Everyone Deserves A Love Story: A Review Of Love, Simon

Simon Speir is your typical teenage high school student. He hangs out with his friends, drinks way to much iced coffee, and loves his family. He is also hiding a huge secret.  Love, Simon took the world by storm when it hit theaters. grossing $58 million USD. But why did it gain a huge following so quickly? I was recently given an amazing opportunity to visit with students from a lot of high schools around me, and everywhere i went, they all wanted to talk about representation.

Love, Simon brings us the teen romance we deserve, giving viewers a look inside the struggles of finding yourself and coming to terms with who you are while in the hectic years that are high school.

From trying to navigate the social structure to friends in new relationships, Love, Simon shows what it truly is to be a high school student. Though the movie features a gay main character, he isn't over stereotyped. Instead, Simon is presented as an average guy.

One of the other characters, another out gay male, is portrayed as the media has so often done: a very femme person. The difference is that Love, Simon did even this with respect and made the character more than just the butt of the joke.

Love, Simon is such an important film for queer youth everywhere. It gives them hope that the world will accept them. It shows them that there's no one way to fit your labels. It tells them that love is possible no matter who you are. 

I give this film an honest 10/10.

5 Ways To Help Trans Men Pee Safely

We all know that men's bathrooms aren't the safest place on Earth, especially for trans people. But how do we change this problem without bodyguards, besides the obvious solution of single bathrooms? Here are ten ways, some unexpected, that businesses can show solidarity with trans men and make us safer in the men's bathroom.

1: In-Stall Trash Cans

As a trans man who still has periods, one of the easiest ways to be outed in the men's bathroom is throwing out a pad. Once I even made eye contact with a cis guy while doing it. Fortunately for me, that was at a small and accepting high school in California, but not all of us live in places where it's safe to be openly trans in a public bathroom. Throwing away menstrual products and wrappers in the stall would help minimize the evidence of our transness, therefore making it safer for us to use the men's bathroom during shark week.

2: Not Leaving Giant Spaces Between Stall Walls, or Between the Wall and the Floor

This seems like a pretty obvious one, but not everybody catches on to this trend we call Privacy. I know I feel a lot safer when cis guys aren't able to see my parts when checking to see if the stall is available. Just push on the door, dude.

And if they can't see under the stall as much, it's a lot harder for people to tell whether someone's sitting or standing. So if they hear me peeing, they might assume I'm one of the cis men who refuses to use the urinal. Some cis men sit to pee, too, but it's not that common, and if a trans guy doesn't pass that well to begin with, it's a good indication to anyone who had suspicions.

3: Fixing Broken Locks

Another obvious gift of privacy. When we aren't able to lock stall doors, it makes it a lot easier for cis men to walk in on us, either on purpose or by accident, and see the difference between us and them as well as enter a private space with just the two of us. If that's not a scary thought to you, obviously you've never had a vagina.

4: Urinal Dividers

This seems like it would mostly benefit cis men. While peeing at the urinals, they wouldn't be able to see each other's junk. How does that make the men's bathroom any safer for trans men?

First of all, some trans men stand to pee. Either they've had surgery, in which case they're probably pretty safe using the urinal already, or they have something we call an STP. "Standard temperature and pressure? What does that have to do with urination?" No, in this context, STP stands for "stand to pee," and is commonly used to refer to devices or packers that enable people without penises to do so. They can be useful for cis women as well, if they're too rushed to sit down or are grossed out by public toilet seats--which, let's be honest, who isn't?--but for many trans men, they can also ease dysphoria and help us pass. However, most STPs don't double as packers, and even those that do may not be realistic enough to pass as a real penis.

Second of all, the most dangerous part of using the men's restroom for trans men who don't pass as well is waiting outside the stall. Since many cis men and trans men who use STPs are concerned for their privacy, they tend to use the stalls when there are no urinal dividers. This means that those of us who can't use the urinal are far more likely to have to wait for a stall. Sometimes cis men don't even lock the stall door, leaving us in danger of accidentally walking in on someone. That's a surefire way to catch his attention if I ever saw one!

5: Having More Stalls

Another way to limit our time outside the stall is to have more stalls for us to use. If there are one or two stalls, one cis guy who has to go #2, and two cis guys that have to pee, the trans man who walks in will almost certainly have to wait for a stall. Honestly, I don't know what's with cis guys. They use the stall to pee way more than they should, but if its unavailable, they seem to have no problem using the urinal. It's like a less extreme version of using the handicapped spot until you reach one of the many parking lots designed with only abled customers really in mind. But if you see a guy waiting for a stall rather than just using the urinal, chances are he's trans or doesn't have to pee. When a trans guy goes into the stall and starts peeing, that narrows down the possible reasons and lets everyone know that he's trans. Not great.

Where to Get Pride Gear Without Supporting Big Corporations

It's pride month, and all of the stores have rainbows everywhere. This is the time of year where we get the most acceptance. We can find a pride flag just about anywhere we look. But one concern that seems to pop up in a lot of LGBT+ circles is, "Do they really care about us, or do they just want our money?" So I'm making a list of places to find LGBT+ pride gear made and sold by LGBT+ people themselves, who actually deserve the profit. The whole "For us, by us" thing for the LGBT+ community as a whole.

FLAVNT Streetwear

FLAVNT is run by identical twins Courtney and Chris Rhodes, a cis lesbian and a trans man. They sell mostly tee shirts, with some pins, stickers, and hats as well. Their most famous item is the bareskin binder, which is a binder made with swimming in mind. While no binder is safe for strenuous activity, the bareskin binder is made to be breathable and is safer than most binders to wear in water. It also, as you may have guessed by the name, is coloured to look like bare skin. It currently comes in five different skin tones, ranging from "rose" to "umber," and costs $50 in USD.

NerdyKeppie

NerdyKeppie is an etsy shop run out of Pennsylvania. It is owned by Mandy and Stephen Perry with help from their daughter Cat: a pair of disabled, poly, bi/pansexual, genderfluid Jews and their trans lesbian teenager. They sell all sorts of apparel, from shirts to bathing suits to sports bras to shoes, printed with LGBT+ flags and other "queer" designs. They also sell designs with more nerdy subjects. Their shop promotes solidarity and pride, and has something for everyone within the LGBT+ community, as well as some without. If you can't find what you're looking for, they do custom works, too! So if you have a special flag that you want printed on your shoes, go ahead and send a request on their Etsy.

Pride Flag SD

Pride Flag SD is run by Maddy Russel, an LGBT+ flagmaker who sews her flags together from different pieces of fabric with the help of her family. Their flags are a bit on the pricey side compared to some you might find on Amazon, but if you have 30 or 40 bucks to spend, the quality of the flags and knowing that they were made by people in the community who actually need and deserve your money may very well be worth it.

Still Bisexual

Still Bisexual is an movement to show that even once a bisexual person has chosen to date or even settle down with a partner of a certain gender, it does not make them straight or gay. The organization is specific to bisexual people, but it sells some pride merchandise for bi people, as well as some "Stop Erasing Bisexuality" erasers, which are a nice pun. These erasers cost $10 in USD for a pack of 5.

Jayne B Shea

Jayne B Shea is a bisexual woman who got irritated by being told to pick a side. She also sells pride apparel mostly for bi people, but has a larger variety of designs, and some with simple rainbows. Some of her designs make fun of common sayings, like "I swing both ways," and others feature unicorns. What LGBT+ person doesn't love unicorns?

Skyler Ray

Skyler Ray is an artist on Redbubble who is well known for a design of theirs that was stolen by Target. This design overlays different LGBT+ flags onto each letter of the word "HUMAN." They have plenty of other designs in their shop, including but not limited to HUMAN overlay with other flags or combinations.

RiotCakes

RiotCakes is run by an LGBT+ woman, Darcy, who focuses on pride and feminism. She sells a lot of rainbows and cute animals, but her less cute goal is equality by form of protest. Her feminist views are all-inclusive, with items in her shop with sayings such as "Support your sisters, not just cis-ters," which promotes acceptance for trans women in women's rights movements.

BiNetUSA

BiNetUSA, run by Faith Cheltenham, is another store that focuses primarily on bi pride. I couldn't find much information on the owner, but I think it's fair to assume that they're bi.

Raphael Morgan

Now, this store belongs to the writer, but if you haven't found a store on this list that you want to buy from yet, you might as well check it out. Run by trans man Raphael Morgan, it showcases designs made for gay, bi, ace, and trans people on a variety of different products. Other flags will be made available upon request, either by contact on Storenvy or comments here.

Many of the shops on this list were found via a post on stilesisbiles.tumblr.com. If you know of other LGBT+ creators that should be added to the list, including yourself, feel free to comment below with a link!