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Now is an excellent time to tell your Democratic Congress Critters trans Healthcare is important
If you can’t safely contact them in person, here are some other options:
Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.
Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resist.bot/
This is extremely important, y'all. They’re trying to Hyde Amendment trans care for people of all ages.
Medicaid and Medicare coverage would go away, no matter what state you are in. ACA plan coverage would go away. Hospitals would fully just have to stop offering trans care, full stop, or lose their federal funding.
I know we hate the phone but we absolutely can’t sleep on this. If you have a Democrat rep, you absolutely have to tell them to hold the line against this.
(via selfmademen)
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Hey Tumblr, we’re Queer Liberation Library (QLL)
we’re an upcoming queer digital library, by & for the LGBTQ community
Our Mission: Queer Liberation Library fights to build a vibrant, flourishing queer future by connecting LGBTQ+ people with literature, information, and resources that celebrate the unique and empowering diversity of our community.
Learn more about us on our website: https://www.queerliberationlibrary.org/
or other socials:
- Twitter: @queerliblib
- Instagram: @queerliblib
- Tiktok: @queerliblib
#you win Joy #we made the tumblr!
ALT
(via vaspider)
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Now is an excellent time to tell your Democratic Congress Critters trans Healthcare is important
If you can’t safely contact them in person, here are some other options:
Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.
Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resist.bot/
This is extremely important, y'all. They’re trying to Hyde Amendment trans care for people of all ages.
Medicaid and Medicare coverage would go away, no matter what state you are in. ACA plan coverage would go away. Hospitals would fully just have to stop offering trans care, full stop, or lose their federal funding.
I know we hate the phone but we absolutely can’t sleep on this. If you have a Democrat rep, you absolutely have to tell them to hold the line against this.
(via selfmademen)
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Over a 100???? It was just the guy in the photo a couple days ago djsjdjks
no but jokes aside this is actually really great. malicious compliance in the best way.
here’s a quote from a Pink News article about this that really stuck with me:
Elia Bonci, who also spoke to la Repubblica, said: “I took courage, used my deadname and signed up for Miss Italy because fighting transphobia is intersectional and even though I’m not a trans woman, I’ve decided to fight for their rights.”
the whole point is to show how “afab” being used as a replacement for woman is fucking stupid and fundamentally incorrect and. whatever else. and it gives me hope to see the community rising up like this. solidarity and unity and peace on planet earth.
(via vaspider)
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I wish this feeling upon everyone who wants to wear a dress, its really the best
this makes me so happy as a fat hairy guy who likes skirts and dresses i never get to see guys like me in dresses it’s always skinny twinks this makes me so happy 🥺🥺
If you are a larger gentleman, and wish to partake of the dress-wearing experience, please accept these tips to help fit your first dress!
1) You want something with stretch in it. Dresses are (often) built for people with boobs, and until you get familiar with how they fit your specific body, trying something super-stiff will 100% end in tears. I promise you, I am 32 years old, I have been wearing dresses all my life, and I still get pissed at dressing room mirrors because who the fuck designs some of these. There are fitted, tailored dresses designed by sane people who expect that their clothes will be worn by human beings, and they will make you look fine as fuck, but make your life easy and don’t start with them.
2) Dress sizes were designed by sixteen ferrets on crack and are not consistent between brands, styles, or vintage vs modern. Use them as a guideline, not a rule, and don’t let them upset you. Very often they’re adjusted in order to target a specific audience.
3) Lauren by Ralph Lauren is an amazing plus-size brand. Both of my fitted dresses are Lauren dresses, and that isn’t because I’m a label snob, it’s because I try on a dress that I think looks good and I go “YEEEEEEEEEESSSSS” and then pull it off and look at the label and go “ … . why am I surprised?” When you’re ready to branch out into fitted dresses, I strongly recommend finding your local Macy’s or Nordstrom and checking out their Lauren section. Even if you don’t buy anything from that section, it will give you a much better idea of how fitted dresses should look (flattering!) and feel (comfortable!).
4) Empire waists are your enemy. Those are the ones with the raised waistline that, on someone with boobs, sits right beneath said appendages. They will 1) ride up and 2) make you look pregnant, and without breasts to fill out the cups it’ll look like you don’t know how to fit your size. It does not matter who you are or how tall you are, if you’re above like a size four, empire waists are not going to be comfortable or give you the look you want. Just save yourself the time.
5) Arm holes on a sleeveless dress do not fit like arm holes on a tank top. They’re cut differently. Before you buy, MAKE SURE you cross your arms over your front and give yourself the biggest hug you can. Then put your arms behind you as far as you can. If you feel the fabric snag or chafe, you will end up wasting your money because the dress will be stupidly uncomfortable. You might be able to fix this by getting the same dress one size up, but if you choose to try one size up, prepare yourself for disappointment first. It’s often a sign of poor design or craftsmanship.
6) Part of trying on your dress should be SITTING DOWN. If this isn’t a dress you plan to wear with tights or leggings, you need to make sure it covers the backs of your thighs. (Either that, or you need to resign yourself to peeling yourself off chairs, and that fucking hurts.)
7) If you wear a mix of different underwear types, make sure you wear boxers when you go to try on dresses. Nothing will suck more than throwing on your dress and realizing you can see your shorts very easily underneath.
and if you don’t fit a dress you thought you would, don’t feel bad. it happens to girls all the time. dresses on average aren’t really made for anyone except really thin people.
Do I reblog this every time it crosses my dash? Yes, yes I do, because it contains helpful information for finding and trying on dresses, and EVERYONE deserves to try on dresses if they want.
My additional piece of advice? Damn near everyone, when trying on clothes, suddenly has Good Posture when they’re looking in the mirror. So give it a few minutes, then see how the dress feels when your body has relaxed into what your Regular Posture is.
good advice for anyone who might want to wear a dress. It’s not you, your body is not uniquely fucked up, the clothing industry has just done so much coke they design for a hanger and then lossy resize it and call it good.
(via appleschloss)
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Ignore if this is too dumb and I hope this isn't offensive - but I've always wondered how being nonbinary is different from not fitting gender norms? I feel like the western culture idea of "woman" is really narrow and it's hard for me to know how nonbinary is different from not fitting this arbitrary thing.
Anonymous
Gender nonconformity can be a type of nonbinarism, and nonbinarism can be a type of gender nonconformity, while both also be their own separate things.
If you define womanhood to include leather jackets and buzz cuts, then you’re a woman in a leather jacket with a buzz cut.
I am a nonbinary person that wears flowy skirts and does dance styles typical of women. Still nonbinary. I look in the mirror and I dont think ‘woman.’ I think 'colorful.’
Your sense of gender, or lack thereof, is an internal feeling. Your outward appearance is a different thing that can sometimes have an impact on your sense of gender.
It’s hard to divorce your internal feelings from your outward self, and it takes time. You dont have to push it. If you want to start calling yourself a GNC woman, I think that’s fine. If you decide later on that 'woman’ doesnt fit, you can be something else. If you decide after that to go back to 'woman’ then that’s fine, too.
Identity shouldn’t have to be decided upon right away. You can give yourself space to dip your toe in the water.
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KOKOBOT - The Airbnb-Owned Tech Startup - Data Mining Tumblr Users’ Mental Health Crises for “Content”
I got this message from a bot, and honestly? If I was a bit younger and not such a jaded bitch with a career in tech, I might have given it an honest try. I spent plenty of time in a tough situation without access to any mental health resources as a teen, and would have been sucked right in.
Chatting right from your phone, and being connected with people who can help you? Sounds nice. Especially if you believe the testimonials they spam you with (tw suicide / self harm mention in below images)
But I was getting a weird feeling, so I went to read the legalese.
I couldn’t even get through the fine-print it asked me to read and agree to, without it spamming the hell out of me. Almost like they expect people to just hit Yes? But I’m glad I stopped to read, because:
- What you say on there won’t be confidential. (And for context, I tried it out and the things people were looking for help with? I didn’t even feel comfortable sharing here as examples, it was all so deeply personal and painful)
- Also, what you say on there? Is now…
- Koko’s intellectual property - giving them the right to use it in any way they see fit, including
- Publicly performing or displaying your “content” (also known as your mental health crisis) in any media format and in any media channel without limitation
- Do this indefinitely after you end your account with them
- Sell / share this “content” with other businesses
- Any harm you come to using Koko? That’s on you.
- And Koko won’t take responsibility for anything someone says to you on there (which is bleak when people are using it to spread Christianity to people in crisis)
I was curious about their business model. They’re a venture-capitol based tech startup, owned by Airbnb, the famous mental health professionals with a focus on ethical business practices./s They’re also begging for donations despite having already been given 2.5 million dollars in research funding. (If you want a deep dive on why people throw crazy money at tech startups, see my other post here)
They also use the data they gather from users to conduct research and publish papers. I didn’t find them too interesting - other than as a good case study of “People tend to find what they are financially incentivized to find”. Predictably, Koko found that Kokobot was beneficial to its users.
So yeah, being a dumbass with too much curiosity, I decided to use the Airbnb-owned Data-Mining Mental Health Chatline anyway. And if you thought it was dangerous sounding from the disclaimers? Somehow it got worse.
(trigger warning / discussions of child abuse / sexual abuse / suicide / violence below the cut - please don’t read if you’re not in a good place to hear about negligence around pretty horrific topics.)
Kokobot is incredibly predatory and exploitative. I wrote a post about how it exploits minors’ empathy and gamifies “giving mental health advice”, resulting in an unregulated mess that can only do harm to teens’ mental health in the long run.
There are young people on tumblr that actively seek support from KokoBot right now, if you check the tag for recent posts. Those people did not get paid to promote it, so do not harrass them. If you can, direct them towards resources about Kokobot (like this post) that are more transparent about what this company is up to.
This… is DEEPLY DISTURBING.
SIGNAL.
BOOST.what the actual fuck
read the fine print and act accordingly
(via nordic-language-love)
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KOKOBOT - The Airbnb-Owned Tech Startup - Data Mining Tumblr Users’ Mental Health Crises for “Content”
I got this message from a bot, and honestly? If I was a bit younger and not such a jaded bitch with a career in tech, I might have given it an honest try. I spent plenty of time in a tough situation without access to any mental health resources as a teen, and would have been sucked right in.
Chatting right from your phone, and being connected with people who can help you? Sounds nice. Especially if you believe the testimonials they spam you with (tw suicide / self harm mention in below images)
But I was getting a weird feeling, so I went to read the legalese.
I couldn’t even get through the fine-print it asked me to read and agree to, without it spamming the hell out of me. Almost like they expect people to just hit Yes? But I’m glad I stopped to read, because:
- What you say on there won’t be confidential. (And for context, I tried it out and the things people were looking for help with? I didn’t even feel comfortable sharing here as examples, it was all so deeply personal and painful)
- Also, what you say on there? Is now…
- Koko’s intellectual property - giving them the right to use it in any way they see fit, including
- Publicly performing or displaying your “content” (also known as your mental health crisis) in any media format and in any media channel without limitation
- Do this indefinitely after you end your account with them
- Sell / share this “content” with other businesses
- Any harm you come to using Koko? That’s on you.
- And Koko won’t take responsibility for anything someone says to you on there (which is bleak when people are using it to spread Christianity to people in crisis)
I was curious about their business model. They’re a venture-capitol based tech startup, owned by Airbnb, the famous mental health professionals with a focus on ethical business practices./s They’re also begging for donations despite having already been given 2.5 million dollars in research funding. (If you want a deep dive on why people throw crazy money at tech startups, see my other post here)
They also use the data they gather from users to conduct research and publish papers. I didn’t find them too interesting - other than as a good case study of “People tend to find what they are financially incentivized to find”. Predictably, Koko found that Kokobot was beneficial to its users.
So yeah, being a dumbass with too much curiosity, I decided to use the Airbnb-owned Data-Mining Mental Health Chatline anyway. And if you thought it was dangerous sounding from the disclaimers? Somehow it got worse.
(trigger warning / discussions of child abuse / sexual abuse / suicide / violence below the cut - please don’t read if you’re not in a good place to hear about negligence around pretty horrific topics.)
Kokobot is incredibly predatory and exploitative. I wrote a post about how it exploits minors’ empathy and gamifies “giving mental health advice”, resulting in an unregulated mess that can only do harm to teens’ mental health in the long run.
There are young people on tumblr that actively seek support from KokoBot right now, if you check the tag for recent posts. Those people did not get paid to promote it, so do not harrass them. If you can, direct them towards resources about Kokobot (like this post) that are more transparent about what this company is up to.
This… is DEEPLY DISTURBING.
SIGNAL.
BOOST.what the actual fuck
read the fine print and act accordingly
(via nordic-language-love)
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this right here is why radfem lesbians are absolutely baffling to me. like they know the majority of their community doesn’t share their shitty beliefs right? most lesbians are NOT transphobic, most lesbians do NOT agree with them. just something to consider
(it is important to note that the group they surveyed was small, but this is definitely not the first time i’ve seen a study come to this conclusion, and a larger report will be released in june!)
obligatory link: https://www.justlikeus.org/blog/2023/03/31/trans-day-of-visibility-ally-lesbian/
Text ID1: Of the 89 per cent of LGBTQ+ young adults who said they were supportive of trans people, lesbians were most likely to say they both know a trans person (92 per cent) and express support for trans people (96 per cent). End ID.
Text ID2: “I’m also delighted to see that lesbians are by far the most supportive of trans people. As a lesbian myself, I know just how supportive our community is towards our trans siblings and it’s fantastic to finally have the evidence to demonstrate this – lesbians and trans people stand in solidarity together. We always have done.” End ID.
This is your reminder that the vocal minority of bigots within the queer community do not speak for the rest of us
Not to mention that lesbians can also be trans and gnc !!
(via andhumanslovedstories)
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CW: testosterone therapy, periods, physical changes from HRT
Earlier this year, I’d reached a point where I was wondering if I’d already seen all of the benefits and changes from testosterone therapy that I could possibly receive. It really seemed like everything had come to a halt as far as changes from HRT go.
Worse, what started as random spotting and painful cramping (which I originally blamed on really high stress) eventually became full blown periods, and this went on for months. At one point, it really felt like I wasn’t even on T anymore. I blamed myself, because I would occasionally be late or forget to apply my testosterone cream. I thought that the bleeding, the inconsistent T levels, and the lack of progress was my own fault.
And then, I had to switch compounding pharmacies. And every single one of my problems disappeared within two weeks of starting the first tube of cream from the new pharmacy.
Nothing else has changed. Not my dose, nor where I apply it. I still forget and apply a few hours late sometimes, other times I miss a day entirely.
But the periods and cramping haven’t returned. And I’m beginning to see small changes here and there again. I have to trim my ear and nose hairs now; I have more chest hair than ever before. It’s time to face the fact that testosterone has made me a bear lmao.
Point being, looking back I really think that the quality of the testosterone cream I was getting from that first compounding pharmacy was kind of suspect. Looking at reviews online from other people really confirmed my suspicion; many people claimed that the quality of the prescriptions they received was wildly inconsistent from month to month. Not to mention, more recent reviews seem to suggest that their business is going under entirely, and from my own experiences attempting (and failing) to get my prescriptions filled with them in a timely manner, I’m not surprised.
I don’t often see a lot of posts from trans folks on testosterone who use compounded cream, so I want to put this out there for others to see. If you’re struggling to maintain consistent T levels, don’t rule out the quality of your prescription as a possible cause. Make sure that the compounding pharmacy you’re getting your T from is reputable and has good reviews.
(via joseph-lavode)