robertdowneytransjunior:

makaalbarnisbetterthanyou:

makaalbarnisbetterthanyou:

“First of all, I think the term “queerbaiting” is not accurate. It pissed me off, because I feel like a real champion of that community with all those letters [LGBTQA] - you know, I’ve officiated gay weddings. Also, I don’t know understand what the term means.”

wat is misha collins even saying here

ARE WE REALLY NOT EVEN GUNNA TALK ABOUT THIS JFC

“i’ve officiated gay weddings”

guys my best friend is a cishet white guy so you can’t call me a misandrist but this is some nastyass patriarchal heterosexist self-excusing bullshit and misha collins needs to sit the fuck down

“i feel like a real champion” yeah a champion of getting involved in a self-congratulatory circle-jerk with yourself and then using that as grounds to refocus the issue on yourself when it should be on the people who are suffering because you’re a shitty ally and other allies are using you as a role model

i’m too drunk for this bullshit

(Source: ladiesappreciationblog)

thetrichotomousexploration:

“Eight Things I Don’t Need To Hear From Straight People”

barbeauxbot:

think-progress:

It’s worse than we thought…

Warnings for police abuse, ableism, homophobia. This is important to read if you can.

ianthe:

Shoutout to all the queer kids being turned out of their houses and fighting to stay alive. 

Shoutout to Cece McDonald, a trans woman 322 days into her 41-month imprisonment following an act of self-defense against racist transphobes who smashed glass on her face. 

Shoutout to all the queer people of color who are trying to find their space in a movement and community dominated by white voices. 

Shoutout to my friends who have been hurled slurs out of the car windows of their peers.

Shoutout to everyone for whom the right to marry doesn’t mean shit when they’re still fighting for the right to survive.

hobbitdragon:

Lots of really amazing writers denigrate their work (or have their work denigrated by others) because they write fanfiction rather than “real stories.” The more I think about this, the more messed up I think this is, and I’d like to talk about why. 

Part of the reason fanfic is often denigrated is because a lot of it is erotic, a lot of it is about escapism and wish-fulfillment, and a lot of it is queer. So much fanfiction is queer, in fact, that it should come as no surprise that it is widely reviled and made into a joke; homophobia is still very real and I trust that I don’t have to explain how it would cause queer literature to be denigrated. 

But that still leaves the fact that a lot of fanfic is erotic. Given that I’m a sex educator, I’ve seen first-hand the effects of sex-negativity and its accompanying effects of silence and shame. People’s lives are ruined or ended every day by what they did not know, have had hidden from them, and could not find out for themselves. I’m not exaggerating this in the slightest; ignorance about sex and sexuality regularly causes death, either from dangerous abortion procedures, suicide, disease, or murder. With that degree of violence surrounding sexual information, I see an obvious connection between cultural sex-negativity and the fact that erotic literature is so widely viewed is worthless. Of course this extends to fanfiction. 

The fanfiction which isn’t directly sexual is often still about wish-fulfillment of desires other than sexual ones, many of which center around the desire to be loved and able to recover from trauma. Hurt/comfort is one of the most popular genres in fandom, and this is for good reason. The fact that anyone sees a problem with people exploring pain and recovery and love is deeply disturbing. Why would anyone complain about people spending time fulfilling their desires  in a way that hurts no one? The only answer I can think of is “Because people are supposed to suffer.” I obviously disagree with this.  

And this is, finally, where capitalism comes into it. One of the biggest reasons people see fanfiction as a waste of time is that it’s unpublishable because of copyright infringement. And since fanfic can’t be formally published, no money can be made from it. This is, fundamentally, the ONLY difference between fanfiction and “real” stories—copyright infringement prevents fanfiction from being given a monetary venture. 

We might like to hope that published material is, somehow, of better quality than that which is unpublished or unpublishable. But this is not true, as anyone who has tried and failed to get published will tell you. More crap gets published every year while more masterpieces languish in anonymity than we can ever truly know, because it’s not about quality, it’s about money. 

Which then begs the question: if the only difference between fanfiction and “real fiction” is the capacity to make money, why is fanfiction considered so worthless? Because capitalism wants us to believe that monetary value is the ONLY system of value with any meaning. 

Nevermind the fact that many of us have learned more about consent, negotiation, gender, and sexual orientation from fanfiction (and other ‘unpublishable’ content on the internet) than we ever did from anything published or offered to us in school. Nevermind the fact that fanfiction is the first and ONLY place many of us will ever see people like us being represented. Nevermind that fanfiction is often written to help us explore and heal from issues of trauma, abuse, internalized bigotry, and self-loathing. Nevermind that fanfiction gives so many of us access to characters we love, cherish, admire, and look up to being like us, feeling like us, loving people like us, or just plain representing us in a way we often cannot get from the real people in our lives as a result of bigotry and shame. 

In this homophobic, sex-negative, capitalist society, minorities of all sorts are supposed to be worthless and fandom is often the only place they can seek representation. In this bigoted, capitalist society we are not supposed to believe that our pleasure and fulfillment is worthwhile. We are not supposed to see ourselves as having intrinsic value. Lots of us need escapism because the world around us hates us so much that the only way to survive it is to escape it sometimes into a created place that views us as valid and good. Fanfiction, moreso than mainstream published media ever can, gives value and space to people and feelings and experiences that are given no space or value elsewhere.

But we are supposed to think that’s worthless. 

(Source: thebeesandthebees)

(Source: think-progress)

truth-has-a-liberal-bias:

We all recognize the tough job schools face in creating a nurturing education environment for their pupils. We also understand that appropriate discipline is vital to fostering a fair and respectful climate within schools — however, sometimes schools go too far.

This article looks at five recent news stories ranging from the ill-judged to the outrageous about when school discipline goes terribly wrong.

1) Using same-sex hand-holding as a punishment — Two male students caught fighting at Westwood High in Mesa, Arizona, were told they could either face suspension or hold hands for 15 minutes in the school courtyard. They chose the latter.

The two unnamed high school kids were then pictured shielding their faces during this punishment as a group of kids taunted them with anti-gay language. The punishment provoked an angry reaction from some at the school who said it was reinforcing negative attitudes about being gay by making same-sex contact into a punishment. […]

Click the link to finish reading.

theamazingz:

avatarsnowy:

theamazingz:

avatarsnowy:

You know, where they made two boys sit in a schoolyard holding hands?

I want to tell you guys a story real quick.

When I was in tenth grade, there was a friend of mine in marching band who was super affectionate and, in retrospect, possibly gay. She would hold the hands…

Dude its not like it is a punishment because of homophobia its punishment because they are being forced to hold hands with someone they probably hate, it doenst matter about gender or sexual orientation  being forced to hold hands with someone you hate would totally and utterly suck.

Three paragraphs down.

“Student Brittney Smyers told ABC 15, “Kids were laughing at them and calling them names, asking, ‘Are you gay?’ ””

The students reacted by throwing slurs and other accusations at these two. They were literally bullied as punishment, and administration apparently did nothing to stop the students from bullying them while they sat there.

The boys were given a choice, so if they really didnt want it they could have not done that

That’s irrelevant. It was still suggested as a viable punishment, and the administration still did nothing when it was actually happening. 

theamazingz:

avatarsnowy:

You know, where they made two boys sit in a schoolyard holding hands?

I want to tell you guys a story real quick.

When I was in tenth grade, there was a friend of mine in marching band who was super affectionate and, in retrospect, possibly gay. She would hold the hands…

Dude its not like it is a punishment because of homophobia its punishment because they are being forced to hold hands with someone they probably hate, it doenst matter about gender or sexual orientation  being forced to hold hands with someone you hate would totally and utterly suck.

Three paragraphs down.

“Student Brittney Smyers told ABC 15, “Kids were laughing at them and calling them names, asking, ‘Are you gay?’ ””

The students reacted by throwing slurs and other accusations at these two. They were literally bullied as punishment, and administration apparently did nothing to stop the students from bullying them while they sat there.

zaataronpita:

hugintheraven:

These two guys at my school got into a fight after 1st hour and they were either to get suspended for 9 days or sit in the school courtyard holding hands all day even during classes. You can see what they decided.

I want to be clear what’s happening here, since I’ve seen the news report. The school decided an appropriate punishment would be to make these boys hold hands, knowing that their classmates response would be to tease them over doing something “gay”. This school encouraged bullying as a fair punishment. Look at the background. You have people laughing and taking pictures. These boys can’t even look up. Fuck this school. 

“Let’s encourage bullying and homophobia.”

Great education.

Fucking seriously. This skeeved me out so badly the first time I saw it. It’s fucked up.

(Source: breathing-isnt-living)

pretentioushipstername:

equiuszahhak:

why is this HAPPENING

Eternally laughing at this.

(Source: teruprince)

warning: cissexist slur 

kaliem:

The Trevor Project has given an award to Katy Perry. Yes, you read that correctly. The Trevor Project, the organization whose aim is to prevent LGBTQ youth suicide, is giving an award to Katy Perry to honor her for “inspiring LGBTQ youth to find their spark through her video ‘Firework’” and ”increasing visibility and understanding of the LGBTQ community.”

I wonder which acts of visibility and understanding they’re referring to exactly. Was it the time she made heaps of money for celebrating the stereotype that girls kissing girls is an act done for attention? You know, the song Kathleen Hanna called “straight-up offensive,” P!nk said “trivializes lesbianism” and Beth Ditto noted was indicative of Perry ”just riding on the backs of our culture, without having to pay any of the dues and not being actually lesbian or anything at all”?

Or was it the time she peppered a song with effeminate gay male stereotypes so she could insult an ex-boyfriend, equating queerness with negativity and encouraging bullying against gay people? Did the fact that she opened that song with the lines “I hope you hang yourself with your H&M scarf /While jacking off listening to Mozart” really seal the deal for a LGBTQ youth suicide prevention group?

Maybe it was the time she talked about looking like a “tranny” in Rolling Stone? Or when she mocked trans* people on twitter, inspiring a condemnation from GLAAD? Those don’t seem like moments when queer visibility was improved, nor were they stellar examples of helping other to “understand” our community any better. Those seem like moments when some homophobia slipped through the cracks, and no one listened when queers called it out. After all, Perry herself has declared that “certain parts of the world — especially in the U.S. — are just dying to be offended” and that it “won’t change how I express myself as an artist.”

Being pissed off at Katy Perry isn’t anything new for the queer community, which is why it seems strange for us to be giving her some kind of award, although it’s certainly not the first time we’ve been baffled by Perry’s inclusion and celebration in a queer space. In 2008, Perry made the cover of the OUT 100, earning the coveted honor of “Musician of the Year,” inspiring lesbian entertainment blogger Dorothy Snarker to ask OUT, “What the fuck? Katy Perry? Katy fucking Perry? This is a joke, right? What you meant to do was pick an actual lesbian to pose amid the gay men, right? Right?”

Autostraddle pretty much nails it with this article.

The read more contains graphic and triggering photographs of the injuries sustained in the attack.

isitscary:

fuckyeahqueerrevolt:

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