As you likely know I am a big supporter of the Mastadon platform. You can always find me there on https://mastodon.online/@FionaDobson My friends there have drawn my attention to a way to assist Zooey Zephyr.
You can support her work here – https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mastodonforzooeyandmissouladems I encourage you to get behind her in true Fiona Dobson style and give her something to smile about. When I mentioned that to Sylvester he made some lewd suggestion. He really can be quite coarse at times!
My support for Zooey is not only a salute to her courage, it is also a reminder that rights are not given. They are won. Zooey is out there winning battles daily and it’s a never ending task. She deserves our support.
So, if you have a spare dollar be smart, make a difference and let’s give Zooey one.
Rep. Zooey Zephyr, D-Missoula, alone on the House floor stands in protest as demonstrators are arrested in the gallery Monday in the Montana State Capitol in Helena Thom Bridge / Independent Record via AP
Montana House Republicans voted Wednesday to censure Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a Democrat and Montana’s first transgender state legislator. The vote came roughly a week after Zephyr told lawmakers they would have blood on their hands if they supported a measure to restrict gender-affirming care for minors and two days after she was accused of inciting protesters in the chamber.
An icon of British Television, this is what all those GOP losers are so afraid of with their relentless attacks on drag acts. Barry Humphries was a great performer and wit. I was lucky enough to meet him in Vancouver years ago. What joy he brought.
A formative influence upon myself, he hails from Australia, as my mother did. Dame Edna was a feature of TV entertainment throughout my childhood. Enjoy Dame Edna’s performance in Montreal below.
Barry Humphries leaves a legacy of comedy and of dignity. Those who speak against drag performance show only their own sad ignorance.
Photo credit: Germany’s national football team cover their mouths in protest against FIFA’s ban on the ‘One Love’ LGBTQ+ armband during the World Cup in Qatar | Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images
I’ve just posted on my Patreon tier called ‘Behind the scenes with Fiona’. In the wake of yet another shooting in the US it can seem hard to find the joy. Join my tier for my most intimate thoughts.
Sylvester is watching me post this. He’s reading back that last paragraph and sniggering. He really can be quite coarse, you know.
“And on today… Trans Day Of Remembrance…we have even more to mourn.” – Lenni
I try to keep things light on here, but following the tragedy in Colorado Springs I had to post something. With 5 dead and 25 wounded we have much to think about.
I was very sad to see what was happening at twitter a couple of weeks ago, so I wrote this piece. Jules Sanderson recorded it and it went live 10 days ago.
According to the news this morning it now seems like a prophesy. Have a listen.
I have a dear friend who is lesbian. She grew up in a conservative place where being âdifferentâ would earn you a good kicking from kids of her age, and likely from some adults too. She did however have a supportive mother and she found her way.
I have another friend who ran away from their home when it became obvious that she was trans. I say, âit became obviousâ because their body was so obviously feminine, though through a convention of biology and naming she was assigned male gender at birth. Sheâs as feminine as any woman I know but for a minor anatomical quirk.
And of course I know a host of people who as they understood themselves better realised there was an enormous part of themselves that they had suppressed, doing their best to conform to societal norms and denying much of their nature. The fear of being outcasts is a powerful thing, even in the 21st century.
My lesbian friend has phrased it very well. She says, âWe donât raise our own young.â Itâs not far fetched to say that the archetypal emo teen that flees an abusive home, misunderstood by their family and hometown, who ends up on the street in a big city â often homeless and friendless â is far from a meaningless trope. Itâs practically a template for how some of us have rejected and been rejected by society. It all sounds painfully tragic.
But wait⊠As my friend points out, eventually â with a little luck – those âoutsidersâ gravitate to others, and by some miracle find people who are like themselves. It can look a little odd to others, but somehow they find their people, or what we used to call âour tribeâ. Whether itâs the âgaybourhoodâ or friends within the âqueerspaceâ, there are ways to connect with others. We find our way. And we grow.
As we do so we learn to support others like ourselves in whatever way we can. And suddenly there is something akin to family. Perhaps we donât raise our own young, but they do find us and we can nurture them everyday in ways both direct and indirect.
Today we lost one of our own. Sophie was an amazing artist. A creative soul any family should treasure, even one so diverse and dispersed as our own. Letâs take a moment today to appreciate our sister.
Sophie died at 4 a.m. local time on 30 January 2021 at home in Athens, Greece.] According to their UK label, Transgressive, Sophie’s death was caused by slipping and falling while climbing to watch the full moon.
