Hi, I'm Kuzann(she/her) and I do writing and art. 👋 I tend to drift around to various fandoms every so often, but I do like to revisit to those I've been in before.
All reblogs that are not mine are tagged with #reblog.
I'm already seeing advice from people in the US to purchase queer books and other banned or "controversial" books on paper as a way to combat the wave of government censorship that is coming. While this is a good idea (it is! absolutely!), it's not accessible to everyone, and truly, we're not going to be able to consumerism our way out of this one.
If you can buy the books, do. Whether you can buy the books or not, borrow them from your library.
Borrow the paper versions. Borrow the ebook or audiobook versions. Request the titles you want that your library doesn't have. The more a title circulates or is requested, the better librarians are going to be able to defend keeping it if and when it's ever challenged.
Use libraries like @queerliblib too. The more members they have, the better they'll be able to fundraise.
Your community resources depend on you using them. Borrow the books before they go away.
InB4: Piracy is not the solution here. We're trying to keep community resources available, not make sure individual people can read individual books. Different problems.
The books are still available. Borrowing them from your library and returning them on time and in good condition will help keep them that way.
This this this!
Libraries and librarians are going to be under attack in the coming years.
Please help us by showing the people in charge that these materials are important in the only way they really understand - the number of checkouts.
We need your help now more than ever.
For some additional context, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is the primary funding mechanism for libraries on a national level. It distributes grants to State Libraries (every state has one, though it may not be called exactly that) who then distribute that money further to individual libraries in their states. It's a federal entity that has to be reauthorized every year or that huge chunk of funding goes away, and every year of the first Trump administration the fight for reauthorization was a white-knuckle event. We got it through by the skin of our teeth each year, but it was harrowing.
Libraries are mentioned on page one of Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership (the big book of horrible policy plans). Choosing not to reauthorize the IMLS will be an easy way for the incoming administration to gut library services nationwide, especially in small communities that don't have a thriving donor base to fill those budget gaps. They'll be able to stop the "porn peddlers" and "groomers" at the cost of vital services to those communities.
One of the best tools we have to try and avoid that outcome is to prove, definitively, that libraries matter by presenting robust use statistics. Checking out books, using library spaces, attending library programs, all of that gets captured and reported to the IMLS each year. They're imperfect measures of the value the library provides to the community, but they're what we have.
At the local level it's going to be just as, if not more important to educate the community about what the library does. Your local governing authorities aren't going to be persuaded by the librarian alone, but they can be persuaded by vocal community support. That will also inoculate your community against "grassroots" attempts to shut the library down, like almost happened in Dayton, Washington in 2023.
To bring it back around to OP's original point, the imperfect nature of the stats gathered can work in libraries' favor on both fronts. It might actually be detrimental to present record-breaking circulation numbers for queer titles to the incoming administration, but the IMLS doesn't collect that level of detail. Any book you check out adds to the bottom line total that gets reported, queer or not. At the local level librarians have more control over the stories they tell with their data. If you're in a progressive community, they can be open with those more granular numbers as a way to underscore their importance as a resource to queer community. If you're in a conservative community they can lean on the bigger picture to show the impact on everyone, while knowing internally what materials are actually circulating and how best to curate the collection to serve their patrons.
Also, one more thing: if your state has a book sanctuary law in progress, contact your state reps in support of it! New Jersey just passed ours right under the wire a couple of weeks ago, and it makes it extremely difficult to ban or even challenge a book in New Jersey now. We're one of the safest states to be a librarian in right now and we're going to protect your materials no matter what we have to do.
Illinois is also a book sanctuary state. I believe right now those are the only two states, but there can and hopefully will be others. In the meantime, a lot of individual towns and cities are also becoming book sanctuaries, so if yours is working towards that help them out if you can, even if it's just spreading the word or writing to city hall!
all of these campaigns have been vetted by mohammed ayesh, who helps run @gaza-evacuation-funds. all of these campaigns are in dire need of our support; please consider donating to even one of them!
mohammed zaatar was severely injured by shrapnel last year, and is now displaced with his family and in need of our help to afford basic necessities. €458 / €30,000 GOFUNDME HERE * mohammed mabruk is in europe, separated from his family who are trapped in gaza and unable to reach them. he is trying to raise the funds necessary to evacuate them, but in the meantime your donation will allow them to buy daily necessities. €350 / €35,000 GOFUNDME HERE * reema and her husband ragheb and five year old son taim have been displaced more than six times and are struggling to provide themselves with their daily needs. your donation will help them as winter approaches, please consider contributing. €2,071 / €50,000 GOFUNDME HERE * eman has helped mohammed ayesh, who helps run gaza-evacuation-funds, by translating many posts into english for our benefit. she does this despite being displaced and living in unimaginably difficult conditions. please consider helping her and her family, as she does so much to help others. $6,700 CAD / $50,000 CAD GOFUNDME HERE * imad is raising funds for his family, who are displaced in gaza and living in woefully inadequate shelter. your donation will help them afford food, water, medicine and winter clothes and shelter. €1,319 / €30,000 GOFUNDME HERE * qusai atef and his family have been displaced from their home in northern gaza, and are now completely lacking in basic necessities. they need to purchase winter clothes and other supplies. please consider helping them. NO DONATIONS YET! GOFUNDME HERE * rania is a talented artist and a geographic information systems graduate. she is raising funds to support her and her family. because they are in northern gaza, they are in particular need of your donations to afford food and water, as we know supplies have been cut off for a long time, and people are facing starvation. please consider donating to rania's paypal, as this will allow her to access the funds she and her family needs more easily. €3,508 / €60,000 PAYPAL HERE GOFUNDME HERE please, please consider donating to at least one of these campaigns! it is important that we get momentum going, so please share and reblog. i hope we can all work together to help these families as much as we can!
im seeing a lot of "queer people dont kill yourselves" posts and yes, i agree but also poc folks dont kill yourselves. you're needed in this space just as much as the white folks are. we will get through this hand in hand together
people getting mad at this post have missed the point entirely. believe it or not, not every poc is queer!! and whether you guys have intended to or not, poc are frequently excluded from conversations just like this!! and this post proves it b/c as soon as i mentioned poc people got all up in arms!! the point of this post was to point that out!! my god!! poc are going to be affected the worst!! you need to especially keep them in your thoughts regardless of if they're queer or not!!!
hello again (bill clinton limewire voice) my fellow americans
There are a few states that actually have Shield/Refuge laws designed to help trans people fleeing from trans-unsafe states, which also guarantee trans folks access to healthcare. These states are:
Additionally, some states have "trans sanctuary" executive orders signifying safety for trans folks seeking healthcare. These states are:
Living as a resident in these states means you are protected by state's rights and state government to continue or begin receiving trans healthcare. These laws have been codified in their states so everything has been a-ok'd by their state governments.
Stay alive. You got this. I love you.
Black folx don't get caught slippin. Crosscheck this list with these maps made by and thoroughly researched by tougaloo college.
They're a map of sundown towns across the u.s. one is interactive. also, side note, if you know a sundown town that isn't on there, please contact them and they will follow up on it.
I was contacted by @khadigayousef2024 to make a post for Majd, his baby, to be saved. Majd has a very severe respiratory illness. He is unable to breathe well anymore and desperately needs treatment, which he can obviously not get while he and his parents are still stuck in Gaza.
Their campaign has been vetted, it's the campaign #143 in this spreadsheet.
They're at 90% of their total goal! Please, let's save this innocent child and his parents from all the horrors of this genocide and give this little angel a chance to survive with appropriate medical treatment!!
Hi everyone, it feels weird making a post this personal but my boyfriend has been through so much this year and needs help paying for some vet bills. Both of his cats had previous owners who gave him incomplete medical histories and it's taken heartbreak and visits to a good number of different vets to fill in the missing pieces. We're doing the best we can to cover all their medical expenses but now that we have a more complete picture of all the treatments they'll need we need help, he needs help. If you can spare anything or just share this it would mean so much.
The masks are off.
Remember: you cannot fix everything. If you try, you will spread yourself too thin and burn yourself out. Pick one or two things to devote yourself to. Someone else will pick the other things, and together we will carry it all.
i’ve seen multiple people say something along the lines of “we’re waking up in the same world we lived in yesterday” which is bleak but also true; there was going to be work to do no matter what. this is the much worse and harder version of that work but even if harris won it would not have fixed the fundamental things that need fixing. i mean, fuck, it would’ve been the better outcome, but the work would still be there. many of the things people fear under trump happened and are happening under biden. we’ll just have more battles to fight.
i think about the progressive mobilization and radicalization that happened 2016-2020; it shouldn’t have to happen like this but we deserve better than a two-party system, and one half of that system was never going to save us. we will always have to do what we can for ourselves and each other 💛
on this note, i just read this article and found it both helpful and comforting—it’s good to be reminded there are people who have been preparing for this, and also that history has plenty of lessons and hope for us.
everyone says join your local mutual aid groups and build community, but uh, what do you do if a lot of them seem to have dissolved and the other ones don't have consistent recurring meetings.
this is real, and it's a thing that a lot of people are going to run into in the fact of calls to "get involved," especially if they're people who haven't been deeply involved in their communities before. so here's what I can share:
I rambled about this in tags on another post but I can’t emphasize enough how only focusing on large-scale issues WILL lead to hopelessness & burnout. Activism must include small-scale, achievable works. If you don’t have something you can get your hands around and look at directly, despair will eat you alive.
I want to elaborate here for people who don’t think they’re capable of practical activism due to disability: what a LOT of volunteer groups need most is clerical and logistical support. Maybe you can’t get down to the river to pick up trash, but how about working the sign-up table? Or sending out email reminders or creating promotional graphics? How about making calls to the city to get funds for supplies?
Many volunteer groups rely on retired people to run their day-to-day functions, so as the economy worsens and retirement ages go up, charities are feeling the squeeze as their aging participants aren’t replaced. If you’re unable to work full-time due to disability but have the means to attend a zoom meeting once a month and take minutes, there’s an activist group that needs you. If you don’t have the financial means to donate to charities you care about, there’s a local advocacy group that needs help deciding how to allocate donation funds.
If you’re not sure how you or your disability can fit into a group, call and ask. My prison book group works from a basement that isn’t wheelchair accessible, so when I was unable to do stairs last year, I built them a database.
You can help and you are needed.
please reblog the fundraisers you see on your dash. please. if you claim to care about palestine, NOW is the time to prove it. everyone said gaza will be worse off if trump wins - well, now he has. the least anyone can do now is reblog and share and DONATE to as many fundraisers as possible. especially if you're american. you want harm reduction? this is harm reduction. help gazan families.
you can't decide where to start?
pick a name. any name. read their story. realize that what you feel now, they feel everyday, a thousandfold. donate whatever you can. at the very least, reblog if you can't.
there is no excuse not to.
If at all possible, grow your own food. Agent Orange will do everything he can to wipe out safety regulations. It why deadly infections, like listeria, are happening so often.
His tariffs will raise the prices even further.
Group gardens exist in many regions. Patio/balcony gardens are an option some of you may want to consider. Grow your food in garden tower planters to grow more in smaller spaces. Don't have anything more than a window with shifty lighting? A sunlamp or growing light set up over an I door vertical garden may be be an option.
Potatoes and other root vegetables do very well in large buckets, like those five or ten gallon types. You can make your own seed potatoes and onions just by purchasing some potatoes at the grocery store and basically forgetting about them in your pantry and fridge. I accidentally grew a whole ass potato plant when I forgot about the bag of potatoes I had in my cabinet ages ago.
If you have a yard but terrible soil, a raised garden is a great option.
There are resources for this everywhere!
Gardening is most expensive when you begin, but after that? It gets much cheaper. Especially if you grow too much and sell the excess, though I do suggest donating the excess to local pantries and soup kitchens.
if you're feeling powerless right now—and god knows I am—here's a reminder you can donate to the National Network of Abortion Funds, the Trans Law Center, Gaza Soup Kitchen, the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, and hundreds of other charities that will work to mitigate the damage that has been and will continue to be inflicted
life continues. we still have the capacity to do good, important work. that matters
