Well, hello again.

“I’ll write something each week,” they said. “I’ll use this as a distraction from my main business,” they said. “That way, I’ll never not be productive,” they said. Oops.

Howdy pals, and welcome back to the party that is Kirstifer and this pet project, Queerstory. 

Where have I been, and why have I neglected this sweet baby blog? That’s a little thing I like to call burnout, baybeeee. Throw in a couple of months of being thrown fully out of whack on scheduling stuff and general bad-brain nonsense, and you got yourself a recipe for not writing shit.

Alllllrighty then. I last wrote things in February, and I’m sure things have happened that I could address and talk about, but I think I’ll just focus on now, and maybe I’ll have more stories about stuff in the future. Sound good? Rad.

It’s June! Happy Pride, my darling queers <3 I actually went to my first pride this year, which was A) massively overdue and B) really sweet and nice. I went with some pals and metamours from my polycule and met up with some lovely friends whilst there, and it was overall a lovely day - even if the weather was being incredibly indecisive. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and got some lovely passing crushes on some gorgeous people and one slightly longer-lasting crush, I think, but we’ll wait and see how that goes. Also, I hope I helped a couple of people have a better day with my inane chat of fashion and cryptids (podcast coming to you soon (lol I joke, I can barely manage this, let alone another fucking thing to split my focus)). Anyway, it was wildly wholesome, and I loved it, even when it was cold and rainy. I guess that’s what we get from being in the UK.

Naturally, with the general election coming up and the conservatives being the shitbags they are, there was a fair amount of talk about politics and what have you. The Green Party was there, and they had some interesting points that I’d genuinely never thought about before when it came to queer relationships and legal recognition of them - they had a poll and one of the questions was about recognition of queerplatonic relationships and whether we as people thought that there should be a way for these to be recognised under the law. I admit this was a blind spot for me, and I got to talking to a lovely human behind the stall. They explained that it was more of a thing for ace/aro people, and also, it could extend to polyamorous people and the extended relationship structures that they have. As someone who is a part of one of these structures but living separately from my partner, I’d not really considered how our relationship would factor in under the law. I do have a pal who essentially bounces between their partner's houses because of their work being temperamental (film and TV, I’m looking at you) - and with this, they are essentially homeless, which is a common issue for poly people. I met some new pals at Pride, and they have a similar issue where only the two of them are on their house lease agreement, but they have another partner living with them, but due to them not being “legally” one of the house occupants, they’re technically homeless, which is wild. I mean, I can’t say too much, having also been technically homeless myself, but I’m incredibly lucky with the people I know and also my parents having some space for me and the mountain of crap I travel with. I digress; this is a topic I’ve taken some time and thought about for a bit. I’m interested to see how it plays out - and if it ever becomes a big enough issue to go through parliament, how they and the media will react to it. 

Of course, there were also a number of people who were out protesting the new RSHE movement that the conservatives are trying to sneak in under the wire. Essentially, it reduces the amount of information that students have access to regarding gender and identity. As a person who is a qualified teacher and lived in the world of education for long enough, I totally get that there’s a balance to be had when discussing these things. However, censorship rarely works out in favour of those being censored and often works out beautifully for those doing it. For a country that only turned over Section 28 twenty years ago, we’re doing great at that whole short-term memory thing that people in power love to have. I understand I’m unusual here, but I think maybe we should learn from our history and not repress or demonise people for their identities. Radical thinking, I know. By refusing to teach people that there is a spectrum of gender, identities, romantic attraction and even sexuality, you are putting blinders on generations of people and not allowing them to fully and authentically become themselves. There’s an argument to be made that “kids will learn it all anyway from the internet”, and you’re not wrong; they’ll absorb whatever they can get their hands on from reputable sources and unreputable ones. I’ve seen this in the way that teenagers and young people talk about sex - because they’ve learnt from porn, and they refuse to be told differently because they’ve observed it existing. I can but hope these young people will learn that not everyone is a pornstar and, therefore, not going to react the way they might expect. So, with that in mind, people searching for guidance on their identity and how they’re feeling will likely come across those fishing for them. Some sources will have the person's best interests at heart, but others may not. Conversion “therapy” still exists, despite it being illegal in the UK, and I would not be surprised if these young people with questions are quickly taken advantage of. If you have thoughts or opinions and you’re reading this before the 11th of July 2024, please consider completing the survey below;

https://consult.education.gov.uk/rshe-team/review-of-the-rshe-statutory-guidance/ 

When I was sat at Pride, there was a conversation about how we get to have a whole month dedicated to one of the seven deadly sins and how lovely that was - why don’t we have more months related to the others? So this is officially my platform for July to be Greed month, August to be Lust month, September to be Anger month, October to be Gluttony month, November to be Envy month and December to be Sloth month. I reckon we could get away with a bunch of these. I go to a festival in August, and if that’s not full o’lust, then I don’t know what lust is. There’s Halloween in October, which fits beautifully into gluttony! Honestly, who wants to move their body in December? Not me! See, it’s perfect and has no flaws (I will not be accepting criticism at this time, thank you).

For reals, though, it’s good to be back. I have more thoughts, and I’m sure I’ll spew em out for all 10-15 of y’all to read. 

Remember, Pride was a riot 💜