#the first was that as a trans woman she somehow has the right to misgender men (cis or trans. it didnt specify

[lilac-set]

Sentence in a post i just saw:

“manhood ONLY exists as the antithesis of transfemininity. men are a class that only exists because they are not trans women, which they define by inferiority, frivolousness, superficiality, inhumanity, perversion, and subordination”

Fuckin. what

- a cistrans intersex man

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Christopher Wiggins at The Advocate:

While the American people are worried about their daily lives, former President Donald Trump has launched yet another attack against Vice President Kamala Harris using one of the most vulnerable groups in America — transgender people. On Sunday, Trump posted a new ad on X (formerly Twitter), using inflammatory and misleading claims about Harris’s support for health care access for trans prisoners. The ad begins with a narrator making an incendiary claim: “He murdered a father of three; sentenced to life in prison. Kamala Harris pushed to use tax dollars to pay for his sex change.” As the ad continues, video clips of Harris speaking are merged to emphasize her compassion for incarcerated transgender individuals. “I made sure that they changed the policy so that every transgender inmate would have access,” the ad features Harris saying, followed by the narrator’s comment, “It sounds insane because it is insane.” But the ad does not stop there. It further distorts Harris’s words by playing another clip of her saying, “The power that I had, I used it in a way that was about pushing for the movement, frankly; and the agenda,” as the narrator ominously declares, “Kamala’s agenda is they/them, not you.”

The ad splices together two separate moments from a 2019 interview with Mara Keisling, then executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality Action Fund, where Harris discussed her commitment to transgender rights and access to health care for incarcerated individuals. In the full context of her remarks, Harris explained that, as California attorney general, she worked behind the scenes to ensure that transgender inmates received the medical care they needed, including gender-affirming care. “I have a long-standing commitment to fighting for the rights of transgender people, for the dignity of transgender people,” Harris said in the interview. “When I was attorney general, I learned that the California Department of Corrections was standing in the way of surgery for prisoners. And when I learned about the case, I worked behind the scenes to not only make sure that that transgender woman got the services she was deserving, but also that the policy was changed so that every transgender inmate in the prison system would have access to the medical care that they desired and need.”

The case the ad refers to involved Shiloh Heavenly Quine, a transgender woman who became the first inmate in the United States to receive state-financed gender-affirming surgery following a legal battle. The ad misgenders Quine and distorts the facts surrounding her case to paint Harris as radically out of step with mainstream views. In reality, Harris’s efforts were part of a broader push to ensure transgender inmates received constitutionally mandated medical care — a fundamental right for all incarcerated individuals.

[...] While Trump continues to sensationalize transgender health care, he has repeatedly failed to mention that the Constitution requires prisons to provide necessary medical care to all inmates. Gender-affirming care falls under this category, as supported by medical experts and courts. Orr emphasized, “It is both irresponsible and misleading for anti-trans politicians, such as former President Trump, to claim that providing lawful and dignified healthcare is somehow wrong.” Trump’s Department of Justice submitted a 2019 budget memo for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, showing that about 345 inmates identified as transgender at the time, and the number was expected to grow, along with the demand for necessary resources. The budget outlines how transgender inmates face unique challenges, including higher rates of victimization and mental health issues, which can be exacerbated by political attacks that further stigmatize their identity. The report highlights the bureau’s responsibility to provide appropriate medical care as mandated by law, noting that transgender inmates may require hormone therapy, counseling, and, in some cases, surgery to align with their gender identity.

In addition to the medical challenges, transgender inmates are often housed based on their gender identity, as per the bureau’s manual, to ensure their safety. Failure to provide such protections could result in serious harm, including violence and discrimination from both staff and other inmates. These realities, starkly different from the inflammatory claims in Trump’s ad, are part of a broader struggle faced by transgender individuals both within and outside of the prison system. Trump’s misleading attack is part of a broader strategy seen in the Republican playbook: using transgender rights as a wedge issue. Yet this strategy has failed to gain traction in several key races.

Donald Trump digs an even deeper hole for himself, as he continues to punch down on trans people in a hateful ad attacking Kamala Harris for supporting gender-affirming care for trans prisoners even though his administration permitted gender-affirming care services in federal prisons.

See Also:

LGBTQ Nation: “Insane”: Donald Trump attacks Kamala Harris’ pro-trans stances in vicious new ad

[bizarre-azure]

Here’s some headcanons for how I think Grell’s self-discovery went (tw: transphobia, homophobia)

life:

- note: she had short hair her entire life, dark brown

- identified as a guy her whole life

- mean parents that were super strict and had super high expectations and stuff

- liked both men and women but liked men way more, clinged onto her small attraction to women to not get hatecrimed (got into an arranged marriage or pretend relationship or something with a woman she didn’t actually like)

- either confessed to or had a fling with some random man *in secret*

- the guy told everyone and everyone hated her, her parents disowned her, etc.

- realized right before death “oh wait i’m actually a woman. that doesn’t make things any better”

- took her secret trans identity to her grave

early reaper years (prior to 1885)

- hair turned red when she became a reaper somehow idk

- the dark brown hair she had as a butler was achieved using temporary hair dye

- after fully coming to terms with the fact that she is a woman, she slowly started correcting people who called her “he” “Mr. Sutcliff” etc and growing her hair out to that mullet thing from the OVA, just a bit longer

- only half of her colleagues didn’t misgender her in the beginning

- made more efforts to pass, started growing her hair really long and going after men who dont care about her

- 1: because of fear of rejection if she were to pursue an actual relationship with anyone that actually showed interest towards her (because of what happened previously)

- 2: she felt that pursuing a relationship with a woman would make her be seen as a man

- over time she got more confident in correcting people and stuff

- the colleagues that called her a man gave up on referring to her at all (such as william calling her “that thing”) (yes i hc will as transphobic unfortunately 😔)

1885 onward

- madam red was her first actual relationship with a woman. IT WAS TOXIC ASF THEY WERE SO BAD FOR EACH OTHER. her murdering madam red was the culmination of all the toxicity.

- grell saw madam red as the woman she wanted to be more than an actual romantic partner

(note: obviously not every trans person has to care about passing for their identity to be valid, i just hc that grell cares about that)

(another note: I DO NOT CONSIDER THE STORY OF WILL THE REAPER OVA TO BE CANON)

[littleeyesofpallas]

Not to really waste anyone else's brain space on a headcanon for a 20+ year old b-flick that most people probably only remember for being kind of silly and bad, and having a laughably edgy soundtrack, but...

The One, starring Jet Li, and written and directed by James Wong(probably only really otherwise known for being the writer/director on Final Destination) has these moments that keep making me want to read one particular character as trans? And maybe the worst part of this all is that I'm a good 99% certain that's not what's going on at all, and that if anything both cases are actually just good old fashioned 2000s brand homophobia, but like...

It's a multiverse movies about one guy killing other versions of himself in different universes, and for budget reasons and fun sci-fi shenanigans a bunch of the cast get to play multiple versions of themselves. Carla Gugino primarily plays the character T.K., the hero's wife. But she also briefly appears as the villain's partner who helps him escape the multiverse police.

Of note is that there is a joke where all the various Jet Li characters have "law" in their name in one way or another, and even though the hero is always referred to as "Gabe" and the villain as "Yulaw" for clarity, their names are technically "Gabriel 'Gabe' Law" and "Gabriel Yulaw." And when the villain first confronts T.K., other than just recognizing her as the hero's lover and an alternate version of his own partner, he seems to know to call her "T.K." It sort of suggests that there's some kind of consistency across her different iterations, just like with the main characters'. (there's also a thing where she's a veterinarian in 2/3 worlds, and has like a weird twisted affinity for animals even in the 1/3 where she's evil? so again there's this thing about consistency where for all the differences certain elements kind of persist)

So there's a scene where evil Jet Li is hiding in a body bag and two gross dudes come into the morgue and start talking about porn. One of them makes a remark about "..then why don't you just watch one of those big ass she-male videos, you freak?" which prompts Jet Li's character to burst out of his hiding place and angrily yell "shut up!" which I'm sure is just supposed to read a, "will these two ever stop talking???" sort of moment, but....

...then there's a later point where Jason Statham's character (did I mention he was in this?) is trying to explain the multiverse to good Jet Li, and more importantly to the audience, and he explains that "...in one universe you're married to the same woman, in another you're married to a different woman, in another you're married to a man" and Jet Li's other character snaps at him with just a little disgruntled, "hey!" and like... again, I'm sure in reality was just a, "i resent being accused of gay!" sort of thing --very 90s/00s schoolyard brand homophobic sentiment.

But like... Putting those two scenes together my brain kind of wants to read it as evil Jet Li being offended at the transphobia of the one porn guy, and good Jet Li being offended at his trans wife being misgendered? So like, headcanon that T.K. is a trans woman, and also that every version of Jet Li's character loves his trans wife?

I dunno why this matters to me at all. Its not like it would've been particularly meaningful or impactful had she been canonically trans. It's not a great boon to representation or anything. Like, even if I was right and she could be reasonable read as trans, or even if against all odds she had somehow actually been intended to be trans, she gets the girlfriend fridge treatment anyway, so that's still not great. But it just kinda jumped out to me while i had it playing in the background at work that, without initially thinking too hard, I very naturally registered her as trans? And then trying to figure out why I jumped to that conclusion sorta fell down this admittedly pretty shallow rabbit hole for a sec.

Anyway I don't know who I think I'm sharing this with. There is no The One fandom, and there never was...

[blue-eye-samurai]

@sai-mami I’m sorry you went through that exchange. Unfortunately, this is happening to a lot of us as well.

And as someone who understands what it’s like to be marginalized in more than one way, I do not take TERF accusations lightly. I support intersectional feminism and I fully understand that trans mascs crave good representation too, but their representation cannot come at the expense of cis women of color.

Also, it’s not transphobic to simply say that Mizu is canonically a cis woman. It’s not transphobic to refer to Mizu as she/her (or even as they/them) when even the show’s creators refer to the character (that they literally created) by those exact pronouns.

At this point, I don’t even care if saying this stuff makes me come across as a “bitch” or an “asshole” to those of you who throw around these baseless accusations. No one is obligated to accept your personal interpretations as the gospel truth. Not every piece of fictional media has to represent every marginalized community at the same time.

Biracial/POCs deserve good representation too, regardless of what their gender identity or sexual orientation is. And I’m not going stand by passively while y’all continue to take away resources from women of color. Our stories matter too.

As of right now, Mizu IS canonically a cis woman and that will not likely change unless the writers of Blue Eye Samurai decide to take the narrative of their story in a different direction in future seasons.

To further prove our point, here is a direct quote from one of their interviews about this particular topic:

The creators of this show purposely chose to mislead its own audience, especially during episode one. They knew people would make certain assumptions about Mizu’s gender identity or sexual orientation right from the start.

I’ll admit that I didn’t immediately know what the writers intentions were in the beginning here, but after finishing the whole first season (and rewatching it again) it became very obvious to me that this story is about a person who is marginalized for being both biracial AND a woman.

Yet it’s truly amazing to me how many people say they also watched all eight episodes from beginning to end and still somehow believe that Mizu is just a guy being a guy. Like???

Just because someone slouches and binds their breasts, it doesn’t automatically mean that they are trans masc or nonbinary.

Just because someone is more masculine presenting, it doesn’t automatically mean that they identify as a man.

Just because someone gets upset whenever people (mainly cis men) use words like “girl” or “woman” as insults to anyone they perceive as weak or inferior, it doesn’t automatically mean that person hates being thought of or associated with women in general.

Transmen are men, but Mizu is not a man.

People insisting otherwise are actually the ones who are misgendering Mizu by projecting themselves onto the character and discounting her valid perspective as a woman of color.

So I had this exchange today and I'm not sure how I could come off less condescending or TERF-y, or if this person misunderstood my point and over reacted. I'm not here to start drama so I cropped the name out of the post. For context the Character Mizu in the show is assigned female at birth but is told by Mizu's mother to dress as a boy to hide from people searching for Mizu. The character continues to present as male into their twenties save for a period where Mizu has an arranged marriage. Mizu lives in isolationist Japan where women are treated poorly and can't even travel without a male escort.

If you are an explainer type please help me find and correct my micro aggressions.

[questioning-culture-is]

If I'm not cis then I have to be trans?

I'm agender but I'm still very feminine, don't suffer dysphoria, don't want to change my body to look more androgynous, don't want to change my name and keep using mostly she/her pronouns even if I feel comfortable with he/him and they/them too. I just don't feel comfortable when people say I'm a woman and definitely don't feel cis at all. Those words just don't feel right. Still, trans community is probably the one that suffer from oppressed and discrimination the most in the lgbtq+ movement, and I feel like I have too much cis passing privilege to consider myself trans. I probably will never suffer from this because the society perceive me as a cis woman, even if don't feel like that. Not to mention the internal issues and everything that comes with transitioning.

Calling myself trans feels definitely righter than cis, still I think that if I identify as trans it could be somehow disrespectful to actual trans people with actual trans problems?

I feel like a caveman writing this but-

Hey anon, first off, completely theoretically speaking, agender falls under the nonbinary umbrella, nonbinary falls under the trans umbrella, which means agender people are absolutely part of the trans community and you can call yourself trans.

Second off, passing privilege describes that trans people who are read as their actual gender in most situations are less likely to face discrimination and transphobia. You being read as a woman isn't passing, because you aren't a woman. Being constantly misgendered isn't a privilege. Living stealth isn't a privilege.

And thirdly and most importantly, there is no minimum of discrimination one has to face or a minimum of dysphoria and discomfort one has to feel to qualify as being trans. Being trans means not (exclusively, fully, and constantly) identifying with the gender one was assigned at birth or socialized as.

You can use the trans label if you want to, you can be an "actual" trans person, your problems can be "actual" trans problems. It's your choice to make and nobody can tell you you aren't "trans enough".

-toni

[notebooks-and-laptops]

hello, am i allowed to ask what the whole jk rowling thing is about. i don't want to sound rude i just want to get that explained. thank you for answering and sorry to disturb you. have a wonderful week and stay healthy and safe please. ✨

Hello! I’ll do my best to outline the main points of the current controversy, as well as how this links to her behaviour in the past (although the examples I’m using are not exhaustive). But I would like to point out first that while I stand in solidarity with the trans community, I am not trans myself and I would suggest reading articles on this found online (pinknews is pretty good) as well as focusing on trans responses to the issue. I’m also summing up a lot of my views towards the end on why this is ‘bad’ so if I cover it here, I’m not responding to any other asks on the subject and I refuse to respond to all the anon hate I’ve been getting so don’t waste your breath. 

So her previous TERF comments: 

- in March 2018, JK Rowling liked a hateful tweet which referred to trans women as ‘men in dresses’. While her PR team labelled this a ‘middle-aged blunder’ of her clicking on the wrong thing, her many TERF activities after this would suggest that that is not the case. 

- In December 2019 JK Rowling tweeted in protest of the removal of Maya Forstater, a TERF who was removed from her position due to her bigotted comments, after insisting that a person cannot change their biological sex. 

- In May 2020, JK Rowling tweeted a response to a child’s drawing, accidentally copy-and-pasting a quote from an anti-trans article, which misgendered a trans-woman. This was particularly awful as it was, like I said, in response to a childs drawing. While she later deleted and apologised for the line having found its way into the response, she did not apologise for the misgendering within the tweet itself. 

- And Yesterday, smack bang in the middle of pride month and the Black Lives Matter movement, JK Rowling tweeted this in response to a very netural non-aggressive phrase used within an article. The article used ‘people who menstrate’ which is inclusive of trans-men as not everyone who menstrates identifies as a ‘woman’ like JK Rowling wishes to claim. 

She then went on to pit lesbians and gays against trans people, despite not ascribing to either label herself (a tactic often used by trolls to create in-fighting within a community), and claimed she was right to think this due to the opinion of her lesbian friend, using the lesbian community as a buffer for her views despite, again, not identifying as a lesbian. 

She further implied TERF (trans-exclusionary-radical-feminist) to be a slur (it’ s not a slur - it’s a descriptor which is used to denote feminists who believe that trans women are not ‘real’ women and often claiming trans men are ‘confused’ lesbians and its an important descriptor because it helps to separate feminism that is for equality from feminism which relies on insisting there is a biological divide between men and women that often equates men as ‘evil’ and women as ‘trustworthy’ and ‘kind’ due to their motherly instincts) - and implied that the backlash against her from people who call her a TERF is somehow comparable to women being called ‘witches’ which, as we know, led to the mass murder of women during the 17th and 18th centuries. 

Some further issues with her actions: 

- she chose to do this during pride month, which should be about celebrating trans lives, as well as LGBT lives in general. 

- she chose to do this instead of directing her millions of fans towards support in the Black Lives Matter movement. She clearly doesn’t have a problem getting political on her twitter, as this all shows, but she’s chosen NOW to focus on this instead, meaning that activists have to split their focus even more against the tide of TERFS this has brought out of the woodwork - the focus should not be on this! It should be on Black Lives Matter! Why did she decide to bring this up now of all times? 

- she has a large following of young idols. This is dangerous, as when a person who many young people idolise says something like this it can radicalise those children against trans people or it can cause extreme self-hatred for those trans youth whose idol is now turning against them. 

- she is a very clever woman. Her language is thus chosen very carefully to make her point seem reasonable on the surface unless taken to its logical conclusions. This means that her rhetoric is more likely to get people on side and spewing anti-trans bullshit than if she was just tweeting a simple ‘I hate trans people’. Notice how she claims she supports trans people, despite how her views are decried by so many trans men and women (and non-binary/gender fluid etc. people too)

- this is on the back of her other homophobic actions such as asking for credit for making a morally dubious man gay (even though its never mentioned in the books) and then making him in love with Literal Wizard Hitler, perpatrating the harmful sterotype that gay men are in some ways ‘evil’ or likely to love evil things. 

Many people are claiming that this is fine and she’s just being ‘middle aged’ and not understanding properly but this is NOT like your grandma or your aunt getting something wrong. This is a woman who has claimed to do lots of research, who has come out on the side of TERFS and who has the ability to influence many to be transphobic. Transphobia is awful, look up trans depression rates, or trans suicide rates, and you’ll see just why it’s not okay for someone who has her power to be this hateful. 

Once again, I’m not trans, please look at trans responses to this. And please do your own research. But I hope this clarifies why I am anti-Rowling and anti-TERF in general. If you are a TERF you can unfollow me now. 

[sillayoverhaul]

post about ovh transphobia

[mandatory disclaimer that i am cis, please let me know if i say anything out of line.]

i wish people would stop saying stuff like “overhaul kills people regardless of whether theyre cis or not magne attacked first and he thought she was a man!!’ or “overhaul didn’t KNOW magne was a woman so of course he misgendered her!!!’ like fuck out of here with that stuff. toga and twice VERY EXPLICITLY corrected him and his response was a dismissive head nod before continuing on with the conversation right where he left off. he’s not sorry, and the author is pretty much implying that he doesnt ‘agree’ with her gender with this writing choice. 

this isn’t a ‘mean antis cancel culture’ thing, this isnt a ‘fiction from reality’ thing. anyone who knows me will know that i love mass murderers, or abusers, or in general just very horrible no good bad people who will die a sad and horrible death! theyre interesting! these are the stories i like to read and interact with. there is no ‘moral compass’ for these characters because fortunately, they are not fucking real! the people they kill are not real! they’re not people, theyre stories! 

but the problem with overhaul being transphobic is two things. one: while liking a mass murderer doesnt make you a mass murderer, or a serial abuser doesnt make you a serial abuser, or, hell, liking incest doesnt mean youre into incest irl, this is something that actually translates into reality. his transphobia isn’t ever explicitly condemned by the manga, and it’s very easy to see actual people reading this and going, yeah, go overhaul. i dont believe in trans people. and thats personally disturbing to me; what you can perpetuate by liking a character.

the second thing is the one i believe actually matters for this fandom because it has to do with the context behind fans for this character: that is, this weird level of projection onto the character. call it stan culture, call it the phenomenon that is related to kinning and shifting and all that, but people will treat overhaul... like a person. and this is partially where i take ill; there’s a difference between finding a character interesting and finding them as your comfort, or your fave, or whatever. i’m not going to be very good at explaining this one, but just as an example it’s the difference between going, ‘wow, xiao from genshin impact is a really interesting character with a lot of tragic potential; let me analyze the themes present within this character and what this might mean for him narratively!’ and ‘wow, xiao is my comfort character. hes so cute and i really like these personality traits. i really ship him with venti, they’re like person A and person B, the stoic and the quirky one!’ 

one is taking the character as a story and the other is taking them more as a person. which is going to be a problem, if the 'person’ in question is transphobic. 

i don’t really know where to go with this, because not a lot of people who like overhaul really talk about his transphobia at all. i don’t know their perspectives on it -- it generally seems like the topic has disappeared off the face of the earth. but i can’t really tell people to stop liking overhaul -- i just want people to think more about what they might be perpetuating, and think more critically in general. 

there’s a reason why a lot of people don’t like barok van zieks from dai gyakuten saiban, and leave him at that; ‘he’s racist’. people aren’t obligated to look past his racism. in the same way, people arent obligated to look past overhaul’s transphobia. they’re allowed to block you and blaspheme overhaul or whatever and call him a transphobe, because he is. and people are allowed to be suspicious of you, because it’s suspicious; there has to be the question asked at some point, why do i like so much this transphobic character? why can’t i put him down? 

i guess this is maybe asking a bit much for a faadom where people hone in on ‘villain sexy’ or ‘person sexy’ and erase or mold their character either based on fanon or what they want, in a way that is somehow more derivative and unoriginal than the source material. but i want people to think a little harder about this one. this may seem insignificant in the grand scheme of the discussion on trans rights, but i think that transphobic characters is a topic that should genuinely be explored. media and the way it portrays and molds messages and the way it resounds in society and communities is incredibly interesting

thanks for reading, if you read all this way.

[wrightiverse]

Chrysanthemums

When he was drunk and maudlin, Bill Close had a phrase he used to explain why he’d never become a star: timing is everything. If he hadn’t done a certain audition right before lunch, when people were hungry and distracted. If he’d been playing the night the agent was in the bar, instead of at home babysitting. If he’d been five minutes earlier here, two hours later there, a few seconds in either direction, he’d have the life he was actually supposed to have. Bad timing. Good timing. Didn’t quite pull off the timing. Timing is everything. Glenn buys all that as a kid, but he eventually realizes that Bill only had it half right. It’s not just the bad stuff that comes down to being in the right place at the right moment. Sometimes, everything aligns to give you much more than you deserve. (Posted this on AO3 originally but we’re all in sad Close boys hours this week anyway so I may as well bring it over here. Full version below cut has references to a car accident, pregnancy, and a certain canonical death that I’m sure you can guess. It was also written before we realized that Wrightiverse Nick was trans but fuck it, why go back and have Glenn and Morgan misgender baby Nick when I don’t have to. Nick is much younger when Morgan passes in this than in the show’s canon now but canon is optional, free your mind.) 

When he was drunk and maudlin, Bill Close had a phrase he used to explain why he’d never become a star: timing is everything. If he hadn’t done a certain audition right before lunch, when people were hungry and distracted. If he’d been playing the night the agent was in the bar, instead of at home babysitting. If he’d been five minutes earlier here, two hours later there, a few seconds in either direction, he’d have the life he was actually supposed to have. Bad timing. Good timing. Didn’t quite pull off the timing. Timing is everything. Glenn buys all that as a kid, but he eventually realizes that Bill only had it half right. It’s not just the bad stuff that comes down to being in the right place at the right moment. Sometimes, everything aligns to give you much more than you deserve. *** It’s not exactly a fairytale love story. They literally meet in a dumpster.

It’s been most of a year since he told his parents to go shove their advice and their money up their respective asses, three months since the semester ended and he lost access to the dorm room and meal plan, a week since he ran out of cash, and at least 24 hours since he ate anything. Couch-surfing is keeping a roof over his head, and his friends are generous with food and booze and weed when they have any to spare, but that only goes so far. One year of college courses under his belt, no idea how to make a resume, no work history even if he did, no permanent address. The job offers aren’t exactly flooding in.

But to hell with it, Glenn Close isn’t gonna just lay down and die. He’s already cased a bakery a few blocks away and he knows they usually throw out the stuff too stale to sell around 11 p.m. He’d hoped not to have to use that info, but whatever. Someday this will make a great anecdote for his episode of Behind The Music.

Glenn hovers across the street until he sees a silhouetted figure toss a bag into the dumpster in the alley, then casually strolls over once the figure goes back inside. The sides of the dumpster are taller and have fewer handholds than he’d pictured, but he drags over some pallets and manages to climb in. It’s half empty and the bag has landed right on top, safe from the nasty trash juices that are soaking the cuffs of his jeans.

The first thing he sees when he tears the bag open is a plain bagel, and the first bite he takes is so good that he almost passes out. He’s so busy wolfing it down that he doesn’t notice the approaching steps from outside until another bag of trash flies over the top of the dumpster and bounces off his head.  

“Watch it,” he says reflexively. Then he freezes, not even chewing as he strains to listen for movement outside. Nothing. Maybe they just tossed the bag and walked back inside. He might get away with this.

“Yo, Templeton,” a voice says from outside the dumpster. “You gonna quit pretending you’re not in there, or should I close the lid?”

Glenn considers his options for a moment, but now that he comes to think of it… “Yeah, I’m realizing I don’t have anything to stand on in here. Little help?”

That’s the first time he hears her laugh. Even knowing he was the butt of the joke, he wants to hear it again. He gets his chance seconds later, when her head pops above the wall of the dumpster.

“Would you look at that? Somebody threw away a perfectly good dumbass.” Then that laugh rings out for the second time

Even his innate panache can’t overcome being hungry, chest-high in trash bags, and covered with flour. He’s humbled, and she’s amused, and that somehow turns into a connection that surprises both of them with how deep it gets and how fast.

If Glenn meets her at any other moment than that, he blows it by trying to be cool and charming. He lucked out. It’s perfect timing.

Morgan’s too good for him on any level you can name. Too cool for him, too smart, too tough, too beautiful. A better musician than him, both with the actual music and the business side. She’s the one who teaches him how to scrounge and hustle, how to read a contract’s fine print and argue with a booking agent who doesn’t want to pay up. Sometimes it feels like every other living soul on earth is elbow-to-elbow with them, fighting for the same scraps that they are, but it’s clear that Morgan’s the one in a million who’s going to make it. And he’s along for the ride, feeling like the luckiest son of a bitch alive every single damn day.    ***

***

Seven years hearing her laugh every day. Seven years getting to be the one who makes her laugh, sometimes even on purpose.

“I think we should get married,” he says one day, and she laughs in his face.

“You still think it’s more legit if the government knows about it, huh?” But she softens, because she knows what he’s actually trying to say, because of course she does. “I get it, baby. This is the real deal. In sickness and health, for better or for worse, and so forth. I’m not signing any paperwork, but you know we throw a good party. Let’s just do the fun parts. You down?”

It’s a very good party, and afterward she calls him “my husband” and they make plans to get rings. Later, if she’s tipsy and feels like teasing him, she calls him “my first husband,” and she laughs. Then she squeezes his face in her hands and gives him a kiss to make sure he understands that she’s only joking. He always knows she’s joking. He always lets her kiss him anyway.

***

Morgan spends a few days thinking she’s got food poisoning before realizing a stowaway has outwitted their precautions. Glenn’s always counted that as very good timing by Nicholas -  if that tricky little bastard shows up any earlier than he does, there’s no way Glenn even considers becoming a parent. But once they decide to go for it, it’s more fun than they’d have ever imagined. They build a lot of castles in the air together while they’re waiting to meet Nick. Glenn says he wants enough kids for a Partridge Family style band, and Morgan agrees as long as nobody plays the tambourine.

They discuss it endlessly, but finally decide a percussionist is the first priority. The closer the due date gets, the more it seems like their new bandmate agrees. Morgan grabs Glenn’s hand and puts it on her belly so he can feel the urgent kicks. “Check out this sick drum solo.”

Nick inherits his parents’ knack for knowing how to make an entrance. He’s so fashionably late that Morgan decides they should just party without him. It’s like ditching the friend who’s taking too long to get ready, except for the part where they can’t actually leave him behind. She and Glenn hit up their favorite venue that very night. The music thumps through their bodies like a pulse. The energy of the crowd makes them forget how long they’ve been waiting. And if anybody has any concerns about seeing a ridiculously pregnant woman dancing her heart out until her hair sticks to her face with sweat, they’re smart enough to keep their mouths shut.

Fear of missing out is apparently hardwired, and Nick graciously deigns to join them a few days later. Everything changes. Three a.m. feels a lot different when you know you’ll be awake again at 4:30, and 5, and probably 7, and maybe 8 for good measure, and…

“This new guy can’t hang,” Morgan mutters. She’s standing beside the bed, Nick tucked against her shoulder, patting his back and swaying. Glenn’s sitting up in bed, trying to stay awake out of solidarity, losing the battle.

“New guy is a lightweight,” he says. “And he’s pretty nasty. That dude does not know what a toilet is for.”

“Come on, man, get it together,” Morgan says softly to the fussing figure in her arms. “We can’t take you anywhere.” Baby Nick finally burps and spits up a little onto Morgan’s shirt. A few additional angry hiccups are all he can manage before he falls asleep.

“Did you hear that?” Morgan murmurs as she lowers him into the crib. “He said he was gonna fight me. Slow your roll, new guy, you aren’t ready for this heat.”

She collapses back onto the bed next to Glenn. “I’m bluffing. He’s kicking my ass.”

“Me too,” Glenn says, “but at least we outnumber him.” ***

***

Not long after Nick’s second birthday, Morgan notices that she’s a couple of days late. It’s not a big deal, it usually doesn’t mean anything. Glenn makes a joke about the Close Family Quartet, and Morgan says she’ll grab a test when she gets groceries that weekend. But whether their lead guitarist was about to debut or still waiting in the wings, she made an amateur mistake and left things a little too late. The band broke up first. That’s show business for you.

People always want to know what happened. Glenn never gets into details. They must make up their own pictures in their head: a rain-slick curve taken too fast, a semi truck jack-knifing across the highway. It makes more sense for something like that to happen when you already know you’re in danger.

It’s the middle of the day. He’s going maybe five over the speed limit, keeping pace with traffic. He’s not high or drunk or tired or even distracted. They’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time. A dog runs into the road, someone swerves to miss it, someone else tries to get out of their way. Barely a fender-bender, except that their car gets just enough of a push to end up in the intersection.

Early on, he thinks a lot about how a few seconds here and there could change things.

The dog runs into the street a little later, and then the oncoming traffic isn't trying to beat a yellow light.

The dog runs into the street a little earlier, and they drive home with a scraped bumper.

But that’s Bill’s half-assed way of thinking about it, and Glenn knows better. It’s true, it could have been different. It could have been much worse.

He drives a split second slower, and the other car meets theirs with a direct hit, crumpling the back seat as well as the front with far more force than Nick’s booster seat can deflect.

He drives a split second faster, and the clipped bumper spins them into the next lane, and he never makes it to the hospital at all, and Nick doesn’t have anybody left.

Glenn knows now what his dad was talking about in those grumbling laments. It’s like trying to put together two tracks that are just slightly out of sync. Where do you snip out a piece to make things fit right again? What if you’re already balanced on that tipping point with the fewest misfortunes and the most lucky breaks? What happens if you start messing with that?

He can’t second-guess. It happened the way it happened, and he’s still here, and Nick’s still here, so he still has a job to do. He’s going to be there for Nick the whole way, along for the ride, feeling like the luckiest son of a bitch alive because he gets to be here at all. It could have gone another way. Timing is everything.

[the-nado-hunter]

JKR and Harry Potter

So I’m also one of the kids that grew up with Harry Potter, and it was very dear to me. Being a pretty lonely kid that was socially isolated for a very long time, it was a world I could escape to where I could imagine having friends, using magic, fighting evil... all the stuff you love as a kid. Many people started reading and writing because of that book series. The Harry Potter fandom has done some INCREDIBLE things, The Harry Potter Alliance is a group that gets fans into activism and stands with Trans lives and does great work for social activism, and are in no way affiliated with Warner Brothers or JKR as they are an independent 501c3 non profit... so if you still have some scrap of energy left for Harry Potter as a fandom, it may be worth seeing how you can get involved with them, or other organizations looking to protect trans lives. Turn that energy into action, because Joanne using her platform to validate TERFs and spread TERF ideology is dangerous, she’s empowered them to come out of the woodwork and be more nasty than ever... and is currently endangering trans lives.

So of course when JKR’s transphobic views came to the public eye my heart was broken, I was already disillusioned by her making Nagini... a snake acting as a pet/servant to Voldemort, an Asian woman and her retroactively claiming being a werewolf was an allegory for AIDS both of which have so many problems that go along with it I don’t even know WHERE to start. With that you could maybe be like “well I can just not see fantastic beasts so I don’t support that!” or “We can ignore any crap she’s adding that wasn’t in the original text” But now... not only that but with the context of how the author is as a person and her ideology... a lot of problems with the original books series that you could have maybe explained away or just been too ignorant to notice, are now glaringly obvious and questionable.

And it just gets worse and worse. Her new book about a man dressing as a woman to commit murders is baked in TERF propeganda, not to mention her pen name Robert Galbraith is the name of a notorious anti-LGBTQ+ man who  who pioneered a range of practices that would later be known as conversion therapy. Now she’s claimed its a coincidence, and she didn’t know... but we ALL know Rowling has carefully chosen names and always seems to do extensive research behind the meaning of names, so her conveniently after expressing transphobic views just being like “oopsie!” Seems incredibly unlikely... but lets say somehow she didn’t know, she definitely knows now, she’s been informed, but she’s not going to change her pen name. She shrugged it off and just said “i was just oddly fascinated with the name”.

Now her experience with abuse is, horrible, No one should have to go through that. However, she’s used that, and pointed to that to try and justify her bigotry towards trans lives. She’s focused on the people who are: sending her death threats, which no one should do by the way, instead of the many many many trans people who tried, very kindly to explain to her why her words and actions were hurting them, not to mention many people in the trans community have dealt with abuse, and misgendering and the kind of actions and words she’s spouting can be potentially re-triggering, and once again... its empowered TERFs to harass and threaten trans people. So JKR whining about some people being mean online in response to her bigotry seriously lacks perspective.

So yes... it hurts to let something go that was a comfort and a way of coping for a long time... but Trans lives matter more to me right now.

I see some people struggling to let Harry Potter go, and try to pull a “death of the author” or “Hatsune Miku wrote Harry Potter”, Lindsay Ellis has a great impromptu video on why, in this situation pulling “Death of the Author is kind of impossible” . The short version is that because anything with the Harry Potter name on it that you buy sends more money to her... you can’t really continue to support Harry Potter without aligning yourself with her. 

I see a lot of people, with the announcement of the open world Harry Potter game doing mental gymnastics to try and justify supporting the game when literally a day before they were screaming “Fuck JKR!”. Put. Your money. Where your mouth is. A video game is not more important than human lives.

Don’t get me wrong, this looks like the game I DREAMED of existing when I was a kid. And it pisses me off so much to not be able to having that coping mechanism. But once again. TRANS LIVES MATTER MORE TO ME THAN A VIDEO GAME OR MY OWN PERSONAL COMFORT.

Here’s some of the common arguments I hear and what’s wrong with them.

1. She’s wealthy anyway, supporting the game or not supporting the game won’t change anything. You can’t really buy anything that isn’t supporting something problematic

- Maybe not, but it’s the morals and principles of the thing. This isn’t like... being stuck in a situation because of late stage capitalism where “Well I need to eat even if the company selling me this is corrupt!” This game, these books, the park, the movies, the merchandise - they are a luxury . You don’t need them to survive, you’re well aware of how this women hurts people, and you have an active choice here. Continuing to invest in anything HP still puts a big message out there that you care more about a brand than Trans lives. 2. Think about the poor game developers of the Harry Potter game! - First of all, are you high??? The developers are going to make the same amount of money no matter how well the game does. Most of the money from people buying is going to go to corporate levels at Warner Brothers and JKR herself. If your in the camp of “well it would suck to work on something for so long only for it to go nowhere...” That’s just... how the game industry is. Developers know that and accept that on ANY project they work on. There are projects that get super close to release only to be cancelled at the last minute, there are SO many game projects that never make it to the public eye. But the devs are like “hey I get paid either way”. Again, stop making up stupid reasons to try and justify supporting a transphobe that is actively endangering trans lives.

---

Harry Potter was dear to me as a kid. Its hard to let go of something that got you through a lot, but think of all the trans folks that also grew up with that world that was so meaningful to them only to be told “this world isn’t for you and the author is actively supporting causes that harm you and using her large platform to spread propaganda because she knows she’ll be believed more than the lived experiences of trans people or medical science.” Can you even imagine what that would feel like???  Have some god damn empathy, and if you say you support trans lives. Actions speak louder than words EVER could.

As for me on a personal level, I can’t even look at anything fan related to Harry Potter without being infuriated. I see anything HP related, and I get pissed off. The love of it is gone for me. It’s been dead for almost two years now. The only way I could see ever returning to it is if one way or another the money from it no longer goes to Joanne, but that’s not going to happen for a long time, and even then, I’m not sure if I’d be able to come back to it.

Trans lives matter. And they matter more to me than any fantasy world or brand ever could. Period.

[adapted-batteries]

Out from the Facades

Fandom: The Librarians

Rating: General, sfw, some swearing

Relationship: Jazekiel

Word Count: 2236

Going off a previous post where I headcanoned Stone as a trans guy, this is a fic revolving around that, and the concept of found family for June 4th's prompt: Found Family.

Also posted on my Ao3.

-----

Jacob came home, hair cut short, with a button down shirt from the thrift store, trying to ignore the uncomfortableness of the too small sports bra he was using to bind. His father was usually home later, so he figured he’d have some time to think up what he was going to say, and where he could go if he ended up getting kicked out.

Unfortunately, Isaac Stone was standing at the kitchen counter, looking at some bill that had come in the mail that day. His father looked up, squinting at the open door from the bright Oklahoma afternoon. When Jacob unfroze and shut the door, Isaac sucked in a breath.

“So, you’re a boy now,” Isaac said, inspecting Jacob like he was a prize heifer at the county fair. While his feet could move, Jacob’s throat did not want to cooperate, so Isaac continued. “Since you couldn’t even be a decent girl, you better be a better man, you understand?”

Jacob nodded, mentally finishing the thought that came next: because I can’t have a queer for a kid.

So that’s what Jacob did. So long as he acted like a good ol’ boy, everyone went along with it. He was surprised how quickly people just decided that yeah, Rebecca Stone was actually Jacob Stone, star of the high school football team, more than capable of drinking with the actual linebackers, and making the same comments, though thankfully he never felt compelled to act on them like others did.

But the real shocker was how easily Isaac Stone swept the notion of Rebecca, the rough tomboy, under the rug like he had with his late wife's heritage. Surprising support wrapped in the ultimate thought that if things weren't right by themselves, he'd force it into a more acceptable image and move on. He’d drive Stone to Oklahoma City for hormone replacement therapy until he could drive himself, his father hid of all the pictures past baby stage that indicated a girl that wasn’t on board with being one, and somehow never misgendered him.

Of course, his father didn’t have to worry about misgendering if he wasn’t home, or was passed out drunk on the couch if he was.

By the time Jacob turned 18, no one made any mistakes. He’d been blessed by the transgender gods, spending most of his formative years on testosterone, and soon got top surgery in the city (thankfully paid for before his father completely ran the company into the dirt). To complete the perfect picture, he got himself a nice, manly job oil rigging. It was easy to forget he’d ever been Rebecca first.

But jacob couldn’t ignore how much of a fuckup he still was. No one knew that he’d went to college instead of “a stint up on the Keystone pipeline,” that he’d published dozens of scholarly essays on art and literature of all sorts while “apprenticing to be a surveyor,” that he still liked men even though he was a convincing fake womanizer. Despite briefly living more like who he really was, he was terrified of what would happen if the people back home found out. So, what better way to prevent that than to come back to Oklahoma and work long hours on a dead-end pipeline job, biding his time until Isaac decided he’d done enough to murder his company and let Jacob actually take over.

And then, when he was at the bar with some of his buddies, after dutifully hitting on the hot foreign chick with a Latin tattoo, ninjas showed up, and a NATO counter terrorism officer saved his ass.

The Library made it really hard to be Jacob Stone, manly oil rigger from Oklahoma, because he wasn’t any use to the Library for just that. No, Jacob Stone, brilliant scholar and expert in all things liberal arts, that was exactly who the Library needed to repeatedly save the world. And Jacob realized that, hey, it was pretty nice to actually be the real Jacob Stone, the one under all those facades.

The problem was old habits, ones that were decades in the making, were hard to break. It took him a few months to quit instinctively playing stupid before realizing, no, he didn’t have to do that. Only recently did he actually tell his colleagues what he was always busy working on in their off time, still publishing under Dr. Oliver Thompson, though the thought of abandoning the pseudonyms gave him the same fear that kept him hidden in Oklahoma.

At least the artificial interest in women was becoming not so artificial, but then there was Ezekiel Jones, doing his damn best to remind Jacob how not straight he was. And he still wasn’t totally truthful with the team; no one knew he was trans. Though he knew he didn’t owe them that bit of personal history, it felt like one more mask still hanging on his face.

And then the Library sent them to one of his father’s new sites in Wagner, and his past that he tried to shed came rearing its head all at once. Fortunately his father had hired local contractors who didn’t know Jacob, but he couldn’t do much about Isaac himself, or the fact they were dealing with some Choctaw mythology causing a ruckus, with protestors who seemingly could see through his white-passing visage and into his native blood.

It was as if the universe decided that he needed to actually confront the cultural past he’d carefully locked away years ago with his mother’s death, and the past he’d managed to lock away recently with becoming a Librarian. And maybe he actually would.

Isaac, of course, was off being useless in a bar, so naturally he got to introduce his colleagues to his father in his worst state.

“The hell you doin’ here?” Isaac was looking at him, just like he had that afternoon 25 years ago.

It took all of his willpower to not just turn around and leave. “...hey Pop.”

They managed to convince Isaac that he was just a surveyor assistant to Ezekiel, though part of him was on guard in case Cassandra decided to throw down with his father’s disgusting misogynistic behavior (he was convinced she gave Isaac a headache with all the jargon she threw around, so she got some revenge). It was easy knowing what to say to keep Isaac from suspecting anything, to get him to cooperate (especially considering he was oiled with alcohol), but after effectively being “out” intellectually for a year, it hurt to shove himself back into the good ol’ boy role, even if part of him was screaming it was the safe thing to do.

Being locked in the truth chamber was a thrilling experience, in that his anxiety about kept them from escaping. He thought he was going to have to come out right there to Ezekiel and Cassandra, but thankfully the door was happy enough with him talking about his father.

In the end, even after getting a practice run with Hokolonote, he realized it didn’t matter if Isaac had no clue who he really was. Isaac would never care, because Jacob still ended up being the family fuck up, just the “turnin’ your back on your family” one. He left Oklahoma with a different hurt, the low ache of realizing he never actually had genuine family to begin with.

And then he spent more time with the Librarians, and that ache began to fade. These people he worked with, saved, got saved by, knew him as he was, and loved him for it. And realized he felt the exact same way about them. He near spooked himself with how much he cared if Eve had died by Dulac’s sword, if Ezekiel got killed by anubis’s werewolves, if Cassandra didn’t make it through the surgery, if Flynn hadn’t been strong enough to take in evil while they scrambled for a solution to Apep, if Jenkins somehow died (thank god he was immortal). Family was only half of having people care about you; you had to care about them too.

He had family.

But he didn’t want any secrets with the family, and he still had one left tugging on his heart. And who better to tell than the other professional faker on the team.

He cornered Ezekiel in the main room while the others went about doing whatever they were doing. “Hey, Ezekiel, can we talk?”

Ezekiel looked at him, a mix of confusion and concern, since Jacob rarely pulled the first name card for him. “Sure, mate. Is something wrong?”

“No...uh, just, let’s go somewhere more private,” Jacob said, about-facing and walking deeper into the Library. Ezekiel followed him, and he knew the thief was suddenly hyper aware of everything because Jacob caught him off-guard.

The wandered for a bit, eventually far enough from the others and any main walkways where someone might come near. “Okay, what’s this about?” Ezekiel asked, folding his arms.

Jacob took a death breath. “I’ve not been completely truthful about my past-”

Ezekiel cut him off. “No one ever is, least of all me, so what of it?”

“No, just-” Jacob rubbed his face in frustration “-I know you and Cassandra found out I’d lied to my father about myself for decades, but that’s not the only thing about me you don’t know.”

“Okay?” Ezekiel just looked at him even more confused. “Are you like, coming out or something? Because that isn’t a big deal, I mean it is, but like, Cassandra has a girlfriend, mate, and you know I’m not the straightest bloke around.”

“You’re not?” Jacob shook his head, ignoring that bit of apparently obvious information for now. “I, uh, well, yeah, Jones, I’m coming out. I’m trans.”

There was an awkward silence as Ezekiel tried to figure out what Jacob meant by that. “Congrats?” He opened and closed his mouth a few times like he was trying out sentences in his head and deeming them not appropriate, and then a flood of words came out. “Um, so, do you have like prefered pronouns you want me to use? Are you thinking about a new name? Cuz that’s cool too. Are you still into women, or do you not want me to set you up anymore-”

Jacob felt like he’d been doing Atlas’s job for him, and Atlas had finally relieved him. “Ezekiel,” Jacob started to get the thief to quiet, “I’m a trans man.”

“Ooh, okay.” Ezekiel, despite his ability to don a quality poker face, had no control over the blush on his face right then.

Deciding he had nothing left to lose, Jacob decided to answer Ezekiel’s last question. “And you can stop with setting me up with women too...because I’m not straight either.” He let out a bark of a laugh at how surreal he felt, which made Ezekiel startle. Apparently Ezekiel realized how big this was for Jacob, because he was looking at him in amazement now. “I can’t believe I’ve not told anyone else that in two and a half decades.”

“You...it’s been that long?” Ezekiel blinked in disbelief. “How did you hide that?”

Jacob shrugged. “You’d be surprised how easily people will ignore things if you fit in somehow. And I wasn’t ever totally hidden...you met Slaten. He knew me, well, more than anyone else until the Library.” He knew what was coming next after he said that.

“Were you...together?”

A smile crept onto Jacob’s face, reminiscent. “It’s the worst when you fall for your straight best friend.”

“It really is,” Ezekiel replied, and then his expression changed to something more serious, his posture annoyingly more seductive with just a slight tilt of his head and angle of his hips. “Now I pride myself in reading people, a necessary skill for effective grifting, and, well, when I first met you, you gave off some repressed gay vibes for sure. Was there something more when you shoved me against that bookcase when ninjas were invading the Library for the crown?”

Jacob thought back to that moment. “Not exactly, I mean, I'm a fighter so my first thought was to immobilize you.” Ezekiel raised an eyebrow, but Jacob had more to say. He stepped closer to Ezekiel as he said, “then my second thought was you looked like you were enjoying it.” Now he was almost toe to toe with Ezekiel, and the thief had certainly picked up on where he was going. “And my third thought was that I enjoyed looking at you like that.”

Conveniently, they were near a bookcase, not the one from the memory, but close enough. With all other thoughts out the window, Jacob grabbed Ezekiel by the shirt and pushed him against the bookcase. Ezekiel let out a little gasp when his back hit the wood, making Jacob's heart flip in his chest. What he said was true; Jacob was enjoying pinning Ezekiel to the bookcase, and based on Ezekiel's turned on expression, he was too.

Ezekiel interrupted his observations. “Are you just going to look at me?”

“Hmm, I might with that attitude,” Jacob purred. Ezekiel scoffed, but he glanced down at Jacob's mouth, and then Jacob couldn't resist any longer. He relaxed his elbows and brought his face near inches away from Ezekiel's, but something making him hesitate.

Ezekiel read him like an open book. “You aren't second guessing, are you? There's nothing wrong with who you are, though your wardrobe could still use help-”

“Oh, shut it,” Jacob growled, but he didn't back away.

“Make me, cowboy,” Ezekiel retorted. That was enough to get Jacob to close the remaining distance and press his lips onto Ezekiel's.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration for him to say he felt fireworks when Ezekiel kissed back.

This was his family, this building, these people. Blood wasn't everything, despite what the folks back home thought. It only took him 40 years to find it, but he was very glad he did.

-----

Post Notes: So, this is some idyllic world where trans teens got HRT in the 80's, which as far as Google would tell me, wasn't a thing until more recently. Also, since I used “And What Lies Beneath the Stones” for reference on Jacob and Isaac interacting, I also noticed how the one protestor reacted when he looked at Stone, and my brain decided that was him recognizing Choctaw or another tribe in Stone because that's also a fun headcanon in my head from when people mentioned it way back.

I picture this happening after season four, so technically the LiTs don't remember the whole Jenkins dying bit (I feel like Flynn and Eve wouldn't say for time line stability, since Flynn does watch out for that already from “And the Final Curtain”).

[scriptlgbt]

Do you have any information that would be helpful writing a trans woman in 1918 (or LGBT people in general)? Like what terms people would use and stuff like that? It's set in France. Also, it's first person and the narrator at the beginning of the story is transphobic, but by the end is ok with it. It's told in past tense, should I have him use she/her to refer to her the whole time just not in dialogue?

Answering about the pronouns first because it is the shortest answer:Personally, my take is that misgendering your characters should be avoided at all costs. I usually only say it is okay when you have a character do it in dialogue in a way that conveys to the reader that misgendering is not okay. Either someone doing it deliberately is a villain in that situation, or it’s someone doing it accidentally who self-corrects and moves on. (If it’s a stranger, it might not be corrected, but there will be a way to note somehow in the narration, the fact that it was misgendering, and the gravity of that - which does realistically differ depending on the person and the day and how much of it someone has had to deal with recently.)

So I’d say, especially considering it’s in past tense and your character does come around, it should be best to use the character’s right pronouns the whole time with the dialogue being reflective of what was used then. 

Regarding terms in general and era-appropriate LGBT+ research, I’ve been waiting for the perfect opportunity to share this info!

Magnus Hirschfeld was a gay, German Jewish researcher and physician who founded an institute for sexological studies in Berlin. (A bit to the east from France, but hard to exclude these things from influence over each other.) This institute was birthplace to some of the earliest iterations of the transition-related surgeries that we know and use today. He wrote several books from the first person perspective about the experiences within the community. 

At the time, transness was largely considered to be on the same continuum as gayness. Just like, the Kinsey scale with no limit on the gay end, pretty much. I believe a large part of what moved us away from this way of thinking was in part because it has largely been debunked that gender and orientation are inherently tied for everyone. And there are so many trans lesbians and gay men who this concept erased or did not include in the beginning. Folks who weren’t straight trans women and straight trans men were not even really considered for the most part. There’s a lot of exceptions and so on and individuals who I assume understood these things. But for the most part, studies and folks in the community speaking about it, for the most part, assumed this is one continuum and community. Nuance and branches off with different words came a little bit later, unless in terms of specific cultural identities around the world.

Terms used at this time in Europe, were generally iterations of “urnish” and “uranian” 

Magnus Hirschfeld’s work was largely targeted and burned during the Nazi book burnings. But the current iteration of his legacy is working on the repatriation of the library at the institute, and they have links available to some digitized repatriations. A lot of the things I know and have learned about LGBT+ history has been through these books, even outside of the eras they cover in them. (Not because they cover non-contemporary topics, but because it has helped me to analyze the different ways that our community finds itself, transcendent of time and culture.)

Much of the content is in German, but some of it is translatable using Google translate for webpages. (I know “Berlin’s Third Gender” has a version I’ve had my browser translate.) Anyway, here’s the link. (If using Chrome, right click and click “translate to English” to translate the page to English.)

[werevulvi]

I hate my chest... situation. I know I fucked up my ribs real bad from my 5 years of binding (and I used sports bras additionally under the binder, literally just to have a barrier with softer fabric against my boobs, I didn't think anything of it) but it was alright, for the most part, for the next 4 years after my top surgery when I didn't bind anymore. I'd only occasionally get random chest pains and random moments of not being able to take deep breaths, but it was just a few times per year and didn't bother me much. But now since detransitioning, I've been wearing bras again. And god damn... for these past 11 months that I've been doing so, my chest situation has increasingly worsened by the day.

I know I've been mentally resisting trying to get over my top surgery regret cause I just really, really badly wish I had boobs again. What kind of cruel fate is this?! Hating my boobs from the start of puberty, then trying everything I could to be fine with them, then sexually assaulted by my fucking boyfriend so to the point I wanted to rip them off my chest and swore to never let anyone touch them again... and kept that promise. Then bound them for 5 years as I despised them, then I finally got top surgery that I had been waiting for and anticipating... only to regret it at 9 days post-op when I first saw it. Then stuffing that regret away for 4 years until I detransitioned last year, when I released those feelings.

I cried my fucking heart out for months in a grief so heavy I've never felt before. And now realising I can't wear my breast forms most of the time. I need to wear them less and less...

Especially sports bras and underwire bras are the worst. But I tried buying an extra soft mastectomy bra that's said to even be fine to sleep in but even that one is hurting really bad. Getting implants might not put too much strain on my chest in and of themselves, but I really wanna get back to karate again. And I'd have to wear a sports bra for that if I'd have boobs again, but I can't if it restricts my breathing like this. So this is where I'm at now, if I'm gonna have to choose between boobs and karate... I can't let my dysphoria kill my dreams. Not any more.

Now this sure is a tight fucking spot to be in with no damn wiggle room in either direction. I have to try to overcome my chest dysphoria and top surgery regret, cause there's just no way around it. I can't ignore my physical health for the sake of my mental health anymore. Cause if I do, it'll just backfire on me eventually. I can exercise just fine without anything constricting my chest, like just wearing regular loose clothing, but that means I can't have boobs then. Why... why should I have to choose between boobs and my dreams? Don't even get me started on how "unfair" it is, I don't care. It's cruel, that's what it is. It's simply cruel. I begged to all the damn gods and godesses any which where to please not make me choose between those two. I guess they didn't care. I wish I hadn't dug up that regret last summer. I wish I hadn't let myself grieve. Cause at least it was bearable when I could pretend that I was fine with my chest being flat, during those 4 years between 2014 and 2018. Oh, what a waste. All of it.

This will be hard to get through, as if it wasn't already. Cause I never once liked it being flat, I'll surely struggle to find ways to live with it. But I do think it's possible. Oh come on, I've gotten this far, I believe pretty much anything is possible at this point. But I also believe I'll need to go through a living hell to get through it. And knowing I'll actually willingly open that door to yet another hell and force my way through it... you don't fuck with that kind of willpower. So I know I can do it, it's not that. I just... really hate this situation. I've already been wearing my boobs less often, and even been outside without them twice this past week. I know I can do it again. And again. Although I don't wanna face my mom pressuring me about my "gender identity crisis" if/when she sees me dressed up but without boobs (likely for driving me somewhere). None of of her damn business! Out of all the people picking at my looks, strangers included, her comments are the worst. So what if she doesn't think it's socially acceptable or whatever for women to be hairy, have deep voices or flat chests, so fucking what?! She gave birth to me and changed my diapers as a baby, she if anyone knows I'm female. I wanna tell her to just fuck off about my looks, body and style, but instead I just keep resorting to trying to explain and only failing better each time. How can a gnc woman keep ragging on her gnc daughter for not being gnc in the "right" or exact same way? I don't understand!

If she had grown up in my generation she probably would have transitioned too and then ended up asking herself what was the point of it all, like I did. Or at least that's not at all unlikely. So how the hell can she rag on me for not wanting to mutilate my own body even further, but in a feminising direction instead? That's the part I can't understand. Isn't coming to terms with BOTH my female biology AND the changes I made to its exterior the best possible route I could take? But I think she's in denial about how she herself stands out with her own gnc looks, cause me standing out in a crowd really seems to be the torn in her side.

I don't even understand where her views are coming from, if it's closer to radfem or old school conservative views of gender but with a liberal "do as you wish" leaning. Not knowing her perspective on what she even thinks makes me a woman or a man or whatever she even sees me as, makes it kinda hard to explain my perspective on it. But it's possible that her reluctance to accept my way of being gnc could be her thinking I in some sense "became" a man through my transition, and that I won't "qualify" as a woman again in her eyes unless I'll start looking like one again. If so, she can take that stick and just jam it in a little farther. Cause that's bullshit, and I would not be afraid to straight up tell her that. But I do not know if that's what her stick is about.

I know I'll look at those cute feminine tops and dresses in my wardrobes that require boobs to look good cause of how they're sewn, with a sinking feeling in my chest of how can I ever wear this again? I'm a femme by heart, fuck knows no damn clothes fit my broken body anymore! Nothing is designed to fit a flat chest and wide hips. Literally nothing. And I look dumb. My chest doesn't match my curvy ass, and I hate that. It looks so bad. Like I've got a male upper body and a female lower body. But I don't wanna cut up my ass to match my chest, that would be even dumber, and I like my ass. I feel like a table with unevenly long legs whobbling around, but I've come to a point where I've realised I can't just keep cutting its legs so now it just has to be uneven like that. And now I can't even put a book underneath the shortest leg to keep it steady anymore, cause that's the metaphor for my fake boobs. Anyone else feel like a whobbly table which's legs has been cut too many times to irrevokable unevenness, or is that just me? Well, tight tank tops with some cute lace details or pattern fit my upper body quite nicely even with just the flatness underneath, and I can always wear any skirts cause they're really "one shape fits all" and I love that about how easy it is to wear skirts. Tied blouses are neat too (unless I tie too hard), and open tunics. Most cardigans and feminine jackets work as well. Stretchy bolero's will fem up any outfit. Jewellery and makeup will too, of course.

And the bonus: if me not having boobs will somehow make me less likely to be perceived to be a trans woman, I'll fucking cheer halleluja. Cause sometimes I'd just rather be perceived as a regular gnc dude cause at least then people don't tend to think I'm an oversensitive TRA ready to dislodge their heads from their shoulders if they'd accidentally misgender me or say something "offensive." Male is male regardless of how you twist and turn it and how it identifies. To be seen as a fake woman is no fucking better than be seen as a straight up man in a flamboyant style. They're both just as damn incorrect when applied to me, but people do tend to have a better attitude when they think I'm just a straight up man in a dress. So if I have to choose, that's the better of those two options, seriously. But it's a damn difficult decision to put my boobs away for good. It feels like I'm living the twisted nightmare version of my childhood dream. I wanted to be a feminine man so badly. Now this detrans femme lesbian who can't pass as female anymore reality freak show, feels like some kind of twisted nightmarish version of that childhood wish. Oh I always knew that sex dysphoria sucked... but I never could have imagined back then, that it could suck quite this bad. I'll never get away from it, never entirely. Cause no matter what I'll always have to live with the consequences of my transition.

Now this is no joking matter, I know that, but I can't stop laughing at this truly miserable outcome. Cause I know I can't truly grasp it. It's bewildering.

[bullet-farmer]

Okay, I’m having a horrible mental-health day and feel overwhelmed by work, and talking about something that’s been bothering me really feels liberating. Because I feel like it’s one thing I can control right now.

Please don’t reblog this or tag it. I don’t want this to become Discourse, especially in an awesome fandom. But I needed to get this out in a space where people I trust can reply if they wish. I’m fine with disagreement and discussion, as long as people respect my feelings, or ask for clarification if they don’t understand what I’m talking about.

This got long. And it’s about pronouns. And fictional characters. And idk.

Another thing that kind of bothers me about assuming they/them or ze/zir for Beelzebub’s pronouns, and why I’m using both less and less*: I’m really uncomfortable with how few authors do the same for any other character (save, of course, for Pollution, whose pronouns are clearly mentioned as they/them and really should be used exclusively, because that’s just the decent thing to do).  Of course, some people use they/them across the board, or pronouns other than she/her and he/him in any combination. But in my experience, authors who do this are quite rare, at least on Ao3. In most cases, I find authors using “gendered” (for lack of a better word) pronouns for everyone else--namely, those that (presumably) match the gender of the actor who plays each role. For example: she/her for Michael and Dagon, and he/him for Hastur and Gabriel. 

I don’t want to make assumptions about why people do this. For one thing, making sweeping generalizations about people is always a bad idea. It’s even a worse idea when talking about why a group as diverse as fanfic authors. For another, I don’t know what is in people’s hearts or minds, and I’d rather not try to arbitrate any thoughts but my own. That said, in the West, we are swimming in a sea of gender essentialism and binarism. And I can’t help but feel that both are somehow in play in this phenomenon.

Angels and demons in Good Omens are nonbinary. But from a binarist point of view, you could say that nearly all of the angels and demons have at least a few stereotypical masculine or feminine qualities. For example: Michael wears makeup, and a very frilly blouse at one point; Michael’s suit and Uriel’s have what we would call a feminine cut. Dagon has long hair in a style we would call feminine, Sandalphon has male-pattern baldness, Hastur has a deep voice and wears “masculine” clothes, etc. 

But Beelzebub breaks this pattern. She’s what people in the West tend to think of when they hear the term “androgynous”: somewhat boyish and youthful in appearance, dressing in typically “masculine” clothes that don’t emphasize her shape, and behaving in a way that many would call more masculine than feminine. To put it another way, she is aggressive, she speaks forcefully, she shows no hallmarks of being a queen or princess, and she entirely lacks subtlety. Women, of course, are socialized to do the exact opposite. Save for her appearance at the airfield, she is also far more unkempt than any character in the series with the possible exception of Hastur.  I’m beginning to see several problems as I go deeper into this deep dive.  First problem: the assumption that “nonbinary” means androgynous or genderless. And, as a subset of that problem, the assumption that androgynous and agender/genderless are synonymous, and that they/them and ze/zir are “genderless” pronouns. For some people, they very much are. For others, they are not. (For example, a blogger I follow identifies as a cis woman and uses both she/her and they/them).  Second problem: The fact that a character played by an actress simply must be agender or “not female” because said character is androgynous and behaves in stereotypically “masculine” ways.  Third problem: ...Why are we only insisting on they/them or ze/zir for the dirtiest, least conventionally attractive character in the show? I mean, being dirty and unkempt isn’t a stereotypically nonbinary trait, but considering how society sees women who don’t obsess over their looks as “not real women,” this has some very unfortunate implications to me. Fourth problem: Y’all, Neil didn’t say that Beelzebub would probably use they/them as pronouns. He said “zir” (and to be honest, I think that was him being witty rather than making an official statement). I understand that some people can uses these interchangeably to describe themselves, but they really aren’t interchangeable. And acting like they are, strikes me as basically saying “well, these are all nongendered pronouns, so just pick whichever you like best when talking about someone.” Imagine calling someone whose pronouns are they/them, “ze/zir” and thinking that isn’t misgendering or upsetting. I also don’t see posts that insist we respect any other character as nonbinary--particularly characters like, say, Hastur, Ligur, or Gabriel. (Perhaps I’m mistaken, but I really feel like people are even more hesitant to call more “masculine” characters nonbinary than they are Dagon, Michael, etc. Which also strikes me as having really unfortunate implications. But that’s a whole other post.) Or regular use of “Nonbinary Character” and “Canon Nonbinary Character” tags on AO3 for any other demon or angel.  All of this is really starting to get to me as a nonbinary/genderfluid person who absolutely does not see myself as agender or androgynous, even if people regularly describe my looks as “masculine” for reasons I’ll get into in a second. I’m genderfluid and nonbinary because I do not fully or consistently identify with the gender I was assigned at birth--and because I never have. While some days I feel fine with having society see me as a cis woman, some days I am deeply not okay with it--and am actually dysphoric because my body doesn’t look more stereotypically androgynous. However, when I realized that stereotypical androgyny is a concept that cisheterocentric society forces on nonbinary people--and DFAB people in particular--my dysphoria became a bit more manageable.  I also do not attend to my appearance. I have no interest in wearing makeup, flattering clothes, or even feminine ones. I wear skirts for comfort; I’ve always hated pants because of sensory issues, but if I didn’t, I’d probably wear a lot of “men’s” clothes. As it is, I wear T-shirts cut for men, rather than the fitted versions for women. And baggy clothes that men can get away with wearing, but women not so much. I don’t regularly style my hair despite having it long. I don’t shave any part of my body--which began upsetting people when I was twelve, y’all. Adults constantly bothered me about it, and about looking more feminine and stylish. I may be the only “girl” on the planet whose father encouraged her to wear shorter skirts and more flattering tops when she was in her early teens.

It really upset me, but at the time I had no language for why--other than that I felt pushed and harassed. Thankfully, people have since mostly cut that shit out, but when you deal with it as a child, it really leaves some scars and some gender confusion--a fact I only realized while typing this out! Of course, I don’t believe that any of these life choices inherently make anyone any particular gender. But society thinks differently. To it, I’m a failure as a woman, and when you add on the fact that I’m nearing forty, childfree, offbeat, clueless about ‘appropriate” interactions with men, and loud and messy because of ADHD, I’m labeled as even less of a woman. I would have no problem with this if it didn’t come with the pejorative baggage. I have never been a girl or a woman, though I feel I share enough in common with this gender to be comfortable having it be part of my identity to some degree. Even as a child, I felt this but I had no name for it because no one was talking about trans issues in a conservative red state in the 80s and 90s, and they sure as fuck wouldn’t have done it around kids. I didn’t even hear the word “nonbinary” until the early 2010s.  All of this also means that I don’t get many characters or images that represent me. Again, media portrayals of people like me (DFAB and not consistently woman-identifying) are so rare that Beelzebub is the ONLY one I have found in my adult life who isn’t, you know, the butt of a joke about viragos and lesbians who are too ugly to get a man, and “undateables.” So having people insist that using she/her is somehow misgendering is...well, I get that it’s not directed at me. That it isn’t about me personally. That it isn’t meant to hurt me. That it is a lot of nonbinary people and genderfluid people talking about their own experiences. I know all of that, and I don’t begrudge people their feelings. But it still kind of hurts when they disapprove of disagreement. And it makes me worry that fewer people will read my fic, and may accuse me of misgendering if they do, even if I always “warn” for pronouns. I’m even hesitant to make posts like this or to refer to Beelzebub as she/her in casual conversation. Which, well...kind of makes me feel like I do in life. Almost no one but my therapists knows I’m not cis, because I don’t think I could explain it to them without causing confusion and some distress. Which I don’t want to cause and don’t have the spoons to deal with, especially when my own gender issues are so complicated and unclear even to me.

I also just don’t have the spoons to deal with people for assuming I’m a cis, straight girl writing a hetero relationship when I use she/her in most of my Beelzefic. And to be honest, I’m just sort of hurt at the inconsistency around pronouns and the issues said inconsistency raise for me. 

I mean, like I said, I know this isn’t personal, and I do my best to keep that in mind. But I don’t like having to hold my thoughts in because they might upset other genderfluid and nonbinary people.** I have to do that enough in my life already as a queer person, and as a mentally ill person whose feelings are not always appropriate to the situation. Having to hold them in here, too, feels really unfair and frustrating to me, and kind of like I can’t be myself even in LGBTQ+ spaces. so... tl;dr  Use whatever pronouns for Beelzebub you like, or no pronouns at all. I am not the pronoun police, and I would never tell anyone what to do with their writing. But please don’t accuse people of misgendering if they do otherwise, or mistreat them if they do, or make assumptions about them or their reasons. You don’t know who they are or what experience they’re writing from, just as they don’t know who you are and your experiences. I guess that’s it. thank you. 

* Yes, I am aware of what Neil said on the subject. I’m genderfluid and allowed to disagree and to present an alternate view. ** I really don’t care too much about cisgender folks’ opinions on this issue. I’m sorry, but I don’t. Especially when cisgender people opine about what pronouns we should use for a character. I’m glad that they’re concerned and think they’re trying admirably to be good allies, but this really is an in-house and stay-in-your-lane issue. 

[transheadcannon]

In Honor of the end of pride month (darn) Everyone is trans and everyone is at Pride

Hunk

Trans boy (he/him)

Pan and ace

Is there with Shay his (trans) girlfriend

Total mom of pride

Is prepared for everything all the time no matter what

Has granola bars and water on him at ALL TIMES

Is constantly making sure that everyone is together and okay

Is especially worried about Lance and Pidge 

Especially when they’re both together

Help Lance sew their pride capes

Definitely brought a frying pan

For the Pun

Has a shirt that says “trans boys do it better”

Or “Frying PANS who knew right?”

I love Tangled I’m sorry

Definitely is wearing at least on form of floral print

Is terrified of losing Keith in the crowd

Really wants to get those leash backpacks for kids but for his friends

Hunk is the main supplier of glitter

You can bet your boots this boy painted his face

Will not stop throwing Pancakes at people

His pancakes are Holier than thou

So people eat them no matter what

Everyone, and I mean E V E R Y O N E  loves Hunk and will die for Hunk

Once, at pride, Hunk got knocked down by anti-lgbtq+ protestors

Everyone was there to make sure he was okay

A group of Drag Queens fought off the protesters

Those protesters never came back

Hunk will, without hesitation, punch any terfs he sees at pride

No exceptions

Probably brought a ukulele to play “Rainbow Connection” nonstop

Taking names, breaking hearts, Hunk Garrett

All the ladies are swooning

Shay once had to fight someone to get them off of Hunk

Hunk may be a bit less vocal about it but he his the happiest person there

Keith

Trans Demiboy (he/they)

Gay

VERY GAY

(would date Nonbinary people too though)

Wears Croc Heelys to pride

Has a tendency to wander off which is really not good for Shiro or Hunk

Was roped into letting Lance, Allura and Coran do their makeup

One eye is demiboy colors

The other is Rainbow

Flannel and a black tank top

Lipstick (any color it changes year by year) to complete the look

Everyone thinks he’s gorgeous

Gets asked out by at least three (3) people at pride each year

First time they go to pride they cry

Everyone was so nice and kind and accepting

All his friends were so flustered because none of them had ever seen Keith cry

Keith probably got his wolf a rainbow bandana

Keith’s mom ( a well seasoned gay) is definitely part of the “Where the Hell is Keith Now?” Squad

Keith is normally the one that eats most of Hunk’s Granola bars

He and Lance usually fight over the last one

Keith, Pidge, Lance and Matt are in a “Who can get more glitter on who” war

Keith usually wins because this kid has reflexes like no one’s buisness

The one year Keith didn’t win was because someone Matt  accidentally hit Allura

No one stood a chance

Pride Month is what Keith lives for

Catch him at 3 in the morning June 1 vibrating after watching every episode of Queer Eye and drinking Shiro’s secret stash of Rebull

Keith, surprisingly, gets in absolutely no arguments (other than Lance) or fights during Pride

They don’t want to take away the safe environment young queers have

Definitely wears a beanie no matter what

He rotates his demiboy hat, rainbow hat, and trans hat

“Bro it’s like 100 degrees out aren’t you hot?”

“I’m dying on the inside.”

“Dude, just take off the hat”

“pain is beauty”

“Dude, you’re going to pass out”

“PAIN IS BEAUTY”

Lance once stole a beanie

It did not end well

Shiro

Trans man (he/him)

Bi (or pan whichever suites your fancy)

poly

Definitely has a baseball cap with Bi and Trans flags on top

The dad of pride

Definitely wears a fanny pack but only because they’re practical 

He keeps cookies and tums in there

Makes a point to dress like a dad

One year, The Squad convinced him to do drag

The results were actually amazing and Shiro can really work heels

Shiro was very flustered but very attractive

That day was Lance and Allura’s field day

Shiro does his own makeup for pride

Once got in a muscle flexing contest and won

Matt buys him a “I flexed and the Sleeves fell off” tank top to wear the next year

Has a shirt that says “Hi Gay I’m Dad”

Has one of those beer hats with the straws but he fills them with redbull

Despite Hunk yelling at him not to

Drinks more juiceboxes than water

Gets proposed to nearly every year

Hissed at someone when they wouldn’t leave Pidge alone

Once brought his teacup Chihuahua Tito 

The ladies were S W O O N I N G

Shiro and Krolia co-parent Keith in shifts

Shiro is Lance’s wingman

Or he tries to be at least

Most people are too focused on him

People always assume that he and Allura are together

No

They’re just wrestle buddies

Allura wins always and no matter what because Allura is a goddess

Matt and Shiro aren’t allowed to go anywhere together alone after The Indident

Basically, they both got wasted, ate a shit ton of sugar, and got lost

They also somehow ended up almost joining a cult 

So yeah those two need to be monitored. 

People have definitely bowed before Shiro

Everyone wants to be adopted by Shiro

Allura

Trans woman (she/her)

Lesbian

Is famous within the LGBTQ+ communtity

A true icon

Definite beauty guru and a GODDESS

Goes every year with her (trans) girlfriend Romelle

Refers to everyone as “my lovelies”

No one dares to flirt with her because she’s out of everyone’s league

Every time Allura breathes a terf gets punched

Every time Allura breathes a small trans girl gets her wings

Has her own float in the parade

Allura was Born on The First Day Of Pride

Allura also got in a muscle flexing contest and W O N

She hands out flower crowns in all pride colors

And she does it all IN 9 INCH HEELS

She and Romelle are a power couple

Taking names and Breaking hearts

Allura and Romelle

Dyes her hair pastel pink every year

Lance and Allura are unstoppable together

People always come up to her and ask her questions

She loves answering people

Haley Kiyoko is her anthem

Gets actual gifts from people

Coran is her gay uncle

Eats a crap ton of raisins 

One year, a group of terfs came up to her to yell at her

They all walked away in love

Transphobes don’t stand a chance against Allura

No one stands a chance against Allura

She is a Very Powerful Woman

Allura, although regal and a goddess is actually is the most excited for Pride

It’s a cool fun environment for cool fun people

Allura loves meeting people

Even to this day she’s afraid she’ll somehow mess up accidentally

Everyone knows that’s bull though

She and Pidge are the loudest at pride

Kills it every year in a crop top

Helps every years queer prom happen

She’s so powerful

Matt

Trans man (he/him)

Bi

Wears Shrek merch  nearly every year

No shirt

Has a speaker that plays nothing but Bo Burnahm’s “Everyone thinks I’m Gay”

And occasionally “All Star”

Was the biggest factor in why Shiro and Matt can’t hang out together

If he sees a bug, he WILL NOT let you stomp on it

No matter what age

At the end of pirde he’s always covered head to toe in insects and glitter

One year he ditched the Shrek merch in favor of dressing up as spider man

All of the kids swarmed him it was adorable

Another year he wore his fursuit and nearly started a revolution

Helps Pidge choose an outfit each year

Is also the one who buys all of Pidge’s pride things including glitter, flags, shirts

Other than Lance, is Allura’s biggest fan

Allura likes (platonic)  him, but Matt is too thick to realize that

He got rainbow Shrek merch and cried

Is actually like the older queer brother

Like the nerdy one that’s too afraid to go outside

Every year never gets less exciting for him

He’s Lance’s slightly more successful wingman

Gets sunburn every year

Even in the Spiderman costume which covers him from head to toe

Socks and sandals

Specifically to bug people

Obviously those are Shrek socks

What are we animals?

Matt keeps at least 3 cookies with him at pride

For emegincies

Steals most of Shiro’s juice

On the first day of Pride month plays “The most wonderful time of the year” on repeat until Pidge tries to kill him

“It is NOT the time for Christmas music”

“IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE CHRISTMAS TO BE THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR”

Matt at 3 in the morning June first “IT’s the first day of gay lads”

He and Pidge always host a party after the Pride Parade

It mostly involves more glitter fights, except they get Shrio in on it too

Shiro, surprisingly always looses

When he hit Allura in the face with glitter he saw his life flash before his eyes

It was kind of pathetic

Definitely sneaks in Vodka in a water bottle

Pidge

Nonbinary (They/them)

Aro/ace

Before the Parade they roll in glitter to properly prepare

Once Matt had a “genius” idea

Let’s just say it ended with Pidge covered in cling wrap and glitter

Pidge wears sarcastic pride shirts and their floofy golf M.C. hammer pants

Pidge and Allura are devious little Shits

Allura taught Pidge how to walk in heels

Pidge taught Allura how to steal 50 candy bars without getting caught

They do both together

Pidge and Lance are mostly the reason why there are so many glitter fights

Pidge comes out again every year during pride month

Calls it their “Gender birthday”

Comes up with a new extravagant idea each year

Last year it was hot air balloons

This year they’re hoping to hack into NASA so they can rearrange the stars

Pidge pays for it out of pocket too though no one is sure how

Pidge drinks more juice than Shiro

Pidge will only refer to Shiro as “Papa Gay” during pride month

Lance is “ You Absolute Asshole Give Me My Rebull Back”

Tries to eat nothing but Skittles for the month but Hunk always catches them

Colors absolutely everything they can get their hands on rainbow

“Rainbow. The best color. The only color if you ask me.”

Has a shrine for Miles Mckenna

Marshmallows 

That is all I must say

“Hey Pidge,I’m a lesbian”

“I thought you were American”

Hates getting Misgendered at pride

Because I guess people gender people at pride

Will punch a terf

Has a T-shirt that says so

One year Lance did their make up

Or tried to at least

It did not end well

Pidge wouldn’t stop moving

Pidge once did Lance’s makeup

It did not last well

Mostly because Pidge has no idea how to do makeup

Pidge also protects the bugs at pride from feet

Lance

Trans boy (he/him)

Bi

Lance uses the glitter the best

Very decorative

(until the glitter wars)

Sometimes steals Keith’s lipstick to use

Allura and Lance always have to go out for coffee before the parade

That’s were they gossip

Lance is Hunk’s impulse control

Namely, if Lance doesn’t do something stupid Hunk will

“It’s a heavy burden”

“Lance, no one made you eat that many granola bars”

Lance is Shiro’s source of Redbull

Lance usually wears a pair of booty shorts and no shirt to pride

Allura lets him borrow a pair of heels each year

Lance owns a pair of platform crocs for pride

Is always a close second in the glitter wars

Owns a shirt with the words “Papa Gay” and Shiro’s face

Is probably the most vocal at pride

Makes his own flags for pride

Always paints at least 50% of his body pride colors

Once brought powdered chalk 

That did not end well

Even though Pidge messed up his makeup while doing it he still wore it out

Every year the children flock to him and every year he brings markers for the kids to doodle on his arms

Definitely makes signs each year

He saves them and hangs them up on his wall

His entire family came to his first pride

He was sooooo  happy

Lance’s family was mildly concerned but happy

Lance almost got roofied one year

He smelt it though

He got that scumbag arrested

After getting top surgery and not needing his binders he did a huuuuge give away

He was pretty much chucking binders at people

Definitely the kind of guy to have the really extravagant patterned binders 

People were crying and swooning

Has asked many times for Shiro and Matt to stop being his wing man

Everyone knew that wing man was Hunk’s job

Everyone knew that except Hunk

One year Shiro did his wings and he cried

I was going to do Coran but I ran out of space. I promise he’ll get his own post

[catcatb0y]

The thing with this is that it's not just in reference to family.

In school, if your (female) teacher gets married, you refer to her by her new name. Parents who talk about their friends to their kids usually use a prefix that the kids are expected to imitate for politeness.

In all of these above scenarios, it's perfectly acceptable to change ones name, and people are expected to respect and uphold that.

But even for a second we assume that, yes the naming scale is a bit different. Yeah, you can argue that it's more difficult to change first names because you use them often (despite there being several cases where you do typically refer to someone via last name), there is a VAST difference in etiquette around these naming schemes.

You've never heard a cis person say 'I'm sorry, I've always known you as (X)' to a married woman. They more often than not, politely correct themselves and move on.

They make an EFFORT to remember a married women's new last name because they respect the reason she has changed it (marriage). What they DON'T do is make it out as if it's her fault that she had to change her name.

Whereas nonbinary/trans people are more often than not GUILTED for changing their name.

When a cis person uses the wrong name for a trans person, you can hear a lot of 'I'm sorry, I've always known you as (x)' or 'it's just so hard for me' hard for you? As if it's not hard for the trans person trying to be their authentic self?

No one tells a married woman, 'well, it sounded so much better when you were (old last name)'. It's rude and inconsiderate....

But somehow perfectly acceptable to tell a trans person.

Not to mention, at the very base of the argument, name changes are not taboo or new or weird! If cis people can respect married (women) changing their last names, then they can accept trans people changing their first names. The only difference is that it takes a bit more effort to change someone's first name.

Not understanding trans/nonbinary people is not transphobic, you're right, but not RESPECTING them is. A family who repeatedly misgenders and deadnames someone is IN FACT transphobic, because they don't RESPECT that person enough to make an effort.

Struggling is natural, yes, but, just like using the wrong last name for a married cis(woman), the proper thing to do is apologize, correct yourself, and move forward- and refusing to correct yourself, refusing to use someone's preferred pronouns, refusing to use someone's preferred name IS transphobic, because it comes from a lack of BASIC RESPECT towards a trans person (and/or people)