If you’re not supportive of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Oil Pipeline, you can help First Nations like Tsleilwaututh Nation who are taking Kinder Morgan and the Canadian Federal Government to court, by donating.
Source: twnsacredtrust.ca
The total solar eclipse and Native Americans.
Tomorrow is the the total solar eclipse. For those of you that don’t know, I am half Navajo on my mothers side, and I am Prairie Band Potowatomi, Sac and Fox, Kickapoo, and Shawnee on my fathers side. According to Navajo culture and lore, when a solar or lunar eclipse occurs, Navajo people must stay inside and not look at the eclipse. To Navajo people the sun and the moon are sacred spirits and when they overlap in an eclipse we must respect this unison by staying inside sitting quietly, praying and reflecting upon ourselves. The spirits are performing their own ceremony and we must not eat, drink water, or go about our daily activities. Navajo people believe that if a Navajo person does not give respect to these spirits and go out during the eclipse, looking at the eclipse, or not praying at home quietly (means no tv, no video games, no phone, not much talking, no playing with toys for kids) can lead to great misfortune to ones self or their family. We must give thanks to the creator and the other spirits that give us what we need to live in this world. So me and my family will not be outside peering at the sun and moon. We will be praying from the start of the eclipse to when it ends. It will be a long wait but this teaches us patience’s and teaches us to be thankful for the things we have. Some people may think this is a burden or think it silly but this has been apart of Navajo culture long before this country was formed. This also goes for a lot of tribes in the southwest. I know that the Pueblo’s and Apache’s have a similar outlook on the eclipse, but I am sure a lot of other tribes do as well. So please keep in mind that not everyone will be viewing the eclipse and to know that for some people around the world this eclipse is a representation of powerful spirits and forces that come together to bring blessings as well as teach us that we are all just children on mother earth in the presence of two amazing beings, and the creator.
A side note is that in New Mexico and Arizona, a lot of Native American students that are apart of the tribes not involving themselves in the eclipse are excusing students, or shutting down entire schools so students do not have to view the eclipse. I found this pretty amazing, but I wish that schools outside these areas, that have students of these tribe would do so as well. Some schools do not see it as a sacred event and will give unexcused absences or belittle students and parents for having their child skip school. But when push comes to shove these religious acts are protected by right to religion and schools are not allowed to infringe upon these ceremonial proceedings. Also certain businesses, and native gov'ts are letting their Native American staff members off for this day. “THE MORE YOU KNOW!”
For those of you viewing the eclipse… go buy the eclipse viewing glasses (but make sure they are the real deal because I heard their are fakes going around). I know you can also make a small hole on top of a box and cut a small viewing screen on the side to see the light coming through the pin hole to make a circle and just watch the light get blocked out by the moon. But there are other ways to view it without the glasses, but for the love of the creator, don’t just stare at the eclipse you can make yourself blind!
Thanks everyone!
ALDTheWoods
postingwhileblack
I am so proud of women of color who seized every opportunity and finally reached their goals. In America, women of color, especially if they are Muslim, face so many hazards and obstacles that seeing them happy delivering truth is a rare delight.
Social media should support these women and their accomplishments so that they become aware that we are proud of them!
Source: instagram.com
a collections of links to readings on asian-american gay and lesbian history
“Asian Lesbians in San Francisco: Struggles to Create a Safe Space, 1970s-1980s,” Trinity A. Ordona, in Asian/Pacific Islander American Women: A Historical Anthology, 2003 [starts on p. 319]
“Tomboy, Dyke, Lezzie, and Bi: Filipina Lesbian and Bisexual Women Speak Out,” Christine T. Lipat, Trinity A. Ordona, Cianna Pamintuan Steward, and Mary Ann Ubaldo, in Pinay Power: Peminist Critical Theory (2005)
“Slicing Silence: Asian Progressives Come Out,” Daniel C. Tsang, in Asian Americans: The Movement and the Moment, 2001
“Sexuality, Identity, and the Uses of History,” Nayan Shah, in Q & A: Queer in Asian American, 1998 [starts on p. 141]
“Subverting Seductions,” Gupta, Unruly Immigrants, 2007 [starts on p. 159]
“Queer Asian American Historiography,” Amy Sueyoshi, in The Oxford Handbook of Asian American History, 2016 [contains discussion of csa]
“Miss Morning Glory: Orientalism and Misogyny in the Queer Writings of Yone Noguchi,” Amy Sueyoshi, in Amerasia Journal, 2011
“Breathing Fire: Remembering Asian Pacific American Activism in Queer History,” Amy Sueyoshi, in LGBTQ America: A Theme Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History, 2016
“Looking for Jiro Onuma: A Queer Meditation on the Incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II,“ Tina Takemoto, in GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 2014
”Gay Asian Community Oral History Project“ (abstracts only)
#SaveFarhad
Farhad is a gay male in Pakistan, which is notoriously homophobic, who’s being abused by his family for being gay. He’s mentally ill (anxiety and panic disorder) and being denied access to a psychiatrist. He can’t call the police. He gets beaten for having panic attacks. He’s not allowed to leave the house. He’s suicidal and tried to kill himself many times. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE spare any funds you can to help get him out of Pakistan. He currently does not have the funds to run away
If you can’t donate (or even if you can), reblog this post so someone else can. Farhad is genuinely fearing for his life and we need to do everything we can t help him
#SaveFarhad
The Muxes of Juchitán
Juchitán is a town in the southeast of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. The town which is largely inhabited by the Zapotec Indigenous people, has not only preserved it’s precolonial language and culture, but has also retained gender identities and roles that transcend the traditional western ones. Those which were subjected onto much of the rest of Mexican society by European colonizers.
This contrasting expression of gender that survives among the Zapotec and Mestizo communities of southern Oaxaca, takes its form in the concept of the muxe. Muxe is a term used to refer to those assigned male at birth, but who identify either as women or as a distinct third-gender. They are an intrinsic part of Zapotec society, and highly respected for the roles they play in families, such as taking care of their elderly parents when their siblings have moved out of the household. Despite the acceptance of them in many rural areas, they face discrimination in more urban areas, mainly by non-Indigenous people who have inherited the Spanish cultural attitude of machismo.
Fjhfkglflfj in direct contradiction to my last post I just had a fucking magical moment with this butch omg. They were sitting at a table that I passed and I smiled at them and they smiled at me and then we both checked each other out and then when I walked past they turned to smile at me and I did too and we literally turned around and smiled at each other like 10 more times and I’m literally still fucking blushing, I can’t even deal!! The .001% of girls that you spontaneously fall in love with in public being gay too do exist!!
Being a gay girl is so depressing because you can always be sure that 99.999% of the girls you spontaneously fall in love with on the street or at a store or in your class are straight which bring your already 0 chance of ever having anything with them to like a -6372910272819 chance so you don't even get the girl in your daydreams & it's just kinda ridiculously and horribly lonely, you know?
AIDS Memorial Quilt of the Names Project Foundation displayed on the National Mall, DC. in 1987
july 6, 1992
is the date marsha p. johnson’s body was found by the police from the hudson river. lets take a moment to remember and appreciate what marsha has done for our community
So apparently a lot of people don’t understand that pronouns =/= gender, so look at it like this: pronouns are the way that you refer to someone in the same way that a name is the way you refer to someone. Now, when it comes to names there are names that we think of as “boy” names and there are names that we think of as “girl” names. As such, we make assumptions when certain names are used. If we hear someone say “so my friend Tony said…” we might think they’re talking about a guy, or if they say “so my friend Ashley said…” we might think they’re talking about a girl. But if we find out that the gender of the friend is not what we assumed, we don’t think or say “no, your name is a boy name so you’re a boy,” instead we think “I assumed that you were a man/woman because your name is commonly associated with men/women but I was wrong.”
Similarly, just because certain pronouns are more commonly associated with men/women doesn’t mean that they define someone as a man or a woman. She/her pronouns are not “female” pronouns, they’re just pronouns. He/him pronouns are not “male” pronouns, they’re just pronouns. Like names, they are just words that we use and it is the person behind the words that determines the gender, NOT the other way around. Yes, it is more common for women to use she/her and it is more common for men to use he/him, and assuming someone’s gender based off of their pronouns may be right most of the time. But just because something is more common or correlated doesn’t mean that it is always that way 100% of the time. You are going to run into names, pronouns, presentations and people who challenge your conception of the way things “should” be. As such, it is YOUR job to realize that some men use she/her pronouns, some women use he/him pronouns, some use they/them, some nonbinary people use she or he or they, etc. It is not OUR job to convince you of our gender when you are the one with so limited a worldview that you can’t even accept the fact that not everything is a perfect binary. And if you wouldn't tell a man with a "girl" name that he has to be a girl or that he's not a man unless he has a "boy" name, then why would you say the same thing to someone using pronouns not commonly associated with their gender?
Names and pronouns are unique and represent a person. They do not define or describe their gender, and if you rely solely on someone’s name and pronouns to understand their gender to the point that you think their name+pronouns determines their gender, then you will likely be sorely disappointed several times throughout your life.
Fghklfjdjlsldjf I just told my new therapist that I'm questioning my gender again and feel really unsure and ??? about it and she told me that it's because I'm borderline and she's like "I've met borderlines who thought they were aliens so you're probably not trans :)" like ummmmm.
Gaza’s only power plant has shut down months ago and now families in Gaza receive 1½ to 3 hours of electricity each day only.
I have been looking for ways to help, and found that MECA had launched an initiative with a group of young engineers in Gaza to purchase materials, produce and install rechargeable battery-operated systems in homes with lights, fans and a cell phone charging station, etc…
The electricity crisis in Gaza is definitely a much larger issue where babies can potentially die in hospitals due to lack of electricity, but donating is a desperately needed help, especially in this heat.
As if I wasn’t riled up about Canada’s “birthday” before today???? We all love to throw around the term “reconciliation” when it comes to Canada’s indigenous population but at the end of the damn day, the Canadian government cannot even stand a teepee going up and sharing space with “official” Canada day celebrations on Parliament Hill. Why? Because we aren’t supposed to exist, and any display of agency that indigenous peoples show is a threat.