gay, lesbian, or whatever.
a safe space for queers and allies on the internet who want intelligent discourse, a mind-opening and accepting atmosphere, the desire and ability to educate and be educated, advice, support, friendship, love, and maybe a little bit more gay on your dash.
please read our faq/policies page before making submissions or posting messages.
to new followers: welcome! introduce yourself if you like. open to all who wish to listen, look, think, teach, or learn.
*** ask. submit. meet the mods. policies. faq. ***
Aya Kamikawa: Why she kicks ass
- She is the only openly transgender official in Japan at this point, and the first to seek or win elected office in Japan.
- She won a four-year term as an independent under huge media attention, placing sixth of 72 candidates running for 52 seats in the Setagaya ward assembly, the most populous district in Tokyo. In April 2007, she was re-elected to her second term, placing second of 71 candidates running for 52 in the same ward assembly.
- While the government announced that they would continue to consider her male officially, she stated that she would work as a woman.
- She is devoted to work for various groups, the disabled, single-parent families, homeless people to evening junior high school students, LGBT people and to improve rights for women, children, the elderly. She strives to give support for these people and bring positive changes which would help them in society.
- She was also a committee member for Trans-net Japan (a self-support group for transgender people) and organised meetings and social events to give support and symposiums to raise the public awareness.
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval is expected to sign into law a bill that would add gender identity and expression as protected classes under the state’s hate crimes law.
The state assembly passed the legislation 30-11 on Tuesday, and the senate passed it nearly unanimously last month.
“This does not afford victims special rights,” openly gay Assemblyman Andrew Martin said Tuesday according to the Associated Press. ”This is a statement of what our society is, and that we will not tolerate the systematic targeting of individuals who are historically disadvantaged groups.”
People who commit hate crimes would be subject to penalties for the actual crime committed, in addition to motivation based on their bias, according to the article.
We need this law. Come on, Nevada.
To the anon who asked a few weeks ago about how we discovered our identities as trans*:
I finally posted a response/I edited the question post so it should be a few posts below this one but I felt like I should let you know that I posted a response there since there’s probably more of a chance of you seeing this than actually going back to check that question.
-Logan
since gay people call themselves flaming homosexuals can pansexual people call themselves frying pansexuals because not only is it like flaming homosexuals but we also have the benefit of a play on words
really old vintage photos of homosexual couples
See the rest, they’re all amazing.
Reblogging for sharp old butches in suits.
Hi! I’m stoked to present my thesis comic, If This Be Sin, based on the life of Gladys Bentley. It’s for sale on Gumroad! You can download the 16 page full-color PDF for $2.
Gladys Bentley, was a blues singer, piano player, and drag king who performed bawdy tunes in Harlem nightclubs throughout the 1920s and ’30s. Despite the social obstacles she faced as a black, openly queer woman, her outrageous and energetic act became a mainstay of the Harlem cabaret. In 1952, under the oppressive social conditions of the McCarthy era, Bentley publicly renounced her previous identity and claimed to have found happiness as a feminine housewife.
Gumroad is super simple to use, you just have to enter your credit card number and you’ll be sent a direct download, plus Gumroad will email you a link to re-download it if you ever lose track of the file.
FOR EVERY 100 NOTES, I’LL GIVE AWAY A DIGITAL COMIC TO A RANDOM TUMBLR USER so please share if you can! (Within each 100 notes, only people who reblog are eligible for a free copy.)
Thank you and I hope you enjoy the comic!
How homonationalism works:
1) The Inclusion Argument: Sexual minorities should call for inclusion in the state through liberal rights of the individual (e.g. gay marriage). The struggle for individual rights replaces the struggle for collective rights, collective resistance, or the transformation of asymmetrical power formations.
2) Good vs. Bad Queers: The call for inclusion is predicated on making the distinction between good queers and bad queers. These appeals argue that most sexual minorities are no different than members of dominant society, and thus that these queers deserve to be recognized as part of the mainstream. Here, bad queers are offered as the undesirable other to help sell the good queers to Canadian society, since bad queers are dangers to society or drains on state resources. They include racialized queers, people who are HIV-positive, poor and homeless queers, drug users, non-status queer migrants, etc.
3) Reinforcing the Social Order: Once the right kind of queers are welcomed into the state, these institutions can use the newly admitted ‘good queers’ as evidence that symmetry has been achieved, effectively dismissing larger concerns over the rights of those who remain marginalized and subjugated. Further, the inclusion of sexual minorities under the terms of individual rights is then used in propaganda by the state to demonstrate how civilized, modern, liberal, and democratic the West is, particularly in opposition to backward, pre-modern, and non-democratic states (such as in the Middle East) – a tactic rooted in Orientalism.
D/sphoria is a zine i wrote with black dahlia parton about the experience of being a dominant, kinky trans woman, about the ways kink gives us (and has given me) a vocabulary for speaking for our bodies and for redefining what sex and intimacy mean. you can buy a physical, twenty-five-plus page version from my online store or read the complete text online for free. thanks to all my creatures for being the first to read and encourage me
signal boosting for my followers!
if you’re intending to make a post that parodies the about section on a blog (circa the myspace era or in a certain vein of tumblr) i urge you not to include “bi <3” in it because it dismisses and marginalizes bisexual people and it should not be assumed that our sexuality is a joke that you can use to make fun of people and essentially label them as unintelligent lesser beings (◡‿◡✿)
thegreatestusernameinthegalaxy asked: Re: discovering identity - ballroom dance
Anonymous asked: for all the trans/nonbinary people in this group: how did you discover your identities?
followers/other mods?
Wow okay this is really old but I never actually answered this like I was going to and then I just remembered about it. To be honest, I really don’t remember what started my coming out process as trans* specifically. I didn’t have any idea I identified as LGBT until about 2-3 years ago. From what I remember, I started going to GLOW (a LGBTQ+ discussion group at camp) and I guess that just sort of got me to start thinking and as I thought more about it I realized that those labels fit me? At the first meeting I said “Hi I’m *birthname* and I’m straight” and then during that meeting I was like wait no that might not actually be true. For the rest of camp I just said “I’m whatever” and that was that and nobody really cared. About a month after that I started identifying as bisexual and then later on as a lesbian (If you want that story feel free to ask for it but that’s not really all that relevant to me coming out as trans*.) And like I said before, I don’t really know what made me start thinking I was trans* but from what I remember a couple things happened: 1. As time moved on I started dressing more and more masculinely and started feeling more comfortable dressing in more masculine clothes and 2. I believe tumblr helped in that process because I was never really exposed to the trans* community before I had a tumblr and every once in a while I would just see things about the trans* community and I guess as I read more and more about it I felt like the label fit me more and more. So from about february of my freshman year until the following fall I identified as genderqueer and I was really hesitant to identify as ftm mainly just because I was scared. I cut my hair to about my chin and wore some cargo/bermuda shorts that I somehow managed to find in the women’s section or basketball shorts with band t-shirts and converse button downs over them. As time went on when I was identifying as genderqueer, I slowly started to identify as “on a spectrum from male to female not really in the middle but like more on the male side” and that identity progressed more toward male as time went on. Then, october of my freshman year, someone from camp came out as mtf on national coming out day and I guess that was sort of a signal/message for me that being ftm was okay and yeah from that point on I have identified as ftm and I came out between that november and last june. If you want any more details to that then feel free to send another ask or message me on my personal tumblr.
-Logan
and if you’re not sure about someone’s gender pronouns, just ask! respectfully, of course. (✿◠‿◠)
(e.g. “what are your preferred pronouns?”)
(Source: alphabonesoup)
