The Most Creative Bookshelves Ever

“15 Men React To The Idea Of Taking Their Wife’s Last Name After Marriage”

#Wisdom #Quote: When you have more than you need build a bigger table - not a higher fence.

- Pooja, Om Holistic Wellbeing

www.omholisticwellbeing.com

stop. whitewashing. history.  stop man, male, masculine washing too. 

if that’s isn’t a thing it is now 

Meet the Women of Stonewall

Since the trailer of the atrocious Stonewall movie was released, people are rightfully upset that it white-washes and erases the trans women and lesbian who started the Stonewall Riots. Posts are going around reminding us of these women, but usually only mentioned one or two, which I find a little a-historical. We should know who all these women are as they each played a significant role in what happened in June of 1969.

Stormé DeLarverie (December 24, 1920 – May 24, 2014)

Stormé was a biracial butch lesbian, drag king and considered the “Rosa Parks of the Gay Community”. When the police raided the Stonewall Inn, she was one of the women arrested and clubbed on the head by the police. She is credited with yelling  “Why don’t you guys do something?” which sparked the bystanders into action. (x) In her own words:

”[The officer] then yelled, ‘I said, move along, faggot.’ I think he thought I was a boy. When I refused, he raised his nightstick and clubbed me in the face.” It was then that the crowd surged and started attacking the police with whatever they could find, she said.

I asked my last question hesitantly. “Have you heard of the Stonewall Lesbian? The woman who was clubbed outside the bar but was never identified?” DeLarverie nodded, rubbing her chin in the place where she received 14 stitches after the beating. “Yes,” she said quietly. “They were talking about me.”

And then, almost as an afterthought, I asked, “Why did you never come forward to take credit for what you did?”

She thought for a couple of seconds before she answered, “Because it was never anybody’s business.” Stormé DeLarverie(source)

Marsha P. Johnson (June 27, 1944 – July 6, 1992)

Marsha “Pay it No Mind” Johnson was a black trans woman, drag queen and LGBT activist. She, along with Sylvia Rivera, co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) and is credited as being the first to fight back at Stonewall Inn. (x) Happy Birthday, Marsha! is a film project in the works to honor life, please consider donating. 

“This was started by the street queens of that era, which I was part of, Marsha P. Johnson, and many others that are not here" Sylvia Rivera (Source)

Sylvia Rae Rivera (July 2, 1951 – February 19, 2002)

Sylvia was a Latina trans woman, drag queen and LGBT activist. As mentioned above she co-founded STAR with Marsha P Johnson, as well as a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance. She is also credited with being one of the first women to throw a bottle at the police. 

“You’ve been treating us like shit all these years? Uh-uh. Now it’s our turn!… It was one of the greatest moments in my life. “ Sylvia Rivera (Source)

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy (October 1940)

Also known as Miss Major, is a black trans woman and community leader for transgender rights with a focus on women of color. Miss Major was a leader in the riots who was struck by police and arrested. While in custody an officer broke her jaw. (x) A documentary called Major! is in the works to portray Miss Major’s role in the transgender activist community. (x) (I hope people watch this instead of Stonewall). 

Many more people were involved in the riots, but one thing is clear, it was not started by cis white men, it was by these 4 women of color. Don’t let men take away our history. 

Feminists don’t wanna live in a world without men, we want to live in a world without patriarchy and violent, toxic hyper-masculinity

The possibilities are these: [Sandra] Bland died from an untreated head injury after State Trooper Brian Encinia bashed her head against the pavement and police staged her suicide; Bland died from an epileptic seizure (recall that Encinia’s response to Bland telling him she had epilepsy was “Good”) and police staged her suicide; Bland was killed or died in some other way in police custody and her sucide was staged; or Bland indeed took her own life, after she informed police of previous suicide attempts and they utterly failed to prevent another while she was in their care. There is no version of events where police are not culpable for Sandra Bland’s death. And all because Officer Encinia was angry that Sandra Bland knew her rights and was exercising them. No matter how she died, she is dead because that man became enraged that a black woman wouldn’t unquestioningly submit to him.

http://www.shakesville.com/2015/07/sandra-bland-case-updates.html

Melissa McEwan sums up how the police are responsible for Sandra Bland’s death no matter how she died. They need to be held accountable.

(via xxunmasked)

And if she WAS suicidal or at risk of self harm, she should have been placed under supervision or in a cell that didn’t have anything she could use to hurt herself. The police are responsible no matter what.

(via misandry-mermaid)

[Dominant groups don’t see privilege as a problem…] because they think it’s just a personal problem. They think individuals usually get what they deserve, which makes the trouble just a sum of individual troubles This means that if whites or males get more than others, it’s because they have it coming - they work harder, they’re smarter, more capable. If other people get less, it’s up to them to do something about it.

Allan G. Johnson, Privilege, Power, and Difference (via wretchedoftheearth)

BOOSTED 

While I am always a little hestitant of things that seem to put the safety of the person on the person who is NOT the one inflicting the harm... taking care of ourselves its hella important

A New App That Lets Users’ Friends ‘Virtually Walk Them Home At Night’ Is Exploding In Popularity

Tens of thousands of people around the world are now using a free personal-safety mobile app that allows friends to virtually walk you home at night.

The Companion app, created by five students from the University of Michigan, enables users to request a friend or family member to keep them company virtually and track their journey home via GPS on an online map.

Although they can do so, the friend or family member does not need to have installed the Companion app. The user can send out several requests to different phone contacts in case people are not available to be a companion or not with their phones at the time.

Those contacted then receive an SMS text message with a hyperlink in it that sends them to a web page with an interactive map showing the user walking to their destination. If the user strays off their path, falls, is pushed, starts running, or has their headphones yanked out of their phone, the app detects these changes in movement and asks the user if they’re OK.

If the user is fine, they press a button on the app to confirm within 15 seconds. If they do not press the button, or a real emergency is occurring, the Companion app transforms the user’s phone into a personal alarm system that projects loud noises to scare criminals from the scene, and gives you the option to instantly call the police.

(Source)

Truth. 

I was driving past a business here in the Houston Heights, when I glimpsed this painted on the side of the building. I recognized that iconic WWII poster before I realized it was not just any woman, but 14 year old Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who was attacked for wanting an education. The words next to her are her quote, ( “I don’t mind if I have to sit on the floor at school.) All I want is education. And I’m afraid of no one.”

The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.

Caroline Myss (via celestinevibes)