a guy in a salvos truck yelled at me and my gf while we were kissing today so I was thinking of this
Do you know, when I was in high-school I went to the mall near my house with my girlfriend to do some Christmas shopping.
We were there, sixteen year old me and seventeen year old her, holding hands and window-shopping, minding our own business.
This Salvation Army shitheel gets aggro about it in the middle of the mall and I’m there totally flabbergasted cause like, it’s christmas
Only, 16!Tabi had even less composure than 26!Tabi, so I lost my fucking mind on her.
Thing is: when I’m really angry, I don’t rage, I go all cold and apparently that freaks people out, because I could see my gf backing up and the lady getting tense and then I realized that anger doesn’t solve problems.
So instead, I started wailing.
Picture this: 5’4, tiny, blonde haired high school girl with her little violin on her back and pearls in her ears just as PTA-approved as could be, full on sobbing in the hallway.
Just, sobbing like my dog’s been shot.
Now my gf’s like, “oh fuck” and the lady’s like “oh fuuuuck!” and I’m here, head thrown back, tears down my cheeks and in that shrill, distressed, /loud/ voice, “WHY WOULD YOU B-b-be so MEAN?! It’s CHRISTMAS!”
And the lady’s like “please stop Oh fuck” because now we have a crowd, and this Molly Weasley of a woman putters over, “what’s the matter, dear?”
And mall security’s coming and this bell ringer is looking very uncomfortable so I just look at this matronly ellen-watching suburban housewife lady, eyes wide and wet and my lip wobbling.
“I was, she s-said, s-s-she said I was going to HELL!”
And I burst right back into tears.
Maaaaaaaan, they didn’t even stick around to ask why she’d said it. Soon as I said it, Mall po-po bounced her like a fucking pogo stick.
We get outside and my girlfriend’s like “that is the most Slytherin thing I have ever seen anyone do.”
It was four years before I saw the Army back in that mall.
that is beautiful
Holiday reminder: don’t let anyone get away with trying to make you feel bad about yourself.
So yeah, they’re not just ‘homophobic’, they’re bigoted fucking murderers.
(Wikipedia article on her death conveniently (for SA) omits Salvation Army connection, linking only to expired articles from local newspapers)
SA claims that they didn’t turn her away, and accept all homeless people, except, it’s not like Jennifer Gale was only trans woman refused shelter by Salvation Army, making this denial appear to be worth less than bullshit:
reblogging to share the resource but I do want to point out that the code amounts to “pinterest no pinning”. like dora the explorer’s swiper the fox… but if swiper were a middle-aged stay-at-home-mom with a smartphone. technology is truly amazing
Someone has copied Jensen’s facebook in an attempt to scam people and get you to “sponsor families” in Texas affected by the flood. Be warned and spread the word.
This is NOT Jensen’s official page.
Remember that his ACTUAL page has the verified account icon:
Also, there’s another account in Facebook impersonating Mark Sheppard, which is also trying to scam you for money. As I blocked that account as soon as I saw it, I do not have screenshots.
I’m not sure if there’s other account impersonating the rest of the cast (Jared, Misha, etc), I’ve only seen these 2 cases.
PSA for Hurricane Irma Victims about their pets!!!!
[An image of text which says:
If you are evacuating to a hotel/motel and they say they DON’T take pets, don’t get ugly, but simply tell them that it is against the law and FEMA established that after Hurricane Katrina!
The Pets Evacuation and Standards Act (PETS) was a bi-partisan initiative in the United States House of Representatives to require states seeking Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assistance to accomodate pets and service animals in their plans for evacuating residents facing disasters.
Sorry folks, but this is FALSE. The law only applies to public shelters. Hotels are privately owned, and can set any restrictions they like on pets coming in.
The bill was brought forward after the events of Hurricane Katrina. Before and during Katrina, there were no evacuation measures for pets set in place when natural disasters occurred in the United States. None. At all. Because of that, it’s estimated that about 70,000 pets were left behind. It’s believed that 15,000 of them were killed.
Images of families leaving their pets behind made international news. One in particular showed a young boy being torn away from his beloved dog, Snowball. Aftermath pictures showed dogs stranded on car roofs and cats swimming to get to safety. The loss and horror was so high, lawmakers decided that evacuation efforts for pets, as well as people, were necessary during future events.
What Does The PETS Act Do?
The Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act allowed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to create guidelines for state and local emergency services to use in regards to pets and families with pets during natural disasters. If states wanted FEMA funding, they needed to create emergency plans that:
Allows pets to stay in state or federally funded shelters during natural disasters.
Allows rescue operations specifically to save household pets and service animals.
States that included pet rescue and relief efforts in their emergency planning would continue to get FEMA support. Community shelters that allow animals can even be reimbursed for their care later on.
Why Does The PETS Act Not Apply To Hotels/Motels?
The PETS Act only applies to government agencies.
Hotels and motels are not government or state run entities. They are exempt from the law and are not required to shelter animals during natural disasters. It is not illegal for them to turn away pets if it is against hotel policy.
Some families may choose to leave their pets in the car and stay into the hotel themselves. Others may lie and then sneak their animals in anyway. Others, still, may leave and try to find more accommodating shelter somewhere else. Either way, this is added stress to an already stressful situation. And it can be dangerous.
During times like this, proper safety and shelter information is a must. You should always double-check everything before you reblog it when lives are on the line. You don’t know who’s reading it. You don’t know who will believe it. You don’t know what that misinformation will cost someone.
As someone who’s been in the middle of Harvey, Ike, Gustav, Katrina, Rita and probably any hurricane that’s hit Louisiana in my life, I urge you to not support the Red Cross. Every time they’ve come to “help” they’ve made it worse on the locals and the people they’re trying to give aid to.
For this I’ll use the most recent and most appalling, Harvey. As you probably know Houston was devastated by this storm. Where I live opened up our two biggest centers for the people that the Cajun Navy and other rescuers brought in. Of course the Red Cross took over these centers and within a few days everything crumbled.
People were I live are incredibly generous and helpful during events like this because we’ve all been through it many times. Every time there’s been a disaster in Louisiana is when you’ll see the community helping each other with anything they might need.
So duringHarvey, people here were treading flood waters and gathering all of the clothes, food, and hygiene products they could find. They took all of this to the centers and they started being turned away. They didn’t want to accept clothes donations unless they were brand new, which is appalling. These people left their homes only wearing the clothes on their backs which were covered in flood water, which contains many harmful bacteria. They weren’t going to care if there’s a mustard stain on a shirt, not as long as it was clean and dry. There were people who had been there for days and didn’t have shoes.
The most atrocious of it all is that they wouldn’t accept food people made. People here love to cook, we’re raised doing it. Being cooped up in a house for days on end with no work and the kids missing school meant many gumbo pots were being used. These people decided to donate it to the Red Cross, and it was thrown away. Even though they didn’t have enough food to feed the people there. Popeyes, a very popular franchise, had their employees go to work early and prepare food for the people at the shelter. The Red Cross threw it all away. Other restaurants donated hot food, and it was all put in the dumpster.
Through all of this they just wanted people to donate money. They had the news broadcasting about “families don’t want to be seen digging through clothes on a table to find new ones.” BULLSHIT, we’ve been through this before and clothes are clothes. Giving these people a voucher to Walmart isn’t going to help them when the closest Walmart is 15 minutes away and they don’t have a vehicle or a way to get there.
I’ve heard from so many places that the Red Cross shouldn’t be trusted, but now that they’ve pulled this shit in my hometown I know better. The local sheriff’s department got the go to chase off the Red Cross, and people from all over the city brought in hot fresh food for the people there. They got them all clothes and shoes and went and bought things for these people to make sure they were at least comfortable. The state then took over and transported the willing ones and all of the pets to Shreveport to a mega shelter where they’ll have more long term care as these other two storms come to be.
If you want to help with the effects of this storm, please find better places to donate! The Red Cross is the most popular and they’re not putting that money to good use. I don’t have links of places so if any of you do please add them here for people to see. It makes me sick to see this happening and I want to do what I can to inform people.
Another woman utterly failed by our society’s devaluation of women’s reproductive health.
We can’t wait around for male doctors to decide what we need to know.
This is why we need to take control and educate ourselves about our own bodies.
and here’s some comments i saw under the post. why is this a pattern?? why is this a recurring theme?? why is this information not common knowledge? what the fuck are doctors doing??
This is news to me so let’s share it so people will know!
Gross tmi: but i passed a pretty big clot after having my daughter. It was about the size of a baseball. It actually hurt worse because while 15 hours of labor opened my cervix, i passed the clot in 30 minutes. I knew it was a possibility because of my midwife and reading, but everyone Ive told after this (mostly other pregnant women) were shocked that this could happen.
In our culture, it’s much more common to do deep research about what family cars we want to buy than we do about childbirth when we ’re pregnant.
Tmi: I passed a huge clot after birth in the bathroom of my hospital room and called the nurse sobbing because I didn’t know it was normal. She treated me like an idiot, but NO ONE told me it was a possibility. And the pain associated with healing for the first couple of weeks after birth was worse than the labor imo. Again, I had no idea. They didn’t tell me a thing besides “sitz bath regularly and change your pads.” Before discharging me from the hospital.
I was most definitely told about this in school. Fucking hell, 4-6 weeks of bleeding? My periods were/are bad enough, why the hell don’t we get told this?
I didn’t know it could last so long, wtf? Is the bleeding inevitable after birth?
Bleeding is inevitable after birth – your uterine wall is shedding a fuck ton of lining. It can last from three to six weeks (possible longer) and it tapers off.
More TMI – I passed a MASSIVE clot after my fourth birth. At this point I already knew this could happen – it’s normal. What I DIDN’T know, was that I had caused it.
My post birth contractions were so bad after the birth that it felt like full transition labor. And they don’t give you anything for the pain. So I used a hot water bottle, without the nurses knowing, and it caused me to bleed even more. I lost so much blood that by the first time they sat me up to go to the bathroom, I fainted. It took three more tries until I could sit up.
Anyway, that’s not the point. The point is, the next morning I passed a clot the SIZE OF ANOTHER PLACENTA I KID YOU NOT, and I know what is and is not normal. So I called for the nurse and through the door told her I had passed a huge clot, and her response was – “It’s not big. I know what big is.” She hadn’t even looked. So I rolled my eyes and said, “Yeah, no. It’s big, I’m telling you.”
So, sounding extremely put upon, she asked me to open the door. I did, and after a long pause she goes, “Okay, yeah, that’s a little big.”
YOU DON’T SAY.
The point I’m trying to get across is that this shit is so common – women not knowing this stuff is so expected, and it keeps getting reinforced. People don’t expect you to know anything, don’t teach you anything, and then make you feel like you’re totally ignorant and a burden for your lack of knowledge when THEY WON’T SHARE.
Fucking learn EVERYTHING you can when it comes to childbirth, girls. It is the single most empowering thing you can do for yourself. And if you missed something, that’s okay. But the more knowledge you arm yourself with, the more in control of your situation you’ll be.
A few post partum tips:
DON’T use a hot water bottle – lol.
ONLY pads – NO tampons. Tampons can cause severe infection, not to mention, you probably don’t want to be shoving anything up there any time soon.
If you’ve had stitches, sitz baths DO help relieve the pain. Another great pain reliever? Dampen some pads and freeze them. Let one thaw slightly and use it on top of another pad. This will help with the pain as well as reduce swelling. Change the pad out as soon as it’s thawed completely. This REALLY helps on the first couple days after giving birth.
If you pass a clot, don’t sweat it. Even the one I passed, which was fucking massive, just required that we keep an eye out to make sure it didn’t happen again. If it does, talk to your doctor.
Take a pain killer half an hour before nursing. Because YES – your uterus is contracting after you give birth, to get back to its original size, and nursing causes much stronger contractions. Taking nursing-safe painkillers won’t prevent the pain, but it will reduce it.
Buy disposable underwear for the first few days after birth. They will get VERY dirty. Or use your ratty old pairs that you’re ready to get rid of. Double up on pads – line them all the way up your ass-crack. I am so serious. And wear dark pants.
Pee in the shower. You do NOT want to wipe down there right after birth because ow. Peeing in the shower lets you just rinse afterwards. Especially if you’ve had stitches, peeing in the shower, with the shower-head rinsing AS you go, keeps stinging to a minimum. And fuck everyone else – keep on peeing in the shower until you feel ready to move back to toilet paper. Middle of the night and need to pee? Get your pants off – get in the shower and just go.
This is just a few things, but PLEASE feel free to send me an ask if you have any questions about ANYTHING childbirth/pregnancy/nursing related. I have four incredible kids. I’ve done it all – c-section, vacuume birth, episiotimy, stitches, with an epidural, without an epidural. I’m here.
….I know I keep reblogging this but people keep adding super important information.
I feel like no one tells women this stuff because if a woman was even a little on the fence about having a baby before this would kinda make them run for the damn hills.
…..you are correct, typing.
300% EXTRA SURE I’M NOT HAVING BABIES.
peri bottles, witch hazel or anti-pain anticeptic spray are your friends. Also passing large clots after birth is a WARNING SIGN. Bigger than a half dollar is a sign that you have not passed your entire placenta (this is most common in hospital vaginal births where the mother is not allowed to naturally birth the placenta and instead has it ripped out by the doctor) if there is any placenta left in your uterus you can get extremely ill. This happened to both myself and my mother in law
WOW I didn’t know any of this and I’m terrified of what more I’m unaware of about my own body 😦 Honestly when will we fucking abolish this taboo about the female body…
I had pretty great sex ed in school (lots of contraceptive information, and totally acknowledged that teenagers might have sex) and all of this is news to me.
And, as a 28-year-old person with a uterus, I’m extremely appalled I’m just learning this.
Long, but very important information, even for those who don’t plan to have children, because you will almost certainly know someone who will, and you might be able to to help them. Or at least increase your level of empathy for them.
…HOLY HELL. REBLOG TO SAVE A LIFE, SERIOUSLY.
people loooove to make out like pregnancy and childbirth are this beautiful thing that a woman’s body is made to do, and leave out all this incredibly important and scary info.
the healthcare system fails women in so so many ways, especially around sexual and reproductive health, and it needs to stop.
And if you thought there was the slightest chance of me having kids before, hoo boy do I have something to tell you.
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