The new year is upon us, and while nothing has really changed except one digit of the date, the tradition of making and sharing resolutions makes a good extra push to reflect on what we want from the next 12 months of our existences. For some of us, what we want to change the most this year is an easy answer that comes readily; for others, it takes more thought. If you fall into the second category, here are some questions I suggest you ask yourself to get started:

1. How did things change for you in the last year? Were there setbacks you don’t want to repeat? Was there progress you want to keep rolling?
2. What didn’t change? And is that lack of change a good thing or a bad one?
3. What would you say are the things that have had the most impact on your well-being? The most helpful, the most harmful?
4. What would you say are your biggest wishes for 2026? Is there anything you can do to achieve them, or at least bring them closer?

Thinking through it, hopefully you have a better idea of what you should be doing with your new year. It can be as specific or as general as you want it to be, as ambitious or as humble as you’d like – the important part is just that you work towards a better future for yourself, whatever that means to you and however you need to do it.

For many beings in the community, this likely relates to their marginalized identities; that might be making more friends who accept them for who they are, taking more pride in themselves, working through internalized stigma, better coming to constructive, forward-looking terms with what is and isn’t possible in the world as it exists today, or even taking a more active part in working towards the social change that will make things better for all of us.

We here at Bt+ are resolved to keep pushing forward, to learn from our mistakes and our setbacks as well as our successes, and to make this year a better one for us than the last, the same as we did in 2025. And if you want to be a part of that, or if we can help you achieve your resolutions through the work we do, we look forward to having you with us this year!

#beyondtheplus #lgbt #lgbtq #gay #identity #paraphilia #queer #para #orientation #transid #transidentity #radical #radicallyqueer

https://www.beyondtheplus.org/join

Do you want to be part of a growing radical queer community in WA state? Join Beyond the Plus! We hold in-person events for vetted members in order to foster community and bring people together. This fediverse acc is merely a way to advertise our cause to the people we want to help out. Sign up is completely free!

If you have any questions please check out our FAQ, and if you don’t see a sufficient answer you can always reach out to us and ask (either via our website or here on fedi).

#queer #beyondtheplus #gay #lgbtq #paraphilia #identity #lgbt #para #transid #transidentity #orientation #radical #radicallyqueer

Vuelve la pesadilla al Partido Radical: Servel rechazó cambio estatutario y persiste el riesgo de que los bienes pasen a la Gran Logia | vía #FastCheckCL

https://www.fastcheck.cl/2026/01/15/vuelve-la-pesadilla-al-partido-radical-servel-rechazo-cambio-estatutario-y-persiste-el-riesgo-de-que-los-bienes-pasen-a-la-gran-logia/

#actualidad #chile #fastcheckcl #leonardocubillos #partidoradical #país #radical #servel

12:45am Radical by Joe Farnsworth from The Big Room
#JoeFarnsworth #Radical #JazzNetwork #KUVO

"We allow our oppressors to filter our words to others and to filter the words that reach us. I think about how in the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson (spoiler), even a person's thoughts could be exposed to the oppressor, and the utterance of speech and the written word could be obfuscated or changed so that a person could not receive the message unless it was written on steel, where it couldn't be seen or changed by the oppressor.

I think about the words we share through our phones, and through these filters. I think then about human contact and connection, and I think about paper #zines in #radical bookstores."

(excerpt) #antifa

by Jessica Ciocci

This is a cool thing to look at for a while. It's a little edgy and broken-up. Like some violence took place and shredded the internal logic. I recommend looking at this while listening to heavy metal and thinking about the government

#art #color #pixel #graphPaper #gridPaper #shredded #pain #distorted #lol #mirrorMirror #radical #protest

Please note that Radical Enlightenment – a World of Open Sources has been published under a free license. CC BY-SA 4.0
CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Here is the ESSAY in different languages >>>>> https://undeadnetwork.de/bookstack/books/radical-enlightenment-a-world-of-open-sources-translation

You can redistribute the essay in any form, printed, digital, commercial, or modified. There are no restrictions. Just three rules that are important and essential to me.

1. Give me credit, i.e., mention that I am the author. (A.E.Freier or Reverend Elvis)

2. Make visible what you have changed in the text, at least when it comes to the content! Don't put words in my mouth that I didn't say!!!

3. And you must also pass it on with this CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

Fair enough?

https://word.undead-network.de/2026/01/11/please-note-that-radical-enlightenment-a-world-of-open-sources-has-been-published-under-a-free-license-cc-by-sa-4-0/
#digital #enlightment #opensource #radical

Hype for the Future 66D: Political Activism

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/01/05/hype-for-the-future-66d-political-activism/

We are looking for people to fill our Event Organizer position! The required duties are to research and contact event venues, organize your findings in a spreadsheet and share them with staff, and help set up some events. You must be able to commute to Seattle on a regular basis and maintain regular contact with the rest of our staff. Unlike Board of Directors positions, this one won’t list your name publicly on our website, so you’ll be able to work this role as confidentially as you’d like. The role is volunteer work and is therefore unpaid. For more info and to apply please read the page on our website.

https://www.beyondtheplus.org/get-involved/careers/event-organizer

#beyondtheplus #lgbt #lgbtq #gay #identity #paraphilia #queer #para #orientation #transid #transidentity #radical #radicallyqueer

Happy January, Bt+, and happy new year! Got any new years resolutions? If so, feel free to share them in the comments!

First and foremost we have a big announcement: the Bt+ forum! It is a forum for members only, and is intended to be a way for members to be able to have something to do in-between events. It’s also a way for members that live further away from Seattle to still be able to participate with each other. Some people in WA haven’t joined Bt+ yet because they fear being a part of in-person community, and we hope that introducing them to an online space with other members will warm them up the idea of meeting them in-person. That all being said, there are risks involved with a forum, such as causing infighting, or getting people comfortable with just being online and never coming to in-person events, so if we find that the forum ends up causing more harm than good we may end up discontinuing it. Consider this a test run for the first couple months.

Next up, Bt+ is seeking volunteers! We recently had some staff members leave, so we are a bit understaffed. Any help would be appreciated! We are seeking two different types of volunteer work: short-term and long-term. Short term volunteering is for case-by-case basis volunteer opportunities, like if we need people to help test out website features or trial runs for events. Long term volunteering would make you a part of our staff, where you are a part of the team and have regular responsibilities. For the former, please visit our new page on Volunteering. For the latter please check out our open positions on our Careers page, we are looking for Event Organizers at the moment, but in the future this page will be updated whenever we are seeking new staff.

Additionally, our Event Preference Survey has ended. The purpose of this survey was to poll members for their availability times, as well as what activities they are interested in. Now that we have collected all our results, we will use the information to better our events, ensuring that more members can participate, and that they’ll have fun doing so. We will likely hold more surveys in the future, so, members, please keep an eye out for those.

Lastly, we are doing a lot of work behind the scenes to strengthen the structure of Bt+, which is mainly consisting of doing research into more event venues. Between that, a change in staff, and long processes into forming a legal structure, we have a lot on our plates. As much as we’d like to be innovating and doing more for our community, we don’t have the resources at the moment. So please be patient as we build ourselves up; we may stay at the level that we’re at for a long time.

Thanks for reading! We hope everyone enjoyed their 2025. Despite its tumultuous political climate, our org has been able to make it a good year for some people, and we hope that 2026 can be even better. Not a member yet? Join Bt+ to become one! Members get invited to events and get some other perks as well. (Being subscribed to the mailing list and being a member are two separate things. Not sure if you’re a member? Sign up!) Membership is currently limited to those who reside in WA state.

#queer #beyondtheplus #lgbt #lgbtq #radical #radicallyqueer #orientation #para #paraphilia #identity #transid #transidentity

#Gay #Communist and #UnionActivist! Grampa Walton — #WillGeer: a #Radical with Woody Guthrie, et al

"[Will Geer] began his acting career touring in tent shows and on river boats.

"Geer was also the lover of #GayActivist #HarryHay. In 1934, Hay met Geer at the Tony Pastor Theatre, where Geer worked as an actor. They became lovers, and Hay credited Geer as his political mentor. Hay and Geer participated in a milk strike in Los Angeles, where Hay was first exposed to #RadicalGay #Activism in the person of '#Clarabelle,' a #DragQueen who held court in the Bunker Hill neighborhood, who hid Hay from police.

"Geer made his Broadway debut as Pistol in a 1928 production of Much Ado About Nothing, created the role of Mr. Mister in Marc Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock, played Candy in John Steinbeck’s theatrical adaptation of his novella Of Mice and Men, and appeared in numerous plays and revues throughout the 1940s. From 1948 to 1951, he appeared in more than a dozen movies, including Winchester ’73, Broken Arrow, Comanche Territory (1950) and Bright Victory.

"Geer became a member of the #CommunistParty of the United States in 1934. Geer was also influential in introducing Harry Hay to organizing in the Communist Party.

"Geer became a dedicated activist, touring government work camps in the 1930s with folk singers like #BurlIves and #WoodyGuthrie (whom he introduced to the People’s World and the #DailyWorker; Guthrie would go on to write a column for the latter paper). In 1956, the duo released an album together on Folkways Records, titled Bound for Glory: Songs and Stories of Woody Guthrie. In his biography, fellow organizer and gay rights pioneer Harry Hay described Geer’s activism and outlined their activities while organizing for the strike. Geer is credited with introducing Guthrie to #PeteSeeger at the ‘Grapes of Wrath’ benefit Geer organized in 1940 for #MigrantFarmWorkers.

"Geer did summer stock at the Pine Brook Country Club located in the countryside of Nichols, Connecticut with the Group Theatre (New York) studying under Lee Strasberg.

"Geer was blacklisted in the early 1950s for refusing to testify before the House Committee on #UnAmerican Activities. As a result, Geer appeared in very few films over the following decade. Notable among them was Salt of the Earth which was produced, directed, written, and starring blacklisted Hollywood personnel and told the story of a miners’ #strike in New Mexico from a pro-#union standpoint."

Read more:
https://www.outyourbackdoor.com/articles/culture_a/grampa-walton-will-geer-a-radical-with-woody-guthrie-et-al-2153/

#TheWaltons #GrandpaWalton #GBLTQ #GBLTQActors #Activists #RedScare

Would Jesus be on yachts with billionaires and pedophiles?

Or would he be flipping tables & calling out #capitalism

Jesus is actually a #radical movement ancestor we can learn from. He was born when a powerful, oppressive regime controlled his land.

He worked to build communal power through #activism #storytelling & #community

Institutional religions try to whitewash revolutionary stories but the true stories still come through. Jesus is a lesson to trust yourself and our own people power.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/12/12/europe-democracy-welfare-state-spending-authoritarianism-populism/. "The formation of the #welfare state in #Britain was also in large part a strategic response to the growing appeal of #socialism... As industrialization progressed & #economic #inequality became more visible, #socialist movements advocating for... state intervention in the #economy gained traction among the working class. In this context, #British policymakers... sought to pre-empt #radical #political shifts by institutionalizing #social protections."

proposal from Harvard Law: carve Washington DC into several states to provide votes and reshape US democratic process

https://thriv.social/c/progressivepolitics/p/120114/proposal-from-harvard-law-carve-washington-dc-into-several-states-to-provide-votes-and-r

The Danger of Too Much Safety 2/2

But that’s not going to happen if we close ourselves off, guarding our innermost selves from even those closest to us, and it’s especially not going to happen if we let our idea of a reasonable amount of risk be defined by a climate of anxiety rather than logical threat assessment.

Should we be careless with our safety? No, of course not. I strongly believe that careless is the last thing anyone should be, and that friends don’t let friends take thoughtless risks. But in addition to trying to keep ourselves safe from those who would act against us, it’s just as imperative that we protect ourselves from the costs of excessive caution. When the effort and sacrifice that goes into safety exceeds the actual threat, we’re just doing our enemy’s work for them without them having to lift a finger.

Bt+ is committed to protecting our members to the maximum extent we can as a public organization. For some beings, that isn’t enough to address their safety needs, and that’s okay – different approaches serving different needs is a good thing! But for others, publicity is the only way our light will shine brightly enough to reach them. And the beings Bt+ is best positioned to serve are exactly the ones whom existing private social circles weren’t helping.

For their sake, we need to be brave, even when that’s not easy, even when we might face harassment and unfair treatment. For their sake, we will persevere, come whatever may. To everyone who doesn’t have anywhere else they’re accepted as themselves: Bt+ is here for you.

#queer #beyondtheplus #gay #lgbt #lgbtq #identity #paraphilia #para #orientation #transid #transidentity #radical #radicallyqueer

The Danger of Too Much Safety 1/2

(A blog post by Violet Rose.)

From the point when it was just an idea, to today’s reality, Beyond the Plus has always been envisioned as a public organization, serving the community proudly in the open. We could have chosen a safer, easier path, being more secretive and building community privately by word of mouth, but while that would have avoided some controversy and hostile attention, taking the easy road has never been what Bt+ is about.

We want to stand up for what we believe in, lead by example to fight the climate of fear that leaves so many paralyzed and isolated, but most importantly of all, we’re here to bring community and support to beings who don’t already have it. There are far too many beings out there who have no idea that real community can exist for them, and that’s why it’s so important that the word gets out as much as possible!

We’re very proud of the community of members we’ve already gathered, and we want to do a lot more. But, at the same time, we have to acknowledge that while publicity lets potential friends know we exist, it also draws less friendly attention, and it’s going to be essential that we all work together as a community to keep each other safe. But what does that mean, in practice?

A relatively popular idea for that purpose is adopting a policy, as a community, of enforcing social norms based on three rules constituting a high standard of safety: that information which enemies could use to harm us is to be considered sensitive, that sensitive information is to be treated as strictly need-to-know and not disclosed or even alluded to unless necessary, and that members of the community whose adherence to these standards is sufficiently lax are to be distanced to prevent trouble that befalls them from spreading.

This is an eminently practical solution, and due to how effectively it counters most threats when fully implemented, has clear appeal. However, it’s critical to remember that every solution is optimized for a specific context, and applying the wrong solution for the job can be counterproductive, even harmful.

The thing is, this set of ideas was, broadly speaking, originally designed as protection for direct action (illegal activities undertaken for the purpose of activism). And in addition to being designed to protect extremely dangerous secrets – much more dangerous than simply being radically queer – more importantly, it’s designed for beings who view themselves as soldiers, placing everything personal second to their causes.

That isn’t the kind of organization Bt+ is. Not only are we a law-abiding organization, we’re an organization made by and for beings who ideally want to exist openly as our authentic selves – an organization of pride, connection, and acceptance. We cannot, and will not, ever reach a point where we can exist openly as ourselves by suppressing our authentic existences; that idea is a contradiction.

We make the friendships founded upon mutual acceptance of each other by being open about who we are, what’s important to us, and the things we go through. We change the minds of beings who otherwise would have remained ignorant and intolerant by showing them that the subjects of their hatred – ourselves – aren’t what the propaganda they’ve consumed claims we are. And the more of us are bold enough to exist openly, the easier existing openly will become for all of us.

#queer #beyondtheplus #gay #lgbt #lgbtq #identity #paraphilia #para #orientation #transid #transidentity #radical #radicallyqueer

We’ve recently padded out the Join page with some extra vetting questions. They are all optional, but we realize that it may look daunting to have so many questions anyways. Feedback into these sort of things is appreciated!

#queer #beyondtheplus #gay #identity #paraphilia #lgbtq #lgbt #para #orientation #transid #transidentity #radical #radicallyqueer