have i ever told y’all the story about how a snake knew I was trans years before I did
okay so
my 7th grade social studies/8th grade science teacher (he did both classes. Somehow…) had a snake lovingly named Hisser. Hisser would occasionally be taken out to crawl and he was held by kids and when there were fire alarms Hisser was taken along, usually to his chagrin.
This was one of those days where we had in class work time and most of us were just chilling and so Mr. A got Hisser out and started passing him around.
Every girl student that he came to, he would immediately snuggle up to, wrap around their arms, and get cozy. With boy students, he would just sort of sit in the coiled lump that he’d been handed in. This was true with just about every single student, and Mr. A said that Hisser likes girls a lot better than guys and this has been thoroughly proven by Hisser’s attitude.
Then Hisser was handed to me. He was a loveable cold scaley rope as you would expect, but he didn’t coil around my arms. He didn’t get cozy. He just sat there. And Mr. Anderson said, “Huh. That’s weird. He usually likes girls.”
I passed the snake to my friend and surely enough, Hisser wrapped around her arms and got cozy.
I came out as a trans guy about 7-8 years later, and just recently realized that Hisser was right about me not being a girl all along.
I’ve also decided that whenever anyone asks me “Why I think I’m a boy,” which is my LEAST favorite question ever, I’ll just tell them that a snake told me a long time ago.
writing prompt: alternate universe in which, instead of taking a look at your genitals or checking your chromosomes, doctors determine your gender at birth by having snakes crawl all over you and observing their behaviour.
Overall, queer was approved of by 72.9% of respondents, with 37.2% of respondents specifying queer was their preferred umbrella term.
Queer is the most widely preferred umbrella term, and the 3rd most approved of umbrella term, behind LGBT+ and LGBTQ+.
Groups that do not prefer the use of queer as an umbrella are: straight respondents, exclusionst-identifying respondents, transmedicalists, truscum, sex-negative respondents, and sex work critical respondents.
Queer as an umbrella was preferred above other umbrella terms by all gender identities, and by all orientation groups other than straight.
I’m fascinated to see that exclusionists are BY FAR the most opposed to the term “queer.” And that the only group that comes close to their 17% approval of the term is truscum, at 27%.
Not that I’m surprised they don’t like it. I’m surprised at the immense gap between what they insist, and scream, over and over – that very few people have reclaimed queer, that we should all avoid using it, that older people hate it because it was used against us but younger people hate it because only older people briefly reclaimed it –
and the reality of it being overwhelmingly accepted, preferred, and used, outside of all but a few very insulated groups.
What tickles me the most about it is that the one group where the majority does agree with exclusionists’ view of “gueer” is THE STRAIGHTS!
Like this makes me think so much of the whole “terfs and conservatives agree on a lot of stuff” -thing. (There’s a whole game somewhere, with quotes from terfs and conservatives where you have to guess which one said it, and it is a real fucking hard game…)
Like maybe you aren’t really all that much on the side you think you are, if you actually have a lot in common with the side that wants to hurt the group you claim to support.
We are officially done arguing about the appropriateness and appropriate usage of “queer.”
This matches my experience very closely. I know one (1) adult-over-25-or-so LGBT person who specifically disprefers “queer”, and she actually agrees that it’s the best umbrella term, she just dislikes it personally. I have encountered dozens of angry teens who are aggressively hostile to various other parts of the community and use the “queer is a slur” thing to justify attacking their preferred targets.
adhd culture is always having to rush because you keep getting too focused on your computer. “JUST ONE MORE MINUTE” but it’s been 30 or somethin
which is why ppl without adhd desperately need to understand that having adhd means we have trouble controlling our attention. it’s not that we can’t pay attention to anything ever, it’s much more the fact that sometimes we get too focused while other times we can’t focus at all
Beltainefaerie's Flights of Fancy 