An LGBallT ball of Gilbert Baker’s 8 stripe rainbow flag: “Hi friends! As pride month just ended, I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about what July should be.” A trans ball, a lesbian ball, and a bi ball come onto the picture. They are all motion-blurred and their eyes are closed and angry. Trans is holding a pitchfork, lesbian has a torch, and Bi has a sword. They yell “QUEER WRATH MONTH!!!” while the rainbow ball watches.
The rainbow ball says “Gotta say, I love the enthusiasm, but July already has something…”
The trans, lesbian, and bi balls open their eyes and the motion blur decreases. They look at the rainbow ball. Bi says “does that mean no more sword?” Rainbow says “Yes.” in big text. Bi says “awe damn…” in little text.
The rainbow ball turns into a ball with the disability pride flag. The disability pride flag is a black flag with five parallel zig-zagged stripes, one blue, one yellow, one white, one red, and one green, The disability ball says “July is Disability Pride Month!” with yellow stars around it.
Trans, lesbian, and bi look in awe. Lesbian has put the torch away and says “oooh!”, trans has lowered their pitchfork ad says “wow”, bi has lowered their sword and says “What flag is that?”
Disability ball says “I’m glad you asked! This is the disability pride flag! It was made by a disabled woman named Ann Migall after an ableist massacre in Japan in 2016. It was made in 2019.”
Disability ball continues: “In Migall’s words, the black is for mourning those who have faced Ableist violence, and for rebellion and protest. The zigzags represent how disabled people navigate barriers and are creative while doing so. They represent breaking free from authority and control.
“The different colors of the stripes are for different kinds of disabilities; mental illness, intellectual and developmental disability, invisible and undiagnosed disabilities, physical disabilities, and sensory disabilities. The stripes are parallel to show solidarity within the Disabled community.”
Trans and lesbian look on in awe and say “nice”. Bi looks at their sword. Bi says “that is very cool Disability, but I do now have a sword and a lot of rage so if there’s not a wrath month, what should I do?”
Disability says “Very good question, bi! Simple! Use that energy to be an ally to your Disabled friends! Did you know that Disabled people don’t have marriage equality in most parts of the world? Get mad about that! Disabled people make up an estimated 26% of the world’s population, we are the largest minority yet most public spaces are inaccessible! Most don’t even know about our pride month! (Not to mention the rampant ableism in the queer community…)”
The comic shifts back to trans, lesbian, and bi. They are motion-blurred again and their eyes are angry. They have raised their weapons once again. Trans says “No marriage rights?! Here we go again!” Lesbian says “I’m angry again.” Bi yells “Disability Rights!” End ID]
Today (June 26, 2023) is the 20th anniversary of Lawrence v. Texas, the most important Supreme Court case in gay history. It finally ruled that consensual sodomy cannot be a crime and all state laws criminalizing it are invalid.
People don’t realize how recent it was that cops could arrest you solely for having gay sex, in the privacy of your own bedroom. It was slowly decriminalized state by state, but like 1/3 of all states still had those laws in place until 2003.
It didn’t get nearly as much fanfare and recognition at the time as the 2015 decision that legalized gay marriage. But I think it established a far more crucial right.
Reminder: trans Muslims and gay Muslims exist and we’re not going anywhere.
The amount of support that this post has gotten is, quite honestly, incredible. LGBT Muslims are constantly forgotten and ignored because people from both the LGBT community and the Muslim community view our existence as a contradiction or an impossibility. It’s time that people acknowledge us and our experiences with islamophobia and homophobia/transphobia because like I said: we’re not going anywhere.
“what if people transition and then regret it?” ok. let’s do that with everything. no more straight marriages until the heterosexual divorce rate is below the detransition rates
full res image to share 💜
Hey you good? you reblogged this like three times now.
If you’re adopted internationally into the United States, BY adoption LAWS you’re legally a citizen, but you still have to apply for documentation and if it’s not done by the age of 18 you have to pay over $500 and get a judge to reopen your adoption case.
Even More Fun Fact: No one actually tells adoptive families, this so many find out after they’re 18 when their kid needs to get a passport, wants to apply for financial aid, get certain jobs, vote or some other shit that requires proof of citizenship and now it’s too late because they’re 18 or over.
AND EVEN MORE FUN FACT! You can sometimes even be deported because you can be considered foreign-born, non-citizens!
Oh and they won’t accept adoption papers or a birth certificate as proof.
Do it now! Seriously. Even if you think you are safe. Do it.
Many people are finding that even a birth certificate is not valid proof anymore. Texas birth certificates are notorious. So notorious that I have 3 friends who can’t use them to get passports! Don’t think everything is hunky dory. You must nail down your citizenship.
Plus the cost for your citizenship certificate is almost doubling this fall.
SIGNAL BOOST.
Some Naturalization/Citizenship Certificate tips from me, the person who front-end processes these forms for half the country: the passport people are absolute garbage at sending your Naturalization Certificate back to you. Unfortunately, they also require it for you to get a passport. If you don’t get it back, whine at them about it and they will probably cover the cost of the replacement.
Also! It takes up to 12 months to get a replacement certificate. If you urgently need your Natz Cert to visit your dying relative in another country, the word you want to use is ‘Expedite’. Not ‘ASAP’. Not ‘rush’. Expedite. Write a letter explaining why you need it expedited, if you do. Otherwise the USCIS data-entry grunts (me!) aren’t allowed to throw it into the expedite line and it gets relegated to the Backlog Crypts.
Also! You need to get a new Naturalization Certificate if your name and/or gender legally changes, because a lot of places want your proof of citizenship for things like Social Security and student loans and Medicaid/EBT/welfare benefits and drivers’ licenses.
ALSO ALSO both the N600 ($600) that you use to apply for your Naturalization Certificate in the first place and N565 ($345) that you use to apply for a replacement certificate are eligible for FEE WAIVERS. It’s called an I912. Learn it, love it, use it.
Please for your sake make sure you are using the current version of the form. The most common reason I have to reject an N565 is because someone sent me something that expired in 2013. The current one is seven pages long. Please send the government all seven of them.
