elimgarakofficial:

hi again, tumblr. i’m zack, i’m a gay trans man, a jew and a russian immigrant. 

i’m 27 this saturday, i’m still legally homeless, profoundly disabled and without family support. and now i don’t have a bank account at all, bc my german one got closed without my knowledge. 

if you’d like to help me eat at least once a day, get to shul on shabbat and maybe have a nice dinner on my birthday, you can donate via paypal.

thank you very very much. please spread this around and like don’t feel bad if you can only spare £1 or so, every little builds up and helps. 

aegipan-omnicorn:

eruthiawenluin:

johniaurens:

chaoticbard:

“Wow how privileged do you have to be to believe queer isn’t a slur” idk man maybe they just aren’t….American….

actually i’m reblogging this again to agree with a bunch of people in the notes saying they’ve never personally witnessed it being used as a slur

i grew up in finland and what was flung at me was either “homo” which is literally just the politically neutral finnish word for gay, or sometimes “lesbo,” again just the finnish word for lesbian considered the most appropriate, with the odd “lepakko” (lit means bat but when used as a slang term means lesbian, close to d*ke but less offensive) or “hintti” (offensive but kinda childish way to call someone gay)

and then lived in raleigh, north carolina - people used and still use afaik gay as the choice insult – went to durham pride two times and both years the only slurs i heard from homophobes were the f slur, the t slur and the d slur. i just haven’t seen it. i fail to see how this is a privilege as much as it’s a regional experience… it’s not a privilege to be called a f*g instead of queer by homophobes like wtf

I live in the Midwest where queer IS actually used as a slur (the Midwest is one of the worst parts of the U.S. as far as regressivism goes). You’ll hear it used maybe twice a year, as opposed to gay and f*g, which can be heard weekly if not daily. In one of the most regressive regions in the U.S.

They used to have PSAs on tv as often as smoking and DUI ads–I’m unsure if they were nationwide–about not using gay as an insult. Gay, because queer was never issued as a slur with the same frenzy and frequency. Queer is almost singularly used in pride organizations, college courses/theories, and as a self descriptor here. It is guaranteed that nowhere in the U.S. is queer a dominant slur, and certainly no more than gay or f*g.

Queer covers so many of us, especially our trans/nb/genderqueer siblings. That’s why this argument took off years ago in TERF/transphobic communities, and it’s also why we need to tell them no and continue to utilize it. Any word we use to describe ourselves–queer, gay, trans, lesbian, anything–will be used as an insult. Queer, despite decades of use after a relatively speedy reclamation, was initially singled out because it covers so many of us and puts minority sexualities under the same umbrella as trans/nb/genderqueer folk, and more recently people have begun speaking out against it because it includes a specs and other less mainstream identities. There is no basis for the anti-queer argument that does not stem from discriminatory beliefs against queer-identifying people.

Or, maybe, some of us are American, but we’re old enough to see its reclamation in real time:

• We saw Queer Nation march in the 1990 New York City Pride Parade (or we marched with them), and read the Manifesto they handed out to the crowd: “How can I tell you. How can I convince you, brother; sister that your life is in danger. That everyday you wake up alive, relatively happy, and a functioning human being, you are committing a rebellious act. You as an alive and functioning queer are a revolutionary.“
  
• We saw the phrase “Queer Studies” in our colleges’ course catalogs (and signed up for the classes)
• Or maybe we just watched “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” on TV.

In any case, yes: it used to be a bigot’s word. But we effing stole it, and it’s ours, now.

And I am in no mood to ever hand it back to them.

Got that?

avidreadr2004:

neurolith:

hi, my name is ana and i’m in a really difficult place right now. i’ve ran this blog for quite a while and i’ve never had much contact with my followers, but if you guys could please at least reblog this i’d be incredibly grateful.

i live with my parents. my dad has been abusing my mother physically, emotionally and financially all the years they’ve been married, and they’re finally getting divorced at great cost to my mother. i live in a no-fault state, so he’s getting away with most all of what he’s done. she and i are left with very little. we have to leave our house and don’t have anywhere to go. my mother and i don’t make enough to afford rent for a two bedroom apartment, and we really don’t know what to do and my savings are dwindling. if you are able to donate, anything helps: paypal.me/ironsulfide 

if not, that’s totally fine, a reblog helps and good thoughts help too. thank you so much for reading

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