dear you, if you live near Albany, NY…

perhaps you’d like to come on down to the “Breaking the Silence” event this Friday, April 19th at 4pm where I’ll be a speaker after the silence has broken? :]

it’ll be one of my biggest speaking engagements, and i’m really excited to see and meet many of the folks who will be there, hear the stories they share, and show solidarity towards ending the bullying and harassment that has silenced so many of my brothers, sisters, friends, and future friends.

love,
skylar 

In Regards to Victim Blaming

There is no excuse for any sort of sexual assault. There is no excuse for excusing any sort of sexual assault. The boys accused in Steubenville, OH have not had their “lives ruined” or “lost such potential.” The boys made a decision that has ultimately ruined this girl’s high school career, her body image, her feeling of safety, if not the rest of her life.

I will never stand for victim blaming. I will never read the comments on newspaper articles online, because these are people writing them who will never hear my voice. However, you cannot sit behind a keyboard, comment, tweet, post, whatnot and expect to not be held accountable. To each and every person who has said anything mentioning her “being drunk,” her “being known as promiscuous,” her “knowing what she was getting into,” her “regret, so she’s calling it rape,” anything that does not say “these boys deserve to go to jail for raping this girl, posting it all over the internet, and eventually causing the entire world to know her name, thus ruining her life as she knows it now” is most likely, and in all the cases I’ve seen for this situation, victim blaming.

I will never stand for injustice. I will always stand by my friends who are victims of assault, and I will never tell someone not to go out at night, not to wear this or that, not to drink, because they may get raped or sexually assaulted. That is victim blaming.

That. Is victim blaming.

Instead, I will tell my brothers, sisters, cousins, friends and whomever enters my life, that sexual assault is never excusable. That a “bad choice” or a “mistake” is never excusable.

Instead, I will raise my sons and daughters to stand up against sexual assault. To speak up when something is wrong. And like I have once done, to intervene (safely, if possible) when something feels like it is not right. I will teach them to intervene when something appears like it is hurting someone else. I will never allow them to make any comments that accuse women (or men for that instance) of being guilty for something they did not do or choose.

I will raise my sons and daughters to use their voices and power against victim blaming and sexual assault. And I will not stand for this any longer.

i got a twitter. oh my! follow me? follow you? what now! ↘

i thought i may just be your “average 21 year old guy” but.. nope

a brief life update proving that i’m not quite “average” like i always imagined i would be, and also outlining that i’m both happy, sad, overwhelmed, excited, surprised, and all-together blown away by my life and opportunities so far!

trans-things
a goal of mine has been to write a book - i definitely see this happening in the next few years post-college. simultaneously, i’m having a skype meeting with amos mac and rocco kayiatos of originalplumbing.com to potentially help them curate and run a vlogging section on the new, upgraded website they are hoping to launch soon. exciting opportunity, and something i never thought could happen! you can check out whats up/their fundraiser here: http://www.indiegogo.com/originalplumbing

music-things
i was recently contacted by a recording studio in boston who helps fundraise and record up and coming musicians. he’s also worked with my favorite band, matt pond pa, as well as dr dog, the cinematic orchestra, regina spektor, brett dennen and many others i admire greatly. we’re probably having a phone conversation in the next few weeks to see if i can actually professionally record some of my music! i may ask for help on which songs are strongest to record. as of now, most of my music (except don’t say i say which will be up soon!) can be found at http://lentilsanddirt.bandcamp.com

college-things
i will be graduating in almost 100 days from Skidmore college, and i can hardly believe it! excited but terrified, my life will move forward after. i have a lot of paths i want to follow, and i’m not sure what sorts of jobs and internships i’m looking into - i’m sort of all over the place with that, but i do want to remain in the northeast.

art-things
today i found out one of my drawings (“parallel lines” which i posted a few weeks ago) was accepted into the juried show! cool beans. in general, i’m sort of moving away from studio-art as a whole, even though its my major. however, i’m really excited about my non-ficion course and my advanced photo course. in fact, i came out to my photo class today because i presented on wanting my body of work to focus on re-humanizing trans-masculine individuals instead of making a spectacle of their “otherness” because i have definitely felt objectified in the past. i’m super stoked about it, and it will involve traveling around the northeast to meet transguys and photograph them hopefully!

girlfriend-things
we’re doing super well :] we’ve been really supportive of eachother and actually had an interview together at a super progressive, ambitious farm nearby recently! ideally, we will live in the same place after school, but if we have to be apart for a short time, we will do the best we can. it saddens me to think of that, so fingers crossed we can co-exist and be doing things we love in the same place..

the overall
in general, i’m feeling really good. a bit overwhelmed, but not in a bad way. there’s a lot of excitement around me, as well as a lot of not knowing; however, i chug along optimistically as usual, even though sometimes i’m a bit exasperated/downtrodden/unhappy at all the choices and possibilities. all i know is that i really want to be productive in the world and community and do things that help folks. i think i can get there, and i think i can be wholeheartedly happy.

i’ve been feeling glimpses of pure bliss among the chaos. it’s quite beautiful. and i’m thankful that i have many folks to share my ramblings and feelings with. i don’t share them often, but today i was feeling particularly overwhelmed and needed to write it down. many hugs, and happy almost february my friends!

travels on travels

been off my computer/internet for a week or two and it’s been nice! but the world’s caught up and i head back to my last semester of school tomorrow and i’ll return to the tumblr world shortly ;]

that awkward moment when you realize you are in a movie and nobody really asked for your permission and its actually a pretty legitimate movie. this is weird.

does that count as a humble-brag though?!

(and supposedly trans the movie - a while ago someone noticed a brief clip of my videos in the trailer, but i keep getting emails saying folks saw me in the actual movie, not just the trailer.. hmm.)