Happy Pride 2k15 Vancouver!

Happy Pride, Vancouver! I might be going to the parade today and then Bard on the Beach after dinner downtown with Branden's parents. MAY also take my towel and a change of clothes and makeup down with me and dunk myself in the ocean - my first time swimming this summer. It has not been good times for me lately, man.

Anyway, y'all know pride means rainbows so here's the toolkit from left to right:

OPI Alpine Snow, Julep January, Orly Old School Orange, Essence Wanna Be Your Sunshine, Julep Leah, Julep Marisa, Essence Passion for Fashion, Cult Nails Nakizzle's Shizzle (swatch forthcoming), ILNP My Private Rainbow (not pictured), Rainbow Honey Royal Fruits topcoat.

After swatching CN Nakizzle's Shizzle and covering that with ILNP My Private Rainbow, I frenched the tips with OPI Alpine Snow, the best white ever.

Manually! Freehand! (I didn't have time to wait for the polish to dry enough to put down paper reinforcements.)

Then, just on the tips, a dab of each of those colours.

Because there was no way to get the white strip even, I used the dotting tool to give the sense of fluffy clouds.

Pre-cleanup!

Look at that glorious mess.

Post cleanup :D

I like it! It's a little bit subtle but still pays homage to Pride.

Gonna stand on my soapbox here for a second. It's pretty great that the US finally joined the rest of North America in allowing its citizens to get married, but in many states it is still perfectly legal to be fired immediately upon exercising their civil rights. On top of that, with queer visibility increasing children are coming out younger and younger which leaves them vulnerable to the wills of last-generation bigoted parents. In the US, estimates of homeless queer youth (limited to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender in their studies) approach 40%, with an incredible overrepresentation for trans* youth. Many are driven to suicide. Pride, and visibility, is a celebration of life, a challenge to the laws and societies that oppress people based on who they love and important in the light of the terrible laws being passed in places like Uganda which allows a lifetime jail sentence just for falling in love (or for fucking, and whose business is that?). My point is Pride is important. And whatever you dis/agree with, if you ever vote to change laws to take people's rights from them, you are a piece of shit.

For the sake of visibility, I'm bi. Queer rights are human rights. Keep fighting and if you're not straight/cis and struggling, remember there's resources to keep you going until you can get out of the terrible place you're stuck in at the moment.

Resources for Canadians

Resources for US

If you have links, please comment them below so I can add them to this post!

This weekend, celebrate, have fun, exist and be safe!

NCC#2: Around the World - Russia

Well it's like a week or two later, sorry about that. I feel kind of super cool about this though, because I get to make a political statement of sorts, like I did with the TG Day of Remembrance way back when <3

As usual, I'm gonna make you guess. Your first hint is Russia.

I started with Ulta Snow White and Essie Pure Pearlfection.

The way this issue was brought to my attention was something circulating on Facebook, namely Buzzfeed's 36 Photos From Russia Everyone Needs To See.

I used China Glaze Winter Berry here, and did a rough half moon shape at the cuticle. For the drips, I put down a glorp of polish and blew so it ran down the nail a bit.

If you do a google search you find a lot of articles, including Huffington Post's assurance that Russia's anti-gay laws will be in effect for the Olympics, and an American athlete's discouragement of a boycott.

I did rings above each blood line. I used Essence Let's Get Lost, Wanna Be Your Sunshine, and Black is Back and Julep Leah and January. If you couldn't guess, these are the colours for the Olympic rings.

Next year's winter games will be steeped in LGBTQ blood, all of whom, incidentally, bleed red just like heterosexual people.

Now, I'm not a political blog or a political person, and I will not be a good source of information but I do want everything I know to be aware there's a problem.

Russia's anti-gay propaganda law allows people to be arrested and detained and then, if you're a foreigner, ejected from the country with a $3000 fine for being "pro-gay" or even suspected of being pro-gay. As opposed to the militant action you might expect, hate groups and neo-Nazis are being given a wink and a nod to intervene in stomping LGBTQ outside of the law.

There's a new law being discussed that will allow the government to remove children from their biological parents should they even be suspected of being "pro-gay". I'm going to be boycotting Sochi 2014. I believe it's how I have a voice in this at all. We, the masses, speak with our money and our attention. My attention is on the minor media outlets covering this, and my money is going to stay away from Russia. Don't let them get away with this. I believe the athletes telling us to not boycott are exhibiting selfish behaviour. It's one thing for them to go, and another for them to tell us we shouldn't use the only voice we have. Flooding Russia with our pro-gay love won't magically change their laws and views, or stop hate groups from acting on hate.

People are being killed, guys. Human rights are being denied. I'd be dead in Russia. That scares me a lot. This isn't a "gay issue", it's a Human Rights one, and don't let anyone convince you that a human can be less than human.

Be informed. Do something. Talk about it.