I saw a lot of people posting their favorite cover songs and thought I’d add mine to the mix

The problem with being trans is that even allies know nothing about us. Because nobody wants to hear us talk, or read our literature, or let us report on ourselves. Our books are banned, our interviews shelved. Cis people write the entire narrative on us - allies and opponents.

I’m so sorry to hear this. As an example of how to deal with vastly differing tennis levels, in a sport ppl often play across their whole lives, Australia welcomes all, including trans people, and makes use of a “universal tennis rating” system. Pure and utter bigotry to choose otherwise.

One time I joined Bumble For Friends and the only person I talked to was a guy whose bio just said, "I like smooth jazz," and I said, "So do you like anything else besides smooth jazz?" and he said, "Not really," and I said, "Oh, okay," and that was the end of the conversation.

I wonder if birds find it annoying that their heads jerk forward whenever they walk.

Yep. And it’s much wider than deaf kids. For my AuDHDer with auditory processing disorder (and a fatiguing disease that means he hasn’t been able to leave the house since age 14) social media has always been a life line. I say this even as he was predated on twice by nefarious adults.

😷 Masks aren't traumatising. Abandonment is. Airborne denial is. Hospital-acquired infection is. Long Covid and severe ME is. The most traumatising part of the ongoing pandemic and current flu surge is the refusal to care. /14

Every time I read a biography of a favourite author either myself or the biographer speculates about how the author was Autistic. *wish folk would just say Autistic, it’s not a slur. Not loving the “uncanny” either. **This bio is super detailed and Autistic-level well-researched, so motwyw.

So some allistic dude has a special interest in clothes and how he’s viewed by others, and needs his dates to have the same special interest. Cool. *This comment is about how Autistic special interests get pathologised even though everyone has them.

If the phrase “earn a living,” doesn’t piss you the f*ck off, it should. Everyone deserves to live, the end. There should be no qualifiers to it, like having to work a stupid job just for the PRIVILEGE to be alive.

You guys does Bluesky need my birthdate so they can get me a present Can you tell them I want the 1992 Hasbro mini WWF Royal Rumble ring complete in the box with all the lil mini figs Thanks, Matt

What a massive win for moderation and safety. I'm literally not allowed to avoid content I don't want to see until I verify I'm an adult by handing my personal details to social media companies. Without my mute words, Bsky is nowhere near as usable, frankly.

Ah great. My refusal to age verify seems to have wiped out my hundreds of muted words which have until now allowed me to avoid too much USA news. Has this happened to anyone else?

anyway one of the many reasons to support smaller publishers with a niche they do really well is they're generally publishing books they really care about rather than throwing a thousand titles at the market to see what sticks

When I was starting out as an erotica writer, I hung out a lot with an older gay man who'd been writing smut forever. He told me that without straight women writing gay paperbacks in the 1950s, gay culture as we know it might not exist. He insisted gay men owed these ladies a huge unpayable debt.

Here's what happened re Australia's age verification law. Still able to use Bsky, just can't use Chat functionality. I added my email to bio if followers need to DM.

I’m in Australia and I won’t be verifying any social media using ID so we’ll see what happens.

We’ve gone backwards. Shameful. This school is in my hometown. “The school started open air classes in July 1924. It was based on pilot programmes in England where it was found that plenty of fresh air and open spaced classrooms allowed children to recover more quickly from disease.”

Introduce yourself with five animals you've seen in the wild. Kea Brush-tail possum Dingo Echidna Blue tongue lizard Note: in 19 years living in Australia I’ve never seen a snake outside a zoo.

“Anti-trans activist and Binary Australia spokesperson Kirralie Smith has been ordered to pay $95,000 in fines and issue a public apology after she was found to have vilified two trans women earlier this year.” Look, it’s possible to hold transphobes accountable for abusing trans people.

Self-published books are amazing. Their quality, value, and diversity are excellent. To claim otherwise is a skill issue.

I second this. The narration is great, too.

Ahhh yes. This is what Gen Xers came of age with. Overall it’s probably made us a skeptical lot. If not because of the charlatan dishing it out, because of the actual advice dished out by the charlatan.

I’m very grateful Tennis Australia has not been swayed by the phobes and consulted trans people when creating guidelines for inclusion.

Just once, I want one of the fuckers to bluntly say "I like money more than trans people".

You’ve heard of Elf on the Shelf how about….

"the issue isn’t that we need more 'boy-friendly' reforms. It’s that boys are socialized to compete only with boys and to read girls’ success as illegitimate or emasculating. The result is dissonance, resentment, and disengagement for boys—and hostile climates for girls." time.com/7335723/auto...

You can’t convince me that DJs aren’t a little salty that “spinsters” was taken already.

I’d watch this reality TV show.

Ahhhh I remember this one! Was living nearby in 1985, and had forgotten all about it til now.

they have every career path covered here: doctor, chef, soccer player and birthday partygoer

Australians let’s sign. Bodily rights for everyone.

Great to see MSM pick up on #MECFS stories, but it is NOT a rare disease. It's more than twice as prevalent as MS. Of the 400+ million people who have had #longCOVID globally, half meet diagnostic criteria for ME. Sadly, Evan's story is far from rare. #disability #healthcare #chronicillness

Imagine posing for a photographer friend who sells your image to iStock and a year later, you see this is what The Washington Post has done with the image of you walking on a beautiful fall day

For the 0.01% of germs not killed by bleach, the worst part is the crippling survivors guilt

“Do not speak to me or my trash ever again.”

tfw when you remember you're not biteproof

The existence of this thing amuses me greatly. I'd love to see someone whip it out in public. www.nativeunion.com/products/pop...

I don't recall where I found this, but I'd say this looks about right.

Researching for a new tennis elbow friendly racquet is doing my head in, because the specs are confusing to begin with, and then... "The Wilson Clash V2 is red and glossy, for women & women only. But the V3 is an improvement as it comes in black, which is equally great for both the sexes."

I like to give my dog big crumbs off biscuits and call him an old lady for enjoying sweet biscuits. However sometimes I just put the entire gingernut in my mouth and feel guilty for not sharing.

I nominated My Shadow is Pink by Scott Stuart. (I'm fairly confident a picture book of the Australian larrikin tradition will come out most popular, but this one does a great job of challenging the gender binary.)

Australia’s SBS Insight has a (problematic) episode on SBS. One woman was denied a disability pension for some combo of POTS / MEcfs until she got a late identified Autism diagnosis. Australia sees Autism as a more severe disability than it often is, and severe fatiguing disabilities as made up.

When people doubt my autism credentials, they get the full "History of the 80s scientific pocket calculators with a short introduction to floating point algorithms" 2h no powerpoint treatment.

Got a new fridge and learned a new word.

Riiiight above the main doorway, of all places. The creepy thing about this Australian paper wasp is how they size you up. Apparently they have good eyesight and can tell from a distance whether you taste better stir fried or kebabed.

A local allistic psychologist who has specialised in “ASD” for decades has an overlit room. I told him. “I don’t control the lighting in this building.” “You could turn off the light and buy a lamp from Kmart.” He thanked me for the “feedback”. No idea if he followed through—we didn’t go back.

Found my doctors appointments got less frustrating once I started going in like “I really want to play badminton again 😢 but I can’t even push a cart around the grocery store 😢 and I’ve hit a wall where no matter what I do I can’t seem to increase my exercise capacity 😢 and it makes it hard to work”

It's Friday, and apparently bluesky is ready for this fun revelation: Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.