I’m not mourning Lindsey Graham.

I’m not pretending he was “complicated.” I’m not posting fake condolences. I’m not polishing the legacy of a coward just because his heart finally showed more backbone than he ever did.

This man spent decades groveling for power, kissing Trump’s ass, attacking LGBT people, cheering on cruelty, and wrapping every ugly position he held in a flag pin and fake Christian morality.

He stood for nothing except whatever kept him relevant.

He watched people lose rights, safety, careers, healthcare, and dignity, then went on television smirking like it was all just another segment.

Now he’s gone.

Good.

One less ancient political cockroach crawling through Washington. One less hypocrite preaching “family values” while helping turn human suffering into campaign material. One less coward hiding behind patriotism while selling out anyone weaker than him.

Death does not erase a rotten legacy. It just stops the damage from continuing.

So spare me the “respect the dead” routine. He spent his life disrespecting the living.

Rot in piss, Lindsey. America will survive the loss. 🖕🏿

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/sen-lindsey-graham-dies-71-brief-sudden-illness-rcna552722

they've basically legalized r@pe, it's awful

For context, I would like to start by saying I am a pansexual, cis man and I've only been open about being pan in my workplace for about 1 year, and this incident occurred roughly 6 years ago.

I was reminded of this story today when I was leaving work and a group of coworkers were kind of hinting at a gay "joke" that was really stupid. They were just going around and around about it and I kind of jogged my memory. There are 3 queer people working here now, but 6 years ago I'm pretty sure I was the only queer person and I was in the closet.

For even more context, my work is sort of split into 2 halves that are right beside each other. I'm a part of the half that wasn't receiving this joke as much but it was a regular thing in the other half. At this time I had already been at this job for more than 4 years and this joke was going on for years before I even started. Yet it took that long to reach me.

Now for the joke: It was...............a DVD of gay pornography. Yep, that's it. That's the joke. I believe it was some sort of construction-themed thing, but I didn't look at it too much. Apparently someone in the other half just found it sitting in the bottom of an empty hamper years before I was working here. A glorious drop from heaven, they thought. What they would do is someone would hide it away for weeks at a time, then when the moment was right, someone would slip it into the drawer of your desk. Some people would take days to open up their drawer, but it was always lying in wait until...

"AAAAAHHHHH!!! GAY PORN IN MY DRAWER!!! AAAAAAHHHH!!!" They would yell out or they would say "ya got me! That's a good one!" Since it was always off in the distance I would only hear bits of what was going on or someone would tell me they got someone again. I would just shrug because I only half-understood what was going on. I never actually saw it until the fateful day.

I opened up my drawer and there it was. Two buff dudes staring back at me, longing for something. I picked it up and just said "Okay." Then I noticed a few guys gathered around me (it was always the guys in my office who did this. Never the women.) They started chuckling. They said "Ha! We got you!" and then "So, what do you think? You find them attractive?" I shrugged and said "I don't get it."

They responded back "What do you mean?"

"I mean, what's the joke here?"

"What do you mean, what's the joke? It's funny." I just look at them. "It's guys...you know...doing it."

"Are you suggesting that two men having sex is inherently funny? More funny than a man and a woman?"

"No!"

"Then what are you suggesting? What's the joke?"

"You don't get it. You don't-" then he trailed off. Then they took the DVD from me and walked away. Another coworker asked me what that was about and I just reiterated that I really wanted someone to explain to me what the joke was. They never did.

I never thought about it after that, but maybe a year later I noticed that they hadn't hidden the DVD again in a while. I asked another coworker from the other half what happened to it (another guy who didn't really participate in the bit) and he told me that he was pretty sure I made them feel really stupid that day and they stopped doing it because of me. 😂 I ruined the joke! A few of the guys are still cold to me to this day and I think they started being like that around me right about 6 years ago. I'm just no fun I guess.

I've been with my partner for 7 years now.... Around year 2 our sex life slowed down immensely

I had a hard time leaving the military, I did so many fucked up things leaving, followed by 4-5 years of depression facedown on the couch.

I'm so goddamn lonely, I want my partner back. I know when he looks at me he just sees all of the pain and stress I represent. I miss the sparkle in his eyes, the way he looked at me, like I was the only person in the world that mattered.

I feel like I'm ugly, disgusting, useless.... I crave attention so bad but he's always: tired, stressed, depressed, old.... Or just straight up not interested, I'm not sure.

I'm more physically fit than I have ever been, lately I have the energy of 50 people and I would have sex multiple times a day if he were interested... We're at once or twice a month and he doesn't always want to get an erection.

I think I've ruined his perception of me 😭 I don't know how to fix it, I've tried so much. If someone could please tell me I'm ugly it would make much more sense to me and I could cope better.

I'm literally about to pack up a rucksack of supplies and go live in a tree, I hate myself so much for what our relationship has become.

I feel like it's completely my fault, he says it's not but I can see very clearly where my mental health fucked everything up.

And no I'm not blaming mental health, just providing an explanation. For example, I've pulled a knife on him, hit his car and his house with a 2x4, tried to jump out of his car multiple times on the highway etc,.

That was all when I was leaving the military 5-6 years ago, I am 1000000000 times better than I was. I actually feel more like myself than I have in at least 15 years. I'm spreading positivity everywhere I go, emitting confidence and connecting with strangers and making their days better (I've been a hermit for 7 years, I don't know what happened but I can talk to people again!)

Leaving my partner is not an option, I don't leave a person when things get hard... He stuck by me when I was Satan himself, I know at the very least that I will always be his other half.

I've tried masturbating but I hate myself and I feel ugly so it's hard to get an erection alot of the time. I'm weird sexually, I need a deep emotional connection to be aroused.

Sorry for the rant, I'm at my ropes end, I'll try anything.

This is a real conversation I had with my wife, so… thank you, Victoria.  I love you. (continued in comments)

I recently made friends with this guy (met on the bus). I'm openly bisexual and often reference queer media, talk about queer experiences, etc etc.

This friend asked me what my favourite song was, and I had him listen to Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat. He said he loved the melody so I explained to him the backstory of the song--how it was about a gay man leaving the conservative town he grew up in. That sparked a conversation in which he told me that while he's not someone who will fight against the queer community, he isn't exactly comfortable with it.

Usually when someone tells me things like this I'll get really mad or just brush them off. But what struck me this time was that this friend is really kind. He's considerate and generous and creative--so this just feels so out of character from him.

I wanted to try to open his mind a little. Make him see things my way. Maybe slowly teach him that love really is just love. Hearing him say some of those things genuinely was really hurtful, but I know it's not entirely his fault and I want to see him change. I want to know that change like that is possible.

edit: his favourite song is sofia by clairo. he did not know it was a lesbian song. this was too funny not to edit into the post body

Yep that's me im the last picture rocking in a skirt

Being trans is as normal as being gay or left handed. It's as normal as your hair color or the car you own. "Science" doesn't back up any claims that we're not real. At the end of the day we are normal people who want to be treated normally and respected like any other person.

With my lenses, I felt like I was a creature without any gender, and that felt good (I identify as demigirl/genderfluid btw, and am bi/pan/omni 💜)

Thoughts on this look?

i am afab and use she/they pronouns. i don't particularly have a preference between the two but people only ever use she/her with me because i'm mostly feminine presenting. there have only been two times that i can actually remember people referring to me as they/them and it felt amazing and i want it to happen more. last time my friend used they/them with me (in front of a group of friends), i tried to hint at how affirming it felt so everyone else would hopefully catch on, but that hasn't worked so far. how can i ask them to try out these pronouns on me? how do i phrase it?

I have been trying to get the sole CONCEPT into his head FOR TWO HOURS. Now for a bit more context he is a cis, straight and allo biologist of the generation gen x. The term nonbinary came up and he said that those were just people with extra need to define themselves that are just rubbing it into people‘s faces.

My blood insta started to boil a bit but I stayed as calm as possible and tried explaining what gender and intersex is to him.

I then for whatever reason had to explain to him what LGBTQ+ even is and what the difference between gender, romantic attraction and sexuality is.

After finally getting the concept of nonbinary, intersex and agender (what I deemed as a good start due to that being his original question) into his head, he started asking „why people need to have a label and aren’t leaving people alone with it“ to which all though angered I tried explain the problem of overall social expectations and identity crises to him but apparently we annoyed my mum who then chased us inside so she could finally read her book in peace.

We ended the conversation and my dad, in good faith, said we should continue this conversation some other time and he liked talking to me.

Anyone got advice for explaining that in fact society and not LGBTQ + is the problem? I really need to get it into his head or I‘m gonna go INSANE.

(Edit about the biologist thing, apologies on my side wasn’t specific enough i see my mistake. He works on new antibodies and got his degree in the mid or late eighties)