I Needed This Today. May You All Have Some Hottie Giving You These Eyes.

my professor spent our entire seminar whining about how there’s too many girls in our group and not enough boys. he was like “i’m not saying women can’t be good surgeons but we need more men” no, we don’t. men suck. deal with it.

Day 8: favourite trope to read or write and is there a difference in reading or writing that trope.

Hmmm … a very good question! I recently read the Phedre trilogy by Jacqueline Carey. After reading the first book, Kushiel’s Dart, my life and writing has been rendered transformed. The books are written in first person and the detail of the world building and the twists in the plot are exquisite. Reading this trilogy has pushed me to reconsider the roller coaster plot structure and approach my current wip into something more interesting. Hopefully I can be at least a quarter as successful as Carey. If you have not read her stories, I highly recommend them.

In the trilogy, the tropes of “enemies to lovers” and “lovers to enemies” is explored. It is so beautifully done! In my current wip, I’m working on lovers to enemies for my main character. A character who is also a flawed hero with a heart of gold.

Wish me luck!

Let’s talk about our Vice President

With Kamala Harris making history as the first Black, Indian, and female Vice President of the United States, thus becoming the most powerful and highest ranking woman America has ever seen, there’s been more disinformation about her swirling on the Internet than ever before. Some of it is misguided – people who believe the sourceless accusations they read and think they’re doing good by spreading it – but a lot of it is intentional, malicious. 

I think it’s worth examining our Vice President’s record based on context and facts. We owe it not just to ourselves but to those around us to have a nuanced and accurate conversation about those in power that relies on data and expert information, not simply blog posts of unqualified armchair pundits who say what we want them to. 

And when we look at the context and facts surrounding Kamala Harris, it’s clear that she’s on the right side of history. She’s someone who, despite the occasional misstep, has indeed made it her life’s work to reform the criminal justice system, to advance progressive causes, and to protect and defend the American people. 

First, let’s dispel the disinformation. The myth of the “SuperCop” that has been affixed to her represents a willful misinterpretation of the criminal justice system that is specifically designed to smear an accomplished and progressive Black woman. There are three common refrains here: first, that she locked up thousands of Black people for marijuana possession; second, that she jailed truant parents; and third, that she singlehandedly kept thousands of prisoners in jail to feed California’s prison slave labor complex. All of these are patently false:

As San Francisco DA, Harris and her office had a policy of refusing to seek jail time for marijuana possession, instead reducing the charge to a misdemeanor and directing individuals to drug education programs (this is in the context of a nationwide push for heavier drug sentences and tough on crime policies, mind you). The leader of the public defender’s misdemeanor division during this time says that Harris “was probably the most progressive prosecutor in the state at the time when it came to marijuana.”

Harris never – I repeat, NEVER – locked up a single truant parent. There’s no basis to this accusation. 

Under California law, state lawyers are not required to go to the attorney general’s office in cases involving prisoner release. The prisoners who were kept in jail were by and large involved in cases she was not aware of. In one instance, however, a member of her team argued against releasing prisoners because of its impact on the prison labor force. Harris, however, immediately rejected that argument and completely disavowed it. Not in 2019, not in 2020, but as soon as it happened.

So, the myth of the SuperCop that has dogged Harris is not based in reality. What, then, did she do with her positions of power?

Harris co-founded the Coalition to End the Exploitation of Kids, with the LA Times commenting that “whereas police focused on the crime of selling sex, Harris saw young girls as victims driven by economic necessity, drug addiction and domineering men.”

She led a state task force to address the crisis of human trafficking.

Harris launched the Back on Track program, which provided young, first-time offenders with an opportunity to pursue an education and employment instead of jail time.

As Attorney General of California, she refused to defend Prop 8, which declared marriage as between a man and a woman, in court, and when it was overturned she immediately ordered state officials to begin issuing marriage certificates to same sex couples.

As California Attorney General, Harris launched a first of its kind implicit bias training program for all law enforcement.

As Senator, Harris introduced a bill to provide the American people with $2,000 a month payments during the pandemic.

In the Senate, Harris introduced a bill to reform the broken cash bail system.

Harris introduced a bill to finally make lynching a federal crime.

Harris introduced legislation in the Senate to legalize marijuana.

Harris introduced a bill in the Senate to provide a refundable federal tax credit for renters who pay more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities.

In 2019, Kamala Harris was ranked the most politically left of all US Senators.

Let’s be clear. Let’s speak truth. Not only is the mythology surrounding Kamala’s record based in facts specifically designed to smear her, but she has proven herself to be a progressive champion with a record of accomplishments. Is she perfect? Of course not. There are real conversations to be had about the efficacy of some of her positions, policies, and platforms. But we can’t have these conversations clearly or in good faith if they’re mired in lies. Kamala Harris is progressive. Kamala Harris has done good for the American people and will continue to do good. She is an ally to the progressive movement, and any attempt to alienate her, to other her, to dismiss her, does real harm to any agenda that purports to want to fix the broken systems in this country.

Harris is eminently qualified to be VP and President. She has broken barriers, worked to make substantial and substantive changes to the systems in our country, and dedicated herself to the continued pursuit of progress. This country, and the world, is lucky to have her in a position of leadership. And if your brand of political activism involves tweeting or posting lies about an accomplished Black and Indian woman, I’d humbly ask you to evaluate what it is you’re really interested in fighting for.

I identify as a fattie queer. All other sexual orientation labels feel like a lie to me and don’t fit right when I wear them. I’m queer.

queer is literally a slur. like you’ve never been called that in a derogatory context like most lgbt people? you think your experiences escaping homophobia make it okay to justify the use of a homophobic slur?

queer is an identity.

it has also been used as a slur. there is no denying that. but using a word as a slur does not make it a slur. because before queer is a slur it is an identity. before it is derogatory it is a label. the use of queer as an identity is infinitely more important than the use of queer as a slur because the people who identify as queer are infinitely more important than the people who use queer as a slur.

say a lot of people decided they hated me. despised me. were disgusted by me to the point where my own name became a slur. would you tell me not to say it? would you tell me i could no longer be helena, and instead must come up with a euphemism for the name that belonged to me decades before it belonged in the mouths of bigots?

because that would make you an enabler.

you would tell me i can’t say my name anymore because some lowlife decided he could use it to insult me?

you would tell a gay man that he can’t be gay anymore because some teens in the early 2000’s started calling everything they didn’t like “gay”, and now he has to say “same sex oriented male identifying individual”?

does that enrage you? because it should. that’s exactly how you sound.

you are telling me i cannot use my label. you are telling me that when my great-uncle shouted until his face was red and he spat tobacco and the word queer at my feet, he was right. he was right to insult me, and i was wrong to say my name.

you are shitting on every single one of our predecessors. you are slandering every person who fought for their rights to exist and and be tolerated and be celebrated in their countries, every person who was lost to the aids epidemic, every person whose country criminalizes love and gender expression, every child whose parents abandoned them for straying from the norm, every person who was born and will die in the closet longing to be themselves. the queer umbrella is a safety net, a security blanket, the comfort of being known without being pressured to tell. it is near and dear and important as fuck to every member of the lgbt+ community and you are a blight upon the earth you walk.

how dare you speak upon my experiences with homophobia. how dare you disguise your own homophobia as activism. and how fucking dare you have the audacity to come to my blog and hide behind an anonymous ask and preach to me about how i’m oppressing myself. go look at the fucking wikipedia page for queer and read about how 1980s lgbt+ activists, especially lgbt+ people of color, fought to call themselves queer in a world that still hates peculiar things. and here you are forty years later spitting queer back at their feet.

i don’t give a fuck if people start using my name as a slur. my name is still helena. i will not change it. i chose it, i like it, and it belongs to me. it does not belong to bigots no matter how badly they want it. your discomfort with my identity is not my fucking problem.

i am helena. i am queer. die mad & go fuck yourself

Day 15 of @the-wip-project ‘s 100 day challenge

Does your WIP have fairytales? Do your characters tell mythical stories to each other?

No, not in my current wip but I love this idea! If I can think of a way to do the above that adds to the story of my wip, I will.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/state-department-to-lgbt-married-couples-your-out-of-wedlock-kids-arent-citizens

Love it!

Getting in my tumblr fill before #502 airs tonight on cw.

I got a new job about a year ago. It’s an IT job and part of my job involves supporting desktops running different operating systems. Every morning I log into: wanheda (Linux), heda (windows) and clexa (OSX). They are all running smoothly.

Please reblog if you think that “they/them/theirs” is a valid set of pronouns.