#the cultured queers

[crippledpunks]

i wanna say fuck you to anyone who shame disabled, chronically ill & neurodivergent people, especially homebound folks, for "spending too much time on their phone/on the internet/etc." when it's the only (Somewhat) accessible way for them to experience the world. many people don't get to get out much even if they want to because of their disabilities. shaming someone for trying to connect with the world, make friends and engage with hobbies in ways that are accessible to them is beyond cruel and unnecessary

[gor3sigil]

"We need to bring cringe/shame back" more like you need to learn how to sit with the discomfort of people liking and doing shit you don't like.

I myself sometimes feel it when I browse social media and then I remember that other people having fun isn't about me and guess what ? I stop feeling uneasy.

You don't viscerally need to say or do something about things you found cringe. You can just look away and mind your own business.

[orionsangel86]

There is something about proudly proclaiming a show "tumblrista catnip" that makes me emotional.

Something about how for years tumblrinas were ridiculed by show creators.

Something about Supernatural having a meta episode set at a convention with all the weirdo fans that made the main characters uncomfortable. Something something about Becky and the message that fangirls are gross and obsessive.

Something about Sherlock and the way fans were portrayed as crazy obsessive nutjobs for trying to figure out how he faked his death.

Something about creators mocking fandoms, dismissing them as freaks. Something about queer people not being welcome to engage in their creations because "why do you have to make everything gay?"

Something about the malicious culture of queerbaiting throughout the 2000s/2010s, followed by Bury Your Gays tropes across the media landscape because hell, you should be grateful we even gave you queer characters to begin with - and everyone dies in our show! You ain't special!

Something about Destiel questions being banned from conventions...

And then...

Something instead about Good Omens, and letting the story adapt naturally, embracing the fanbase and leaning into the fanservice.

Something about Our Flag Means Death, and the genuine outpouring of love and affection between cast, crew, and fandom that culminated in an explosion of fanworks that were never once mocked or deemed gross or wrong.

Something about Sandman, and staunchly digging in their heels on the queerness of it all, refusing to give in to the homophobes and instead avidly mocking THEM on social media rather than us.

Something about the writers hearing about fandoms favourite ships and excitedly stating that YES! We DID lean into that because it happened naturally and made sense.

Something about a firefighter coming out as bisexual after 7 seasons...

So yeah, something about a new high quality show made FOR US. By creators that love US. Respect US, and WANT our love.

Something about US FINALLY being a target audience for the best shows being made on TV now.

Tumblrista catnip. Creators saying "we made this for you. You are important. Your voices have been heard."

It just... all got a bit overwhelming for a moment there.

[benjaminallhope-fulltimemind]

just a handy little info chart on the spectrums of sexuality.

[homeoftherevenant]

"We do not have the responsibility of making gay life look good to straights so that they will accept us. I am not at all interested in promoting a cleaned up image to a straight world which is twice as corrupt and ten times as sick."

Vito Russo

Photography by Betty Lane, 1978

[bli-o]

“You dont want kids? I said the same thing at your age. You’ll realize later.”

“You’re trans? You’re too young to know that. You’ll grow out of it.”

“You’re an atheist? You don’t actually disbelieve, you’re just mad at god. One day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.”

“You’re a leftist? You’ll become more conservative eventually; every generation does when they come into contact with The Real World™️”

“You’re gay/ace/queer? You just havent met the right man/woman yet.”

If you say any of the above things give me your personal information so i can harm you

edit: the terfs found this post. Y’all fuckin KNOW “give me your personal information” is a joke. I know your job is to paint trans people as evil and stuff but try harder at least, we know you’re not that stupid.

anywaysy crazy how u guys r aligning with people who like theocracy and homophobia and heteronormity just because you hate trans people. It’s almost like you, my fellow hoes, are really damn predictable.

Edit 2: i love how after that first edit terfs mysteriously stopped interacting

[itgetsbetterproject]

Just a lil much-needed queer youth joy - we need to talk about these students and allies in Hawai'i!

Students from Campbell- Kapolei Complex Schools used funding from one of our 50 States 50 Grants to give SO much support to their queer communities.

They bolstered their GSA clubs, held community based education events like a Halloween party and craft day, and even got to attend Honolulu Pride - where Hawai'i-raised Bretman Rock showed up for a surprise visit and marched alongside the students to honor them and their work, having attended the same schools themself growing up!

So proud of these students for recognizing what they need in their own communities.

And lucky for y'all...apps are open for the 3rd season of 50 States, 50 Grants right now through April 1, 2024 - if you're a high schooler or middle schooler in the US/DC/territories and have an idea for how you'd use the funds at your own school, don't miss out on applying: 50states50grants.org

[leftoblique]

This video is important.

We all watched the hbomb vid (or at least got a summary of it) explaining how Somerton stole much of his "research" word-for-word from other queer creators and writers.

Okay, so, we unsubscribe from his channel; we've done our part; everything is cool now, right?

Unfortunately, no. The biggest damage Somerton did may not have been to those he stole from. Rather, it was inventing large swathes of LGBTQ+ history out of whole cloth, tinged with his own incel-adjacent brand of misogyny and weird anti-establishment centrism.

Worse, many of the "facts" Somerton invented are freely circulating on the internet, even on this website, and they are coloring how queers - and especially young queers - understand our own history.

So it's not enough that Somerton's empire burns and he flees with his tail between his legs. We need to actively purge all of the nonsense he injected into the discourse - out of his own personal agendas and resentments - in the years he was posing as an intellectual authority (perhaps the intellectual authority) on our history and experiences.

So give it a watch. It's not nearly as long as the hbomb video and it's neatly organized as well. Save it as a reference for the next time someone pulls out a "Somerton fact" you need to debunk.

Let's work to preserve our history from liars and charlatans.

[rhfffas]

rio vidal the lesbian icon that you are😭

[genderqueerdykes]

it's never funny to say "that's unfortunate" or something to that effect when someone comes out as a trans man or some other type of man, or tells you that they are attracted to men/a man. it will never be funny, it's literally just queerphobia. queerphobia extends to queer men, too

[crippledpunks]

i was recently denied life-saving gallbladder removal surgery by my GI specialist due to being "too fat" (i'm 300 lbs and very muscular) and "needing to lose 10 -15 pounds and waiting 2 - 3 months in order to get the surgery". i was then signed up for bariatric weight loss surgery before i could get the gallbladder removal despite the gallstone stuck in the neck of the organ as well as the other stones inside of it causing me to be incapable of keeping down food

i ended up getting the surgery done by a local hospital with far better doctors, but the initial denial had me so defeated. if you are fat and have ever been denied important surgeries, life saving or otherwise, because of your weight, i am so sorry and you should never have to face that. most surgeries are not impacted by weight in the slightest. this is usually an issue with the surgeon's skill as a surgeon.

i was told by every other surgeon i met that weight has no bearing on a laparoscopic gallbladder removal surgery. at the other hospital i was also told that anesthesia wouldn't work on me or that i wouldn't survive it. yet again i was told by other surgeons that was also not the case. most surgeons worth their paygrade can do these surgeries after just... trying and learning how to work with fat bodies.

i was told by the surgeons and nurses in the ER that it's ridiculous for the other hospital to behave as though fat people will never need surgery of any kind ever throughout their lives, for one reason or another. it's unrealistic. most people will encounter a potential surgery in their life times, no matter their weight and it's unprofessional to just give up when someone above a certain weight threshold needs help.

my heart goes out to you especially if you're trans, intersex, gnc, and queer and have been denied top surgery or other gender affirming care surgeries because of your weight. this is also medically unethical and done for no reason other than fatphobic transphobic bias. you do not need to lose weight to get top or bottom surgery.

take care of yourself. my heart goes out to you and you don't deserve this treatment at all

[polyamorouspunk]

“Why Don’t You Just Move?”

A look at rural queerness and the hardcore scene.

With the recent and still on-going tragedy left in the wake of Hurricane Helene, a lot of light is being shed on southern states that make up Appalachia.

There’s a lot of misconceptions about Appalachia and the southern United States as a whole. There are a lot of good users on this website that have put a lot of effort into combating these harmful stereotypes and clearing up misconceptions.

But there’s more than just Appalachia in the south. There’s a lot of middle ground. Places that aren’t as rural as Appalachia, but places that aren’t as populated as cities like Raleigh, Richmond, Memphis, etc.

Places where people gather surrounded by other agricultural hubs.

There are queer people everywhere. In every culture, every religion, every country, in all of history, we have existed. We cannot and we will not be erased.

A common narrative that’s floated around for many years is “if red states are passing laws that are constructive to the LGBT+ community, then why don’t those people just move?”

So why don’t we just move?

I’m sure you can find a lot of well-written posts on here explaining many reasons why queer people not just in the southern states, but all over the world don’t “just move”, and one reason I’ve seen echoed over and over again is that “we have thriving communities here too”. We exist too.

How does one “be punk”?

It’s a question my mutuals and I get a lot, and a lot of us are tired of hearing it.

What does it mean to be punk?

Is it about the music? The clothes? The politics? Can you be punk if? Is it punk if you? Who? What? Where? When?

One common beginner tip to “being punk” is to find and join the local scene. This can lead to a lot of other questions, though. What is a scene? Where does one find the scene? How does one participate in the scene? Is there a minimum requirement?

Rest assured, literally no one is asking this offline.

A hardcore scene is so much more than just hardcore. A scene is a group of people where music is a common thread that builds the basis of other connections. A hardcore scene isn’t necessarily even hardcore.

“You have to listen to punk music to be punk”. Sure. But here’s the thing. In your local hardcore scene you will find: metal musicians, rappers, and more. You will attend shows with blues music, orchestras, and more.

Sometimes it’s not even music at all! Sometimes there is drag! Sometimes there are movie nights! Sometimes there are group outings!

It’s almost like… it’s just a social construct.

What is the local scene? The local scene is loud music. It’s smoking and drinking. It’s stopping by the corner store and the smoke and vape. It’s carpooling. It’s movie nights. It’s text chains. It’s group chats. It’s he-said-she-said. It’s they said. It’s AMAB enbies. It’s people who don’t care about “passing”. It’s DIY HRT. It’s she was a lesbian until she met him. It’s situationships. It’s hooking up and coming down. It’s bouncing from place to place to meet up with each other. It’s showing up someplace and seeing who’s there and waiting around to see who’s coming. It’s late nights spent partying on the weekends and back to school and work come the weekdays. It’s knowing someone by looks or name even if you haven’t put the two together yet. It’s trading socials. It’s Instagram stories and comments. It’s “DM for Address”. It’s “are you going tonight?” It’s “do you need a ride?” It’s “who else is going?”. It’s going somewhere and asking who’s coming. It’s sitting around on broken chairs and lawn furniture passing around a blunt, sharing a 24 pack of beer that 4 of you ran out to get with money you all pooled together, it’s “should we order pizza?” It’s “I brought donuts”. It’s hanging out in each other’s houses and rooms. It’s respecting the businesses that offer to house you. It’s generational friendships. It’s listening to your friends as they joke about their heritage and talk about their cultures. It’s the dog you pet when you’re sitting on the curb in ripped fishnets taking drunk selfies with your friends. It’s the man playing you the harmonica as you sit outside the THC drink bar on a Saturday night. It’s sitting out in the yard listening to someone play an acoustic set where they talk about the war and poverty and politics while you slowly get high surrounded by your friends. It’s sitting on a dock in the middle of the night fishing listening to emo music huddled together with your friends. It’s autistic people showing each other the bugs they’ve found in the dirt. It’s talking about your disabilities together. It’s shoving your friends in the pit and then holding their hands. It’s seeing the cos guys in their 40s and 50s who tend the bar and work the register calling you by whatever name and pronouns you give them. It’s all of this and so much more, and it cannot be conceptualized by one single fashion style, one single music style, one single belief system. It’s not someone calling you out because you went to Chick-Fil-A and don’t you know that’s bad, it’s not someone telling you that you’re a poser because you like Chappell Roan too or your clothes were bought at Forever 21 not thrifted and DIYed.

Everyone likes to talk about folk punk and other genres that bands like Dayz and Daze have popularized- or according to some, commodified and commercialized- but if you’re going to talk about music like folk punk, you’re going to have to respect the areas that it originated in.

Everyone want’s to talk about “local punk bands” when half the bands you’re seeing don’t even fall under the genre of punk.

Your local scene isn’t always going to be skate parks and thrash music.

Sometimes it’s the mom cooking you and all your queer friends dinner on a Friday night in her kitchen with crosses and a picture frame of her family with the quote “live, laugh, love”.

Sometimes it’s sitting around and listening to men who are old enough to be your grandfather with Vietnam Veteran hats play the blues while a pig roasts in a backyard BBQ, even though you’re in your 20s and you have blue hair and pronouns.

It’s sitting around and listening to your elders talk about how the scene used to be “back in the day”. Talk about the shows they’ve been to, the bands they’ve seen in their prime.

It’s asking what you do for work, where do you live, what brought you down here, what’s your college major?

It’s people. It’s people connecting to people. Regardless of the color of their skin. Regardless of gender or sexuality. It’s people of all ages coming together to listen to music with the idea that what you all have in common is living here and now, hating politicians, and thinking that someone should do something about the shitty state the world is in. It’s not a conglomerate. It’s individuality, and there’s no real wrong way of doing it unless you’re a Trump Supporter or a Nazi, and even then, they still have their own factions of the punk scene that are going to overlap with yours on occasion. The best you can do then is stand up for what you believe in and stay safe.

There are scenes just like mine all over this country. In southern states, in rural areas, in places that other, mainly white queers have “written off”.

So why don’t we just move?

Because this is our scene, and it’s what we make it, and in the heart of the south in the Bible Belt, we’re making it a queer-inclusive space despite what’s happening around us.

[desastre-fag]

ok so my friend keeps calling me a twink no matter how many times i correct them by saying hey im not really hairless or thin? there are so many other terms to use????? and it definitely feels like its bc im a trans man who acts/looks feminine sometimes... like girl no have u seen my pits n tits ?

STOP CALLING TRANS MEN TWINKS JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE TRANS CHALLENGE!!!!

[moonpool-system]

Cringe culture is unfortunately not dead but we can kill it in major spaces if we all keep being ourselves authentically and unapologetically. What they call "cringe" is actually pretty punk. It's defiance. Keep being yourselves, you're ALLOWED to exist as you are.

[autisticjoshrusso]

one quick thing i need to put out there uh as funny as it is to be like "omg the Glee namedrop bc he produced both shows" or whatever i DO need to inform you that pre-Glee/post-Glee era IS an actual academic discussion point. that is a genuine unit of cultural measurement and had been long before this. that piece of dialogue was not pulled out of nowhere it was pulled directly out of existing queer discourse.

[opossums-in-a-trenchcoat]

I can’t stand forced romance in media. You’re telling me this man and woman who’ve barely spoken to each other, have not flirted at all and have barely been together for three scenes are in love??? Like am I just too aroace to see it?? I always feel so surprised