Tamsin's pinned post on anarres.family, my new home instance.
Hello, anarres.family, all other servers, and all ships at sea!
Welcome to Tamsin's Pinned Post, which includes a few things you might want to know about me.
Yes, this is a new instance, which I intend to be my new home on the fediverse... but it's the same old nonsense.
Please enjoy your stay, unless you're a fascist, a racist, a transphobe, a homophobe, or any other flavor of garbage person, in which case please fix your heart or die. Your choice.
So, who the heck am I?
Hi! I'm Tamsin: a white #GenX #queer #sapphic #nonbinary #trans #woman who likes doorstopper novels, director's cuts of movies, extended remixes of songs and albums, tabletop roleplaying games, 5-string basses, double-cutaway Les Paul Jr. guitars, beaches, forests, mountains, witchy things, late nights, lazy afternoons, writing down half of everything she thinks, and living places that haven't outlawed her.
I'm happily monogamously married to a polymath superhero, and we share our lives with my marvelous teenaged offspring, two adorable cats, and a host of delightful friends and co-conspirators.
Things I post about, in no particular order: #gender, #sexuality, #queerness, #QueerTheory, #transgender stuff, #transfeminine stuff, #magic, #witchcraft, #music, #books, #movies, #TTRPGs, #ADHD, #politics, #philosophy, #spirituality, making things, and whatever else is going though my brain at any given moment.
When I talk about gender and sexuality, it's probably helpful to know that I hold a bachelor's degree in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies (with a focus on #feminist history, queer theory, and trans studies) from the University of Washington. This doesn't make me "right" or "authoritative," but it does mean I've done some reading on the topics. Sometimes I joke that I had to get a degree to realize I'm a gay trans girl... which isn't quite true, but still makes me laugh.
I'm exactly the kind of person who likes #ProgRock, #PunkRock, #PostPunk, #TripHop, #GirlyPop, #DarkFolk, #BlackMetal, '70s #funk, old-school #RnB, #BritishInvasion, #ArtRock, #AcidRock, #AcidFolk, anti-fascist #NeoFolk, #SingerSongwriter, #blues, #EarlyMusic, #minimalist composers, anime soundtracks, and everything #Prince ever recorded. Among other things.
Sometimes I make things. I craft, I cook, I play (and occasionally run) tabletop role-playing games, I play (and occasionally write) music and songs. Most of all, though, I write: essays, poetry, stories, and—this one time at band camp, when I was feeling particularly sassy—a whole-ass book about gender, sexuality, queerness, and magic for witches, Pagans, occultists, and devotional polytheists. (If you want to check it out, there's a link in my bio to the publisher's page.)
Politically, I started out as a liberal in the 1980s, but—flying in the face of conventional wisdom—became increasingly leftist as time went by. I believe all life is sacred, hegemony and hierarchy are intrinsically inclined towards abuse, and bodily autonomy is fundamental to human rights. I believe people can own and control things, but that people are not things. As such, I believe fascism, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, queerphobia, and ableism are all evils of the human heart. I support #UniversalHealthcare, #UBI, BLM, #antifa, indigenous rights, #TransRights, queer resistance, sex workers, undocumented and migrant rights, disability rights, autistic people, plural folks, defunding the police, and radical inclusivity. Whatever name fits those beliefs, that's what I am. I'm not a wholly uncritical leftist, though, and I'm probably not ideologically pure enough for most movements. (Then again, I'm a futch-y trans #lesbian, so many leftist movements don't want me around anyway.)
About following and followbacks:
I'm trying to be intentional and judicious in how I use social media, so here's the deal: folks are welcome to follow my account here, but I don't automatically follow people back. That's not a judgement on you, please understand. It's an acknowledgement that I have a limited amount of mental and social bandwidth, and it's easy for me to get overwhelmed by my social media feed if I don't tend it aggressively.
The odds of me following you back are significantly higher if...
• you have a bio I find interesting,
• you're somewhere under the rainbow (LGBTQIA2S+),
• we share interests in common,
AND/OR
• you interact with my posts in a positive way often enough that I think, "hey, I like so-and-so, I think I'll send them a follow request."
The last condition might override any of the previous three, but the previous three do sway things, just saying. Regardless, anyone's welcome to follow my posts here.
About alts:
I have several other accounts around the fediverse, but I'm designating this one as my main account, my home instance, my primary incarnation on fedi. My other active alts as of 25.01.25 are:
• @TamsinSays: This is my secondary account, and may wind up being a writing-specific alt.
• @TimTams_After_Dark: This is my "spicy alt," which just means I talk about sex a little more freely and often. It's set to follower-only visibility.
Okay, I think that's about enough for now. Further updates as events warrant, or as I think of them.
Cheers! 💕