If You’re In The US, See If Your Local Library Has Hoopla!  They Carry All Five Seasons Of Leverage

They are absolutely coming for contraception, on top of everything else listed above.  Legislation is in the works now to classify abortion as a homicide, beginning at the moment of fertilization.  That takes out many of the more effective forms of contraception.  We need to work together to stop this, or it will only get worse.

Hey. They’re coming for ALL OF US.

Didn’t want to append this to a well-written post about how conservatives in the US are angling to eliminate gay marriage. But.

They’re coming for gay marriage and for interracial marriage and “fornicators” (people who engage in consensual sex acts outside marriage*), and they’re going to ban contraception if they can. They’re testing steps to prevent co-housing too. Basically if you’re not a white Evangelical in a nuclear family with a desire to have hordes of children, your rights are in danger right now.

As long as we keep fretting about only our own groups, we’re not going to get very far. All of these civil rights were achieved through alliances between marginalized groups. We’re all in danger right now because we’ve allowed exclusionists – many of whom are bots or campaigns created by right-wingers – to divide us with nonsense about “ADOS” and “the q slur” and “class first” anti-woke leftism. Right-wingers have always understood that divide and conquer is the easiest way to deal with the left; we have always been a coalition of disparate groups with disparate needs that puts some of those needs aside when it’s time to fight for something. We’re not ready to fight right now. But we can start getting ready, and the easiest way to do that is to remember that you are not the only group under threat right now.

Boost other groups’ campaigns and attempts to raise awareness. Learn to exclude the people calling for exclusion, because most of them aren’t actually on your side. Read the histories of successful civil rights efforts, and pay attention to how they formed those alliances. This is work that takes years. Fixing everything that’s broken in our society cannot be done quickly or easily – but for fuck’s sake, try to get your head out of your navel and look around.  See your fellow soldiers, and put your shield alongside theirs, fast. We got incoming.

*Many states still have laws on the books that make everything from oral sex to shacking up illegal. And best believe Evangelicals want those laws enforced again.

Pay attention to what is being cut -- public radio and television, libraries and museums, education, research. Elon knows how to count; he's counting the benefits he can take away from the public.

Canada geese are weird.  On the one hand, they’ll stand up to huge, scary animals.  On the other hand, I’ve seen a whole flock take off when a single small dog runs at them.

This is the Goose of Outrageous Self Assuredness.  Take from her example, her ludicrous and excellent poise in the face of bullying, and be confident in your place, your course, your equal validity.

Seriously.  Science is not like an illusion in D&D.  It does not go away if you disbelieve in it hard enough.

I love this sign.

Make a little birdhouse in your soul!

I think I see it

Vote to queer the narrative. Vote out of spite. Vote like your life depends on it, because that's true for some of us.

Hey, everyone! You want to pull the ultimate prank against the Republican party? I mean this would be EPIC!

On November 5, 2024, all 50 million US citizens between 18 and 30 need to take to the streets and demonstrate against the erosion of civil rights for women, BIPOC, disabled, LBGTIAA+, and transgendered people. Take to the streets...and march right down to your polling station and vote! (Or, you know, early vote.)

This would be the flash mob to beat all flash mobs. The Republicans would never see you coming, because their whole strategy depends on keeping you depressed and disengaged.

Don't like the direction the Democrats are going? Take a page out of the Tea Party's book--they changed the direction of the Republican party by voting for it, and now they own it. Vote Democrat and nudge it leftward this election--then keep nudging it until you can take the wheel. Because the alternative is a hard right turn by the Republicans.

Not only would this be a lifesaver for countless people who are not "White male Christian Conservative Americans", it would also be funny as hell. Want to see Trump have a meltdown on international television? Want to see pollsters and political pundits say "What the fuck?!" Want to see the newspapers suddenly flock to gay nightclubs and college campuses to interview "average voters" instead of rural diners?

Knowing and accepting all of the options makes a huge difference, too.  I suspect that many people who identify as heterosexual do so by default.  They don’t know, don’t understand, or aren’t willing to accept that they could be something else.

This was being wondered some time ago but the 1% asexuals in population is from UK census from January 1994. I think the latest studies had numbers such as 5% and hypothesis that the actual number would be closer to 10% (that would be the same as homosexuality) if people with split attraction are counted in too. Most of the population are multisexuals (bi, pan, ply, omni...) followed by heteros.

That does follow every study I’ve seen. Amazingly queer things happen when society lets people be themselves 

@katy-l-wood put this in the tags, "#deciding what to eat for dinner #EVERY NIGHT #what should I cook? #babe what do you want for dinner? #I love food #but when I have to ask that question #I suddenly forget every food I like #and it never ends #personal"

My partner and I have this problem! It doesn't help that neither of us are good enough cooks to decide something on the spur of the moment that we'll both enjoy, so we have to plan a week's worth of dinners before we get groceries.

One thing that helps us is having a spreadsheet of dinner options. It includes where the recipe is, what type of protein it has, and what cooking method it uses. (We should probably add how long it takes, but we haven't gotten around to that.) This lets us look for slow cooker recipes or a way to use up the package of ground beef in the freezer.

This isn't perfect -- we still spend a lot of time staring at the spreadsheet, trying to find something that we're in the mood for and haven't done two of the last three weeks. However, it helps a lot with the "I suddenly forgot every food I like" problem!

@the-other-sandy, weren’t we just talking about Grapenuts?

Grapenuts

Neither grapes nor nuts.

The closest thing to gravel still considers fit for human consumption.

Possibly a major joke being played on the human race by hamsters.

Vote in every election, for every position!  Some really horrible racist and anti-LGBTQ+ groups are getting power on school boards, library boards, city councils, and other local legislative bodies.  One of the reasons they can do it is because it doesn’t take many votes to get them in office.  Once they’re in, they can start supporting book bans, curriculum changes, anti-trans measures, and more.

Finding out who you want to vote for takes time, and it can be hard at the local level, but it’s incredibly important.  If you can, register to vote by mail so that you have more time to look at your ballot and research the candidates.  If not, try to find ballot information online or see if your local paper runs any information about the candidates.  If you need help, ask at your local library!  (You don’t have to tell them how you plan to vote, just ask for help finding out who is on the ballot.)  

Collect up the junk mail that candidates send out.  Some of them share mailers, so figuring out one of them will give you an idea on the others.  Contact organizations that you approve of and find out who they support.  If you’re really desperate, contact organizations that you don’t approve of and find out who they support, so you know who to vote against.

Start learning the dog whistles and warning signs.  “Parental rights” is starting to mean “the right to say what other people’s kids can read and learn.”  Moms for Liberty wants the liberty to deny the existence of LGBTQ+ people.

It’s “just one more vote” the same way a tough journey is “just one more step.”