Are There People Who Don’t?  I Tell My Cats That I Love Them And I’ll Be Back Whenever I Leave.

Seriously, if you live in the US, make a plan NOW so that you are ready to vote.

Make sure you are registered to vote.  Many states are “cleaning up” voter rolls, so double-check.

Decide what you are willing to compromise on and what is a deal-breaker for you.  You probably won’t find someone who is a perfect fit, but you can definitely find candidates that are better or worse.

If you aren’t sure whether voting in person will be safe for you by November, find out what you need to do to vote by mail.  Check your state and local requirements for voting by mail or voting early (when it might be less crowded) if you can’t vote by mail.  You may need to request the ballot in advance or send in some form of identification.  Some areas require a witness’ signature on mail-in ballots, which can be hard if you’re are quarantined alone.  Some areas require mail-in ballots to be received or postmarked by a certain date; some have drop-off locations in addition to accepting ballots by mail.  Make a plan NOW so you are ready by November.

While you are voting for (or against) a presidential candidate, remember to look at the rest of your ballot!  Even if you aren’t voting for a presidential candidate, look at the rest of the ballot!  The president has a lot of power, but the senators and representatives can do a lot to support or block the president.  Your state, county, city, and other local governments can also have a big impact on your life.  Most of their decisions will have an immediate effect on you.  Plus, in many cases, this is where presidents and congress-critters get started.  If you don’t like the choices at the top level, start changing the people closer to you.

Every vote counts!  Yes, even at the presidential level.  However, the farther down the ballot you go, the more your vote is going to count.  This applies even more on local primaries and elections that don’t affect national positions.  The pool of voters is smaller in local elections, and many people who can vote won’t bother.  Take a little time to find out as much as you can about your local candidates, and vote for the ones who support most of your values.  

It’s easier to take time to check out candidates and issues if you are voting by mail.  However, even if you are voting on election day, you can frequently see what is on the ballot in advance, so you can do your research.  Make sure you understand those awkwardly worded (”Do you support removing the proposition that opposes...?”) questions and convoluted propositions, so that you’re voting for what you really want.

Plan ahead and vote!

Yo Biden just announced an infrastructure devolopment/clean energy/environmental justice plan and it's honesty pretty fucking amazing and much more ambitious than I ever would have expected from him, goddamn. He's trying to Eisenhower/New Deal our way out of the economic collapse.

Some notable points addressed by this plan:

Expanding American railway systems

Fixing the crumbling roads, bridges, dams, etc. that haven't been kept up

Capping abandoned oil wells

Undoing Trump's financial bailout policies for unclean energy companies

Reinvesting in American-made automotive companies

Getting America to 100% clean energy by 2035

Fixing air, water, and ground pollution issues that disproportionately affect poc

Getting justice for victims of environmental racism

Reinstating a bunch of environmental and medical jobs Trump had cut

Getting the US back on the Paris Agreement/Climate Accord

My most popular tweet right now is about welcoming intersex, nb, and ace/aro people into pride. Let’s get it going on here, too.

REBLOG IF YOU FEEL THAT INTERSEX, NB, AND ACE/ARO PEOPLE SHOULD BE WELCOMED AT PRIDE, BELONG AT PRIDE, ETC

Speaking as a relatively binary person who has several nonbinary sweeties and friends, this post seems to have generally good advice.  Many of the examples focus on singular they rather than neopronouns, although most of them will work regardless of the pronouns a person uses.  

The only section I have issues with is “tricking yourself” into using the correct pronouns for a person, partly because the examples given won’t work well for pronouns other than they and partly because that sort of mental gymnastics would be harder for me to learn (and unlearn) than teaching myself to do it right from the beginning.  However, I understand that that issue is specific to me, personally; other people are obviously going to have different experiences.

Pronoun tips from binary men and women

Every once in a while I am asked (or see someone asking) how to use pronouns other than he/him and she/her. The person asking is usually a man or a woman unfamiliar with nonbinary stuff generally, but they’ve got a particular nonbinary person in their life whom they care about and they don’t want to mess up. Maybe they keep misgendering their nonbinary friend and they feel guilty, or they want to take the burden off the nonbinary person who keeps having to correct them, something like that.

When binary people lack that confidence with pronouns, they seek the advice of nonbinary people. Not only are we likely to give advice that’s not ideal for binary people (because we’ve got skin in the game, all our friends are nonbinary so we’re used to it, etc.), but it is another facet of that dynamic of the privileged group (in this case binary people) placing their burden onto the marginalised group. Binary people should be asking advice from other binary people who’ve mastered pronouns.

So, I asked, and a bunch of binary people answered. I got advice from trans and cis binary people (men and women), and I’m collecting all the common stuff and the stuff I thought was good, all here for your perusal. If you know a binary person who’s struggling to get pronouns right, pass this along.

[This article assumes that you know a specific nonbinary person and you want to get better at using their pronouns, though the advice can be adapted. It also assumes that you’re familiar with the concepts of singular they and neopronouns, and you accept that they’re grammatically correct.]

Keep reading

Two of my sweeties and I braved the heat at a Families Belong Together demonstration today.  The speakers were good, and it was heartening to see so many people coming together to protest the cruel treatment of children.

#keepfamiliestogether #familiesbelongtogether

Are there any poly people who don’t think there should be more healthy polyamorous representation??

Raise your hand and reblog if you think there should be more healthy polyamorous representation 🙌🏾

The government does not have the right to force me to use my organs to save someone else's life.

in light of the texas abortion ban here’s a reminder to stop debating what counts as a human, baby, or life with pro-lifers because that is not a debate you can win. you can not win a philosophical debate about what counts as a person, and you will not change their minds.

what can be proven is that in no situation under united states law is an individual legally obligated to lend their body or organs for the sake of another life. 

4.5 million people each year are in need of blood transfusion, the entire process of donating blood takes a little over an hour, it’s free, and a single pint of blood can save up to 3 peoples lives, but there is no legal obligation or requirement to donate blood in place. 

it is illegal to take organs from deceased peoples’ bodies without permission. CORPSES. bodily integrity is prioritized by law, even after death.

it doesn’t fucking matter whether a fetus is a person, whether a fetus is alive, whether a fetus has a soul. it literally doesn’t matter. pro-lifers set up the argument through that lens (hence their name) to evoke empathy and pity and take the focus away from the actual process of pregnancy, which changes a person’s body FOREVER. that is not an exaggeration. whether the pregnancy is complicated and high-risk or totally smooth sailing, the birthing person will physically never be the same. if they’re lucky, they’ll come out of it with weight gain, differently shaped breasts, and changes to the cervix/vagina. if they aren’t, there’s a fucking laundry list of potential complications that could arise, that may eventually fix themselves, need surgical or therapeutic intervention, or never go away, like varicose veins, separation of the abdominal muscles, incontinence, prolapse, diabetes, postpartum depression, and chronic pain, just off the top of my head. and this makes no mention of the very real possibility of income disruption, as well as the financial cost of giving birth, and the chance of fucking death, which is even higher for underserved communities like black women.

there is no basis for a governing body forcing an individual to lend their body or organs for the sake of another life. that is the argument. period the end.

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?

Woo-hoo!  Whoever you are, you deserve to feel bold, rebellious, and happy!

On Shopping While Fat 2: Son of Fat