can we like…get rid of the so-called leather and rubber “pride flags” ? it’s honestly ridiculous and offensive to the lgbtq community. those aren’t pride flags. 

The leather pride flag is the second oldest pride flag. It has been at almost every single US pride parade and protest in history.

It’s older then you are, it’s older then I am. The leather community is responsible for pride. Leather daddies were the ones chasing away cops when they tried to arrest us for being queer in public back when Pride Parades were illegal in the US. They are still the ones chasing away cops and corporations from smaller pride events and those that aren’t sanctioned by Wells Fargo. The leather community is essential to the queer community and has a long and rich history.

Please fuck off if you’re not going to learn the actual history of pride.

And don’t fucking out your hate in our tags, asshole.

The leather pride flag represents an expression of self which is inherently queer, and a community which has been around for generations. It is not offensive to the LGBT+ community in any way. I have seen cis gay and bisexual men standing shoulder-to-shoulder with trans men, all of them united by their leather community roots. The leather community is more diverse and nuanced than you perhaps know, but that is no reason for you to shit on a community you don’t understand.

Here is a photograph from 1998, displaying the leather pride flag, the bear gay pride flag, and the rainbow flag. This is our history.

Source.

Here is a photograph from 1987: three queer women entering into the Ms. National Leather Association Contest, or simply gathering as spectators.

Source.

A flyer from 1989, rallying the leather community to march in a Stonewall anniversary protest.

Source.

A photograph from 1988: Tony Deblase, the creator of the leather pride flag, and a gay man, embracing a fellow member of the leather community. Over his shoulder is Judy Tallwing McCarthy, a Native American woman who was part of the leather community from 1959. She co-founded the first lesbian BDSM group in Portland, along with her partner, Sashie Hyatt.

Source. Source.

Just because you don’t know the history, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Be humble, and always assume you have more to learn. Hatred, and outright dismissal of communities you know nothing about, is the most aggressively anti-LGBT thing I can imagine.

The leather community has always included trans people, lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals. The leather community is global and nuanced. The leather community is where many of us encounter our found families, and our lovers. For you to dismiss that is cold-hearted and ignorant. Just because queer sex is involved, doesn’t make the community dirty or bad.

I’m again fucking begging the baby gays to read/watch/listen to How To Survive A Plague.

Do you have any. Any idea. Any god damn clue. How kink intersects with LGBT and queer community. Queer history. Do you know why the community pushed for, and against, closing the bathhouses during the 80s? Do you know who organized awareness campaigns about HIV, even way back when it was still called GIRD. Do you know who created the safe sex pamphlets, the classes, who pushed for disclosing your health history to partners, who distributed contraceptives and condoms and dental dams at parties and meetings and baths? Do you even know where the safe sex education we have now comes from? Do you know where a bulk of the language about consent came from? Do you have any good god damn idea what the kink communities have done for us, and continue to do for us?

Keep their names out of your mouths because you clearly don’t know what the hell you’re talking about

If there is one thing I could say to young queer folks, especially young queer folks in the U.S. who are coming of age in a world that is more accepting than the one I knew growing up, it’s this:

Don’t be so quick to sanitize your queerness and make it corporate pride daytime TV-friendly. Don’t be so quick to jump on the purity bandwagon. Don’t be so quick to speak on what your community should look like before you’ve actually learned the history of your community, and always be aware that there are things you probably don’t yet know.

These things will not protect you. They never have. And all you’re doing is isolating yourself from community, from support, from the strength we all have when we stand together in a world that would gladly pick us off one by one.

Queerness isn’t as hidden or embattled now (in some places) as it once was, but make no mistake: when our existence was illegal everywhere the people you have this knee-jerk “hide the weirdos” reaction to are the very ones who would’ve had your back against the cops and the gay-bashers.

The people who made me feel safe to come out in my 20s flew the rubber and leather flags alongside the rainbow flag and often the trans flag as well. You don’t get to tell any of them they don’t belong anymore just because you don’t understand.

So I wanted to know what kind of crystal could go in a wizard staff, right? so I googled “big crystal,” as one does, and got an Etsy ad for This

And as you all know I Am currently taking a geology class, so I am probably more emotionally invested in minerals than usual. But that is...very obviously not a natural crystal.

So I did some looking around on Etsy.

Now, these shops all seem to advertise to the “witchy”/“spiritual healing” type of person. And there are a lot of them. Crystals are a Big Thing on Etsy. And ALMOST ALL of them are obviously artificially cut into the same sort of prism with a triangular pyramid top, regardless of the actual sort of crystal it is supposed to be.

Even like, fucking, obsidian. Obsidian is volcanic glass, it doesn’t form crystals at all, it is not a crystal

I’m not throwing any shade at people who are into crystals for like witchy reasons, but it really seems like if crystals are spiritually important to you, you should know what a crystal is...right...?

So there I am. Caught in the helpless anger and distaste of looking at geologically inaccurate Etsy crystals.

And as I scroll, I start to see items in...interesting shapes:

“Oh,” I think to myself. “Oh no.”

But it is too late. I have heard the siren’s song, singing to me of knowledge that will destroy me, but that I cannot help but seek.

These...elongated objects are almost always ambiguously described as “massage wands,” “crystal healing wands,” and other such innocuous things. The egg-shaped objects are, um, “yoni eggs.”

...Right. Okay.

Maintain the youthfulness of my sacred organ.

IT’S A SEX TOY. SAY IT. BITCH, IT’S A SEX TOY, IT’S OKAY, SERIOUSLY, THERE’S NO SHAME IN IT, SAY IT WITH PRIDE, SAY IT WITH YOUR CHEST,

OKAY.

Okay. I’m good. I’m fine.

Actually, you know what, never mind. There is shame in this and I want it to be never acknowledged again.

Additionally, I am not fine.

Why the fuck are there so many of these—

At this point I stop and start googling.

Now, Selenite is the crystalline form of gypsum. It is also known as satin spar. Selenite is brittle and breaks easily, and has a Mohs hardness scale of 2.

For those unfamiliar with the Mohs hardness scale, a mineral with a hardness of 2 is soft enough that it can be easily scratched with a fingernail. It also is dissolved by moisture.

NO. DON’T PUT THAT IN YOUR BODY???? DON’T PUT THE GYPSUM, WHICH HAS A MOHS HARDNESS SCALE OF 2, IS BRITTLE AND BREAKS EASILY, AND IS WATER SOLUBLE, INSIDE YOUR LITERAL ACTUAL VAGINA??????????

I try to reassure myself with the fact that these things are probably not actually selenite, because making a dildo out of such a soft mineral in the first place would be very difficult. Having seen fluorite before, I feel pretty certain that the fluorite yoni eggs are probably actually just glass.

I google fluorite.

Okay.

Further exploring online shows me that fluorite is soluble in various strong acids.

Some guys on a forum in 2004 have strong contradictory opinions on this.

(I google the pH of the vagina.)

I don’t understand how pH works. I give up on the solubility question and google the toxicity of fluorite:

I now know at least one orifice fluorite does not go inside.

Science.

No, dear followers, my journey did not end here.

I have opened Pandora’s box, except Pandora’s box is filled with minerals God did not intend to be anywhere near the vagina carved into the shape of dildos. Etsy is advertising me sex toys I wish I could forget.

And vaginal steam herbs.

It seems that there is potentially a correlation between wanting to steam your vagina and wanting to put rocks in it. I know, groundbreaking discovery.

Okay, so we’re talking therapy substitute therapy substitute.

(I begin to think about how desperately we need universal health care. Maybe I just need someone, something, to blame.)

At this point, I realize that I haven’t done any googling on whether dildos made of rocks are a good idea at all. So, very tentatively, as if typing it more slowly will make it any less observed by the FBI, I google whether quartz should be used...internally.

First result that pops up:

That’s, uh. That’s reassuring.

I decide I’m incapable of unpacking this particular suitcase.

There are, of course, a small handful of articles debating the safety of rose quartz sex toys. But I’m getting the feeling that this is not a normal question to have in the first place. I close the tab with little relief.

Etsy is still enthusiastically recommending me things that hurt me psychologically.

...pleasure chalk?

How can I describe the fear that this image struck in me, reader?

Pleasure Chalk? What could that be?

Is knowing worse, or is not knowing? I scarcely have a choice:

I check in with my emotions.

Is this relief? Am I relieved that they are eating the dirt instead of fucking it? One review complains about the taste. I don’t know what they expected.

I try in vain to struggle against the tide, to return to the relatively normal side of Etsy. I begin to resent, no, hate, these deceptively aesthetically pleasing hippie shops eagerly spreading medical misinformation and things as yet unknown.

This, unlike the other “crystals” I have shown, appears to show naturally grown crystals. They are, of course, quartz crystals, and $45 comes off as extremely overpriced. I have a quartz crystal I got for a dollar at an Eastern Kentucky rock festival, about the size and quality of the ones in the photo.

Quartz is the most common mineral in the Earth’s crust. But at least this is regular levels of annoying.

Then I see this:

Well, I see the photo and the price, and I think, that looks like a regular quartz crystal. There’s no way a regular quartz crystal is $1,347.

I read the description:

I am crying. I don’t want to google any of this. I am beyond googling. I no longer desire knowledge.

THATS A QUARTZ CRYSTAL. MOTHERFUCKER THAT’S QUARTZ. SIO2, MOST COMMON MINERAL IN THE EARTH’S CRUST. ITS FUCKING QUARTZ IM—

I click on a malachite.

The malachite promises to protect me from emails. And at this, darkest hour, I want to be protected.

I have been broken. I have been lured to my demise.

Big Brother: loved.

Geology lab I’m supposed to be doing: incomplete.

God: unmerciful.

This post has everything. Price gouging quartz, eating dirt, and fucking poisonous rocks.

Please don't fuck or eat anything that you don't 1000% know is safe, for fucks sake

This was one hell of a ride

Wow.

Just W O W

from the updated intro to fight club by chuck palahniuk:

I often wonder what happened to authors of unfinished fanfictions.

I hope they’re having a nice life

we absolutely are not and that unfinished fic haunts us to this day

Reblog if that unfinished fic haunts you to this day

It does

BLESS

I’m gonna reblog this forever and ever and ever and ever

This deserves another reblog~~<33

Love this!

Reblog for Good luck🙏🏼

This movie was greatly underrated

I love this movie so much

Tim Gunn on Plus Size Clothing

“Have you seen most of the plus-size sections out there? It’s horrifying. Whoever’s designing for plus-size doesn’t get it. The entire garment needs to be reconceived. You can’t just take a size 8 and make it larger. In my travels, I’ve been an advocate for larger women. I’ve been talking to designers, but only a half-dozen make an effort. Most say, ‘I don’t want a woman who’s a size 10 or 11 wearing my clothes.’ Well, shame on you! It’s not realistic

Love him.

“You can’t just take a size 8 and make it larger.” Praise Jesus and all the saints for him saying this because damn, most “PLUS SIZED” clothing is fugly.

Amen. The plus sized clothing out there is crazy and makes me just…

I’m not surprised he said this. Ever since the first season, when they’ve had to do garments for everyday people who aren’t models, there’s always one designer (at the very least) who flips out as though they’ve never in their life considered that people who aren’t a size 0 might wear their clothes. Tim always looks at them like he wants to drown them in a lake.

I love Tim Gunn so much and this is just one of the reasons. The other is that he is asexual and has copped a lot of flack for it in the media but he isn’t ashamed of what he is/is completely happy with who is. Next to Diane Von Furstenberg, he is one of my favourite people in the fashion industry.

My mom got to take a class taught by him and I AM FOREVER JEALOUS.What a cool guy

I DID NOT KNOW TIM GUNN WAS ASEXUAL

THIS IS SO WONDERFUL

IM GONNA CRY

WELCOME MY ACE BRETHREN

We do not, as a world, deserve the goodness that is Tim Gunn. My mom (a large woman in her late-fifties at the time) met him at a lecture and he spent several minutes complimenting her dress (which she made herself) and discussing why she’d had to start making ALL her own clothes (could no longer find nice, pretty things in her size) and then laughing over being the oldest people in the room (since it was a university lecture largely attended by students). My mom hasn’t felt good about her weight in years, but Tim Gunn made her proud of knowing how to dress for her shape and her taste in fabric patterns. According to my brother who witnessed all this, she was beaming.

I would die on a battlefield for Tim Gunn.

Just confirmed the ace thing, I hadn’t heard about it but it looks like he came out in an interview!

Oh shit re blogging for ace role model!

TIM GUNN IS OUR LORD AND SAVIOR 

Tim Gunn is a true unproblematic fav

obsessed with this photo series about trans love by photographer landyn pan (source)

Home (breaks the spell)

Drarry | 350 words | General Audiences | Pirate!Draco Malfoy, Kitten!Harry Potter, Fluff | Read on AO3

Heart pounding, following only instinct, Harry ran into the first hiding place he could see: a tight space between stacks of boxes to be boarded onto a ship.

“Disgusting breed of scoundrels!” the fisherman yelled. He spouted endless insults, but Harry paid no mind: in the safety of the nook, he devoured the stolen fish. It was his first meal in days.

Perhaps it was the blinding starvation; perhaps his cat instincts hadn’t settled in yet—the witch had said it’d take a moon cycle for the shift to be irreversible, for his human abilities and limitations to fade completely. But whatever the case, Harry didn’t notice the ground was moving underneath him until, hunger finally abated, he peeked out and found he wasn’t on the dock anymore.

He was on the deck of a pirate ship.

He stayed in the nook, convinced they’d throw him overboard the moment they found him. But when they removed the boxes from atop him, he was met with merciless pets and way too many bits of beef and codfish. At sunset, he was officially christened as Stinky by a group of excited pirates with a few drops of Brandy spilled between his ears.

And then the captain appeared.

Beautiful and dangerous, the man loomed over him, piercing him with silver eyes. Then he knelt and, almost reverently, he picked Harry up and held him against his chest.

Two days before the moon cycle ended, Harry turned back into his human self.

It happened in Draco’s arms, Harry’s very own sleeping spot. Draco had just called him his everything, his love, a finger scratching Harry’s chin, and he’d felt at home, at ease: the transformation was like a sigh of relief.

Then dread took over him.

“Don’t worry,” Draco murmured, a hand caressing Harry’s arm. “I knew.”

“H-How?”

A soft smile played on Draco’s lips, a stark contrast to his many scars.

“Not all magic folk are mysterious witches.” He winked. “Besides, your cat mannerisms were lousy.”

Harry pouted, but Draco’s fingers found his hair and soon he was drifting off again in the comfort of the pirate captain’s embrace.

Thank you for bringing pirate!Draco and kitten!Harry to life ❤️

How can an ultra-rare pair like Dudley and Goyle even meet? Well, with the magic of @gnarf ‘s birthday and the genius of @rockmarina’s writing, anything is possible!

They meet at Harry and Draco’s wedding.

At first, Dudley isn’t sure why he even attends—he’s only exchanged a couple of letters with Harry in the years since they last saw each other, and by the time the ceremony is over and they’ve all been herded toward the massive banquet to celebrate, he’s still half-convinced the wedding invite was nothing but a courtesy he was meant to politely decline.

Keep reading ‘How to Charm a Muggle’ under the cut or on AO3

I loved writing this pairing! I hadn’t considered it before, but the story took shape in my mind almost on its own 😍 Thanks @gnarf for planting this idea in our minds and @miakagrewup for letting me write a story for your beautiful art! ❤️

New dads spotted taking a morning stroll with their new bebe ✨👶🏻

I’m dedicating this to @maesterchill​ + the surge of lovely anons who had sent me kind messages over the last week (to which I still haven’t found the time to reply to). So sorry I couldn’t sketch something for each message- free time is becoming increasingly scarce due to work and RL issues, but hopefully this will make up for the lack of sketches! I’ve been in the mood for dad!drarry lately tehee 🥰

I don’t remember on which platforms I already screamed about this piece, but have you seen it? The perfect pap shot of two hot as fuck dads being badass and casual and it’s so killing me. Just. I’m having feelings. I imagine them at home and I’m incoherent. This is such a gem to look at.

Questions for Ada, Ijeoma Umebinyuo

Give Sirius a vlog, please. 

(Based on this).

where’s he taking him!!!