a very disparate linkspam

[such_heights]

+ Oxfam and Red Cross, amongst many other charities, have launched emergency appeals to help with the crisis in Haiti. musesfool links to more ways you can help.

+ Turns out this became headline news overnight: Google: A New Approach To China.

+ FWD: Disability and Domestic Violence.

+ Questioning Transphobia: is a dream a lie if it don’t come true / or is it something worse [trigger warning: harrowing content discussing forced detransition]

+ There seems to be a debate going around the published m/m novel sphere, which I honestly have neither time or energy to get into - there are many links at linkspam for the interested. But this post resonated with me:

Slash works for me, in a way that het doesn't. See, for me, being gay isn't just about how I prefer boobs over penis. It's how I see relationships. It's how I relate to everyone around me, how I lost friends when I was eleven and didn't know what the hell was going on, how I see myself and my future. Someone once wrote in a fic about how when straight kids grow up they know about marriage and expect subconciously to go there someday, but gay kids don't have that. I didn't have that.

That's really fucking important.

So to read slash, to see other gay people come together in relationships portrayed as normal, as good, was invaluable. My knowledge of The Gay as a child was limited. I'd been to San Francisco once when I was nine and heard warnings about all the gays wandering around the wharf, and I heard one kid in Sunday School get called a queer even though I didn't know what it meant. By the time I figured out what it was, and that it was Wrong, I'd figured out about myself.

maryaminx: In which I rant. A lot.

There's a lot of stuff I could say on that general subject, admittedly more to do with slash fandom than the profic world, but basically it comes down to wishing that certain areas of slash fandom/some people who talk about slash fandom stopped ignoring or being actively dismissive/hostile towards the queer chicks that hang out in those parts.

+ It's More Joy Day tomorrow, where you challenge is to bring joy to someone else, somewhere, and spread the joy out. This year it means festivids amongst other things. \o/!

+ Speaking of, fan_eunice has a brilliant post on why all vid-watchers should be excited. To which I say: SET ALL PHASERS TO FLAIL OH MY GOODNESS YAY.

+ purimgifts is open for sign-ups. It's a small gift exchange in which works feature characters who are Jewish and/or women and/or persecuted by evil viziers.

+ Rumours of Will Smith playing Captain America have prompted a bunch of picspams of fantasy chromatic casting for Marvel superheroes. The awesome includes John Cho as Tony Stark, Indira Varma as Phoenix and Dulé Hill as Reed Richards. A lot more shiny at the links!

Comments

[isagel]

See, for me, being gay isn't just about how I prefer boobs over penis. It's how I see relationships.

This.

As I've grown older in fandom and life years, I find I've gravitated more and more towards other fen who are as queer as/queerer than me (if you can imagine a scale on which to grade queerness *g*), and that the fandom friends I've kept longest are often (though by no means always) the ones who fall on that side of the spectrum. And often I forget that most people in fandom are straight people with straight privilege who don't think of the world at all the way I do, and then I'm reminded again and have a moment of dizzying disconnection.

[zahrawithaz.livejournal.com]

"And often I forget that most people in fandom are straight people with straight privilege who don't think of the world at all the way I do, and then I'm reminded again and have a moment of dizzying disconnection."

THIS. As a fandom newbie, I am rather shocked by how quickly I have found the straight privilege raining down, and affecting my interactions with fandom.

[emeraldus]

KUDOS to Google for taking a stand when other companies, such as Yahoo, just roll over and happily give up personal information to the Chinese government.

[sunnyrea.livejournal.com]

Dear god the blog about the trans woman is absolutely horrible. I just can't believe, especially after she was out for 4 years, that her family would do that.

[zahrawithaz.livejournal.com]

Belated big thanks for the slash links, which has led to much thoughtful mulling for me...

I'm still working up the courage to click the trans link.