ok, should i make a series of posts (on an appropriate sideblog ofc ) that's just like, my Theory (tm) thoughts? like sociological or anthropological stuff about present day (but maybe kinda annoyingly abstract)? would be touching on terf / radfem stuff and things i've observed ofc, but also other stuff.

There’s still time to vote in many states. If you’re in like by the time the polls close, you can vote. 

If anyone tries to stop you from waiting in line, call the Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

know your rights!

Free rides to vote on Tuesday, November 8th are available in certain counties in Mississippi. Polling stations will be open from 7 am to 7 pm, but you can vote as long as you arrive before 7 pm even if there is a line. You can schedule a ride by clicking the link below.

If you're trans -- if you have a gender identity that doesn't exactly match the gender you were assigned at birth, regardless of whether you have transitioned or intend to and whether you're nonbinary -- and live in the US, ok and are 16 or older, you are eligible to fill out the 2022 US Trans Survey, crafted by trans people.

This is a big deal, it's the largest national trans survey and the last one was in 2015. The next one won't be for at least another five years.

There's some fairly personal questions and some heavy ones, like ones about harassment and domestic violence. They don't ask for your name or other definitively identifying information, and take steps to keep the rest of the data confidential. You can skip (most) questions you don't want to answer while filling out the rest. Data can be useful for lobbying politicians for things that are good for trans people, especially ones who are basically sympathetic but not sure they should prioritize trans issues. (In their words, "The USTS fills in some of the large gaps in research about transgender people, and it provides critical tools for researchers, policymakers, and advocates seeking to better understand the needs of transgender people and to find ways to improve their lives.") Most questions have set options, but there's also an opportunity at the end to share personal stories in your own words.

There's also a Spanish language version and Spanish speakers, people of color, older people, immigrants, those who live in rural areas, and people who are HIV+ are especially encouraged to fill it out (because when people don't it's harder to advocate for services for those people, even when people providing the services know damn well there's a lot of need.)

Vote Blue.

People who have Social Security worked for it. They contributed every paycheck.

Don't fall for Republican MFers calling it an entitlement. They are entitled to Social Security because they paid for it.

Hey.

please vote.

In ANY country, but specifically if you live in the US, are of age, and are capable of it in any shape or form. Even though it’s not presidential elections. Even though you might think it won’t matter. 

Please vote. 

I understand it’s not easy all the time. I realize that saying ‘your workplace is legally required to let you go vote’ doesn’t do squat if your boss doesn’t care about the law. I am familiar with how difficult it is to have to slog through campaigns full of catchy, nice-looking words that, upon closer inspection, reveal a much more sinister and selfish political goal. 

I was able to vote by mail in my state - by ordering an absentee ballot online, having it sent to me, filling it out, and sending it in by mail again. It was great because I had the time to sit with it and read through all the options presented before me. 

There are MANY states which require NO-EXCUSE-NEEDED absentee voting. (As in, they’ll simply send you a ballot in the mail if you ask.)

Please, if you find it difficult to vote in person on the day of, check and see if it’s possible for you to vote by mail. In many cases, your state site may have an easy online application for you to order your ballot and receive it as quick as 2-4 days. 

Many states also allow you to vote early, on a day that you actually have off!

https://www.vote.org/early-voting-calendar/

And as for the ballot itself - tons of websites now offer you on-demand lists of people on your ballot, with explanations on their states and what they’re about - and the only thing you need is your zipcode! I typically use the one my state provides, but you can also get them for basically anywhere by going to this website:

www.vote411.org

And look…

I know it isn’t a walk in the park, and I know politicians disappoint many of us, and it’s A) difficult to trust them and B) difficult to know you’re voting for a person who will make good choices. But we live in an age of information where we can look up what people’s stances are, what they’ve done in the past, and this is MUCH EASIER than it once was!

Don’t let people persuade you that voting does nothing! Look at Brazil!

 People who tell you that voting is useless are trying to stop you from voting - BECAUSE THEY, THEMSELVES, ARE OFTEN VOTING.

I come from an actual country where our votes haven’t meant SHIT for 20 years in a row. This shit built up slow and steady - boiling the frog, as it were. The US is far from perfect. But it’s far from pointless to vote, and KEEP voting. 

man this sucks, being trans should have been an anthropological curiosity, not a political movement, it should have been a quirk of humanity, not a fight for survival, it should have been like being colorblind, or having six fingers, it should have been something science teachers taught their students excitedly because it was this interesting bit of trivia, it should have been no more exciting than being a furry or being born with edietic memory. it should have been this little vibrant community whose only care in the world was to share tips about how to customize your presentation it should have been an off hand remark while hanging at a bar to the tune of “hey, isnt joan of accounting trans? crazy stuff my cousin tom changed too and now is nora”

i look back at all those old news papers from like the 30′s and 40′s and the way they seemed to talk about the subject and is like fuck, how can we get that back

October 2022. If you live in the United States, are over 12 years old, and it has been more than 2 months since your last vaccination or covid infection, you are eligible for a free bivalent COVID booster. Get it now, because it takes 2 weeks to take effect and winter is coming

*This may be the last free COVID booster in the United States

https://www.vaccines.gov/

Tumblr Community Labels PSA

hey guys, just a quick PSA message to let you all know… tumblr has released a new feature called “community labels” where you can label your posts as mature so that people can voluntarily filter or blur posts that contain certain subjects… however while your first encounter with it will likely be while posting, it’s also Already affecting your settings. if you go into your dashboard settings you’ll see a new section that looks like this…

THESE ARE ALL SET TO “HIDE” BY DEFAULT.

tumblr is currently hiding all flagged mature content from you unless you manually turn it on lmao. just thought i’d let you all know!

The Midterms: Voting & The Disability Community

Join @whenweallvote, the American Association of People with Disabilities’ REV UP Voting Campaign, and The Whole Person to ask questions about the upcoming midterm elections, how you can register to vote, and all you need to know about Election Day.

September 12-16, 2022 is Disability Voting Rights Week, a time for advocates and communities to build the power of the disability vote through voter registration, voter education, community engagement, and more! The disability community is one of the largest voting blocs in the country, with over 38 million eligible voters with disabilities in 2020.  The community also faces access barriers at the ballot box: only 17.7 million voters of the 38 million eligible voted in 2020. This September 16th, get your questions answered about the intersection of voting and the disability community and how to make voting more accessible to disabled folks. 

What are you waiting for, Tumblr? Ask them a question, and head back over here on September 16th, 2022 at 12 PM EST to see their answers. 🗳️Don't forget to get registered to vote (HERE)🗳️!

MEET THE PANEL

Priestley M. Johnson (She/Her), Director of Strategic Community Partnerships, When We All Vote

Priestley M. Johnson the Director of Strategic Community Partnerships and is responsible for When We All Vote’s partnership program that delivers voter registration tools and resources to hundreds of partners across the nation. Ms. Johnson is a passionate advocate and avid relationship builder dedicated to using her skill set of strategic partnerships, project management, business development, and event planning. With previous experience in the Obama White House and the International Women’s Forum, Priestley is passionate about advocating for more resources for those in need and building capacity through fundraising. A proud Howard alumna, Johnson is committed to moving the needle. 

Lilian Aluri (She/Her), REV UP Voting Campaign Coordinator

Lilian Aluri started off interning at AAPD in the summer of 2020, as a NYU VOTE 2020 Fellow, getting out the disability vote in the 2020 elections. Lilian then began a contract with AAPD and has since been working together with the REV UP team to continue to build the power of the disability vote, research voting accessibility issues, and also support AAPD’s broader advocacy. In her current role as the REV UP Voting Campaign Coordinator, Lilian supports the national REV UP network, facilitating trainings and webinars, convening the advisory committee, organizing national voting initiatives and collaborating with REV UP organizers to advance the power of the disability vote. Lilian also manages AAPD’s blog and a weekly email digest highlighting disability in the news.

As the older sister of a young man with Down syndrome and as someone with some mental health disabilities, Lilian values her role at AAPD as a chance to help create a more inclusive and just society in which all people with disabilities can thrive.

Kendra A. Burgess (She/Her), Public Policy Coordinator, The Whole Person  

Kendra A. Burgess joined The Whole Person in 2019 as Public Policy Coordinator, where she currently advocates for issues impacting people with disabilities at the city, state, and federal levels of government in Kansas and Missouri. 

Prior to this role, Kendra served as a congressional staffer for the Honorable U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill for several years, where she handled a portfolio of federal issues, including labor, healthcare, and housing. Additionally, she lends her voice to elevate issues impacting people with disabilities by writing opinion articles for regional news outlets, educating the public through press interviews, and collaborating with community partners to offer Diversity Equity and Inclusion Programming. Learning to thrive through her own invisibly disabilities, Kendra is a volunteer women’s health advocate by serving as the Kansas/Missouri Representative for the Worldwide EndoMarch, an organization seeking to advocate for those living with Endometriosis.

re: current events and the monarchy,

personal opinions only

Keep reading

Well this is absolutely hellish

Mickey Mouse when I ask him why he’s increasing my house rent by $100 dollars every month (he’s my landlord)

The underpaid disney employees on their way to evict me and my family

disney literally tried to do this ages ago. please watch defunctland explain it. im losing my mind. why

I would like to let people know that is a reality for many of the underpaid Disney employees as they can’t afford housing on their salaries

So Disney has apartment buildings it buys to rent cheaply to their employees

And I’m sure you can imagine the level of control Disney has over you when they control your employment and your housing

Originally it was just for the college program employees (like me) but got expanded to being available to all employees

Now I don’t know how it is with the full time employees, but if you were a college employee and you got “termed?” (Disney loves alternative language to control their employees, see being a ‘cast member on stage’ vs an employee at work). After being termed you had 24 hours to move out

Now, guess how well that worked for 19 year olds from Ohio who have nowhere to sleep and no way to get home

I knew a guy who had two “strikes” against him (calling out of work gets points against you, 3 points get you a strike) that had been waved as he had good reasons to miss those days. He then made a comment his supervisor didn’t like so she reversed the strikes being waved and gave him the third one for his comment. He then had to call his parents at 2 am to tell them he was now homeless in Orlando. Imagine if your boss could evict you for talking back

Now imagine you’re one of the many semi retired employees trying to stay afloat through their 70s, or the many employees who are recent immigrants, or who are parents of kids, or anyone else without a lot of work or housing options

Think of the shit they’d be able to do to you if losing your job meant immediately losing housing because your boss owns your home

Think of how much leverage that gives against the unions when your workers aren’t even secure from their employer in their home, where union dues paying for you to not work can’t save you from eviction because your boss decides if you get to live there

Any fucked up thing Disney does is almost always worse for their employees, and likely tested on them first

There’s a reason company towns are widely considered a massive labor rights violation.

2022 First Alaska Native!!

Rat from RuneScape (March 2004 – 26 September 2005)

I just saw a Twitter thread talking about transphobic legislation in Florida and the persecution of trans folks in general. There was a discussion about the state trying to forcibly detransition trans youth, and prevent both medical and social transition. Someone asked how the government could possibly regulate social transition, because "it's not like the government can regulate people's clothing choices."

I don't want to hate on this person, because I know that you don't know what you aren't taught, but it's just another demonstration of how vital it is for queer history to be shared.

Anti-cross-dressing laws exist to this day, and were actively enforced in the United States within living memory. [source] The Stonewall Riots happened in direct response to a police raid on the Stonewall Inn--and the police were raiding, as they often did, with the specific intent to arrest people wearing clothing that didn't "match their sex." [source]

Many schools and workplaces already police the way people are allowed to dress and present themselves, perfectly legally. There are endless articles discussing the ways Black people have their hair policed, people of color are targeted over their cultural clothing, women and girls have their clothing regulated by sexist dress codes, and the way trans people of all genders get targeted by strict uniform policies. Here's an article from 2020 that also talks about the need for legal protection of Black hairstyles in schools & the workplace. This is an article about a March 2022 dress code controversy over a nonbinary teacher. I could easily find more stories like this by quickly browsing Google.

I don't intend to panic-monger, but the government absolutely could get to the point where it's regulating queer people's clothing choices, because they have done it before. We have come incredibly far in an incredibly short amount of time, and there are government officials still in power who remember, and miss, the times when they could have us arrested for not dressing according to our assigned sex.

It's not some vague "what if?!" scenario, it's something that has very real, very scary precedent in the United States legal system.

ATTENTION IF YOU ARE IN THE (EAST) BAY

Cops and construction are moving RIGHT NOW to block off People's Park in berkeley for the construction of student housing. Peoples park is a hard won free public park and sanctuary for the homeless and low income, an artefact and icon of local 60's and 70's activism. it is listed on the national register for historic places

Please come help defend your park now!!

:)

ATTENTION IF YOU ARE IN THE (EAST) BAY

Cops and construction are moving RIGHT NOW to block off People's Park in berkeley for the construction of student housing. Peoples park is a hard won free public park and sanctuary for the homeless and low income, an artefact and icon of local 60's and 70's activism. it is listed on the national register for historic places

Please come help defend your park now!!

Animals don’t understand the concept of an accident. Your dog thinks you got out of the bed in the middle of the night just to kick him in the head.

This is a lie animals DO understand the concept of accidents especially social animals which is essentially all domestic animals. For example when dogs play-fight they often accidentally play too rough. When this happens the hurt dog will yelp! Both dogs stop playing, and the offending dog often performs submissive gestures (rolling over, licking, nuzzling softly) to show that they are sorry and they didn’t mean to be aggressive, and they were not trying to show dominance. After a few moments they’ll start playing again! So, if you accidentally step on your dog’s paw, and then you make a big show of saying sorry (petting, holding the dog, making soft sounds) your dog understands! They know you didn’t mean it. On top of that many animals have been shown to have varying levels of human language comprehension, so it’s not impossible that your dog ACTUALLY knows what the word Sorry means!

I ride horses and I’ve been in a few wrecks. They absolutely understand the concept of an accident. You can absolutely tell when a horse dropped you by accident as opposed to on purpose by their reactions right afterwards. On purpose gets a “haha got you” reaction.

By accident gets “Ack, are you OKAY?” Sometimes they won’t let you back up until they’ve checked you over with their snoot.

(I apologize to horses all the time, every time I mess up the exercise and I know it’s my fault, they get reassurance and an apology because horses are basically huge anxiety bundles with hooves and like to know that you aren’t blaming them for it).