#we were assigned sexes and genders at birth but we are not defined nor bound by these

[guiltyidealist]

And that's not even to mention the gendering part.

"Trans men are welcome on my Females Only Men Fucking Die Challenge blog! 🥰" should rub you the wrong way. It should rub anybody the wrong way

It really says something about the way they view trans men, as pointed out above, and in gender too.

They view you, trans man reading this, as a woman. They see you as one of them -- a victimized female -- but a victimized female groomed to think "she" should be *gag* male... groomed by males of course, from the "transgender cult".

That's why they just want to "cure" you. They look at you with pity. You're a ~poor girl~ in need of ~curing~ in a TERF's eyes.

Aaaand that's why we look through Shinigami Eyes kids ... Stay safe and minimize your exposure to raddies folks

Terfs will say shit like "this blog is safe for trans men :)", but as a trans man, I will never feel safe on a blog that excludes my trans sisters. I will always choose them over someone who wants them dead, even if it doesn't actively do anything for me. Leave my sisters alone.

[nomenculture]

Also see previous entries in this series: The confusion between sex and gender. [x] How not to prove the objective existence of gender. [x]

First, what is genderism? It can be used in the same sense as “sexism” and “racism.” And indeed that is how it’s mostly been used. But in this case I mean it in the colloquial sense of people who enforce gender roles. ...

The concept of genderism, as used in feminism, is usually defined as the belief that certain behavioral preferences are caused by a person’s sex, in general that one’s gender is the result of one’s sex, and therefore that gender is natural (and even desirable).

This stands in stark contrast to the view that gender is a social construct. It is also generally held as being the opposite of feminism, because feminists believe that being of the female sex does not constitute an obligation to take on a gender role which is constructed as inferior and subservient.

What are the behaviors and roles considered appropriate for one’s sex?

If you are a Feminist (even a Liberal Feminist or a Fun Feminist), the answer to this should be “There are no behaviors and roles considered appropriate for my sex because Females can be and do anything.”

There is a lot of nuances in definitions here, but they are not entirely necessary. For example, some include within genderism the belief that there are two genders. But the two genders are an artefact of culture; some culture have three genders or four genders, and really, the exact number is irrelevant: all that matters is that some are seen as superior and some are seen as inferior. Genderism would not magically disappear if we added another gender to the list.

So who are genderists exactly? There are two kinds. One is traditional genderism, which generally in the West holds that one’s gender was assigned by God or evolution through their sex. This covers the gamut from non-science (Bible fundamentalists) to pseudo-science (evolutionary psychology) to quasi-science (studies and papers written to “prove” genderism), as well as most conservatives and liberals.

Even if they vastly disagree on pretty much everything, the goal of all traditional genderists is to suppress feminism and restore “women’s place” in society in order to uphold the gender hierarchy. And these various factions have been quite successful; together they encompass so many approaches that one of them is bound to work.

The second kind is trans genderism (not to be confused with transgenderism). Trans theory states that when a male does not feel that ey is a man, or when a female does not feel that ey is a woman, this is a fundamental biological problem which must be rectified by chemical treatment and/or surgery. They believe in the link between sex and gender just as much; they simply add another layer, the “innate gender” which trumps one’s “assumed gender” and otherwise takes over its role.

Trans activists believe they are anti-genderism. This may be so, but the very definition of transgender implies a link between sex and gender:

Transgender (an umbrella term) (adj.)- for people whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

Transgender (sometimes shortened to trans or TG) people are those whose psychological self (“gender identity”) differs from the social expectations for the physical sex they were born with.

These are by far the most common definitions of transgender given by trans-friendly groups, and they clearly link sex and gender. If one is male, then one should feel like a man, and that if one is female, then one should feel like a woman. Gender rebels must be “helped” with chemical treatments and surgery so they can perform the proper gender.

In contrast, the traditional genderist position is that males are men and females are women, and gender rebels must be punished, not rehabilitated. The radfem position, on the other hand, is that we should live the way we want regardless of sex, that neither sex nor gender should limit us, and that gender-rebels deserve neither medical rehabilitation nor punishment.

From a radfem perspective, trans theory is extremely offensive in that it enforces gender roles while giving the illusion of choice. It ostensibly tells people that they can be whatever they want, but in practice they use one’s conformity or non-conformity to gender roles to assign them a label of “cis” or “trans.” And have created a new gender heirarchy between “cis” and “trans.”

Reducing “woman” to a checklist of characteristics that others have forced upon us is insulting. Feeling that you are a woman because you have a medically made hole in your body that does not act anything like our reproductive organ is insulting. Thinking that you can be a woman without experiencing the effects of being a woman in infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood is insulting. Womanhood is not putting on a frilly dress and being emotionally available. Womanhood is dealing with the fact that that is the expectation of us, which you just reinforce.

Cis/trans is a tyrannical, binary label which aims to erase all levels of gender rebellion. Everyone who is not genderist and who rebels against gender has no choice but to take refuge in the domain of queer and eschew the cis/trans binary completely (I know nothing of queer theory, so I will refrain from talking further about it). Given the fact that it reduces third genders from other cultures to a “trans” label that simply doesn’t apply, it is also a colonialist, some might even say white supremacist, concept.

I’m a bakla Filipina. To call me trans for being bakla is to entirely erase the cultural specificity of my identity and to enact a type of cultural imperialism, something I most certainly do reject. Yet in Asher’s binary construction of cis/trans I am considered trans, something that I am not. Either that or simply rendered invisible.

Please note that I am not accusing trans activists of being white supremacists. I know very well they are not. What I am saying is that some have called the cis/trans binary white supremacist from their own cultural perspective, and I completely understand that.

Gender rebellion is a consequence of the existence of gender itself. Once you set up these little prison cells where people have to conform to one or the other set of behaviors, there will be people whose personalities lead them to adopt an admixture of both, and who will rebel against the attempt to impose a set on them. Now we know for a fact that few people, if any, are totally gender conforming, but most people try to follow their role enough so they don’t stick out. Some people, by virtue of having a personality that is too divergent from these sets, cannot do so, and will naturally rebel.

If you research the subject outside of radfem blogs, the first thing you will find is that many people hate radical feminism with incredible passion and vitriol. The biggest part of this vitriol comes from trans activists and their allies, who accuse radfems of being transphobic and of propagating hatred.

The reason for this should not be hard to understand. Gender is an integral part of trans theory, and anyone who seeks to eliminate gender is undercutting trans theory at its very foundation. To deny gender is to deny the transgender identity. I don’t dispute that this is bigotry, but the bigotry is the result of a systemic analysis. An anarchist is right to be a bigot against policemen and soldiers, because their job is inherently one of repression, no matter how nice the individuals might be. An antitheist is right to be a bigot against priests, even if they are nice.

Anyone who identifies their job or their very well-being with hurting other people should rightly be hated, and gender hurts people on a massive global scale. Gender is the rationale for oppressing women, gender sustains the rape culture, gender is an excuse to beat down, imprison and kill people. In that it constrains us to a set of preferred behaviors, genderism is necessarily a denial of freedom, in the political sense as well as in the personal sense. To follow a gender role means to be told how to act, how to talk, how to think, how to react, how to dress, how to have sex; as long as we have to follow gender roles, we are slaves to hierarchy.

Feminism does not believe that asking whether an individual identifies with the particular social characteristics and expectations assigned to them at birth is a politically useful way of analyzing or understanding gender. Eliminating gender assignments, by allowing individuals to choose one of two pre-existing gender molds, while continuing to celebrate the existence and naturalism of “gender” itself, is not a progressive social goal that will advance women’s liberation.

Gender is an extremely oppressive and unnecessary construct. Defining “trans” people as those who deviate from otherwise unobjectionable gender norms is not a progressive social cause. Fighting for everyone’s right to be as gender “non-conforming” as they wanna be, on the other hand, is.

Some people even claim that radfems want to kill transgender people. This is a straightforward lie, but it is a fact that trans theory applied to children leads to the extermination of homosexuality, because a majority of gender rebellious children are homosexual. They are also the ones who issue death threats to “cis” people (the most popular trans slogan is “die cis scum”). It is traditional genderists who kill transgender people and want to take away their rights, not radical feminists. Trans advocates accuse radfem of “transphobia,” but they are the ones who constantly lie to transgender people and tell them that there’s something physically wrong with gender-rebelling children and adults.

I honestly don’t know a group of people more compassionate than people who run radical feminists blogs on the Internet. This is why it boggles my mind when I read claims that radfems are hateful monsters: it is disconnected from the reality I observe in a very egregious way, and so it feels like they’re invalidating my experience. Of course they don’t care that they’re invalidating me: to them, radfem are walking sulfur-smelling devils and that’s all there is to it. I don’t really know what to reply to that attitude except that they’re speaking out of a position of willful ignorance.

[transstudiesarchive]

All-Star Cheerleading and its Treatment of Trans Athletes

Navigating the world of sports has not historically been, nor is it presently, an easy task for gender non-conforming and trans athletes. This alone can be demonstrated by the separation of athletes into men’s and women’s divisions, as well as drastically different uniforms on the basis of gender. Historically, cheerleading’s communities have been safe places for cisgender men who do not fit into culturally typical ideals of masculinity and heteronormativity, even if the outside world is unwelcoming to them. 

However, from an outside perspective, cheerleading (and in particular, all-star cheerleading) still follows very binary and cisnormative ideas of gender and sex. When I say all-star cheerleading, I am referring to a competition sport that has its athletes perform 2:30 minute long routines to music involving tumbling, stunting, jumping, dancing, and pyramid building. The US All Star Federation (USASF) is the primary governing body for competitive cheerleading, who defines the rules for what skills can be performed at which levels, the makeup of teams, appropriateness, essentially everything about competitive cheerleading.

For reference as to what an all-star routine and team looks like, here is the 2013 level 5 senior small co-ed champion team from the Cheerleading Worlds Championships.

For another more recent video, the 2019 level 5 senior small co-ed champion team.

To gain a better idea of the current state of all-star cheerleading with respect to how it treats trans athletes, I contacted three local all-star cheerleading gyms to see if they would be willing to answer some questions about their individual policies regarding trans athletes, and help me come to a better understanding of the USASF’s policies regarding trans athletes. Not on whether or not they accepted them, but some questions regarding gendered uniforms, restrictions on minimum and maximum number of boys per team, and how gender of athlete is determined by the governing body of the competition.

Below is a snippet of the age grid for the 2019-2020 season of all-star cheerleading that shows some of the divisions, as well as restrictions on age of athletes and number of boys per team with respect to the total number of athletes. “Worlds Division” means the team can compete at the World Championships.

However, I never received a response from any of these gyms after I sent my list of questions. We can take this to mean that they forgot to respond, which is not an unreasonable idea as it is the beginning of competition season, or that they felt uncomfortable answering questions of this nature. If it is the latter, then it becomes apparent that some members of the all-star cheerleading world do not want to talk about trans issues within the structure of the various cheerleading communities and official rulebooks for all-star cheerleading. I promised anonymity if that was a requirement, and even though they did not respond to my questions, I will honor that by not naming the gyms.

The USASF statement on gender inclusion (found on their website) is as follows:

If any of these gyms had answered the questions they were sent, more concrete answers as to the implications of this statement could be given. Additionally, answers as to how this policy works out in practice rather than just in theory could have been given as well. Therefore, we have to ask and attempt to answer the questions ourselves.

The best interpretation of this is that the USASF will accept trans athletes if they can provide either evidence they have changed their gender legally, or have documentation from a professional proving they truly identity as the “opposite” gender. Presumably, this means a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. Anything else in their statement can be interpreted to be case-by-case and situational, but we cannot know anything for certain, especially without hearing from people more closely involved in all-star cheerleading. Is it any different in practice? At this time, we cannot know.

But we do have to ask: who does this policy leave out? Well, anyone without the ability to legally change their gender in a timely manner or the funds to do so, and anyone not diagnosed by a professional. Non-binary and trans athletes who do not fit into this narrow (and often white/western) definition of what it means to be trans, athletes who do not want to medically transition, athletes who come out mid-season and have to perform as their assigned gender at birth until they can get sufficient “evidence”, and people who might have trouble accessing the legal or medical resources necessary to acquire this evidence for other reasons including but not limited to: parents’ immigration status, lack of health insurance, criminal history, reliability of transportation, ability to pay fees and other costs, or work schedules.

How does this policy end up impacting trans and non-binary athletes? We can take a look at the specific questions I asked the cheerleading gyms.

Uniforms:

As apparent in the videos above, uniforms of athletes in all-star cheer differ greatly on the basis of gender. “Male” uniforms, traditionally, consist of full length, non skin-tight pants, and a midriff covering, long sleeve top. While every gym has the ability to design and choose whatever style of uniform for their athletes, rarely do the male uniforms diverge greatly from the previously stated specifications. “Female” uniforms most often consist of short skirts or shorts, and similar but skin-hugging tops. Level 5 and 6 teams typically wear crop tops, and very rarely have pants instead of a skirt or shorts, but once again, the pants would skin-hugging or skin-tight, and often end up as capris instead of full length pants for ease of access to ankles in stunting. 

One of the questions I asked was: Are athletes of today being offered a choice between pants and skirts/shorts for their uniform regardless of assigned gender at birth? Perhaps, but the general appearance of all-star cheer is still cisnormative. Non-Worlds competing junior and under divisions are not impacted by the inclusion of boys on the team, as they have no co-ed divisions. Therefore it would make no difference on the division the team competes in if there were a young trans boy on the team wearing pants. But as stated before, the lack of response from the cheerleading gyms on this topic leaves us unsure if younger trans children can find the world of all-star cheerleading to be safe. Even if they were allowed to wear whatever uniforms they wanted, the rest of the cheerleading world is still very cisnormative. Trans athletes might feel singled out by their cisgender teammates, parents, athletes on other teams, and observers at competitions, and end up re-closeting themselves by wearing the uniform associated with their gender assigned at birth. 

Senior level teams:

Senior level teams can compete as either co-ed or all-girl. If a team is co-ed, the minimum number of boys per team is one, and the maximum depends. Non-Worlds teams have no maximum, and the maximum for Worlds teams various on the size of the team. For instance, 2019 rules state that a small co-ed team can have a maximum of 5 boys out of 22 athletes total. 

As stated before, requiring legal or medical evidence of gender identity ends up excluding some trans athletes. If a trans girl is still waiting on sufficient evidence to get processed, chooses not to seek a diagnosis of gender dysphoria for personal reasons, or failed to get one, and if her team already has the maximum number of boys as specified by the USASF age grids, her team might not be able to compete. These policies make her “responsible” for her team’s potential disqualification. If the team does not already have the maximum number of boys, then she ends up being misgendered by being counted as male on the roster. 

For teams that do not compete at Worlds, a similar issue comes up regarding the co-ed and all-girl split. A trans girl without sufficient evidence could be counted as male and “force” her all-girl team to compete co-ed, and a trans boy in a similar situation could “force” his team to compete all-girl if he were the only other boy on the team. This isn’t just an all-star cheerleading problem, as high school and college teams have similar all-girl and co-ed splits, but are not necessarily under the jurisdiction of the USASF.

***

While I understand the competitiveness of all-star cheerleading, the reasoning behind the all-girl and co-ed split, and the strict upper-bound on male athletes per team to prevent unfair advantages (such as stacking the team with extremely strong boys for tumbling, basing, and jumping, and making the only girls be 100 pound, 13 year old flyers), the USASF needs to recognize that:

Most of their athletes are minors, many of which have not even hit puberty and thus have little to no “biological advantages” over members of the “opposite” sex.

Parents’ ability to assist their child with gaining evidence of their gender identity can be impacted by circumstances outside the child’s control, and the child should not suffer for it.

Not all trans people have gender dysphoria, want to transition, or are in the best position in life to get a diagnosis, begin to transition, or change their gender legally, but still deserve to be treated as the gender they identify as.

These legal processes take time, and forcing a trans athlete to compete as the gender they do not identify with while this process is ongoing harms them.

Additionally, individual cheerleading gyms need to recognize that they have the ability to not continue the trend of drastically different uniforms for athletes typically on the basis of gender. The USASF is not forcing them to do this, and it would help make the cheerleading world more open and accepting of trans and non-binary athletes if they stopped continuing the practice of drastically different “male” and “female” uniforms.

- Emilia C.C.

Sources: USASF Gender Inclusive Policy: http://usasf.net/popup/index.html?id=2940&iframe=true&width=500&height=300 USASF Age Grid 2019-2020: http://rules.usasfmembers.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/USASF_Cheer_AgeGrid_19-20.pdf?__hstc=138832364.2a3c211edcb5d537e551af6b0661470e.1574623116024.1575699512287.1575763445411.3&__hssc=138832364.2.1575763445411&__hsfp=3294201551

[precise-desolation]

Pride Month 4 - Flags (Part 2)

[[Aaaand we’re back.  With more flags.  Still focusing mainly on sexual orientations this time.  I’ll get to gender next weekend.  (With the exception of the transgender flag, as that flag is common enough that it warranted a place in the first flag post.)  Again, this will be long, so it’s under a read-more.  

I’ve also added the color meanings to the section on the ace flag in Part 1.  Additionally, there are some things in this post I don’t know very much about and Google was less than helpful.  So please, if I got something wrong or if you know some of the things I don’t, let me know.  I’d love to make this more complete.

This is a lesbian pride flag, one of several.  It was created in 1999 by Sean Campbell.  The flag features three prominent elements: the purple background, the black triangle, and the labrys.

The purple background is representative of spirit, as with the rainbow pride flag.  The black triangle is representative of the black triangles that marked “asocial” female prisoners in Holocaust concentration camps.  Same-sex attraction was one of the things that could get a woman branded as asocial.  I will include more about the black triangle this coming weekend in a post on symbols.  The final piece of this flag is the labrys.  This is a double headed battle axe associated with Minoan society, was was thought to be matriarchal, and with the legendary Amazons, an all female society.

This is the lipstick lesbian flag.  The flag was created by unnamed blogger in 2010.  It’s intention was to give the lesbian community a flag of their own.  (Granted, this was about 11 years after the first lesbian flag.)

Lipstick lesbians is a term that dates back to the 1980s in - you guessed it - San Francisco, seeming the the origin of most things queer.  This categorization was part of a larger cultural structure.  This is something we have seen break down with the recent trend of normalization of same-sex couples and the acknowledgement of a gender spectrum along with third wave feminism and the push for gender equality.  That influence has created a breakdown in some of the strict heteronormative gender roles that used to impact the LGBTQ community.

Until the last decade or so, there was an unspoken rule that somebody in the relationship had to “wear the pants,” so to speak.  Even in same-sex couples, there was an expectation that one partner would take on a more traditionally feminine role while the other would take on a more traditionally masculine role.  In Steve and Bucky’s day, this was expressed in the gay/bisexual male community with the term ‘punk’, among others.  A punk would have been the effeminate, passive partner.  (I’ll do a post on New York queer slang from Bucky and Steve’s youth.)

In lesbian culture, there were bulldykes** or butches and fems, or lipstick lesbians.  Butches were the more masculine lesbian/bi women, as the name suggests.  A woman who was a fem or lipstick lesbian took on a more traditionally feminine roll.  They did - and still do, as there are many women in the queer community who consider themselves lipstick lesbians and fems - most of the things that society would have deemed properly feminine.  They wore dresses and makeup, styled their hair, and were generally unidentifiable as lesbians/bi.  (This was in contrast to butches, who dressed in a more masculine manner and generally performed social roles associated with men.)  In today’s queer community, the terms fem or lipstick lesbian refer to a woman who is very feminine in their gender expression.

And to round out sexual orientations, this is the aromantic flag.  My google-fu did not get me a date of origin or a creator, so I’m not entirely sure where/when this originated.  People who are aromantic, or aro, do not experience romantic attraction.  This does not mean that they cannot form emotional bonds, it simply means that they are not attracted to people in a romantic sense.  It also does not mean that they are asexual, although a large number of aromantic people do fall on the asexual spectrum.

The colors of this flag represent different part of the aromantic spectrum just as the colors of the asexual flag represent the asexual spectrum.  Green was chosen because it is opposite red on the color wheel, red being the color traditionally used to represent romance.  Yellow was chosen to symbolize friendship, as in the language of flowers this is the meaning of a yellow rose.  Orange falls between yellow and red and represents grey-romantics and demiromantics - respectively, people who only occasionally experience romantic attraction and people who only experience romantic attraction when they already have a strong emotional bond with the person.  Black represents total lack of romantic attraction.

This is also the aromantic flag.  Again, I do not know who created it or when, only that it is newer than the previous flag.  From what I have found, it was changed from the previous flag because the original looked too much like a Rastafarian flag.

In this new version, green is still used for aromantics, as green is the opposite of red.  From what I’ve found, the yellow is for lithoromantics, which the internet defined as someone who can experience romantic attraction and may enjoy the idea of a romantic relationship, but does not actually wish to be part of one.  The grey stripe is for grey-romantics.  And the black stripe is for demiromantics.

And this is, yet again, the aromantic flag.  Like the two previous flags, I don’t know who created this or when, only that this is the most recent.  The yellow stripe was changed to white to accommodate autistic members of the community who are sensitive to yellow.  There is a large overlap between the aromantic spectrum community and the autistic spectrum community.  This is not to say that all aro people are autistic, as there are aro people who are neurotypical or at least not on the autistic spectrum.  This is also not to say that all people on the autistic spectrum are aro.

The colors in this flag are very much like the last.  Green is for aromantics, white for lithoromantics, grey for grey-romantics, and black for demiromantics.

From here we move on to flags that are a bit more fringe, as these groups are sometimes not identified (by themselves or by others) as part of the LGBTQ community.

This is the intersex flag.  It was created in 2013 by an Australian international intersex organization.  Their aim was to create a flag that did not use pink and blue symbolism.  The organization declared that yellow and purple were the intersex colors.  The circle represents strength.  From the organization’s description:

“The colour yellow has long been regarded as the hermaphrodite[**] colour, neither blue nor pink. Purple, too, has been used for the same purpose – including on this site. The circle is unbroken and unornamented, symbolising wholeness and completeness, and our potentialities. We are still fighting for bodily autonomy and genital integrity, and this symbolises the right to be who and how we want to be.”

This goes back to something mentioned in the section on the trans* flag, which was that many intersex infants are assigned a binary gender at birth and begin treatment to make them appear “normal” well before they are old enough to make an informed decision about their own bodies.  Sometimes this is even done without the parents’ knowledge, and some intersex people do not find out that they are intersex until puberty or into adulthood and may have great difficulty obtaining accurate medical records.  There are a number of intersex advocacy groups fighting to abolish this practice.

This is another intersex flag.  This one was created by Natalie Phox in 2009.  Like the other, newer flag, it seeks to give intersex people a symbol of their own.  This one combines the traditional baby colors, pink and blue, to represent people who are both or neither.

The reason intersex people are questionably a part of the LGBTQ community is due to their own definitions of who they are.  Some members of the intersex community do not wish to be associated with the LGBTQ community, as they do not feel that their identity falls within the bounds of this group.  Others do categorize themselves as part of the LGBTQ community.

This is the straight ally flag.  (I could not find a larger image, which should tell you something about this flag and how it’s viewed...)  This originated in the late 2000s, but there is not a known origin or creator for it.

This flag combines the umbrella LGBTQ flag, the six striped rainbow flag, with the straight pride flag, which I do not plan to give its own section.  The upward pointing V is supposed to look like an A, representing allies and activism.  The straight pride flag consists of black and white stripes.  Black and white are not part of the rainbow and also express a binary.  The straight pride flag originated with a number of anti-LGBTQ groups.  This ties into both the reason I do not plan to include a section on the straight pride flag and why the ally flag is sometimes seen as a mark of bad allies.  

The idea of straight pride is similar in nature to the idea of white pride.  Certainly people who are straight should be proud of their sexual orientation, as a part of a more sex-positive society.  This is just as white people should take pride in their ancestry, because it tells them about their origins.  However, just as there is a very good reason we do not have “white history month” to counter black history month, there is a reason we do not have a “straight pride month” to counter LGBTQ pride month.

Historically in Western society, the dominant group has been straight, white, cisgender, Christian men.  You may be familiar with the saying “history is written by the victor.”  Similarly, history is written by those with privilege.  As such, the histories of oppressed groups tend not to be taught or to be written out of history entirely.  This is why we have ‘history’ as a mandatory subject, but once one reaches higher education one may take ‘women’s history’ or ‘LGBTQ history’ or ‘black history’ as electives.  These are separate classes because the histories of these groups and their contributions to the world at large are not taught as part of mainstream history curriculums.  

Let me repeat that for the people in the back: The histories and contributions of oppressed groups are not part of our mandatory education on Western civilization.  As a person who is queer, female bodied, and part Latin@, I have had to go out on my own to try to find out about people like me.  Black history month exists to highlight the contributions of Black people.  Women’s history month exists to highlight the contributions of women.  LGBTQ pride month exists to allow LGBTQ visibility and teach about the contributions of LGBTQ people.  Many LGBTQ people grow up believing there is something wrong with them because they do not fit into the heteronormative, cissexist mold of mainstream Western society.  They may, in fact, be told exactly that and worse by parents, teachers, religious leaders, and their government.  (As an aside, shame on our current vice president for his contributions to that.)  That’s why visibility is so important.  It lets people know they aren’t alone.  That’s why LGBTQ pride is so important.  It lets people know there is nothing wrong with them and that people like them have made great contributions to the world.

So back to the idea of straight pride and a straight pride flag.  We do not need a white history month, because every month is white history month.  We do not need a men’s history month, because every month is men’s history month.  And we do not need a straight pride month, because every month is straight pride month.  The same need for visibility does not exist for these groups because they are the dominant groups.  They are the ones who control the narrative.  The only people who think we need a white pride month are racists who refuse to acknowledge their own privilege.  The only people who think we need men’s history month are sexists who refuse to acknowledge their own privilege.  The only people who think we need a straight pride month are straight, cisgender people who refuse to acknowledge their own privilege.  (I do realize that most straight allies do not feel there is a need for a straight pride month.)

The purpose of a pride flag is to emphasize unity, community, and bravery.  The courage to be oneself in spite of sometimes violent opposition.  Straight allies, by using this flag, attempt to insert themselves as a part of the LGBTQ community and attempt to send a message that they are brave for standing up for LGBTQ people.  And while some members of the queer community do count straight allies as a part of the community, just as many feel that they are not.  Likewise, many people within the LGBTQ community feel that it is not particularly brave or special to simply do the right thing.  An argument can be made for the difficulty of standing up for what is right when one knows there may be severe negative consequences for doing so, and historically this has been the case for straight allies, so this perhaps does earn them their flag.

In the end, it comes down to privilege.  Those who exclude allies from the LGBTQ community are not attempting to devalue the work of allies, because there have been significant contributions made to the fight for LGBTQ equality by people who are not themselves queer.  What they are saying is that straight allies do not - cannot - fully understand what it’s like to navigate the world as a queer person.  And this is a perfectly legitimate view.  

**It should be noted that these terms may now be considered offensive.

[loveiscosmicsin]

This is going to sound weird but it's an AU so whatever I guess, so I was wondering if you could do a 5+ headcanons for Ignis x Noctis if Noctis was a girl and she got accidentally pregnant by Ignis, how would things change? Reactions? You can refuse if you want I just want to see your take.

Send me an AU and I’ll give you 5+ headcanons about ithttps://loveiscosmicsin.tumblr.com/post/156492542638/send-me-an-au-and-ill-give-you-5-headcanons

No, not weird at all, I’m not one to judge and I wouldn’t refuse when the ideas are interesting. This is an AU after all so thank you for putting this in my inbox. This is a delicate request and I’ll treat it as such. No matter what gender/sex, Noctis and Ignis’ relationship remains unchanged. There’s a profound, unwavering bond that goes beyond duty, a lifelong devotion. I hope this suffices, anon. Let me know if it doesn’t. Also, any baby of those two would, my goodness, I don’t think the world is ready to experience such raw beauty, do you?

1) Noctis is a trans man and identifies as bisexual homoromantic. He was assigned female at birth, but always felt he was in the wrong body. Because of his accident, he feared going under the knife so he never pursued a desire for surgery nor hormone therapy. His transition started with his appearance in his teens: men’s clothing, styling his hair differently, asking to be addressed with he/him pronouns. In a country and world that expects a princess and a future queen of Lucis, it’s difficult for Noctis to define himself openly. His loved ones were understanding though there had been confusion in the beginning. Examples: Gladiolus has his own definition of manhood set out but much too rigid for Noctis to follow. Prompto was the first friend Noctis befriended to address him as a man (even if it was a casual “My man, Noct!” The prince had burst into tears), but sometimes the blond worries about where his hands went in touching Noct can be a source of awkwardness. Ignis has put in time to research what appropriate binders are best even though Noctis had small breasts to begin with. He also had accompanied the prince to the stores to buy pads because it can be a little embarrassing for Noct to buy them himself. Gladio, Prompto, and Ignis pitch in to help Noct out in any way they can.

2) Ignis had been secretly in love with Noctis since childhood, but never alluded to it, leaving Noctis in agony of not knowing if his own feelings were requited (Noctis developed feelings in his mid-teens). They had spent most of their time together in harmonic friendship, only for this friendship to blossom into mutual love. They shared one night of passion and Noctis was the first to notice he was late in his cycle, Ignis ran out to get a pregnancy test, and Noctis was pregnant. The crises in the matter was Ignis could very well be put in exile or executed and it doesn’t look good for Noctis to be pregnant out of wedlock. Noctis didn’t want this pregnancy to undo everything he worked hard for in and succumb to a very horrible trap he cannot get out of.

3) Before Noctis did anything drastic about it, Ignis sat him down and calmly asked what he wished. Admitting what happened between them no matter the consequences is something Ignis would do while Noctis rather keep things in the dark (had options of what to do with the child in mind, but concealing a pregnancy would be impossible later on). They would have to go before King Regis about the pregnancy. Gladiolus’ anger was understandable, blaming both parties and saying that it’s not the unborn kid’s fault for existing because of a mistake and that Ignis stepped out of bounds. Prompto’s jittery and seemingly neutral comments (because he was responsible in helping Noctis confess to Ignis and things like babies, marriage, and that they’re all still in their twenties got him stunned) made Noctis extremely nervous of what he really thinks of the situation.

4) Ignis would sow maternity clothes for Noctis himself, cater to the prince’s cravings, and endure his temperamental mood swings. Noctis cannot believe he’s actually craving for veggies when he hated them his entire life. Even when Noctis calls him on the phone and he’s vomiting into a toilet bowl, Ignis still loves him. He reminds Noctis that things as minimal as stretch marks wouldn’t make him any less than a man. He had always loved the prince as who he is, not what.

5) While Regis had his misgivings about the situation, he had come to terms about Noctis and Ignis’ relationship and the unborn child. The King thought over when his father didn’t approve of Aulea and denying a grandson/granddaughter went against family values. Noctis doesn’t have to be Lucis’ princess/queen and Ignis won’t be sent away. Several months passed and Noctis popped the question to Ignis, he’s thought of it for some time, rehearsed it in his mind of the best/worst case scenarios, still didn’t end up the way he wanted it. He was red in the face when Ignis was silent. Ignis asked him if he was certain, having blamed himself for making Noct’s life exceedingly difficult but felt selfish that he couldn’t bear to bow out of his life. Noctis bluntly replies, “Yeah, before the tux can’t fit on me right.” He would groan and amend with, “I didn’t mean that, sorry… I had a whole speech prepared but I’m gonna just say it. Everything happened so fast, confessing that we love each other, sorting out what my own feelings, now we’re expecting… It surprises me that you care about me when I damn well know that I don’t deserve you and… You deserve someone so much better. But I cannot imagine you with someone else who isn’t me. I can’t imagine kissing anyone who isn’t you. You’re here now and it feels so right that I don’t want it to change. So… Ignis, will you marry me? Uh, you don't have to say anything right—" Ignis interrupts with a "I do."

[omg-profoundcheesecakecolle-blog]

Adam and Eve Never Existed

How often do we sit and question our gender or sexual identity? Is it always the same as the biological sex that we are born in? Can it be independent entity, irrespective of our biological sex? Most of us assume, for lack of further information that our overall sexuality that includes our sex, gender, sexual orientation and sexual behavior are all determined at some point through some ‘natural’ genetic intervention during our birth and there is nothing one can do about it. We are taught to believe in strict binaries of male and female and the separate social roles associated with both. Today when we see a television advertisement, where our hero denies a young pretty woman’s courtship, just as he realized that this attractive woman used to be a man. Oh! And everyone chuckles. Well, it’s not that funny. Transsexuality as a phenomenon has gained very little visibility or knowledge in our society – precisely why is it so easy for us to distance ourselves and laugh at it. Our society in fact contains one of the most visible transgender cultures in the world – the ‘Eunuch’ (Hijra) Community. Eunuchs might have an accepted place in Indian society, but it is a place pretty much at the bottom of the social heap – making them not just a sexual but also a highly deprived social minority. Transgender communities have existed in most parts of the world with their own local identities, customs and rituals. They are called baklas in the Philippines, berdaches among American Indian tribes, serrers in Africa and hijras, jogappas, jogtas, shiv-shaktis and aravanis in South Asia. The hijra community in India, which has a recorded history of more than 4,000 years, was considered to have special powers because of its third-gender status. It was part of a well-established `eunuch culture’ in many societies, especially in West Asia, and its members held sanctioned positions in royal courts. Hijras trace their origins to myths in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Rama, while leaving for the forest upon being banished from the kingdom for 14 years, turns around to his followers and asks all the `men and women’ to return to the city. Among his followers the hijras alone do not feel bound by this direction and decide to stay with him. Impressed with their devotion, Rama sanctions them the power to confer blessings on people on auspicious occasions like childbirth and marriage, and also at inaugural functions. This set the stage for the custom of badhai in which hijras sing, dance and confer blessings. But today, keeping in mind the pathetic condition of them one can say that this community actually needs the blessings of Lord Rama more than anyone so that at least they can subsist in the society with proper dignity, respect and most of the most important identity. Hijras (Eunuchs) in India have virtually no safe spaces, not even in their families, where they are protected from prejudice and abuse. The PUCL(K) Report on Human Rights Violations against the Transgender Community has documented the kind of prejudice that hijras face in Bangalore. The report shows that this prejudice is translated into violence, often of a brutal nature, in public spaces, police stations, prisons and even in their homes. The main factor behind the violence is that society is not able to come to terms with the fact that hijras do not conform to the accepted gender divisions. In addition to this, most hijras have a lower middle-class background, which makes them susceptible to harassment by the police. The discrimination based on their class and gender makes the hijra community one of the most disempowered groups in Indian society. The systematic violence that hijras face is reinforced by the institutions such as the family, media and the medical establishments and is given legitimacy by the legal system. The hijras face many sorts of state and societal harassments such as Harassment by the police in public places Harassment at home Police entrapment Abuse/harassment at police stations Rape in jails The roots of contemporary violence against the hijra community can in fact be traced back to the historical form that modern law in colonial India has taken. It took the form of the enactment of the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871 which was an extraordinary legislation that even departed from the principles on which the Indian Penal Code was based. To establish an offence under the India Penal Code, the accusations against the accused has to be proved beyond reasonable doubt in court of law. But certain tribes and communities were perceived to be criminals by birth, with criminality being passed on from generation to generation. It fitted in well with the hierarchical Indian social order, in which some communities were perceived as unclean and polluted from birth. The link between criminality and sexual non-conformity was made more explicit in the 1897 amendment to the Criminal Tribes Act on 1871, which was sub-titled, ‘An act for the Registration of Criminal Tribes and Eunuchs’. Under this law, the local government was required to keep a register of the names and residences of all eunuchs who were “reasonably suspected of kidnapping or castrating children or committing offences under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code”. Any eunuch so registered could be arrested without warrant and punished with imprisonment of up to two years or with a fine or both. check out here The law also decreed eunuchs as incapable of acting as a guardian, making a gift, drawing up a will or adopting a son. Regarding Civil law they are also not spared here. The hijra community is deprived of several rights under civil law because Indian law recognizes only two sexes. This means that hijras do not have the rights to vote, marry and own a ration card, a passport or a driving license or claim employment and health benefits. In north and central India, hijras, who have contested and won elections to local and State bodies, are now facing legal challenges. In February 2003, the Madhya Pradesh High Court struck down the election of Kamala Jaan as the Mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Katni. The court’s logic was that since Kamala Jaan was not a woman, she could not contest the seat, which was reserved for women. Lawyer Pratul Shandilya, who is arguing Kamala Jaan’s case, said: “I have already filed the Special Leave Petition (SLP) before the Supreme Court, and the court has also granted leave in the petition.” The High Court verdict came despite a direction from the Election Commission (E.C.) in September 1994 that hijras can be registered in the electoral roles either as male or female depending on their statement at the time of enrolment. This direction was given by the E.C. after Shabnam, a hijra candidate from the Sihagpur Assembly constituency in Madhya Pradesh, wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner enquiring about which category hijras were classified under. The law that is used most to threaten the hijra and kothi communities, as well as the homosexual community in India, is Section 377 of the IPC, which criminalizes “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal” even if it is voluntary. In effect, it criminalizes certain kinds of sexual acts that are perceived to be `unnatural’. The law, which has its origin in colonial ideas of morality, in effect presumes that a hijra or a homosexual person is engaging in `carnal intercourse against the order of nature”, thus making this entire lot of marginalized communities vulnerable to police harassment and arrest. The Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA) of 1956 (amended in 1986), whose stated objective is to criminalize brothel-keeping, trafficking, pimping and soliciting, in reality targets the visible figure of the sex worker and enables the police to arrest and intimidate the transgender sex-worker population. According to the two main diagnostic systems used in the Indian medical establishment, transsexualism is defined as a `gender identity disorder’. The doctors usually prescribe a sexual reassignment surgery (SRS), which currently resorts to hormone therapy and surgical reconstruction and may include electrolysis, speech therapy and counseling. Surgical construction could include the removal of male sex organs and the construction of female ones. Since government hospitals and qualified private practitioners do not usually perform SRS, many hijras go to quacks, thus placing themselves at serious risk. Neither the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) nor the Medical Council of India (MCI) has formulated any guidelines to be followed in SRS. The attitude of the medical establishment has only reinforced the low sense of self-worth that many hijras have at various moments in their lives. With every single thing going against the Eunuchs; a notable amount of awareness has also been seen all over the world. Around the world, countries are beginning to recognize the rights of transgender people. In a landmark judgment (Christine Goodwin vs. the United Kingdom, 2002) the European Court of Human Rights declared that the U.K. government’s failure to alter the birth certificates of transsexual people or to allow them to marry in their new gender role was a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. It said that a test of biological factors could no longer be used to deny recognition legally to the change of gender that a transsexual had undergone. In New Zealand, in New Zealand Attorney General vs. the Family Court at Otahuhu (1994), the court upheld the principle that for purposes of marriage, transsexual people should be legally recognized in their re-assigned sex. OF late the Indian hijra community has begun to mobilize themselves through the formation of a collective. Sangama, an organization working with hijras, kothis and sex workers in Bangalore, has played an important role by helping them organize and fight for their rights. Its services include organizing a drop-in centre for hijras and kothis, conducting a series of public rallies and marches, using legal assistance in case of police harassment, and establishing links with other social movements. The organizations of the hijra community can be seen as constituting a larger movement of sexual minority groups in India. They are challenging the constitutional validity of Section 377 and are organizing a campaign questioning the government’s stand that the law should remain. The discrimination and violence that hijras face show that it is high time that both the government and the human rights movement in the country begin to take this issue with the seriousness it deserves. About the Author Author’s Name: – ABHINAV SINHA Author’s Address: – C/o M.Kudare, 66/621, Near Sainath Mandir, Gokhalenagar, Pune -411016, Maharashtra, India Author’s Ph No: – +91-9764159053, 020-32315046 About the Author: – I am a Vth year student studying in the esteemed college of Symbiosis Law School. I am pursuing the course of BBA.LLB. from this college. Atheist: adam and eve never existed Share and Enjoy: