Look, I get that the "orange arcturian clown" is upsetting a lot of people. Yeah. That is his job. I certainly did not vote for the nut, but he made it in. If you feel the need to post about politics, please choose The Guardian Post, National Enquirer, or Washington Post type of sites to gripe on. They certainly get a lot more views.
BCTS is about writing, and commenting on said stories concerning GTLBQ category.
The reason I am re-emphasizing this is because if The orange clown spots this, and gets his goon agencies involved. The ones who wrote this political crap on our site will not only get themselves in trouble and possibly vanish, but they will drag us down with them. The orange one will say "Hey, these trans are dangerous and out to get me. Can't we do something about that?" THAT is why I am vehemently against site political postings.
If you want BCTS to vanish because you cannot keep your mouth shut to political rants, please post it somewhere else and leave BCTS alone so that it will survive for the rest of us. I, for one, want BCTS to continue. These times are dark indeed and we need to be extra cautious.
And btw, I just put those words into his mouth as an example of what he would likely say. I am one of you and support us. Heaven is on our side and the Orange One will vanish this year if we lay low.
Sephrena
Comments
A few words to think about……..
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
Theodore Roosevelt in a speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
D. Eden
“Hier stehe ich; ich kann nicht anders. Gott helfe mir.”
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
Slip it in...
If you slip it into stories, they will complain less. I hope.
-- Daphne Xu
I am afraid that you are wrong
Not to be nasty, but people like the mentioned person and his goons will react with the same vehemence towards you, no matter if you declare it politically, slip it into stories or even just think it (and they learn about that).
In fact, they will react with the same vehemence towards you even if you don't do any of these - just because you are what you are.
Which BTW is not being a trans person. It is being someone who thinks, sees them for what they are, and maybe possibly might dare to stand up to them, openly or in secret, in something big or completely insignificant.
Ask someone who is born and grown up in a Communist state. They have already seen this movie. They know how it continues, who the villain is, what motivates him, what he will do etc etc.
For generations, Americans feared that Communism will come to them through a back door, wrapped in a red flag. It came instead through the front door, wrapped in a star-spangled banner.
And "Communism" is actually a name not for what they really are, but just for one of its masks. For ideologies are just masks for them - Communism in USSR, Islam in Iran, Nazism in Germany... Different masks over the same essence. And their "fight" against "enemies" is just a part of the mask, the lie that they protect people from something.
Their real essence is the desire of the human waste for absolute power over its betters, and for revenge on them for having chosen to not be scum. To make a parallel with Tolkien, the hatred of the orcs against humans and elves for not being wrapped, hideous, revolting, evil - for not being orcs. And the chance to have this revenge is their Precious, at their puny measure. Their choice of being able to torture decent humans over being a decent human. Of hatred and ignorance over creation, kindness, knowledge, nobility. Of darkness over light.
Yes, that is what we are into now, more than ever before. Many Germans sincerely believed that Nazism brings good and order to the world. Many Iranians see in the rule of the ayatollahs not the murderous Revolutionary Guard, but the nice local priest who cares for them... Right now, in America the innocents who believe the lies of _these_, are becoming fewer and fewer, a smaller percentage by the day...
But, as some said, this is not the place to discuss all this. Let's think of some other place to discuss it. We need such a place, but not necessarily BC to be that. Let's protect it.
Unfortunately you're wrong
In the US in 2026, merely suggesting that trans people exist is a political statement.
Complete Stealth NOW.
Even here, where I have always previously felt safe, it feels much different now...
Gwen Brown
Trying Times
We are living in times of chaotic uncertainty where there are changing laws almost daily. Toss in the squeeze on one's own finances and future shelter it becomes more than most can tolerate. At any moment one may become one of the homeless sleeping on the streets. The hardships written in our stories are not fiction but close to reality. The relief valve is to lash out, share the misery seeking sympathy.
I voted for Trump and don't regret it because the alternative was worse than the bad choice I was forced to decide upon. I haven't agreed with ninety percent of what he is doing. He is an arrogant egotistical self serving idiot. He wants to erase me and all those like me from the human genome pool. Lots of luck because we are part of God's human diversity. As long as there are humans there will be those who live in the great gender divide, male and female. My sympathy goes to those who haven't strong enough hold on their self worth to understand they are God's Gift. No better, no worse, no more important than any other human no more deserving to anything other than the right to live.
So humans being just human are more likely to share their pain and misery. I have yet in all my years had anyone telling me they are sharing their lottery winnings or their sudden inheritance fortune. But their rough times in life? I am more than willing to listen and share those with transgender all over the world. What I understand is they want someone to listen, really listen, and to care about them.
I care.
Hugs Sephrena
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
There is no good answer
Not talking about politics is the immediate safest thing for BCTS, and for the individual. That's what restricting minority rights, ICE brutality and prosecutions of political opposition is really about, making people fear objecting to abuse of power.
The flip side is best described by an eloquent quote:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
—Martin Niemöller
There is a reason why I added a quote from Martin Luther……
To my signature.
The quote which I included comes from his speech at the Diet of Worms in 1521, also known as the Here I Stand speech. Luther was defending his beliefs before the representatives of the Catholic Church, and ended his speech thus:
It cannot be either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.
Luther was a great writer and orator, and there are many of his sayings which could be applied here - but perhaps this one fits better than others:
You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.
How many of the people you know prefer to hide their heads in the sand and say nothing?
Daniel Patrick Moynihan also provided a quote that fits perfectly here:
You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a large percentage of the people in this country who are willing to allow the current administration to create their own facts.
And lastly, I leave you with this quote from Ayn Rand:
We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.
D. Eden
“Hier stehe ich; ich kann nicht anders. Gott helfe mir.”
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
It's always been my understanding
That politics and religion are not allowed in blogs/comments. The exception being things that directly affect the LGTBQ community.
Posting about general politics on BC isn't fighting anyone, this isn't a political forum, it's writer and reader's site for type of fiction that isn't mainstream.
As always, this is Erin's site and they set the rules a long time ago, and I haven't seen anything about them being changed. It's Erin (and Piper's) name on the domain registration.
I think Sephrena's correct here, but it would be good for Erin and Piper to weigh in definitively on what they want the blog space to be.
I'm sorry.
But this is one reason the readership of this site is dying. I understand that there is both an 'Old Guard' and a 'New Generation'. The 'Old Guard' joined the site when it first came online and I feel have a stake in the site because they have given what they can over the years. They are the Lore Keepers and the gate keepers of this community. They are the keepers of the flame, and guardians of forum. I respect them. But this is a reading site, and young people are often tired of the ongoing politics. The nature of the internet has changed, Transgenderisim along with anime and manga have gone main stream. Were there were once a few sites that catered to the transgender community their now dozens.
But on them, users are faceless strangers. Here they are friends, Yes politics effect us, but please let keep it in DM's. We need to keep it in DM's because we are killing future readership. The youth today are tired of politics, and want a place to rest. I'm not saying we should not talk about it, but we need a break, a safe-space. Let us not ruin that by dragging every of news here. Let all support each other and foster a creative community! Let do are best to make this site a site we are all proud of!
Politics
I am very political. Anyone who follows me on TikTok or Threads would know that. I generally avoid discussing politics on this site because the culture here seems to prefer it that way.
That said, all art is political, whether we acknowledge it or not. Stories reflect values, power, fear, hope, and whose voices are allowed to exist.
Because of that, I find objections to discussing politics in a space that is inherently political to be… odd.
Have a deliciously devious day,
Well you won't have to worry about me getting political here
i've given up all hope and there's nothing left to say
for the axe had convinced them that because his handle
was made of wood he was one of them.
Too true
I'm turning 75 in a few weeks. No move to Canada or Sweden or Spain for me. It almost feels like when Eomer cautioned Aragorn and his friends in The Two Towers,
"Look for your friends, but do not trust to hope. It has forsaken these lands."
It IS daunting to face troubling things each day, but I have to caution myself, since Eomer DID see hope restored. And to paraphrase Eomer, I look TO my friends! Plus, as Gandalf might say, "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."
Plus my all-time fave quote from my favorite character, as befitting my intrinsic self,"
I am no man!
Love, Andrea Lena