I have to say it

[waterspyder]

I seek support, not permission.

If I wanted to electively amputate parts of my body, I would fight for the right and privilege to do so. I would ask people I knew to support me in my decision. I would ask other people who wanted the same right to support me. If someone disapproved, they are not that important to me. I don’t need their permission, or the permission of the people supporting me in my fight. If I want to electively amputate my baby toe, then that’s not your decision, I don’t need your permission. If I want to amputate my uterus, also my decision, I don’t need permission.

This is why I get so uptight when people hold rallies and say that particular groups cannot attend. These people can be the non-disabled/non-colour/non-woman/non-three-toed-intersex-sloths-below-the-age-of-three; usually what it means is “not someone I identify with directly”. Men cannot support Take Back the Night because they aren’t women.
Men and transwoman cannot support Pro-choice rallies because they aren’t women with uteruses.
White people can’t support people of colour in their endeavours.
Why not? Because activists say that these groups do not need the permission of these other groups to protest.

But by saying you do not need permission from these groups, doesn’t that mean you need permission from someone.

I don’t need permission.

I don’t need permission to have chosen not to bleed. I don’t need permission to have an abortion. I don’t need permission to go pee. I don’t need permission.

Support is always welcome if you respect my decision, you know, the one I made without your permission.

Comments

[mellian.livejournal.com]

Well, there is two kind of homeless people...those who are only on the streets temporally and do succeed in getting out of the whole. I know many youths through the YSB Youth Drop-in that were in the streets, yet some did get themselves off the streets by able to save up enough money from panhandling to pay the previous, first and possibly second month rent on an apartment, which in turn allowed them to apply for a SIN card and so on or get on welfare temporally....until something that allows them to get out of the homeless situation.

Then there the homeless that never seem to get off the streets, and I have seen some of those. There is a few homeless people downtown that I have seen homeless or at least on the streets all the time panhandling and so on for years, few since i started actively going downtown ottawa and getting to know the area. It is either by choice to some degree, lack of confidence, they got so use to it that it what they know, mental problems, drug addictions, some other medical problems..... There is few of them I really don't like, who act like society owes them like they deserve to be placed in a fancy house with everything paid for them...so basicly the lazy and hypocrites....even thought they are healthy enough, from what I can tell, to be productive. Of course, one seem to always in trouble with the police from what I have seen, so criminal records may not help them employment wise.

So yes...the former tends to be youth and young adults, and the latter usually mid adults and older, which is because youth have more chances, more opportunities than older folks, so in turn I have more faith in the younger homeless people than the older. If i ever had enough money to give out to homeless, I be bias and only give money to homeless youths.

-mellian