The QUILTBAG Club (formerly the LGBT club)

Also, queer can involve people along the ace spectrum. And I've heard varying opinions as to whether queer includes gender or is sexual orientation only.

In other queer news...

my boyfriend was just elected LGBT+ Welfare Officer of our Student's Union!!!!!! wooo

Nice letter :)

You know, I have no idea what the MPs in either of my homes think about gay marriage. They're both Conservative, and I've been doing some research of Anne-Marie Morris, and she's voted for higher tuition fees, Royal Mail privatisation and, charmingly, against 'No detention without charge or trial'. I do quite enjoy the delightfully Devony things she's given speeches about, though: rural broadband, seagulls, rural bus services and Teignmouth's sea wall.

And Canterbury's Julian Brazier seems like a bit of an idiot. I enjoy the two pictures they chose of him, though; it's like some kind of weird before and after.

Everyone hi! So there's a video game with a transgender character whose issues are openly discussed and the main character helps and supports her and it's been out for a few years now and no one's ever mentioned this anywhere ever????????? Why. How does this game even exist all of a sudden where did it come from since when has a game company decided to actually care that people exist and have feelings and.

I have no idea how good of a game it is or anything also it's a Japanese Wii game so I have no idea how to try it. :(

Anyway, it's called Captain Rainbow! Apparently there's a mission where Birdo is in jail for using the women's bathroom when she's male-bodied vo.ov So she asks Captain Rainbow (you) to "prove" that she's a girl so she can get out of prison!! And he finds some mysterious object that the game never tells you what is and that "proves" it and they let her go. Also something about Captain Rainbow being her boyfriend??

Help how is this a game why is it a big secret.

I hope the scene is treated well and it sounds like it sort of is?? Maybe?? Where is there more information on this help. Also where is there any information where there isn't a huge crowd of people spitting as much transphobia as they can into the comments. :( (which is why I am not including a link.)

Found it on TV Tropes, which is very very good about trans* issues 99% of the time. (also apparently the object was a vibrator according to the Just Bugs Me? Which how does that prove anything but?)

Although yeah, Birdo's been an openly trans*, if C-list, Nintendo character for a long time, although it took a few years for the character designers to decide whether she was trans or just a crossdresser.

Oh yeah, read about that on some video game site. I wouldn't get too thrilled about it, I'm pretty sure it just treats the subject as a gag. And yeah, the object is a vibrator, and apparently that proves Birdo is a girl because only women use vibrators or some shit. Stupid.

If you're looking for video games that deal with trans stuff, I hear Persona 4 is good. I haven't played it though, just going by reviews. I'm not interested in games like that myself. I use video games as a form of escapism, so a game that deals with an issue that causes me so much grief would be a nightmare for me. I will stick to hacking shit up as a lizardman in Skyrim.

I disagree on TV tropes being good on trans issues. A lot of people there just treat trans people as a fetish. Quite a few comments there have made me uncomfortable, and that's just with lurking. (I may be biased, as I seriously hate that site, but I'll not get into that here)

Also Hiikaru, are you ever on a sugar rush when you make your posts? It's just that I can't help but imagine you leaping all over the place and talking really fast every time I read your posts. I don't mean that in a bad way or anything; just an amused observation!

Persona 4 is pretty tricky - the character in question's romance part of their social link is kind of cringeworthy in the event flags you have to pick in order to get the romance ending, for example. I don't think it's the best instance of trans* identity in media, really, but you can give it a try!

Twilight Sparkle said:

Persona 4 is pretty tricky - the character in question's romance part of their social link is kind of cringeworthy in the event flags you have to pick in order to get the romance ending, for example. I don't think it's the best instance of trans* identity in media, really, but you can give it a try!

Click to expand...

oh god naoto
i have probably never sobbed so hard over a game before as i did with all of naoto's stuff in p4. and that's not really in a good way, some of the stuff kind of hit home for me but as tailsy says, parts of the social link are uggghhhhhh
and technically
she's not trans
so

but other than that persona 4 is a great game and everybody ever should play it because it's amazing


i'm tempted to go wander around tvtropes now to see all the trans related discussions.... i'm addicted to rage or something idk

Byrus said:

I disagree on TV tropes being good on trans issues. A lot of people there just treat trans people as a fetish. Quite a few comments there have made me uncomfortable, and that's just with lurking. (I may be biased, as I seriously hate that site, but I'll not get into that here)

Click to expand...

My apologies. Everything I've run into personally has been pretty good about it.

OH also. I want to be a video game developer (or other kind of programmer but that's my hope) someday so. And i've been working on a game for a few years now that has a trans guy in it named Cain. But it's unreleased so.

Dinru said:

Found it on TV Tropes, which is very very good about trans* issues 99% of the time. (also apparently the object was a vibrator according to the Just Bugs Me? Which how does that prove anything but?)

Although yeah, Birdo's been an openly trans*, if C-list, Nintendo character for a long time, although it took a few years for the character designers to decide whether she was trans or just a crossdresser.

Click to expand...

I always knew Birdo was transgender! I just didn't know there was a game that actually discussed it instead of just a "hahahaha look at this dumb guy who thinks he's a girl LOL" in the manual. vo.ov

Also she's always been transgender! When she first appeared the manual said she was (with a lottttt of transphobia), and they've been trying to cover it up ever since.

Byrus said:

Oh yeah, read about that on some video game site. I wouldn't get too thrilled about it, I'm pretty sure it just treats the subject as a gag. And yeah, the object is a vibrator, and apparently that proves Birdo is a girl because only women use vibrators or some shit. Stupid.

If you're looking for video games that deal with trans stuff, I hear Persona 4 is good. I haven't played it though, just going by reviews. I'm not interested in games like that myself. I use video games as a form of escapism, so a game that deals with an issue that causes me so much grief would be a nightmare for me. I will stick to hacking shit up as a lizardman in Skyrim.

I disagree on TV tropes being good on trans issues. A lot of people there just treat trans people as a fetish. Quite a few comments there have made me uncomfortable, and that's just with lurking. (I may be biased, as I seriously hate that site, but I'll not get into that here)

Also Hiikaru, are you ever on a sugar rush when you make your posts? It's just that I can't help but imagine you leaping all over the place and talking really fast every time I read your posts. I don't mean that in a bad way or anything; just an amused observation!

Click to expand...

It's not stated to be that just some random vibrating object so I'll just pretend it's some totally mysterious thing that's relevant to Yoshis and Birdos somehow. Or maybe a vibrating driver's license! In case you lose it. Then you'll be able to find it again. If it doesn't vibrate into a heater vent...

Maybe it's really better if I don't play it so that I can just imagine that it's treated sensitively.

I like escapism, too! I just want my escapism to have trans* characters in it. :( And if that means I have to get reminded of scary things in video games then I guess I'd deal with that! I'm starting to get really disenchanted with reading and watching things and gaming and whatever else because I can't stop wishing some of the characters weren't just cisgender boys and girls (mostly boys. Or if there are girls they're treated awfully, anyway...). Everyone deals with that in their own way though it's just different!

I disagree, too; I try to avoid TV Tropes even though I like reading about the inner workings (in a sense) of media because I feel like it's a really hostile environment for trans* people! I have to quickly leave whenever I end up there because I run into something that upsets me. I didn't used to have that problem so I'm not sure if I used to somehow mysteriously only read articles that didn't make me feel like that or what.

And no!! I barely even like sugar anyway. I get that a lot, but this is my preference for my speech style! It feels more... sincere? Like my feelings come out the way they actually are instead of covered up by frilly words! I can end up talking really really really formally and dryly sometimes by mistake and I super-dislike it when I do that so I try to avoid it! (not that this isn't my natural speech style, I can just also end up naturally being dry and stuffy and formal) Jumping around is fine though I can jump!!

Dinru said:

My apologies. Everything I've run into personally has been pretty good about it.

OH also. I want to be a video game developer (or other kind of programmer but that's my hope) someday so. And i've been working on a game for a few years now that has a trans guy in it named Cain. But it's unreleased so.

Click to expand...

What do you mean by working on it!

I am soo pissed right now. Someone just sat and listened to someone argue the point of anti gay marriage because "what's next? Hitching up with your cat?"

Shoot me please. >:/

Twilight Sparkle said:

Persona 4 is pretty tricky - the character in question's romance part of their social link is kind of cringeworthy in the event flags you have to pick in order to get the romance ending, for example. I don't think it's the best instance of trans* identity in media, really, but you can give it a try!

Click to expand...

The character you're talking about isn't even trans* though. The game makes it perfectly clear that she only wanted to become male so that people would respect her in the career she chose and she herself even says that she never really wanted to become male but that what she really wanted was not to be seen as a child.

I think this is a good time for me to ask- why the asterisk after trans?

Hiikaru said:

What do you mean by working on it!

Click to expand...

As in I've been writing it and coding it and generally doing everything in an indie gamey sort of way. It's been in stasis for a little while and it might be a long time before it's finished.

Star69 said:

I think this is a good time for me to ask- why the asterisk after trans?

Click to expand...

For inclusiveness. The asterisk is kind of a wildcard for all the various gender-related endings that could come after trans- (although it also includes many things that don't begin with that prefix.)

Jason-Kun said:

The character you're talking about isn't even trans* though. The game makes it perfectly clear that she only wanted to become male so that people would respect her in the career she chose and she herself even says that she never really wanted to become male but that what she really wanted was not to be seen as a child.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't say it's 'perfectly clear' at all, though! you can definitely make an argument for Naoto possibly being trans* or non-binary, at least. besides, a lot of people would interpret her section of the game in that way :U persona 4 isn't exactly great at makin definitive calls on these things. i mean, kanji isn't ever actually outright stated to be gay, although it's not hard to deduce.

So, read in the news that my old high school kicked out the archdiocese. Pretty freaking awesome. I'm so proud of them. I wish I was there to see the students REBEL.

Here.

Choice quote, "Bliss was one of several students who stood up to argue with the representatives from the archdiocese. One girl held up a sign that said, "I love my moms.""

those kids are absolutely awesome for that. just saying

okay so to make this more post more quiltbaggy, i'm going to ramble about how adorable my friend-crush is. kay? kay.

well my two friends came over to skype with a family friend who's going on vacation with us so they could "meet" so to speak (family friend lives in new hampshire) and they were both going to sleep over except platonic-feelings!friend couldn't so then it was just my crush sleeping over

and said crush was kinda upset at her dad and her boyfriend (who were both slightly being idiots, as both tend to do) and so she kinda kept slumping onto our shoulders. which by the way is really freaking adorable aaaaaah

(also i guess sorta related; she majorly freaks out over my mental health? i mean on kairos we listened to a girl talk about how she tried to kill herself and after that speech was over my crush came over and hugged me and started crying because if i ever killed myself she'd be that upset)

It's been nearly half a year since I decided I was bisexual, but I never really did come around to asking if I could join this club.

But here I am!

So I'm sitting in an IRC, /me-ing with female pronouns, when suddenly-

Guy 1: I didn't know [Star] is a girl.
Guy 2: He's not.
Guy 3: Yup. Someone dug up pictures of him.
Guy 2: Never assume anyone on the internet is female unless they post tits.

Then I thanked them for telling me what I am, noted that sex and gender don't always match (in Dear Princess Celestia format, since these are bronies we're talking about), and left.

My heart's still pounding a little.

Edit: and then I got shit like this. Great.

A Christian group is putting adverts on London buses asserting the effectiveness of gay therapy.

Please sign this petition against it?