I graduated high school in 99.
There was a student at our school named Wayne.
Wayne was gay. It was obvious. He was unable to stay in the closet even if he wanted to. To make matters worse, he was also Black. From a bullying standpoint, that was not a great combo. Both Black and white students made fun of him relentlessly. He was ostracized from the only community that may have given him protection. Only us theater kids stuck up for him, but not to significant effect.
Wayne was bullied so much that at one point he finally snapped and attacked his bullies with a lunch tray. I was actually seated in perfect line of sight and just sat there chewing my soggy fries in stunned silence. It didn't even seem real as I was witnessing it. The image of him wailing on his main bully as the food on his tray flew off is permanently logged into my long term memory.
The bully he attacked had blood all over his face and went straight to the nurse. Other than superficial cuts, he was not injured.
Before the attack, Wayne went to teachers for help. He went to guidance counselors for help. He went to the principals for help.
He did all of the things you were supposed to do. No one helped him. They wagged a finger at the bullies and warned them to stop.
Wayne's lunch tray melee was the only thing that worked. His bullies stayed far away from him. But a week later Wayne was expelled and the bullies were given no punishment.
So... no.
No one in my school talked about being trans.
Because the only way to survive being openly queer was to bash people with a lunch tray.
(ID: screenshot of a tweet from Twitter user @HHepplewhite. Screenshot reads, "Anyone who went to school before 2000. Do you remember any of your friends or classmates tell you they were born in the wrong body and wanted a sex change? No.. me neither" end ID.)
I graduated high school in 2008. I was in kindergarten in 1995 and 1996. And listen, my working short-term memory is absolute shite but I have a fantastic long-term memory for anything I find interesting, and I remember in my kindergarten class we had a girl I'll call J. J had a girl's name and I think she wore girl's clothes some of the time. But she was adamant that she was not a girl, she was a boy. Being told she wasn't a boy made her really upset.
I asked her about it once, because I couldn't figure it out. How could she be a boy, with a girl's name and clothes? And her parents and everyone always saying she was a girl? Why not just...be a girl? It's easier to just be what everyone says. Why are you a boy?
"I don't know," she said. "I just am. They keep getting it wrong and I don't see why it has to be such a big deal if I'm a boy or not. I can be a boy named J if I want. I'm not a girl. They keep saying I am and I hate it. I can be a boy if I want."
Obviously that's not a direct quote, it's been almost 30 years, but I remember that was the gist of it. I don't know, I just am. I don't see what the problem is.
We continued to go to school together, and J eventually stopped insisting about the boy thing...but as we got older, J's presentation got more and more masculine and J's clothes got baggier and baggier, and J got quieter and quieter and stopped smiling much if ever, and we weren't ever FRIENDS, but I remember. And looking back...yeah, that kid was almost definitely trans. Wherever he is, I hope he's doing well and has been able to find a way to be happy. He'll be 33 this year, if he's survived.
(I wish I had done more, been a friend, but...well, I was five and reading Nancy Drew and I think J was into sports; we ran with different crowds. I think I basically just went "oh okay, some girls are boys and I don't know why that's not fine," and carried on with my life.)
So fuck every adult who says all this is new. We aren't new. Some of us went along with what we were told because it was easier and didn't hurt in ways we noticed until later, and some of us TRIED to stand up and say something in fucking KINDERGARTEN, but every adult and other child in the vicinity knocked us back onto the ground and kicked us until we stayed down. Same as the frogman says, you didn't hear about trans kids because trans kids who knew they were trans also knew it was not safe to stand up. By the time you got to high school, you knew better than to be who you were.
I am so excited every time I meet a trans kid or someone mentions having a trans classmate. The fact that today's kids (1) know you can be trans and (2) feel juuuust safe enough to BE out and trans despite the undeniable hardship and bullying that still happens is just stunning to me. But there are not MORE TRANS KIDS than there used to be. Today's kids are just better-informed about the possibilities, are discovering themselves sooner and having the room to do something about what they discover, and all these politicians and random holier-than-thou "I know everything"ers think we're so new just because THEY never thought about it before. Fuck them.
ANYONE IN THE WEST MICHIGAN AREA IN NEED OF A SWEET LITTLE BOY?
i have to rehome my cat of 10 years, Panda, and really want him to go to a home where i will be able to keep in contact. ive run out of people to ask, though, so ill be calling a shelter on monday.
if you or anyone you know within a few hours of west michigan would be interested in taking in a special needs cat, please message me asap. he is a sweet boy that wants to lay on your lap and purr more than anything else.
please rb!
UPDATE: I AM HAVING TROUBLE FINDING A NO-KILL SHELTER IN MY AREA THAT TAKES OWNER SURRENDERS. PLEASE KEEP REBLOGGING! 🙏♥️
grumpy-gh0st
I would climb down there like a lizard and the magma wouldn’t hurt me
That’s not lava, sorry. This isn’t in Þingvellir, this is a display at the earthquake exhibition in Hveragerði. That’s a line of plastic lights in a crack that opened up during the 2008 earthquake. It’s in a shopping center. This is what it looks like from another angle
The fault in Þingvellir looks like this
The fault at Sandvík is closer together and looks like this
There isn’t any lava visible from the surface continental divides currently but when there was a fissure eruption nearby Sandvík a few years ago at Fagradalsfjall, it looked like this
He said he burned his ass and got frostbite everywhere else taking this picture
It’s a difficult choice, but I think this might be my favourite Tumblr thread of all time :)
The Fagradalsfjall area is currently in it’s 3rd installment of eruption, 1st was March 19th - September 18th, 2021. 2nd installment was August 3rd - August 21st 2022. The 3rd eruption started July 10th 2023 and is currently spewing. Before this round started, the Reykjanes area hadn’t erupted in 800 years, while the Fagradals area it self (which is on Reykjanes) hadn’t erupted in 6000 years. I saw the 1st eruption. It was fucking cool
I wish at the part in Death Note where L and Light have their tennis match and the teacher wants them to join the tennis team that he successfully convinced them and the whole story just abruptly pivoted to a sports manga
the kira killings stop the moment light joins the tennis club and it becomes obvious to everyone that light was kira but L doesnt want to lose their top player right before they go to nationals so it abruptly pivots back into trying to fool the police again
The author successfully pulls a yugioh and the whole thing just becomes a long running manga about competitive tennis with people occasionally going "hey remember when this one guy used to kill people? With a magic notebook?"
They’re about to break so many laws it’s not even funny, I can feel it in my bones
It’s about PayPal. This is all about fucking PayPal
He’s still pissed they fired him. He’s still pissed they didn’t like his idea of calling PayPal X
20 years and he has not learned a single thing. He’s still throwing a tantrum about people not liking his bad name suggestion decades ago
His name sounds like a dollar store perfume, what did you expect?
Unmute !
That’s the most “meow” meow I’ve ever heard
SHE’S SO MAD THAT WATER IS WET
@is-the-cat-video-cute this is probably fine, I’m just curious
is-the-cat-video-cute
Rating: Cute
this kitten is vocalizing its annoyance, and it is indeed vocalizing it AT the water, as if the water is going to take a hint and stop being wet and gross on its paw.
you WET miette? you wet her paw like the fish???? oh! oh! jail for water! jail for water for One Thousand Years!!!!