vangoghsdaughter:

maneth985:

peachesfortodd:

incendavery:

we all deserve respect and dignity!!

to learn more, or to donate time/money to the cause, please visit freedommassachusetts.org

Hey everyone! I’m gonna talk a bit about this. I’m from MA and work/ed with the YES on 3 campaign for a couple months! There’s so much misconception in the public’s eye about this bill and I would like you all to start conversations with people about this! I worked as a canvasser hitting some liberal areas as well as some conservative areas that reminded me why we need to fight so hard for this. It’s hard to be on the activist side of things without becoming very aware of how in need of guidance the community is about anything to do with lgbtqia+ peoples or our lives. I’ve talked to supporters who had similar misconceptions to conservatives not realizing how toxic they could be to the community. I’ve learned so much about the local view of us through this campaign and I’m honestly still worried about November. Please, have these conversations. Push your friends to be in those voting booths. Even if you’re not gonna vote for a delegate and don’t want to vote on anything else, please save our community from a dangerous future. So let’s start the conversation.

One thing I realized when I was cavassing was that the people think that this is a new bill being introduced to give us ‘special privileges’, or they see it as a bathroom bill. They don’t know that this is about laws that have already been in place for some time now and that they’re there to protect us from discrimination in public places such as hospitals, parks, beaches, pubic transit and yes, bathrooms. These laws only protect us from discrimination.

I’ve heard from a good handful of people that they’ve heard recently that there are men putting on dresses and sexually assaulting women in bathrooms and they fear that this bill protects them from facing justice for these actions. You may think this sounds outrageous and you’re absolutely right. An incident like this hasn’t happened in recent history to my knowledge. When I first heard this I thought the public couldn’t believe something so absurd! But after hearing it several times within the same town street I started realizing why these conversations are so important. These people believe anything they hear on the news that induces fear. Talking about these fears and misconceptions; meeting people head on about this plants a seed of thought.

I know these conversations are difficult and I know that hearing such negativity can bring you down as a person and some days you might not have the spoons for it. It took a good toll on my mental health to hear what some of the public said about my existence specifically as well as the umbrella ideals they share about the trans and queer communities. One thing to remember is that even if you can’t reach them, the seed of thought is with them. They’ll remember your words, your conviction within them and your strength as you calmly stand your ground. That seed of thought will stay there and whatever they may say or believe, for a second you swayed them, even just a little. You don’t have to win each battle to find peace within a war. You can smile and say ‘thank you for your conversation today’. They will remember your gentle strength. They will remember. Start the conversation.

this is important. You know how many confirmed attacks of men who actually took the time to dress as women to specifically target women inside the bathrooms? ZERO. Men don’t even think about doing such thing when they can get away with it in other environments or in the bathroom itself without having to dress like a woman. A trans woman on the other hand is afraid of going to the girls bathroom and get yelled at, and in the man’s bathroom afraid to get beat up or raped to “fix her”. I for one don’t give a FUCK who goes to which bathroom, not everyone has more than one bathroom in their house, the stalls have doors, as long as you clean after youself, I don’t care which bathroom you use. It should be a non issue. 

But you know what I HAVE seen, and have been told by people who aren’t even trans? Men security guards at mall ENTERING a woman’s bathroom to ask, no, DEMAND for an ID. This is wrong for several reasons:  1) you’re a MAN entering a WOMAN’s bathroom, that right there screams irony. 2) in the case of a friend of mine SHE was a cis girl, androgenous. 3) noone should have to prove their identity to go PEE for fuck’s sake. So this whoe asking for IDs for protection or whatever? is bullshit, is to restrict public access to trans people, even people who simply don’t fit a binary standard, to force them into hiding, to humiliate them. To ask for a bathroom bill for PROTECTION of trans folks isn’t by any means a privilege, is a RIGHT, the right to EXIST, to BE, to LIVE freely. 

Seriously, please don’t think that just because it’s Massachusetts, everyone is super liberal and will vote yes. Folks made that mistake in the last midterm, which is why MA has a Republican governor right now. This is a contentious vote and it is the responsibility of each potential voter in MA to go vote on it to protect trans folks.

somewhere-inthe-deep:

freshmoviequotes:

The Dictator (2012)

FUCK.