Court's Court

iamhighlyillogical:

courtscourt:

So I’m writing an Original Oratory for Speech&Debate. I had to clear the rough concept with my coach because, let’s be honest, I won’t win a damn round with this in Southwest Missouri, and Williams really just wants trophies. HOWEVER, she was actually really gung-ho about it and was like YEAH PEOPLE NEED TO HEAR THIS MESSAGE ANYWAY SO DO IT DO IT NOW

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

My O.O. is going to be about something in the realm of the way that LGBTQ people are treated. It’s not going to so much concern itself with “rights” or “legality” or “laws” or anything of that sort. Rather, I want to talk about the way they’re treated in day-to-day life and the little, common things that make it difficult for them (the de facto aspect rather than the de jure). Basically, the message is going to be something along the lines of “I don’t care how you vote or what you believe or how you were raised or what party you belong to; they’re people just like you so stop being a dick.”

Sooooooo, what I need from all of you is some brainstorming help, talking points, personal anecdotes, ideas, issues to point out, etc. I’d really appreciate the help because, though I feel very strongly about this and I have many LGBTQ friends, this is still out of my realm of experience because, obviously, I’m straight (see guys? I’m checking my privilege). 

So, help a girl out, please?

signal boost!

Also, start with GLSEN’s National School Climate Survey for good statistics and a big picture if you haven’t already.

I think your main problem with how you’re approaching this is that institutionalized homophobia enables people to be dicks. It’s all a little chicken and the egg, I suppose, but how much of a dick a person is to me matters a whole hell of a lot less if I have legal protection. Oh, my school believes I’m going to hell because I’m a lesbian? Well, that matters a lot less to me if they can’t kick me out of school because of it.

#1 way though to make people not be dicks is through education, acceptance and inclusion (not tolerance, but acceptance and inclusion). Buuuuut various legal protections are vital to being able to educate comprehensively i.e. schools that don’t allow the word “gay” in the classroom never mind positive discussions of sexual orientations other than straight.

naw, yeah, I COMPLETELY agree with you, and it’s very chicken-and-egg. But I need to also be unique because, after all, it is a competition and even if I don’t plan on winning, standing out is still an issue. As everything’s so inundated with the legal issues and arguments surrounding them, I’m trying to (mostly) steer away from that in the context of this oratory. 

But again, they’re inextricable intertwined and there will, necessarily, be overlap

taking-everything-for-granted: You can just be Deanna and I can be Samantha.

OK I’M NOT TERRIBLY FAMILIAR WITH THIS THING, BUT

dude that chick is not dean-like just noooooooooooo

fishingboatproceeds:

hyenaboy:

fishingboatproceeds:

“John Green, while death threats to Laci Green are bad, no arguing wtih that, Laci’s done a lot more negative things than casually use the word “tranny”. She has videos up about her islamophobia as well as several that border on fat shaming.”

I have a lot of messages like this.

1. We can’t have constructive conversations about how to talk with each in respectful ways when we threaten people, because then the threatened are forcibly removed from the conversation.

2. I’m not attempting to defend transphobia or fat-shaming or islamophobia or islamophilia or anything else. I’m just saying that we literally cannot have productive conversations when voices are silenced by threats. So you can not say to Laci, “Hey, I don’t think Islam is inherently misogynistic, because of A, B, and C,” because Laci is not here, because she is staying away from the Internet for fear that further participation in it will lead to her murder. That’s not a good way to change the discourse about islamophobia or anything else.

MARGINALIZED PEOPLE ARE ALREADY FORCIBLY REMOVED FROM CONVERSATION BECAUSE ADDRESSING SAID ISSUES IS ALREADY A RISK.

OPPRESSION IS A THREAT.

YOU ARE REFUSING TO ACKNOWLEDGE THIS, AND IT IS MAKING ME SAD THAT YOU CAN BE SO SMART BUT SO DAMN IGNORANT.

YOU ARE PART OF THE CONVERSATION. NOW WE ARE YELLING, THOUGH. I’M NOT SURE THIS IS THE BEST WAY FOR US TO UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER.

You’re right that marginalized people are consistently removed from conversations, but in fact on tumblr and on YouTube there are strong and vibrant communities who feel comfortable addressing issues related to gender and race and sexuality and a wide variety of other topics that are often considered taboo, which is why you and I are here, having this discussion in public. 

I’m not denying the reality of privilege. I just don’t think death threats improve the quality of discourse, and I don’t think threatening or harassing or scaring anyone is ever okay.

thedarkcomedythatismylife:

I was at work and we had this family come in and there was this girl, probably my age, who wasn’t from our school. During the whole time I was taking their order she kept staring at me and it was kinda awkward but I blew it off. Then later when I was cleaning tables I glanced at where they were eating AND I SHIT YOU NOT IMMEDIATELY WHEN SHE CAUGHT MY GLANCE SHE SWITCHED TO THIS FACE:

and then I was like:

NO STOP IT IM NOT INTO YOU SORRY I LIKE MEN THATS THE WAY IT IS HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

And then later this trendy girl walked in and while I was taking her order I said I liked her dress and then after my co worker was like, “David’s got a crush, David’s got a crush”

and I was like:

if only you knew

and then during a fucking rush this guy was trying to talk to me while I was taking someones order saying they wanted a burrito and I had no idea what they were saying at the time so I said, WHAT, really loudly and then I realized I sassed him because when he got back to his table he told his family how I rudely said what because he mimicked me and I was like:

OH NO YOU DIDNT

That was my night 

expect a vlog about my music interests 

omg david was valencia or w.e.-the-fuck-her-name-was

s-paige-r:

ive been trying to draw people for the past hour and a half and i literally cant do anything good and its making me so upset i dont know what to do i wannna draw but nothing is working what if im losing my talent maybe its just an art block but omg i wanna cry

omg sayraw if i had an existential crisis every time words didn’t work for me…

s-paige-r replied to your post: I”M JUST WATCHING ANIME AND DRAWING AND REFRESHING TUMBLR TO SEE YOU ON IT

I MADE THAT BOX FOR YOU SOBBING

haha yeah i just didn’t know if you were done with it or if you were like NO STILL PLAYING WITH POPSICLE STICKS i’ll just keep it if you’re done XP

iamhighlyillogical replied to your video: iamhighlyillogical: barateon: Star Trek 2…

dude sad news turns out this was the fake :[

yeah it looked iffy to me, but I was just like “fuck it, it’s still gonna be awesome”