#tagged as mine for the addition
transcript of video by TikTok account thatannamarie from early December 2021
-begin transcript
Here’s a word that every queer person should know: homonationalism is not the name of my new synth-pop album. It’s a concept from sociology that acknowledges how queer people are used in conversations about global politics.
Homonationalism is when we use LGBT rights as a yardstick to judge how “moral” a society is. It’s short for “homonormative nationalism"—say that five times fast—and it was first coined by Jasbir Puar to describe how the US presented itself as LGBT-friendly to contrast itself to “homophobic” Muslims during the War on Terror. It can also be applied to other contexts, like the way we talk about homophobic countries in Africa or the Caribbean while ignoring the role of European colonialism in those regions.
Put a finger down if you’ve ever heard something like:
- You know being gay is a crime in Ghana, right?
- Those Middle Eastern countries are so backwards. Do you know what they do to gay people over there?
Oh it’s so weird. [Looks around as if hearing something from outside the room.] My neighbor’s dog is going crazy…
You know you’ve lost the plot when you’re talking about homophobia among Muslims, when white American Christians are the ones who made gay marriage illegal, ignored the entire AIDS crisis, and to this day don’t have any national policies regarding conversion therapy, a trans-panic defense, or the forcing of trans women into men’s prisons and vice-versa.
Barbados just became free of British rule this week; we should not be shocked if they have some homophobic policies.
And while I obviously believe that a more moral society is one with robust protections for queer people, LGBT rights can’t be used to judge other countries, to make us feel better about bombing them.
As an aside, I live in Connecticut, an American state where it gets dark at 4pm now, and where LGBT rights are actually pretty good. We were one of the first states to institute gay marriage, transgender health care is part of our state insurance, and we’re just generally more legally protected here.
And yet while legal support is very robust in our state, there’s very little cultural support. Homophobia and transphobia in day-to-day life is roughly as bad as any other part of the country, and we have no gay cultural infrastructure. Only enough gay bars to count on one hand, and no known queer meeting spaces otherwise. It’s obviously not as bad as living in a place where being gay is a crime, but it’s still pretty lonely out here.
So for a variety of reasons, I don’t appreciate queer and trans people being used as a pawn to further Islamophobia, anti-African sentiment, and general xenophobia. Mainly because it’s racist and ignorant; many of these countries have a long, rich history of queer and trans and nonbinary identities before white European colonizers showed up, but also because western “acceptance” of LGBTQ people is very conditional and very limited in terms of material and legal protection.
White supremacy wins when we pit queer people and people of color against each other. We need international solidarity and an acknowledgment of colonialism to achieve equality and equity.
-end transcript
this is a huge problem in canada as well, touting the legality of same sex marriage while the canadian anglican church refuses to perform said marriages
and it’s always "well in x majority-poc country being gay is illegal, aren’t we so much better and progressive? you know what muslims do to gay people, right?”
while as a lesbian in one of the largest cities in canada I have experienced multiple hate crimes. I have actually had white ppl say to me, an east indian person, that I’m lucky my ancestors came here because of how homosexuality only recently became legal in India. but who made it illegal? british colonists.
white people have a serious superiority complex about thinking that they’re on the forefront of lgbt+ rights, as though they aren’t the ones who invaded most of the world and made our identities illegal
and for the record, my fellow muslims have been more accepting of my identity than white christians have ever been
it’s just so twisted that the same people whose ancestors spread anti-gay and anti-trans laws use those laws to justify invading/bombing/brutalizing their victims
WHY DID I ONLY RECENTLY LEARN ABOUT THE SALT LICK TEST?!?!
I swear, learning how to easily tell if you are deficient in salt has been Groundbreaking in learning how to care for my body.
For the uninitiated, if you feel dizzy or weirdly tired, or you cant seem to hydrate properly, no matter how much water you drink, you may easily be lacking salt.
Yes salt! The thing everyone tells you to try and minimize as much as possible. You are likely not getting enough, and there is an easy way to test it:
Go into you kitchen and grab some plain salt, flaky or fine preferably, since rough salt has less surface area, but it still works, just slower.
Grab a pinch of it and just drop it on your tongue, and let it dissolve on it. What does it taste like? This is just salt. Does it taste kinda mild? Slightly savoury even and actually quite good? Could you easily go for another pinch, just for the taste? You probably should, cause that’s your body telling you i Wants More Salt, it Neeeds it!
Do that a couple times over the next few hours, letting your body adjust in the meantime, until it suddenly tastes Too Salty. The same amount of salt, suddenlt tasting quite different, too salty, unpleasant, bad. Thats a sign that you no longer need more salt.
For me it took like two days from barely tasting the salt, to feeling much better and suddenly not wanting more salt.
This has recently helped me so much, why was i not taught this super simple but useful way to check in with my bodily needs?
Signs of low salt can also include nausea, headache, and muscle weakness. Seizures can also happen, but being aware these other symptoms can be signs of low salt and taking corrective action makes that less likely to happen. Also, over-hydrating yourself can cause low salt, but were going into summer so stay hydrated, but eat salt!
Reduced salt levels was the first side-effect they warned me off with my new meds. Its not something you want to fuck around and find out about.
Fucking THIS!!!!!!
okay the tags added at the bottom are definitely onto something but folks…the salt lick test is not a thing, nor is it based on any science or fact
this is made up and worded to seem like it’s a scientifically accurate test when it just isn’t. please fact check statements like these before sharing them around, eating pure salt until you feel sick of it is not going to help you help identify or eliminate a deficiency of sodium.
absolutely the idea that salt must be avoided at all costs is dangerous, but so is misinformation. I know this isn’t the usual content of my blog but I had to say something
