#or if he should be subtle about it. courting didnt seem to work last time but things are different now. he brings her gifts theres nothing

[urloth]

AU Silmarillion Drabbles 30/50

Prompt: Social

Summary: Bitter winter on a battlefield and all they can do is gossip and wait.

Notes: I have attempted to write a sort of cross over with the very talented @vanimore​‘s amazing fic a few times. This is a part I recently excised out of the fic I am dwadling my way through. It was too much of a diversion and change of scene and didn’t fit the rest of the fic’s tone. It also didnt really work and it was too explination-y. But I didn’t want to just delete it and I feel guilty all the time about not writing more the Silm AU drabbles. 

So this is cheating it I guess. And archiving a bit of writing so I can go back later and pillage it for usable bits.

Warnings: OCs and world building. A unholy mess of two different worlds hitting each other in a way that doesn’t really work at all which is part of why it got taken out. Likely OOC and not really compliant for Vanimore’s fics. That and the tone was too jovial. Be more serious Erevir.

There was a pair of Five Arrows guarding Thranduil’s tent, standing proud. There was shouting inside the tent. Erevir could identify most of the lords inside thanks to it. Thranduil had bid them to wait, even invited them to take wine and sit within the tent until it was their turn.

Erevir was fine outside. Away from the yelling and the inevitable stares and accusations of being Gil-Galad’s spy. The weather was fine and the Five Arrows were quiet and interesting company. Erevir liked the Five Arrows. They were the least likely to become offended if their hallowing reacted to them and more likely to just be amused.

It was a change from the Thindar who were usually given the honour of guarding the royal tent. Given or who had edged out others, whichever it was. Greenwood was a political and racially complicated mess. 

These guards were wearing the hardened leather armour over soft hides that Erevir was used to seeing them wear. What was new was the colours of Greenwood bright in their cloaks, the sigils clear and proud upon their chests.

Thranduil was honouring Oropher’s promise to the Five Arrows who came from the marshiest and wettest parts of the deep heart of the forest. For years, Erevir had heard, scholars had wondered where the people the kingdom of Doriath had called the sawadhrim; the filth people, had made their home when Doriath and the Laiquendi would not give them any space in their own lands. Then Oropher had found them.

Erevir knew the settling of the Greenwood had not been the most comfortable thing. There were more than just the Five Arrows spread through the expansive forests, and Tatyar within the mountain in the centre to boot. The political gymnastics Oropher had performed were impressive but instilled prejudice against Five Arrows had been hard to break.

It was… it was good. Yes it was good that Thranduil was continuing Oropher’s sometimes bloodily stubborn push to have the Five Arrows brought into the union of peoples that he had cobbled into his court and country.

Three years of fighting, Erevir remembered dim gossip by campfires. Three years of fighting for him had been what Oropher had asked in exchange for enshrining complete protection of the Five Arrows in his laws.

He had even signed those laws before Greenwood’s armies had moved out as a sign of good faith.

They were four years in now, and the war had not indicated when it would end and how.

There would be no forcing them to undesirable areas of the forest. They would have their own Lord in the Council and most importantly they would have their own name. They were Five Arrows and the king himself would lay grievances against those that used that other, long hurtful name.

Erevir hoped what they saw meant that Thranduil had taken his father’s word as his own.

They hoped Sawadhrim would not be an acceptable name for them within what would not be Thranduil’s realm. It was a terrible name. Instinct said that the nature of humans meant another, just as painful, name would be found by those who would not let their minds be changed.

Well the Five Arrows would likely deal with that themselves. Utumno and Angbad had gifted many of them with the jaw strength similar to the orcs they had crawled their way back to elf form from, generation after painful generation; changeling child by changeling child. Better teeth though.

Better looking teeth.

The right sided guard turned his head, seemingly unaffected by the glare of the sun on the winter ground into his face, dark tattoos of plants found near Greenwood’s heart framing his face. His companion had a fine twisted set of lines over his nose and cheeks, well displayed when he turned to look where his fellow guard looked, that Erevir wanted to say was perhaps a star-chart but was unwilling to commit. Who really knew.

An Ithiledhil walked past them. There was nothing unusual to them asides the usual. Erevir found themselves both overwhelmingly drawn to the Ithiledhril and utterly repelled. Thus they kept their distance. Anything with two different extremes of reactions was likely bad for their general health. They kept their distance and just watched... listened to the distant song of something that was carried in their fea as a flower carries pollen.

As for the guards… well Five Arrows and Ithiledhil, as far as they knew, simply ignored one another with a skill that was pure artistry.

There was only the slightest narrowing of eyes and a very subtle tension in the guards as the pale, strong figure crossed before them, and the song Erevir heard hissing through the cool air was one of flame white hot and cold.

Then it happened.

There was a patch of ice, hidden under mud that had not frosted over from the underlying chill.

The Ithiledhil stood on it…and slipped. Down he went. Straight down onto his arse with a squelch enough for them to hear across the way from him. His hair, it flew in the air from his high tail like a rippling peace banner. The colour was so pale and beautiful.

And the mud was very dark as that hair fluttered downwards and crossed paths with it.

From the Five Arrows came a sudden pure and golden joy. Erevir shivered from the strength of it as it passed through their bones and warmed all the places that had been chilled by the grey misery of winter. This happiness was so innocent and so sublime. It shimmered in the air and both the Five Arrows were, for a moment, transcendentally beautiful and Erevir was drawn to that like a proverbial moth.

“If I die tomorrow I go into the darkness fulfilled,” the one on the right said with great satisfaction and a great wave of contentment, his lips curled in a smile that revealed too many teeth, and not all of them quite in the configuration expected of elves. But Erevir was grinning back, so hard their cheeks were starting to twinge, and all because of this singular moment of joy.

It was not the right thing to enjoy the misfortune of others but where else would they ever feel this perfect happiness here in Baradur?

“A sight not to be repeated.”

“Ah and he heard us,” the left commented. The Ithiledhil had found his footing, refusing them the further viewing of his slipping and sliding in the mud. No he had righted himself on the first try to the disappointment of his audience of three, and had turned to stare at them.

The Five Arrows’ smiles became fixed, disagreeable emotion displacing that glorious happiness. The right had eyes flecked like bloodstone and the pupils were pulled into tight thin lines, the left had eyes more amber with sharp petals of crimson exploding out from around his thin pupils. Neither dropped eye contact but it was the left guard that slowly and deliberately let the filmy white of his second eyelids slide over his eyes in a lazy blink.

The Ithiledhil turned on his heel without a word and walked away.

Disatisfaction from the left guard and bitter amusement from the right.

“Stone cold bastards,” Left said.

“Ah they aren’t so bad if you pretend they don’t exist,” Right straightened his stance, his shoulders having almost crept out of perfect alignment.

“They cant even die and give us a funeral to watch properly,” Left complained, “no fun at all.”

“Master-Healer Lindlaer of the third mounted patrol was having a fling with one of them for a while, actually from before the war since third mounted had that region in their circuit,” Erevir supplied, “ended it last month. The fallout has been quiet enough, but kept most of the Healer Corps entertained.”

“There you go,” Right said to Left, “you can pester Pethras for details. He is apprenticed to that Healing Lord now. He should know enough to satisfy your strange fetish for Ithiledhil.”

Left made a gesture that was both obscene and demonstrative of his opinion of Right. Erevir had their interest wetted though. Five Arrows distrusted the Healing House, Lord Lithwaloth had, had trouble getting them to accept healers placed amongst them, and Pethras was a name they knew; he was one the Five Arrows’ more prominent shaman.

“I feel like I know the name Lindlaer,” Left mused.

“He’s the one who keeps having affairs with the sort of men who don’t take the end of those affairs well and make very public shows of it,” Erevir supplied, “the Lord of the Red Maple tried to kill him in the middle of a court service is the most famous example I think.”

There had been about three hadn’t there?

The incident of the Ithiledhil in the Night would never surpass that incident. Erevir had been living in Lindon and it had been the first thing anyone had mentioned in their letters to them for a season. Then the news of it had completely stopped.

 Greenwood’s Healing House protected its own.

Lord Healer Lithwaloth tended to crack down on gossip that exceeded acceptable parameters of the noisy air Healers seemed to need as much as food and more than sleep.

“Ah,” a nod.

Poor Master Lindlaer, you could be a master healer and a leading mind of your speciality and all people remembered was your torrid and turbulent love life. Though in Lindlaer’s defence he never slept with married men…which had also been the reason for so much of his laundry being aired publicly.

There was such a thing as being too beautiful it seemed. And Master Lindlaer was very beautiful. Enough to make Erevir wonder if, when this current furor had died down a little, they might see if his bedroll was feeling empty.

“The Lords have quieted,” Right noted, “maybe they’ll finish and you can go in out of the cold and speak your business.”

Someone suddenly swore and called another lord’s father a name that made Erevir rock back a little. Even the Five Arrows who likely knew black speech, blinked and though they did not break their positions, Right mouthed what they had all just heard. Erevir’s ears blushed just at the repeat. What had been the use of living in a brothel for ten years, they wondered sometimes.

“Never mind,” Left cast eyes to Erevir, “it would please me to hear more about the Master-Healer Lindlaer’s current predicament.”

#AU Silmarillion Drabble Series #My Fanfiction #Erevir #OCs #Five Arrows

[trendingnewsb]

The Fight for LGBT Equality in 2018 Will Be Fierce

Jay Michaelson: So, here we are at the end of a strange year for LGBTQ Americans. On the one hand, mainstream acceptance of gay people continues to spread; gays are now officially boring. On the other hand, trans people are being singled out for government persecution on the one hand and continued street violence on the other.

Meanwhile, as all three of us have written, the Trump-Pence administration is inflicting the "death of a thousand blows" against LGBTQ civil rights, severely limiting employment rights, marital rights, access to healthcare, access to safe facilities in schools, and so onwhile literally erasing LGBTQ people from government forms, proclamations, and observances.

For that reason, it's even harder than usual to look toward 2018 with any sense of certainty. What are we most hoping for in the year to come? And what do we fear?

Samantha Allen: I have written the word bathroom hundreds of times over the past two years of covering the various state-level attempts to restrict transgender peoples restroom use. I wish I never had to type it again; I didnt sign up to be a reporter to write about the human excretory system every week.

But in 2018, I am hoping to talk about bathrooms a lot less frequentlyand I have reason to believe that will be the case.

One of the most important victories for transgender people this year came in the form of something we avoided: a bathroom bill in Texas that would have effectively made birth certificates into tickets of entry for restrooms in public schools and government buildings. But that was scuttled at the last second by the business community, local law enforcement, and a sympathetic speaker of the House who said he [didnt] want the suicide of a single Texan on [his] hands.

Im confident that well see somebut fewerred-state legislatures really push for bathroom bills. Theyre political losers and money drainersand everyone in elected office knows that by now

I was in the state this summer when this thing almost got passed and I witnessed firsthand the gloriously outsized Texas rage against a bill that could have cost them billions (Tim wrote about the Texas bathroom battle at the time for the Daily Beast).

Between that and North Carolina being forced to repeal the most controversial aspects of HB 2 under pressure from the NCAA, Im confident that well see somebut fewerred-state legislatures really push for bathroom bills. Theyre political losers and money drainersand everyone in elected office knows that by now.

Tim Teeman: Id like to share your optimism, but Roy Moore supplies a harsh correctivefor me anyway. In the celebrations that followed his defeat at the hands of Doug Jones in the Alabama Senate race, some difficult questions were left hanging.

Moore was a candidate whose rampant homophobiahis actual desire to see discrimination enacted against millions of LGBT Americans, his desire to see prejudice and discrimination enshrined in lawwent mostly unchallenged and unquestioned. Only on the last day of the race did Jake Tapper of CNN ask his spokesman whether Moore believed homosexuality should be illegal (the answer: Probably).

This was a shameful and telling omission by the media. The depressing footnote to Moores loss is that extreme homophobia itself is not a disqualification for a political candidate in 2017. Active homophobia was seen as a valid mandate to hold by the modern Republican Party.

Moore was only too happy to hold it close even in defeat, as he showed by posting (on Facebook) Carson Jones, Doug Jones gay sons, post-election interview with The Advocate. It was a sly attempt to stir up anti-gay poison. Politicians like Moore are thankfully fewer and fewer in number, but homophobia and transphobia are still a major currency in this White Houseand that Trump and other of Moores high-profile Republican supporters dont see it as a disqualifying characteristic tells us something very sad and alarming indeed.

Since ordinary gays are now not so novel, Hollywood's search for novelty is causing them to explore stories of people of color, rural folks, genderqueer folks, and other people who aren't Will or Grace

Jay Michaelson: I am putting most of my hopes outside the machinery of the state. Hollywood told some beautiful queer stories in 2017; I hope this expands and continues in 2018. A decade ago, when I was a professional activist, we had it drilled into us that the number one factor in someone "evolving" on any particular LGBTQ issue was knowing someone who was L, G, B, T, or Q. And if they didn't have firsthand knowledge, media figures counted too.

So, while the Republican party caters to its Christian Right base, I hope that continued media visibility makes them pay for doing so. There's a nice irony too: since ordinary gays are now not so novel, Hollywood's search for novelty is causing them to explore stories of people of color, rural folks, genderqueer folks, and other people who aren't Will or Grace. That might not be for the best motive, but the consequences could be profound.

Tim Teeman: Then we have the 'wedding cake' case at SCOTUS, which you have written about Jay. That seems currently going in favor of the baker refusing to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. This isn't just about a wedding cake, of course, but providing a signal that discrimination based on "beliefs" is OK, which can be used against LGBT people in so many contexts.

Samantha Allen: Im afraid the Trump administrations attacks on the LGBT community will continue to be so persistent and so piecemeal that they will continue to get shuffled to the side. This past month, we were stunned when the Washington Post reported that the CDC had been discouraged from using the term transgender in preparing their annual budget, but if people had been paying closer attention to Trumps appointments in the Department of Health and Human Services and other federal agencies, this wouldnt have been a surprise.

We cant afford to pretend anymore like these are stunningly cruel attacks that come out of nowhere: leaders of anti-LGBT groups regularly walk the White House halls, they wield tremendous influence right now, and the administration is quietly giving them what they want.

Im worried that, with so many other scandals dominating the headlines, the systematic erosion of LGBT rights will continue to fly under the radar

Trumps tweets on transgender military service created a media shockwave, but that moment aside, the administrations attacks on LGBT people in 2017 have been considerably less flashy: amicus briefs filed to the Supreme Court, tinkering with executive orders, adjusting the Department of Justices approach to transgender students. All of these perniciously subtle attacks have taken place against a cultural backdrop of continuing bigotry and violence: In the last year, for example, at least 28 trans people have been killed, most of them transgender women of color.

Tim Teeman: I think one of the things the U.S. would do well to figure out (he said vainly) is the separation of Church and State. The Religious Right has such a grip on the levers of power here, in certain states and in certain administrations like President Trumps which is greatly relying on the bedrock of its support. LGBT people, activists and groups are facing a traumatic 2018, as the far right of the Republican support seeks to shore up support around Trump, and trans people especially are especially vulnerable in such an atmosphere.

Jay makes a good point: at a time when the Right seeks a ratcheting up of the LGBT culture war, LGBT people and their straight allies working in the culture at large should work to put a wide diversity of LGBT lives and characters into that culture, whether it be TV, film, literature, art, or whatever. Actual LGBT presence will be vital in 2018.

If this global backlash isn't stopped, queer people will be murdered, arrested, targeted, stigmatized, and forced to leave their countries (and then denied refugee status) in numbers we have never seen before

Samantha Allen: The death of a thousand blows of LGBT rights under Trump is only going to continue in 2018, and Im worried that, with so many other scandals dominating the headlines, the systematic erosion of LGBT rightsa phenomenon thats directly affecting at least 4 percent of the U.S. population and 7 percent of millennialswill continue to fly under the radar.

Thatd be like the Trump administration deciding one day that everyone in the state of Pennsylvania didnt deserve human rightsand it somehow not being front-page news every single day until it got fixed.

Jay Michaelson: My greatest fear for 2018 is on a somewhat macro-scale. The rise of nationalism, nativism, and right-wing populism around the world is terrifying. On one level, it's an understandable backlash against globalization, multiculturalism, and technology: people unable or unwilling to change are clinging to old identities and myths. But it's also profoundly dangerous, and queers are just one population endangered by it. It's not to be taken lightly.

Already we've seen the United States retreat from the whole concept of human rights, giving carte blanche to murderous anti-LGBTQ elements in Russia, Egypt, Chechnya, Indonesia, and elsewhere.

In 2018, the US will practically zero out its aid to vulnerable LGBT populations around the world. At the UN as elsewhere, America is now allied with Putin's Russia, in this case withdrawing protection from LGBT people and instead defending the oppression of us.

But this is just the beginning. If this global backlash isn't stopped, queer people will be murdered, arrested, targeted, stigmatized, and forced to leave their countries (and then denied refugee status) in numbers we have never seen before.

Figure out some way to help those who dont have as much, or who are especially politically and culturally vulnerable, and who could do with support. Give money, volunteer, whateverdo what you can

Tim Teeman: On that basis, LGBT people and their allies with any time, money, commitment and energy might think about involving themselves with activism and campaigning for organizations like The Trevor Project, HRC, Anti-Violence Project, National Center For Transgender Equality, GLSEN, PFLAG, OutRight Action International, and groups in their local area. If they don't want to do something overtly political, then maybe figure out a way to help those who dont have as much, or who are especially vulnerable, and who could do with supportwhether that be financial and pastoral.

If you need inspiration, look to Nathan Mathis who wasn't going to let Roy Moore winor lose at it turned outin Alabama without shaming him over his homophobia; and without remembering, in the most moving way possible, his dead lesbian daughter, Patti Sue.

Listen to, and be inspired by, the stirring stories of those from times when things were not just bleak but political progress and cultural evolution seemed alien and utterly distant. Eric Marcus has distilled, and continues to distill, amazing interviews with the likes of Sylvia Rivera and Frank Kameny, conducted for his landmark book Making Gay History: The Half-Century Fight For Lesbian and Gay Equal Rights, into a must-listen podcast.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-fight-for-lgbt-equality-in-2018-will-be-fierce

from Viral News HQ http://ift.tt/2Eudf8o via Viral News HQ

#IFTTT #Viral News HQ

[trendingnewsb]

The Fight for LGBT Equality in 2018 Will Be Fierce

Jay Michaelson: So, here we are at the end of a strange year for LGBTQ Americans. On the one hand, mainstream acceptance of gay people continues to spread; gays are now officially boring. On the other hand, trans people are being singled out for government persecution on the one hand and continued street violence on the other.

Meanwhile, as all three of us have written, the Trump-Pence administration is inflicting the "death of a thousand blows" against LGBTQ civil rights, severely limiting employment rights, marital rights, access to healthcare, access to safe facilities in schools, and so onwhile literally erasing LGBTQ people from government forms, proclamations, and observances.

For that reason, it's even harder than usual to look toward 2018 with any sense of certainty. What are we most hoping for in the year to come? And what do we fear?

Samantha Allen: I have written the word bathroom hundreds of times over the past two years of covering the various state-level attempts to restrict transgender peoples restroom use. I wish I never had to type it again; I didnt sign up to be a reporter to write about the human excretory system every week.

But in 2018, I am hoping to talk about bathrooms a lot less frequentlyand I have reason to believe that will be the case.

One of the most important victories for transgender people this year came in the form of something we avoided: a bathroom bill in Texas that would have effectively made birth certificates into tickets of entry for restrooms in public schools and government buildings. But that was scuttled at the last second by the business community, local law enforcement, and a sympathetic speaker of the House who said he [didnt] want the suicide of a single Texan on [his] hands.

Im confident that well see somebut fewerred-state legislatures really push for bathroom bills. Theyre political losers and money drainersand everyone in elected office knows that by now

I was in the state this summer when this thing almost got passed and I witnessed firsthand the gloriously outsized Texas rage against a bill that could have cost them billions (Tim wrote about the Texas bathroom battle at the time for the Daily Beast).

Between that and North Carolina being forced to repeal the most controversial aspects of HB 2 under pressure from the NCAA, Im confident that well see somebut fewerred-state legislatures really push for bathroom bills. Theyre political losers and money drainersand everyone in elected office knows that by now.

Tim Teeman: Id like to share your optimism, but Roy Moore supplies a harsh correctivefor me anyway. In the celebrations that followed his defeat at the hands of Doug Jones in the Alabama Senate race, some difficult questions were left hanging.

Moore was a candidate whose rampant homophobiahis actual desire to see discrimination enacted against millions of LGBT Americans, his desire to see prejudice and discrimination enshrined in lawwent mostly unchallenged and unquestioned. Only on the last day of the race did Jake Tapper of CNN ask his spokesman whether Moore believed homosexuality should be illegal (the answer: Probably).

This was a shameful and telling omission by the media. The depressing footnote to Moores loss is that extreme homophobia itself is not a disqualification for a political candidate in 2017. Active homophobia was seen as a valid mandate to hold by the modern Republican Party.

Moore was only too happy to hold it close even in defeat, as he showed by posting (on Facebook) Carson Jones, Doug Jones gay sons, post-election interview with The Advocate. It was a sly attempt to stir up anti-gay poison. Politicians like Moore are thankfully fewer and fewer in number, but homophobia and transphobia are still a major currency in this White Houseand that Trump and other of Moores high-profile Republican supporters dont see it as a disqualifying characteristic tells us something very sad and alarming indeed.

Since ordinary gays are now not so novel, Hollywood's search for novelty is causing them to explore stories of people of color, rural folks, genderqueer folks, and other people who aren't Will or Grace

Jay Michaelson: I am putting most of my hopes outside the machinery of the state. Hollywood told some beautiful queer stories in 2017; I hope this expands and continues in 2018. A decade ago, when I was a professional activist, we had it drilled into us that the number one factor in someone "evolving" on any particular LGBTQ issue was knowing someone who was L, G, B, T, or Q. And if they didn't have firsthand knowledge, media figures counted too.

So, while the Republican party caters to its Christian Right base, I hope that continued media visibility makes them pay for doing so. There's a nice irony too: since ordinary gays are now not so novel, Hollywood's search for novelty is causing them to explore stories of people of color, rural folks, genderqueer folks, and other people who aren't Will or Grace. That might not be for the best motive, but the consequences could be profound.

Tim Teeman: Then we have the 'wedding cake' case at SCOTUS, which you have written about Jay. That seems currently going in favor of the baker refusing to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. This isn't just about a wedding cake, of course, but providing a signal that discrimination based on "beliefs" is OK, which can be used against LGBT people in so many contexts.

Samantha Allen: Im afraid the Trump administrations attacks on the LGBT community will continue to be so persistent and so piecemeal that they will continue to get shuffled to the side. This past month, we were stunned when the Washington Post reported that the CDC had been discouraged from using the term transgender in preparing their annual budget, but if people had been paying closer attention to Trumps appointments in the Department of Health and Human Services and other federal agencies, this wouldnt have been a surprise.

We cant afford to pretend anymore like these are stunningly cruel attacks that come out of nowhere: leaders of anti-LGBT groups regularly walk the White House halls, they wield tremendous influence right now, and the administration is quietly giving them what they want.

Im worried that, with so many other scandals dominating the headlines, the systematic erosion of LGBT rights will continue to fly under the radar

Trumps tweets on transgender military service created a media shockwave, but that moment aside, the administrations attacks on LGBT people in 2017 have been considerably less flashy: amicus briefs filed to the Supreme Court, tinkering with executive orders, adjusting the Department of Justices approach to transgender students. All of these perniciously subtle attacks have taken place against a cultural backdrop of continuing bigotry and violence: In the last year, for example, at least 28 trans people have been killed, most of them transgender women of color.

Tim Teeman: I think one of the things the U.S. would do well to figure out (he said vainly) is the separation of Church and State. The Religious Right has such a grip on the levers of power here, in certain states and in certain administrations like President Trumps which is greatly relying on the bedrock of its support. LGBT people, activists and groups are facing a traumatic 2018, as the far right of the Republican support seeks to shore up support around Trump, and trans people especially are especially vulnerable in such an atmosphere.

Jay makes a good point: at a time when the Right seeks a ratcheting up of the LGBT culture war, LGBT people and their straight allies working in the culture at large should work to put a wide diversity of LGBT lives and characters into that culture, whether it be TV, film, literature, art, or whatever. Actual LGBT presence will be vital in 2018.

If this global backlash isn't stopped, queer people will be murdered, arrested, targeted, stigmatized, and forced to leave their countries (and then denied refugee status) in numbers we have never seen before

Samantha Allen: The death of a thousand blows of LGBT rights under Trump is only going to continue in 2018, and Im worried that, with so many other scandals dominating the headlines, the systematic erosion of LGBT rightsa phenomenon thats directly affecting at least 4 percent of the U.S. population and 7 percent of millennialswill continue to fly under the radar.

Thatd be like the Trump administration deciding one day that everyone in the state of Pennsylvania didnt deserve human rightsand it somehow not being front-page news every single day until it got fixed.

Jay Michaelson: My greatest fear for 2018 is on a somewhat macro-scale. The rise of nationalism, nativism, and right-wing populism around the world is terrifying. On one level, it's an understandable backlash against globalization, multiculturalism, and technology: people unable or unwilling to change are clinging to old identities and myths. But it's also profoundly dangerous, and queers are just one population endangered by it. It's not to be taken lightly.

Already we've seen the United States retreat from the whole concept of human rights, giving carte blanche to murderous anti-LGBTQ elements in Russia, Egypt, Chechnya, Indonesia, and elsewhere.

In 2018, the US will practically zero out its aid to vulnerable LGBT populations around the world. At the UN as elsewhere, America is now allied with Putin's Russia, in this case withdrawing protection from LGBT people and instead defending the oppression of us.

But this is just the beginning. If this global backlash isn't stopped, queer people will be murdered, arrested, targeted, stigmatized, and forced to leave their countries (and then denied refugee status) in numbers we have never seen before.

Figure out some way to help those who dont have as much, or who are especially politically and culturally vulnerable, and who could do with support. Give money, volunteer, whateverdo what you can

Tim Teeman: On that basis, LGBT people and their allies with any time, money, commitment and energy might think about involving themselves with activism and campaigning for organizations like The Trevor Project, HRC, Anti-Violence Project, National Center For Transgender Equality, GLSEN, PFLAG, OutRight Action International, and groups in their local area. If they don't want to do something overtly political, then maybe figure out a way to help those who dont have as much, or who are especially vulnerable, and who could do with supportwhether that be financial and pastoral.

If you need inspiration, look to Nathan Mathis who wasn't going to let Roy Moore winor lose at it turned outin Alabama without shaming him over his homophobia; and without remembering, in the most moving way possible, his dead lesbian daughter, Patti Sue.

Listen to, and be inspired by, the stirring stories of those from times when things were not just bleak but political progress and cultural evolution seemed alien and utterly distant. Eric Marcus has distilled, and continues to distill, amazing interviews with the likes of Sylvia Rivera and Frank Kameny, conducted for his landmark book Making Gay History: The Half-Century Fight For Lesbian and Gay Equal Rights, into a must-listen podcast.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-fight-for-lgbt-equality-in-2018-will-be-fierce

from Viral News HQ http://ift.tt/2Eudf8o via Viral News HQ

#IFTTT #Viral News HQ