gryphonwing - Profile (original) (raw)

on 1 December 2002 (#796887)

Portland, Maine, United States

I'm a lot of things. One of them is a sociology graduate student, in a PhD program. I'm a lesbian who thought she was bisexual for many many years but wasn't really - and I'm a far happier person than I was before I realized that.

The beautiful woman sitting on my couch just told me to say that I'm a lesbian in an argyle sweater and rainbow socks, and could I look any dykier? Answer: sure, I could add a fedora, but somehow there isn't one in reach.

I have extremely strong and deeply personal opinions about gayness and about gender. If you have boneheaded things to say about either, I don't want to be your friend. I can sum it up like this: people are more complicated than most people think, and that's a Very Good Thing.

Politically... radical socialist, I guess. I tend to stay out of national politics other than the basic civic duty stuff (and some last-minute actions, like get out the vote stuff). Election coverage makes me want to kill whoever thinks it's a good idea to report on who said what, what it might mean, and which demographic is supporting whom. On the other hand, I like to be locally politically active when I can.

I have depression and a few other goodies. Coping with them is a constant thing and I post about it a lot. For the most part, I'm coming from a "dealing with my challenges" perspective. And, for the most part, I do deal with my challenges.

I make private posts, and less-private posts, and public posts. It's based on trust. If that would disturb you, we're probably not going to get along. It takes time for me to trust people, and some things are so personal that I share them with only those people as close to me as my own heart.

Along that vein, friend or de-friend, I won't be hurt. I tend not to take LJ-land as seriously as many people do; I use my journal for a journal as much as anything else, and I totally understand if people don't want to read about my life.

In general, I am too common-sense and too generally respectful for the internet. I'm working on it, though; one of these days, the internet will see that I'm right, and we can all work from a base of common sense while treating each other with respect.

Things not to do in my journal or I will be angry:

  1. Pick a fight with anyone, or at least anyone who isn't me.
  2. Give unsolicited advice (I hate advice).
  3. Make bigoted remarks, especially ones that follow the pattern, "I'm not a ________, but..."
  4. Tell me that the various illnesses and syndromes I deal with aren't real.

Shouldn't be too rough, really. And although I'm a bit reserved, I do like meeting new people. I don't post often, and post in clumps when I do; I don't comment often, but I do read a lot. All in all, I think I'm a good citizen, on and offline, and not a bad person to have for a neighbor.

activism, animals, anthropology, art, bisexuality, boating, books, cats, cockatiels, communism, computers, developmental disabilities, dogs, eagles, ecology, economics, elvish, environmentalism, everything, existentialism, faerie, fairy tales, fantasy, fiction, folklore, foreign languages, french, gender, gender issues, history, kayaking, linguistics, literature, love, magic, mathematics, moral responsibility, music, mythology, near-future fiction, passion, patterns, people, performing arts, pets, philosophy, physics, poetry, politics, psychology, puzzle games, religion, roleplaying games, sailing, science, science fiction, sex, sexuality, snowfall, social theory, socialism, sociology, spirituality, swimming, symbolism, theater, too damn many things, utopianism, women, writing