minh / mai

Non-binary includes people who are masc-presenting, folks. So don't be so fucking shocked when someone who could pass as a cis man turns up to your "women and non-binary" events.
Non-binary doesn't equal woman-lite.

[CLICK here if you would like your name added to this letter] النسخة العربية من هذه الرسالة متاحة أدناه. Open Letter to the Bluesky Team About Their Treatment of Palestinians in Gaza The signatories of this letter are all members of the Bluesky community, many of us have actively participated on the platform since its inception. We came to Bluesky because it was a breath of fresh air, a place that felt different from many of the other social media platforms. The lack of a central algorithm, the ability to build and use custom feeds, and the lack of penalty for link promotion contributed to an environment that allowed diverse and interesting voices to find their footing and community on Bluesky. While some of the signatories of this letter have had no issues with speaking their mind publicly on Bluesky, unfortunately that is not true for all the signatories because many are Palestinians currently living in Gaza. These Palestinians are journalists, artists, engineers, teachers, grandmas, entrepreneurs, a man who owned an ice cream shop, a pediatrician who has been featured on CBS Morning News, aid workers, architects, waiters, pharmacists, students–and perhaps most essential to the backbone of Bluesky, posters. All of these people provide unique and interesting voices to the Bluesky community. However, unlike the other signatories of this letter, these Bluesky community members have struggled to keep their accounts on the platform. Most of them have lost multiple accounts and/or have had their accounts labeled as spam. Some cannot even make an account without it immediately being removed from the platform. Gazans undertake immense efforts to simply be on Bluesky. Sometimes, they walk for miles just to have access to the internet. They scale rooftops where they are exposed to potential military attacks just for the opportunity to get better cell signals–one signatory of this letter tragically lost her brother this way. They use what little money they have to pay …

Gazans have also been aggressively targeted and unfairly reported by bad actors. Many accounts openly encourage the reporting and targeting of any Palestinian. Several groups exist for the express purpose of looking for Palestinian accounts to report. We believe Bluesky owes Gazans, and the entire community who benefits from their voices, a greater duty of care especially in the context of the horrors they are enduring. We ask Bluesky to implement the following changes: Provide information on all Bluesky-affiliated websites in Arabic that explains the rules and expectations of the site in clear language. Investigate the accounts that are mass-reporting Palestinians on Bluesky. The mass reporting of Palestinians on Bluesky is a group effort to render the platform a hostile place for a community based on their ethnicity. As such, it is racism, and should be understood as such. Reports against Palestinians who have broken no community guidelines must be understood as racism, and the accounts that submit those reports should be disregarded in the future. Many Bluesky users encourage Gazans to tag or reply to them, and this is not always understood as unwelcome behavior. If an account is reported as Spam for tagging or replying to others, treat only reports from the tagged/mentioned account as legitimate, seeing as they were the only ones who received a notification. Send emails regarding disciplinary action every time it is taken. Gazans do not always get an email explaining what they did wrong, and those that do are required to parse a language they do not speak in order to understand their violation. Have these emails contain an easily visible link to information about their violations in Arabic. Respond to appeals in a timely fashion, many Gazans simply never hear back from Bluesky after they appeal a decision. In addition to removing Gazans for alleged spam behavior, Bluesky has also sometimes indicated that they are deleting an account for being a scam or …

End IP bans on any account from Gaza and allow them to make new accounts where they can comply with Bluesky rules and continue to be valued members of the community. We understand that even if all these changes are made, many Gazans may still violate Bluesky rules in the future, but we hope that Bluesky will abandon their punitive approach to these violations and instead embrace an attitude of education, cooperation and community care– one that works to ensure people in Gaza can participate in a way that keeps their voices heard. We also call on the Bluesky community to help and support these accounts however they can. We want to continue to build a healthy community with better community members and this cannot be done if Gazans continue to be shunned. We can use this as an opportunity to show how to protect all vulnerable groups in the future. We hope that Bluesky does not follow the path of other social media platforms and instead forges ahead with a different philosophy. After all, that is the reason so many of its users are there. Bluesky's ethos of "No Caesars” should apply to all members of its community. [To add your name to the list of signatories, click here.]

We were hoping that this letter to @bsky.app could first be shared by a Gazan, but we were too worried that doing so would get their account deleted so we are sharing first.

You can sign on to the letter about the unfair treatment of Gazans on Bluesky here:

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Today's quick update [May 21]:

- Clashes reported between SAF and RSF/SPLM-N (Alhilu) in Keiga Alkheil, South Kordofan.

- RSF shelling on various parts of Elfashir yesterday; 7 civilians reported killed and 9 others injured.

#KeepEyesOnSudan

hi, cis folks!

if you’re calling democratic reps about the maga murder budget, you should *specifically mention* it’s unacceptable to pass a bill blocking funding for lifesaving transition care FOR TRANS PEOPLE OF ALL AGES.

if you want to stand with trans people, this is a big moment. 🧵

reps.fyi

the word for this is not "some form of email changes"

- RSF attack on Alza'fa village in West Kordofan yesterday; 10 residents reported killed and tens injured, along with mass displacement of residents from the village.

#KeepEyesOnSudan

Today's quick update [Apr 23]:

- RSF shelling on city of Elfashir continues; at least 20 people reported killed and dozens injured.

- 4 people reported killed by RSF in Tangoli area of South Kordofan; the area is under SPLM-N (Alhilu)'s control.

#KeepEyesOnSudan

photo of Mohamed Mokhtar Ismail, the 14 year-old volunteer of the Elfashir emergency response room. He died from injuries he sustained after RSF shelled his neighborhood. Headline on the photo says "death of the youngest volunteer of the Elfashir Emergency Room and Camps due to shelling by the UAE-backed Rapid Support Militia".

Via Sudanese Echo:

Mohamed Mokhtar Ismail, 14, died on Tuesday from injuries he sustained after RSF shelled his neighborhood in Elfashir last Monday.

"His final act of service was participating in the distribution of food baskets to displaced families last Saturday."

#KeepEyesOnSudan

Elizabeth & Jane Bennet, Mr. Bingley & Mr. Darcy, dressed in Terno and Barong Tagalog. Jane and Lizzy stand under a coconut palm and in front of hibiscus, Bingley and Darcy before a bamboo tree.................

Pride & Prejudice, but set during the Spanish Colonial Period in the Philippines

it's TDOV so read a trans person's comics about trans people and maybe share this so other people can read a trans person's comics about trans people

temperamental.swordhe.art
theartofrunningaway.swordhe.art

I've got an update: Thanks to my and several other kindnesses, we were able to raise enough to cover Swaliki's medical expense.

However that doesn't mean the donations have to stop here, as his orphanage will still require help.

If you haven't, please consider it.

www.paypal.com/paypalme/sav...

"It seems to me the Super-Perceptive Child Victim of Self-Pity has something in common with the Inner Child: they’re lazy. It’s so much easier to blame the grownups than to be one."

Miss Ursula Le Guin.. the Woman that you are..

Pay Byrd using PayPal.Me Go to paypal.me/ladyosparda and type in the amount. Since it’s PayPal, it's easy and secure. Don’t have a PayPal account? No worries.

Hey, would anyone like to help me out so I can afford my psych appointment to get my medication refilled? I only need 43 dollars and I already have 13.
www.paypal.me/ladyosparda

Oscar-winning Palestinian director is attacked by Jewish settlers and detained, activists say Activists say Israeli settlers beat up one of the Palestinian co-directors of the Oscar-winning film “No Other Land” in the occupied West Bank, and he was then detained by the Israeli military.

They fucking disappeared Hamdan Ballal. Sheer impunity, knowing the US isn't going to say shit.

"As he was being treated in an ambulance, soldiers detained him and a second Palestinian man, the [Center for Jewish Nonviolence] said. It said his whereabouts were now unknown."

I feel very heartbroken because I thought I had stopped writing about killings and bombings and would do football reporting as I always loved. Our dreams are not worthy. They're simply not. Our dream has become just to live. Only to live.

I keep thinking of this over and over.

No words are enough.

Abed just loves football, adores Pep and Jose and wants to just write about the Prem, he has so many dreams, and yet this genocidal horror is his reality.

As it is for everyone in Occupied Palestine.

Zionism cannot be allowed to exist.

Well i didn't want to say this publicly because I don't want to stir the pot of attrsct their attention, but if we're mutuals I would like it very much if you blocked all of these creeps <3 thank you. (The last 2 are the same person)

Wren is a disabled and diabetic trans man being forced out onto the street and cut off by his transphobic father.

Please PLEASE help him move to a better place where his insulin isn’t leveraged against him so he can feel safe for once in his life.

Links below.

Have privilege? This is the time to use it.

Trans, Disabled, BIPOC, Immigrant, Queer, poor folks, etc. are and HAVE been fighting for our and everyone else's rights for far longer than you might realize.

We don't need your guilt or your apathy or your doom scrolling. We need your action.

Normal kids #idwtbamg

An image depicting fruit-based clown adoptables! One is a banana clown girl, another is a blueberry clown girl, and third is a cherry clown girl.

Clown adoptables!

I may do more if people like these; they are $10 each! DM me if interested! Payment via PayPal!

#adoptables #artpost

Very few people -about three out of 100- who get two doses of measles vaccine will still get measles if exposed to the virus. Experts aren't sure why. It could be that their immune systems didn't respond as well as they should have to the vaccine. But the good news is, fully vaccinated people who get measles seem more likely to have a milder illness. And fully vaccinated people seem also less likely to spread the disease to other people, including people who can't get vaccinated because they are too young or have weakened immune systems.

Could I Still Get Measles If I Am Fully Vaccinated?

Yes, people who know they got the killed measles vaccine (an earlier formulation of measles vaccine that is no longer used) should talk to their healthcare provider about getting revaccinated with the current, live measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. Not many people fall into this group; the killed vaccine was given to less than 1 million people between 1963 and 1967. Also, most people don't know if they got the killed vaccine during this time. If you're unsure whether you fall into this group, you should first try to find your vaccination records or documentation of measles immunity. If you do not have written documentation of measles immunity, you should get vaccinated with measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. There is no harm in getting another dose of MMR vaccine if you may already be immune to measles (or mumps or rubella).

Do People Who Got The Killed Measles Vaccine In The 1960’s Need To Be Revaccinated With The Current Measles Vaccine?