maureenjohnsonbooks:

melissaanelli:

breadofbananas:

edwardspoonhands:

melissaanelli:

I’m really proud of my friend Jack.

He made a video that serves not only as an official coming out notice, but one that will be useful to anyone confused about how harmful leaning into the existing binary gender system really is. 

I’m really new to my own understanding of all of this, and am dependent on thoughtful, eloquent, and patient people like Jack as I navigate the waters myself. For instance, we recently traveled to and from the annual thehpalliance retreat together, and even though I was (very honored to be) told by him privately months previous, even though I had rationally processed the change of pronouns and change of whole thought about who he is in relation to gender, it was the first time that enough people knew about it that we would be referring to him as “him” all weekend long. And MOST of the time, he was just Jack. We went running and I limped back inside complaining that Jack ran ahead of me on the uphill last portion because boys are stupid. I had a couple little flubs where I said “her,” but mostly, you know, I was on it. I was feeling proud. Super comfy. 

And then, struggling with our stuff out of Penn station and splitting at our subway divide, we hugged and I yelled an oft-repeated salutation of mine:

“Bye, lady!”

And we both slumped. But only for a moment before laughing, because he gets it. This is a process for everyone, and ingrained, automatic behaviors are hard to work out of, and if we all just try, and we all are a bit tolerant, everything will be okay.

Jack, you’re a badass. Congratulations.

I love this video a lot. If you have 12 minutes to watch any video…

I planned on watching the first few minutes of this… It’s now 2:40 am and I have now not only watched this video, but I have also educated myself on whether or not 30 some different types of food can be waffled. Good job and good luck, Jack!!

JACK LOOK AT THE CHANGE YOU ARE MAKING IN THE WORLD

This video is so great, for all the obvious reasons. 

Also, I became fixated by all of the lanyards on the back wall. And now that I’ve mentioned it, YOU MAY BE TOO!

CONGRATUATIONS, JACK! DO LANYARDS WAFFLE???