Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March) @UnicornMarch Twitter profile | Pikagi

Pikagi

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

@UnicornMarch

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You deserve to feel joyful, rooted, and safe. I'm here with trauma recovery & queer history/community. Home of Bi+ History Month! Pronouns are gem/gems/gemself.

Oakland, CA

https://t.co/SXNxePt7ec

Joined October 2019

Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

3 years

Trying to find that one thread about bi/pan+ history, the "bi lesbian" label, statistics on ace oppression, what trans medicalization vs informed consent really means, etc? Here's a thread of threads. Sort of a table of contents for this Twitter account.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

8 months

My very butch ace lesbian friend just said, "I'm not sure, but my barista might be flirting with me." I'm expecting to hear banter. Something that sounds like flirting, but has plausible deniability. No. The woman BROUGHT HER A STUFFED ANIMAL FROM DISNEYLAND. Please help me.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

8 months

I am autistic, aroace, and 75 miles away, and EVEN I KNOW THIS WOMAN WAS FLIRTING WITH HER.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

8 months

I have explained to her that she needs to ask the woman out. Neither of us knows how to do such a thing. Someone please explain it to us. (If it helps, the woman is actually the store manager. Don't worry, I'm not sure what difference that makes either.)

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Yes: TERFs started, and lead, the battle against "queer." TERFs want you to avoid "queer." TERFs want you to think "weird/freaky" is bad. TERFs want you to think it's bad that it's deliberately vague and inclusive. TERFs want you to fight over who to exclude from the acronym.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Another #BiHistoryMonth Fun Fact: The "bi lesbian" Battle Of The Labels isn't new. These excerpts are from a Feb 6, 1992 Outweek article. Also not new: This is really about whether bi women are allowed into the lesbian community: how much? Under what conditions? When and where?

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

1 year

@SketchesbyBoze I'm in a Facebook group called "Be Gay Read Talmud." The main thing I know about Rabbi Eleazar is he was SO beautiful that NONE of the other rabbis could shut up about it. I think he healed one from a fatal disease when he rolled up his sleeves, and his forearms shone like lamps.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

What happens when you actually read all the large, peer-reviewed, published studies that include asexual and demisexual folks? Let's just say this thread comes with a content warning for mentions of conversion therapy, emotional abuse, sexual assault, suicidality....

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

TERFs have managed to get a lot of their rhetoric and strategies into the larger community. Even to people who hate TERFs. 1994: Huge TERF Sheila Jeffreys writes a paper called "The Queer Disappearance of Lesbians," against "the 'queer' perspective."

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Anyway, I just figured out how to incorporate the L and still have a pronounceable acronym:

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Her paper specifically attacks "queer" politics. For TERFs, everything about cis women's rights is part of lesbian feminism. Everything else addressing gender/sexuality is queer culture... therefore, not lesbian feminist... therefore, a Gay Dude Thing... therefore, lesbophobic.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Essentially, TERFs want to overturn sexist gender roles for cis women, WITHOUT changing anything else around gender. If you're already thinking, "TERFs are exhausting," don't worry, so am I. "But," you may ask, "how the heck does 'queer politics' make lesbians disappear?"

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Here's the real kicker. The entire reason this article exists is that in 1989, Northampton added "Bisexual" to its Pride March. And the lesbian community literally organized nationwide to shut that down. And they won.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

TERF politics are VERY binary. Three of the biggest problems with binaries: (1) they're almost always false; (2) we're trained to frame them as good/bad; (3) oppression works by erasing all but two aspects of any category, and putting down the "bad" one to profit the "good."

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

I hear that argument a lot. It punches down at everyone who's still seen as "deviant oddities." Every group treated as subhuman freaks. As an autistic genderqueer person, I have strong feelings about this. Embracing "weird" is the only route to embracing a lot of us.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Think about that one for a sec. "Queer = sexually fluid = male-inclusive." That isn't an objection to the presence of queer guys. That is an objection to the inclusion of bi/pan+ women. Just like when TERFs fought to get the B out of Pride in 1992.

@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Another #BiHistoryMonth Fun Fact: The "bi lesbian" Battle Of The Labels isn't new. These excerpts are from a Feb 6, 1992 Outweek article. Also not new: This is really about whether bi women are allowed into the lesbian community: how much? Under what conditions? When and where?

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

It highlights the real challenge: The erasure of bi+ culture is so pervasive, many bi, pan, omni, and other people must trade their identity and history in, and try for the safety of the gay community. But just like in the straight world, it's very, very easy to get rejected.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

To a TERF, the world basically boils down to: Gay people, who are oppressed; Every other group, which -- if oppressed -- is only oppressed accidentally, when mistaken for gay. Lesbians are doubly oppressed: gay people who also suffer misogyny. Therefore, they should be centered.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

On the other hand, I could sit here and make pretty little graphs about the outcomes of oppression all day long, showing how gay and lesbian outcomes have improved over the past 40 years (even though lesbian stats are still worse), and how ace, intersex, bi, and trans stats SUCK.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Any other take on things, any attention given to any other group, necessarily puts lesbians farther from being centered. On one hand, I can't blame them. Cis white gay men have been in charge since before Stonewall. We're ALL tired of waiting, and of fighting for scraps.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

That TERF piece talks about marching with a sign saying "Lesbian Not Queer;" calls "queer" misogynist; and says "Queer needs to be questioned. The term is not applicable to female homosexuality.... to be queer is to be sexually fluid – meaning the term queer is male-inclusive.”

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Let's fast-forward a quarter-century. AfterEllen's been riddled with this stuff ever since a TERF took over: "Microidentities are as common as rats... actual gays fought to be accepted as normal, not 'deviant oddities,' the literal definition of queer."

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

3 years

A bi+ lesbian starter kit for #BiHistoryMonth . * 1992 comic from the author of "Liliane, Bi-Dyke" * 1996 Lesbian Avengers flyer w/1973 quote from the bi-founded RadicaLesbians. * Dyke March banner: *1991 Dajenya poem, in full here:

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

That's the other big issue behind all of this. Bi men were framed as potential rapists; bi women, as the bringers of male partners who were potential rapists. People called this "the violence of heterosexuality," similar to the claim that trans inclusion equals "male violence."

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

10 months

@jacobryanderson @SaeedDiCaprio @sadsoolgi You don't do it for three viewers because you set out to do it for three viewers. You do it for three viewers because you're hoping more people will come.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

TERFs are constantly targeting "queer": - Everyone else has privilege over lesbians & "queer" obscures that!() - Queer means believing in gender identity!() - People say "queer" to erase and rape lesbians! ()

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

I've heard those exact arguments in ace discourse: • calling it a choice, not an orientation • acknowledging that aces face "some" oppression, but saying "they still aren't LGBT," "they should start their own groups," "we don't have enough in common," etc.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Peak TERF Comment: "'Queer' is a slur, 'terf' is a slur, lesbianism isn't a fucking fetish, lesbians don't like dick, females aren't objects, costumes, or feelings, and homosexuality ≠ depravity--but these queer theorist, pomo dipshits sure as hell love to act like it does!"

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

- "Queer" is bad bc it's "about more than who you love or fuck. There’s no requirement to be homosexual...." (Comments: "queer culture is cancer," "The LGBTQIAWTF+++ is toxic to lesbians," and "T & Q have been infiltrated by Transtrenders and MRAs." ()

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

And then there's TERF Twitter. (Names in red are the ones the Chrome extension Shinigami Eyes knows are TERFs.)

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

If you want even more examples, @freetofic has compiled a ton

@freetofic

freetofic (on 💙🌌 )

5 years

things TERFs don't want you to know: 'queer is a slur' is the purposefully deceptive shortening of the TERF war cry 'queer is a slur against lesbians' it isn't & wasn't ever about straight cis ppl attacking Pride: it was about cis lesbians not getting center stage to themselves

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

3 years

Did you know? Original Lesbian Power Couple Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, in their 1972 book Lesbian/Woman, wrote "the first woman-identified definition of lesbianism," rejecting "patriarchal definitions... which seem to have been based on wishful thinking." The definition:

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

3 years

Twitter discourse this year has really spread the idea that "lesbian" and "dyke" both mean "lack of attraction to men," and therefore bi women can't reclaim "dyke," and can't identify as lesbians. We need to look at what lesbian culture and history actually says here.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

But there is a happy ending.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Hemmings writes that the lesbian community saw "and Bisexual" as revealing "a move away from lesbian visibility and politics. The absence of any lesbian speakers [at the 1989 March] confirmed many people’s suspicions that bisexual inclusion equaled lesbian exclusion.”

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Check that out: "BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER"! From what I've been able to find, the local community overall was strongly in favor of bi+ inclusion -- but didn't feel safe on the existing committee. I'm guessing the exclusionists burned out, and inclusionists took it back.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

"...painted a bi byke (B-Y-K-E) license plate for my BI cycle, and made a sign saying 'Peace To All Closet Bisexuals And To Those Already Out Too.'" (just a quick sidebar: remember how this all started with the label "bi lesbian"? guess what "byke" was short for.)

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

The local lesbian community called two meetings to strategize, and got 40 people to the next (ten-person) 1990 Pride committee meeting. They successfully changed it back to "the Lesbian and Gay Pride March." Bisexuals, like straight people, were "welcomed" to march as allies.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

The 1991 march was organized by just four lesbians, with the theme "Claiming Our Identity: Protecting Our Lives" -- "suggesting that the refusal to allow bisexuals named inclusion was a matter of lesbian and gay safety rather than a question of differences within community."

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Ok, I'm back to share a little of the history here, and then some positivity! You can read the full Outweek article here: And a more detailed play-by-play, from Clare Hemmings' book Bisexual Spaces, here:

http://www.amazon.com/Bisexual-Spaces-Geography-Sexuality-Gender/dp/0415930839 I stumbled across an interesting story about the years-long struggle over the name of Northampton’s Pride march the...

autismserenity.tumblr.com

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

The 1989 speakers: a bi man; a straight woman updating people about a recent gay and lesbian civil rights bill; and a lesbian -- who'd had to cancel. The performers, ASL interpreters, and emcees, however, were mainly lesbians.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

I was especially struck by her statement that although some people think bisexuals belong "because they are oppressed for their sexual choices, some of us feel it takes a lot more than sexual oppression to be a community."

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

3 years

Everyone: Bi+ people are less oppressed, bc they can pass as straight! Researchers: Actually, bi+ people in "het" relationships are MORE depressed than those who can pass as gay. Bc they're stigmatized by gay AND straight people.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Sarah Dreher, the author of the Stoner McTavish mysteries, headed the small 1991 committee and spoke at the march. The wonderful and long-lived @BiWomenQtly reprinted her speech, along with some photos from the event. It's a tough read. Bi/pan+ folks, feel free to skip it.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

"I marched alone in that 1988 Washington, D.C., Pride Parade, to cheers AND jeers - because I was tired of being silent. "If I had to be alone, I figured, at least I didn't have to be invisible." HOW FREAKING AMAZING IS LORAINE HUTCHINS? But wait, there's more!

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

That had nothing to do with its attached picture. This does: I've seriously been told, in response to this one, that these numbers are because aces don't know what conversion therapy is. WTF.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

3 years

That's right: In the first definition by and for lesbians, Lyon and Martin specifically, intentionally, rejected the idea that you could ONLY be a lesbian with NO attraction to men. BECAUSE, by doing that, they could shut down the Cis Dude Idea that lesbians were fair game.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

I'm SO MAD that cis straight guys rape bi women almost three times as often as lesbians and straight women... And yet the discourse is, "don't associate lesbians with bi women in their minds! We don't want them to assault lesbians!" Yes! Let's (only) protect good pure lesbians!

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

3 years

"By using the word 'primary,' they specifically rejected the notion that exclusivity of preference was essential to a lesbian identity -- snubbing the male hope that 'if she could do it once [with a man], she can do it again.'"

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Interestingly, there was a Lesbian Liberation Rally held on the same day as the 1992 "Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual" march (no trans yet). Meanwhile, longtime bi activist Loraine Hutchins made a glorious speech at the 1992 Northampton Lesbian Gay and Bisexual Pride March:

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

"Four years ago in Washington, D.C., there was no bisexual contingent in our Gay Pride Parade, as usual. But I was tired of being anonymous after being out as a bisexual in D.C. for over 15 years. "So I dressed up in my WonderWoman with a Hard-On outfit....

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

3 years

Any woman whose "primary erotic, psychological, emotional, and social interest is in a member of her own sex, even though that interest may not be overtly expressed." Trans icon Beth Elliott writes about it in Bi Any Other Name:

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Sudden realization: Every. Single. Round. Of LGBTQIPA+ "discourse" is an attempt to corral some kind of non-binary orientation, gender, or experience, and make it stop Being Like That.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

If we emphasize the letters with the worst rates of poverty, abuse, assault, and suicidality, we can also... cheer ourselves up with some new acronyms! (Plus TGIQ.) Cuties, unite! PLZ NOTE that in the TGIQ+ pic, the T is not just metaphorically but literally centered. thaaanks

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

"Tremendous change has happened since then. A national bi movement has been born. This bi movement flourishes in books, magazines, dances, directories, over e-mail, and at local, national, and international gatherings."

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Honestly, the impact of rejection and harassment at work can't be understated. Neither can the impact of the trauma caused by ongoing rejection and harassment, especially in the form of erasure and negative representation. All of this has a huge impact on poverty.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

I'm going to CRY. From the moment AIDS hit the news, both the straight and gay/lesbian communities have continually erased its impact on the bi+ community, and the absolutely incredible activism in response. First to pass the blame. Then to strip the resources.

@BiFuriosa

Bi Furiosa - ver!fed pissed-off bisexual

4 years

In almost an hour's conversation about "queer" activism from the 80s to now, I stopped counting how many times they said "gay" but they never said "bisexual".

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

It's #AceAwarenessWeek ! Time to bust out the Big Thread Of What The Ace-Spec Community Deals With. We tend to focus on the most visible forms of oppression. But what makes the biggest impact is the constant, yet invisible, message that our lives are worth less. Or worthless.

@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

What happens when you actually read all the large, peer-reviewed, published studies that include asexual and demisexual folks? Let's just say this thread comes with a content warning for mentions of conversion therapy, emotional abuse, sexual assault, suicidality....

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

"Bisexuals now appear on CNN talk shows, NOT to be ridiculed, but to talk seriously about our politics. We appear at art performances, on academic panels, and even on gay magazine covers...."

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

"In Washington, D.C., we've just celebrated our first successful conference on multiculturalism and sexual diversity, convened by AMBi/AMBUSH - the Alliance of Multicultural Bisexuals United to Stop Heterosexism, Homophobia, Harassment, HIV, and Helms."

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

(This was so long ago, @BiWomenQtly actually had to edit that to say "[computer electronic]-mail"!)

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

But back to the pretty pictures. A lot of exclusionists like to argue that no one's ever been kicked out for being asexual. Not true, but also, most homeless queer youth weren't kicked out; they left abusive, desperate situations.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

"Bi social groups and political action/education groups are meeting in Seattle and Albany, in Chicago and N.Y., from L.A. to Boulder, Boston, Philadelphia, Columbia and Miami, to New Zealand, London, Amsterdam and Berlin."

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

And yep, I've talked to a number of aces who were either threatened with conversion therapy, or forced into it. I've also spoken with, so far, 17 practitioners. 6 had "treated" asexuals, including the original "reparative therapy" clinic. The rest REALLY wanted to try.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Honestly, that kind of argument always bugs me, because it strips trans people of our sexuality. We aren't allowed to have an orientation of our own in these arguments. Some 85% of trans people are queer; you have to think intersectionally. I love this quote as a segue:

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

So if you arrange almost any study from least to most affected, first by gender and then orientation, it goes: cis men, cis women, trans people. straight, gay, ace, bi, pan. Beware of pitting gender vs orientation, by the way....

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

3 years

An aro history moment @ParadoxRevealed found! A heterosexual aromantic teenager writes to lesbian magazine Ain't I A Woman? in 1972. You can read more at the link below. It's fascinating; she talks about radical organizing at her high school in Italy.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

That especially baffles me, because most people who tell me aces aren't subjected to conversion therapy still think it's electroshock. In fact, for decades it's been a pastiche of established emotional abuse techniques, both in religious and therapeutic environments.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

....Since having one or more long-term partners gives you a much broader base of support to draw from, makes it cheaper to live, and adds up to more potential stability and resources. Aces have the highest rate among trans people too. Sexuality and gender are not comparable.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

My fave argument against this one is "you're really gonna argue that aces are more oppressed than TRANS PEOPLE?!" Aces -- even alloromantic ones -- are generally way, way less likely to be in long-term relationships. I suspect that gives allo trans people an edge here....

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

11 months

It's the last day of Pride month, during a time of rising bigotry and fascist attacks. Here's a little extra trans joy. Somewhere in California, there is a trans boy who has never been misgendered. Whose parents used gender-neutral pronouns for him til he mentioned being a boy.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

This is a great illustration of how the effects of constant rejection/erasure/fear add up to intense mental health problems. Those, in turn, make it harder to handle oppression. Or to function. So even if you're not directly oppressed at work, you can end up in intense poverty.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

...People love to look at these and say they're invalid because they don't separate out lesbians. No one ever argues that they don't separate out gender; that nonbinary gay/lesbian people aren't separated out, or that bi women and men, for example, have different experiences too.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

One of the most striking things about all this research was how consistent the results were. It's not gonna surprise you that women will have worse rates of most things than men do, or that trans people will have worse rates than cis people do.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

It might surprise some of you that nonbinary people are included in that, and often have worse rates (of sexual assault, poverty, etc.) than other trans people do. Or that trans men and trans women tend to have it about equally bad in most areas.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

....If your argument only goes as far as "lesbians aren't their own category on this chart," then you're not actually reading the chart, you're just buying into the TERFTactic (tm) of rejecting anything that doesn't center lesbians.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

INCLUDE THE "I"! Intersex people are oppressed for not fitting the sex/gender binary; denied informed consent for hormones and surgery; +more. Accepting those practices, just fighting to save trans people from them, will not work. We have to join forces.

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@Pidgejen

P I D G E O N | Intersex Educator & Creator ✨

4 years

I don’t know who needs to hear this but: adding the I to LGBTQIA+ is important not bc we have solidarity as a result of who we hook up & fall in love with, but because we share a common experience of oppression rooted in cis-heteronormative society believing we “do gender” wrong.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

It will definitely surprise many of you that the same patterns apply to sexual orientation as to gender. The gay rights movement has been well-established, and has fought hard, for more than 50 years. They've made a lot of progress that the rest of us don't yet have access to.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

3 years

And second: the quotes above are from an essay by trans icon Beth Elliott. She goes on to give context about the contrasting, competing definition -- that a lesbian is a woman who is ONLY attracted to other women -- and its roots in radfem ideology.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Statistically, these ones will resonate with even MORE.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

3 years

Now, a few tweets about historical context. First, if it matters: Lyon and Martin were from the Bay Area, as am I. I know longtime bi+ activists who've spoken highly of how supportive the two were of the bi+ community. I've also never heard any suggestion that the two were bi+.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

3 years

She goes on to describe how radfems spent the 70s pushing their own definition of lesbian, and its all-important "only." She's not the only one. Lesbian journalist Beatrix Campbell wrote a detailed piece, in 1980, about how radfems had taken over the feminist movement in the UK.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

3 years

Self-definition is good for communities. It's important and empowering to say, "We, not you, describe what we experience." From inside, gatekeeping can seem like self-definition. But it's really the opposite. It denies other people the right to self-define. 🧵🧵🧵

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

This statistic is from the only small study in the entire infographic. It's offered more as an illustration than for hard data; that comes next. (Someone once protested that the numbers for aces and LGB folks weren't really all that different here. That's... kinda the point?)

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

3 years

Now, Elliott knows her radfems. She was famously a target of TERFs for decades, including an attempted assassination by the Gorgons.

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#TERFLogic: Murder trans women in dressing rooms because their existence is a threat

Related: Sandy Stone, victim of attempted murder by TERF group: Sandy Stone recounts the time when Olivia Records (a lesbian separatist, radical feminist women’s music collective) came under …

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

@hibiscxss @maddieposa There's no such thing as "semibisexual." The post defining it as "bi but only attracted to one gender" was from a troll blog, "validmogai," which has since deleted.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

The rates of sexual assault for bi and ace people are as close to one another as the rates of sexual assault for gay and straight people. ALL THE RATES ARE TOO HIGH. ALL the rates should be zero.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

These statistics resonated with way, way too many people.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

3 years

There was intense pressure to think of “lesbian” as being about “not giving your energy to men.” To frame it as Bad/Invasive/Gross to have any attraction to or relationships with men. They left no room to explore the idea of healthy feminist sexuality.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

3 years

A ton of that specifically came from Notorious TERF Sheila Jeffreys and her cronies. Strikingly, they lumped bi and straight women in with trans women as ALL essentially being “men.” I think they’ve only stopped saying that bc they realized they can exploit straight women.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

3 years

One of the tragedies of bi/pan+ erasure: few people know how long the bi+ and trans communities have embraced each other. When I came out as genderqueer, in 1997, gay/lesbian media was wary of us. The bi+ community was the first place I saw people like me welcomed and centered.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

3 years

And I want to be perfectly honest: the biggest reason I say that is that I know how many people are totally isolated from lesbian culture and history. And not to be extra, but: every marginalized person NEEDS their own culture and history, to LIVE. This is essential.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Please, feel free to save any of these and repost anywhere. Use 'em as reaction gifs when you run into discourse. Just leave the Unicorn March url on them. And speaking of which: if you liked these, sign up for the very occasional email update at .

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

A friend's almost-13-year-old "has recently come out as a lesbian but as they have given it more thought they identify as gender fluid, but they asked me today if they could still identify as lesbian as well." She sensibly punted this question to me. What would YOU tell them?

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

3 years

Just a Bi+ Health Month reminder: You are bi+ enough. Bi+ erasure leaves a lot of people not knowing how many experiences fall under the bi+ umbrella. This thread is an incomplete list of who is "bi+ enough." Please feel free to add to it, and pass it on!

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

People keep saying, "You can't be both bi and a lesbian at once it's literally impossible" Bi means attraction to more than one gender. A LOT of the lesbian community (accurately) says that "lesbian includes attraction to [SOME] nonbinary people." That's more than one gender.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Your labels and pronouns and gender are yours. Mine are mine. Your baggage about mine is yours. Any baggage I might have about yours is mine. It's just basic boundaries.

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

Stumbled across another historical piece about being a "bi lesbian." This is a 1991 poem published in Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries, and Visions. "Some say I'm trying to make lesbians less visible. Not so I'm trying to make myself more visible...."

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@UnicornMarch

Infinite Glitterfall (formerly Unicorn March)

4 years

If you're about to clown on aces, or assert that bi people are less marginalized than lesbians, you're proving my point that those groups' voices are not taken seriously.

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