Dear god. please make all superyachts explode tomorrow. amen.

Fave thing about this post is that nobody who’s reblogged it so far has made any comment. we’re all just sharing in the sentiment. peace and love on planet earth

“There’s no Hogwarts without you, Hagrid.”

R.I.P. Robbie Coltrane (March 30, 1950 - October 14, 2022)

good morning everyone i hope ur day is blessed and beautiful 😎✌️

Happy Pride!

Every pride, you must reblog this. No exceptions

I love that four different people on my feed scheduled this joyous person to reblog by 8am on June 1. I look forward to seeing this a dozen more times today.

I'm so tired y'all.

So tired of people on the left, LGB people, and so-called feminists that either don't care about trans people or actively work against us.

So tired of "anti-woke" class reductionists who think it's okay to throw trans people under the bus to try to ally themselves with "right populists" like Tucker Carlson and Josh Hawley.

So tired of centrist liberals that think they can just ignore trans rights because we're "too controversial" right now and don't want to alienate exurban voters that won't even vote for them anyway.

So tired of my community, one that is extremely small - even with the supposed "social epidemic" of trans people coming out recently - being treated as the go to punching bag blamed for everything and used as a wedge issue and boggie man to scare white middle class suburbanites into voting for fascists.

I'm so tired of state after state treating us like inhuman monsters than need to be morally (and legally) mandated out of existence.

I'm. Just. So. Tired.

Being trans is emotionally exhausting and means living in near constantly stress and fear, even in supposedly safe and welcoming places. But people think we do this for fun or try to force it on kids? Fuck you.

Lee says:

Hi everyone! I'm posting today to specifically point out an awesome resource that more people should be aware of.

The Gender Affirming Letter Access Project (GALAP) is an organization of independent clinicians who help transgender people access gender-affirming medical treatment like hormone replacement therapy and surgery by providing free letters using the informed-consent system.

The providers listed in the GALAP directory have pledged to complete at least one free informed-consent session and subsequently write at least one free letter per month.

This is super important because many people aren't able to get insurance coverage for the treatment they need without getting a WPATH-compliant letter, and that can make it difficult for someone to be able to start their transition.

For example, many low-income trans people aren't able to afford multiple therapy sessions which makes getting the WPATH-compliant letter difficult for them.

Similarly, trans people living in rural areas face more barriers in being able to find therapists near them who are trans-friendly and currently accepting new patients.

In my own personal transition, I've needed to get...

For anyone keeping a tally, I needed to get 10 mental health letters saying that I am trans and need to transition before I could get the medical care I needed, not including the “proof of HRT” letters.

It’s ridiculous— If I had needed treatment for any other reason, I wouldn’t have needed to jump through so many gatekeeping hoops where cisgender medical professionals were the arbiters if I was trans enough and deserve care.

For example, my stage 3 phalloplasty surgery is just having an erectile implant placed because I have erectile dysfunction. This is true of all post-phalloplasty patients as a result of the way our penis is structured.

If I were a cisgender man getting the same surgery for erectile dysfunction and having the same device implanted, I would not need to see two mental health professionals first who would judge me on my gender identity before deciding whether I should be allowed get the implant.

The urologist would just use their best medical judgement in determining whether the surgery would be a good idea and then explain the risks and benefits of the procedure and let me decide if I wanted to go ahead and do it. Then the doc would send the insurance the preauthorization info and codes for the procedure based on the diagnosis, and no required mental health evaluation or therapist letter would be involved at all.

But because my surgery is a “gender affirming surgery” for “treatment of gender dysphoria,” I have to see two therapists first and they will judge if I’m “trans enough” and then they have to write a letter saying that I need the surgery because I’m mentally ill (aka diagnosed with “gender dysphoria”) before my insurance will cover the surgery that’ll let me have an erection.

In my opinion, that’s paternalistic, demeaning, unnecessary and a waste of everyone’s time. And it isn’t just weird, invasive, and annoying— it can determine whether you’re able to access necessary medical care.

The GALAP also addresses how requiring a letter is a form of gatekeeping which can negatively impact multiply marginalized minorities, stating, "We are aware that people who do not fit a certain narrative about what it means to be 'transgender' often receive subpar care and face more barriers to receiving the care they need. We acknowledge that this greatly impacts people of color and indigenous communities, nonbinary people, and neurodivergent people."

The provider will have an interview session with you, using the informed consent approach in their interviewing, and then will write a letter, again using the informed consent approach in their letter writing process.

The interview session, the letter (and any additional copies of the letter) are all supposed to be pro-bono, which just means it's free. They aren't supposed to charge you for anything, like additional time on letter writing outside the therapy session, any clinical consultation they need to perform, or any communication with your surgeons and medical staff.

I believe that majority (or possibly all) of the providers in the directory will only provide informed consent letters for legal adults as the wesbite says "writing letters for youth brings up complexities since minors may assent but not consent without parent/guardian support to move forward with any medical interventions," so it's a resource that is more useful for those who are 18 or older.

You'll also need to discuss with your letter writer if they are comfortable officially diagnosing you with gender dysphoria if your medical provider/s and/or insurance company requires a formal a diagnosis of Gender Dysphoria to access gender-affirming medical services.

You should also check whether your letter writer needs particular credentials.

My insurance said:

“One of these letters must be from a psychiatrist, psychologist, nurse practitioner, psychiatric nurse practitioner, or licensed clinical social worker with whom the member has an established and ongoing relationship.

The other letter may be from a psychiatrist, psychologist, nurse practitioner, physician, psychiatric nurse practitioner, or licensed clinical social worker acting within the scope of his or her practice, who has only had an evaluative role with the member.”

Your insurance company may have more rigid requirements and need a letter from a medical doctor or doctor of osteopathic for example, and may not accept a licensed clinical social worker, or they may allow any mental health practitioner.

So it’s good to double-check that the person you’re contacting in the directory has the license you need for your requirements.

The GALAP site says:

The (current as of 04/2022) list of states that currently have a provider who has agreed to write free letters is below:

Most providers can only provide a letter to people residing in their state(s) of licensure, and there are some states that don't have any providers listed at all, so hopefully more providers will sign the pledge and get listed in the directory in the future.

But even as it is today, this is a super-useful resource for trans people who are looking to medically transition, and hopefully more people become aware of it and are able to make use of it going forward!

Our post on how to start HRT in the USA has linked to the GALAP website so this isn't the first time I've mentioned their directory, but I felt like the GALAP directory deserved its own post, so here it is!

Black Veil Brides // Carolyn

oh god oh fuck oh god oh fc ck o h gdo

Ok but f’real though, this is such a good example of feminine clothing actually tailored to fit a masculine body.

I think a not insignificant part of the gendered clothing issue is that because men’s clothing is by nature looser fitting, women can wear it and have it look decent on them because the clothing will still fit more or less the way it’s supposed to. The reverse isn’t true - because women’s clothing tends to be tighter, it’s often not going to look good on a man’s body that doesn’t have curves in the same places. But that doesn’t mean that a dress is always going to look terrible on a man, it just means that those dresses need to be purpose built for different body types. And that would help everyone: trans, cis, fat, thin, muscular, skinny, etc

I’ve reblogged this before and I’ll do it again, both for the statement of how important cut is to making clothes look good on your body, and for the absolutely gorgeous man in the video.

that's jamie! theyre a nonbinary circus performer and they're pretty cool. their tiktok:

Okay guys I’m just gonna say this, if you get mentioned in any of these Ray Ban charity event posts. DO NOT CLICK ON IT. It is a phishing website. DO not click on it unless you have the correct add blockers and safety precautions. I’ve gotten mentioned in at least 20 of these at this point, and a lot of them are from people I follow. That is because they have been hacked. They clicked on this link and their account was hacked. Please don’t click on this. I’m just bringing some more awareness to this.

This NEEDS more reblogs than likes (at the moment it does)

REBLOGING THIS WILL SPREAD IT FASTER THAN IF YOU JUST LIKE IT, WHICH MEANS MORE PEOPLES BECOME AWARE.

Thank you and have a good day, DON’T CLICK THE LINKS!!

~Hope

This is a map of Asia. North Americans, you may notice this map is not solely comprised of Japan, Korea, China and Thailand. People in the UK, you may notice India is not  a continent. That is, if those of you who generalize entire continents can even pinpoint India on a map. Indians are Asian, gasp! And not all brown skinned people are Indian, also, gasp! There are an alarming amount of people, of all ages, from all backgrounds, who seem to be unable to process this.

I’m ethnically Asian. Since Asia is an extremely large continent, I could be from any number of countries. I am neither from India, China, Korea, Japan or Pakistan, yet not so surprisingly, I am still Asian. 

Yes, there are commonalities across regions, through the conflation of cultures, colonialism, globalization, transnationalism and movement of diasporas. Sometimes these are all the same thing. Rickshaws, rice and curry can be found across the continent. But let’s not overgeneralize. You can also find Buddhists, Catholics, Muslims and Hindus across Asia. Cantonese Speaking Chinese Muslims! English Speaking Indian Jews! 

No, we are not all the same. Orientalism? (Please look up Edward Said for basic concepts) No thank you. 

Geography, people. It’s important. 

This pops up on my dash every so often. I reblog it again, not just because I wrote it, but because nothing has changed since I first posted this.

What’s cool about Iran is that it falls in 3 different regions of Asia so depending on what part of Iran you’re in, you can kind of get culture shocked a bit. The central and western part of the country is West Asia, the north east is Central Asia, and the southeast is in South Asia. 

To the folks wondering about Russia being included, I want to mention that the cultural debates and angst about that has been going on for CENTURIES. While France has been pretty fetishized all the way back from Peter the Great, there is no question that we are not Europe, even with that influence showing really obviously in historical seats of power like St. Petersburg. Nonetheless, the whole country was under control of the Mongols (The Golden Horde) from roughly 1242 to 1480, and that left an enormous Mongolian and Tatar heritage that remains to this day. The ancient Scythians are huge in the cultural imagination as well. And besides… look at the Russians who are outside the standard “Kievan Rus” phenotype (which most folks assume is how all Russians look.) 

Here are three of the 30 distinct ethnic groups in Siberia alone:

Buryat grandfather, photo by Alexander Newby

Evenk children, photo by Evgenia Arbugaeva

Young Yakut couple, photographer unknown

boom

AS SOMEONE WITH NORTHERN IRANIAN (AZERBAIJANI)/RUSSIAN/ HAZARA-PERSIAN/ UYGHUR-CHINESE ANCESTRY THIS IS SUCH A BEAUTIFUL POST 

And that’s why sometimes you’ll see a person with curly black hair, pale skin, and hazel-green eyes (my grand-father’s sister) who turn out to be Chinese. Mad recessive genes game at play, I swear. Mongols, they really got around. 

One time my rabbi told us, “imagine you had a box with a little bit of god in it. What would you do with the box?”

So we were like ?? “We’d protect it and keep it nice and clean and polished” and he was like “your body’s that box. Stop eating markers”

Every time I come across this post the last sentence smacks me in the face

Spread this around; remind the world that for every Nazi, there’s an entire train full of sensible people capable of basic moral behaviour. 

Remember, hand sanitizer removes sharpie, and good hearted people remove hate

hand sanitizer removes sharpie, and good hearted people remove hate

STROKE: Remember The 1st Three Letters… S.T..R … My friend sent this to me and encouraged me to post it and spread the word. I agree. If everyone can remember something this simple, we could save some folks. STROKE IDENTIFICATION: During a party, a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine and just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. (they offered to call ambulance) They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food - while she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening. Ingrid’s husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6:00pm , Ingrid passed away.) She had suffered a stroke at the party . Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today. Some don’t die. They end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead. It only takes a minute to read this… STROKE IDENTIFICATION: A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke…totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough. RECOGNIZING A STROKE Remember the ‘3’ steps, STR . Read and Learn! Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke. Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions : S * Ask the individual to SMILE .. T * = TALK. Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (eg ‘It is sunny out today’). R * Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS . If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call the ambulance and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher. NOTE : Another ‘sign’ of a stroke is 1. Ask the person to ‘stick’ out their tongue. 2. If the tongue is ‘crooked’, if it goes to one side or the other that is also an indication of a stroke. A prominent cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved. And it could be your own.

LIVE SAVING. WOOOAHH. REBLOG REBLOG REBLOG REBLOG REBLOG 

Had a family member almost die of one, so signal boosting because you never know when you could save a life.

Because I feel bad if I don’t reblog…

My mother died after being paralyzed by a stroke. Please read this^

• Palaye Royale

• Andy Black

• The Neighbourhood

• Fall Out Boy

• Bad Omens

• Black Veil Brides

• Sleeping With Sirens

• Crown the Empire

• Tokio Hotel

• I Prevail

• Linkin Park

• Arctic Monkeys

• Bring Me The Horizon

[Video description: a man holding a small chocolate box is wearing a orange plaid shirt, he is mostly bald but has a beard and small amount of hair on his head. The man also has tattoos on his arms.

Man: you know, momma always said having kids was like a box of chocolates

You never know what your gonna get

(the man opens the box and pulls out a small note with the word pansexual written on it)

Man: thats a good one!

(pulls out note with bisexual written on it)

Man: i like that one too!

(pulls out another note with asexual on it)

Man: thats a good one!

(pulls out card with gender fluid on it)

Man: yes!

(pulls out card with non binary on it)

Man: oh, yes!

(pulls out card with trans gender on it)

Man: definitely!!

(pulls out card with straight on it)

Man: thats a good one

(pulls out card with gay on it)

Man: i like that one!

(pulls out card with lesbian on it)

Man: and i like this one too!

There isn’t anything in this box that i dont like!

The video ends and is credited to princess dad @/ourdadnow on tik tok

End description]

this is so wholesome it made me fucking tear up

This fills me with so much joy and warmth and love!

Best TikTok ever.

Hey all y'all Americans out there please keep this in mind, make sure your votes count and oust the cheeto from the White House

Vote Blue

In Oregon, we have drop off boxes for ballots specifically.  Every county, I believe, has an elections department, and in my county there is ALWAYS a way to drop ballots off directly at the elections department.

The biggest concern is that the state usually mails out ballots 3 weeks ahead of time, so if it is going to take 3 weeks for the ballots to move through the mail, it is 100% possible for the ballots to not arrive in time.

In Oregon, it is possible to get replacement ballots. Watch the timing on these things. Find out your state rules.

We’re probably going to have to figure out safe ways of getting people to the drop boxes, to elections headquarters, if their vote doesn’t get to them in time or can’t get back in time. IDK, separate the back seat from the front seat with plastic wrap,everyone wear masks, someone think about this please. 

We need to pay attention to the rules around picking up ballots for people. Some states might allow it, others might not.  Some states require ballots to be in by a certain time. Others rely on postmarks.

since the old version of this post was flagged for 'adult content'...

reblog this post if your account is a trans safe space or owned by a trans person!

along with that, reblog if your account is a non-binary spectrum safe space or owned by someone on the nb spectrum!