[swoon] I Love All Of These! It Is Hard For Dragons To Get Comfortable In Chairs Made For Humans.

Every time I see news about a new piece of hate legislation, I want to curl up and cry.  I don’t know if my life-entwined partner will ever be able to visit my family in Kansas again, especially since we have to go through Missouri and/or Iowa to get there.

It’s scary how many states went from “moderate risk in 2 years” to “worst active anti-trans laws” between December 2022 and May 2023.  Most of these laws will be challenged, and many may be overturned.  How many people are going to die in the meantime though?  Even when laws are struck down by the courts, will people ever feel safe there again?  How long until those laws are replaced by new ones that are just as bad but more subtle, or until people don’t have the energy and money to keep fighting against them?

open.substack.com

May Anti-Trans Legislative Risk Map

The map of anti-trans risk has polarized into two Americas - one where trans people have full legal protections, and one where they are pers

When we moved to Oregon in 2019, we always planned eventually to move back "home" to Pennsylvania, the state where, before that, I'd spent all but a year of my life since we moved there in '88.

Today, I'm going to have a conversation with my partners. I think we just have to assume I -- we -- can't go home.

Maybe ever.

Pennsylvania itself is in a low-risk category within two years, but it could easily -- well I know it -- swing into red if the next election cycle breaks another way.

That's not the kind of place where you buy the house that you intend them to "take you out of toes first," as I joked with my wives when we last talked about our plans.

That's what these laws mean to people like me. They mean "the state you consider home might become actively hostile to you within the next 5 years, so you can't plan to buy a home there." They mean "you shouldn't even board a plane that has a likelihood of having a layover in Florida, and you're definitely not going to repeat your 2019 drive across the country, one of the best and worst experiences of your life and the most time you've gotten to spend with your brother in one week since you graduated from high school." They mean half the states in this country are actively hostile to you, legally speaking, in a way you thought was finally behind you.

Sometime soon, I'm going to call my mother and tell her that we're not planning on moving back.

I don't have a clever closing line for this. I'm just sad.

I better support poly relationships -- I’ve been in them for years!

Reblog if you support poly relationships

I need to convince one of my friends they exist

Hugs to all my friends who are struggling.

YOUR 👏 SYMPTOMS 👏 ARE NOT 👏 YOUR FAULT

[swoon!] It’s so cute -- that smug smile, those adorable little fangs!

Just a little self-indulgent doodle of a cuddly ace-colored critter. I so rarely do stuff that’s just fun for me, so hey, why not! I hope that all you aces out there have had a good Pride Month! 

If you have shared a post with Spanish advice on what to do if ICE agents come to a person’s home, please check the Spanish advice carefully or have someone who can read Spanish check it for you!  Some posts designed to look like ones from the ACLU have bad advice that basically encourages people to give up their rights.  I’m disgusted that people would do this deliberately and heart-broken that others are unwittingly sharing this false information.

Please confirm that information you share is correct!  (English information in the picture on the right in the initial post from vaspider and Spanish translation by funkylittlegoblin)

False memes

Okay, friends, I need some help.

A friend of mine saw a friend who does not speak Spanish circulating these two memes, trying to be helpful. Here’s the problem - the advice in Spanish DOES NOT MATCH the English AT ALL. In Spanish, the people are advised to invite ICE in, be honest and calm, and to instruct all family members to tell the truth. At the end, they are told their cooperation is appreciated. They are not advised of their rights, to request a warrant. The advice amounts to giving themselves up.

If you look closely at the bottom, you’ll see that the English version is from the ACLU. The Spanish version says “ALCU”.

Be aware of the information you share - it may not be helpful!

THAT SAID, the help I request is this:

I do not speak enough Spanish to translate the above into Spanish. I would like to give her the Spanish translation of this message to add to her post. (And this one.)

Help?

Swoooon!

@the-other-sandy

Hereford Cathedral Library. The library was formally established in 1611, but the cathedral’s manuscript collection dates back to the medieval era. It is still a working library, and is notable for its collection of chained books (a common practice in the early modern era), and is the only library of this type to survive with all of the chains, rods and locks still intact. The chained library contains 229 manuscripts, mostly medieval, and the earliest book in the collection, the Hereford Gospels, is from around 780.

Leafy sea dragon mermaid! [swoon]  (Ok, they’re all cool, but I have a soft spot for leafy sea dragons.)

5/15 mermaid design challenge i made for myself (also happens to be during #mermay)

so far: goldfish, lionfish, leafy sea dragon, deepsea predator, and red octopus

i will post here when another 5 are done, meanwhile you can see each one & WIPs on my twitter if you want

edit: basically i realized way too late that u cant see anything of the details so i added 100% closeups for each one like i did on twitter ///shrug

You have the right to vote safely!  If you have been avoiding registering to vote in the US due to domestic violence or threat of violence, please check out the resources for your state.  In Wisconsin, this includes threats to someone in your household, as well as yourself and your child/ward.

[image description: a tweet by user @indigenousAI saying

“fun fact: as a DV survivor i cannot register to vote because doing so makes my address public. anyone who is fleeing or hiding from an abuser is automatically disenfranchised from the political process and this is a feature, not a bug”]

[swoon] 

Moomin pride icons!!! Show your pride this month with tove jansson’s beloved Moomins!

Free to use with credit! 🏳️‍🌈

I think Danny Devito would be great as the voice of Spider-Ham though!

Husband and I have a fun game called “Against Type”  where we speculate on either Improbable Roles for an actor or Improbable Actors for a role.  The results frequently make for better movies than the original casting.  Some of the best combinations so far:

Betty White as James Bond (With Daniel Craig as her Bond Girl)

Danny Devito as Spiderman

Arnold Schwaznegger as Any Teletubbie

Julie Andrews as Batman

Gilbert Gottfried as The Phantom Of The Opera

Lucy Liu as freakin’ anybody.  Seriously, any role I’ve tried to imagine her in I can only imagine her fucking killing it.  Captain America. Mary Poppins. Hannibal Lecter. Doc Brown. Elizabeth Bennet. Darth Vader. She’d be awesome.

Samuel L. Jackson as Dolores Umbridge

Taika Watiti and Lin Manuel Miranda as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson (the musical)

Some notes from the game:

It’s harder to do this with actresses than actors because they tend to be more versatile.

Adding “The Musical” or “Directed by Mel Brooks” to any serious movies improves it by 500%

Christopher Walken is equally awesome/terrible at anything you put him in