#if you have not seen fringe

[just-jessiejames]

( THIS POST CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS FOR FRINGE / STRANGER THINGS )

Still thinking about the fact that there are so many similarities between Stranger Things and Fringe.

I grew up watching Fringe. It's like, maybe one of my favorite sci-fi shows in existence, but it's super under-rated at times. However, as soon as I watched Stranger Things, back when the show first released on Netflix I was immediately struck but thoughts like... "Hmm, this seems very familiar..." and "Oh my god why is this so familiar" then finally upon reflection, "I know why it seems familiar!! Fringe!"

I mean hear me out!! Fringe deals with experiments on kids just like Stranger Things. The Cortexiphan trials result in a slew of paranormal powers for the children it's used on and everyone who had Cortexiphan also end up having different powers from one another?

Where have I heard that before- Stranger Things, perhaps?!

Like in Fringe you've got stuff like, Telekinesis, Telepathy, Teleportation, Super Hearing, Pyrokinesis, Electrokinesis, Healing/Infection Abilities, Regeneration, Mind Reading, Dimensional Manipulation, Nick's Powers (If you know you know but, TW so I'm not mentioning his. But they're oof) which I guess can be summed up to Emotional manipulation.

I don't want to list all the powers in Stranger Things but there are a Lot. So many. The important ones though are Telepathy, Telekinesis, Pyrokinesis, Regeneration, Mind Reading, Hallucinations, Dimensional Manipulation, Teleportation. There's other but eh I'm lazy.

But looking at Fringe, Olivia's powers have always reminded me like super strongly of Els, like a whole lot? She literally goes into a sensory deprivation tank and can go into a trance like state, extremely similar to how El can. Now there's major differences to how the trance's work. El goes into the present, but can enter other people's minds and access their memories.

Olivia can also enter other people's minds and access their memories, though to a far lesser extent. Olivia could only do that due to mind links and other background things going on. (Olivia's powers are weaker many regards). However she can go into her trance like state and teleport across universes, so y'know. Tomato Tomahto, different powers but similar vein.

But yeah, El and Olivia's abilities are very different. However they are similar. They can both manipulate dimensions. They have telekinesis, electricity manipulation & possibly enhanced hearing. They can enter a trance like state with sensory deprivation. Their powers are more effective with emotional stimuli; El is much stronger, likely due to the fact that El is still young and just strong in general whereas Olivia only began using her powers extensively once she was in her twenties. In Fringe we do see Olivia showing similar strength as a child, but when the reason behind why she can use her abilities links back to bad stuff ( abuse), the experiments abruptly stop for Olivia and do not restart till MUCH later on.

I'm rambling, I am definitely rambling, but the similarities are there! I've always felt like there was a super strong coloration between the two. Is this rambling based on any wild theories about these two shows being in the same universe. Psh no, but damn could they be at times.

Also let us not forget that the Cortexiphan trials take place during, *drum roll please* 1981! Nearly the same time as the MKUltra trials we see done by Dr. Brenner in Stranger Things. I know Dr. Bishop also worked for the army as well for many years, much like how Dr. Brenner's MKUltra is military backed, but I do not believe Dr. Bishop's trials were actually done with Army knowledge. Else the kids would have likely gone on to become super soldiers, I'm sure, considering in Fringe it is stated that the Army was very interested in that vein of science at the time. But, nevertheless the original Cortexiphan trails weren't done with Army knowledge. They WERE done at a similar time as Dr. Brenner's MKUltra experiments. The Cortexiphan Trials just happened to be run in Ohio & Jacksonville, where in Stranger Things MKUltra is in Indiana.

Anyways, I've wanted to write a fanfiction crossover or SOMETHING for these two universes because Fringe is just *chef's kiss* and has some seriously cool stuff. With the events of season 4 actually going over how the upside down works, I really think there could be a solid basis for a cross over here, that wouldn't break realities (ha-ha).

The upside down isn't an alternate universe, like we see in Fringe. What we see in Fringe are literally universes that mirror our world, but with a severe case of butterfly effect. No no no, The Upside down is more like a pocket dimension, where it lies exclusively within the town of Hawkins and doesn't actually stretch beyond it's borders. We see this, I believe, due to the Russians being unable to open a gate in their country? It's because there is no Upside down in Russia.

Anyways something something, fanfiction crossover, something something, the supernatural/ sci-fi abilities are really quite similar in these two shows, something something, I love these shows to bits even though their vibe is VERY different.

Any fellow Fringe & Stranger Things fans out there? Probably not that many but I can dream, right?

#take 3 on posting this because tumblr is freaking rude #fringe #the upside down #blue universe #red universe #stranger things #olivia dunham #eleven #el hopper #stranger things s4 #stranger things season 4 #walter bishop #dr brenner #fanfic #crossover #fanfic idea anyone? #if you have not seen fringe #but you do like crime dramas and monster of the week type shows with intense sci-fi elements #then i implore you to give fringe a watch #it's really good in my opinion #even though it's vibe is very very different from stranger things #stranger things has got that 80s kids on bikes nostalgia #meanwhile fringe has intense sci-fi crime crama universe bending paradox xfiles type stuff

[haveyouseenthisseries-poll]

#tv series #tv shows #polls #fringe #anna torv #joshua jackson #john noble #2000s series #us american series #have you seen this series poll

[caleblandrybones]

#HAVE YOU SEEN THIS SHIT #gus fring #max arciniega #gusmax

[the-busy-ghost]

Look I respect the art of past ages, but it's the 21st century and personally I'd like to see less depictions of the Greek Muses as ethereal sexually objectified fairy women, and more art of Thalia doing stand-up

#I mean both can coexist don't get me wrong #You want to do the muses as ethereal sexy women you do you #And again ancient Greek comedy differs from modern day approaches of course #But also they provide a great opportunity for more modern treatments #Unlike Aphrodite or the Graces you really do have the opportunity to present them as ordinary people #(Nothing wrong with interpreting Aphrodite in that way either just it's more obvious with the Muses) #Thalia in a dumb t-shirt microphone in hand half-grinning while picking on the front row of the audience at the Fringe #Or like #Idk Hannah Gadsby-esque comic- though I haven't seen enough of her stuff #Clio doesn't have to be sexy librarian; she could be anything from 'elderly professor obsessed with old coins' to tabloid journalist #I may resent the latter but at the end of the day history relates to everyone #We each have our own particular relationship with her #The ancient Greeks for a start probably had a very different conception of what history is to us

[faithandbuffy]

All these good renewals and yet still no lazarus project season three confirmed

#please im begging #if you like scifi watch the lazarus project #if you liked fringe watch the lazarus project PLEASE #if you like time loops…..this show WILL blow your mind i promise #the cleverest show i have seen hands down #time loops but they control the reset how is that not the best thing youve ever heard #and every time you think you understand the implications…. #bro….you dont understand the implications bro…. #the lazarus project

[rithmeres]

good evening ackersmith nation

#alt version of the leyendecker study (as promised) #attack on titan #levi ackerman #shingeki no kyojin #erwin smith #THE GIRLS ARE GOSSIPING #i thought about painting over levi's lil flower and exchanging it for a badge or a medal or something #but they're in civvies so i just left it. eh why not #cant slay giants and become a beloved hero of the people if u aint cute #when i draw stuff i usually create a silly little scenario for it in my head so heres the scenario #levi is not having a good time at this stuffy formal party (doesnt know anyone. doesnt drink. introvert. not a socialite) #(why am i here ive never seen this much wasted food in my life do these assholes know that there are people starving 50 feet below them. ) #so it is a welcome relief when erwin joins him on the fringes and starts quietly dishing dirt on EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. in the room #levi's never really had to play the information game before (not like they do in mitras at least) so hes filing it all away for future use #hence levi's little smirk hes trying to contain it but hes like damb 👀☕ say more actually. and he likes the subtle attention #that's me projecting probably lmfao i love it when my favorite people give me singular attention in a public setting #especially if theyre popular and social like you could be hanging with literally anyone right now but youre with ME and everyone can see #( this happened to me yesterday with lyss. blessed occurrence) #i just think it's funny that erwin doesnt even try to hide his obvious favoritism for levi that man never gave a single f and i respect it #wherefore art thou #snk #i think i could absolutely reign on aot art twt if i wanted to. blow up and then act like i dont know nobody (because i dont)

[tenrose]

The way how both people versions from both sides think that the other side are the villains... and the fact that they're both right from their own point view and their own universes' problems... can't sleep thinking about it

#fringe #look i know the other side is the supposed enemy #but like have you seen all they've been through since the first time walter crossed #he fucked up their world way more badly than he did his own #all the people they lost because of him... #and tbh if i was Walternate and found out my alternate version came from another universe to kidnap my son #i might be evil too

[not-poignant]

🤯, 🤭 & 💔 for the kinkmeme

🤯 What's a genre you struggle with as a writer (ex. romance, action, etc.)?

The ones I'm not writing, lmao.

Okay but in all seriousness, I would say I struggle with mysteries, because I don't enjoy them in general. (I'm that person who always looks up the answer so I don't have to deal with the 'mystery' part which I generally find incredibly boring, so no, I can't really write the genre either). Ditto westerns.

I actually don't think I really struggle with romance, contemporary, action, fantasy, adventure, science fiction, erotica etc. I don't even struggle with hard science fiction. I don't think I'd struggle that much with horror or psychological or even supernatural thriller. Every time I've written elements of horror or thriller genres into my works, it's been pretty well-received actually. I'm just not really drawn to it. Genres are pretty easy to 'get' frankly (I did a media degree, I have done tertiary study of genre, so...formulas I understand). I struggle less with genre and more with base conceptuals that can be found in any genre - for example, I struggle with plot-based over character-based storylines. And that's true in any genre.

Oh! Actually I think maybe I struggle with procedurals and 'case of the week' style writing. That's what Eversion was supposed to be, and I profoundly did not like doing it, so basically removed Connor from the case and told a different story, lol, so I think that's one too!

🤭 Do you have a favorite tag to use when posting your works?

It's two and they go hand in hand: Angst and hurt/comfort. I think they're on just about every single one of my works. And they're usually among the first two I add.

💔 Is there a fic of yours that broke your heart?

Hmmm.

Strange Sights because it represents a time in my life that was extremely damaging for me, to the point where I nearly have deleted it several times (I won't though, it doesn't hurt in the same way anymore - time heals some wounds and all that).

All of The Ice Plague because it just did so badly re: engagement (Underline the Black is about to eclipse TIP 3 for kudos in almost a quarter of the time and far less words, lol, sigh), and it became the death knell of the Fae Tales canon, which was supposed to continue. I grieved that for years, on and off, until I finally accepted reality. In TIP 1, we could say it was just...teething issues. In TIP 2 (which did worse than TIP 1) we could be like 'oh well, these things happen.' In TIP 3, which has done the worst of any long fic I've ever written, across two separate accounts, I just put my head in my hands and never felt further away from trying to draw in readers and keeping my career going. I can't tell you how many times I nearly quit.

(I had some great times writing it, but I also had a lot of 'why am I even still doing this to myself' times while writing it too, and then I'd remember the readers that were engaging with it and commenting on it, and I'd remember like... I need to make a living, and I'd also remember that the characters deserved their happy ending, and I'd keep going).

Honestly, nothing else really comes close to TIP, especially TIP 3. I actually felt relieved when it ended. Everything I've written since has been more popular and drawn in more people. It speaks for itself. It just makes me sad as well, that proportionately, less than 1/7 of the readers of Game Theory ever got to read Augus and Gwyn's true happy ending and epilogue, in All that We Were, All That We Will Ever Be. It's just a massive drop off overall, and makes me feel like I let folks down.

-

From the fandom meme

#asks and answers #memey goodness #pia on fanfiction #pia on writing #this one hurted #lol with more distance between me and the ice plague #and realising recently that a fringe omegaverse story #which is a genre people typically hate on even in romance #even that will quickly overtake the ice plague #or at least the ice plague 3 #for popularity #and popularity isn't everything #but you know i need money to live #so it is something #falling falling stars held me up through the ice plague #otherwise you may never have seen it end at all #administrator gwyn wants this in the queue

[swiftzeldas]

do i love kirk acevedo bc he was on band of brothers or do i love joe toye because he is kirk acevedo

#these are questions i have to ask myself #but i think the truest answer is i love kirk acevedo bc he was on fringe #also that man is aging like fine wine have you seen him lately #BoB tag #text post

[inanotherworldarling]

You thirst for Ansem, but not Old Nort? Isn’t Ansem just old nort in a young persons body?

Yeah. See one of them is 7 foot tall and classically handsome with flowing silver locks in a heaving neckline. The other is ol veiny head.

#idk i think i was predestined to like Ansem bc as soon as he spoke in kh I somehow knew he was voiced by Billy Zane #Like i messaged ny homie like 'is this dude billy zane from titanic???' and my homie was like what are you on about #but i think he googled for me bc i was brawling ansem bc <3 kh1 <3 I also remember homie bein like GET THE OBLIVION KEY and ive gone #Way off topic i just remember that bc it was funny to me like ive just thought riku and seen the princesses captured #and my brains like Omg Evil Guy From Titanic?????? like #for Context I have watched the dude in nothing else i know of and i saw titanic once #when i was 13 and i was home alone at night and i was sittin on the floor in a blanket CRYING and then my brother and his drunk friends #came home and were like 👁👁 why you in a blanket on the floor crying? and i was like GET OUTTA HERE jacks fuckin DEAD #Anyone so all these giant tags to say the fact i immediately clocked his voice means ibwas paying attention to the dude #And why? becuase Ansem is PRETTY #Xeha has a nice voice too tho rip mr Nimoy i loved you in fringe #where you were also an evil scientist who wanted to destroy the universes #suffice to say i called young Xehanort a hot twink to my homie when he pulled up in like... idk DDD #its just lil bald hunched veiny head #Also im not bald-ist I love a bald dude so 😤 #Ask

[theskoomacat]

2008 anime episodes cut up into 20 shitty 360p parts with no subtitles in your language available, yes, we've all heard about it. but shout out to the bitches like me who refused to watch the anime itself and instead had to decipher in which specific episodes their favorite side character has appeared from their wiki page and then find those episodes and then fast forward through all the irrelevant drama to get to them

#have i seen anime? yes #have i watched anime (except Shaman King or MP100 they don't count)? no #you really don't have to care #blonde fringe bitch from bleach one day i will revisit your escapades. whoever the fuck you were #don't quote me on 2008 time flows differently on russian internet #wait WHAT they did a SK reboot in 2021?? #netflix? like the entire fucking thing? 52 fucking episodes????

[batshit-auspol]

I just spent some time scrolling through this blog and am suffering from sever laughter. Thanks so much for collating the countries craziest moments. One of my favourites is when Scott Morrison was in Hawaii while the bushfires where burning.

December 2019: As Australia's east coast is engulfed in the worst bushfires in living memory, rumours begin to circulate that Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison may have secretly fucked off for a holiday in Hawaii.

Keep in mind, this is what is going down in Australia at the time:

The Hawaii rumour is initially written off as a fringe conspiracy, because surely nobody could be that fuckin tonedeaf, and it was quickly forgotten about... until an Australian man visiting Hawaii UPLOADED A SELFIE ON THE BEACH WITH THE PM THROWING A SHAKA.

At which point all hell broke loose.

Overnight the formerly popular "Scomo" became the most despised man in all of Australia. Think "firefighters shouting out of their windows to news cameras" level of despised.

After about two days of radio silence and pretending like he was still at home running the country, the Prime Minister's handlers finally dragged him onto call with an Australian radio station, where he pinky promised to return to Australia as fast as he could in an attempt to calm things down.

Unfortunately Scott's empathy consultant (a real job) then had to watch Scott pour more gasoline on the dumpster fire by uttering the now famous phrase "Look I don't hold a hose mate" when asked by the radio interviewer why the fucking fuck the fuckhead wasn't fucking in Australia doing his fucking job during a massive fucking crisis.

Testing just how much worse things could get, Scomo then proceeded to NOT rush back to Australia as promised, instead attempting to complete the rest of his holiday, a fact that was exposed when a passerby snapped a picture of him still lounging on the beach two days later.

Eventually, holiday complete, Morrison did reluctantly slink back to Australia, and in an attempt to calm things down, he decided to pay a visit to a small town that had been destroyed by the fires.

Which was a big mistake.

Scomo still had not registered how absolutely and totally he had screwed the poodle with his Hawaiian beach vacation, and he walks into what is now taught in PR classes as one of the greatest examples of "what not do do in a crisis" in all of history.

Scotty from Marketing, as he is now dubbed by the nation, spends a painfully cringe-inducing hour wandering around a burned down town with TV news cameras in tow, having to FORCE PEOPLE TO SHAKE HIS HAND in what is some of the most awkward footage you will ever see.

At this point it's probably also worth mentioning that, before becoming Prime Minister, Scott Morrison's biggest claim to fame in politics was being the guy that was so far up the coal lobby's arse that he literally brought coal into parliament and waved it around, claiming it doesn't hurt people.

So when a protest was organised it turned out to be one big national fuck you to the Prime Minister, the likes of which the world has never seen before or since.

Needless to say, at this point Scomo's career was dead in the water, but thanks to the rules brought in to stop Australian political parties from knifing their leader every two weeks (a popular Aussie passtime) Morrison basically couldn't get fired until after the next election.

And so, when the election rolled around in 2022, we decided that was an opportune time to travel over to Hawaii to erect this bad boy tribute to the Prime Minister, on the very beach where Scomo had sat and drank margaritas that one fateful week in December as Australia burned (thanks to @chaser for funding the ticket)

#australia #auspol #history #scomo #hawaii

[zillychu]

I’ve gotten a WAVE of asks about this AU, so I decided to flesh it out some more and answer some of those questions!

I’ll probably polish this extended summary up at some point and submit it to AO3. But for now, here’s a rundown of my thoughts–please feel free to send more questions! I’ll update this post if I get any more. But if you’re someone who wanted to write fic for it, don’t worry, you don’t need to take my headcanons as gospel. It’s a pretty basic AU honestly lol

Summary:

The portal accident results in a violent explosion that wipes out the whole block, and condemns all of Amity Park. Danny haunts the city for 100 years, before Sam and Tucker find him. 

Setup:

In the 1920’s, 19-year-old Danny went into the incomplete portal on his own, hoping to help out his parents. Ripping the portal open through unnatural means created a huge burst of energy that resulted in a massive explosion. A good portion of the Amity Park population died, many were injured, and the ones on the fringes relocated–Amity was quickly deemed too dangerous due to the excess ectoplasm in the area that attracted ghosts. 

While the disaster was in Amity, the fallout was seen around the globe. Before, natural portals were rare, short-lived, and rarely allowed ghosts to fully slip into our realm (the most severe cases being on par with poltergeists that most people didn’t believe in). Now, natural portals pop open frequently around the world, large enough to allow the entirety of a ghost into the physical plane. They’re more common the closer you get to Amity, but they happen enough elsewhere that this change was something of a small apocalypse before people settled back down and found out how to combat at least some of their new, permanent neighbors. 

Danny is unaware that he’s only half-dead, believing he’s a full ghost. He ends up sticking around Amity, unintentionally making it his haunt. His grief and guilt over causing the death of his loved ones (and many others) makes him isolate and avoid human contact. Though he has, at times, scared nosy people away from the city in a mix of territorial instinct–and to get them to leave before a less friendly ghost finds them. 

Ghosts are much more of an uncontested danger in this AU. Lesser ghosts are practically mindless, and while stronger ghosts are capable of reason, their interests are limited. They’re highly territorial, possessive, and often destructive. Most worrisome is that they also like to snack on the life force of anything alive. No one is sure what dictates a ghost’s propensity to attack or hunt the living for their life force since ghosts don’t exactly experience hunger. At least, not the way we do. If a human is rescued before their life force is fully drained, they can make a full recovery–though humanity has still not yet found what this “life force" is. 

And since the Fentons’ research died along with them, there aren’t many tools available to the public to protect them from ghosts. Most homes have standard ghost shields and some weapons are available on the market, but certified ghost hunters are required to take care of anything more powerful than your average spook. 

Sam and Tucker met in high school, and are now rooming together for college very close to the Amity border. Rent is surprisingly cheap when you’re a stone’s throw away from a condemned area crawling with ghosts. Sam is the one who drags Tucker along with her fascination over finding out more about the city, and its largely mysterious demise. Sam is aware of the danger, but feels ghosts have a place in this world just like everything else, and does exercise caution–like one would while foraging in the woods with a known tiger population. 

What she and Tucker weren’t expecting was to run into a ghost that felt almost human. One that hasn't hurt them, not for lack of trying–while being powerful enough to walk past ghost shields without so much as a flinch. The long white hair is familiar in the whispers of the ectobiologist community, but there’s no way it could be the rumored ghost king Phantom, right?

About Danny:

He has very long hair, claws, and black sclera. His hazmat suit is more torn and ragged, with exposed hands and feet that fade into a burnt black.

His hair tends to float a lot on its own. It can start morphing into fire under duress. 

He does still technically have gloves and boots, they've just charred and melted into his skin towards the ends. He can't take them off in his ghost form. His hands and feet have a leathery texture that's tougher than the rest of his skin.

The white of his hazmat suit is both supposed to look like flames, and also a battered look representing his more violent, explosive death.

Overall, he appears rather listless and sad, with an unnerving air of danger around him–even for a ghost. 

Danny’s “ghost sense” comes out as white smoke.

He does breathe black smoke at times, usually when agitated. 

He's already fought and defeated Pariah Dark by the time Sam and Tucker find him, technically making him the Ghost King. This is heavily speculated by ghost experts, despite there being no real proof beyond a massive battle that scarred Illinois. He has not donned the Ring or the Crown, and captured sentient ghosts are hesitant to answer questions surrounding him. Danny basically has the throne but doesn’t do anything with it, and finds it meaningless enough to routinely forget he has the title. He only fought Pariah because he knew otherwise, humanity would have perished. A lot of ghosts are scared of him because he's so hard to figure out, and he's strong. 

Danny is usually very quiet and speaks softly, because his lungs were damaged in the blaze that half-killed him. He's technically healed since becoming a ghost, so it's more of a compulsion due to the traumatic memory. That, and he’s just… very forlorn and distant, shy around humans who don’t seem to understand how dangerous it is to keep hanging around him.

His memories pre-accident are extremely fuzzy. He knows the very basics of who he was, but specifics have been muffled due to trauma and isolation. He routinely forgets human habits, etiquette, etc. and tends to act more like a full ghost with some odd quirks. 

He does try to scare Sam and Tucker off numerous times. Unfortunately for him, they realized they shouldn't have been able to escape a ghost that strong–but they did, because he let them. 

Sam and Tucker think he's mute at first! He doesn't speak a word to them until several encounters later, when he fumbles his whole scary act and saves them from another ghost. 

He’s still half-ghost, though he doesn’t figure this out until Sam and Tucker come along trying to unravel the mysteries behind the Amity catastrophe. Physically and emotionally, he’s been stuck for 100 years–so his human form is still 19. It’s unclear at this point if he can age normally like a human as long as he stays in human form, or if he’s immortal. 

Danny's family did not turn into ghosts, though he sometimes worries he'll find them in the afterlife as shells of their former selves. He doesn't know if it's better or worse that he's not sure he'd recognize them. 

(Danny also still has some living family. Take a guess.)

Yes, he knows how to Wail. Understandably, he very rarely uses it. You do not want to witness this.

Danny :) is not immune :) from the allure of eating a human's life force :)))

#danny phantom #au #zilly art #I just wanted to draw a boy with long hair and claws how did this happen #fire core au

[brandyschillace]

The Forgotten History of the World’s First Transgender Clinic

I finished the first round of edits on my nonfiction history of trans rights today. It will publish with Norton in 2025, but I decided, because I feel so much of my community is here, to provide a bit of the introduction.

[begin sample]

The Institute for Sexual Sciences had offered safe haven to homosexuals and those we today consider transgender for nearly two decades. It had been built on scientific and humanitarian principles established at the end of the 19th century and which blossomed into the sexology of the early 20th. Founded by Magnus Hirschfeld, a Jewish homosexual, the Institute supported tolerance, feminism, diversity, and science. As a result, it became a chief target for Nazi destruction: “It is our pride,” they declared, to strike a blow against the Institute. As for Magnus Hirschfeld, Hitler would label him the “most dangerous Jew in Germany.”6 It was his face Hitler put on his antisemitic propaganda; his likeness that became a target; his bust committed to the flames on the Opernplatz. You have seen the images. You have watched the towering inferno that roared into the night. The burning of Hirschfeld’s library has been immortalized on film reels and in photographs, representative of the Nazi imperative, symbolic of all they would destroy. Yet few remember what they were burning—or why.

Magnus Hirschfeld had built his Institute on powerful ideas, yet in their infancy: that sex and gender characteristics existed upon a vast spectrum, that people could be born this way, and that, as with any other diversity of nature, these identities should be accepted. He would call them Intermediaries.

Intermediaries carried no stigma and no shame; these sexual and Gender nonconformists had a right to live, a right to thrive. They also had a right to joy. Science would lead the way, but this history unfolds as an interwar thriller—patients and physicians risking their lives to be seen and heard even as Hitler began his rise to power. Many weren’t famous; their lives haven’t been celebrated in fiction or film. Born into a late-nineteenth-century world steeped in the “deep anxieties of men about the shifting work, social roles, and power of men over women,” they came into her own just as sexual science entered the crosshairs of prejudice and hate. The Institute’s own community faced abuse, blackmail, and political machinations; they responded with secret publishing campaigns, leaflet drops, pro-homosexual propaganda, and alignments with rebel factions of Berlin’s literati. They also developed groundbreaking gender affirmation surgeries and the first hormone cocktail for supportive gender therapy.

Nothing like the Institute for Sexual Sciences had ever existed before it opened its doors—and despite a hundred years of progress, there has been nothing like it since. Retrieving this tale has been an exercise in pursuing history at its edges and fringes, in ephemera and letters, in medal texts, in translations. Understanding why it became such a target for hatred tells us everything about our present moment, about a world that has not made peace with difference, that still refuses the light of scientific evidence most especially as it concerns sexual and reproductive rights.

[end sample]

I wanted to add a note here: so many people have come together to make this possible. Like Ralf Dose of the Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft (Magnus Hirschfeld Archive), Berlin, and Erin Reed, American journalist and transgender rights activist—Katie Sutton, Heike Bauer. I am also deeply indebted to historian, filmmaker and formative theorist Susan Stryker for her feedback, scholarship, and encouragement all along the way. And Laura Helmuth, editor of Scientific American, whose enthusiasm for a short article helped bring the book into being. So many LGBTQ+ historians, archivists, librarians, and activists made the work possible, that its publication testifies to the power of the queer community and its dedication to preserving and celebrating history. But I ALSO want to mention you, folks here on tumblr who have watched and encouraged and supported over the 18 months it took to write it (among other books and projects). @neil-gaiman has been especially wonderful, and @always-coffee too: thank you.

The support of this community has been important as I’ve faced backlash in other quarters. Thank you, all.

NOTE: they are attempting to rebuild the lost library, and you can help: https://magnus-hirschfeld.de/archivzentrum/archive-center/

#support trans rights #trans history #trans #transgender #trans woman #trans rights #trans representation #interwar period #weimar #equality #autistic author #nonbinary #lgbtq representation #lgbtqia #book news #book #books #new books #thank you #neil gaiman #for your support

[dunhamsolivia]

not enough certified sci-fi nerds talk about fringe and i’m sICK OF IT!!!!!

#me to bsg friends: have you seen fringe #me to fringe friends: have you seen bsg #friends who have seen both: 🫶🏼 #omg ari stfu

[what-even-is-thiss]

“What radicalized you”

Nothing about my politics is particularly radical or extremist my dude I’m a pretty vanilla democratic socialist you have just been slow boiling like a frog in an increasingly hostile global political climate that has been slowly becoming more and more conservative for at least four decades now and anyone at this point that believes in expanding social welfare programs is seen as on the fringes of the political spectrum for some reason