everyone in fantasy novels is horny on main for elves and it’s honestly a travesty like why the hell would you want to marry an elf you’ll just spend the rest of your days growing old in the woods with a bunch of immortal bastards whose heads are so far up their asses they think singing week-long ballads is prime entertainment and say shit like “thou” and “beseech” unironically y’all should be hooking up with dwarves who 1. actually know how to throw the fuck down and let loose at a party 2. will literally shower you in diamond dust and gold they mined and crafted with their bare hands and 3. can sling you over their shoulder like a sack of potatoes with their huge muscular arms developed from hours of said mining and crafting. there’s literally no contest.
wouldn’t it be cool if sylvia rivera or marsha p. johnson were still alive and you could see what kind of activism they were doing now, and support it, and follow them on social media?
“It sure would!”
Gosh, imaginary reader, I agree! And you know what?
MISS MAJOR IS *ALSO* A TRANS WOMAN OF COLOR WHO WAS AT STONEWALL, AND SHE’S STILL ALIVE AND AMAZING AND I ALMOST NEVER SEE ANYBODY MENTION HER
And yes, that’s her Instagram, @missmajor1. (Image is her holding issue 1 of The September Issues, open to a picture of herself; caption mentions that it “has a feature on House of GGs (and me)”. And yes, you can look her up on Facebook under Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, and she even follows back 😮
(Screenshot of her Facebook page. Her header is a picture of Ursula (who was based on legendary drag queen Divine) with the text “my dears – I have reached my Facebook friend limit so please ‘like’ my public page: www.Facebook.com/MissMajorGriffinGracy and I will catch up with you there.” It also mentions that she lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she retired after living in Oakland, CA. In addition to the sites mentioned here, it also listed missmajorfilm.com and tgijp.org.)
Looks like she’s even on Twitter, @immissmajor.
From missmajor.net:
“Miss Major is a veteran of the Stonewall Rebellion and a survivor of Attica State Prison, a former sex worker, an elder, and a community leader and human rights activist.
Miss Major’s personal story and activism for transgender civil rights intersects LGBT struggles for justice and equality from the 1960s to today. At the center of her activism is her fierce advocacy for her girls, trans women of color who have survived police brutality and incarceration in men’s jails and prisons.
Miss Major is formerly the long-time executive director of the San Francisco-based Transgender Gender-Variant Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP), which advocates for trans women of color in and outside of prison. She is also the subject of a new documentary feature film currently showing around the country, MAJOR!”
She even has a GoFundMe, where people make one-time or recurring monthly donations to support this activist legend through her retirement:
something that’s annoying about the whole corporate pride merch discourse is how people respond like “oh so i can’t buy a rainbow shirt now??” etc. But, firstly, no one is saying that. If buying a pride shirt from somewhere like amazon or target is all you’re able to afford or that’s available in your area, then obviously feel free to do so and don’t worry about whether or not you’re “valid” (buying pride merch from big companies isn’t any worse than buying other stuff anyway)
but if you do have the means and access to do so, then a much better way to get cool pride stuff is to buy it directly from lgbt artists (either the tons that are on tumblr, or local artists who have booths to sell from at places like arts shows and pride fests) or buy merchandise from the online stores of reputable lgbt non profit charity and advocacy organizations. That way you can get your rainbow shirts, but at the same time you also get to actually contribute to supporting the community in some way rather than giving your money to corporate overlords who will just use it to exploit workers and the environment
Revel & Riot (nonprofit that makes tshirts and donates partial proceeds to lgbt orgs, often collabs with lgbt musicians)
Equality Florida (lgbt advocacy organization that lobbies against discriminatory laws and promotes legal changes that will benefit lgbt people, also played a big role in helping after the pulse orlando shooting)
OnePulse Foundation (nonprofit fund set up by the owner of the pulse nightclub to help rebuild, support victims, and build a memorial)
Lambda Legal (nonprofit legal advocacy organization that does impact litigation for lgbt people and people with HIV)
Pride at Work (represents lgbt workers and union members)
it’s also a good idea to look for lgbt orgs in your local area or state that likely sell their own pride merch like buttons and tshirts, since orgs at a local level are often the ones who need contributions the most and who will directly benefit your community the greatest
and if you are going to buy any corporate pride merch, still try to get it from companies that are donating 100% of the profits to lgbt orgs (some ones i know that do this are levi’s and converse) and make sure to check that the orgs they’re donating to are actually legit ones)
there’s not a ton of merch but the southern poverty law center is selling y’all means all shirts!! and equality texas has a few shirts as well and i know they do a ton of great work!
and if you can, go and see The Death and Life of Marsha P Johnson, which includes this footage as part of a fuller segment on Sylvia Rivera’s life right up until her death. what an amazing person who the world was not ready for.
(Transcription follows🙂 Sylvia Rivera: I may be—
Crowd: [booing]
Sylvia Rivera: Y’all better quiet down. I’ve been trying to get up here all day for your gay brothers and your gay sisters in jail that write me every motherfucking week and ask for your help and you all don’t do a goddamn thing for them.
Have you ever been beaten up and raped and jailed? Now think about it. They’ve been beaten up and raped after they’ve had to spend much of their money in jail to get their [inaudible], and try to get their sex changes. The women have tried to fight for their sex changes or to become women. On the women’s liberation and they write ‘STAR,’ not to the women’s groups, they do not write women, they do not write men, they write ‘STAR’ because we’re trying to do something for them.
I have been to jail. I have been raped. And beaten. Many times! By men, heterosexual men that do not belong in the homosexual shelter. But, do you do anything for me? No. You tell me to go and hide my tail between my legs. I will not put up with this shit. I have been beaten. I have had my nose broken. I have been thrown in jail. I have lost my job. I have lost my apartment for gay liberation and you all treat me this way? What the fuck’s wrong with you all? Think about that!
I do not believe in a revolution, but you all do. I believe in the gay power. I believe in us getting our rights, or else I would not be out there fighting for our rights. That’s all I wanted to say to you people. If you all want to know about the people in jail and do not forget Bambi L’amour, and Dora Mark, Kenny Metzner, and other gay people in jail, come and see the people at Star House on Twelfth Street on 640 East Twelfth Street between B and C apartment 14.
The people are trying to do something for all of us, and not men and women that belong to a white middle class white club. And that’s what you all belong to!
REVOLUTION NOW! Gimme a ‘G’! Gimme an ‘A’! Gimme a ‘Y’! Gimme a ‘P’! Gimme an ‘O’! Gimme a ‘W’! Gimme an ‘E! Gimme an ‘R’! [crying] Gay power! Louder! GAY POWER!
There’s some really important commentary on this event by several trans women on the previous upload of the video. I’m going to quote it here so it’s not lost; unfortunately the original commenters have deleted their blogs or gone private so I can’t provide full attribution.
lilacbootlaces said:
[[Trigger warning: suicide]]
Sylvia went home that night and attempted suicide.
Marsha Johnson came home and found her in time to save her life.
Sylvia left the movement after that day and didn’t come back for twenty years.
this is incredible, she is incredible, I highly recommend watching it
but I think the addendum re: the effect of this day on sylvia is really important
so often we valorise decontextualised moments of tough, articulate resistance and rage
and
the suffering of the people who embodied them is not acknowledged, it’s
uncomfortable, it’s not inspiring, we want them to stay tough and cool
and stylish forever
which is particularly terrible when I think about how sylvia felt like that because of women like me — women who are now watching this video and feeling inspired and impressed
and maybe a bit pleased with ourselves for finally having watched a
speech by the famous and really cool to name-drop sylvia rivera
girl-assassin said:
rebloggin for the true as fuck commentary (bolding mine)
n
like, on one hand this moment is decontextualized as fuck, but on the
other hand a lot of ppl try to hyper-contextualize it to make it
“history” and a very specific historical moment, so we (cis women) can
be like “oh so sad that’s how it was in the 1970s, radfems were so
awful, but it was only the whole second-wave scene that was the problem,
glad that’s over.”
Like have we forgotten the fact that Sylvia
only died in 2002? And she died young, if she were still alive she
wouldn’t even be 65 yet. I know hella older ppl in NYC who knew her
personally, and hella “leaders” of the NYC queer scene pulled horrific
shit on her constantly in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, like literally
until the day she died (ppl from Empire State Pride agenda literally
went to St. Vincents to beef with her on her death bed) Where are the
video tapes/memorializing of that shit?
N now the Manhattan LGBT
center on 13th st has a room dedicated to her memory, despite the fact
that very center permanently banned her in 1995 for daring to suggest
they should let homeless QTPOC sleep there in sub-zero weather.
N
now there’s a whole homeless trans youth shelter on 36th st named after
her, Sylvia’s Place, that kicked my TWOC friend out on the streets for
testing positive for marijuana; failing to recognize how fucked up that
is in a shelter named after a woman who struggled with addiction all her
life, and was very vocal about the relationship between drug use and
the stress of living under constant threats of violence.
N from
the late 90s onward rich gays and lesbians openly fought against Sylvia
to try to shut down 24/7 access to the piers that she n hella other
QTPOC cruised and lived on bc they were bringing down the property
values of their multi-million west village apartments.
N like 90%
of the individual people who perpetuated fucked up violence against
Sylvia are still alive and high-profile leaders in the NYC LGBT
“community” today.
So like yes, good, remember the oppressive
weight of our history of transmisogyny…but also remember that this shit
specifically ain’t even history, it’s the current reality of the NYC
queer/trans hierarchy today—like not even figuratively, literally the same people
who pulled shit like this on Sylvia are still alive n well n all over
NYC cutting the ribbons to the newest Sylvia Rivera memorial n
eulogizing her like they never tried to fucking kill her themselves.
Sorry for constantly reblogging this but here’s some more info?
Even when you are legitimately suffering, it is your
responsibility not to be cruel to people who haven’t harmed you. When
you are miserable and feel like lashing out, it’s your responsibility to
control that impulse and to apologize when you fail to control that
impulse.
Sometimes people think their suffering gives them the
right to be as vicious as they like, and that viciousness often lands on
the very people trying to offer them support and care. Someone who
cares about you and who is trying to support you isn’t there to be your
verbal (or physical) punching bag.
There’s a difference between
consensual support – sharing your feelings with someone who has agreed
to listen – and taking out those feelings on someone by saying cruel
things to them, hurting them physically, or making them feel bad intentionally to excise your own
feelings.
If you are the person offering care to someone who
is suffering, you are not required to accept cruelty in order to offer
support. You are entitled to set boundaries that keep you from being
hurt – even when the other person is also legitimately hurting.
Sometimes
people who are suffering get overwhelmed and lash out, because it can be
hard to think of others sometimes when your own pain is great. But if
and when this happens, it needs to be acknowledged and apologized for,
and the person who did it needs to figure out how to stop themselves
from behaving like this in the future. The person who was lashed out at is also entitled to their own feelings about what happened; no one’s required to excuse or ignore their pain just because it was inflicted on impulse or by someone else who was in pain.
No one gets a pass on
harming whoever’s nearest just because they themselves have been
harmed. If someone is consistently treating you with respect, it’s not
acceptable to force them to bear the brunt of pain you received
somewhere else. Find other ways to handle overwhelming feelings.
The fact that Black Lightning isn’t nearly as popular as the rest of the CW’s DC shows despite being 3x better is proof y’all don’t care about rep when it’s not white. Literally a bullet proof lesbian as a main lead but you don’t care bc she’s black and an activist. If you are bitching about lack of rep in on CW and then sleep on BL you need to sit the fuck down and shut up.
Solutions Without Problems 