Icon by @ThatSpookyAgent. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. BlueSky: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. The X-Files. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
Planned Parenthood is fucking amazing, y’all. I haven’t been there yet…but just talking to their HRT line on the phone…
They used my respected name right off the bat. Called me Riley all the way through. Used he/him pronouns. Didn’t slip up once. Asked me and “What’s your legal name? I’m sorry I have to ask that.”
Then asked me “Now is it okay if I send things with Riley Roswell to your home?” not wanting to out me accidentally and then “Is it okay if I send stuff with planned parenthood labels on them or do you want me to be discreet about it?” knowing there are people who could get in trouble with family or partners or others for going there.
OH MY GOD I’M GOING TO CRY AND THEY DIDN’T JUDGE ME AT ALL
THEY WERE TOTALLY ACCEPTING AND ANSWERED ALL MY STUPID FUCKING BASIC QUESTIONS ABOUT HRT ABOUT WHAT THE APPT WAS GONNA BE LIKE
AND SHE WAS SO KIND AND SO UNDERSTANDING
AND SHE RESPECTED ME SO MUCH AND I WAS SO HAPPY
I CAN’T BELIEVE PEOPLE LIKE THAT EXIST IN OUR WORLD.
OH MY GOD.
AND I’M GOING TO BE GOING TO THIS WONDERFUL PLACE ON THE 29TH!!!!!!!!
Story time: when I was in college, I took a night class on the Vietnam war to fill my history credit. My professor was a grizzled old man who swore like a sailor. On the first night, he went through the class rules. He told us that we were going to see “some pretty gnarly shit” in his class. He said he would always try and warn us if we were going to be shown pictures of dead or heavily disfigured bodies. This wasn’t a surprising or unusual thing, I had already had professors do the same thing. But he also told us that, if at any point the content was too much, we could leave and come back when we were ready and that other students were not to give people shit about it at risk of being docked points, because you don’t know someone else’s life. A friend who was taking the class with me, was a marine who had served in Iraq, and frequently, he would get to leave when we were shown pictures of the dead.
When I see articles decrying the use of Trigger Warnings in an academic setting, it makes me sad and a little angry. We’ve turned trigger warning into a scare word, it to something much bigger than it is. It’s not a totalitarian form of silence, it’s a basic courtesy we’ve been using for a long time. It’s a content warning, a way of saying “hey this might disturb you, you sure you want to keep going?” it’s the reason we rate movies, it’s that little message they okay before The Walking Dead. For those of us who don’t struggle with PTSD or the like, it doesn’t make much difference. But those little warnings are very important to people who have gone through terrible, violent things, like war, like assault, abuse, etc. and that two second blurb allows them to remove themselves from a situation that could potentially cause them to have a flash back or an anxiety attack. I don’t understand the conservative demand to turn this word into some scary threat to free thought.
It’s not. It’s simply not being a dick. It’s simply not being a selfish prick and taking someone else’s wellbeing into account. It’s understanding that it’s harmful for black people to see dead black bodies, it’s understanding it’s harmful for muslim women to see other muslim women forced to strip in public. The list goes on an on. And what makes me so god damn mad about the whole thing is, at the end of the day, that these articles and think pieces are really just about someone in power’s right to say what they want and make other people uncomfortable. The minute, the MINUTE, you ask them “hey maybe just warn your students/peers/viewers you’re talking about this shit” they loose their minds. It’s their freedom of thought, of speech at stake. Will someone take it too far on the internet every once in a while? Yes, because it’s the internet. But like, triggers are fucking weird and they can drag someone years back into their trauma, so is it really that big a deal to take ten seconds of your time and warn them? Trigger Warning is being blown into this thing that cancels speakers and silences professors. When really, all it is, is a basic human decency people are flat out refusing to offer.
The ACLU of Connecticut is suing state police for fabricating retaliatory criminal charges against a protester after troopers were recorded discussing how to trump up charges against him. In what seems like an unlikely stroke of cosmic karma, the recording came about after a camera belonging to the protester, Michael Picard, was illegally seized by a trooper who didn’t know that it was recording and carried it back to his patrol car, where it then captured the troopers’ plotting.
Another suggested, “we can hit him with creating a public disturbance.”
“Gotta cover our ass,” remarked a third.
This should 100% be felony charges with guaranteed jailtime if proven true.
Exactly, this kind of abuse of power is extremely dangerous because it erodes the rule of law. There is very little legitimacy left in the American justice system and people can’t be expected to respect authority when it behaves like this. It’s really hard to see how the US will be able to pull out of the tailspin it’s in.
Here’s a petition calling on DOJ to investigate harassment and detaining of people who film police: LINK
a game called “hamlet, kanye west, or dril” in which you are given a quote without context and subsequently must determine whether or not it originates from shakespeare’s extremely well-known tragedy hamlet, highly influential rapper/fashion mogul kanye west, or noted Weird Twitter account dril. it may sound easy but i have a feeling it’d be at least a little bit harder than it sounds
if you think this is easy, please remember drill said “I will face god and walk backwards into hell” Kanye West said “Nothing in life is promised except death” and Hamlet said “Words! Words. WORDS.”
