#southern queers

[hihimissamericanbi]

two years out today 🩷💜💙

[hihimissamericanbi]

How else am I to refer to my queer-platonic best friends/coven if I can't say all y'all?

Reblog if you say "Y'all"

[kuchipatch1]

yall have got to be more normal about Southern people and I'm not kidding. enough of the Sweet Home Alabama incest jokes, enough of the idea that all Southerners are bigots and rednecks, and enough of the idea that the South has bad food. shut up about "trailer trash" and our accents and our hobbies!

do yall know how fucking nauseating it is to hear people only bring up my state to make jokes about people in poverty and incestuous relationships? how much shame I feel that I wasn't born up north like the Good Queers and Good Leftists with all the Civilised Folk with actual houses instead of small cramped trailers that have paper thin walls that I know won't protect me in a bad enough storm?

do yall know how frustrating it is to be trans in a place that wants to kill you and whenever you bring it up to people they say "well just move out" instead of sympathizing with you or offering help?

do yall understand how alienating it is to see huge masterposts of queer and mental health resources but none of them are in your state because theyre all up north? and nobody seems to want to fix this glaring issue because "they're all hicks anyways"

Southern people deserve better. we deserve to be taken seriously and given a voice in the queer community and the mental health space and leftist talks in general.

[home-and-having-tea]

My love for Benoit Blanc knows no bounds. He's just some guy, he's a genius, he's the new Poirot, he encourages women to speak their mind at people who screw them over, he hates rich people, he's married to malewife Hugh Grant, he dresses like a 70s queer man with access to online shopping, he has no consistent accent other than Vaguely American Southern, he can solve any mystery, he cannot win Among Us, and I would marry the hell out of him him if I wasn't a lesbian and he wasn't a gay dude.

[hihimissamericanbi]

This is not even a matter of pre-2000, depending on where you are from. I went to high school in the aughts and it was very much, this. "The bogeyman," "the worst thing to be." Like a curse.

The only difference between then and now, in fact, is that the kids now at least have the language to talk about these experiences and identities. Doesn't change the general cultural attitude though. Doesn't make it any safer to be queer, and it's downright deadly to be trans.

I've seen discourse around the general concept of "well why don't you move" if you live in an area that's openly hostile to queer people. And I thought the same thing, for a while. "I shouldn't complain, I'm choosing to live here."

I wrote Homecoming to say, fuck that.

First of all, many people don't have the means or the privilege to move easily.

Second of all, even if you have the means, many of us *don't want to leave our home.* This is our HOME. Even if I struggle with my family sometimes, I still want to be here for my father-in-law's retirement party, for my cousin's 7th birthday, for getting lunch with my mom, for taking my sister maternity clothes shopping. I want to live a life outdoors in the sunshine, I want mild winters and long summers. I want affordable living, where we can be a single-income household and I can focus all my time on queer community building and pleasure advocacy, on writing and painting, on being the friend you can count on because I have the time and availability.

Those are important to me. Those are what make life worth living for me.

So to the idea that queer people should get shoved into small spaces deemed "safe," especially when those spaces are often expensive and difficult to access?

No.

Queer people belong everywhere.

I graduated high school in 99.

There was a student at our school named Wayne.

Wayne was gay. It was obvious. He was unable to stay in the closet even if he wanted to. To make matters worse, he was also Black. From a bullying standpoint, that was not a great combo. Both Black and white students made fun of him relentlessly. He was ostracized from the only community that may have given him protection. Only us theater kids stuck up for him, but not to significant effect.

Wayne was bullied so much that at one point he finally snapped and attacked his bullies with a lunch tray. I was actually seated in perfect line of sight and just sat there chewing my soggy fries in stunned silence. It didn't even seem real as I was witnessing it. The image of him wailing on his main bully as the food on his tray flew off is permanently logged into my long term memory.

The bully he attacked had blood all over his face and went straight to the nurse. Other than superficial cuts, he was not injured.

Before the attack, Wayne went to teachers for help. He went to guidance counselors for help. He went to the principals for help.

He did all of the things you were supposed to do. No one helped him. They wagged a finger at the bullies and warned them to stop.

Wayne's lunch tray melee was the only thing that worked. His bullies stayed far away from him. But a week later Wayne was expelled and the bullies were given no punishment.

So... no.

No one in my school talked about being trans.

Because the only way to survive being openly queer was to bash people with a lunch tray.

[roxisucks]

do you wanna see the west with me.?

[porcelainnpines]

Divine Flesh

[prints]

[hihimissamericanbi]

This this this and I too wouldn’t touch the House Elves world building element with a ten foot pole in any fic I ever write.

Like don’t get me started on the bullshit ignorant ties to American antebellum enslavement that JK writes in canon. The dialect alone makes me want to throw something. It’s like she watched Gone with the Wind one time and said “bet.”

Under the cut for more explicit ranting about this subject plus a rec to make up for it.

As a native Atlanta white girl who had to unlearn a lottttt of shit when I grew up, I’m just like. These stereotypes meant life or death just fifty years ago, and even now perpetuate the severe inequality that is embedded in local structures. Gerrymandering? State-sanctioned violence? School to prison pipeline? These aren’t buzzwords, these are life-threatening realities of American society today.

I’ve chosen to move back here and want to be part of a better future for the American South. So don’t come for this ugly, painful history we bear here in Georgia, British white lady, when you have no idea what you are talking about ✌️

WHILE WE ARE ON IT I must call out @spindrifters approach to the issue in their incredible, hype-deserving Marginalia. Their take on the House Elves is I think the only one I’ve seen that actually models progressive human rights intersectionality and justice work that is still anchored in canon, with absolutely zero time for neoliberal pandering. It really blew me away.

I mean the whole fic is just a masterclass in nuanced social justice. God tier in any piece of media I have ever consumed.

Podfic available by the inimitable @angelfruittree ofc 💋

sorry if it’s not clear enough, but i hate hate hate that they have slaves in the hp world. like…in a world of magic… they need slaves…?? and this whole thing is half treated like a joke plot (SPEW vs. elves loving being enslaved).

it’s gross! I sooo rarely put in house-elves in my fics because i just can’t deal with the ick of it. ‘Ooooooh you’re a BENEVOLENT slave owner? how progressive’

no thanks

[unholy-fabray]

hey. if you are a queer/trans person who is feeling hopeless and overwhelmed by the election results, i just want to tell you this:

we have existed as long as humanity itself has existed. through every monarchy, every presidency, every dark age and revolution, queer people have existed. we have survived and lived and thrived and loved. in the face of an unwelcoming society, we have always carved out our own niches where we can find community, strength, and peace.

we survived 2004. we survived 2016 and 2020. we will survive this, too. i promise you.

please stay safe, take care of each other, and if you ever feel like it's over - i suggest reading about our queer elders and ancestors who lived through time periods that were even more dangerous and hostile. i always find strength and solidarity in their stories.

but most importantly: hold onto one another, build each other up, and love one another. we will get through this.

[howthebodyfallsapart]

Remember that you’re staying alive for all of us. This is a group effort and the most important thing that you can contribute is your continued existence. Things can get better but it takes all of us.

Walks, music, fanfiction, dancing, and chocolate are all things that have saved my life, find the things that will save yours.

[secret-agent-of-bullshitery]

Will: In loving memory of Nico

Will: He's not dead, i just love remembering him

[hiddenjane]

Poetry and picture by hiddenjane

[nellasbookplanet]

That post I reblogged about Imogen '8 strentgh' Temult being fanonized as burly is mostly lighthearted, but it also reminded me how the fanon depiction of Imogen has shifted. Earlier in the campaign, when Laudna was perceived as the stronger of the two, the one who took care of poor little innocent, anxious, migraine afflicted Imogen, fanon-Imogen was this short, round, soft looking person. Now, as canon has made it very clear that Imogen is the (mentally) stronger of the two, the one who's trying to stop Laudna from spiraling, her fanon self has shifted into something more traditionally masculine, leaning into the farmgirl aesthetic of pants and cowboy hats and muscles, even as her canon design has only gotten more feminine with sheer dresses and skirts.

And I'm not one to pass up on fun fanon designs; I've certainly reblogged my fair share of muscly Imogen because I'm only human and Imogen with muscles hot. I don’t think these designs are done with any larger motive than 'she looks good like this'. But I also kind of think we need to have a conversation about how fandom keeps trying to slot these two characters in a non-heteronormative relationship into heteronormative roles of (feminine) soft, weak, innocent person to be cared for/saved and (masculine) strong, heroic, saviour taking care of them, however unconsciously it’s done.

[ripleylarue]

You all think I’m crazy but me and my queer friends that were raised here AREN’T desperately trying to get out of Texas. We’re trying to organize. We’re trying to educate eachother where our education system failed us and keep each-other safe where our government fails us.

[sunny-rants]

Crush by Ethel Cain and My Kink is Karma by Chappell Roan are the same cinematic universe to me, like do you see the vision?