An Early Diagnosis is NOT a Privilege, nor is an Late Diagnosis
Despite what people online are saying, especially Reddit (r/autism cough cough), being early diagnosed or late diagnosed doesn’t automatically mean you’re privileged or you were lucky or you had good parents (I mean, sometimes it does, but not automatically) or that you’re rich or anything.
It means you were found as disabled and so much earlier in life than others were, which could mean a handful of good yet bad things at the same time.
One such good thing meant early intervention, and much more easier plus faster access to school accomodations like more time for tests as well as taking tests in a seperate room from your classmates, more time to process instructions and more. I had good parents, and people who were generally accepting of me as a person.
But, still, even with all of those good things, i still had bad things happen to me. I still got bullied by peers and ignored by teachers because they think i’m “strong enough” or whatever, i still got ignored by some teachers in both elementary and high school, and i still got isolated by my peers.
This may be the same for those of you who were later diagnosed in life than what was considered the normal age of diagnosis, and still pros and cons of being diagnosed. These things happen to anyone, despite age of diagnosis and what diagnosis you are and what levels/functioning labels/support needs you are.
These complaints and tireless discussions or arguments about what is considered a privilege by the autism community needs to stop.
People who are late diagnosed have created several coping strategies, know how to mask well and effectively, force through mute episodes and many more, but still, you are still considered disabled. Those who are early diagnosed were taught to mask, to cope, and know how it feels to struggle but still you are considered disabled.
That is not a privilege.
Reminder that this is my opinion and again, i am not forcing this down your throats, this is just an awareness post.
actually on that; i feel like if i ever did get my own figure class and not just as a TA i wouldnt even change very much from how i learned. the first models i learned how to draw were a woman who was fat and then a very very old woman, and then an older/middle aged man and a shorter but sturdy person. learning how to draw body fat, wrinkles, skin sag and fat folds means you can draw almost any human figure because at the end of the day thats what we are all made of. and bones of course
Lilo & Stitch is a great example of a story that has no villains. It has antagonists, sure, but most of them are well-meaning. The worst person in the film is that little shit Myrtle, but she’s not in the film that much anyway.
Since this post is getting traction I want to clarify how not-villainous the antagonists are:
The Grand Councilwoman is literally just responding to what she sees as a threat to the galaxy and is extremely reasonable.
Gantu is much the same. He’s a bit overzealous, yes, but he thinks he’s saving the galaxy from stitch.
Cobra Bubbles is literally just doing his job, he’s obviously not happy about it but he is doing what he feels is best for Lilo. And much like the Councilwoman, he is extremely reasonable.
Myrtle is, again, just a little shit. She’s a schoolyard bully and is truly small potatoes.
Jumba calls himself an “evil scientist,” but literally nothing supports that. His only onscreen crime is creating a bunch of Pokémon that have powers that will mildly inconvenience people and can be persuaded to be nice over the course of 22 - 90 minutes, to say nothing of himself seeing as he decides to change his ways at the softest bit of persuasion.
Pleakley is literally just gay.
The “villain” of Lilo and Stitch is, rather directly, societies and social systems that write people off and do not provide support and care.
It is obvious to the audience – and deliberately presented this way by the film – that it is better for Lilo to stay with her sister, even if her sister is a bit of a mess and not financially stable. Mr. Bubbles is not evil. He is there because he wants what’s best for Lilo, and he is not unreasonable to think that the sister without a job who leaves the stove on and whose house nearly burned down two days later is not it. The solution is not to “defeat” Mr. Bubbles; the solution would be for society to help Nani succeed, rather than watch as she fails.
Similarly, no one provided any help to Stitch when he was created and discovered. They wrote him off as an abomination, something too dangerous to be destroyed. They weren’t evil, and it wasn’t unreasonable to think that the experiment created to be an agent of destruction would be better off scrapped. But what would have happened if they had at least tried?
Lilo and Stitch are two characters who were caught in systems that were cold, uncaring, and unsupportive, even if the people in them were not evil and were, in fact, just doing their best.
It’s a movie about people who have been written off finding one another and building a found family where they can get and give the support and care they didn’t get from the people with authority and I love it so much.
This is a little funny, but in the specific context of the Amish and related groups “shunning” is a specific and very negative term.
A person is shunned, usually under order of the religious authority of their community, when they’ve broken the rules of the community. Practices vary by community (in fact, to my knowledge several sect differences are based at least partially on how the sect practices shunning), but usually no one can eat with, do business with, or otherwise help the shunned person. They are isolated and have support withdrawn from them, with the specific intention that they are then forced to return to strict compliance with the community’s rules.
The Amish and most similar Anabaptist organizations are high-control groups and cults, and they punish members who seek to leave.
Like, this is exactly what the posts about “turn off your phone if it’s going to put you in danger!” were worried would happen.
This is not even slightly funny. Go on, someone explain the punchline for “abuse victims only means of safe contact with the outside world was discovered by the abusers”. Cus thats what this is.
So many people have wetlands in their yards and don’t even know! “This spot in my yard is always soggy and wet! How do I fix it?”
They will of course tell you to install a French drain. DO NOT DO IT! Plant Wetland plants and allow it to helpfully absorb puddles of heavy rain and give you the gift of beauty!
It makes me so sad how many wetlands were destroyed.
And the wetlands remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it as peat! We need more of them to mitigate climate change!
land developers: *Destroys the homes of salamanders, frogs, and rare plants to build a housing development on top of what once was a Wetland*
land developers: Why is this land so wet?!?!
If you have the wet soggy spot in your yard you should be filled with pride and contentedness, because you have the ability to grow a special class of cool plants (the Wetland Plants) that others of us can only dream of and sigh after.
darth vader voice: if i had a credit for every time some ginger jedi fuck broke into my inquisitorious and flooded the place, i’d have two credits. which is nothing compared to the power of the force but it’s weird that it happened twice
the stormtrooper he was talking to:hgrhrrkk (is being force choked to death)
listening to music with headphones is so awesome especially when it shoots straight into your brain and you can pick out all its little layers like sandwich ingredients
An Early Diagnosis is NOT a Privilege, nor is an Late Diagnosis
Despite what people online are saying, especially Reddit (r/autism cough cough), being early diagnosed or late diagnosed doesn’t automatically mean you’re privileged or you were lucky or you had good parents (I mean, sometimes it does, but not automatically) or that you’re rich or anything.
It means you were found as disabled and so much earlier in life than others were, which could mean a handful of good yet bad things at the same time.
One such good thing meant early intervention, and much more easier plus faster access to school accomodations like more time for tests as well as taking tests in a seperate room from your classmates, more time to process instructions and more. I had good parents, and people who were generally accepting of me as a person.
But, still, even with all of those good things, i still had bad things happen to me. I still got bullied by peers and ignored by teachers because they think i’m “strong enough” or whatever, i still got ignored by some teachers in both elementary and high school, and i still got isolated by my peers.
This may be the same for those of you who were later diagnosed in life than what was considered the normal age of diagnosis, and still pros and cons of being diagnosed. These things happen to anyone, despite age of diagnosis and what diagnosis you are and what levels/functioning labels/support needs you are.
These complaints and tireless discussions or arguments about what is considered a privilege by the autism community needs to stop.
People who are late diagnosed have created several coping strategies, know how to mask well and effectively, force through mute episodes and many more, but still, you are still considered disabled. Those who are early diagnosed were taught to mask, to cope, and know how it feels to struggle but still you are considered disabled.
That is not a privilege.
Reminder that this is my opinion and again, i am not forcing this down your throats, this is just an awareness post.
“One important distinction between Surveillance Capitalism and enshittification is that enshittification posits that the platform is bad for everyone. Surveillance Capitalism starts from the assumption that surveillance advertising is devastatingly effective (which explains how your racist Facebook uncles got turned into Jan 6 QAnons), and concludes that advertisers must be well-served by the surveillance system.”
ed dissociates, hallucinates the love of his life screaming for help, strangles two men to death for the first time since killing his dad, dives to the bottom of the sea to get his discarded blackbeard look, emerges from the sea like a kraken– and then walks directly into written evidence that he is loved. a few minutes later he gets to tell that man that he DOES love him and kiss him on the face and hear that someone KNOWS he, ed, is capable of love. hello can anyone hear me
the i know actually hits so hard with all of this. i need a fuckijg minute. i KNOW. I KNOW THAT. HE KNOWS
because the first time he was this scared he was alone he had to build blackbeard to escape the kraken and keep himself safe and he was alone. and the second time he thought he was alone and wanted to die from it only to be dragged back out of the depths by the hand of a man who loves him. and this time he walks up out of the depths on his own two feet to go get that man and tell him he loves him too. and it’s OKAY this time because he loves stede and stede KNOWS
also that he kills and comes up from the sea like a kraken and puts on the blackbeard clothes all to go be edward with his love. synthesis. for which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me? for them all together.
My friend teaches high school history and allowed his students to do their chapter summaries on their chosen biographies as originally created memes. He said that he had never had kids read so carefully to find the most obscure detail from chapters to make their memes. [pro-tip, for younger middle school/elementary school students, make a folder of popular meme templates, to avoid uncomfortable internet searches}
This reminds me of my class watching the 90s film and when it got to this scene some guy in my class shouted out ‘hoe don’t do it’ and then 5 seconds later -sigh- ‘he did it’.
[at the nuclear reactor being arrested by the feds]
no no please you don’t understand i need the uranium to feed my kobold boyfriend he needs it for his bones or he will be weak during the hunt and then get exiled from his clan
idk. yesterday was a slow day and at the end of it, I still stared into a cash drawer, one of three, that had more than my rent in it, even if you only count the 20s. I spent a lot of that day trying to calculate in my head how many hours of work equal one pair of pants, let alone how many hours of work equals the fun thing I want to do next month.
I feel a cough coming on, because I work in a drug store, and all of my customers are sick. I always feel a little bit sick, now. I can’t afford to eat well enough to keep my body healthy. Cough medicine is worth two hours and 20 minutes of work. Our store probably bought a case of cough medicine for they price we’re selling one box. If this cough gets worse, I might have to call out, which will cost me more than the medicine in the long run- but that doesn’t give me the money to buy the medicine right now. I stock a case onto the shelf. I don’t buy any.
A mom wrangling three crying, sick kids enters my line and sets two types of children’s medicine down, says they’re both on sale and thank god for that. I ring her up, and she gets very quiet, because she misread the sign, and her total is twice as high as she was expecting. Her youngest screams in the cart, because she’s burning up with fever. Her mother very quietly asks, please, she’s so sorry, if I could please take the more expensive one off her total.
I agree, I move the box below the counter, and when she’s not looking, I slip it into her bag. I pray as hard as I can that if she notices the “mistake” she says nothing, because I so desperately want her to have that medicine. The store has lost profit at the cost of a child’s health. I don’t bat an eye. This is a terminable offense. If I’m presented with the same situation tonight, I’ll do it in a heartbeat.
The myth of evil employees stealing from the company falls apart the second you realize the company would shoot you dead to make a profit. This isn’t two equal players, one of whom is stealing from the other. This is someone fighting for survival versus someone fighting to make an extra million. It’s not equal.
Employees should be able to steal, actually.
Bro I teared up oh my god bro
When I worked at Walmart as a cashier almost 20yrs ago. A guy came in with his obviously sick 5yr old son. & all he was buying was a bottle of medicine for his kid. He was short a dime. A fucking dime. 10 cents. I had a dime & pulled it out of my pocket & helped pay for the medicine.
My manager comes over in a huff & angrily says, “What were you thinking?! How could you do that?! What if he expects you to cover him every single time he’s short on money??? He could be a meth addict or something.”
Me, “I’m not going to lose any sleep over helping & being out a dime. I would do it again.”
This guy comes in a day or two later, holding a dollar in the air & running towards me. He gives me the dollar & says for me to keep it. He wasn’t there for anything else, just came in to give the dollar.
When it came time for me to quit. It was still during the time a cashier didn’t need an override to discount items. I had HAAAADDD it with Walmart’s bullshit. & so EVVVVERYYYYONE got discounts over the course of a week.
A woman comes in with a couple thousands dollars worth of stuff to redecorate her house. She probably paid $300.
Moms with a basketful of groceries. 75% off.
I even told my husband (they didn’t know he was my husband) to come in when he got paid & to get as many groceries & hygiene & cleaning products as he could fit in a basket. & whatever else he wanted. & I discounted TF out of it.
I didn’t care anymore & I wanted to save everybody in my checkout money.
& to this day, working the odd jobs in retail - I internally snicker at loss prevention. Fuck that. You want to steal something? Babes, I didn’t see shit.
idk. yesterday was a slow day and at the end of it, I still stared into a cash drawer, one of three, that had more than my rent in it, even if you only count the 20s. I spent a lot of that day trying to calculate in my head how many hours of work equal one pair of pants, let alone how many hours of work equals the fun thing I want to do next month.
I feel a cough coming on, because I work in a drug store, and all of my customers are sick. I always feel a little bit sick, now. I can’t afford to eat well enough to keep my body healthy. Cough medicine is worth two hours and 20 minutes of work. Our store probably bought a case of cough medicine for they price we’re selling one box. If this cough gets worse, I might have to call out, which will cost me more than the medicine in the long run- but that doesn’t give me the money to buy the medicine right now. I stock a case onto the shelf. I don’t buy any.
A mom wrangling three crying, sick kids enters my line and sets two types of children’s medicine down, says they’re both on sale and thank god for that. I ring her up, and she gets very quiet, because she misread the sign, and her total is twice as high as she was expecting. Her youngest screams in the cart, because she’s burning up with fever. Her mother very quietly asks, please, she’s so sorry, if I could please take the more expensive one off her total.
I agree, I move the box below the counter, and when she’s not looking, I slip it into her bag. I pray as hard as I can that if she notices the “mistake” she says nothing, because I so desperately want her to have that medicine. The store has lost profit at the cost of a child’s health. I don’t bat an eye. This is a terminable offense. If I’m presented with the same situation tonight, I’ll do it in a heartbeat.
The myth of evil employees stealing from the company falls apart the second you realize the company would shoot you dead to make a profit. This isn’t two equal players, one of whom is stealing from the other. This is someone fighting for survival versus someone fighting to make an extra million. It’s not equal.
Employees should be able to steal, actually.
Bro I teared up oh my god bro
When I worked at Walmart as a cashier almost 20yrs ago. A guy came in with his obviously sick 5yr old son. & all he was buying was a bottle of medicine for his kid. He was short a dime. A fucking dime. 10 cents. I had a dime & pulled it out of my pocket & helped pay for the medicine.
My manager comes over in a huff & angrily says, “What were you thinking?! How could you do that?! What if he expects you to cover him every single time he’s short on money??? He could be a meth addict or something.”
Me, “I’m not going to lose any sleep over helping & being out a dime. I would do it again.”
This guy comes in a day or two later, holding a dollar in the air & running towards me. He gives me the dollar & says for me to keep it. He wasn’t there for anything else, just came in to give the dollar.
When it came time for me to quit. It was still during the time a cashier didn’t need an override to discount items. I had HAAAADDD it with Walmart’s bullshit. & so EVVVVERYYYYONE got discounts over the course of a week.
A woman comes in with a couple thousands dollars worth of stuff to redecorate her house. She probably paid $300.
Moms with a basketful of groceries. 75% off.
I even told my husband (they didn’t know he was my husband) to come in when he got paid & to get as many groceries & hygiene & cleaning products as he could fit in a basket. & whatever else he wanted. & I discounted TF out of it.
I didn’t care anymore & I wanted to save everybody in my checkout money.
& to this day, working the odd jobs in retail - I internally snicker at loss prevention. Fuck that. You want to steal something? Babes, I didn’t see shit.
As good a time as any to remind folks of the 14 properties of “ur-fascism” (described by Umberto Eco, who grew up in Italy under Mussolini, in his 1995 essay Ur-Fascism). Not all need be present for single regime to be fascist, but a Venn diagram of all fascist regimes will cover them all.
CULT OF TRADITION. The old ways are best. The New is not worthwhile.
REJECT MODERNISM The development of Western philosophy post-Enlightenment is seen as a descent into depravity. See also : Reject post-modernism, which is seen as an even greater descent into irrationality.
ACTION FOR ACTION’S SAKE. Action is to be taken without reflection or introspection - that’s for weaklings and degenerates. Often seen in a derision of “intellectual elites”.
DISAGREEMENT IS TREASON.Analytical criticism cannot be allowed. A pantomime of discourse may be allowed, but only within the accepted framework and only if reaching the foregone conclusion.
FEAR OF DIFFERENCE. Outsiders are your enemy. Those who are different are evil and want to corrupt you and destroy all you hold dear.
APPEAL TO A FRUSTRATED MIDDLE CLASS Capitalising on genuine frustrations by pointing them toward convenient scapegoats. Real concerns used a recruiting tools.
OBSESSION WITH A PLOT. There is a conspiracy run by THEM. You are besieged by THEM. THEY are behind all your ills. THEY are working in the shadows to enslave and destroy you.
THE ENEMY IS BOTH STRONG AND WEAK. When rhetorically convenient, THEY are all-powerful. When rhetorically convenient, THEY are feeble, stupid, weak. The rhetorical focus shifts regardless of self-contradiction, because all that matters is positioning the enemy where the speaker’s goal requires them to be at any given moment.
PACIFISM IS THE ENEMY. LIFE IS ETERNAL WAR. There must always be an enemy to fight. When that enemy is defeated, another must be found. When they cannot be found, they must be created, even from within. There is always the promise of a Final Solution bringing Ultimate Triumph, but it can never be achieved.
CONTEMPT FOR THE WEAK. Elitism disguised as populism. Everyone of US is superior to THEM, cockroaches and drains on society that they are. But people are sheep who require strong leaders, who are by their nature superior to others.
EVERYONE IS TAUGHT TO BE THE HERO. A CULT OF DEATH. Where in myth the hero is exceptional, in fascism everyone must be the hero. They crave heroic death, the reward for heroic life. In seeking it, they send others to die. (See also: Militarism).
MACHISMO. Disdain for women and femininity. Intolerance of non-standard sexuality and gender expression.
SELECTIVE POPULISM. The People are viewed as a monolith with a single will, as interpreted (in reality, determined) by the leaders. Democratic institutions are viewed as illegitimate because they run counter to the narrative of the existence of a single Voice Of The People.
NEWSPEAK. Vocabulary cannot expand. If anything, it must shrink. Variation and nuance in dialogue means variation and nuance in thought. This cannot be allowed. Therefore categories must be binary. Definitions are simple and limited. If it cannot be boiled down into snappy catchphrase it does not exist.
As good a time as any to remind folks of the 14 properties of “ur-fascism” (described by Umberto Eco, who grew up in Italy under Mussolini, in his 1995 essay Ur-Fascism). Not all need be present for single regime to be fascist, but a Venn diagram of all fascist regimes will cover them all.
CULT OF TRADITION. The old ways are best. The New is not worthwhile.
REJECT MODERNISM The development of Western philosophy post-Enlightenment is seen as a descent into depravity. See also : Reject post-modernism, which is seen as an even greater descent into irrationality.
ACTION FOR ACTION’S SAKE. Action is to be taken without reflection or introspection - that’s for weaklings and degenerates. Often seen in a derision of “intellectual elites”.
DISAGREEMENT IS TREASON.Analytical criticism cannot be allowed. A pantomime of discourse may be allowed, but only within the accepted framework and only if reaching the foregone conclusion.
FEAR OF DIFFERENCE. Outsiders are your enemy. Those who are different are evil and want to corrupt you and destroy all you hold dear.
APPEAL TO A FRUSTRATED MIDDLE CLASS Capitalising on genuine frustrations by pointing them toward convenient scapegoats. Real concerns used a recruiting tools.
OBSESSION WITH A PLOT. There is a conspiracy run by THEM. You are besieged by THEM. THEY are behind all your ills. THEY are working in the shadows to enslave and destroy you.
THE ENEMY IS BOTH STRONG AND WEAK. When rhetorically convenient, THEY are all-powerful. When rhetorically convenient, THEY are feeble, stupid, weak. The rhetorical focus shifts regardless of self-contradiction, because all that matters is positioning the enemy where the speaker’s goal requires them to be at any given moment.
PACIFISM IS THE ENEMY. LIFE IS ETERNAL WAR. There must always be an enemy to fight. When that enemy is defeated, another must be found. When they cannot be found, they must be created, even from within. There is always the promise of a Final Solution bringing Ultimate Triumph, but it can never be achieved.
CONTEMPT FOR THE WEAK. Elitism disguised as populism. Everyone of US is superior to THEM, cockroaches and drains on society that they are. But people are sheep who require strong leaders, who are by their nature superior to others.
EVERYONE IS TAUGHT TO BE THE HERO. A CULT OF DEATH. Where in myth the hero is exceptional, in fascism everyone must be the hero. They crave heroic death, the reward for heroic life. In seeking it, they send others to die. (See also: Militarism).
MACHISMO. Disdain for women and femininity. Intolerance of non-standard sexuality and gender expression.
SELECTIVE POPULISM. The People are viewed as a monolith with a single will, as interpreted (in reality, determined) by the leaders. Democratic institutions are viewed as illegitimate because they run counter to the narrative of the existence of a single Voice Of The People.
NEWSPEAK. Vocabulary cannot expand. If anything, it must shrink. Variation and nuance in dialogue means variation and nuance in thought. This cannot be allowed. Therefore categories must be binary. Definitions are simple and limited. If it cannot be boiled down into snappy catchphrase it does not exist.
Got pulled over because he “saw someone flash their lights at me” and it made him “think something was going on”. After he ran my paperwork and did multiple full walk-arounds of my car, he decided everything was in order and I was free to go. I just wanted to get home from work.
Living in MD got pulled over when I pulled into my landlady’s [100%, rich, suburban] community and questioned what my purpose was there. “I live here” was not an acceptable answer and I ended up needing to call my landlady to talk to the officer and convince them that I really did live there, in her basement inlaw apartment, courtesy of her granddaughter. When he finally let me go he told me he “actually” pulled me over because he “thought [my] headlights were out” but on “second glance” they were just fine. Dunno how you can mistake headlights being on or off.
And I know I’ve told the story of when one of my elderly white neighbors called the police on me for training my dog in a public use field and how even the cop that showed up thought the call was stupid and racist.
My dad got pulled over when I was still in a carseat because they thought it was “suspicious” that a grown man would have such a young child with him on a school day. He was driving me back to school from a doctor’s appointment. They made him get our of the car, lean against it, and searched both him and the car because they “smelled something” while he did his best to keep me calm and tell me that it was going to be okay. I was too young to understand what happened at the time. I just remember he was furious the entire ride back to school, and he was still mad when I got off the bus that afternoon.
It really is just Like This, being black in this country.
Got pulled over because he “saw someone flash their lights at me” and it made him “think something was going on”. After he ran my paperwork and did multiple full walk-arounds of my car, he decided everything was in order and I was free to go. I just wanted to get home from work.
Living in MD got pulled over when I pulled into my landlady’s [100%, rich, suburban] community and questioned what my purpose was there. “I live here” was not an acceptable answer and I ended up needing to call my landlady to talk to the officer and convince them that I really did live there, in her basement inlaw apartment, courtesy of her granddaughter. When he finally let me go he told me he “actually” pulled me over because he “thought [my] headlights were out” but on “second glance” they were just fine. Dunno how you can mistake headlights being on or off.
And I know I’ve told the story of when one of my elderly white neighbors called the police on me for training my dog in a public use field and how even the cop that showed up thought the call was stupid and racist.
My dad got pulled over when I was still in a carseat because they thought it was “suspicious” that a grown man would have such a young child with him on a school day. He was driving me back to school from a doctor’s appointment. They made him get our of the car, lean against it, and searched both him and the car because they “smelled something” while he did his best to keep me calm and tell me that it was going to be okay. I was too young to understand what happened at the time. I just remember he was furious the entire ride back to school, and he was still mad when I got off the bus that afternoon.
It really is just Like This, being black in this country.
the only and single trouble in my relationship is my boyfriend doesnt want me to have a life size human skeleton because it would scare him but from a teaching and learning perspective it is deeply important to me and from a whimsical perspective i want a giant funny doll to dress up and name and treat like a family member
understand though and please be nice to him my bf is not a joy hater its more just that he’s really scared of the dark and if he sees a human figure in the home at night he might get scared and not go to the bathroom this is a necessary and willing sacrifice i make for our love
When I first heard the term CIS being used on Tumblr, I didn’t know it meant being comfortable with your assigned gender. I thought this whole site was talking about the Confederacy of Independent Systems. As in
the Sith’s droid army, and when everyone was saying “CIS scum” they were calling people out on being Sith
Every so often this post dies out and then spikes my activity again
I’d have absolutely disgusting freak sex with a Droideka
Milf
Milf, would, and reblog
MTT my beloved (so sad I never got the like 2011 lego set)
It is so so important to show that queer people have always existed and are allowed to live long, happy lives. Young queer people–especially those in conservative areas–need to know that beingqueer is not a death sentence. Despite the many struggles we have faced, throughout history there have always been queer lives filled with joy and love. and you will find yours.
