21| they/he | ace | perpetually tired | I like Ghosts more than birds sorry bird fans |
235 posts
Latest Posts by ghost-birb - Page 6
You Can Help Hammad Save His Family🍉‼️🫶🏻
VETTED BY ASSOCIATION; Hammad was referred to me through Safaa and her campaign (vetted by 90-ghost)
This campaign is created on behalf of a very valuable and dear friend of mine, Hammad A., who is dealing with devastating tragedy and loss that none of us in the empirical core could possibly begin to imagine.
Hammad is one of the most thoughtful, considerate, and hard-working people I know -- and while he has tried his best to provide for his family under these immensely difficult circumstances, he now needs our help to keep him and his family alive.
Picture this: Your life has been turned upside down instantly; everything you have worked your whole life for -- gone in an instant. Everything you once knew turned to rubble and destruction. Your home, where you grew up and created childhood memories with -- gone. Your job, where you dedicated your energy and effort into building a career you loved -- gone. The most basic necessities we take for granted -- warmth, fresh air, the ability to move around freely and safely -- ripped away from you.
These are only a few of the difficulties that Hammad and his family have been facing for over 464 days.
As you understand by now, there is only so much resilience the human body can endure, and the urgent need to do anything you can to save your family is the exact reason Hammad has allowed us the opportunity to help him and his family be freed from the immense suffering and stress they currently face.
His tent was recently flooded, damaging the little items that he had after losing everything, and destroying the little shelter he and his family had to protect them against the harsh elements.
Hammad needs your help NOW.
Even the smallest amount is so highly valuable in lifting a margin of stress from the weight of this tragedy off the shoulders of Hammad and his family. Your contributions to these lifesaving funds are invaluable.
Chuffed has a waiting period for processing and transferring funds. If you want your donation to IMMEDIATELY be sent to Hammad, paypal is linked below.
I don’t think the main goal is mass deportation. I’m at work rn and will elaborate.
I don't know why all this is happening to me. Every moment I wish for death so that I can end this pain and suffering that I am going through!!!😭
‼️Helping me means helping 5 members of my family..‼️
🥶We're freezing🥶
Hello, I'm Wasim from Gaza, in Al-Mawasi specifically... My family and I were displaced from Rafah after hardship, bombing, displacement, and hunger.😭😔
Now we have been away from our city and our beautiful home for 9 months. We have lost our house that my father built stone by stone and he worked 24/7 to build this house. But the occupation destroyed it, and no house remained in my beautiful city remained intact.😭💔💔
We are now living in a tent or semi-tent, which does not protect us from the cold of winter or the rain. Our lives are very difficult.😔😭
Thanks to your donations, we have been able to buy food and flour, and now I am asking you for help to buy a tent that will protect us from the cold of winter. We do not know what it means to sleep because of the extreme cold.🥶
This is our tent made of fabric and some nylon, not closed on one side. We are freezing from the cold. Help us to buy a new tent. You are our last hope.😭🥶🥶🙏
I also want to ask for help for my mother, who is the most precious thing in my life. Without her, I am nothing...
She has a back cartilage disease and is in great pain. She needs physical therapy, medicine, and vitamins, and I am unable to provide them. Help my mother receive treatment.🙏🙏😭
Campaign Link⬇️⬇️⬇️
@gazavetters
in light of Trump's inauguration speech declaring multiple national emergencies that require him to take god-knows-what executive actions immediately, I'd like to remember this chapter of "On Tyranny" by Timothy Snyder:
ICE SPOTTED IN THESE LOCATIONS JAN 28 2025
*THIS INFORMATION WAS TAKEN FROM PADET.COM* ICE HAS BEEN SPOTTED IN THESE CITIES TODAY
BROOKLYN NEW YORK
SEATTLE WASHINGTON
HOUSTON TEXAS
RALPHS CALIFORNIA
STAMFORD CONNECTICUT
LOUISVILLE KENTUCKY
NEW YORK NEW YORK
BAY POINT CALIFORNIA
PITTSBURG CALIFORNIA
WATERBURY CONNECTICUT
DAYTONA BEACH FLORIDA
DALLAS TEXAS
ONEIDA COUNTY NEW YORK
CERRITOS CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA
CLAYTON NEW JERSEY
LOVELAND COLORADO
HOFFMANS ESTATE ILLINOIS
MANASSAS VIRGINIA
SAN DIEGO CALIFORNIA
GRAND JUNCTION COLORADO
BILOXI MISSISSIPPI
FLORENCE KENTUCKY
JANESVILLE WISCONSIN
MCKINNEY TEXAS
TARRYTOWN NEW YORK
NEWARK NEBRASKA
STONEHAM MASSACHUETTS
HACKENSACK NEW JESERY
PORT CHESTER NEW YORK
OXNARD CALIFORNIA
FORT VALLEY GEORGIA
ATLANTA GEORGIA
BOSTON MASSACHUETTS
SLEEPY HOLLOW NEW YORK
YAKIMA WASHINGTON
ROGERS ARKANAS
SPARTANBURG SOUTH CAROLINA
OSSINING NEW YORK
NEW CANEY TEXAS
BEAVERTON OREGON
ROOSEVELT NEW YORK
TOPPENISH WASHINGTON
AUSTIN TEXAS
THESE LOCATIONS WERE WRITTEN IN THE TIME I HAVE BEFORE I GET ON THE BUS, BUT THEY WERE TAKEN FROM THIS WEBSITE
THIS WEBSITE CAN BE USED AS A MAP SORTA, IT IS USED TO REPORT ICE SIGHTINGS
🌍✨ A Voice from Gaza: Fighting for Hope ❤️🩹
Hi, my name is Mosab , and I’m from Gaza. Life here has been harder than I could ever imagine, but today I’m sharing my story with hope in my heart, because your kindness has already given us so much strength.
This journey hasn’t been easy. The war has taken 25 family members from us—25 beautiful souls we loved deeply. Their laughter, their presence, their love… all of it is gone, leaving behind memories that are both precious and painful. Every day, I carry the weight of their loss, but I also carry their spirit, which gives me the strength to keep going.
Our Journey So Far
When I first reached out, I couldn’t have imagined we’d make it this far. Thanks to your incredible kindness, we’ve reached 20,020 out of 30,000. Your support has been a light in these difficult times, and we are so deeply grateful for every single contribution.
But the road ahead is still challenging. Every day, we’re reminded of how much we’ve lost and how much we still need to rebuild.
Here’s what life in Gaza looks like for my family right now:
🏠 Safety: The uncertainty of tomorrow weighs heavily on us.
😢 Loss: The absence of the 25 family members we’ve lost is a pain we carry every moment.
💔 Dreams on Hold: The future feels so far away when survival takes all our strength.
How You Can Help Us Cross the Finish Line
Even the smallest act of kindness can make a difference:
$5 might not seem like much, but it could mean a meal, clean water, or a tiny bit of hope for my family.
Can’t donate? Reblog this post to help us reach someone who can. Every share matters more than you know.
Why Your Support Matters
Your kindness isn’t just about helping us meet our goal—it’s about reminding us that we’re not alone in this fight. It’s about hope. It’s about survival. And it’s about giving my family a chance to rebuild our lives, even in the face of unimaginable loss.
Thank you for helping us get this far. Your generosity and compassion have already brought us closer to a better tomorrow, and for that, I’m endlessly grateful.
With all my love and gratitude,
Mosab and Family ❤️
A ceasefire does not mean the occupation has ended! The IOF has not withdrawn from Ghazzah and they are escalating their violence in the West Bank! So we need to continue doing our part!
Please consider donating to my dear friend, Suad Ahmad, @suad-khaled, (#279). She is a computer engineer and she has given birth to baby named Khaled. He is 6 months old and he has trouble breathing due to a respiratory infection in his chest! It has gotten to the point where he has trouble sleeping! So let's her help reach the short-term goal of 47K in the next 3 days! $46,585 USD has been raised. There is $415 left to go! You can match me! I have given $5, but you're more than welcome to give more!
Tagging for reach. Please leave a reply if you wish to be removed. Thank you.
@blissocean @grox @spitblaze @gender-euphowrya
@whalefill @combaticon @lytransthropy @okruee
@strawberryblondie-locks @thesituation @divortion @longseasons
@broccoliaskjgnbhb4444 @corpse-rat @sauleline2 @fromthesuns
@amvs @lun4rc0w @purpleweredragon
@aetharis-starcaller @bobanchikn-reblogs @twstchatterbox
@weirdmarioenemies @ugisfeelings @cosmicgamerboy
@justmagicalgirl @slowbrobutch @andnowanowl
@nyanfaer @prececosmica @majesticcupcakequeen90
@wouriqueen @coffeelich @bubonicherald
@beargif @laurajameskinney @postanagramgenerator
abdul (@mohmad2) and his family need $500 by tonight to secure transportation to northern gaza. their house was completely destroyed & if they are able to make it in time they can get a free caravan, which usually costs over $6k p-yp-l - @ butchinternet c-sh-pp - $everlastingwife
today we have already raised $173.35! any funds over the goal will go towards food & other necessities for abdul and his family.
you can view their general fundraiser here:
I want you to remember:
The fascists hate you too and they just will pretend otherwise until after they've killed the rest of us, before they turn on you.
i saw a video the other day detailing why we see so much about gaza🇵🇸 but not sudan🇸🇩
it comes down to these 3 key differences
while gaza is much bloodier, gaza has journalists reporting daily. as a journalist you will be targeted viciously but it's a delayed risk because the enemy isn't on ground. your enemies are cowards who plot and kill you from afar.
in sudan it's impossible to report anything because the enemy is walking down your street (if not in your house) like rabid dogs. you will be shot on sight. it's an immediate risk. there is no time to capture or comment on anything. whatever information you put out will be your first and last.
in sudan, the updates come from the warring factions filming themselves, not from civilians. and you can imagine the bias and inaccuracy of their egotistical daily vlogs and official statements.
which is why it's more imperative than ever to follow Sudanese creators and journalists who do report on the little information that does come out.
here's a post on where to get daily updates about Sudan
disclaimer: palestinian press also deal with immediate risks when confronted with IDF on-ground.
A Heartfelt Plea: Help Me Return Home🕊️
Dear friends, In the past few days, I've been grappling with the trauma of the situation and trying to figure out what comes next after the ceasefire. After everything we've endured, I am finally able to return to the north of Gaza, where our homes once stood, now reduced to rubble. I’m reaching out to you because I need help. The cost of transporting my family and our belongings is extremely high, and unfortunately, we can't afford it on our own. There are no tents in the north, and buying new ones there isn’t an option. I can’t leave our things behind; they are all we have left.
My heart is tied to that place, to the sky above our home, even if it’s uninhabitable. I miss it so deeply, and I need to be there with my loved ones, surrounded by what’s left of our life. I trust you, my friends, and I consider you my family. Please, if you can, help us cover the transportation costs. Every little bit counts, and your support would mean the world to us during this difficult time. If you can’t donate, sharing this with others who might be able to help would also make a huge difference. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. With love, 🌸
🌟 Our campaign is vetted by 🇵🇸 @/gazavetters List at #291
cruelty is so easy. youre not special for choosing it
Calling all Brits on this hellsite.
We all saw Elon Musk do the nazi salute at the Trump inauguration. We know that he is influencing and fanning the flames of right wing political parties.
And that very well may include ours.
Because Elon Musk has pledged to donate $100 million to the Reform party. He has since mentioned that it might be hard to give such a large sum now.
But I don’t think we should take our chances. And I think we can agree that letting billionaires influence our countries politics is a terrible idea.
If you also agree here’s a link to a Parliament petition.
It calls for the government to remove loopholes that allow wealthy foreign individuals to make donations into UK political parties (e.g. by funnelling through UK registered companies).
As it is a parliament petition the government are required to debate it in parliament. But for that to happen it needs to reach 100,000 signatures.
Non British folk I’m afraid you guys can’t sign but I encourage you guys to reblog so that more people can see this.
Stop using Twitter. The whole site is a psyop.
✅️Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #329 )✅️
Urgent Appeal: Help My Family Before the New Year
My name is Ahmed, and I am asking for your help. My family – my parents, brothers, and sons – are in a desperate situation after our home was destroyed in an airstrike in Gaza. We are now sheltering in a flimsy tent, exposed to the cold and rain, with no food, clothing, or shelter to survive the coming days.
My sister-in-law is nine months pregnant and is severely malnourished and anemic. She is weak and vulnerable, and we have nothing to prepare for the baby due in a few days.
We urgently need to raise $15,000 by the beginning of the new year to provide us with the basics: food, warmth, and a safe place to stay.
Your support, no matter how small, can make a life-changing difference. Together, you can help my family and start the new year with hope and dignity.
To donate:
Your kindness today may bring us safety, warmth, and a chance to heal.
anyway yeah DELETE YOUR FUCKING ADVERTISING IDS
Android:
Settings ➡️ Google ➡️ all services ➡️ Ads ➡️ Delete advertising ID
(may differ slightly depending on android version and manufacturer firmware. you can't just search settings for "advertising ID" of course 🔪)
iOS:
Settings ➡️ privacy ➡️ tracking ➡️ toggle "allow apps to request to track" to OFF
and ALSO settings ➡️ privacy ➡️ Apple advertising ➡️ toggle "personalized ads" to OFF
more details about the process here via the EFF
✅️Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #381 )✅️
‼️ its time to help ‼️
🍉 The ceasefire was stopped 🍉
⚠️ don’t ignore my text ⚠️
I am Mahmoud from North Gaza, studying computer engineering. I was working in a programming company during my studies. I got married a day before the war started and I was living in my house with my wife, but because of the war, things changed and I lost my house, my job and my father. 💔
It is very unfortunate and now my family has no breadwinner, so I desperately need your help. My wife is pregnant and we are suffering from famine. My child is my only hope in this world. I am asking you for a small donation so that I can provide food for my pregnant wife, please
✅️UPDATE 17/01/2025✅️
After the ceasefire in Gaza, hope has returned to us once again, giving us the strength to rebuild our lives.
now my wife is five months pregnant. She requires full care, including medications, vitamins, and medical attention.🤰👼
I beg you to help me and save my first child.🫀
My hope is for my child to come into better circumstances than these.
It is incredibly difficult for a child to be born in a tent, in the worst conditions, surrounded by insects and germs.
Please, help me build a new hope for this small family 👨👩👦
please make a donation 🙏
any amount will make difference to us
$4,223 Raised Of $30,000
Children in Gaza endure unbearable conditions, facing violence and preventable diseases caused by contaminated water, such as diarrhea and poisoning. Obeida, the young son of Sami, faces daily risks as he collects water from a distant source, endangering his health and safety.
Your donation can make a real difference. By supporting Sami's family, you will help provide clean and safe water, reducing the risk of diseases and ensuring better health and well-being for Obeida and his family.
Donate now to make a difference. This family has been vetted and listed as (#21) Sami Alkhlili by Gazavetters.
Thank you for your support and solidarity!
teen vogue did not come to play
“Fuck #Ice shoutout to my Mexicans , pass this shit”
- Fabio Ochoa @QuePasaWindow
UPDATE! HOW TO GET / PRINT THEM!!!
kropotkinisrecruitin
Hey! This is the link to the cards, a good resource for anyone who needs them or wants to provide them to their community. https://www.ilrc.org/red-cards
https://www.ilrc.org/red-cards
Hi everyone! I've been talking with Sami and their family is in pretty urgent need of help right now.
After 475 days of genocide, hunger, cold, destruction, death, and suffering, Sami's only hope was to find his home. Unforturnately, in the last few hours, some of his brothers went to the area of his home, and on the way, they were hit by an explosion from war remnants. They found no home, as it had been demolished and turned into sand. They now urgently need your help with donations so they can get treatment abroad, as their injuries are severe. You are their only hope. Your simple donation can make a big difference, and your participation also plays a significant role.
Please, if you can, send some help their way so they can treat their injuries! Time is of the essence.
Reposting @chasestrangio:
I am reminding myself that my resistance will come through denying the administration the chaos they seek. It will come by remembering that their plans and rhetoric are just the regurgitated policies that we have long defied. It will come through our insistent and urgent love for each other. We have the collective memory and mapmaking to guide us. That does not mean it won’t be scary. It will. It just means we will turn our fear towards care not chaos. Towards building not dividing. Thank you to everyone holding me. I will hold you too. I put my faith in us.
since it’s a scary time to be trans: refuge restrooms is an app which maps gender-neutral/single-stall restrooms. it’s community-mapped, so it’s possible you might be the first person to log the restroom locations, but hopefully it’ll help some people.
please reblog this post if you’ve got trans followers. stay safe.
btw now is the best time to keep boycotting. the israeli economy has never been weaker. don't stop the protests or the demands for divestment. keep supporting organisations like the Hind Rajab Foundation and the Accountability Archive. ofc don't stop boosting and donating to Palestinians as Gaza is still uninhabitable.
enjoy this moment but the work has not ended
The war has finally ended after 471 days of pain, death, and suffering, where each day carried a weight equal to years. Today, with trembling hands and a heavy heart, I write: "Survivor of the 2023 Israeli genocide."
But this is not the end. It is the beginning. Today, we start to mend wounds that are not only visible but deeply felt in the soul. We begin to rebuild what was destroyed, not just the stones but the lives that bled and the memories that burned.
We need every helping hand, every heart in solidarity, and every voice to amplify our cause. Reviving life here is not a choice. It is an obligation we all share. Let us come together on this journey of healing and restoring hope.
@a-shade-of-blue @catnapdreams @oediex @bloodbornebutch @soft-sunbird @disasterhimbo @rainy-fog @barricadebops @qzcyborg @meglyfer
✅️Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #15 )✅️
Also supported by @nabulsi Here. Here
Art work by Negar
Exclusive for @drdarine
Quick reminder as we head into Trump’s first week in office. We are about to see an onslaught of executive actions designed to strip of us our rights. We’ve seen this before.
Many of them won’t be legal, many of them won’t take effect immediately, and some of them will be just plain nonsense. Trump alone can’t change the law (yet anyway- that’s Congress) and there is an official government process for enacting most executive actions that works slowly.*
There will be time to fight against these orders—either by stopping them entirely, weakening them, or at least slowing them down.
The purpose of doing so many terrible things at once is to scare us. Is to intimidate us to cede more ground than we need to. Don’t let them.
Stay engaged, stay angry, stay hopeful (or spiteful- me tbh), and—most importantly—stay strategic. Find an organization you trust, follow them, and take action when they ask you to.
(Side note- pick just a few issues to care deeply about and only follow a few organizations you trust. Don’t try to solve everything all the time or consume every piece of news. You WILL burn yourself out and that’s not helpful for anyone. Trust me, speaking from experience. Staying 15% engaged is better than 120% for three months and then 0%).
What we’re seeing right now is a backlash to decades of progress—a dying (and by extension dangerous I’m not gonna lie) breath of those in power desperate to maintain control. They wouldn’t be trying to squash us if there wasn’t something to squash.
TL;DR- there’s gonna be a lot of bad stuff in the news today. Don’t give into panic. There will be time to fight most of it. Stay engaged.
*Unfortunately, there will be some actions the President can control on his own and will take effect immediately. ICE Raids being one of them. Here’s a Know Your Rights factsheet. To learn more and stay informed on this issue, recommend following National Immigration Law Center, CASA, Immigrant Defense Project.
Please Don’t Turn Blind Eye To Our lives, Our Hope Begins with You
Hello, I'm Ola, a graduate student from the faculty of science - Al-Azhar University in Gaza Palestine. I truly appreciate you taking a moment to read my story. As you reading my message, myself and my family, “my mother, father, three sisters, and my little brother,” are fighting death in northern Gaza and trying to survive under all kinds of suffering including but not limited to destruction, fear, and instability, starvation, thirst, and poverty.
Since 471 days until now, we have been struggling to get proper food after prices increased by 15 to 20 times, struggling to have clean water for use and drinking.
After a long and tiring effort, my Tumblr account @olasfamily has been disabled, and I have to start over. I feel sad and lost, but I don’t want to face this journey alone. I kindly ask you to share and support us; every donation and every share means a lot to me in this difficult time. Please don’t leave me to face this challenge on my own.
I am writing to you as we struggle through very difficult conditions with winter approaching. The cold is becoming harsher by the day, and we lack the warm clothing needed to endure this freezing weather. We cannot afford to buy new clothes due to the steep rise in prices, and most of what we have is old and worn out.
We are longing to rebuild our shattered lives, and I can't do it without you. I need your support to complete my education and help my family rise from the ruins and find hope again.
You mean the world to us, now more than ever. Please, don’t let us down 💔
Please share and donate 🙏💔
My campaign has been vetted by:
@90-ghost here,
@northgazaupdates here,
@el-shab-hussein , and @nabulsi 's spreadsheet of vetted campaigns #205.
Pete Buttigieg is just a faggot.
It's very important to me that younger queers understand this: to the people who you're trying to be more respectable for when you say things like neopronouns set the trans movement back or you're why the cishets don't accept us or including [aces/bi people with the 'wrong kind' of partners/non-binary people/kinksters/non-passing trans ppl/furries/polyam people] just hurts us, can't you wait until we get all our rights before we talk about some of yours? -- to those people? Pete Buttigieg is just a fag.
On Sunday at Pride Northwest, some kids -- late teens, early 20s -- asked what our button I survived Reagan for this? meant. All of the queer adults at the tables making up our ad hoc counter looked at each other and sighed a little. Emet and another adult started to explain the way that the Reagan Administration handled -- or didn't handle -- the beginning of the AIDS crisis. How many people died. How much we were ignored. The Ashes Action. The Time Magazine article which explicitly blamed bisexual men for passing the pandemic to the cishet community, playing on all the worst stereotypical bullshit. The way that even when the CDC started paying attention, they were so focused on gay men that they ignored AIDS in the lesbian community, leading to the "women don't get AIDS, they just die from it" poster. And so on.
I finished counting out change and passed the last Bear Pride raised fist pin over to a bear a little older than me, then turned my head and interjected, "they didn't care until it started infecting more than just the fags." I turned my head back and handed him his change. He laughed bitterly and said, "remember when they called it 'gay cancer?'"
That what I need you to understand. The people for whom you are folding yourself into smaller and smaller boxes will never see you as anything but a freak. A queer. A dyke. A tranny. A fag.
Never.
These are people who will stand by and let you wither away and die alone, gasping for breath in a cinderblock room, and not even claim your ashes, and they will say you deserve it, because of your lifestyle. If they speak of you at all it will be by the wrong name, with the pictures you hate the most. They will curse at your lover, throw him out of the home you shared, and steal the gift you gave last Christmas to throw it in the trash just so he can't have it and they'll say Jesus loves you! while they do it. They'll feel good and righteous and blessed and holy and pure for doing it.
And for them, you spit in the eye of your sister. For them, you disavow your sibling. For their sake, you trim away bits of your heart and lace yourself up tight. Never too loud. Never too queer. Never inconvenient or embarrassing, never asking for too much.
Pete Buttigieg is what happens when your Boomer dad turns out gay. Middle America. Parents still married. Suburban-sprouted. Valedictorian. Harvard-educated. Rhodes Scholarship. Military service. More power to him: I hope he and Chasten are very happy together. Genuinely, I do.
You couldn't create a more respectable gay if you grew one in a lab run by concerned voter focus groups.
But Pete Buttigieg? Is just a fag.
That's the part you don't seem to get: when they abandoned us, they abandoned all of us. Rock Hudson was a beloved movie star and even personally friendly with that horrid pair of ambitious jackals. Nancy Reagan refused to help him get into the only place in the world that could treat him at the time, and he died.
It was 1985, 4 years after the CDC first released papers on what would eventually become known as HIV/AIDS and 7 years after the first known death from an infection from HIV-2. Reagan hadn't even said the word AIDS by the time Hudson died.
Pete Buttigieg is just a fag, and so am I. Unless I'm a dyke, which seems to depend on who's yelling what from which window and what day it is.
Yes, there will be people who genuinely love and accept you. Those people are worth all the frustration of the rest, thankfully, and they're the ones who love you in a pup mask or a leather harness and a neon jock like the ones sold by the men up the row from us last weekend. They're the ones who laugh out loud when you tell them you hid the word "dyke" in your company name, the ones who love you in all your messiness and uncertainty and the way you don't fit into neat boxes all scrubbed up and clean.
Most cishets, though... well, they don't actively mean you specifically any harm, at least not when they have to look at you. Not when you're right there in front of them. Maybe they'll be okay with you, personally, especially if you're the kind of gay who makes a good rhetorical device, and as long as you remain a good rhetorical device.
They need people to know that they don't have a problem with the gays, after all, and there you are, being all convenient. You make a nice token, and as long as you do, well. You're useful.
But they call you by your deadname when you're not around, and they put the wrong pronouns in your medical record even though they met you years after you came out, and they won't put themselves out to save you. Not one little bit.
I didn't want to be here again. The year I graduated from high school was the worst year of the AIDS crisis. The world into which I became an adult was a world in which an advisor and friend to Reagan, William F. Buckley, openly advocated for forcibly tattooing the HIV status of HIV+ gay men on their buttocks (and IV drug users on their forearms), and in which my father not only told me that when I was 14 or so, but when was told me that he'd advocated for that tattoo being "over their assholes."
(Buckley wrote that in '86, but he doubled down on it in 2005.
Fucker.)
But yeah. I didn't want to be here again. I wanted my daughter to inherit a better world. I wanted Obergefell and Lawrence v. Texas and Hope & Change to really mean something. I work for it, today and all days. I haven't given up.
I need you to know that, too. This isn't a white flag. I'm not surrendering. This isn't over. To misquote Henry Rollins, this is what Marsha and Sylvia and Stormé and Leslie and Brenda and Auntie Sugar trained us for. This is punk rock time.
But I need you to understand that if Pete Buttigieg is just a fag, if that human embodiment of a Wonder Bread, mayo and Oscar Meyer bologna sandwich is not respectable enough for them -- and he's not -- then the rest of us have absolutely no hope of measuring up. Not even if we trim away every colorful, beautiful piece of our community, not even if the Sisters Of Perpetual Indulgence vanish into the ether, not even if we sacrifice the five elements of vogue on the altar of white supremacist cishet middle-class conformity: we can't trim ourselves down to something they'll accept.
The only other option is radical acceptance of our queer selves. The only other option is solidarity. The only other option is for fats and femme queens and drags and kinksters and queers and zine writers and sex workers and furries and addicts and kids and the ones who can look us in the eye and see all of us to say we're here, we're queer, get used to it just the way we did 30 years ago. It's revolutionary, complete and total acceptance of our entire community, not just the ones the cishets can pretend to be comfortable with as long as we don't challenge them too much, or it's conceding the shoreline inch by inch to the rising waters of fascism until we've got nowhere left to stand and some of us start drowning.
That's it. Either it's all of us or it's none of us, because if we leave the answer up to the Reagans of the world and all the people who enabled him in the name of lower taxes and Democrats who wring their hands, weeping oh I don't agree with it but we'll lose the election if we fight it right now, the answer is none of us.
The brunch gays can come, too, I guess.