyone who's reading this and struggling with acceptance, I just want you to know that you're not alone, you're loved and things are going to be okay. ❤️🌈

As for me, I fucking despise the feeling of helplessness. This is why I decided to donate to Hungary's largest LGBTQI organization, the Háttér Society. The organization's aims are calling attention to the problems faced by LGBTQI people; providing support services; exploring the situation and needs of LGBTQI people; mainstreaming these concerns in laws and public services; protecting the human rights of LGBTQI people and countering discrimination against them; promoting the health and well-being of LGBTQI people; encouraging the self-organization of LGBTQI communities, and preserving and spreading LGBTQI heritage and culture.

If you can, please consider donating. You can do so, HERE. Don’t forget, every little bit helps.

I'd also like to take the opportunity to give a very special thank you to the people who support me on Patreon. You are the main reason why I'm able to afford this donation. Thank you very much, you are all amazing. ❤

[acronymking4tdp]

All About Numbers

Am I the only one growing frustrated with “progressive” voters (US-centric, sorry) and their inability to understand how math and our government work?? Sorry if you weren’t paying attention in Civics class, but you’ve probably been required to study this stuff three times - junior high/ middle school, high school, and college/university.  At this point there isn’t much that a president can do about the recent (and upcoming - be very afraid) decisions made by SCOTUS. They have LIFETIME APPOINTMENTS.  Not saying that at least three of the current justices couldn’t be justifiably impeached, but it’s not going to happen. This is the hard lesson on “protest votes” - Everybody who thought a protest vote against Hillary because she was “too corporate” owns this. Trump appointed (god it hurts to put this in print) THREE (count ‘em, three) conservative justices.  Biden can’t touch that. The Congress is pretty evenly split in both houses.  Biden can suggest any legislation he wants. It won’t get passed. Period. But, “End the filibuster!” Can’t happen, THE MATH DOESN’T WORK. The GOP vote as a block. There will be ZERO GOP votes for that, and the Dems won’t vote as a block. It only takes one Dem to vote against and it fails. Right now more than one Dem Senator would vote against, so IT FAILS. This, my compatriots, is why Biden and Dem leaders are all saying VOTE MORE.  If you don’t like the conservative direction the courts have turned, if you don’t like that women have lost a Constitutional right to making their own health decisions, if you are worried that the court will overturn the right of all people to marry the person they love, if you are concerned that members of the LGBTQ+ community could lose their Constitutional protections, if you are worried that ideology is replacing science in the legislative process, then VOTE. And get others to VOTE. No matter who, vote BLUE. And with a conservative SCOTUS, State other local offices are even more important than ever. Think global, vote local. My friends this is not a drill. This is our democracy on life support.  Historically the party in the White House loses seats in the midterm elections. Why? The supporters of that party become complacent and don’t show. People who voted for the POTUS get angry that their pet issues haven’t passed (even when it’s the Congress, not the WH, that passes legislation ... remember Civics class?) And of course, the opposing party blames every problem in the world on the US President, even when that person can do nothing about them, even when they helped cause the problems (cough, GOP tax cuts, cough). Dems are imperfect at best, but the GOP is immeasurably worse if you care about the issues named above. The Dems cannot lose seats in the midterms.  The GOP is poised to make sure that they never lose control of the Congress and White House again, and SCOTUS will not step in to block the laws they are going to pass.

“Them’s the facts.”

We need to fight early, fight hard, fight to the end.  In my district we just selected the weakest of the 4 main candidates to run against a very competitive GOP candidate. Our Blue district will likely be flipped in November, but I will be making phone calls and knocking on doors and doing whatever I can to fight that result. If you care, please do the same wherever you are. Don’t be afraid to volunteer to help outside of your district or state as well.

[bisexual-horror-fan]

May I ask you about your polyamory experience? Are you the only one with multiple partners or does your husband do as well? Does everyone get together and have dinner and chat, or is it more private? And if there's a new potential partner does everyone come together and talk about it or is it mainly between the person and their partners? (For example if you took on another partner would your husband's partners be involved in the process or just you, the potential new partner, and your other partners including the hubby?) I don't see it a ton and I have questions. And I'll acknowledge that not all polyamory is the same and that I'm asking about your experience specifically, but understanding part can help me learn about the whole, so I'll take any info you're willing to give.

The main types I've seen are love v's where two people share one person but don't share each other (stop calling it a triangle YA authors because a triangle has three sides, not two! Aaah!) and full love triangles where the triad all share each other. Not to mention harems and reverse harems.

Oh of course you can ask! I am more than happy to be open about my personal poly experience. Incomming Bex/Mr.Bex lore.

So both of us are open and comfortable having multiple partners! Most of our experiences, with the exception of one partner each, has been all together.

About the chats and dinners, we have had three shared partners who we both knew for multiple years and been friends with before anything physical happened. So a lot of it was very together, many a time what started as a casual hang just as friends would escalate, the vast majority of our experiences were threesome oriented, and one very wild foursome. We were pretty open about it but that's just how our friend group rolls, everyone is LGBTQ+ in some fashion as well as pretty kink and sex positive too. The kind of people who talk casually over dinner about people we are seeing, the things we are doing, show each other nudes we’ve taken and recc porn to each other kind of people.

One of our regular poly hook-ups is still one of my best friends and was essentially my MOH at my wedding, no hard feelings or anything, it’s all fully platonic now. The other one was also in my wedding party, we are still friends but she has been having mental health issues and lives in another city now and is just not in a good headspace for responding regularly, hope she doing well and I make sure to let her know we love and are thinking of her, still invite her out for stuff too. The last one has fallen out with basically our entire friend group, no real reason, she just kinda pulled out herself, not sure why.

So as for everyone being in the loop while we don’t ask other partners for approval because we weren’t that serious with any of them but we did tell them whoever we were involved with. Regular testing and protection was a must, obviously, knowledge is power, Mr.Bex and I’s main concern is with communication with each other being long term/nesting partners. So while we make sure everyone knows who we are seeing we haven’t looked for approval from other partners, just with each other.

We haven’t gotten to engage much in polyamory since getting married because of the whole pandemic crap, unfortunately, we have things we want to do, plans for sure.

So the most recent experience was this year, for a few months I had a long distance thing with one of the lovely people in the slasher fandom, ultimately us staying friends was for the best but it was a good thing, I don’t regret it and to my knowledge neither does she, we are still close and talk basically everyday, still have a lot of love for her even though we weren’t right for each other in that way. The husband was very aware of what was happening with her, how it was progressing and she asked questions about him and our relationship history which I answered happily.

A while back before we got married Mr.Bex had an experience with this woman I will call E, and it wasn’t the best experience, he was very upfront about his expectations, she agreed, it would be mostly physical and casual, she was okay with this. They hung out several times, then they had sex and she immedately started to get clingy, break boundaries and push for way more than was initially discussed, so that was quickly cut off.

Overall I feel our experiences were pretty positive, the most negative was our only poly experience with another guy, Mr.Bex’s ex-best friend. That guy was a real piece of shit and if I knew back then what I know now about the kind of person he was I would have never gotten involved with him, he almost broke us up with his toxic fucking bullshit. We made it through and are stronger for it, the one nice thing was getting A-framed it is in fact, fucking great, totally recommend if you get the chance.

Essentially, the most of our poly experience thus far, and the most I like to have, is very physically based. Romantic love is tricky for me I won’t lie, I have almost never developed feelings for people who I didn’t click with sexually, sex and sexual compatiblity is one of the most important things to me in wanting to pursue a deeper relationship. It is to the point that sexual imcompatibility has killed feelings I have had for people. I'm not fully sure why but it's just the way I work, not like I need all my partners to be perfect, part of why poly is great is that you can get certain needs met by one that your others cannot do but if the sex isn't right then I cannot open up more and be in an explicitly romantic relationship. Something mentally just doesn't click for me.

I do care for all my partners and have had quite deep feelings for some of them but still I only wanted to really actually date one of them but it never ended up happening, her loss. I would love to have something more serious, the ideal for Mr.Bex and I would be a shared girlfriend and doing the triad thing, two women and one dude is my preferred poly dynamic for sure. There is something about all sharing in that set up that is just so great to me, it really increases the feeling, amps it up a lot and is so fulfilling in a very hard to define kind of way. I am also very aware the odds of this aren’t great and would love to have a solo girlfriend, a poly V with me in the middle would also suit me just fine and would be all too happy to see Mr.Bex get a girlfriend of his own too.

Okay so to sum up and make a very long ask a bit shorter, most of my poly experience has been sharing partners with Mr.Bex in a few FWB/hook-up scenarios because that is what everyone involved was looking for, I found it very fulfilling and overall a net positive for me and my relationship with him. A few negative experiences here and there but I still love and adore so much of what happened and what I’ve gotten to do.

Polyamory is very important to me and it really just satisfies something deep inside of me, the fact I have such wonderful people around and that Mr.Bex is so inclusive and supportive of me and my happiness as well as his own, respecting me and himself and most importantly our relationship/marriage, is just the fucking best. I really am lucky, all the hard times and talks and work and communication are really worth it to me at the end of the day.

I know the way I choose to live my life and engage in polyamory isn’t for everyone and it certainly isn’t the only way to go about it, but it is what is right for me. Thanks for asking this and I hope you found it at least interesting if not enlightening.

[nightswithkookmin]

Maybe people are just triggered by the phrase 'alternative facts' or 'facts'. Its easy to get stuck on a phrase and its negative associations within the wider world. Why they would go so far as to send hatred your way is beyond me (I hope you are ok).

Ahhh I see...

Whatever Jimin said. Lol

That would have to be ignorance and hypocrisy then wouldn't it? They are shippers too, right? Or are these noneshippers?

A fact is something that is actual and proven to be universally true as opposed to a theory or belief.

An Alt Fact: Is a belief you treat as fact.

All and any statement that says JungKook and Jimin of BTS or any other ship in BTS is real, are gay, in a gay relationship, are boyfriends, having sex in their real life is an Alt Fact. Can't answer for shit when they are sued now can they? Lmho.

Statements like these are just delusions, beliefs and opinions that we shippers tend to treat as facts within the shipping industry. Lol.

I legit thought all these 'she treats her opinions as facts' rumblings were coming from nonshippers with genuine concerns but if it's coming from shippers- I can't take them seriously. Lmho.

If such a distinction isn't made then we not only would be opening ourselves up to possible litigations for libel and defamation but to many moral criticisms such as and not limited to assuming the sexuality and gender of these boys- a problem that comes naturally with shipping and is especially profound in shipping same sex OTPs.

I see a lot of these 'shippers' put up 'disclaimers' such as that they 'ship' Jikook but do not 'assume anything' about them to try to disassociate from and mitigate the criticisms that comes with shipping same sex idols in a romantic context- but that's a misnomer or perhaps, at best, oxymoronic. Lmho.

Chilee, how are you gonna claim you 'ship' two men and believe them to be dating eachother but then claim you are not assuming anything about their gender and sexuality? For them to be dating, they'd have to be queer, no?

If you don't want to assume anything then don't ship them at all or ship them but as 'friends' -bros, bros thangs. Lol.

In which case, you have no business meddling in the business of those who ship them romantically. Damn. But it's as simple as that.

Shipping opposite sex couples is not the answer either. It is equally problematic as shipping same sex couples- either way you are assuming the sexuality of these Idols. If it's not normal to assume they are gay, it's not normal to assume they are straight either.

Shipping in general is very problematic regardless of whether you are a trad or altshipper.

What's worse, we spit out lengthy dissertations and engage in arguments to try to disprove that other Male to Male ship within the same group isn't 'real.' Do you see the problem here?

If Taekook or any other ship in BTS, besides Jikook, turns out to be 'real' we would have spent years tormenting and invalidating two gay men, defining their relationship for them through our own lens and dismissing their right to be whatever they want to be with their sexuality. If Jikook turn out to be straight, we would have done the same thing to them. Chilee.

And if you are an Alt shipper such as myself, you get that extra checkmark for wanting to 'out' or attempting to 'out' your OTP if they are in fact a real gay couple- we all suck my guy. Lol.

Seriously though, these are the issues we ought to be concerned with and have conversations on- as different types of shippers, if we want to be woke or fix the shipping community. Not go to war over disclaimers and tags and shit. What goes on! Chilee.

And while we are at it, we ought to talk about one of the main differences between tradshipping and altshipping: Fetishization, Objectification and appropriation of gay life.

As a disclaimer, this is not to defend my opinions or theories- Let the records show. My opinions and theories are just that. But I have read theories and opinions from other altshippers that are very different from mine but they all seem to have one thing in common- How do I articulate this...

Follow me-

Tradshippers are more willing to accept and uWu at Jeonlous and Jimlous- which are alternative facts and theories by the way, but would flinch at theories that suggest or imply Jikook may very well be dealing with microaggressions and other subtle variations of homophobia within the company- catch my drift, I'm trying not to get sued. Lmho.

Do you see what I mean?

Tradshippers who believe Jikook is real tether the line of Altshipping. Supporting Jikook is to see and most importantly treat them as real 'gay' men- which means you ought to understand and see that they can experience serious issues and pains that any and all LGBTQ plus couples experience within a conservative community such as S.K.

To not see this or assume, when others point it out, that they are being 'dramatic' 'spinning wild accusations' 'writing fiction' and all these other slurs people throw around in these streets is to expose the homophobia inherent in tradshipping.

Heteronormativity in tradshipping is homophobic, dismissing possible real life pains and experiences of the OTP you claim is gay is equally homophobic or at best objectifying, fetishizing and treating these queer people as fantasies and not people.

Picking and choosing the kumbaya aspect of their relationship and despising any statement that contradicts your fantasy of them is objectification, fetishization and frankly homophobic- especially if those issues being pointed out go to the root of issues that gay people face on a daily basis.

It's no different from Tuktukkers who define the relationship of their OTP for them and dismiss the pain of one of their OTP when that person have, over the years, expressed discomfort with being shipped with the other OTP in a romantic sense- get out of your imagination, or even expressed his loneliness and longing for a partner- Blue & Grey and the plethora of ways he's expressed that he is single and not in a romantic relationship with JK.

Conversely, they invalidate the relationship of the pair that expresses a desire to be shipped and actually wants to be shipped with eachother and have gone over and beyond to create the impression they are a couple- even if coincidentally. It's the same way they dismiss the desires and experiences of JK- who have time and time again proven that Jimin means more to him than just a brother or friend and yet they keep forcing the bro tag on them. Chileee. In my opinion. Sigh.

It's one thing to disagree with people's opinions, it's another to use dismissive tone and language especially when the other opinion is about issues that real people within the 'community' faces. That can be very insensitive. Know what I mean?

And the fact, people don't understand the difference between opinions curated to pander to followers who just want the good stuff and want to fetishize their OTP without reservations by coming up with bogus theories such as that one of their OTP is a slut and a grinch terrorizing their fantasies; and theories such as that 'a company which has sued a 12yr old child for spreading misinformation but did not sue a shop that owed it's talent a duty to protect his privacy and instead asked the shop to lay low- after issuing a public statement that they were going to sue on behalf of their talent,' that that is a double entendre.

Its occured to me tradshippers worry about their hair and how they look within the shipping community but chileee me my altshippers worry about not getting our ass sued by BigHit for all the things we think is going on within the company. Lol.

The term alternative fact, delusional, delulu, fiction, allegedly and all these other epithets and fine sobriquet that Tradshippers abhor are honestly an altshipper's friend. Chileee.

Jikook is real. That is an alternative fact untill Jikook come out as gay, on their own- if they in fact are. I can't prove it. I simply believe it. I disassociate from anyone who doesn't think that is an alternative fact.

That's not to dismiss the concerns that these people express beneath all the noise- I share some of them as well, especially if I believe it's gonna get me sued. lol.

I worry for people who have been exposed to the normalization of fetishization, objectification and latent homophobia prevalent within tradshipping.

But at the time too, I worry about 'immature" 'impressionable tradshippers' who are new to altshipping or come across my posts in medias res.

I'm still dialoguing with the 'other side' to see how best to resolve this. I'm open to suggestions.

Now can we move on from this topic? I vote more shipping, less hubbub hubbub. Lol.

Oh and as a disclaimer, I'm no expert on anything other than my opinions. I do not speak for the LGBTQ plus community. Everyone has their own unique experiences.

As always, this is just my opinion.

And thank you, Anon for sharing this with me. It's helped a lot. Thanks to everyone that's shed more light on the situation. Think Yall relate better to them than I do. Lol.

Please keep supporting Jikook and think of what it means for them if they really are real. Namaste

Signed,

GOLDY

[averygroovymutant]

My Way Home is Through You

Summary: Dean doesn't cope well with Castiel's death.

Pairing: Dean x Castiel

Warnings: (Temporary) Main Character Death, Internalized Biphobia, LOTS OF ANGST, Spoilers for up to 15.19 - ignores the dumpster fire that was 15.20

Words: 5,221

(A/N: I wrote this pre-finale because I was terrified about what would happen in it, turns out I was right to be. I'm heartbroken. Supernatural really said 'fuck the LGBTQ community', huh?)

(Read on AO3) “I love you.”

Dean stood, rooted to the spot, in utter shock. Cas loved him? Cas loved him? His head was spinning and, honestly, he had no idea what was going on. His best friend was sobbing in front of him and confessing his love while Death was literally banging on the door. There was too much happening and Dean's brain was not working fast enough to process it. Cas' gaze flickered to something behind Dean and he turned to see a dark, gloopy-looking portal had opened.

On the other side of the room, the clumsy warding Cas had applied finally gave out and the door burst open to reveal Billie standing there, scythe at the ready. Dean looked back to Cas in panic, knowing this would be his last chance to say something, anything, to the angel. “Cas, I–” he began, but Cas stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

“Goodbye, Dean,” he said, and before Dean knew what was happening, he was thrown to the floor.

In a flash, The Empty was on Cas – and Billie – devouring them in a flurry of darkness, and Dean was left alone, in the silence of the bunker, with nothing left of his best friend but a bloody handprint on his jacket.

The world was ending, but Dean couldn’t bring himself to get up. His world had been ripped from him, and he had never even gotten the chance to tell Cas how much he had meant to him. Ten years Dean had wasted, hiding his feelings for the angel, when he could have just been happy. A sob ripped its way free from his throat, and once they started, Dean found he couldn’t stop them.

 ~

 Dean awoke with a start, shaking and sweaty, with tearstained cheeks. He had not meant to fall asleep; he had not slept more than a handful of hours since they had returned to the bunker, after stripping Chuck of his powers, as every time he allowed himself to drift off he was greeted by the same nightmare. He wondered if he would ever be free of the memory, of the pain and regret he felt at the words he had left unsaid, despite the fact he had nothing to lose by finally speaking them out loud.

“I need a beer,” he muttered to himself.

In the kitchen he found Sam, on a video call to Eileen, which he promptly ended once he looked up and saw the state Dean was in.

They sat in the war room together, Dean on the floor, leant against the wall, and Sam at the table. They drank to their newfound freedom, to the people they had saved; to the friends they had lost along the way. But no matter how much Dean drank, he couldn’t stop thinking about Cas, the look on his face as the Empty swallowed him, the words he had uttered to summon it–

“What really happened, Dean? With Cas?” Sam asked suddenly, shaking Dean from his spiralling thoughts. “Jack told me about the deal; Cas was only supposed to be taken when he felt true happiness. I know there’s something you’re not telling me.”

Concern was written all over his brother’s features and Dean was just the right mix of tired and drunk and fucking heartbroken that he didn’t even try to stop the words from spilling out of his mouth. “He said he loved me,” he muttered, looking up at Sam with glassy eyes.

“Oh,” was all the younger man said. No hint of confusion, or surprise - or disgust, Dean noted - just understanding.

How can he just accept that? Dean thought, My entire world has been shattered and he says ‘oh’? How does he not have questions?

Dean had questions – so many questions – but there was one that he had been simultaneously desperate and terrified to ask, ever since Cas had said those words; a question to which he was sure that whatever the answer was, it would break him.

“But what did he mean?”

Sam looked at him, one eyebrow raised in confusion, an invitation for Dean to continue.

“Angels… They don’t feel things like humans,” Dean stated, trying to keep his voice even. “So, what did he actually mean when he told me he loved me?”

“It’s been a long time since Cas was like the rest of the angels, Dean,” Sam said patiently, placing his beer down on the table and looking at Dean seriously. “I’m pretty sure he meant exactly what you think he did.”

Perhaps Dean should have expected that to be the answer – Cas had, after all, said that Dean’s love was 'the one thing he knew he could never have’ – but he had been so deeply in denial that Sam’s answer still shocked him. Shocked him, and broke him, like he knew it would; he had let Cas die thinking his love wasn’t returned because, for all these years, he had been scared of what people might think. Scared of disappointing a father he could never gain the approval of anyway. Scared of losing the adoration of his little brother - but the look on Sam’s face made it very clear that he had had nothing to fear.

“You- you knew?” Dean asked, his voice breaking slightly as he held back the tears threatening to fall.

“It was obvious,” Sam replied simply, a sad smile gracing his features, before adding. “You mean to say, you didn’t?”

Dean pressed his palms against his eyes and shook his head, unable to form any more words as sobs wracked his body.

 ~

 Sam looked down at Dean, sprawled on the floor, whisky bottle still in hand. He had sat on the floor most of the night with Dean as he cried, and drank, and cried some more; he had held his brother as he sobbed into Sam’s shoulder, soaking his shirt through with tears. They weren’t usually huggers, but Dean wasn’t usually a crier either – a lot had changed over the last few days.

Sam had watched as the broken man eventually passed out from sheer exhaustion. He hadn’t wanted to move him for fear of waking him up, knowing the state Dean was in he would never sleep by choice, so Sam grabbed some pillows from his room and placed them under Dean’s head.

He thought back to his call with Eileen earlier, when he had explained to her everything that had gone down. He was desperate to see her but he didn’t know what Dean would do if left on his own right now, so had told Eileen he needed to be there for Dean and Eileen had understood, of course. She had assured Sam that she was fine and he could take all the time he needed to look after his brother, and Sam loved her even more for her compassion. In the days that followed, Sam pottered around the bunker attempting to restore some of its power with spells from the books Rowena had left him. He managed to get the monster radar and alarm system back online and was pretty pleased with himself for that.

Dean was like a zombie, only sleeping when he absolutely couldn’t stay awake or when he drank himself unconscious. Sometimes he started crying over the weirdest things, things Sam never would have even related to Cas. Before, Dean would have tried to hide his pain from his brother, considering it a weakness, but it seemed to Sam as though this sadness was so vast he simply didn’t care anymore.

 ~

 Cas did not know how time worked in The Empty, but he thought it had taken Billie a long time to die. The infection seemed to spread through her body far slower in The Empty’s domain than it had when they had both been on Earth; possibly the creature’s punishment for her unforgivable betrayal. Cas had watched, frozen in place, as her body finally gave out and she dropped to the floor, immediately sinking into a pool of darkness, leaving only her scythe behind.

And then The Empty had turned on him. “I’m so happy I will finally be able to go back to sleep,” it told him. It had been wearing Meg’s face previously, but as it spoke, its form quickly shifted to that of the man Cas had given his life for. “But first, I think you deserve a bit of pain,” as it spoke, The Empty twisted Cas’ insides until he was screaming in agony. “Was it worth it?” The Empty snarled through Dean’s face. “Sacrificing yourself for one man who doesn’t even care about you? Giving up a millennia for a human who will be gone in the blink of an eye… Or sooner than that, even. What you did made no difference; you probably bought him a day, at most. He can’t stop God.”

On and on this went, the taunting, the torture, the constant talk of Dean’s death while the creature wore his face. Cas had no idea how long he had been there, it could have been hours, could have been days – time meant nothing in The Empty. The more The Empty talked, the more Cas started to believe what it was saying. He didn’t regret giving up his life for Dean but maybe, maybe if he had found another way to save him from Billie, he could still be there to protect him, keep him safe from Chuck - help him win.

I shouldn’t have left him.

The Empty threw Cas across the endless stretch of nothingness and Cas collided with something solid.

Curious, he thought, Surely I’m the only thing here?

Another wave of intense pain hit him and he clenched his fists, trying his best to contain the screams threatening to burst out of him. In a brief painless moment, while The Empty taunted him more about Dean’s inevitable death, Cas looked at the item he had collided with.

Billie’s scythe. Suddenly, Cas had an idea. A stupid, crazy idea, but what did he have left to lose? Surely he was dead either way? Picking the scythe up, he turned to face The Empty.

“That won’t kill me,” The Empty cackled, flicking its finger and sending a jolt of pain up Cas’ spine.

Cas gripped the scythe tighter as he grit his teeth, riding out the pain.

“I… don’t need… to kill you,” Cas growled, lifting the scythe towards himself.

Realization dawned on the creature’s version of Dean’s face.

“No,” it screeched. “We had a deal!” It dived towards Cas, sending an intense wave of pain through the angel as it did, but it wasn’t enough to stop him.

With all the strength he could muster he cut into his throat and let his grace drain from him.

There was an explosion of light and Cas felt himself being thrown backwards, through some invisible barrier, as if hitting the surface of water. And then, he finally fell asleep.

 ~

 Dean had been dreaming, for the first time in days, of something other than The Empty taking Cas. Barn walls were shaking around him, light bulbs shattering above his head, and a figure approached with the bluest eyes he had ever seen.

I’m the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition.

Dean was ripped from his slumber by an alarm blaring throughout the bunker, Cas’ words still playing in his mind. Dean stretched as he stood up from the kitchen chair he had accidentally fallen asleep in; that dream had been the closest he had found to peace since Cas had been taken from him, yet even in the dream he had not been able to shake the sense of loss and regret.

Dean was unsure how long it had been since they had defeated God – it could have been days or weeks – and he hadn’t left the bunker since they’d returned to it. He knew Sam was worried about him; his random meltdowns over the smallest of things were so out of character it was unsurprising, but he simply didn’t know how to be normal after what had happened.

Dean groaned, reaching for the bottle of painkillers sitting on the kitchen counter as the alarm finally stopped and Sam rounded the corner.

“What was that about?” Dean growled, popping a painkiller in his mouth and downing it with a swig of whisky from the near-empty bottle on the table.

Sam shot him a judgmental look, but didn’t comment on it. “Massive energy spike in Illinois, not sure what it could be but I’m heading to check it out,” Sam said breathlessly, and from the panicked look in his eyes Dean could tell this was something big.

“Okay, give me a minute to get ready,” Dean said, attempting a grin. From the look Sam shot him in return, he didn’t get close.

“I didn’t think you’d want to come,” Sam responded, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion and concern. “You haven’t left the bunker in days…”

“Is that all it’s been?” Dean asked quietly. “Seems like an eternity…" He trailed off as his thoughts wandered back to tear-filled blue eyes and heartfelt confessions. He shut his eyes, willing the pain to go away but knowing it wouldn't. "Anyway," he continued as if nothing had happened. "If it’s that big, you’ll need help and it’s probably time for me to get back to what I do best. Killing things.”

Dean knew he was being less than convincing, but he was hoping Sam would just go along with it.

“I thought that wasn’t who you were?” Sam said softly, and Dean held back a sob as he thought of Cas’ words.

You think that hate and anger, that's what drives you – that’s who you are. It's not. And everyone who knows you sees it.

“Let’s just– Can we just get going, please?” Dean begged, and Sam nodded sadly.

“Meet you by the car in ten,” he said.

 ~

 When they reached the location the monster radar had given them, the sun was setting, its golden rays peeking over the horizon as they exited the car and trudged across the field towards the location pinpointed on their GPS. When Dean finally saw where they were heading to, a sense of dread crept over him. He ran ahead slightly, just to make sure this really was what he thought it was.

Straight ahead of them, framed by the setting sun, was a large barn.

“What the hell is this?” Dean growled, angry, but not sure at whom.

“What?” Sam asked, stopping a few meters behind his brother, worried all of a sudden. “Dean, are you okay?”

“This barn!” He shouted as he gestured towards it. “This goddamn barn, Sammy!” He turned on the spot and fixed Sam with a look that made his heart break a little, before falling to his knees.

“Dean!” Sam shouted, running towards the older man and sinking to the ground next to him. “What’s wrong?”

Tears streamed down his brother’s face as he gripped at Sam’s jacket. “It’s the barn, Sammy. It’s the barn!”

“The barn?” Sam questioned, completely and utterly lost.

“It’s where I met Cas, the first time, after he freed me from Hell. This is where we met.”

 Shit, Sam thought, There’s no way that’s a coincidence.

Dean noticed the panic on Sam’s face and tried to calm himself down.

“This is a trap, isn’t it?” He sniffed, rubbing aggressively at his eyes with the sleeve of his jacket. “It’s gotta be.”

“Yeah,” Sam said, helping Dean back up. “This is definitely not normal.”

 ~

 They entered the barn, slowly, carefully, with their guns drawn and their torches raised. The walls were still covered with the warding Dean and Bobby had painted all those years ago, and there, lying in the center of the devil’s trap they had sprayed on the floor, was a body.

“Is that–?” Sam began, before Dean let out a breathless cry.

“Cas?!”

He rushed towards the lifeless body immediately, ignoring Sam’s shouts for him to wait. Collapsing on the floor next to Cas, Dean cradled the other man in his arms. He looked unharmed apart from some dried blood on his neck, and Dean let out a loud gasp when he realised Cas was breathing, slow and rhythmically.

“Sammy!” Dean tried to shout, but it came out as more of a sob. “He’s alive.”

Sam was still standing by the entrance to the barn, his gun still raised as if he expected an enemy to jump out at any minute which was, of course, a logical assumption.

“Let’s get out of here, Dean,” Sam shouted, worry evident in his voice. “We don’t know who else could be out here, just grab Cas and let’s go.”

Dean gently gathered the angel in his arms and followed Sam out the barn, and back to the Impala. Surprisingly, they saw no-one on their way back to the car, a fact which only caused the boys to grow more suspicious.

“It’s definitely him, right?” Sam asked, as Dean placed Cas in the back seat before throwing Sam his keys.

“I’m as sure as I can be,” Dean replied. “We can do all the normal tests when he’s awake but… I think it’s really him, Sammy. There's just something about him... It... smells like him.”

“Smells like him?” Sam smirked, as Dean got into the back seat and laid Cas’ head gently in his lap.

“Shut up.”

 ~

��A couple of hours into the drive, just about when Dean had started to get really worried about Cas not waking up yet, the other man began to stir.

“Dean?” He said, in a voice even raspier than normal, as he gazed up at Dean in amazement.

“Cas,” Dean choked out, running his hand through the angel’s hair, brushing it from his forehead. “Is it really you?”

“Yes,” Cas replied, a pained expression on his face. “But I–”

“Don’t talk,” Dean said, concern lacing his voice. “It looks like you mighta been injured. We’ll be back at the bunker soon enough and Sam’ll have a look at you.”

Cas looked like he wanted to argue but did as Dean asked and stayed quiet.

When they got back to the bunker, Dean helped Cas to his room and left Sam to do the normal tests, and take a look over him with some of Rowena’s spells. Dean waited in the corridor outside, pacing to start with but after a while he sank to the floor, leaning his head back against the wall.

Cas was alive. He couldn't quite believe this was happening, he had been so sure that this time the angel had been gone for good, but somehow he had managed to pull off one last miracle.

Somehow, he had managed to save Dean one last time.

 ~

 Sam exited Cas’ room about thirty minutes later, a worried look on his face.

“Well?” Dean asked impatiently, jumping up from where he had been sitting on the floor.

“It’s definitely Cas,” Sam told him. “And he’s doing okay... but I think you’d better go talk to him, Dean.”

This did absolutely nothing to ease the knots in Dean’s stomach but he approached the door nonetheless, eager to see for himself that Cas was okay.

When he entered Cas’ room he found the other man sitting up in bed, a white t-shirt on his upper half and blankets pooled around his waist. He looked different without his usual attire, more approachable - more human. There was a small mark on his neck, where the dried blood Dean had seen earlier had clearly been cleaned away from, and a cut on his arm where, Dean assumed, Sam had done the silver test.

“Dean,” Cas said, and he sounded much better than he had when he had last spoken on the drive back to the bunker.

“Cas,” Dean answered shakily, trying to control the mix of emotions that had been building in him ever since he saw Cas’ body lying in that barn. Sam had told Dean he needed to talk to Cas but Cas didn’t seem to be offering up any information as to what they needed to talk about, so Dean took the initiative and asked, “How did you escape?”

Cas’ eyes flitted down to stare at his hands and Dean thought he looked almost ashamed…? He said nothing for several minutes, but Dean waited uncharacteristically patiently.

“Dean,” Cas began eventually. “I know I’ve not been of much use to you recently, since I lost most of my powers–”

“That’s not true, Cas,” Dean immediately interrupted, suddenly feeling sick with guilt about how he had treated Cas over the last few years.

Cas gave him a look and continued. “So it may upset you to know… that I am now human,” Dean looked at Cas, wide-eyed and confused, so Cas elaborated. “The Empty is where angels go when they die,” he explained slowly. “Apart from I wasn’t dead, I had just been taken by The Empty. It wanted to put me into an endless sleep, same as with my deceased brothers and sisters – what I had experienced the last time I died, before Jack woke me up... But Billie’s scythe was there and I thought - it was stupid really – I thought that, as I was technically still alive, if I was no longer an angel The Empty wouldn’t want me… So–”  

“You cut out your grace?” Dean finished, his mouth agape in abject horror as his eyes fixed on the small cut on Cas' neck and he finally put two and two together.

“And The Empty ejected me,” Cas nodded. Dean's heart pounded in his chest as panic and guilt spread through him, he had caused this. “I am sorry, Dean; I didn’t think it through. I was just trying to get back to you all – to help – but now I realise what little help I’ll be. Even now Chuck's gone - even just as a hunter - if I wasn’t of use to you with my significantly reduced powers, what good will I be to you as a human?”

“Is that what you think?” Dean asked fiercely, swallowing down bile as he thought about all the things he had said to Cas to make him feel this way. “Cas, I don’t care. I don’t care whether you have your powers or not. I just care about you. These last few days, I’ve been a mess. I thought you were gone for good and I couldn't cope. Seriously, man, I’m just so, so glad you’re back,” Dean was close to tears at this point so he trailed off, not wanting to start blubbering in front of Cas like he had been in front of Sam the past few days. Cas shot Dean a small smile as Dean gestured awkwardly towards the door, “I’m jus’ gonna… leave you to get some rest for now,” Dean was sure that Cas would need some, and he was hoping that now Cas was back he would finally be able to get some peace himself.

“Thank you, Dean,” Cas croaked, as he shut the door gently, and Dean got the impression he was being thanked for more than just leaving Cas to sleep.

 ~

 For days, Dean had been acting weirdly around Castiel; unable to find the courage to mention the words spoken before The Empty had claimed him, waiting for the other man to bring it up first, but knowing he would not. Why would he, when he believed his feelings to be unrequited?

Three days after Cas had returned to the bunker, Sam pulled Dean aside and told him he was finally going to visit Eileen.

“You need to sort this out while I’m gone,” his brother told him quietly, gesturing to where Cas sat across the room, reading one of Rowena’s old books on astral projection.

“Sort what out?” Dean replied, trying to act innocent.

“Don’t pull that shit with me, Dean,” Sam growled, eyes flicking briefly back to Cas to check the other man hadn’t heard him. “I saw how you were after Cas died,” Sam muttered, and Dean felt a jolt of pain go through his heart at Sam’s words – even though Cas was back, it still hurt Dean to think about the time they had spent apart. Sam raised an eyebrow at him, clearly noticing the change in Dean’s demeanour. “There you go,” he said matter-of-factly. “I saw how you reacted to him being gone, and the words he said to you before. Don’t pretend like they weren’t said, just because you’re scared,” Dean opened his mouth to protest but Sam just kept talking. “I know you’re scared, Dean, don’t try to deny it. I know it’s hard to admit what you’re feeling, but you have to know that I will always support you? That I always have?” Dean’s eyes widened at this and Sam’s features softened slightly. “You’re not as subtle as you think, Dean. I’ve known for a while.”

Dean wasn’t sure if Sam was talking about Cas specifically, or if he meant on a wider scale, but he was too overwhelmed to say anything in reply. Overwhelmed with love for his baby brother, overwhelmed that someone he cared about so much accepted him for who he truly was.

“Dean,” Sam continued, placing a hand on Dean’s shoulder comfortingly. “You’re my brother, you raised me. I will always look up to you, and love you for who you are. I just want you to be able to accept this part of yourself, because it has never changed how I view you.  None of our friends – our family – will see you any differently for who you love, surely you know that? Me, Jodie, Donna, Eileen – we all just want you to be happy. So please, Dean, just sort this out. I know it’s hard for you, but just let yourself be happy. Let Cas be happy.”

Dean didn’t know what to say, but he knew Sam was right – and deep down he had known Sam would support him, of course he would – but that didn’t make it any less scary. Teary-eyed, he looked at Sam and nodded.

“Thank you, Sammy,” he said shakily as his brother pulled him into a hug. “I’ll do it, I’ll make this right.”

Sam beamed at him as he pulled away.

“I’ll see you day after tomorrow,” he told Dean quietly, before raising his voice to shout a goodbye to Cas.

Cas looked up from his book and waved as Sam exited the bunker, a bright smile on the former angel’s face, and Dean’s heart skipped a beat.

He knew he wanted to see that smile every day for the rest of his life, and he knew how to make that happen.

He just had to be brave.

Let Cas be happy, he told himself.

 ~

 “Cas,” Dean said, sitting down at the table, opposite the man. “I think we need to talk.”

Cas looked up from his book, his eyes wide. “If this is about what I said before I, uh, left–” he began but Dean interrupted him.

“It is,” he stated, placing his hands on his knees under the table, so Cas wouldn't be able to see how much they were shaking. “I need to know – did you mean it? Did you mean it how I think you meant it?”

“You still doubt you deserve love?” Cas questioned in reply, placing his book down on the table and leaning forward in his seat.

“Don’t dodge my question with all your cryptic shit,” Dean snapped, but there was no real heat behind it. “Just tell me if you meant what I thought you meant.”

“You know I did,” he said seriously, looking Dean right in the eye.

“Okay,” Dean said with a deep breath. “I just didn’t know if we were on the same page, y’know, with you being an angel. I didn’t know if it meant something different to you.”

“I’m not an angel anymore, Dean. And I meant it- I still mean it. I love you.”

It was no less overwhelming the second time Cas said it. Dean felt his heartbeat speed up and his palms grow sweaty – was he really going to do this? After years of shame and guilt and fear, was he finally going to let himself be free? Let himself be happy?

Dean slowly stood and made his way around the table so he was standing next to where Castiel sat. Cas looked up at him, confusion gracing his beautiful features before he stood too. It felt as though his bright eyes were boring into Dean's very soul.

Cas was so close, his face just inches away from Dean’s. They had stood this close many times before during the ten years they had known each other, but never before with the knowledge that Dean held now. His eyes flicked down to Cas’ lips and back up again, all it would take would be leaning in just slightly…

“Dean,” Cas murmured, and he was so close Dean could feel Cas' breath against his lips.

“Cas,” Dean breathed out, reaching up to cup the other man’s cheek, “I’ve felt this way for so long, Cas, but I was just so used to hiding it. I was so full of shame - of fear. I buried this feeling so deep that when you told me you loved me I just– I didn’t know how to react. But now I know, Cas. I just want the chance to make you happy," Dean took a deep breath, preparing himself to admit something he had spent years living in fear of. "I hope you can forgive me for everything I've said, everything I've done in the past to make you feel unappreciated. There's a lot I wish I could take back - a lot I should have said instead - but I wanna try my best to make it up to you. I'm sorry I didn't have the courage to say this sooner, Cas... But I love you,” Cas’ eyes widened, as though standing there, mere inches away from Dean, with Dean’s hand pressed to his cheek, he had still not expected to hear him utter those words. “I’m sorry I made you think that my love – that I – was something you couldn’t have, but I want you to know, Cas, I’m yours. If you still want me, I’m yours. Always have been.”

“Dean,” Cas whispered, his hand coming up to cup the back of Dean’s neck gently, tears of happiness glistening in his eyes. “I’ve never wanted anything more in my life.”

And with that, at last, Cas pressed his lips to Dean’s, and Dean didn’t feel scared any more.

He was finally happy.

Finally free.

 ~

 From the place where he stood, invisible, in the corner of the room, Jack smiled. He had promised not to meddle in human affairs, and he had kept his word, but he had needed to see this through to the end. Just to make sure that these two people he cared about so much got the happiness they deserved. Now that Cas was human, he and Dean would be able to grow old together, and when they died both their souls would be able to ascend to Jack’s new Heaven, where they could all be together as a family, once again.

***

(A/N Thanks so much for reading, this was my first Spn fic in like five years so I really hope you enjoyed and thought they were in character enough. I know Dean was insanely angsty but I just hated how unbothered he seemed to be by Cas' death. And I don't know if logically Death's scythe should have killed Cas even though he was already in The Empty but I don't really care tbh, my fic makes more sense than those last couple of episodes the CW tried to feed us...)

[queermediastudies]

Little Effort for LGBTQ Representation in a “Maximum Effort” Superhero Movie

In comic books, one of my favorite characters is and has always been Deadpool. He is “popularly known to be pansexual and isn't particularly choosy about the gender of his partner, much like he has no particular affinity to anything. While this wasn't reflected in the 2016 film starring Ryan Reynolds, both Reynolds and director Tim Miller have hinted that this might come up in the sequel” (Vijaykumar, 2016). After watching it, I feel that the movie succeeds on some marks for giving out adequate LGBTQ representation, but not for the character one might expect. The movie Deadpool 2centers around Wade Wilson’s “one or two moments” that make him an (anti)hero. After losing his love Vanessa from the first movie, Wade finds himself attempting to create the X-Force in order to protect Russell, a mutant teenager from Cable, an experienced and genetically enhanced time-traveling soldier on a quest for revenge. Most of the movie focuses on the drama that ensues after Deadpool’s vain attempt to die is foiled by his own mutant abilities, his grudging acceptance of life and a sense of responsibility for Russell only to then (spoiler alert!) die. Except he doesn’t. Yet, in all of the CGI fights and snarky comments and constant breaking of the fourth wall, the movie does actually manage to discuss some elements of LGBTQ identities and representation. There are two main topics surrounding LGBTQ issues that the movie Deadpool 2 focuses on: the alleged hypersexuality of bi/pansexual people and alternatively, the de-sexualization of queer couples already in a relationship. Deadpool’s‘R’ rating and the characters’ own desire to “Fuck Wolverine” by getting better ratings in the second film took away from the potential of better, full-fledged LGBTQ representation stemming from the titular character, however, the film manages to cover up some of its pitfalls by succeeding in portraying a healthy lesbian relationship between one of the already established characters in the franchise and threading subtleties that condemn conversion therapy and argue for acceptance of others.

           At the start of the film, Deadpool makes a valiant, but luckily, unsuccessful attempt at suicide with the first two words being “Fuck Wolverine.” This merges directly into his habit of breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the audience and promising that he’ll be dying in this film too. Deadpool, played by Ryan Reynolds then goes on to explain what led up to this moment which can be quickly summed up as the love of his life, Vanessa, was killed and he feels responsible for her death. The fact that Deadpool only begins to show more signs of a queer sexuality after Vanessa (his love from the entire first movie dies) indicates that being queer means exhausting every other opportunity of expressing yourself. Without the director and actor Ryan Reynolds discussing it in interviews, the average viewer would have been largely unaware of Deadpool’s canon queer identity in the comics. GLAAD actually gave the first movie some flack for its “veiled references” to Deadpool’s sexuality, however, the second film does not seem to take the subject much further (Romano, 2018). It is easy to view Deadpool’s flirtatious manner with Colossus as simply a moment of weakness and used as a joke, rather than an affirmation of his queer identity and sexuality.

           The other, more direct aspect of LGBTQ identity that is given in the movie is between Negasonic Teenage Warhead and her girlfriend, Yukio. The following scene occurs just prior to Deadpool’s confrontation with Colossus.

           “The power-couple proves groundbreaking, proving to be the first truly open, explicitly LGBT couple in superhero cinema” (Armstrong, n.d.). Despite this being the first out relationship in a Hollywood movie, the moment isn’t treated like a groundbreaking moment. In some ways, this could be seen as negative, because it isn’t treated like a big deal, but Armstrong argues that it could also be a way of trying to prevent alienating viewers by “mak[ing] any LGBT representation too visible [then] make certain audiences uncomfortable” (n.d.).

           In the article from Scott, Darieck & Fawaz, the authors explore queerness using the X-Men as an example (2018). The queerness in X-Men characters is even more pronounced for certain individuals, such as Iceman who are actually labeled as gay/bi/pansexual, alongside of Deadpool. There is a scene in the second X-Men movie in which Iceman “comes out” to his parents, except rather than dealing with sexuality, it is about his mutant status (Puchko, 2018).

           Exchange the word “gifted/mutant” for “gay” in the previous clip, and the movie would have passed for solid LGBTQ representation. This movie was filmed before “the character Iceman realizes that he has been in the closet after his younger self confronts his older self in Uncanny X-Men (in a messy time-travelling episode)” (Vijaykumar, 2016), but the franchise as a whole still works to entice LGBTQ viewers for the marginalization that mutants feel in society that mirrors the lack of acceptance for LGBTQ individuals. Going back to the film, although Deadpool 2fails at giving enough exposure and time to focus on Deadpool’s pansexuality, it still adopts many of the themes from previous X-Men movies that argue for acceptance alongside of Negasonic’s relationship with Yukio. The movie provides its own anxious teen serving as a symbol for queer youth and their fight against with bigoted condemnation through flame-throwing Russell Collins” (Puchko, 2018). Russell, or “Firefist” lashes out in violence because of the torture suffered at the hands of Essex House’s mutant-hating headmaster whose techniques are similar to real-life “pray away the gay” conversion therapy (2018). Given that Russell is seen purely as a victim, regardless of the violence he instigated and the reckless choices he made that led to Cable searching for revenge against him in the first place show how damaging the lack of acceptance is for people in marginalized communities. Russell was persecuted because of his mutant status, and despite the film not exploring the canon texts of queer visibility in the comics in any nuanced way, it still provides some representation what is still a hilarious movie.

           I only just recalled the Celine Dion music video that came out before the movie that Deadpool did a music video to and is the song for the very Bond-esque opening credits for this movie. Check it below, both the music video and the opening credits.

Music video: 

Opening credits to Deadpool 2: 

Given that I’ve read the Deadpoolcomics, I saw the moments where Wade is flirting with Colossus as an affirmation of his sexuality in the most “Deadpool way,” that is, ridden with crude humor and sexual overtones. However, it is understandable to me where audiences would downplay those moments because the movie does not return to them or make them “a big deal,” when it needs to be in order to provide a critical and engaged LGBTQ character. Additionally, Deadpool’s character is very much an anti-hero. Although we see him have a couple heroic moments in this movie, he is still a mercenary who has a murder tally in the hundreds for the movies and thousands in comic books, which doesn’t bode well for overall positive LGBTQ representation. Also, given that the network Fox was subsequently bought out by Disney just prior to this movie’s release makes me concerned for the future of Deadpool and the X-Force as a whole because of Disney’s now long-running trick of the presenting their “first” LGBTQ character appearing in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene in recent movies (Beauty and the Beast, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Onward). Personally, I identify as pansexual, so seeing a superhero movie where it was at least alluded to more directly, alongside an explicit lesbian couple appearing on-screen simply gives me great joy although I definitely want to see Hollywood go further in how it portrays queer characters. My biggest issue with the movie was actually that the character Yukio has already been portrayed in X-Men films and is actually at one point, dating Wolverine. Therefore, her relationship with Negasonic does not make any sense if one follows the movies and comics very closely, however, it is a sin I was willing to forgive because other than Yukio’s rather small presence in other movies, she shines in Deadpool 2.

References:

Armstrong, B. (n.d.). Deadpool 2 is Groundbreaking, But Still Lukewarm LGBT Representation. Retrieved October 2020, from Metzia.com <https://metiza.com/culture/lifestyle/deadpool-2-is-groundbreaking-but-still-lukewarm-lgbt-representation/>

Puchko, K. (2018). ‘Deadpool 2’ is the gayest superhero movie yet. That’s not saying much. Retrieved October 2020, from Mashable. <https://mashable.com/2018/05/20/deadpool-2-queer-representation/>

Romano, N. (2018). What Deadpool 2 gets right and wrong about Hollywood’s first LGBTQ Marvel heroes. Retrieved October 2020, fro, Entertainment Weekly. <https://ew.com/movies/2018/05/18/deadpool-2-lgbtq-superheroes/>

Scott, Darieck & Fawaz, R. (2018). “Queer About Comics.” American Literature 90(2), 197-219.

Vijaykumar, N. (2016). Wonder Woman and other LGBT characters in comics universe. Retrieved October 2020, from The Week. <https://www.theweek.in/webworld/features/society/lgbt-comic-characters-wonder-woman-deadpool.html>

1465 words

[thebeautifulcatholicfaith]

The FBI warned for years that police are cozy with the far right. Is no one listening?

Mike German

I was an FBI agent who infiltrated white supremacists. Too many local police don’t take the far right seriously – or actively sympathize

Fri 28 Aug 2020 22.47

For decades, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has routinely warned its agents that the white supremacist and far-right militant groups it investigates often have links to law enforcement. Yet the justice department has no national strategy designed to protect the communities policed by these dangerously compromised law enforcers. As our nation grapples with how to reimagine public safety in the wake of the protests following the police killing of George Floyd, it is time to confront and resolve the persistent problem of explicit racism in law enforcement.

I know about these routine warnings because I received them as a young FBI agent preparing to accept an undercover assignment against neo-Nazi groups in Los Angeles, California, in 1992. But you don’t have to take my word for it. A redacted version of a 2006 FBI intelligence assessment, White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement, alerted agents to “both strategic infiltration by organized groups and self-initiated infiltration by law enforcement personnel sympathetic to white supremacist causes”.

A leaked 2015 counter-terrorism policy guide made the case more directly, warning agents that FBI “domestic terrorism investigations focused on militia extremists, white supremacist extremists, and sovereign citizen extremists often have identified active links to law enforcement officers”.

If the government knew that al-Qaida or Isis had infiltrated American law enforcement agencies, it would undoubtedly initiate a nationwide effort to identify them and neutralize the threat they posed. Yet white supremacists and far-right militants have committed far more attacks and killed more people in the US over the last 10 years than any foreign terrorist movement. The FBI regards them as the most lethal domestic terror threat. The need for national action is even more critical.

In recent years, white supremacists have engaged in deadly rampages in Charleston, South Carolina, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and El Paso, Texas. More ominously, neo-Nazis obtained radiological materials to manufacture “dirty” bombs in separate cases in Maine in 2009 and Florida in 2017, which were only avoided through chance.

But in June 2019, when Congressman William Lacy Clay asked the FBI counter-terrorism chief, Michael McGarrity, whether the bureau remained concerned about white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement since the publication of its 2006 assessment, McGarrity indicated he had not read it. Asked more generally about this infiltration, McGarrity said he would be “suspect” of white supremacist police officers, but that their ideology was a first amendment–protected right.

The 2006 assessment addresses this concern, however, by summarizing supreme court precedent on the issue: “Although the First Amendment’s freedom of association provision protects an individual’s right to join white supremacist groups for the purposes of lawful activity, the government can limit the employment opportunities of group members who hold sensitive public sector jobs, including jobs within law enforcement, when their memberships would interfere with their duties.”

More importantly, the FBI’s 2015 counter-terrorism policy, which McGarrity was responsible for executing, indicates not just that members of law enforcement might hold white supremacist views, but that FBI domestic terrorism investigations have often identified “active links” between the subjects of these investigations and law enforcement officials. But its proposed remedy is stunningly inadequate. It simply instructs agents to protect their investigations by using the “silent hit” feature of the Terrorist Screening Center watchlist, so that police officers searching for themselves or their white supremacist associates could not ascertain whether they were under FBI scrutiny.

Of course, one doesn’t need access to secret FBI terrorism investigations to find evidence of explicit racism within law enforcement. Since 2000, law enforcement officials with alleged connections to white supremacist groups or far-right militant activities have been exposed in Alabama, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia, among other states. Research organizations have uncovered hundreds of federal, state and local law enforcement officials participating in racist, nativist and sexist social media activity, which demonstrates that overt bias is far too common.

Law enforcement officials actively affiliating with white supremacist and far-right militant groups pose a serious threat to people of color, religious minorities, LGBTQ people and anti-racist activists. But the police response to nationwide protests that followed the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, includes a number of law enforcement officers across the country flaunting their affiliation with far-right militant groups.

A veteran sheriff’s deputy monitoring a Black Lives Matter protest in Orange county, California, wore patches with logos of the Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers – far-right militant groups that often challenge the federal government’s authority – affixed to his bullet-proof vest.

A 13-year veteran of the Chicago police department with a long history of misconduct complaints was investigated for wearing a face covering with a Three Percenters’ logo while on duty at a recent protest. A supervisor pictured with him at the scene apparently did not order him to remove it.

In Philadelphia, police officers failed to intervene when mostly white mobs armed with bats, clubs and long guns attacked journalists and protesters. The district attorney has vowed to investigate the matter. The following month, however, Philadelphia police officers openly socialized with several men wearing Proud Boys regalia and carrying the group’s flag at a “Back the Blue” party at the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge.

Police officers casually fraternizing with armed far-right militia groups at protests is confounding because many states, including California, Illinois and Pennsylvania, have laws barring unregulated paramilitary activities and far-right militants have often killed police officers. The overlap between militia members and the Boogaloo movement – whose adherents have been arrested for inciting a riot in South Carolina, and shooting, bombing and killing police officers in California – highlights the threat that police engagement with these groups poses to their law enforcement partners.

Law enforcement agencies must do more to strengthen their anti-discrimination policies, improve applicant and employee screening, establish reporting mechanisms, and protect and reward officers who report their colleagues’ racist misconduct.

Prosecutors also have an important role in protecting the integrity of the criminal justice system from the potential misconduct of explicitly racist officers. Prosecutors keep a register of law enforcement officers whose previous misconduct could reasonably undermine the reliability of their testimony and need to be disclosed to defense attorneys. This register is often referred to as a “Brady list”.

The Georgetown law professor Vida B Johnson has argued that evidence of a law enforcement officer’s explicitly racist behavior could reasonably be expected to impeach his or her testimony. Prosecutors should be required to include these officers on Brady lists to ensure defendants they testify against have access to the potentially exculpating evidence of their explicitly racist behavior.

My 1992 undercover investigation didn’t reveal any connections between the neo-Nazi bombmakers and weapons traffickers and law enforcement. In fact, the local law enforcement officers that worked with me on the investigation were consummate professionals who I literally trusted with my life. There are many more just like them.

But, however small, the presence of active white supremacists in law enforcement must be treated as a matter of urgent concern. As Professor Johnson has argued, the criminal justice system “can never achieve its purported goal of fairness while white supremacists continue to hide within police departments”.

[hydralisk98]

Just planning out some ideas for a iCivics WhiteHouse's playtrough video

Hya comrades of the world, I am Klara Kér, better known as Olyvier Bouchard. We are gonna have alot of fun here, so enjoy your stay.

Beware though that as we dive deeper and deeper into the topics at hand, some of you may believe I am against the United States of America or against Republicans. Be sure that as long as you are civil in our conversation I am gonna keep a listening type of ear. Fair, is it clear now? Good, because we got alot to unpack here.

So for the Democrat policies, I stand some official ones as well as some more that are quite niche really.

Federal funding of Education: I agree upon letting some room for a private education market but I cannot stress enough how a well-funded public schools system helps the common folk into jobs and into fuller lives as well. Especially over colleges and universities where the cost of entry has expanded to ludicrous prices. So ya, get your shit together America.

LGBTQ+ rights: As of the latest anti-LGBTQ+ bills in southern America I simply can't stand how primitive some lawmakers are in the USA. It really goes to highlight how much Wilsonism has destroyed alot of potential for America as of human rights and all. When some black-colored inhabited towns are literally getting no clean water in a supposedly fist world nation that is quite the statement of ours backwaters this country is at times.

Global cooperation: We all know Trump has destroyed foreign relations with pretty much the rest of the world making it the joke it is as of today. But that ain't new really. As far back as the infamous Woodrow Wilson, we can see how America has sabotaged itself for long-term longevity barely held together by the vast quality of it's geography. America has lost Russia's trust on WW1, lost France's on WW2-Cold War period, and it is soon gotta fall because of all those poor decisions done starting from Wilson and continued by all the other folks since then.

Climate change: Sooner than later if not already, we are living in a global climate crisis that is gonna make pretty much everybody in the future hate our decision-making quite deeply. And the effects are only gonna get way worse for every second we stay in the current capitalism-induced consumerist status quo. So ya, alleviating the effects of the crisis at a incredibly deep level is pretty much what should be a main focus at the moment. And like I said, the third and second world are gotta pay for most of it whilst we are gonna pay some but definitely gonna profit more than anytihng. Make no mistake, because the steep divide and hatred of those nations towards the West is mostly of our shared society's fault and is probably gonna get real profound in no time at all.

Campaign finances Transparency: Deliberately hiding information that concerns our citizens' policies is quite bad honestly. Get your shit together Biden and answer the call of your country rising left movement caused by your predecessors' stubborness and by yourself alike. Not solving nor trying to solve the issues we got since like forever is quite fighting back against America, the World, Liberty and Progress overall.

More cultural FLOSS-ness: More affordable culture and much more proper lefty-licenced works to use would greatly benefit not simply America but the world as a whole. I mean, the situation over copyrights and reserved permissions only to big corporations is just insane. It really has to let go from those older works and we really deserve some damn free licenced works upon on hands with much easier access, also for the metadata information as well.

Adoption of FLOSS hardware and software into Government: As a Linux user over my server desktop at home besides Windows 10 over my laptop and iOS for my smartphone, I really put a emphasis upon a freer open and libre experience with governmental as some countries do elsewhere. I know the entire governmental tech situation is quite a bit slow most of the time but I think we got alot to win with minimalistic blob-free experience inside government. Especially as we can't trust big corporations to not put backdoors of their own everywhere they can.

Regulating further mega corporations and their oligopolies + encouraging smaller businesses / individuals into innovation and sustainability: I know we live in a digitalized world where big corporations seems better to offer such costful services and all but I think you underestimate the balance with the small businesses and individuals. Seriously, you should reconsider such a balance as whenever a new innovator comes by to challenge authority or even just to bring new innovative products into the market it just fails to deliver long term as they often get bought by those bigger corporations simply to bring profits and not to enhance the products really. Capitalism and consumerism 101 become also big issues with big corporations too as they are not so concerned to sustainability as smaller bodies by law are.

Supporting and legalizing Labor Unions and Cooperatives: I don't know how has America taken so long to go without supporting unions and cooperatives while the rest of the world has but this is a big problem. I know a bit about the Ben Shapiro's but are we seriously gonna trust big corporations to properly protect their employees? Of course in a ideal world we would but this Earth ain't like that my quite a margin. So ya, just looking at Desjardins, especially back in the early 20th century, you can see how decentralized and advantageous this is.

So... what's my whole opinion about the Republicans, especially as of the Trump administration? Well, I have a single word to describe it's entirety and beyond: Wilsonism. Modern 'republicans' and Conservatives could make it count but honestly all you are doing right now is pretty much fueling alot of the bad in this world really. I am building off a fantastical world of my very own for a reason. And it is to get a overall less toxic and more enjoyable world to live in. So ya, Trump and all conservatives of the world, get your entire ideology together and start building up something smarter and way more useful than just whining upon modern progress and liberal policies. I may actually help for that bit if you are sincere and honest about it but meanwhile I am gonna prepare my damn safety exit out of this really mad world. (including the details of such a better Post-Conservative movement)

And before somebody asks why I am writing all those walls of text, no worries, I have some cute animated drawings and edits on it's way as well so ya.

Still Work.In.Progress but I am gonna get there eventually with more visuals and content.

Cya mates.