Rebecca Davis posted on rebeccaldavisphdgmailcom.substack.com

Why "coming out" still matters

The founders of the GLF intentionally echoed the rhetoric of Black Power (“power to the people”) and of North Vietnamese resistance (“liberation front”) to Western imperialism, even as they called out other “oppressed groups” for discriminating against queer people rather than finding solidarity with them. Visibility was a radical proposition for queer Americans in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In encouraging people to “come out,” the GLF advocated for the transformation of a culture that not only presumed heterosexuality but too often forced queer people to conform.

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Shel Raphen posted 9 December 2024 on shelraphen.com

Community Roundup Week of 2024.10.06–11

I pass for cisgender perhaps 75% of the time. I have very good health insurance through my union, and in the near future I could get facial feminization surgery. I would easily pass and could go stealth and assimilate into heterosexuality. I could be inoffensive and demure, only quietly transsexual when relevant, and distance myself from the trans community that has supported me to where I am in my life today. My unusually high number of gay male friends could be attributed to being a faghag beloved by GBFs like I'm Grace of the eponymous Will & Grace. I could rename my blog to "The Millennial Chofetz Chaim" and edit and delete every post about being trans. I could make myself someone appealing to the lowest common denominator of men.

But is rejection of who I am really the path to happiness? Is the love of a man worth more than the gift I have been given by HaShem of being transsexual?

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This post is by now a bit late for National Coming Out Day, but I did enjoy Dr. Davis's history of its observance and the political background of the concept of "coming out" and I particularly appreciated Shel's additions. She considers her experience specifically as a straight trans woman, the value of being out to her, and its value to the community. It feels a little silly to repost a link roundup, but this is definitely one worth reading!

I'm the guy they hire to come up to the protagonist and make weird, vaguely threatening faces at them when they first enter a new city or the underworld or whatever. just to emphasize that they're out of their depth. pay's shit and I'm always on call but what can I say I love the work

for not fully realizing until this week that they are distinct human beings. in my defense they are both blond white Canadian guys named Ryan. I am listening, I am learning, I am going back through every film I've ever seen with either of them and trying to figure out which was which

couldn't sleep so I made the long overdue switch from NewsBlur to Inoreader tonight. it's way better in every way except the way it handles email newsletters is substantially worse than what NewsBlur and Feedbin do. it requires a separate email for every feed, which is a massive pain in the ass if you're subscribed to forty patreons and you want a different feed for each one

Edit: augh actually it doesn't display feed tags either. that's actually a serious problem for me. fuck

my two hottest survival horror takes are:

• the "ink ribbon" style save economy is actually genius and totally changes the way the player approaches the game. it's a huge factor in what makes resource management so compelling in early Residents Evil

• fixed camera angles are worth every bit of the awkwardness of tank controls and more. I've only just started playing Silent Hill 2 and it's already going completely off the wall with the camera in a way that just wouldn't work if you had to adjust your heading every time it cut

neither of these should be in every game, or even every survival horror game—Silent Hill never used ink ribbons because it's not really about the resource mechanics in the first place and that's fine. but it's a tragedy that they've completely exited the modern design lexicon

Liz, while we're watching a movie: Woop woop! Matte painting! Matte paintining! WOOP WOOP! Matte painting alert!!!

I should write a novel about a depressed middle aged guy who's an English professor in a loveless marriage having a torrid affair with his stunningly attractive undergraduate student. like I just think it would be really funny for a polyamorous lesbian with a terrific wife to write one of those books

people say kids are easily amused but I think it's way more true for adults. I could go toe to toe with any child on appreciating the simple delight of a shiny rock or a colorful picture book, but I defy any six year old to fully savor the sublime joy of getting a new dryer that doesn't even need an external vent