Lokifan

I have been obsessing about this vote all week. It’s the only thing that could overcome FFXV stuff in my head. This weekend I’m a) moving, and b) seeing several friends I don’t see often c) at London Expo - aka a mini comic con - and then taking the week off. I SO NEED a holiday, and I’m gonna spend five days in Liverpool :D :D :D Staying with my biffle sodsta and seeing his delightful girlfriend S, and the beloved & much-missed creatoremagico and drazzi. Oh, plus I have to pack a bit, then move on Saturday, then unpack, do some laundry probably, and repack for Liverpool before we head off on Monday, while attempting to drink and get down with my bad self as much as possible. So I have lots to think about! Most of it good, if busy.

BUT OH MY GOD. Abortion is illegal - including in cases of rape, incest, and serious fetal abnormalities - and punishable by fourteen years in prison in Ireland, which is completely fucking ridiculous. And today that might change.

I hope everyone remembers Savita, a woman who died in 2012 because the hospital she was at refused to give her an abortion. (They told her ‘this is a Catholic country’ as she was dying; she was Hindu, and the baby had no chance to live anyway.) Her father and widower have both spoken out during the campaign.

My cousin Jacksparrow regularly hosts Irish & Northern Irish people who’ve come over for abortions. I donate to a charity she works with, that helps defray travel and accommodation costs. The most common reason to have an abortion is that you can’t afford it, so having to travel internationally, take time off, and get accommodation - all within a limited time - is obviously a real problem. An estimated 170 000 women have left Ireland for an abortion since 1983.

They’re the lucky ones, in many ways, of course. Especially the ones who can have someone with them, to help take care of them afterwards. Up to 2000 women take the abortion pill a year - and that’s bought online, so it can be hard to trust, and sometimes Customs will seize them.

Northern Irish people will still be completely fucked over, of course. There are women being prosecuted there; the UN has said it’s an abuse of human rights. It’s a scandal and a shame, that abortion rights are so hideously limited in my own country [meaning within the UK]. But I was at a protest over this a few months ago and there seemed to be some hope that an Irish repeal of the eighth would help.

Okay, this post has lost any internal structure it may have had, but I can’t help it. NOT THE CHURCH, NOT THE STATE, WOMEN* MUST DECIDE THEIR FATE



* & others who can get pregnant

CW for discussion of suicide

I’m. Ugh. I understand they mean it helpfully, but I wish people wouldn’t say “it's not personal” when talking about bigoted views. Maybe it’s not personal for those bigots, or the people who mean that kindly but as a reason I should be calmer about it all; but IT IS FOR ME. They want me, personally, to not have full rights over my body or as a citizen; it is my actual personal friends who would lose access to protection and life-saving healthcare. IT IS PERSONAL FOR ME.

This particular example was on the subject of mental health care, and queer people, and the 48% of trans people who have attempted suicide. And me thinking about the trans people I know and love, and/or like and respect, and totting up numbers. Thinking about the people I might have known and loved if they hadn’t killed themselves before I could.

IT IS PERSONAL.

Day 14
Go forth and commit an act of kindness. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it, tell us about it if you’re comfortable doing so.

I thought I’d do one of the missing Snowflake Challenges, since the mods assure us there’s no hard deadline. And I’m going to count something I did today. I went to the anti-Trump Women’s March here in London. It was great: a really positive atmosphere, despite the angst of the thing and the fact that 15 000 to 25 000 people were expected to show up and it was actually 100 000.

On a personal note, I’m glad I did it because I immediately felt so much better than yesterday. Doing something helped a lot, as did the community aspect. Both my sisters and my mum were there, and I marched with the female cousin of mine who lives in London and two American friends of hers. YAY SISTERHOOD.

A Japanese tourist asked me what was happening. I said it was an anti-Trump women’s march, and he expressed confusion because “this is the UK” - and that’s the reason I’m counting this as an act of kindness, because I was able to explain it politely and also, thanks to my job, avoid using the English most native speakers don’t realise is difficult (i.e. phrasal verbs). It was helpful for me too, because I’m a measurable goals sort of person and this is the first demonstration I’ve been on that didn’t really have one? Not a shared one, anyway. Not least because while I know some disagree, I do not think Pence would be an improvement.

So I told him that it was in solidarity with American women, as well as brown & black & immigrant Americans. And that it was to express our public grief and anger. To push forward a little on myriad feminist & lefty causes closer to home - I saw Repeal The Eighth signs (re: the appalling lack of abortion rights for Irish & Northern Irish women) and tampon tax signs as well as anti-Brexit ones. To inflict what international pressure we can on Trump & Republicans, particularly given the British/American “Special Relationship” and Trump’s being a bit of an Anglophile. And that because Britain is significantly more left-wing than the US, the US has elected several presidents who kind of horrified Britons, most famously George W Bush. But this is on a new scale, and this is not normal. That was the most important reason, I realised as I was saying it. To show that This Is Not Normal.

( the signs were epic - more details here, photos on Tumblr )

I’m still crushed. Heartbroken and furious and frightened. And it’s not only about having Trump as the US President. Clinton deserves to be the American president. She’s flawed, of course - as we all are, and certainly every president has been. I have plenty of friends who consider those flaws a bigger problem than I do and I truly do understand those concerns; particularly for the more doveish I see why you wished she weren’t the nominee, although I think the idea that Sanders (or Johnson or Stein, holy fuck) would be a better president in actual reality where compromise is necessary to be fairly ludicrous. Still it doesn't make me like anyone less. But I am crushed that she won't be president. She’s fiercely intelligent, works so hard, had so many great and detailed plans of how to improve people’s lives. She’s the reason American trans people can change their gender on their passports, did you know that? She and her team never publicised it at the time - or even in the campaign afaik - because of concerns about backlash.

And it’s not just that. Hillary Clinton, genius workaholic and half of a power couple to lead a superpower, with all the money and support and every newspaper endorsement, the most qualified candidate the US has ever had, running against the least. And it still wasn’t enough. She even got more votes! By a hair, and yet… never to be a President Rodham. I am so sad.

The first woman to be US president, the most powerful person in the world - is she even born yet? Am I going to be middle-aged before that happens? Am I going to be retired?

(That’s if I can retire. The US sneezes and Europe catches a cold; between Brexit and Trump’s mad protectionism I am truly afraid of the economic changes to come.)

You voted for a fascist? Are you that fucking scared of powerful women?

I mean. Wow there’s still a bunch more to talk about on that front. (I had the most depressing first date ever on Wednesday, which was drinks with a black guy from Oklahoma. I mean the date itself was pretty fun, but wow.) But I just had to have a sad about Clinton losing (as opposed to Trump winning). I was planning the post in the back of my mind. Various celebratory gifs; Buffy smiling at the end of Chosen; and a title. The second President Clinton (President Rodham if you’re nasty.)

Bloke saw me checking bus timetable as I got off my bus at 2am, asked what I was looking for. I replied I was fine in the tone that the women reading this will definitely recognise: friendly because probably dude is harmless, polite because maybe he isn't, final because no more of this interaction please.

( cut due to some unfun scary stuff, though I am unharmed )




PS: Loncon has been great! I will post about that today or tomorrow. But I just had to express my OMG NO.

First off, before I get into the Alisha/Curtis stuff: Kelly remains adorable. I love the scene with her and Jody where they sit and are bald. Also, the final scene where Simon suggests they go for a drink is one of my favourite Kelly moments: Alisha is the first to leave, Curtis eagerly follows her, Nathan mocks him, and then Kelly both gives a great reason for not going and apologises. She is really genuinely compassionate.

( TW for ALL OF THE SEXUAL ASSAULT )

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Very interesting question. ‘Respect’ and ‘trust’ are fairly strong words; I can do both of those things irrespective of my political beliefs. I can’t admire people with certain views, at least not the way I do people without them.

I’m strongly against capital punishment, but it doesn’t colour my opinion of people if they disagree (although in Britain that’s unusual). I think they’re wrong, but I see it as people seeing the world differently, and that’s better than fine.

( On abortion things are slightly different. )