darren is Not Going Back @bikepedantic@transportation.social

Any low-level state or federal employee can probably relate a story to you about how they were lectured regarding accepting gifts - or even the *appearance* of gifts - from individuals or organization. Most offices have policies about what does and doesn’t constitute appropriate/inappropriate gifts. So a member of the nations’s highest court accepting the list of shit Thomas has accepted should be setting off fire alarms at all levels of government. Instead, we’re hearing yawns. It’s clear to every reasonable person that these gifts are bribes. If our government won’t do something, the citizens should.

Pardon the Franglish

"Boston Mayor Wu Announces Free Citywide Bike Riding Lessons For Kids"

I love this. Fully stop.

#bicycling #bikes #boston

https://t.co/4d969ZnG00

UPDATE: Sorry for the notification, but as this post is circulating again I wanted to make it clear that we are not using Open Collective for donations at this time. You can, however, donate through Ko-Fi here: https://ko-fi.com/blackqueerlife thank you thank you thank you!!

Hello Fediverse! I am coming before you all today to promote my new instance: blackqueer.life! You may have seen my post on my old account about it a few weeks back. I wanted to wait until I finished migrating my old account over here, got the instance up and running to where I wanted it, etc before promoting it fully.

We all know Fedi isn't always kind to Black users, doubly so for Black queers. My instance represents my attempt to continue the amazing work some folks are doing in the Fediverse to make these platforms more accessible and safer for all users, ESPECIALLY marginalized folks.

When I joined the fediverse, the first thing I was searching for almost from the beginning was an instance dedicated to or centering Black queer people explicitly. While there are a few amazing communities like that out there, many of them are either not federating, offering limited federation only, or are currently closed to new users.

This allows them to have much greater control over the content their users are exposed to, which I have tremendous respect and appreciation for. Hell, I've got alts in some of those places!

However. As a newcomer to Fedi, it was not overly easy for me to find these places and gain access, which I recognize is somewhat by design. Limited or no federation meant the only way to locate them was by word of mouth and extensive research.

This is where BlackQueerLife comes in. I want to build a place where Black queer, trans, and GNC folks can feel safe making a home while also being able to venture out into the rest of the fediverse. I want somewhere they can use as a landing pad. I want as many multiply marginalized Black folks off of corporate hellsites like Twitter and Bluesky as possible. We are not safe being corporate playthings.

Most importantly, I want every Black queer person who joins Fedi to know that they have somewhere they can go. I don't expect that all would necessarily want to join, but I want all Black queer fedizens to know that they are welcome to.

So if you see this, please boost this post to spread the word. If you already boosted the other posts that have gone out about this instance, no pressure. Thanks so much!

@blackmastodon@a.gup.pe @BlackMastodon@chirp.social

#BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #BlackFediverse #BlackQueer #BIPOC #QTPOC #LGBTQ