Inspired by my drawing I did in a notebook earlier this year in my animation class: (4/4/23)
fuck everyone who's started saying the r slur again i hate you and i hope your life falls apart and you die alone
pure love
My current fave video:
I've told this story before but the non-negotiable in allyship really reminded me of my gaming group. So one of my best friends is a twin and while I know *her* pretty well I don't really know her brother as well despite knowing him for roughly same length of time. We play videogames together and her brother asked to join us so at some point I took him aside and had The Talk with him because we at that point had a recently out trans fem within the group and she had just barely started hormones and hadn't done any voice training etc so I fully intended to head any trouble off at the pass.
So I basically had the "respect my friend's pronouns or die by my sword" discussion because while he knows I'm a trans guy and had so far been chill, I didn't know if that extended to all trans people.
What I did not expect was for him to pull an uno reverse on me and invite his two trans woman friends to game with us as well and did a "no no, *you* respect *my* friends' pronouns or die by *my* sword".
When I was working at Petco, one of my coworkers came to me having a total panic and anxiety meltdown and when I finally got them to tell me what was going on, the revealed they had sought me out because they were having Transgender Feelings and wanted advice. I ended up giving them my old binders that were too small for me but a perfect fit for them, and one of my roommates gave them their first masc haircut.
A few weeks later a customer speaking Spanish was saying many nasty things about my coworker and reacting with disgust. Another coworker- a cis gay man who speaks fluent Spanish- came to get me first so I could pull the other coworker away while he effectively cussed them out in Spanish. He told us the sparknotes version of the English translation and it was mostly horrifically transphobic drivel. My coworker had responded mostly neutrally to me being trans, but for him to be visibly steamed the rest of the day over my other coworker definitely bumped my respect for him.
And I've talked about how a cis lesbian friend of mine visibly bristles at anyone she even thinks is being shitty to me about being trans to the point of making them splutter and back down.
A cishet woman I am only sort of acquaintances with once caught me wincing at being she/her'd at a trial and asked if that had been happening all day. When I responded the affirmative, she stormed off and I didn't see her the rest of the day. The next day, any time anyone referred to me there was an audible pause before a deliberate choice to choose masc versions.
Another trans woman who is a friend of mine once beat up a bully for calling her trans boyfriend a heshe when they were in schooling together.
It's about holding the line. It's about making the active choice to show up for each other. And it's about linking hands and refusing to budge.
If you cannot hold the line with me by your side, then we are not moving together.
The grind never stops even if the sky is RED and it is thundering outside
1) You should assume good faith (good intentions, the most flattering interpretation of their speech) when taking with people, 2) it is normal to do so unless you have a serious, ongoing reason as to not do so, and 3) if you do not regularly approach people, especially strangers, in good faith during discussions, then that is a sign of something wildly unhealthy within your psyche.
4) You do have options to change how you think, 5) it will require work to train your brain to approach people sincerely and 6) you may have to stop hanging out in spaces that are toxic or destructive.
But, 7) by tempering your mind, 8) taking accountability for how your words harm others and 9) not hanging out in places that give you an addicting, self-righteous, sense of anger, 10) you can move towards having meaningful, adult, conversations, honestly and openly with others, 11) in such a way where social safety and kindness allows you to be intellectually curious, exploratory, and to grow.
i just met an actual wizard on the train and im grieving because i know i’ll never meet anyone that cool for the rest of my life