friends,
kharkiv is under russian siege. it's a massive city w/ the 2nd largest queer community in ukraine. proud homecity of @KharkivPride. many can't leave because of non-stop bombing. many don't want to leave because that's their home. my queer family there needs your support
as russian bombing of kharkiv gets worse, my queer family already financially struggles to buy food, secure stockpiles for bomb shelters. help them now while the city has connection, bank cards work & they can cash them out. in day or two they might be cut off #StandWithUkriane
i can vouch personally that your money will reach queer ukrainians on the frontline. these people are my family and i trust them with my life. if we can't protect skies over their heads for now, then this is the least we can do
please DM directly if you have any troubles sending the wire — i can't reveal too much info publicly since queer ukrainians will be the first ones to get targeted in case kharkiv falls to fascists
my grandma is about to celebrate her 92th birthday in her apartment hearing russian bombs falling closer and closer. she is too frail to leave. she survived hitler and his invaders setting her house on fire and shooting her point blank as 12yo teenager. she is not scared
i talk to her every day. every time she ends up comforting me, despite that i am not the one in mortal danger. it breaks my heart over and over again. “don’t worry. i outlived hitler. i’ll live to the day when they hang putin, too” — that’s how we end every conversation
my grandma taught me how to read and write. during dark poverty days of 1990s she would shelter me when my parents were struggling to provide enough food even for themselves. being head nurse at kids hospital, she always had energy reserved for me even after most grueling shifts
when foreigners casually drop ‘bombing of kyiv’ these pics always come to mind. this is what #RussianColonialism did to chechnya and grozny when they tried to leave the empire in 2000. a war crime of horrific scale, but the rest of the world was like ‘meh’, so moscow continued
moscow is awfully uncreative. in the last one hundred years #RussianColonialism has been using the same invasion and occupation tactic over and over and over again. thread.
This year had a terrible toll on my mental health. I had to reevaluate my public presence. I've been oftentimes too nice and polite by surrounding myself with people and affiliations that do not affirm me, value my talents, and see my potential.
A big cleanup is coming.
I moved mountains to become who I am today, to have a chance to do what I love, to be in a position to make a difference. I started from zero, being a poor and queer kid. Often not seen, assigned no value.
Yet I've been struggling to accept that I deserve what I've built
I recollect one watershed moment when @EllenPage called me 'brave', insisted I stop denying it. At that moment I felt embarrassed, ashamed. I honestly thought she just doesn't know what a big fraud I really am. Took me years to see what a tragic self-depreciation trap I lived in