Happy Trans Joy Tuesday! Spread The Joy Today, And If You Can’t, Remember That Trans Joy Will Always

He’d probably prefer the manga.

varl seems like the type of person who’d love anime. i have nothing to support this theory besides a gut feeling.

Puritanism is getting worse around the globe and conservatives and fascists will absolutely be first going harder against porn, then use that against queer people. You HAVE to realise this and oppose anti porn measures and laws, be in solidarity with sex workers, and listen to them when they call this shit out. It's going to be vitally important.

Friends and strangers alike. This system that operates America has brought on a wake-up call for so many people, and that includes me. It’s because of this system that we need change, and fast, or we will all be six feet under. And I know that all seems hopeless now, now that our fates have been sworn against us, but that's only if we let it. This, is The Declaration of We, The People.

We demand a fair country. We demand liberty and justice for not just the select few, but for all. Let the poor have their fill and eat the rich, let the women live their lives without the unwanted touch of man. Let there be room for every queer under the sun’s reflection, let the disabled live their lives without the condemnation of the abled. Let your right to live and heal be priceless without the interference of the greedy, let the bare necessities not take up the fortunes in your hands. Let humanity be a part of nature, not overpower it, let humanity be free from judgement based on the parts of them that are immutable. It’s nothing less or more than what we deserve.

Your oppressors want you dead, and that is why you need to live, if you can- live and be free. Get that botched haircut, get those piercings, give a listen to that song, give that snack a try- live while you can, because damn it, you only have one life to live, and you are not gonna live it in pain and fear. If you can't live for yourself, find someone or something to live for- a friend, a family member, an acquaintance, a pet, a lover, someone you wish was your lover, hell, an enemy if you need to. Maybe find a song to live for, a plush, a goal, a wish, a feeling. I don't care what your reason to live is, I don't care how big or small it is, I just need it to keep you alive. And if you can’t live, despite everything, the least I can ask is for you to not die for nothing.

I know you’re terrified. Terrified of the wicked people in control, terrified of your lives getting into a twist. Terrified of the torture the following years will determine. I’m scared, too, but I need you to know something- you can’t become a part of a statistic. If you’re gonna go out, don’t go out like a flickering bulb- go out like Icarus, when he collided with the sun. Go out like the Phoenix, and rise from the ashes your oppressors created. Fight with everything you can, be it through words and speeches, through marches and protests, or through the guns conservatives swear by. If you're going down, take America’s cruelty with you. Don’t wait for the world to be ready for you- make it be ready for you.

If you want to keep your peace, keep your peace. If you want to bathe in your false president’s blood, bathe in his blood. This battle for the land of the free is yours to fight, and the way you fight is yours as well. But let me tell you something- we are not gonna live on a prayer and a smile, we are gonna live by putting our bloodied foot forward. Did queer people get their right to marry and to transform by making puppy eyes at their president? Did women get their right to vote by sitting around and looking pretty? Did the colored get their right to live in equality by biting their tongue? No- they fought, every damn day of their lives. And respectfully, I ask you to fight too, however you can. If you don't know how to fight, have someone teach you- and if you can't handle that, teach yourself. But I still ask you to fight.

I know, I know all seems hopeless, that a heartless man as your president seems inescapable- but so did the divine right of kings, once upon a time. We've seen things like this a million times, even if it doesn’t look like it- when there's progress, there's pushback. People will fight with their blood, sweat, and tears, only to get cut short by those who were supposed to represent them. Well, guess what? The cut will scab over, and the battle will rage on, and the fire won’t stop burning until we get the lives we deserve. We declare that we have the right to live, and we will fight for it.

Feel what you need to, but frankly, I refuse dystopia, I refuse hate, I refuse control- and I especially refuse death. I have disobeyed worse than you- my friends do not die on my watch. They want America to be ‘great’ again? Well, we, the people, will make America free again. ----------- obviously, i know what you're probably thinking; "krista what the fuck. krista a tumblr post isn't gonna do shit" and i completely understand where you're coming from- hell, before the election, i'd agree with you!! i would love to get up on a stage and recite this word-for-word. i would also like to live to my 18th birthday first, this year.

and i know what else you're probably thinking; "lol you say that and yet nobody's gonna do shit" and what are you doing?

yeah, i am WELL aware this is very idealistic, especially for the times we're gonna be living in. all seems hopeless, i completely understand that. BUT we need to have some sort of vision for our fight to live, or we're just gonna die- if not die, then live MISERABLY.

love your people. they're all you really have, right now.

🦖 Dinosaurs and vintage girls 🎀

Two things you wouldn’t think go together… but in my world they do 🤭 a small series of illustrations I did for fun! All of these are in my print shop if you’d like to have a little dino for yourself lol

Yes, to all of the above. As someone on the autism spectrum I have no room to judge people for being weird. So you let your freak flag fly and go wild!

Right, considering the current state of corporate politics on this site, and that it seems that only those affected seem to be actively speaking on the matter, it is up to I, the only fucking cishet on tumblr, to drag this out to a wider audience.

REBLOG IF YOUR ACCOUNT IS A TRANSFEM SAFE SPACE.

We need to show these higher ups how much we truly value them.

There are people – some in my own Party – who think that if you just give Donald Trump everything he wants, he’ll make an exception and spare you some of the harm. I’ll ignore the moral abdication of that position for just a second to say — almost none of those people have the experience with this President that I do. I once swallowed my pride to offer him what he values most — public praise on the Sunday news shows — in return for ventilators and N95 masks during the worst of the pandemic. We made a deal. And it turns out his promises were as broken as the BIPAP machines he sent us instead of ventilators. Going along to get along does not work – just ask the Trump-fearing red state Governors who are dealing with the same cuts that we are. I won’t be fooled twice.

I’ve been reflecting, these past four weeks, on two important parts of my life: my work helping to build the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the two times I’ve had the privilege of reciting the oath of office for Illinois Governor.

As some of you know, Skokie, Illinois once had one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors anywhere in the world. In 1978, Nazis decided they wanted to march there.

The leaders of that march knew that the images of Swastika clad young men goose stepping down a peaceful suburban street would terrorize the local Jewish population – so many of whom had never recovered from their time in German concentration camps.

The prospect of that march sparked a legal fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It was a Jewish lawyer from the ACLU who argued the case for the Nazis – contending that even the most hateful of speech was protected under the first amendment.

As an American and a Jew, I find it difficult to resolve my feelings around that Supreme Court case – but I am grateful that the prospect of Nazis marching in their streets spurred the survivors and other Skokie residents to act. They joined together to form the Holocaust Memorial Foundation and built the first Illinois Holocaust Museum in a storefront in 1981 – a small but important forerunner to the one I helped build thirty years later.

I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly. But I know the history intimately — and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust. Here’s what I’ve learned – the root that tears apart your house’s foundation begins as a seed – a seed of distrust and hate and blame.

The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.

I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now. A president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac – and suggests — without facts or findings — that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash. Or the Missouri Attorney General who just sued Starbucks – arguing that consumers pay higher prices for their coffee because the baristas are too “female” and “nonwhite.” The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here: They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems.

I just have one question: What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities – once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends – After that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face – what comes next.

All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history – then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it.

I swore the following oath on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible: “I do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Governor .... according to the best of my ability.

My oath is to the Constitution of our state and of our country. We don’t have kings in America – and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one. I am not speaking up in service to my ambitions — but in deference to my obligations.

If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this:

It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.

Those Illinois Nazis did end up holding their march in 1978 – just not in Skokie. After all the blowback from the case, they decided to march in Chicago instead. Only twenty of them showed up. But 2000 people came to counter protest. The Chicago Tribune reported that day that the “rally sputtered to an unspectacular end after ten minutes.” It was Illinoisans who smothered those embers before they could burn into a flame.

Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the “tragic spirit of despair” overcome us when our country needs us the most.

Sources:

• NBC Chicago & J.B. Pritzker, Democratic governor of Illinois, State of the State address 2025: Watch speech here | Full text

• Betches News on Instagram (screencaps)

Yosemite Falls

Yosemite Falls