The Biologist Is Correct, Too.

Well, yeah. It's fine!

Reblog if you think it’s okay to platonically say “I Love You” to your friends

Not an odd parallel at all

So here's the thing. Well, two things.

I'm one of those filthy tabletop game people. (So is my spouse; she has been since before we met, too.) After college, well, we needed to create a new group of people to get entirely too interested in the fall of oddly-shaped pieces of plastic and the lives of fictional elves. We are also, it must be said, on the old side. We remember the Before Times. And in the Before Times, and even a bit after that, game groups were invariably largely male. Indeed, it wasn't at all uncommon for a group of gamers to have *at absolute most* exactly one female member. (Take a look at some of the classic game-related comics-- take a look at the gender groupings in Knights of the Dinner Table or Order of the Stick. These are pretty typical; many groups had zero female members.)

But our post-college group kind of wavered, shifted, stabilized-- and suddenly, we had, and to this day, still have, a majority-female gaming table. There wasn't anything to it, honestly. It just... happened.

So here's the other thing.

The industry I work in isn't really known for progressive politics in many ways. It's one of those things, not restricted to any one company-- it's the entire industry. (It's not just politics, for that matter-- my industry can be incredibly reluctant to, say, upgrade technology. We don't like change much.)

But the specific company I work for? At one location, one particular division-- and not one you'd expect this of *at all*-- is currently majority trans.

That's even more surprising than the first one; I don't know what the current math is on the percentage of trans people in the population as a whole, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that it's less than, oh, ten percent. So if random chance was involved, what are the odds that we'd have one job category at one location be 57% trans?

So how did that happen, anyway?

I'm pretty sure that it's the same reason in both cases.

In our gaming group, as we formed, other women in our community who were tabletop gamers saw that we had multiple women in our group, that we didn't treat them like romance objects or second-class players, that they were comfortable and happy hanging out with us. And the female members of our group, of course, were happy to tell other women about how fun it was. So more asked to join our group. And now our table is so big we can't even fit more people in, and still majority-female.

And, well, I'm not trans, and I'm not in that community, but I'm going to guess that since we started hiring other trans folks, and treating them with respect, word got out that that's what we did-- treat them with respect-- and so other people came to us over some other employer where, say, they might be taking a chance on how they'd be treated.

And I'm glad that it's worked out that way, for them, and for us.

And... I don't know. I think that it illustrates a truth that gets overlooked by some people. If someone says "[Group] isn't interested in [Hobby/Vocation/Activity]," maybe what they aren't seeing is that people don't necessarily feel safe or comfortable or welcome in some spaces, and that if it's clear that that the space is welcoming, then the demographics suddenly start to reflect the people who are really out there instead of the stereotypes.

Or something like that. I don't know. I'm not a sociologist.

But what I do know is that I have a really cool tabletop gaming group.

And I do know that we were able to hire enough people in a location and position that had been pretty painfully understaffed.

And both of these things are good.

And, just between me and all of you, I think that basically treating people with respect got us there.

This is 100% true, and the "Drop the T" idiots need to LEARN it. They won't be accepted by right-wingers for turning on their own. Only in unity is strength possible.

was thinking about infighting and like. they all see us the same. from the wildest queerest fagdyke to a cis gay guy. we are the same to them. the weird queers are not like. ruining your precious community. we're a part of it

YES GOOD LORD

Don't care much for Biden? Right there with you. Will I take him over Trump? EVERY GOD-DAMNED TIME.

Would I rather have someone else? Obviously! BUT THAT IS NOT THE WORLD WE LIVE IN.

Btw you can be intensely critical of the Democratic party and recognize that it is full of aged out of touch moderates who are refusing to meet the urgency of the moment,

and also recognize that voting for Democrats is extremely important because it allows things like the confirmation of Justices and prevents the literal fascist party from gaining more power and that harm reduction is an important end in itself

These things can coexist

Politics is a long game. Being disappointed and angry today does not obviate your responsibility to participate

I mean, I’m in.

Pretty sure they'd be handing someone the nails and hammer. But not getting their own hands dirty.

I mean...

Get help http://dlvr.it/TB92r7

Yeah. But they don't hate the Very Rich these days, especially since the Supreme Court had been busy legalizing bribery.

Objectively true!

I'm in this photo and I don't like it

I hate this shit lol