Happy (slightly Late) Birthday To Donald Na!! If Only He Got To Turn 17 Before He Died :(

god i love fallible characters, but specifically zuko in the catacombs. choosing his sister over his uncle just to get to sleep in his childhood bed again. earning katara's kindness and empathy and stripping it all away in minutes because he ached for the familiar. fighting on the wrong side of history just to see his father smile with pride. knowing he could have done the right thing, but what is being good when you could be terrible but loved.

Collective amnesia makes us feel as if there are no bi people in history. That is, until we see that bi people have been there all along, they’ve just been mislabeled or left out of the narrative. Bisexuality is the sexual and/or romantic attraction to multiple genders. Nestled within the term bisexual are other labels, including pansexual, omnisexual, and polysexual. Which term people use is almost entirely down to preference, although sometimes the choice is driven by an ahistorical misconception that the bi in bisexual reinforces a gender binary and excludes trans and nonbinary people.

One reason why we might “forget” bisexuals is because those who are attracted to people of multiple genders rarely call themselves bi. Historically, there have been a number of reasons for this, including wanting to avoid discrimination and stigma. There have long been toxic misconceptions of bisexual people as promiscuous and unfaithful, in a confused state of sexual transition or experimentation, lying about their attractions for attention or to attract men (particularly bi women), or simply adhering to some sort of trend (particularly young people).

Being bi could also get you kicked out of your local queer space. Bisexuality introduces nuance, which has always made it easier to discard than accommodate it. In tough times, when queer people were fighting for their lives and for basic legal protections, some gay rights groups strategically rejected bisexual people. For example, in the 1970s there were instances where the Gay Liberation Front, a queer-rights group, treated bisexual people as effectively straight, and thus associated them with regressive politics and edged them out of the organization.

But historians have never let a lack of self-labeling prevent them from trying to find queer people in history. People also shied away from terms like gay or lesbian, and yet we can find many books on their history. Still, it was only when I went back to university for a master’s in queer history that I realized that the absence of bisexuality in most versions of LGBTQ+ history wasn’t because there were no bi people in the past. Rather, that lack of knowledge is the result of an overcompensation for compulsory heterosexuality, which has meant that most people with homosexual desires in the U.S. were forced to live lives that involved heterosexual sex and relationships.

In the search for queer lives in the past, one way that academics have dealt with this is to assume that people who had any kind of same-sex desires or sex must have been gay or lesbian, even if they were also in heterosexual relationships. Partly because of this, the term bisexual is often entirely absent from historians’ writings. By doing so, we are systematically mislabeling people who were attracted to multiple genders, erasing bi history. When we untether bisexual people from their own past, we obscure the ways in which bisexuality is a cornerstone of the human experience.

Here are some important people in bi history you should know:

The bisexuality researchers you need to know

One of the earliest researchers to legitimize the study of bisexual people was Havelock Ellis (1859-1939). Ellis was based in the U.K., and in the 1927 edition of his book Sexual Inversion, he describes many case studies of bisexual people. He includes some negative stereotypes, but also some decidedly positive ones. For example, he wrote that bi women made “great religious and moral leaders.” It is these kinds of positive statements that led to the first edition of his book being ruled “obscene” in an English court because he dared to write about queer lives without condemning them. It took him multiple attempts to get the book published.

Probably the most famous sex researcher of all time was Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956). He was a biologist at Indiana University who introduced nuance into the discussion of sexuality. His Kinsey Scale allows us to categorize sexuality as a number between 0 and 6, from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual. In his famous mid-20th century studies, he shocked the world when he found that a huge number of people (he often stated “a quarter to half”) had homosexual and heterosexual desires. He also openly criticized other researchers who assumed that people could only be either gay or straight, and spoke of the “endless intergradations” that captured the reality of people’s sexualities.

Following in Kinsey’s footsteps, Fritz Klein (1932-2006) was a sex researcher and psychiatrist who published the book, The Bisexual Option, in 1978. He was a bisexual man himself, and he started a group for bisexual men to help them feel secure in their own sexuality; that practice grew into affirmative therapy that would help many people better understand their own sexual behaviors and identity. The Klein Sexual Orientation Grid is an expanded version of the Kinsey Scale. Klein also set up the Journal of Bisexuality and the American Institute of Bisexuality, which both continue to further bi research today. These organizations have been fundamental in giving a home to research and writing on bisexuality.

Bi activists who fought for queer rights

There have also been a number of tireless activists who have fought for queer and bisexual rights, including Brenda Howard (1946-2005). Howard is sometimes referred to as the “mother of pride” because after the Stonewall uprising, she played a major role in organizing the first marches of LGBT+ people, which laid the foundations for global Pride marches.

Another activist who worked in some of the same groups as Howard, and continues their work today, is Lani Ka’ahumanu (born in 1943). Ka’ahumanu has been a leader of the bisexual rights movement in the U.S. since 1980. She founded a number of groups that were specifically for bisexual people, which was particularly important given the shaky history between bi people and gay and lesbian communities. Ka’ahumanu created safe political spaces where bi people didn’t need to justify their sexuality or their inclusion. To this effect, in 1983, she co-founded BiPOL, one of the first bisexual political action groups in the country; she later co-coordinated the San Francisco Bay Area Bisexual Network. Ka’ahumanu is also a major reason why the B is included in LGBT, because of her campaigning in the leadup to the 1993 March on Washington.

Other people who are still fighting for bi visibility and protections today include activist Robyn Ochs, who wrote the most widely cited definition of bisexuality; New York Times columnist Charles Blow, who fights for bi visibility including in the Black community; and Kyrsten Sinema, who was the first openly bisexual person elected to Congress in 2012.

The main thing that people get wrong about the history of bisexuality is assuming that there is none. As more people embrace bisexual identities, I expect there will be a new thirst for knowledge, followed by a quenching wave of bisexual stories uncovered from the archives of history.

By uncovering previously untold accounts, and re-telling the stories of people previously too eagerly labeled gay and lesbian, bisexual people will finally be able to remember some of the pieces of their own history.

Dr. Julia Shaw is a criminal psychologist at University College London and part of Queer Politics at Princeton University which works for LGBT+ equality, democracy, and civil rights. She is actively involved in bisexual research and is the founder of the international Bisexual Research Group. Shaw’s latest book, Bi: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science of Bisexuality, is set to be released on June 28.

This was my Roman Empire ❤️

Chain of Command Chapter 5

Fuck, where is she?

She’d called him the night before to ask for the designated pick up time, but ten minutes had already passed since the agreed timing and Bambi was still nowhere to be seen.

Admittedly, Forrest felt a little embarrassed for eagerly anticipating Bambi’s arrival like she was some knight in shining armour and he was a damsel in distress, but when you were facing a real life villain that would make any fairytale antagonist piss their pants, you needed all the protection you could get. 

He’d felt relieved when she informed him that she would be tagging along to observe the pickup with Ganghak– for what reason, he didn’t know. 

He doubted that Wolf would be happy with the decision, but as long as it meant that Forrest and his friends would be free from both psychological and physical damage, he didn’t give a damn about what the boy felt,

But regardless of what she’d said the night before, Bambi was still a no-show. And Forrest Lee was paying for it big time.

“I said I’ll make sure to take care of the money that got stolen. And yet you dare intimidate me with Donald Na?” 

Wolf grabbed him by his hair, yanking his head down towards till their eyes were levelled.

“You dare do that to me? Have you forgotten who I am?”

Fuck. It became harder to evade Wolf Keum’s eyes as he leaned in closer to his face. Fuck. He was vaguely aware of Robin cowering behind him, and he was glad he left Grapes waiting downstairs. Where is Bambi? This was the exact scenario Forrest had wanted to avoid.

Where the hell is she? 

Just as Forrest was about to resign to his fate, his panicking was cut short by footsteps and a familiar voice.

“What’s going on?” 

Relief flooded his body. 

Thank fucking goodness. 

~

Bambi had never had a favourable impression of Wolf Keum, not when she first set eyes on him, not when Sam Lee recounted the days where he was bullied by Wolf, not when he and his little gang of assholes nearly ran her over with their motorbikes, and definitely not when she walked in on him about to beat the shit out of Forrest Lee.

She had been nearly ten minutes late to the pick up due to an unexpected holdup, and was not in the best of moods even before she watched as Wolf Keum entangled his fingers in Forrest's hair, pulling down on it so harshly she was worried that Forrest would go bald before he even hit twenty. 

After all the time she’d spent alongside Donald Na, she’d learnt how to keep her emotions from being public display. Despite that, she still had to physically stop her jaw from dropping at the sight in front of her. However, even if she did let it hang loose from shock, she doubted that anyone would’ve noticed it anyways. Aside from Wolf and Forrest, the only other people present were Robin Ha, and two other boys from Ganghak.

Robin stood with his back to her, his head lowered to face the ground and his shoulders slumped in what seemed like a pathetic attempt to shrink all six feet of himself to avoid looking at his fallen leader. Wolf’s two lieutenants stood at the other end of the rooftop, facing the elevator. If their eyes weren’t so glued to the scene in front of them, they probably would’ve noticed her arrival. In the centre of it all, was Wolf Keum and Forrest Lee, the former grabbing the latter by the hair as he leaned in closer to Forrest’s face. 

Her first reaction was to butt in and stop Wolf (an impulse that EMBARRASSED her)– what overwhelmed her shock at his actions was her worry for Forrest Lee. It was pitiful watching the school head be reduced to a mere ragdoll in front of Wolf Keum, especially since she knew of his assaulter’s formidability. The choice of action she decided to take however, was to stand by and watch silently, crossing her arms over her chest. 

Just like how she’d learned to control her facial expressions, she’d learnt how to control the way she acted too. Rushing into a fight to stop it just reeked of desperation, which was the last thing she wanted to show around delinquents, or anyone, really. Observing silently and collecting information was the smart thing to do. An uncaring, cool and collected image had already been built for the higher ups of the Union, and she’d be an idiot to not utilise it.

Not that she wasn’t entirely unaffected by the violence that had become her everyday life– contrary to the opinions of many Union members, she wasn’t totally callous and apathetic (or in their words, a “stuck up bitch”). She wasn’t Kingsley. She had loads of empathy. She just found it easy for her to watch delinquents that weren’t her friends get beat up since she knew better than to waste her empathy on them. 

Asides from worry, another emotion that had wormed her way into her heart while she watched the scene in front of her was anger, something she was much more familiar with.

What does he think he’s doing?

Was Wolf really stupid enough to attack another executive? Perhaps stupid had been the wrong word, Wolf had brains after all. Crazy would’ve worked much better.

She knew she should’ve known better than to let Wolf’s actions shock her, but she couldn’t help but feel surprised at the boy’s brazenness. Not that they weren’t perfectly in character for the bastard. 

The boy hadn’t been branded as the Union wildcard for no good reason– the big, bad, Wolf with sharp teeth and large claws. A powerful and scary delinquent, no doubt, but still a delinquent, who probably only started smoking because they thought it looked cool, and thought every little insult had to be resolved with violence. At the end of the day, he was just a teenage boy who thought he was hot shit just because he had a couple of wins under his belt.

Wolf was saying something else now, and she turned her attention towards him. She raised an eyebrow. The boy was still unaware of her presence, moving so close to Forrest’s face she might’ve thought that he was going in for a kiss. 

“I said I’ll make sure to take care of the money that got stolen, yet you dare intimidate me with Donald Na?”

Stolen money? Her anger on Forrest’s behalf had been forgotten, her body temperature rising significantly before dropping again. An unpleasant chill ran through her body, like someone had dumped a bucket of ice over her head. 

Wolf was now saying something about his name, but she tuned it out. Stolen money? That explained why she hadn’t seen any bags on the rooftop.

In the Union, it wasn’t rare to see members fuck up their missions. Sure, maybe it'd get them a slap or two from their assigned executive, or a lecture from Donald Na himself, depending on the importance of the task, but it was rarely that serious. Losing money, however, was practically a death penalty.

She exhaled, marching towards the two boys in front of her. She’d seen enough.

“What’s going on?”

Every head turned at the sound of her voice, all with varying reactions, though shock seemed to be a common factor in all of them. 

Robin and Forrest’s faces leaned more towards relief, albeit mixed with humiliation. Hayden and Hwangmo, on the other hand, seemed to physically freeze up as her gaze swept over them and onto Wolf Keum, whose face had hardened at the sight of her with obvious unhappiness. Reluctantly, he let go of Forrest Lee.

If it wasn’t for the sense of foreboding descending unto her, she would’ve rolled her eyes.

She didn’t stop walking forward until she was a short distance away from Wolf. He’d switched most of his scowl out with the blank stare he kept on while around Donald Na, though there was still a hint of petulance in it that Bambi didn’t like.

“What stolen money?” The sharp edge in her voice went unnoticed by none.

“...I didn’t know you were coming.”

An eyebrow shot up. 

“Clearly.” She scoffed. “Now answer my question.”

“What stolen money?”

This time, Wolf didn’t bother to hide his anger, letting it seep into his voice as he replied, though he at least had the sense to lower his gaze.

“The expenditure payment got stolen by a bunch of guys from Eunjang. We’re looking for them right now.” 

She didn’t know whether to be shocked or infuriated. She settled for a mix of both. “You lost the money?” 

Wolf opened his mouth, but she cut in before he could speak. “No wait, you let it get stolen?” Wolf tensed, but she paid no mind to it, thinking about how she would break the news to Donald. He would not be happy.

All the money, and some important files too, were kept in a big locked bag for safekeeping while it was being transported. Though it was an inconvenient method when compared to digital transactions, it made sure the money- and the Union- never left a trace. However, its weakness was that it also opened up the possibility of intervention from outside sources, which meant that it was the responsibility of the members of the Union to keep it safe.

That obviously hadn’t worked. 

“Who lost it?” Narrowing her eyes, she glanced at two boys behind Wolf, who flinched in return.

“It wasn’t them.” Wolf said sharply, though Bambi noted that unlike how other leaders in the Union might’ve reacted, he sounded more annoyed than defensive. “It was two other guys. I’ve already punished them, so relax.”

For the second time that day, she had to stop her jaw from hanging open at his stunning display of audacity. Relax. He really was a peculiar bastard, wasn’t he? First, he’d grabbed another executive by the hair. Then he’d lost the expenditure payment. And now he was telling her to relax. 

She released a massive frustration filled sigh.

“Wolf.”

A heavy silence rested on the rooftop as she paused. When she finally spoke again, her voice was dangerously low.

“It’s a simple job. Donald Na entrusted you with this himself, and he doesn’t have time for incompetency, so fix this quickly.” She practically spat out the last part, voice full of venom. “Get the money back by tomorrow or I’ll be telling him about your mistake.” 

She started to turn, motioning towards Forrest and Robin to follow her as she made her way to the elevator. “We’re done here for now.”

“Oh, right,” She paused suddenly, swivelling her head to look at him again. “I’m sure you know the rules on attacking another Union member well enough, so keep your hands to yourself next time, yeah?” She sent him a scathing look. “Try to get your shit together now.” 

As she entered the lift, she had the distinct feeling that Wolf was glaring holes through her back. She frowned. She had a suspicion neither of them particularly liked each other.

Reblog, click the picture, and prepare for battle.

🥀🔪 SPOOKY BOOKS FOR AUTUMN 2022 👻🏚️

hi guys. I really like books right now. have you heard about books? I’d like to talk to you about some spooky books

SPOOKY 

Horror but like LIGHT not too much

Bound Feet - **initially forgot this gem !!** a novella where two women break into a Chinese Garden and Ghost Museum at night !!

Our Wives Under the Sea - this is very literary light on the horror, about a woman’s wife coming back wrong from a Marianas Trench investigation

Weird Horror #3 and #4 - I love this magazine. it has the exact kind of horror story I like, more interested in intriguing you than disturbing you. I’ve only read 3 and 4 so far but I’m sure they’re all good.   

Goddess of Filth - this is an unique possession tale. A group of Mexican American girls hold a seance that allows a goddess to possess one of them, but their real enemy… CATHOLICISM

My Heart is a Chainsaw - it’s Stephen Graham Jones. you cannot go wrong with SGJ, but this is the most for tumblr of his works. Jade is a very traumatized teen who loves horror movies and life becomes one

Come Closer - this is Possession Horror at its finest, told from the perspective of the woman being possessed 

The Carrow Haunt - a group of paranormal enthusiasts all stay at a haunted house ! somehow gives warm hug found family coffee shop vibes even while bodies are dropping. 

You Should Have Left - apparently now a movie with Kevin Bacon. haven’t seen it, but enjoy this book for the style and execution. screenwriter on a vacation in a house that should have never been built where it has been built…  

What Moves the Dead - a retelling of the Fall of the House of Usher with a nb protagonist, very gothic without being too scary 

A Head Full of Ghosts - a possession story where a family welcomes a reality tv crew into their home to film their possessed daughter

A Dowry of Blood - give it up for a book entirely about Dracula’s polycule aka his wives and husband. horror in the sense of domestic abuse. 

Hide and Seeker - I will add a middle grade horror book bc I want to support the kids getting their horror. this one gives creepy rhymes and child abduction 

Miss Dark Academia

Catherine House - so you want DARK dark academia? look no further. this is nihilistic and brimming with dread. not for lovers of plot

BUNNY - Welcome to the Smut Salon. is this horror? you decide. the first third of this book is incredible and the rest of it . I have no idea 

The Atlas Six - this is if you want dark academic magic grad school. I can’t decide if this is a Recommendation exactly, but I was entertained the whole time 

Hot weather halloween-y tales (for those of you in warm climates who still want to get spooky)

The Ballad of Perilous Graves - urban fantasy sent in New Orleans where music is magic, you got paintbodies (ppl getting high on graffiti), cemeteries, haints, sky trolleys, children tasked with finding the nine magic songs that keep Nola alive, and a trans man POV character going through it. it gives kids halloween. 

okay so I recently read The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, perfect if you want gothic jungle drama scifi and can handle some heterosexual nonsense. I loved the cenote and the hybrids, but I still think the best book from this author is yes Mexican Gothic

HORROR horror like. horror

Tell Me I’m Worthless - the haunted house IS fascism in the UK. the protagonists are a trans woman and a terf. showstopping. incredible. I enjoyed the whole thing. SO many trigger warnings. 

The Silent Companions - historical fiction where wooden cutout props of people are pretty scary, this book somehow managed to accomplish jump scares

Your Body is Not Your Body - an anthology of weird body horror, proceeds go to trans youth in Texas. very literary and bite-sized. 

We Are Here To Hurt Each Other - if you’re excited for new Hellraiser, and like gooey and gory, give this collection a try.

Helpmeet - returning to an abandoned orchard in 1900s New York might make you think oh a simple gothic tale? No. Nothing will prepare you

The Last House on Needless Street - it’s best to go into this book knowing nothing. all I can say is it is a truly wild time

HOT OFF THE PRESS aka new books I can’t wait to get my paws on

House of Hunger - we’ve got gothic manor house we’ve got blood maids look at that cover I also hear it’s maybe lesbionic ? 

Leech - gothic science fiction, something weird and queer happening in an isolated chateau. say no more.

[id: screenshots of tiktok captions. the images say, “but the only reason we still love princess diana is because she did not have the time to disappoint us.”]

begging queer kids to read up on princess diana’s involvement with the community. yes, she was a rich, pretty monarch. yes, she died young.

but the reason why queer people love her is because she used her privilege during the aids crisis to advocate for sick queer men, when very few others would - much less someone of her status.

diana spent years advocating for the health and care of queer people with hiv/aids. in 1987, at the height of the epidemic, she opened the first specialist clinic dedicated to treating aids patients (the first clinic of it’s kind in the uk).

she also fought public hysteria by hugging and shaking bare hands with aids patients, at a time when aids was thought to be spread by skin to skin contact. not only that, she visited patients in the clinic regularly and even comforted them through their sickness.

and when queen elizabeth told her to try focusing on “something more pleasant”?

diana ignored her and kept fighting.

and this is only her work towards the aids crisis. she publicly called out the royal family, brought attention to numerous world issues, and was known as an advocate for empathy and kindness. she’s known and loved as the people’s princess for good reason

walking into a church and i turn all the crosses upside down so that my vampire lover can come in with me and then we play the organ together

Thanks to whoever edited this wiki article of Kaz Brekker

it’s hilarious

please

YOU THERE! YES YOU! FIC READER!

I just read a fic from 2013 and left a comment on the end. The author responded within 3 hours.

Please leave comments on fics. It doesn't matter if you don't know what to say I literally made a joke about a space worm. Please comment on fics it'll make the authors day even if its from 9 years ago.