Burnt Armor

I wanna focus on the happy, the good, the correct, righteous love, on that which must be said, on the defiantly awesome for a minute. Though I know others may be getting annoyed at my constant link-farms, I'm just not really ready to post publicly atm. If you're my LJ-friend, look for a friends-only post in the next few days if you wanna know more.


"Ally" is a bad term to use.
Here is some interesting discussion on how "allies" will use snark and their(our) knowledge to one-up and dominate discussions with ignorant privileged folks.

Gauge did hir own write-up of CT. And it was linked to on Feministing!

Cedar is on a roll!
The Standards of Care are abusive and manipulative in practice.
Step Up; Step Back is actually something that came up between us at CT and I've been trying to formulate a response, but with all the shit happening with me personally I just can't right now. I'd love to, but I'm just not up for it.
Where next? What do we need? Another conversation I wish I had the energy/ability to contribute to.

Trans* rights have been protected in Maryland (for now at least).

Theres proposed legislation in the UK to recognize genders other than man/woman! But first, they need to hear that there is a real need for this.

The proposed legislation will initially state the case for necessity of provision of an alternative option alongside male and female in sex/gender field on forms for application and registration, such as passport application, the Census etc. We are presenting the case for a third option of ‘non gender-specific’, ‘gender not specified’ or ‘other’ on all forms.

In order for the legislation to have any chance of succeeding in early stages of procession through parliament, it is vital that we can demonstrate a strong social need for recognition of identities that have until now been unrecognised by law in all western countries and ignored by gendered society.

*This is where I need the help and support of EVERY resident in the UK who does not identify as male or female and for whom the options of male and female provided by gendered society are irrelevant, inadequate and insulting.*

...

Please send an email to my address Christie.Elan-Cane@ukgateway.net with *I SUPPORT NON GENDER-SPECIFIC OPTION* in the subject line. Give your full name and preferably a full address in the United Kingdom where you are resident. If you would rather not provide address details, write anyway with just your name but responses with a valid UK address should carry more weight if used to petition support from other ministers.
Please do not send any attachment documents with your email.

Per also asks that non-UK residents post this on their blogs/LJs/websites/etc so the word gets out.
And I'm wondering, why don't all those interested in a "gender-free society" send their support too? After all, you may be one step closer to that world** and you'll be helping real people at the same time! Or is the possibility of working with trans* folks instead of against us just too much to ask?
**I don't believe that world is possible, but certainly making it so that one does not have to choose woman/man is a way of showing that they are not the only options.


The Sky is Falling and our love is an act of war.
I won't quote it all because y'all should go over there and read and comment, but I really, really loved these parts:

Here's what they're on about: they live in a world where we are monsters. They live in a world that trembles daily, because we snake our faultlines through its foundations and each time we move more crumbles and falls over the yawning edge of the flattened sea. In their world, once near us, their children can be lost to them, and just seeing us represented fills them with the rage of people struck in the face and deprived of their birthrights.
That world needs to end, and we know it. That world will end, and they know it.
...
I say let's call down the thunders, then. Let's stand and fight. Let's own that our love is a matter of artillery, and fire salvo after salvo. Let's hold hands and kiss and fuck and dance while all over, rock shears from the cliff-faces of their shuddering world and it frays at the seams. Let's defiantly exist, exist hard, right next to them, public, brazen, beautiful. Let's drill and march and right on their doorsteps let's have unacceptable bodies and loud music and food whose aromas they find foreign and offensive. Let's fucking sing.

We can call it jubilation. They can call it war. Either way, the results are the same. We succeed, and walk hand in hand into a new world where our very existence is not considered a violation, or we do not--and are no longer in a position to care.

And Flames of Incandescent Terror is an awesome response to that:

Love is an act of blood. Love is an act of bone. It is your breath.

I am a child of the Mother of Demons. My love will rip up the foundations of the world if need be. It will tear apart your safe spaces. It will not let me be silent. My love is a claimed conspiracy to riot stashed in a jail cell awaiting judgement in Minnesota. My love does not wait for a permit or follow an established route. It is here now there then always not with a whimper but a bang and if your world is ending for it then remember that love will divide your families, set kith against kith and kin against kin, that you were warned and said you believed.

Living and other acts of Defiance:

I wont back down from who I truly am. I will not butch up to convince you I am a man, nor will I allow you to treat me as a woman. I am myself, a beautiful gargoyle with a heart of stone. I care not for your insistent and terrified mewling. I will not be convenient. I will not be neat. Your binary will not cage me.

At the moment, I am not sure if I am up for being a warrior, being defiant, up for more ripping and tearing. At the moment, I just want to crawl away and sleep until I can't care anymore.
Right now the world is too empty and too full; I can't bear it any longer.
But that is right now.
That is right after I am thinking of death and loss after my old mentor dies. Right when I am thinking of betrayal and hurt after drama and pain invade my safe spaces.
But that was now and soon now will be this.
I can't just sleep away till revolution comes. I have tough claws for war (and for protecting). I have wide wings for flight (and sheltering under). I have a rough tongue for lapping up the blood (and the tears).
I can rip and tear at hate and oppression with these teeth; even while I heal pain and the oppressed with this tongue.
So I will lick my wounds for now; here in my cave, with a battered and burnt suit of armor at my door and more marching towards this mountain.

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RNC Brutality

Theres been a bunch of stuff happening that I really should have been blogging about. I'm sorry, but I just wasn't up to it; loads of stuff offline and personal things, but I'm also getting burned out. I am so tired of the same old cardboard arguments getting thrown at us, the same old trolls sapping our energy, and the constant betrayal for crumbs from the kyriarchy. But I'm not the only one and getting tired of getting shit thrown at you and yours is bound to be tiring. I'll rest when I need it and get back to cleaning when I can. ^.~

So, back to what I should be writing about:

RNC. Blackwater, targeting medics(!!!), illegal arrests (journalists!!!), illegal searches(!!!), police brutality(!!!), fascism, actual assassination plots going unpunished (who cares if Obama gets killed), media blackout, gathering info on undesirables...
Need I go on? (no need, BFP has been awesome)
Of course, everyone is focusing on Palin and her baby's baby and not the Illegal Activity the government is participating in. I don't give a fuck about who is preggers and who wasn't.
I give a fuck that the government is stepping up it's fascism and brutality to levels that are obvious to anyone with eyes. How long until this becomes the common way of treating all citizens? (already intersections of POC, queer/trans* folks, homeless folks, poor folks, etc are treated this way)
How long until running to Canada is more than just talk? How long until the doors of moderate straight, white, cis*, men and women are getting broken down because they said something unpatriotic? How long until the S.O.S. men are real?

PS: petition to drop charges against the journalists.

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War

I just got this video from Lisa; and it's...chilling.
I hope to the Gods that this Scott Ritter is exaggerating or mistaken. I do not want nuclear war; do they not know that MAD stands for Mutually Assured Destruction?


I agree with Lisa; we cannot let McCain win.

Almost forgot, Don't click play if you can't handle disturbing video. Including small children who are injured/dead.

ETA: Sorry Andy, I completely forgot to give a summary I watched the video and thought "I have to post this, I am terrified of this possibility"; parts of the video are text though.
Basically its a bunch of quotes from Republicans and various military higher-ups about how McCain is a loose-cannon and the idea of him being POTUS scares the hell out of them.
I'm not sure about the details or the validity of his statements, but the author Scott Ritter is talking about his book and how the Bush administration has made it easier to use nukes on "enemies".
Theres also a lot of quotes from McCain about how we'll be in Iraq for 100 years and how there will be more wars in the next few years (Iran was mentioned as a specific example). Also about how the "young people" in his audience would be serving in those wars.
This makes me hope that if McCain wins, DADT stays in place; because you just know they will make it impossible for us to get out of McCain's draft otherwise. And yes, McCain would like to reinstate the draft. Fyi, my spiritual beliefs would make me unable to participate in a war unless it was entirely defensive (like, if Canada invaded MI) but because I'm not a Christian, and my beliefs aren't written in some holy book, so theres no way they'd let me out of a draft.

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