The battle for America starts now

Whilst being an advocate for LGBT+ rights I have made a point of keeping away from mainstream politics on this blog because it can become a wormhole that sucks one in and can be hard to escape from, but for a long time I’ve been wanting to find something that could highlight just how wrong I feel the current administration in the USA is.

Last night Joe Biden gave his speech to the Democratic National Convention and if ever there were an example of the difference between the current incumbent and a “normal”  and caring human being then this is it.

I’m linking here to the whole speech so that you may judge for yourself, and I urge all Americans to use their vote in the upcoming election to democratically help rid the world of the vile, despotic, narcissistic and incompetent disgrace that currently sits in the Oval Office.

I, for one, want to be able to believe in America again.

Who threw the first brick at Stonewall?

There comes a point in history when the minutiae of the details of an event becomes irrelevant.

Who fired the first shot in the American Civil War?

Who fired the arrow that hit King Harold in the eye?

Who invented pizza?

The same applies when looking at Stonewall. It really doesn’t matter whether the details are fully known, what is important is the legacy it leaves behind and, MOST importantly, what we DO with that legacy.

Tomorrow I’ll be posting about how the legacy of Stonewall affected my life this very day and turned it into something special and memorable for me, but in the meantime here’s a really interesting video that proves my point entirely.

Stay safe, and be true to yourself.

Conflicting needs

How does one reconcile conflicting needs?

I’m in a quandary and can’t make up my mind which route to take.

As regular readers will know I’ve been helping to run my local Transgender Support Group for over 4 years now and said a couple of weeks ago that I’d had enough and would be stepping down. I’ve actually been trying to step away from running the group for over 18 months because I find the mental energy that’s required is more than I feel able to exert.

But …

Every time something comes along that the group could get involved with in order to spread the word about transgender issues or to advocate for the LGBT+ community, especially in my local area, it fires up my internal inspiration and I feel that this is something I need to be doing.

I wanna be …

I wanna be back in 1967.

I wanna be 5 years older than I was then.

I wanna be a cis-gendered hippy chick.

I wanna be in San Francisco.

I wanna be among the flower people.

I wanna be handing out flowers to strangers in the street.

I wanna be soaking up the colours and the vibrancy.

I wanna be high on the feeling of free love.

I wanna be …

I wanna be …

Oh, I SO wanna be where my soul truly belongs!! …

 

 

In the Ghetto

I’ve always been a great fan of Elvis Presley, ever since as a child Mum would say that there was an Elvis concert on the TV. It would be almost compulsory viewing for me because I loved his voice so much, and his stage shows were amazing, for the time.

“In the Ghetto” has long been a favourite among his many recordings, not only because it is such a well structured song but it highlights the struggles that so many people face; struggles which a truly caring society would, by now, have eliminated.

Morgan Freeman – Please stand for office, somewhere, somehow

In addition to any of my own original posts that I may write, most days I browse through some YouTube videos and, as I’ve mentioned before, I’ll pick on some to share with you, my dear readers. Sometimes I go through a second selection process if I’ve built up a backlog of open tabs awaiting sharing on here.

Then, occasionally, one comes along that I feel deserves immediate sharing because it sends a message; either about how I feel in that moment or because I sense that it has an important part to play in our lives at the present time.

A number of my preselected videos over time have featured Morgan Freeman’s views, but none have condensed the man’s approach to the lives we live more than this short clip.

I SO wish this man were in the White House rather than the present incumbent. Or, maybe, U. N. Secretary General?

Certainly his voice needs to be heard, and heard loud …

Rev. Al Sharpton’s stirring eulogy for George Floyd – You had your knee on our neck

It’s so sad that it took the death of one man to bring to the fore such a deep and meaningful expression, but in all my time I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more telling statement regarding the suppression of Human Rights.

Whoever you are, wherever you are, and no matter which minority group (or groups) you find yourself in, I hope that Rev. Al Sharpton’s words will ring out as a call for equality now and in the future.

Get your knees off our necks!!

Sending love and hope to you all.

Black Lives Matter – Five Stars for Rockstar

I play a lot of GTA-V Online (Grand Theft Auto 5) which, for those of you who might never have heard of it, is a game produced by Rockstar Games which is intended as a parody of “American life” and is full of violence, killing, gun running, drug running, and assorted other misdemeanours.

When I tried to log in this evening the game informed me that the servers were down and so I went online to their site to see if there was any particular reason for this and was amazed to see THIS on the screen …

In my opinion, for the producer of a game which embodies violence to take a stand like this is quite awesome, especially when the President of the country they are parodying doesn’t give a FLYING F**K for anyone but himself.

There will, of course, be the imbeciles who just complain “Hey, I can’t get on to my game!! To hell with George Floyd!!”. Well to them I say “It’s time to GROW UP!!!”

Wishing you all every peace and happiness, whether you be black, white, brown, yellow, straight, gay, trans, non-binary or a bleached tomato with fungus growing out of your ears.

We are ALL human!

Stonewall Forever – The legacy must not be forgotten

Stonewall Forever is a documentary from NYC’s LGBT Community Center directed by Ro Haber. The film brings together voices from over 50 years of the LGBTQ rights movement to explore queer activism before, during and after the Stonewall Riots.

The history of the Stonewall Riots is equally as cherished as it is charged. There are questions of who was there, who “threw the first brick” and who can claim Stonewall. This film doesn’t answer these questions but instead it aims to expand the story of Stonewall by including more voices in its telling.

Stonewall Forever brings together queer activists, experienced and new, to look at the movement for LGBTQ equality before, during and after Stonewall. It highlights trans people, people of color and homeless people who were at the forefront of the movement, and who have often been erased from the narrative. It explores how the activism of today stands on the shoulders of the activists who have come before. And it asks us all to recognize the legacy of Stonewall that remains today, when the struggle for queer rights is far from over.

Stonewall Forever was directed by Ro Haber and created by a predominantly queer and trans cast and crew who are proud to be a part of preserving this legacy.

A fresh view on gender stereotypes

I’ve not posted for a few days because despite trying to keep you all boosted up during the current pandemic I fell into a slump myself due to all this prolonged isolation. During this time I have, however, continued to research things that I consider you might enjoy and happened upon this very clever little film which looks at gender stereotypes from a “reversed” viewpoint.

I do encourage you to watch it right through to the point at which the credits start. 😀