#when queerness is never given as an option you can never consider it on the same level that you consider heterosexuality

[fuck-comphet]

You know what comphet is like?

It’s like when everyone was obsessing over twilight when it first came out and all the girls were like “team edward or jacob?”

So when they asked you “team edward or jacob” you had to pick one, because everyone was picking one, and there was no secret third option of liking bella (or actually probably more alice or rosalie who am I kiding)

And because “team bella or alice or rosalie” were just not options you never actually considered them even if you did in fact find them infinitely more attractive than edward and jacob combined

But everyone is asking you “are you team edward or jacob” so you pick whichever you think is the most conventionally attractive (jacob, duh) and spend the next decade thinking that you are in fact attracted to jacob and that there is no alternative for you

When in reality you couldn’t care less about jacob you just wanted alice and rosalie go have more screen time 😭

[dropout-if]

DEMO (coming soon) - FAQ - NAVIGATION

Dropout is an upcoming (and a side project!) +18 slice-of-life interactive fiction game. Loosely inspired by media such as In the Heights and Night in the Woods.

Tag(s): Slice of life, Drama, Romance, YA, LGBTQ+, Text-based.

You take the train home from college after nearly four years away, knowing you will be welcomed with open arms, bright smiles, and the sincerest congratulations from your friends and family, from the entire neighborhood. Their pride has not been misplaced, for better or for worse, you are the one: the only one who made it into college.

This is your first summer home since you began studying in Stanford. That is what everyone thinks.

This is your first summer home since you dropped out of college, thus becoming the biggest disappointment in your neighborhood. That is what only you know.

Trigger Warning(s): Crude humor, Strong language, optional sex scenes, Violence, Depression and depictions of other mental illnesses, Substance use, Unwanted pregnancy (a RO's, Wanda).

A short disclaimer

Features and Characters below!

Return to your home, the fictional neighborhood of Downtown Heights, where you're treated like a local hero because of your grand achievement.

Determine how you managed to make it into college and why you decided to call it quits.

Reunite with your high school friends and acquaintances, with whom you've barely spoken in the past few years.

Romance one (or more) of the six old faces waiting for you in Downtown Heights.

Customize your Main Character! From their teenage years to their young adulthood, from physicality to personality. Be it your traits, flaws, and vices: everything shapes your return home.

Navigate the very dramatic shenanigans of young adulthood.

Queer relationships • RO Intros • ROs' Social Media • RO Facts

Jean/Jade Gray (he/him or she/her): THE EX • 23 years old

J and you were good. Until you weren't, and then they broke up with you right before you left for college. The two of you promised to stay as friends, but, like most promises between you and J, that too was meant to be broken. Your ex is often considered to be ambitious, determined, and cutthroat. You honestly expected them to be well out of the neighborhood.

Exes to lovers. It's possible to start a poly relationship (v and triad) with J and Kai.

Uma Bharat (they/them): THE OLD FRIEND • 22 years old

It has always been you and Uma, and this has been something you covetously believed to be true. But then the distance settled in, and then the many years in which you lived abroad. You can't claim to know them as well as you once did. Uma once dreamed of being a successful painter, and they have never given up on art (though they sometimes feel like art has given up on them).

Childhood best friends to lovers. It's possible to start a poly relationship (triad) with Uma and Travis.

Statler Amani (he/him or she/her): THE HEARTTHROB • 25 years old

You knew Statler back in high school, though they can't claim to have known of you until you made it out of the neighborhood. Many years ago, they were every high schooler's dream partner: kind, polite, intelligent. Their current partner must be proud. Nowadays, Statler works as hard as they can to help their family.

Unrequited crush to lovers. Statler is already in a relationship, a (more-or-less) toxic one.

Wanda Pavon (she/her): THE MODEL • 22 years old

Wanda had a future in modeling, the two of you were in the same group of friends in high school, and you never doubted she would be capable of making it out of the neighborhood. Her self-assertive and spontaneous personality surely would have made Wanda's road a little easier. You only find out why Wanda stayed in Downtown Heights when you meet her daughter.

Friends to lovers. Wanda is a single mother, her daughter's name is Gabi.

Kai Alofa (he/him or she/her): THE ROOMMATE • 24 years old

Kai's glow-up is the reason some Downtown Heights grandmothers believe in magic. The high school nerd turned fuckboy/girl has spent the past few years traveling around the state. Like you, they are back for the summer, ready to disappoint their parents. Rooming together comes as a natural result of delaying said disappointment (or so Kai claimed).

Friends with benefits to lovers (mandatory to romance Kai). It's possible start a poly relationship (v and triad) with Kai and J.

Travis Camaro (he/him): THE RIVAL • 21 years old

Uma, Travis and you were considered to be inseparable: it was the three of you against the world. That is no longer the case. A massive argument completely shattered the friendship Travis and you had. You know he resents you, you know he's jealous you managed to make it out and that he was left behind. And that's all you know. Travis has always been... a private guy.

(Past friends) to enemies/rivals to lovers. It's possible to start a poly relationship (triad) with Travis and Uma.

Choosing a route.

The Dropout's Family

The list of flings!

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

i was thinking about how ariel from the little mermaid is criticized so harshly for "giving up her voice and family for some guy" when there was definitely a lot more to it than that.

ariel had dreams outside of eric. she wanted to see the world, she wanted to get acquainted with humans and human traditions and she wasn't satisfied with her life underwater. that was the whole point of "part of your world", she barely mentions eric in it. he was just a bonus in her new life, not her entire purpose.

why am i talking about a random disney movie? it's because i was thinking of lumity, and how amity also rebelled against her family for a new life. except.. amity really only mentions luz (and "the others" because let's be real, she did not give a shit about willow and gus at that point). amity's sole reason to go against her family's values was luz.

this, if anything, could be considered "giving up everything for a love interest" but people don't see it that way because amity's parents were shitty to begin with. but if you look at the little mermaid from a different perspective, you could argue that king triton wasn't a very good parent either.

he literally throws a temper tantrum just because his teenage daughter has a crush on a guy. ariel is legit terrified in that scene, and regardless of whether triton had good intentions or not, he made his daughter feel unsafe and turn to an impulsive decision in a moment of emotional distress.

all of this to say, you could argue that ariel had no reason to stay with her family either, given that her father lacks emotional sensitivity and does not sit down and try to communicate with his child, instead of destroying her collection and scaring her away.

coming back to amity, i can understand that luz inspired her to actually do something about her abusive parents, and that's sweet. but we never get to see what else amity wanted. since they never established a friendship arc between amity and gus or willow (she apologized to willow, sure, but the rekindling of their relationship happens much later on), all we know is that amity is tired of being abused and she wants to be with luz.

from an abuse victim's perspective, amity standing up against her parents was powerful. but unlike ariel, amity doesn't seem to want anything besides luz. and she never explores what she wants to do, now that she has successfully cut herself away from her mother's influence. her whole life revolves around luz after that.

there was that abomination brawl episode but even that ended up being about luz. the brawl was just a quick montage, it only existed for the emotional drama that came later on. in fact, even when the plot was focused on amity, it was more about her relationship with her father rather than her autonomy and personal interests.

there's a reason why a lot of people liked the mean girl version of amity. she had personality, she had interests and goals, she had CHARACTER. it was all fake and a result of trauma, but it was there and it helped flesh out her character. but after she is redeemed? there's nothing left of the old amity, not even the more positive/neutral traits, and her only personality is "luz's awesome girlfriend".

amity's arc should have been about exploring what she wanted outside of her parents' wishes. abuse often turns you into a shell of a person and recovering from years of trauma isn't as simple as getting a romantic partner. it takes therapy (and that is canonically an option in the boiling isles, let me remind you), it takes self-reflection, it takes giving yourself the permission to choose your own destiny and explore yourself outside of your abusers' expectations.

and amity gets none of this. her trauma and arc was resolved too quickly, even for a show that was cut short. they just gave her a makeover, got her into a relationship with luz and called it a day. the only reason people aren't giving her the ariel treatment is (probably) because lumity is a queer ship.

[marzipanandminutiae]

Madame Marzi I must defer to ur wisdom

Recently you rb’d a painting with some younger ladies and in the tags talked a bit about short hair in Victorian Times

Do you have any reference for how shorter hair was styled at the time? I’ve seen plenty of paintings and such with VERY short hair (post illness or perhaps childbirth) where all you can really do is smooth it back, but what about that awkward, past the shoulders sort of stage where it’s too long to just brush back but too short to do much to? Surely they had some styling guides..?

(Also, a side question— how old would one be before going from shorter skirts to adult/full length ones?)

The two little girls in the garden (probably preteens-young teens)? Yes, I did!

It's hard to find images of women with in-between hair lengths, and I'm not sure why. Possibly because they'd find ways to put it up with false hair, whereas hair too short to put up is more obvious in photos. This could also have to do with the type of woman who has pixie- or bob-length hair voluntarily vs. mid-length: the latter is more likely to be attempting a grow-out, and thus to try her darndest to do The Culturally Accepted Long Hair StylesTM where a lady who chose a much shorter look wouldn't care. If that makes sense? Because, indeed, some of the women with very short hair were not ill or postpartum: ladies could, and did, choose to eschew long locks back then. It wasn't very common, but it happened.

(Nicole Rudolph has an excellent video about localized short hair trends for ladies during the Victorian era.)

You see a lot of these bob-type looks in photographs where the hair is center-parted and either naturally curly or curled on purpose, around the mid-19th century:

(1850s or 60s)

(Author, feminist, and abolitionist Anna Elizabeth Dickinson- no relation to Emily that I know of, though Anna was also a queer female writer around the same era -c. 1860s. She wore her hair short all her life, so it was voluntary in this case.)

(Also 1860s.)

Pre-Raphaelite muse Fanny Eaton frequently appears to have chin-to-shoulder length hair, though given that she was Black with a corresponding hair texture, it's hard to tell what the actual length is- it may be long and looped up in the 1850s-60s styles popular when she was most commonly painted (most free Black women in England and the US wore styles also popular with white women, to the best of their abilities given that fashion plates assumed European-textured hair as the "norm"):

(Fanny Eaton, 1861. Also worth noting that we have no images of what her hair looked like when she wasn't posing for fantastical paintings.)

I've never actually seen an image of a Victorian woman with mid-length hair outside the context of theatrical or artistic images from the end of the century, now I think of it. Huh. It's a mystery, I suppose!

As for skirts, while in earlier periods children had basically worn miniature adult clothing, it became fashionable around the 1830s-40s to dress girls in short skirts and boys in short pants. The usual rule was knee-length until around age 10, then mid-calf-length until somewhere between 16 and 18 when skirts would be "let down" and the girl would start wearing her hair up, becoming a young adult in the eyes of society. (Contrary to popular belief, this had nothing to do with marriage- while you were theoretically eligible for it when you started dressing as an adult, girls/women younger than 20 were still often considered a bit too immature to marry. It wasn't forbidden, but many people thought it unwise. And yes, unmarried young women did still wear their hair up and their skirts long.)

...unless she preferred her hair short, which as you can see, was an option!

[lowkeyrobin]

Hi!! 🍄 again I was wondering if I could get a platonic newt x reader (from tmr) where maybe it’s while newt is still new to his limp and reader is helping him do Is jobs

(Also just to let you know if you didn’t newt from tmr is canonically gay (as stated by the author ) I just wanted to let you know so you didn’t write him with a fem reader btw I didn’t relizie how rude this sounds not trying to be rude just and fyi also sorry if you did know just a lot of fans didn’t )

Thank you once again sorry if it seemed rude

ooooo okay I like this! ; also I know, don't worry, and you didn't sound rude! i do see newt as a queer character 100 and I always have, even before learning about James dashners tweet about it, which I find sketchy bc I'm pretty sure he tweeted that after being accused of being weird to women or smthn?? idrk, doesn't matter here bc gn readers only + I wholeheartedly see newt as queer and I can rant ab it for hours ; I don't plan on writing for tmr much but pls send requests, I love writing for this fandom lol

NEWT ; personal aid

summary ; youre helping him after he gained his limp

warnings ; language, talk of/about suicide and mental health

genre ; platonic fluff, kinda angst

word count ; 1k

masterlist

Newt was recently injured in the maze. He'd been as fixed up as possible, given a brace made of tree branches and some painkillers sent from the box. At least no one was using the pills for bad, considering they're a fragile item to give to a bunch of teenagers. The only thing you'd ever thank WCKD for was those painkillers, because seeing the blonde hurt like that killed you inside.

To put it as blankly as possible, he tried to kill himself. He climbed his way up of one of the walls surrounding the glade using the ivy that grew on it, and jumped. He fell about thirty feet, considering he only climbed up the wall about a third of the way, apparently thinking thirty feet would kill him.

He'd never been the type to express happiness within the glade, but he never expressed the opposite either.

But, everyone struggles inside, especially in the Glade. Reoccurring dreams and nightmares, unanswered questions, the will to live dwindling down each and every day, they only fed into the growing depression. Everyone was struggling in the Glade, but Newt, he took the first place trophy for that.

Once he'd been able to walk around again, you took helping him into your own hands. He was clearly never running in the maze again, due to the limp that slowed him down. So, he had a few options, hopefully one he'd like.

Alby took pity in him, making him his right hand man not long after. He needed someone around for when he wasn't, Newt was a good choice for that. He was responsible, good at directions, and keeping order.

You were working as Newt's personal aid, being a medic. You were very much an empath, and your true goal was to just help anyone and everyone. You brought him food and water, washed his clothes, sewed up his ripped up clothes from that day in case he'd be strong enough to wear them again, you did everything for him.

But now he leans into you, looking up at you with a certain displeasure, clearly uninterested in working outside of the maze.

You obviously were never going to let him be a builder, that was already off the table. But he got to look around and make his decision between slicer, cook, track-hoe, med-jack like you, slopper, bagger, and map keeper.

He easily put his money down on track-hoe. Something you didn't know about him was that he found gardening therapeutic. You didn't blame him whatsoever, you never wanted to be in the shoes of the sloppers, slicers, or baggers. To be fair, it was a little too gruesome and gross for you, you'd rather be helping people around the Glade than washing everyone's clothes or killing the animals, just a personal opinion.

He needed help while working, though. He couldn't put too much weight on his one foot, and he couldn't bend down on that knee at all yet. So, while he worked, you stood off to the side, making sure he was alright while you watched the others work around the Glade, enjoying their peaceful, warm day.

While he was picking fruit and vegetables off the vines of ivory, you were by his side, either holding the basket or getting the ones he couldn't bend down to reach. You couldn't help but feel bad for his poor spine as well, considering your back started to hurt after a few hours. The gardens were pretty large, considering there was about thirty or forty boys in the Glade to feed, meaning there was always hours and hours of work or expansion to do.

"Y/n, sorry, can you help me?" The dirty blonde asks, groaning as he stands back up, holding a hand on his knee. "I can't get those tomatoes at the bottom"

You quickly nod, kneeling down to grab them for him while he moves to the next bush, plucking off all the ripe tomatoes off the vine. You retie a string around the support branches, which heald the bush together and let it grow vertically rather than horizontally and try and choke out and kill any other plants nearby.

"Fry is gonna love it when he sees these tomatoes, they're the biggest and ripest they've been in a long time" You comment, looking over at Newt.

He nods, tossing a cherry tomato in his mouth to amount to a little snack. "He sure is, we'll be eating good this week" He chuckles with a little smile. "You wanna work on the cucumbers for me? I'll get the corn" He suggests, wanting to work a bit quicker and suggest some things he could actually do without feeling a pain shoot through his leg.

You nod, taking a new basket over to the cucumber lane. You feel something pang in your heart as you see him attempt to kneel down on one foot to reach one last tomato, groaning and furrowing his brows in the process, clearly still hurting him.

"How are you feeling? Physically and mentally, nothing is off the table."

Newt shrugs, watching you examine and touch around the bruising and his ankle. Your fingertips slide over his ankle a little harshly, and he quickly inhales and furrows his brows, which you respond to by quickly pulling your hands away and apologizing.

"On a light note, it looks much better than before already. How are you doing in a mental sense?"

"I hate this bloody place, I feel dumb for not climbing higher-" He strays silent, watching you wrap a fresh bandage around his ankle. "Sorry..."

"It's okay. I'm here as your personal aid, Newt"

"That's the damn thing! I don't want you to waste your days on me. You have other important stuff to do, I don't want you to have to babysit me." The blonde expresses, watching you properly stand up.

"It's fine, really. You're still in a lot of pain, and I swear I'm not babysitting you. I'm just watching over you so it doesn't end up hurting more, alright?"

"Alright..."

[fists-on-up]

I started this blog when Twitter looked like it was going down so I could keep up with my gaylor friends. Most of them are still on Twitter, but as a writer I am a wordy motherfucker & I hate character limits. So, rather than let this blog lay dormant I am going to use it for more personal gaylor related things & more abstract/complex perspectives.

I might as well start by explaining how I stumbled upon the gaylor community because I feel like my journey here was much different than most.

I am a little older than Taylor & have mostly listed to rock & EDM my whole life. I don't hate pop, but I don't really seek it out & I don't care much about trends or pop culture. I had heard the most popular Taylor Swift songs in passing. I didn't hate Taylor at all, I just never looked further into her music.

I do vaguely remember feeling like YBWM sounded very much like being in love with your high school best friend who doesn't consider you an option because you're a girl, and as a Shakespeare obsessed lesbian Love Story pinged the ol' gaydar because forbidden love is way more common for queer people. It's not impossible, though, for a girl's family to not approve of a particular boy so I chalked it up to a specific situation she faced coupled with me viewing lyrics through my own (very gay) experiences. Especially given the fact that Romeo & Juliet tends to be referenced often based upon a very surface-level understanding of the story.

These thoughts did stick with me subconsciously, as it turns out. One day I was listening to a Spotify generated playlist I was really digging and Don't Blame Me came on while I was in the shower. I thought "Wow, this is a very sexy, Sapphic song who the hell is this??" I checked when I got out of the shower & was so confused. I LOVED it and listened to it frequently, but it still hadn't clicked completely.

Then I heard only the bridge to Cruel Summer in a TikTok & said "Oh my God, she's gay!" I immediately recognized how painful & difficult it is to play the part of "friends" in public and the sense of doom that comes with realizing you're in love with a girl while closeted. If you've never had that experience, I envy you. How we treat people we're in love with isn't really planned out, it's automatic. Trying to catch that & substitute "friendly" behavior when you don't even know HOW to be her friend is very hard. It's hard to not feel insecure when the woman you love treats you like a friend, too. It's hard to hide the love and the pain if you wear your heart on your sleeve. In short, it's torture. A unique torture you can only really describe or recognize if you've experienced it. I have, and immediately knew Taylor had too.

As soon as this clicked I immediately devoured her entire discography over & over again. For days it was all I did, starting before I got out of bed and ending when I fell asleep with a notepad on my bed listening to evermore (again). I was 100% certain she is queer before I ever Googled "Taylor Swift gay?". I didn't even know there was lore or a community at first.

I didn't just recognize her queerness because I'm queer, however. I recognized it because I'm a writer. Not by profession. By passion, I suppose. And what really made it clear was what Taylor doesn't say.

I realized I was gay when I was 14 years old and when I did I wasn't scared, I was excited. I had come to the conclusion that the entire world was just... faking it. Girls would kiss boys & go on & on about it, almost every song, movie, & book was about love, and I just couldn't relate. I had kissed more than a few boys, but I seriously did not understand. I would pretend to fit in, but it was not at all appealing to me.

Then a friend stayed the night & kissed me. A friend that I wasn't consciously attracted to at all, and yet - fireworks. Suddenly I realized that people weren't exaggerating or lying about attraction & love. I realized that the concept of attraction wasn't merely recognizing that a boy was conventionally attractive, it was attraction like two magnets pulled together. Like gravity. I wasn't broken, the world wasn't a lie, and I was fucking ecstatic about it.

But then I told some close friends and most of them immediately stopped talking to me. Some became hostile. This was around 1999-2000 in Small Town, Texas where there were no out queer people. Looking back I understand that it was just a matter of kids being ignorant and uneducated and, well, kids but at the time it was confusing. I tried to backpedal and told the friends who stayed that I was bisexual. I even tried to be bisexual (spoiler: I am not). The excitement I initially felt quickly turned to fear & I chose to hide it from anyone else.

To cope with the constant overflow of my newly-activated heart and the isolation of having no one who understands, I poured myself into poetry. I started reading Shakespeare at 11 and had read most classical works by the same age. By 14 I had multiple poems published in collections, had read every work of Shakespeare & Poe, and had memorized the Chorus to Romeo & Juliet. Using poetry to cope was kind of my brand. So cope I did.

I wrote thousands of poems. I filled binders & spirals & journals. I was always writing. Most people knew I was published young & knew I was writing like crazy, so it wasn't uncommon for other kids to read what I was working on. Sometimes they'd commission a poem from me.

The fear of anyone finding out (including my parents) meant that I had to be very, very careful with how I worded things. No she/her pronouns. Nothing that would give me away. The occasional red herring. I would be specific enough that the muse would know it was about her, but no one else would.

I almost always wrote to the muse, using "you" more than anything. Poetry is like a love letter, so it comes naturally, but it also prevented the need for gendered pronouns. I wrote that way so much I still default to it now (and I have a hard time NOT pouring my heart out to anyone I care about). I didn't realize it at the time, but my writing was inherently queer coded despite my efforts to conceal it because, well, I'm queer. Sound familiar?

There are simply some things that are upside down when you're queer & you don't even recognize it because you've never NOT been queer. Things you say straight girls wouldn't. Things you don't say that straight girls would. Straight people don't see it because they've never NOT been straight. Hell, queer men won't recognize Sapphic language because they've never been attracted to a woman OR been a woman.

There are subtle, inherent tells separate from intentional tells or flags. I didn't realize that, and neither did the kids (or adults) who read my work semi-regularly.

One day my close friend borrowed my poetry journal to catch up on what I had written. This was an especially vulnerable journal, but it was just as obfuscated as everything else. I thought nothing of it and went about my day.

Hours later, during lunch, I was outside probably bumming a cigarette off of an equally punkass kid or smoking a bit of weed from a pipe crafted out of a soda can when I heard a girl shouting my name. I left the hidden corner and walked to the main area to see a girl I didn't know walking around, calling my name loudly over and over. I called back to her, confused but glad it wasn't a teacher busting me smoking.

When we were finally face to face she confirmed that I am in fact me & I realized that she was holding my journal. She pulled me to a more secluded area, looked me in my eyes, and said "these are about girls, right?"

Fuck.

Shit.

Fuck shit.

I was a sophomore. 15 years old. She was a senior. A beautiful black girl named Lovely who I only knew of because it was a small school. And here she was just... straight up asking me. No one had ever asked me before. I had never had to answer this question before. I was caught off guard & wholly unprepared for this.

The closet is an awful place when you hate lying.

So, I didn't lie. For some reason I looked right into this girl's eyes and reluctantly, fearfully, said "Yes." Then I held my breath.

But she didn't laugh at me, didn't call me a dyke, didn't preach at me. She just... fucking cried.

This lovely girl named Lovely completely broke down in front of me, a complete stranger, and I did not realize what was happening.

Turns out Lovely wasn't just lovely, she was queer. And scared. And so, so lonely. She thought she was the only one, until she heard what my poetry didn't say. She recognized the inherent queerness in my writing because she identified with it and immediately came to find me.

I consider that conversation to be one of the most pivotal, defining interactions of my life. The entire time I thought I was alone & Lovely was there. Lovely thought she was alone & I was there, and I suddenly realized coming out wasn't really about me. It wasn't about the friends and family who would reject me. It was also about being visible. Being brave. Being proud. It was about the other queer kids who thought they were the only one. The other kids who couldn't come out. With this realization, from this conversation, I found purpose.

The very next day, Lovely came to school in baggy jeans and a basketball jersey - a huge departure from the very feminine presentation she always had. We never talked about it again, just exchanged fond smiles and nods in the hallway, but she came out to some extent. I came out within a week of our conversation, and I made a conscious decision that I was going to be loud about it.

My mom was great when I came out & I knew she'd have my back. Before the word "privilege" was commonplace, I at least understood that my supportive mom gave me an advantage others didn't have. I felt like I had not only the ability but the responsibility to be visible and unapologetic.

I was a rebellious little shit. I would make out with girls in the hallway. I lined the inside of my locker with Playboy pictures. I wrote "gay" on my forehead in hot pink lipstick when I got sick of being asked if I was "fully gay".

As a result, the varsity quarterback would call me in tears to talk through his struggles with his sexuality. I knew the most popular boys all of the girls wanted were actually very in love with each other. Girls who would laugh along with their friends who called me a dyke would hook their fingers into mine when they passed me in the hallway & pull me into dark rooms at parties when no one was looking.

I became the keeper of secrets. Society makes queer people lie & uses the guilt of that "deception" to keep people closeted. We lie to ourselves, then to everyone else, then to all but a few trusted people, then even when we're out we lie on behalf of others. I still hold secrets, even for those who don't "deserve" my loyalty. It's part of it, like an unspoken code. Closeting is lying, whether we like that or not. But lying is morally neutral. Intent & impact matter.

That time of my life was hard. Teachers would treat me differently. One flat out told me I would go to hell in front of the class. Another refused to intervene when my girlfriend was physically attacked by another girl who was pissed about her dating me. The school tried, for a time, to force me to use the boys locker room so other girls wouldn't feel uncomfortable. The school tried to ban me from taking a girl to prom (even though I was taking a friend, my girlfriend's family wouldn't allow her to go with me). A group of boys chanted "1, 2, 3, 4, death to the lesbian whore" when I got to school every morning. I got in a lot of fist fights. Mostly with that group of boys. Someone broke into my locker and wrote "dyke" all over & inside of my text books in huge magic marker. I remember telling one of my teachers I couldn't read part of an assignment because of it & trying not to cry. I was preached at constantly by kids & a few teachers who saw me as an opportunity to "save a soul". I have a lot of stories.

But you know what? I got the teacher that told me I would go to hell fired. I fought back when they tried to make me use the boys locker room. When they tried to ban me from prom, I printed hundreds of pages of court rulings from cases in which schools tried to do that to other gay kids, stormed into the principal's office, dropped it on her desk and threatened her. I went to prom with my friend. And after I had graduated, my high school girlfriend (who was a grade below me) finally got to take me to hers. A gay boy I'd never met won prom king and he thanked me for it. I didn't even know him, but he knew me. I won every single fist fight. I didn't cry about the slurs written in my books in front of people & I protested when they washed it off of the front of my locker. I wanted it to be the dyke locker. I took everything they gave me with a smile & asked for more, because it showed other kids it was possible. I made myself a lightning rod for hate on purpose, because then the "less problematic" queer kids were seen in a better light. It protected them. It also made sure they knew I was there. And they came to me & I did my best to help. I chased girls & have so many stories about drunken hookups and falling in love. Wild nights & happy days.

Don't get me wrong, I fucked up plenty too. I certainly wasn't a hero, and I put myself in very real danger multiple times. There were a lot of failures & mistakes. There was a lot of pain. But it was absolutely, positively fucking worth it. Despite it all I look back on that time fondly & I'd do it all again in a heartbeat. And I'd do it the same.

That time of my life shaped who I am in every way. I'm still that punkass kid (even though I'm pushing 40 now). Still a fighter who doesn't care how much pain I endure if I'm doing the right thing. And I never would have become that person if a girl named Lovely hadn't picked up on the queer themes in my writing that I wasn't even intentionally adding. So for me, it's kind of serendipitous that the very thing that led me to becoming everything I am today is the thing that I saw & heard in Taylor. That led me to so much beautiful art, beautiful love stories, and beautiful people in the gaylor community that is so, so dear to me now.

It takes one to know one, but sometimes knowing one puts you on the path to knowing yourself.

[whineandcheese24]

personally, I'm not at all disappointed that they gave Buck a queer arc before Eddie, or that they switched love interests, and I actually feel better about this interview for a few reasons

Point 1 - Buck is bi, Eddie is not: This is my personal hc so no hate if you disagree, but I always viewed Buck as bi, and Eddie as demi. We know he had issues with Ana and is now having issues with Marisol, but he really did seem happy and comfortable in those moments with Shannon, which is why I never quite got on the "Eddie is gay" train. I know the chances of a major network tv show (or even any tv show) actually using the word demi out loud is slim, but it's still what I want and think fits best (and I wouldn't be surprised if they left Eddie unlabeled, seeing as they haven't even officially given Buck a label), and having Eddie get into a relationship with Tommy would feel as shallow and not-right as his previous relationships. This story of meeting a guy and having a crush and being kissed and asked out by a guy when you've never even conciously considered guys before just fits better on Buck than it would on Eddie.

Point 2 - Buck needs to go first: Jumping off the last point, if we're going with the opinion that Buck is into men, while Eddie is into Buck (which I've seen a lot of support for within the text and the fandom) then Buck needs to have his arc first. I can't see Eddie even considering that his feelings for Buck are more than platonic without Buck coming out. By having Buck come out first, Eddie has the chance to look at him and go "huh? didn't realize that was an option" (kind of like how he did in the coming out scene with realizing Tommy, a character established to be very similar to Eddie, is gay). Buck's character arcs tend to be loud and blunt with him getting hit on the head by the point, he learns by doing. but Eddie's arcs tend to be calmer and quieter and more introspective, with little things building up until they blow over, he learns by thinking. By having Buck come out first and date, not just a guy, but a guy Eddie's friends with who is very similar to him, it becomes another little thing that can help Eddie on his journey

Point 3 - Eddie can still be queer: One of the worries about this interview might be that they decided a queer Eddie arc didn't work, but the way I see it, they were considering queer Eddie. Not just in a jokingly-sending-my-costar-fanfiction way, but in an actual writers-and-directors-etc-are-seriously-considering-this-arc. That's huge. And we joke about Lou going to pr jail, but this is a serious thing, and the cast and crew know that. I seriously doubt if they weren't comfortable with the audience knowing they wouldn't have told Lou not to say anything, or that he didn't still ask if he could talk about it. The way I see it, the cast and crew and writers and network were seriously considering giving Eddie a queer arc, and are okay with the audience knowing it, maybe because they're considering giving him a slightly different queer arc in the future.

all this to say: This arc with Tommy works best with Buck having the physical experience of dating a man, and Eddie watching from the side and starting to consider it in his own mind. And just because they dropped Eddie's arc with Tommy, doesn't mean they can't give him his own different arc later down the line

[kotias]

Good Omens season 2 is a coming out fable.

Especially when you consider that all the relationships we see are queer:

- Aziraphale and Crowley

- Maggie and Nina

- Gabriel and Beelzebub

- the two punks in the graveyard with the phone only having Twitter and Grindr

- the shopkeeper and his spouse

Both Crowley and Aziraphale got recently liberated from Hell and Heaven respectively, from any responsibility towards them, and even from hiding their relationship, because both sides know by now, and tried (and failed) to punish them for it.

We have the two "young adults" who just left their toxic families and can finally taste the freedom of being themselves and together. One immediately embraces it, and goes fullblown DRAMATIC GAY about it (Crowley of course), while the other is still sheltered and shy and has had the family's sayings drilled so deeply in him that even considering whatever is happening would feel an impossible step for him (Aziraphale)

And then... two other gays in a similar situation (angel x demon) appear (Gabriel and Beelzebub, making a representation for our angel of "oh my goodness, that was an option???"

But, because it's such new information, that he has literally no time to take in because The Metatron pops in right after to shut that down real quick, he can't give his own angry little snake husband what he WISHES he could give him.

I’m not good on analysing queer representation in media, but this really feels like a love story to the community and a representation of their struggles to truly find themselves.

In this season, while Gabriel and Beelzebub were the fullblown representation that our little gay immortal beings needed, Maggie and Nina are the “experienced” people of the community, helping the little sheltered boys out of their shells, practically giving Crowley an instruction manual that he tries really hard to follow.

But it doesn’t work... does it?

Because, one of the issues that one can face is: family clawing their way back into your brain, and destroying everything you’ve worked on to heal from their influence.

The Metatron is walzing into Aziraphale’s life, offering a warm coffee and a fawning voice, while at the same time staring daggers at Crowley who is just sprawling in his favourite chair, and bringing the angel outside for The Talk.

This feels like a family member who “doesn’t understand why you’ve changed so much my dear, it must be the influence of this darn friend of yours”, but instead of saying that... he goes in more slyly, offering Aziraphale something that cannot be refused: an esteemed place in a “family” who he never truly felt a part of. But Metatron knows, he knows very well that Crowley would never accept going back to Heaven. He knows that he’s given Aziraphale too much hope to abandon that dream of being accepted by his “family”.

This series is so good, I’m being so emotional right now.

So thank you @neil-gaiman​

Given what I wrote here, I am therefore expecting Aziraphale to wear that FABULOUS coat that Gabriel found in his closet (HUMHUM YES YES GABRIEL FINDING CLOSETED GAY CLOTHES) in season 3, when he is ready for the coming out dance of the millenium.

Crowley deserves at least that as an apology (not that he needs to forgive anything to Aziraphale, the second he sees him he’ll have forgiven everything, but he still wants that dance in a dramatic coat).

And I also expect their next kiss to literally rewrite the world after it was brought to destruction by the Second Coming.

Because if their joint “tiniest miracle we can do, so that even Heaven can’t pick up on it, we’re so stealthy” ended up conjuring a power that could raise 25 people back from the dead, I cannot be told that their real kiss, and their putting their all in a joint miracle, wouldn’t reboot the universe.

And I think that’s exactly why Metatron is trying to separate them: as angels from creation (since demons are former angels), they weren’t supposed to love one another, and angelic love could be incredibly dangerous to the “Ineffable Plan”, if it indeed has the ability to rewrite everything.

[alexissara]

Being A "Diversity Ball"

I am a Latinx, Trans, Woman, Disabled, Polyamarous, Neurodiverse, Asexual, Lesbian and that sounds like a lot right? It really isn't that much though we just simply allow people the grace of not having to say all these things. A White, Cis, Man, Able bodied, Neruotypical, allosexual, monogamous, heterosexual doesn't have to say anything about themselves, that is just all assumed. It isn't strange to have all these labels what is strange is having to say them, having the things that are considered deviant to the social power. The core difference is that I could elaborate further on any of these labels because to me their more complicated so even my "long list" is a little reductive.

The "normal" person doesn't have to think critically about all these things [because they probably would find out they aren't all of those things] so even if it is more complicated they are unable to elaborate on what it means for them to be straight, cis, able-bodied, neurotypical, they don't need to think about any of that.

I think we're supposed to feel a bit of shame for being ourselves, for sharing it, for it being in our bio or something, like that is making it all our personality but really we are communicating to others in whatever way we think is effective, I am one of your people. We are always choosing what we include, what we don't include. We don't write our personal definitions of what these words mean to us but the opposition gets to kinda blissfully exist as the absence of identity, the option of it. The reality is if things aren't in our bio we're still living it but when your in a place of privilege you don't need to engage those parts of yourself.

Here on tumblr I've intentionally left out a lot of detail in my proper bio since their so small and because I want to see how people treat me if I let them assume things about me or have to do the research. Ironically I had someone do the research on me once here on tumblr, they dug through my stuff to find out I was trans to then insult me. Like I was talking about Lesbian stuff, as I do, and they had to be like "Ha, I win, you are a trans" like seeing a photo of me you clearly weren't confident given you looked it up and screen shotted me saying it rather then posting a picture of me.

Even when we try to like "not be loud" about parts of ourselves those who hate us are happy to try and negate us, to pit parts of our identity against us. One of the worst parts of being a BIPOC queer is when cis/het BIPOC people try and say our queerness is a white person thing. These people have never read history in their fucking lives, like our ancestors more then likely were super fucking gay, gayer then history would say because a lot of history was destroyed. These intercommunity discourses can really suck cuz we're asked to engage against ourselves as if we can neatly join these teams.

Of course the reality is that being all these things mixed together are interchangeable, they create a unique ID for us. Like we can't see the world through the lens of just one of our accesses of marginalization but we see them through all of them. We can't so easily detach and remove parts of ourselves. We can be in the closet, not talk about something, hide stuff, but we understand our own realities.

I believe we should embrace ourselves, radically accept who we are and not worry about if it's like extra or whatever to have a million labels. The fact is the labels are just short cuts for us, like it's useful the more we have the more we can explain at a glace.

This pride, be yourself, be annoyingly yourself, who gives a shit, the reality is everyone else is as many things as you are, we're made of the same junk we just end up built different.

If you were going to throw money at someone randomly, a little ball of labels, you could do worse then me, maybe check out my Patreon or Ko-fi.

[jegulily-stuff]

Not that he needs to be labeled but what sexuality do you hc Regulus as being? Cos a lot are he's gay. Just wondering xx

#jegulily asks?

ooh I like this question

The simple answer is bisexual with a preference for men. The interesting answer is much longer.

I don't see him self identifying with any labels really. Bisexual is only just becoming a word muggles use when he's growing up and I don't see him even hearing of it at that age, and if he did hear it later on he might use it sort of academically but I don't see him being attached to it as an identity. He's living in the culture of an older time period that isnt having a sexual revolution. Obviously they would have the concept of being gay/queer etc. but that's an umbrella term for a lot of things, I suppose he might half identify with it and half not. It would probably depend on whether it was considered deviant behaviour socially, because I can't see him self describing that way. He'd probably go about his life unlabelled.

Another important cultural thing is that marriage is about socio politics and having children with the right genes, and not about personal preferences. Reg grew up absolutely expecting to marry a woman, and given he's postive towards the rules he was raised under, he would've seen that as a good thing to do, something to aspire to. I can see him idealising that as romantic, and believing that the 'right' thing must also be the thing that'll make him happy, but it's also not optional.

I think everyone thought he was gay when he was younger, like his family and family friends. He's one of those kids that all the adults assume will be queer, but no one really talks about it. (Certainly no one tells him.) It's mainly because he's not very masculine. He's never belligerent or outspoken, he's demure and compliant, he likes spending time with his cousins who are all girls. He probably had some obvious crushes on blokes, like famous quidditch players and so on, that everyone else knew were crushes but he didn't. Again culturally this isnt a huge problem as long as he marries correctly. People tend to write his family as violently homophobic wanting to kick him out for it, but that's not how aristocracy tend to respond to someone being gay, especially when he isnt trying to avoid marriage. They'll just make sure they arrange his marriage properly.

Maybe he realises that everyone thinks he's gay and starts assuming it about himself too. I can see that. I think he's more aware of physical attraction when it comes to men. Eventually he'd have realised he was queer in some way, but I don't think it would surprise him as much as it would other people for him to also end up with a crush on a girl, seeing as he always pictured himself with a wife as a life partner. And his romantic attraction is really about emotional connection (negative or positive) and that's not gendered.

[nulliustram-webfiction]

Over the last two weeks, I've put up four pilots. Now, you get to vote on which idea continues to be refined into a free web series. Below the poll, you will be given the title card/cover for every one of these five options, along with a link to the free public pilot, a brief 'elevator pitch', and what I enjoy the most about each series. Donate to my ko-fi or my patreon, and you will have access to all sixteen extra chapters.

Creature Watching

Its pilot (Rest Stop) is on tumblr.

Churyl is the perfect city. If you don't look to deep into it. People from all around the world come to see what lies under the surface. And they never come back alive... Lots of uncanny valley stuff. Not outright scary all of the time, but just plain. Weird. Deals more with supernatural and folklore elements.

EndWalkers

EndWalkers already has one volume out on RoyalRoad, with more than 100k words, which you can read here.

An action-packed story of a group of people jumping from apocalyptic dimension to apocalyptic dimension, playing out a video game in real life. With the first volume drawing to a close, the daily update schedule will be slowed down to a weekly one if it does not win this poll. There is a shapeshifting gay AND trans Muslim catboy (mecore) and Book 2 is in a world torn apart by a war between ravens and octopi, its great.

Key Mates

Chapter One is on tumblr.

Anne and Flynn are discovered to be psychics. Except instead of any actual fun superpowers, they have the power to pick out a key that the other is thinking about or in contact in. People romanticize it constantly, but its useless in every way. Except for a heist. NOT a dig at romantic soulmate tropes, though they are referenced. I'm simply having fun with the implications of having a force that ties you together. How you would navigate relationships with other people and yourself too.

Tumble Dried Pirates

Pilot is now live on tumblr

Xara is from the modern era, and a passionate advocate for freedom of information and archiving of content. You know... Piracy. When a dryer machine at her local laundromat spits out Elizabeth Carnegie, a pirate from the Golden Age of cut-throat violence and smuggling, she isn't prepared for her. Or the team of time-travel police who have now put a target on her back. Yes. They are lesbians. With a time traveling dryer machine. Also, classism!!

Surviving Nulls

Pilot is live on tumblr!!

Nulls are monsters that feed off the magic of humans, sucking away until nothing is left. And Priscilla Farooq, widely regarded to have no talent for art, magic, or sport, finds herself in the unique situation to be the only one to stop it. Even if she thinks she's a little bit of nothing herself... This was written specifically to be an aspec fantasy. Priscilla is aplaroace. She simply doesn't feel any kind of love. And that's okay, even if it takes her time to come to terms with it. There are more aspec characters, too, showcasing the entire spectrum, and just queer people in general. Main character's atheist, but lots of Muslim relatives, and some Jewish side characters, some pagan, it's a mixed bag. This is also the only other series that will be posted on RoyalRoad, with more than daily chapter updates.

That's all! Consider donating if you're interested in reading more. ko-fi | patreon

[leozuria]

[     ander puig ,  transmasc ,  he/him.   ]     ⸻     have you seen leo zuria? yes, the twenty-one year old / junior that’s usually wandering around campus? they’re currently focused on mortuary science, so we’re sure they’ve been super busy with studying. according to rumors, they were michael’s bitter rival and he knew he is [ not out to his family ]. does it make sense considering they’re known for being brilliant as well as standoffish? either way, the phantom is threatening to bring scary things to light, but let’s hope whatever they’re hiding stays in the dark. 

Full Name: Leo Marcel Zuria Date of Birth: January 28, 2003 Sexuality/Romantic Preference: Panromantic, Pansexual Major: Mortuary Science Extracurriculars: Queer Alliance, Band (Trombone) Song: Fine On The Outside - Priscilla Ahn

Biography: (Content Warning for Transphobia, Bullying, Depression) Leo was born in Bilbao, Spain and was given a name he tries very hard to no longer hear. His mother and father both being politicians, it was a well to do household with a seemingly perfect family. From Leo's earliest days expectations of him were high. All of the Zuria children were polite, brilliant, and proper and had no option to be anything else. Leo was always a well behaved kid, but he never really seemed to fit in. He was brilliant, but hyperactive. Passionate, but a little overzealous about all his interests. The only person Leo ever felt truly understood him was his older sister; Bibine. Bibine was his best friend in the world, his partner in crime, the person who truly got him out of his shell. When Leo was ten his family moved from Spain to Washington DC, and his entire world suddenly became entirely different. Where he was a bit of an outsider before, he now was a complete pariah. He was nearly entirely unable to make friends or connect with others. At best he was alone, but at worst other kids tormented him relentlessly. He took an interest in mortuary science when he was a freshman in high school and his family briefly returned to Spain for a funeral. Death practices fascinated him. However, the rest of his family saw it as incredibly macabre, and heavily encourage him to find a different career path. That was not the only part of Leo that he was encouraged to hide away. As he grew more and more uncomfortable in his body, every attempt he ever made to think about transitioning was shut down by his conservative family. It was made clear to him that if he was any amount of openly queer, he would be disowned. Leo's acceptance to GSU was the best thing to happen to him. Being thousands of miles from his family gave Leo the courage it took to come out and begin his transition. Since attending GSU he has lived almost entirely as his authentic self, though his home situation is much different. He has been unable to go home, or truly see his family for quite some time, he always makes whatever excuse he can to stay at the school. With his parents both in important political positions, this is a scandal that would effect far more than just him, and he's still unsure how to go about it. He'd be lying if he said Michael's death hadn't come to him as somewhat of a relief. The two of them never got along, and he knew the kind of person Michael was. He feared that one phone call home to the Zuria family would ruin his life.

Connections: -Familial: Leo is not out to his family, and does not have a great relationship with his parents. He has not spoken to his two siblings in years but, he really wishes he could. I'd really be open to any familial connection.

-Unrequited Crush: Leo is so very bad at expressing his feelings. He has a tendency to stew in things for much longer than he needs to. If Leo has feelings for a person, he won't say it. He will stew on it until it makes him and everyone around him miserable.

-Academic Rival: Leo prides himself on making it as far as he has mostly on his own, which means he is very serious about keeping it that way. His school work is incredibly important to him and being at the top of his class is mandatory. So I would love to see someone around to challenge him.

-"We've Never Met, I Have No Idea What You're Talking About" Leo was very much not able to transition at all until he moved into GSU. Anyone who met him before that, might recognize him by his deadname or as a completely different person. I would love to see a connection who knew him when, mostly for him to be like "shhh no you didn't."

[runthepockets]

I don't like bitching about queer spaces as often as I do, but I also don't feel as if I really have a choice. Like no one is thinking of the straight black working class trans guy who wants a transgender girlfriend and to fulfill the role of fatherhood. No one is thinking about the guy who grew up idolizing Rob Dyrdek or Tom Hardy, no one is thinking about the guy in a house show basement starting mosh pits because he's so angry and dejected about every aspect of his life, no one is thinking about the guys who're in jail for fighting or guys who live in the gym or the guys who get bullied and harrassed or anything. People just kinda wanna mold trans guys into whatever makes them most comfortable at any given time, and that usually boils down to skinny hairless white dudes in porn or being dress up dolls and accessories and I respect myself too much to let those be my only options.

The queer community just has never been there when I needed it, so I don't consider myself apart of it. Many call me self hating for this but I disagree. No one in their right mind abides by any routine or community that doesn't serve them and that's all this is for me. People will push me out and alienate me and tell me "just go hang out in the straight world" and then shit and piss and cry and throw up when I actually do end up doing such things. Like y'all had your chance and you fumbled every opportunity, I just can't bring myself to care about anything queer outside of protecting the marginalized from reactionaries and fascists, and that's my choice. I'm a grown man and I can do as I please.

[talisidekick]

Why Signs Showing Safe Binding for Children/Teens Is A Good Thing

Yes, this is going to stir some TERF's, gender criticals, rad-fems, and other transphobes into a bit of a frothing and angry mess, but good, because it needs to be said.

First off, no one is trying to tell your cisgender kid to bind. Signs that give steps for careful binding for under age teens or children just entering puberty aren't for cisgender kids.

What they are is informational posters for transgender and questioning kids that do bind and may be looking at binding products without a lot of information because of a lack of social support from their family or community. To re-state: No-one wants to encourage your cisgender kid to try binding.

Ideally, the solution that is the best is puberty blockers until the child or teenager has had time to consider how they feel about life. Puberty blockers are harmless, and allow any person on them to either pursue HRT at a later date (when they can sufficiently make an informed decision themself, or get approval earlier after lengthy psychological evaluation), or resume natural puberty later on in life. Whichever the individual lands on. Base point of this paragraph: easy access to transgender medical care via informed consent is necessary and the best solution, not bureaucratic hoops.

However, since many countries, and parts of other countries have decided the high rate of suicide amongst transgender and queer kids is an acceptable loss for the 'protection of cisgender children' in a situation (or situations) where cisgender children have never been at any sizeable risk, many transgender children and adults will take up the practice of binding. Why? Because they've been given no other option either by family, society, or due to a financial barrier.

So back to: why are these signs good? Because it means those binding who are unaware of the long term effects of it can be informed ideally bind a little more safely in a situation where it's their only option to be themselves. It's not propaganda for cisgender children or adults to be turned or fooled into being transgender, but rather to stop trans children and adults from causing extreme long term damage to themselves. Ideally, the best solution is to eliminate the need to bind at all; by providing sufficient medical care for a documented issue with literally decades of study behind it, and a satisfaction rate (99%~) higher than that of knee surgery (85%~); a practice that despite the amount of surgery's performed that end up leaving dissatisfaction in the resulting situation of the patient, no one seems to have a single issue about.

But I can already hear the argument coming of "what about those cisgender few that DO end up thinking they're transgender but aren't, that would bind or try transitioning?" And I'll give you three answers to that:

What about the transgender adults and children that commit suicide when sufficient medical and social care isn't provided? Are their lives worth less?

This also isn't a question that actually supports NOT having transgender care or information on it publicly available, but one that supports having more knowledge and psychological study being done on transgender care, the overlap of other medical conditions, and the easy access and publication of that information for the education of children and adults. Why? So adults, parents, and their children can understand more about transition and transgender peoples situation and make informed decisions with the aid of well trained and knowledgeable medical professionals who are supportive in helping the child make the right decision for them.

The number of cisgender folk that do unfortunately get lead to believe they are transgender and attempt transition is exceptionally small, and can be further reduced with the accurate publication and easy access to education on transition, transgender experiences, and possibly overlapping medical conditions as discussed in answer two (2) above. This doesn't mean stricter psychological requirements, but rather, more easily obtainable factual public information.

The end point to this: binding posters help transgender kids and adults reduce the level of harm to themselves in situations where the ideal options aren't available to them/have been deliberately removed to harm them.

If you are against these kinds of posters, that means you're for the deliberate harm of transgender and queer children and adults, not the protection of cisgender people.

You're just out to cause harm, and if you dislike that fact, perhaps consider what you could be doing instead to HELP without harming other people in the process.

Every person on earth is capable of good, but the line between doing good by causing evil for others, and doing good for all is a thin one. Make sure you're on the right side of it. Always double check. Transgender people need help being themselves, and ideally if we can eliminate any chance of cisgender folk thinking they too might be transgender, that's the goal. But one should never be at the cost of anothers life. Cisgender people aren't 'first' and transgender 'second', we're equal, we're all just people. Denying transgender people the care they need causes deaths. Lets all do better. Let us make sure transgender adults can live long productive lives in society as their true selves, and transgender children can make it past graduation.

Bind safely. The signs are there to help.

[olliethescribe]

Technically Propaganda - Major ‘Only Brooches’ Spoilers Ahead!

Here’s the beginning of our next major chapter: ‘Hamlet’! - @tmntausummit

Warning: it contains massive spoilers! Highly recommend reading this after ‘Blitz’ if you can. Tw// self-harm mention, public embarrassment, ableism, public breakdown

“It’s career suicide.” 

Things weren’t exactly specular after taking to the airwaves in an all black suit, blond hair with purple streaks, nails painted dark, and amethyst eyeshadow on. His co-host questioned his new look and Warren explained it away with tales of makeovers and self-discovery. It should’ve ended there. But even four weeks later it continued, worse since he helped take on the Foot Clan with Ron. His patience was beginning to wear thin.

Still, he had help. Donatello had made Warren a pronoun pin that zapped people if they misgendered him, pinned proudly on his lapel. Ron told him he looked amazing and he knew for a fact that the magician wouldn’t lie. Still, no matter how good he was fabled to have looked it didn’t deter negative attention. 

His co-workers, nice enough up close, were a nasty bunch in ‘private’ spaces. The sheer volume of indirects online were beginning to pile up, a cruel and bitter mocking edge from accounts that had only been set-up for the sole purpose of knocking him down. In person was somehow worse, unable to block people in real-life as they shit-talked his appearance by the water cooler or coffee maker, snickering as he passed them by on the way to his scheduled recordings. 

It hadn’t occurred to Warren that taking control of his life would lead to so much animosity from those that once considered him a friend. Then again, given that ‘his massive ego won’t fit through the fire door’ comment a few months back, he should’ve seen this coming. It didn’t hurt, not in the ways he thought it would, more so forcing him to consider his options. He could stay and take it, or he could take the wheel on his life yet again. 

Being a theater kid growing up wasn’t all for show. The newscaster had always enjoyed acting, forced himself to take those skills into social masking for work as he realized early on that being himself weren’t enough. To play a character and be rid of it rather than continue to keep up the charade? Promising. A siren song. He had the credentials, all he had to do was take the first step and audition. Ron had also offered Warren a spot as an additional magical assistant when Leo couldn’t make it to the weekend show. The options were there, he could do it. He could move on. 

Especially after what had occurred that morning… 

“Hey, Ron?” Warren walked unassuredly into their apartment, pamphlet in hand only slightly crushed in his death grip. His heart was pounding, having dodged plenty of sympathetic and terrible people alike on the way home. The theater he ducked into for escape was a saving grace, his mind attempting to keep its focus on that.

“Yes, darling?” Ron called out from the living room, flipping through a copy of Vogue and taking notes on all the outfits he’d try to recreate (as well as what would work well with both of his forms), and extra notes on what worked well with shorter hair. Fast fashion was never his thing, however, getting ready to peruse an online queer fashion blog instead.

He set the magazine down by the paper shredder, smiling as he heard his fiancé’s footsteps approach, a touch surprised to see Warren home so early for once. “Slow day at work?” 

Warren shuffled into the room, expression crestfallen as he thought of ways to broach the subject. His legs shook. Oh god, his legs... He could bring up the play afterwards. 

“Something like that.” He took his seat next to Ron, putting the pamphlet aside, a stabbing twist of metaphorical knives in his gut making their presence known. There wasn’t any getting around this, not as long as his finacé had internet access. “So I’ll be on an immediate month long vacation!”

Warren knew his face betrayed the false joy intoned in his voice, eyes distressed with the thought of letting Ron in. So it didn’t surprise him when Ron asked: “Why?”

“Well, it’s because of what happened earlier.” 

The magician gave Warren his full attention, aware that there’d been some back lash at the station but not the full extent. “What happened earlier?”

“Well…” Warren trailed off until remembering that Ron had each episode of the show recorded so the magician would be able to watch it back later. He picked the remote up, turning the TV on. “Let me show you.”

Earlier

The teasing had raised to a fever pitch at that point, an irritating whine and buzz of less than charitable words. Warren felt himself begin to grind his teeth, holding back any comments on his co-workers’ conduct until…

The newscaster had sat down on set and straightened his tie as he waited for the cameras to start rolling, his other co-host, a relatively new guy named Rodney, taking his place on the right next to him. Their first segment of the day was one that focused on the Paralympics, a feel-good piece about those overcoming adversity to kick ass and win gold. 

Warren had been placed on this segment every year, typically running it with Carly. He knew the motions, what to say and when to say it. Shouldn’t have been too different with Rodney, just a few subtle changes here and there to match the guy’s energy. But something felt off, a feeling of unease settling in as the segment started and Warren’s new co-host began to speak. 

“You know, Stone, I see you host this segment every year, and I gotta ask. Why?” 

Most would assume the question were asked in earnest. Warren had been questioned on why he’d been on certain segments before, such as the bi-annual fire safety PSA (his photos were often the ones used as warnings, especially after his meet-cute with Ron). But that was easy enough to explain away. This- this was gonna be different. This was something Rodney already knew of, knew not to bring up, especially not while they were rolling.

“Well,” Warren started, smiling at the camera with his typical plasticine expression, calm as he formulated an answer, “I’ve always been a huge fan of the Paralympics! But if you think someone else should take over this segment then I’m open to stepping down.” 

“Yeah, maybe an actual disabled person, Stone.” 

Warren narrowed his eyes, turning back to face his co-host. “Excuse me?” 

“Like, come on, man. Have you seen your legs? Those are wayyyy too real looking to be prosthetics. Everyone’s been talking about them but now it’s getting kinda sad. Just admit that you’ve been lying for clout.” 

“Are you out of your mind?” Warren hissed as hands gripped his pants hard under the table, a flurry of insults and expletives barely contained beneath the surface. He took a breath and steadied himself, turning back to the camera as he tried to hide his shaking self. “Get a load’a this guy! Well, moving on, this morning we’ll be focusing on-”

Rodney cut him off, interjecting with opinions that should be shoved far far away from where the sun shone. 

“Hey, how about we focus on you? What’s going on with you? Faking a disability for years, thinking this whole ‘emo’ thing is gonna make you hip with the kids, and you really took it upon yourself to go the extra mile with those cuts on your hands. And don’t even get me started on the new pronoun thi-”

Warren got out of his seat, seething. “Don’t get you started? DON’T GET YOU STARTED?!” He steadied himself on the desk’s edge as he tried his absolute best to calm down. But nothing helped. No, no, this was happening whether he wanted it to or not. 

“You-” he pointed at Rodney, “-don’t know a thing about me! You have no idea what I’m dealing with.” Warren shot his ring a brief glance. “And if you’re lucky, you’ll never understand!”

“You don’t know how much it takes to keep going, to get of bed in the morning and drag myself to this televised shitshow! I was miserable for years, and there are days where I still am! But breaking news, you son of a bitch, for once in my fucking life I’m making changes for myself, to better myself. That there are people worth changing for! That I’m worth changing for!” Warren felt tears stream down his face as he sneered at his co-worker, the once smug man looking more uncomfortable than anything else.

“But no, I gotta be ‘hip’ with the kids, it’s always gotta be for someone else with you people.” He unwrapped the bandages from one of his hands, palm with the scar on full display. “Also, if you got your head outta your ass for more than five seconds and actually thought about anything you’d realize that no one cuts their fucking hands on purpose!”

The newscaster took a moment to breathe as the camera crew and Rodney simply stared at him, the silence hanging with the fragility of a glass rod waiting to be clipped. 

“....I was joking, Warren….”

Warren proceeded to lift one leg up and place it on the desk, rolling up his pant leg to his mid thigh, before feeling for the release button on his prosthesis and pressing it, slowly and carefully pulling the limb off. 

“No, you weren’t.”

He saw Rodney reach out to him as if to say something that wouldn’t be an offensive mess. Warren had no desire to hear it. 

“Assflash newshole, I’ve been like this the entire time! And I’m reporting your sorry ass to HR, not like they’d do a damn thing.” He chuckled bitterly, feeling the rage and pain begin to subside into numbness. “I know what ya think of me. You all make it obvious, especially now.”

“This isn’t some ‘mid-life’ crisis, but while I’m still here and the topic’s hanging around... Rodney,” he said, looking down at his co-host with a glare, “the only way your ‘bug-mobile’ would be of any value is if you crashed it into the Verrazano. Now do me a favor and fuck off.”

Warren then looked at the camera with a grin, even though they’d stopped rolling minutes prior, hands raised as he flipped off dead lenses. “And fuck you too, New York.” 

Present

Warren finished showing Ron the entirety of his breakdown by switching to his phone, an intern having streamed the rest after the cameras stopped rolling. 

“Oh… oh my god…” Ron looked back at him dumbfounded, a plethora of thoughts screaming behind those eyes.

“So,” Warren started, putting his phone down before sheepishly tapping two fingers together, “when we said no major secrets I might’ve been, eh, holding back on one? Maybe two?”

“Uh huh.” Ron’s eyes flicked from Warren’s face to his legs and back again. Between that and his boyfriend’s breakdown, he was still processing what he’d just witnessed. 

“I- I’ll just be outright and say it.” Warren took a deep breath before letting it go. “Ronny, I have a confession to make. I- oh god damn it, I’ve been shorter than you this entire time!” 

“That’s certainly one way to put that.” Ron felt as if his head were spinning, his entire day turned upside down in thirty minutes. 

“Yeah… you probably have questions, eugh.” Warren looked away, hands on his legs as he stared at them. Oh boy. 

Every thought Ron could have ran through his mind at top speed, but when it came to actually asking more questions, he blanked. 

“Sorry, spaced out for a minute there.” He rubbed at his temples with one hand while the other gripped the couch. “Suppose my first question is how. How on Earth did you manage this?” 

[gascon-en-exil]

Related to your last ask, is there actually a big Madonna-Whore dimension to the "male-dominated Faerghus (+F!Byleth) against feminine treachery" take on AM? It seems to me the only antagonist that really plays into that is Cornelia, who has an obviously oversexed design and (IIRC) is labelled a temptress by Gilbert at least once. Edelgard doesn't seem like a good fit (especially in the context of purity kink stuff you've mentioned before) and Patricia is never even on-screen.

Perhaps that's not the best term; another, less common name would be an Ave/Eva dynamic, referring to the Blessed Mother (Ave Maria, etc.) and Eve (as in "Adam and...") respectively - essentially a good woman/evil woman contrast, with sexual elements being optional.

I checked, and I made this observation about AM as early as October 2019 when a lot of the discourse was still fairly fresh. The route contains multiple instances of Dimitri being betrayed by women, with the two that hit the hardest being women he considers family (with Cornelia having to serve as a sort of proxy for Patricia as she is for the purposes of the story already dead). If you play as male Byleth or ignore their role in the story, this turns AM into a story of a man working through his trauma and finding closure with the love and support of other men: two surrogate father figures, his closest childhood friend temporarily estranged from him because of his own issues, and the boy whose life he saved and to whom he's become bonded to through extreme trauma. It's an intimately homoromantic setup, and multiple others have noted that it's remarkable that a male protagonist is given a story that centers around the importance of community and emotional support and the need for forgiveness as opposed to vengeance. AM is thus comparable to Echoes in that it centers intimate male relationships, including different expressions of male queerness, while sidelining or dividing its female cast - note that Rhea, the most morally grey female character in the game, is entirely absent from AM. The difference though is that AM centering men doesn't feel as malicious as Echoes sometimes can toward its female characters, and the female Lions are given a modest amount of story relevance and the usual range of possible endings even if they aren't the focus.

...But then if you play as female Byleth and make AM all about her relationship with Dimitri, then it's the story of a broken man betrayed by evil women and saved only by the love of a good woman. That's significantly less interesting, especially as Byleth is such a non-entity of a character.

That said though, as discourse evolved and the Edelstans ran with with the belief that Faerghus is the embodiment of toxic masculinity I thought it better not to explore that idea as much, both because they have a selective inability to understand the concept of analyzing fiction as fiction (instead of treating it as a real-world culture that must be brought in line with their allegedly progressive values) and because many of them seem uncomfortable with male queerness except in the most abstract terms, and thus would overlook this positive element of an emotional, male-centered narrative just as much as the writers themselves did. One could accuse them of homophobia, and of only caring about sapphic relationships because they like jerking off to lesbians...

...but that would be petty, wouldn't it?