Pinned
Introducing "Queersources USA," a collection of online resources for queer USians covering a wide variety of topics, including but not limited to:
- Crisis hotlines
- Student's rights
- Worker's rights
- Affirming healthcare and patient's rights
- Legal aid
- Hormone therapy, surgery, voice training, and shapewear
- Traveling safely with hormones
- Voting while trans
- Black-centered resources
- Intersex and a-spectrum resources
- Online community spaces
- Queer history
- Religion and spirituality across different traditions
I had started working on this before the election but in light of the results, I wanted to put it out here as soon as possible. All the resources are either active, or still useful even if they have not been updated recently.
Hi! If you actually click on the page and go to the section about hotlines, you will see that this in fact something I am extremely aware of.
The first thing on that section in TransLifeline's Crisis Callers Bill of Rights. TransLifeline is very critical of hotlines that call law enforcement on callers without their consent. Their #SafeHotlines page is dedicated to their activism on this front. They released a report called The Problem with 988 critiquing the national mental health line, a fact sheet on how transgender people are affected, share survivor stories, and also provide links to other community resources that avoid law enforcement.
The other hotlines listed are:
- Blackline, a crisis support hotline which allows people to report negative experiences with the police. They state that "All calls remain private and will never be shared with law enforcement or state agencies of any kind."
- THRIVE LifeLine, a text-only crisis service for marginalized groups. They state that "THRIVE Lifeline does not call emergency services for people that are at risk of harming themselves without their consent. However, we are obligated to report credible threats of homicide to the proper authorities if deescalation isn’t possible."
- LGBT National Hotline, which has several lines for queer people in need of support. They state that "We will not contact any authorities or other services or programs on your behalf."
The only hotline listed that does work law enforcement is 988, the state-run hotline. It is placed at the bottom and the risk of them calling the police without your consent is clearly marked.
There are real dangers to using hotlines, because they are often run in ways that are sanist and suicidist. But this is not true of every hotline. Marginalized people have worked hard to make resources that don't rely on violent institutions. Not everyone has a therapist or community they can turn to, at least in the moment of their crisis. Hotlines provide a necessary service and we need to raise awareness of the ones that are actively anti-police-intervention.
ok, thank you for your clarification. sorry for my tone, i'm just sort of reactive because of recent events and whatnot 😓 have a good day though and thank you again
No worries! This IS a real problem and I absolutely get having a reactive response to seeing hotlines when so many people still don't realize how dangerous it can be and the importance of support services that don't rely on oppressive institutions. I had a bit of a back-and-forth with myself about including them on the list at all, and I decided to because of how much I care about sanism, not out of ignorance of it. I responded because I to take this opportunity to make sure everyone knew about the range of options available.
