footprints on the moon

btw in spite of everything. at a small gay bar in a small town in the south last night people went up and did karaoke. and someone sang piano man and my friend had a harmonica in their pocket and whipped it out and started playing the opening riff, perfectly. and we all stood around them laughing and ruffling their hair and singing along. life goes on.

anyway my hot take is that the modern night-of live reporting model is bad and probably should be illegal. democracy is not a spectator sport and the fact that news outlets are allowed to exploit partial vote counts for ratings is ghoulish. there is nothing you can learn the night of a major election that has greater value than waiting the several days to a week that it will take, and always has taken, for the final vote totals to be established

Despite everything, a better world remains possible.

reasons.

Here is a skill that many of us are going to need for survival: how to tell if someone is offering to let you lie.

The tip-off phrase is "If [circumstance] was true, then we/I could do [helpful thing.]" This is not a guarantee that the person is offering, but it should tell you "I am being informed of a way to improve things."

Your confirmation phrase is "What documentation would that require?" This is essentially asking them "if people come asking me to prove this, will I be able to? Or will they not come at all?"

The answer you are hoping for with the confirmation phrase is "Just tell me if it's true, and I'll put it on the form." Note that this is not a direct instruction to lie, because they can't tell you that.

If they didn't mean to extend an offer to lie or this is a situation where they can't, then they'll list off something like your paystubs or your birth certificate. Your response back in that case is "Thanks, I'll tell my friends who qualify." This clears you of any concerns that you may have been considering lying.

The more complex answer is when they answer by giving you a form on the spot. Your job, in this case, is to scan the form and see if what they are asking you can be meaningfully verified by an official source.

Things that can be verified by an official source include, but are not limited to, your age, legal sex, income, veteran status, and place of residence. It's not generally a good idea to lie about these on official documents.

Be smart, and be practical. Do what you need to in order to stay alive, and keep an ear out for the people offering to help you do so.

girls I know this isn’t at the top of the concerns list but you’re gonna want to stop eating commercially produced meat real soon

this got more attention than I thought. if you’re confused:

he had promised to fully deregulate and privatize food safety inspections in his second term. this is to favor massive producers and reduce their costs at the expense of public health and safety. the reason why I make immediate mention of this is because anything that can be construed as “culture war” makes the news and everyone finds out about. these things, however, happen quietly because they aren’t sensational stories for the media to profit off of clicks with. the recent numerous recalls can be tied back to these first term rollbacks, which went over so quietly and discreetly no one demanded reinstatement during the Biden admin.

Before January 2025:

If you are a USAmerican in a relationship that might be affected by legislation that dissolves same-sex marriages, who may no longer be recognized as next-of-kin, especially if you have children, get your rights in writing!

Your marriage certificate may not be enough to prove you have rights to make medical decisions for non-biological children or for a same-sex spouse or partner.

Go to a lawyer, get it spelled out as clearly as possible that you have a voice in emergency medical and legal situations.

For those of us who aren’t lawyers or well-versed in law generally, can someone clarify what kind of document, by name, people should be drafting with their lawyers? Is it a type of letter, or is there a name for this classification of document? I’m aware that it probably varies by US state, but a lot of people are likely feeling extremely lost right now and don’t know where to start on this. I definitely don’t. I live in a state that isn’t likely to nullify existing marriages or prevent new ones from taking place, but who knows what they’re going to try at the national level and enforce from the top down.

Power of Attorney should cover most partners and spouses to ensure that they will be making each other's health care decisions in cases of serious illness. LGBTQ+ spouses and domestic partners must execute proper Health Care Power of Attorney documents listing each other as the highest priority agents for making each other's health care decisions in case of incapacity.

Here's a resource from GLAD.

Stockpile HRT now.

Edit: so a lot of people are trying to be "helpful" and point things out, so here's some thoughts.

Yes, testosterone is a controlled substance. Yes, there are limits to how much you can have in reserve.

Does anyone on T not know that?

I'm not encouraging you to do anything illegal. Know those limits or your own safety. Store as many doses as you feel comfortable with to weather your through 1 or 2 temporary lapses. Know your own safety and laws.

I get mildly irritated at people pointing this out over, and over, and over again, because do you think that people don't know? Do you think that people aren't scared? All you're doing is twisting the knife that my transmasc brothers don't have access to security in their medication. Are you pointing this out because you legitimately think they don't know, or because the mere thought of people doing things outside of the "proper" mechanisms gives you an ick?

The other point of clarification (that I have said several times) is that no, I do not think that we will be put in camps. I do not think HRT will be banned.

I almost know for certain, however, that there will be protracted legal battles and bureaucratic BS that will disrupt access in a very practical sense.

"Stockpile HRT" is not me being some kind of trans doomsday prepper expecting everything to fall down. It's me telling you that things are going to be okay, but they're going to be complicated and inconsistent, and if you're on medication that needs to be taken as a steady state, you need to be able to bridge those gaps.

And yes, as I have also posted several times, this applies to birth control as well.

I'm probably going to write a more thorough list of my thoughts and advice on the matter soon, but both of these are popping up way too much in my notes to go unaddressed.

Reblog this version, okay?

If you're trans and you don't have a passport, get one. right now. not in a month, not in a week, get started on it today.

I mean it.

Today.

This is the one thing that I would definitely do regardless of state. For those not in the know, a passport is the way to get an easy name or gender marker change onto your ID without a court battle, and that is highly dependent on the Federal administration.

Stockpile HRT now.

To my brothers on T I know this is gonna be harder for you so please listen up:

First, if your doctor is open to it, ask for the 2000mg/10ml vial, you'll need to be careful to keep it clean and free of contamination from the stopper, but the expiration dates will typically be a year plus. Please specify the 10ml vial and not a three month supply, the difference is minimal but important.

Next, have it sent to a busy, understaffed CVS (most of them are busy and understaffed). If your insurance doesn't cover CVS use GoodRx, at time of writing it should be about $50. Our system by default makes us mark the 10ml vial as a 28 day supply regardless of the dosage because we cannot guarantee a beyond use date beyond that (as I said, non-zero chance of contamination, use a 90 degree angle and a alcohol pad every time and you'll be fine). Only the most stickler of pharmacists or technicians are going to bother changing it - if they even know the system workaround to bypass it.

Then, come to refill it the next month. If they marked the first fill as 28 day supply (you can see on your label in the lower right near the price) it will process without any red flags in the system and will again will likely slip by all but the most stickler of pharmacists and techs. If they marked it as something longer just explain that your doctor told you to discard the vial after 28 days per USP guidelines and so you were a good boy and already threw it out, this should work against all but the biggest douchebag of a pharmacist. If that fails and your doctor is cooperative, have them call the pharmacy and authorize an early fill - if that doesn't work try another pharmacy.

If all goes well you'll probably be able to fill two to three vials in a row before anyone starts to question things.

I cannot speak for other pharmacies, but in general retail pharmacy is kind of a shit show right now so a busy store in another chain is also probably going to just go by USP even if their instincts or morals tell them to be jerks about it.

If anyone has any questions or if you need advice on a situation I didn't cover please DM me anytime, or hell send me an anon ask if you're shy. If anyone's insurance requires a non-CVS pharmacy and you can't afford the $50 let me know and I can find a tech at another pharmacy to see if they have any advice that would be relevant to their chain.

To my transfemme sisters, you've got it a little easier. Have your doc send your meds with a 12 month supply to a pharmacy you don't typically use, use GoodRx if you have to, none of the usual drugs in a transfemmes HRT regiment should be extremely expensive. Tell them you're going out of the country in a week or two and would like to purchase the entire year's supply at once. A year's supply of 2mg estradiol tabs taken four times daily (the max dose I've ever seen) is $75 on GoodRx at CVS right now. They'll probably need to order more tabs in but again only the biggest stickers are gonna question it. (You can also send to your usual pharmacy if you don't take any other meds, but I recommend not returning for at least a year just to be on the safe side. It's not illegal, but again you could run into some stickler pharmacist who calls your bluff and refuses further fills or tattles to your doctor or something.)

Again, please please please don't hesitate to send me DMs or asks if you have any questions or need specific advice.

This is a reminder to:

Form communities. Tell your people that you love them. Protect one another. Check in on one another. None of us are alone.

The little paper strip style pregnancy test that they use in medical settings are fairly cheap to buy in bulk and easy to use to test regularly. Most pregnancies are first detected *after* the most restrictive time limits for abortion, because that's when people *notice* they might be pregnant. Testing regularly eliminates that issue.

via @swatercolor [insta]

The upside is that there was an absentee ballot recount in our most populated and very blue county and it pushed us over for a blue Senate win. So yay for that because I was fucking miserable seeing the Republican win there too.

Btw, this is another reason to call your county clerk and make sure that your absentee ballot was counted! Even if we get another Trump presidency, which is very likely, those absentee ballots make a huge difference when it comes to the Senate, the House, governors, and other federal and state officials who can completely change the balance of their governments. My state's electoral votes may be going to Trump and the majority of the elections went red, but we still got a Dem Senator and that win still means a lot.

Reblogging this for the day crowd. Even if you don't think your ballot is enough to help sway the presidential election, there are still so many elections happening that CAN be changed with a recount.

Just to be clear, Kamala conceded with grace and dignity but it is still well within everyone’s right to demand an investigation and even a recount with due cause despite a winner being declared. U.S.Americans have the right to demand free and fair elections (we don’t have a right to, say, start an insurrection like certain people did after the 2020 election).

Many, including major swing states, (Nevada, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and more) have already admitted to data and ballots not being recognized or lost and are recounting or calling for a recount. It usually takes days to count and record votes, a day after a bunch of election tampering is not enough.

If you used a mail-in ballot and haven’t yet, check if it was actually counted and “recognized.” A lot of mail-in voters from swing states found out that their ballots were uncounted today.

One more thing before I go bury myself in a pile of blankets:

To everyone who voted Democrat for the first time, every former trump supporter who voted for Harris, everyone who voted for the first time, every Republican who did not want this result and voted for Harris, thank you.

I got a text from my cousin who has voted third party for decades who voted for a Democrat for the first time yesterday.

My aunt who voted for trump in 2016 and who's husband is a proud MAGA sent me a Snapchat late last night saying she is one of the women who secretly voted for Harris.

A former friend from college who used to be deep in the Republican party posted on Facebook yesterday that he voted for Harris.

I know you aren't the only ones.

I see that you tried.