"If You Refuse To Shoot The Gun, Don't Mean The Gun Ain't Deadly,"

The 2021 Gender Census is now open!

[ Link to survey ]

The eighth annual international gender census, collecting information about the language we use to refer to ourselves and each other, is now open until 10th March 2021.

After the survey is closed I’ll process the results and publish a spreadsheet of the data and a report summarising the main findings. Then anyone can use them for academic or business purposes, self-advocacy, tracking the popularity of language over time, and just feeling like we’re part of a huge and diverse community.

If you think you might have friends and followers who’d be interested, please do reblog this blog post, retweet this tweet, boost this Mastodon post, check out this post on Reddit, and share the survey URL by email or at AFK social groups or on other social networks like Facebook. Every share is extremely helpful - it’s what helped us get 24,000 responses last year.

Survey URL: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/gendercensus2021/

The survey is open to anyone anywhere who speaks English and feels that the gender binary doesn’t fully describe their experience of themselves and their gender(s) or lack thereof.

Thank you so much!

Gather around, baby aces, and I shall tell you a tale of ye olde days of 2011

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HOW TO BUY LOW-COST GLASSES

If you are like me, you are low income. It doesn’t matter why, but you are and sometimes you need things to prevent your quality of life from dipping too much. Like a decent pair of eyeglasses.

Zenni Optical was brought to my attention by one of the residents at the clinic I interned at. The staff is remarkably skilled and it was my privilege to be able to work with them for 300 hours. Anyway, they serve many low-income folks and, instead of them sending them to their optician to look at frames, they recommended taking the up to date prescription and plugging it in at Zenni to get a good pair.

What you need

Your eyeglasses prescription. Get it however:

Dig it up from your paperwork

Call the last place that did your exam and pick it up

Pay for a new eye exam, decline fitting, and take the paper

Your pupillary distance

This is likely on your script somewhere. Look for “PD” and the number behind it. Otherwise, try this.

Here’s what you do:

Make an account at Zenni.

Plug in your prescription. I won’t go into the details of why and how scripts are written the way they are and how cool it is. Just plug in the values exactly as you see them. OD (ocular dexter) is the right eye and OS (ocular sinister) is the left. Sphere, cylinder, and axis for each. 

It should look like this: 

Now shop for some glasses and order. 

Cheapest pair is about $7. Shipping is a flat $4.95 no matter how many pairs you order. Sales are often so, sometimes, shipping is free.

You can also order prescription sunglasses! Just make to order a regular pair in whatever frame, import the prescription you plugged in, and choose Add Standard Lens Tint. 

I recently order my sunglasses because my eyes are going to boil out of their sockets. Took about a week. Came with a lens wipe cloth, PD ruler, and a case. Lenses are accurate and the frame doesn’t feel cheap or unbalanced. 

SUPER.

day 9 - zolf smith, rusty quill gaming

happy pride month of 2020!

another important thing about solidarity within queer communities is that so many of us will identify with different labels (especially when we are young/still figuring out that we aren’t straight & cis to begin with) before figuring out how we identify longterm. E.g. gay people who start out identifying as bi, trans men who initially identify as butch lesbians, asexuals who at first identify as bisexual (because hey, that’s technically being equally attracted to multiple genders), and so on. In fact, most queer people, at one time or another, identified as cishet. So we of all people should be aware that figuring out our identities takes time, and is a winding path. 

And this is why solidarity in our communities is so important. And why gatekeeping is so dangerous. Because not only is each part of our community a longterm home, sanctuary, and support system for people of a certain identity, we also provide a path and an unofficial Welcoming Committee to new members of the wider LGBTQA+ community (especially young queer people, for whom a supportive welcoming is so important). And in turn, many of the people who find their way to us will be coming from a different part of the rainbow path. This is also why bigotry is so so damaging when it comes from within our communities, and why we each of us have a responsibility to examine our prejudices and acknowledge that being queer doesn’t automatically give us a pass–we are just as capable of bigotry as anyone on the outside, and in a unique position to do harm from within. Fight transphobia, fight aphobia, fight biphobia, fight racism and ableism and discrimination wherever you see it in our communities. And more than that, celebrate ALL the colors on our flags, and all of the diverse communities they represent. Solidarity makes us so much more powerful, as a community and as individuals. So I’d like to start by saying:

Welcome, everyone. It’s good to have you here.

Daruma

If they “don’t think people are really bi/ace,” or if they think they can’t trust you because you’re bi/ace, you deserve better. Invalidating your identity or using your identity against you is not okay, and having a partner who does that might feel like it comes with the territory of being bi/ace, but I promise you it doesn’t.

Asexual Sexual Orientations 101

Sex Positive: I don't feel sexual attraction but I do enjoy the physical sensation of sex. (Maybe even crave it!)

Sex Neutral: I can have sex but I don't need it. To be honest I have no strong feelings about sex. But a slice of pizza would be better.

Sex Repulsed: I don't like sex. I don't want to have sex. I'm not going to have sex with you. I understand that people enjoy sex but I do not.

The presence of a libido does not invalidate any of these orientations. Dicks jokes and sexual humor do not invalidate these asexuals. These orientations are a SPECTRUM and are very fluid. Asexuals can and do exist in between theses definitions.

“asexuals are broken” sweetie the only broken thing about me is my sleep cycle

carletoncolton - GPOY 4: Ten Years' Difference