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Is GOP Representative Mike Lawler Really Helping Trans People?

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 8h

Republican Representative Mike Lawler of New York made a really good Facebook post about trans rights on October 2. He posted that trans people are not a threat, and neither are the LGBT community in general.
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#LGBTQ #Transgender #USPolitics #NewYork #MikeLawler

Turning the page on transphobia

The Dish Fairy: Queer Love, Chronic Pain, and the Mess I Couldn’t Clean Away

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 8h

I didn’t ask for help, because it meant taking up space in life I felt I was not entitled to. I made myself small like the bubbles in my sink, barely there and easy to destroy.
Too nice, that was what everyone called me, too nice.
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#LGBTQ #Queer #WLW #MentalHealth

How my wife’s quiet love helped me heal from a lifetime of ‘Too Nice’

In a World That Doesn’t Always See Us, LGBTQ Books & Movies Help Us Relate

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Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 8h

Fictitious or not, I discovered people I could relate to in books. My feelings, taboo at the time, were finally being normalized, through imaginary characters. I wasn’t alone. I felt seen.
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#LGBTQ #Books #QueerBooks #Representation

E. Lynn Harris was a Black gay author whose books deserve to be read, not banned.

Queer Liberation Only Came From One ‘ism’ — Activism

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 1d

History didn’t hand us freedom; we built it from scratch.
Not through theory, but through real lives. Gay liberation never came from ideas or theory. It came from people who refused to disappear.
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#LGBTQ #QueerHistory #Liberation #Freedom

No ideology ever marched for us. We did the marching.

Books That Helped Me Love My Gay Self Are in Danger of Disappearing

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Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, the authors, the titles that helped me come out, made me laugh, educated me on sex and identity, offered encouragement that I wasn’t alone, that I was part of a tribe, and that I could actually love myself.
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#LGBTQ #Books #QueerBooks #BookBanning

They’re coming for Tales of the City and The Front Runner

Being Trans & Drawing the Line

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Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 2d

Given racist and anti-trans persecution in the United States today, to what extent and in what manner we should try to persuade people when we work for change?
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#LGBTQ #Transgender #USPolitics #TransRights

Listening to the NYT conversation between Ezra Klein and Ta-Nehisi Coates

When Gay Men Forget Who Their Real Enemy Is And Forget Trans Rights

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 2d

The people who called you a predator for being gay? They’re calling trans women predators now. The ones who said you were grooming kids? Same word, just a different target. Drag queens. Trans teachers.
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#LGBTQ #TransRights #Bigotry #Solidarity

Support trans people or live with the shame in your chest. The disgust that once told us we were wrong is now directed at them.

Queer Gaming, an Appreciation of Queer Art

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Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 3d

Inspired by the recent Prism & Pen writing prompt, I wanted to give my take on some video games that feature positive depictions of queerness.
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#LGBTQ #QueerGaming #Gaming #QueerArt

A celebration of queer joy in gaming

Mental Health, Identity, and the Quiet Pain of Being Different

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 3d

It’s World Mental Health Day, and as I write this I hope to remind us all that behind every smile, every post, every carefully filtered story, there are people quietly holding things together, often by a thread.
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#LGBTQ #Queer #Identity #MentalHealth

A reflection on the quiet weight of identity, the ache of belonging, and the courage to stay when the world feels too heavy.

Gay Parents Adopting in the Midwest: How It Started.

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 3d

Sometimes a family’s messiness is on full display. And sometimes the messiness of a family exists only in the secrets and sobbing behind a pantry door in a beautifully beige Stepford home on a cul-de-sac.
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#LGBTQ #Gay #Family #Parenting #Adoption

Life can be messy. Families are messy. But it’s a beautiful thing to create both a family and a life your own way.

The David Bowie Album that Opened the Door to My Future

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 4d

I guess I was somewhat of a contrarian. Perhaps I still am. When the junior-high crowd was going gaga for The Beatles, I championed The Dave Clark Five. I also foolishly placed Donovan over Dylan and Brooke Benton over Ray Charles.
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#LGBTQ #Gender #Nonbinary #DavidBowie

I remain grateful to Bowie for inviting me into a nonbinary world.

I Know It’s Over: Queer Love Withers On The Bloom

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 4d

It’s been this way a lot, the last couple of years. One of my biggest fears about coming out as #transgender was that nobody would ever love me. Foolish me, to now realise that coming out to myself was the first step in finally loving myself.
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#LGBTQ #Queer #Love

When we can’t be who we are, how can we truly be with others?

Arcane Season 2: Queer Love as Resistance

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 4d

Vi and Caitlyn have moved from uneasy allies to an openly queer partnership — partners in purpose and in the field, committed to protecting each other and their city.
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#LGBTQ #Queer #Arcane #wlw #QueerLove

Arcane S2: In a city built on control, Vi & Caitlyn’s queer love becomes the method — not the ornament — of survival and change.

The Cost of Hubris: A Retelling of the Greek Myth of Athena and Myrmex

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 4d

Eventually, her lust for wisdom caught the attention of Athena; impressed by her quest for sagacity, she found herself drawn to the mortal whose soul hungered with a primal ache for erudition. All but her equal in intellect.
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#LGBTQ #wlw #Mythology #GreekMyth

A story of pride, envy, and rage, explaining how Athena, after decades of suppression, handed her lover, Myrmex, the fate she was due.

Yelling at My Therapist Taught Me What Queer Anger Really Sounds Like

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Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 5d

Therapy isn’t easy for most. I knew that before my wife and I even started couples counseling. What I hadn’t predicted was the growing pain I would experience every single session.
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#LGBTQ #Therapy #Anger

Learning that rage can be honest, human, and healing.

Charlie & Rachel: The “G” in LGBTQ

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 5d

This is the second in a series of informal chats on what each letter of #LGBTQ means to Charlie Ray, a trans man, and Rachel Addison, a trans woman.
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#Interview #Conversation #Transgender #Gay

Charlie Ray and Rachel Addison Talk Letters.

A Trans Woman Waves a Flag for Those Less Ambitious

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 5d

Before I became a trans woman, back when I thought I knew it all, I would offer up the benefits of ambition to help family and friends recognize their untapped potential.
‘If only you could see what you could be’, I would exclaim.
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#LGBTQ #Transgender #Ambition

A personal view of the alternatives to blindly chasing success.

Who Does the Monster Represent if the “Final Girl” is a Gay Boy?

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 5d

While queer people abhor demonization in our real lives, many of us have come to identify with these disruptive outsiders and fiendish alter egos, especially if their cruelty is seasoned with flamboyance and “camp”.
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#LGBTQ #October #LGBTHistoryMonth #SpookySeason #HorrroMovies

The enduring queer legacy of “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2”

Two Amazing Queer Books Everyone Should Read

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 6d

We all know about the efforts in the US to ban books and go after art that is queer-themed, and this is obviously as good a time as any to celebrate such brilliant art.
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#LGBTQ #QueerBooks #Books #BookRecs

A celebration of queer art and joy

As Summer Fades, So Does My Libido

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 6d

It’s the bright light of summer I live for. If I lived in a more northerly latitude, there would be even more light. I recall summer nights in western Michigan when it stayed light until 10:00 p.m.
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#LGBTQ #Gay #Summer #Autumn #Seasons #Change

What I hate most about autumn

Look out! Powers That Be Warn that Trans People Will Take Your Stuff!

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Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 6d

Autocrats have long used fear effectively to manipulate the masses into subservience and compliance. When others seem different and odd, it’s easy to make up stories about them for the purpose of fomenting fear and distrust.
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#LGBTQ #Transgender #USPolitics #Fear

Powerful people know that fear of lack is a major motivator.

Transgender ‘Why Nots’ and ‘Maybes’

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Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 7d

That's a very good question.

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Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 7d

We, as transgender people, overthink everything, from self-doubt to a sense of shame, to the fear of rejection, and then everything in between.
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#LGBTQ #Transgender #Self #Identity

Never surrender the joy of the possibility

A Solo Transgender Road Trip in 2025

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Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 7d

I’d been planning and putting off a visit to friends and family in the Pacific Northwest for at least 10 years. My last trip had been somewhat fraught as it turned out to be the last time for my wife to see the ocean.
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#LGBTQ #Transgender #RoadTrip #Travel #Grief

Finding my path toward peace near the ocean, and in the trees.