Rabid Sharks
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Prison Blog

In which Possum recounts his experiences as an offender in the system.

Possum Bones is autistic. He has identified as a dirty kid in the past, and he’s attended multiple rainbow gatherings. He has several years left to serve in the Washington Correctional system.

He has been making art since he could sit up. He communicates better in writing than speech. If you are interested in the experience of an autistic person doing prison time, check out his Prison Blog. If you are a fan of comic art, underground/outsider music, Lovecraft, Clarke Ashton Smith, Murakami, Cixui Liu, etc.

This is a vulnerable culture

I also feel like there’s this attitude that if you're an " ally " or you’re lgbtq, then you have to be 100% in support of everything and you can't have cynical thoughts about the lgbtq community as a whole or about individuals . And I think that's stupid , because i know there's dumb shit going on. Like, its not considered OK to have cynical thoughts about the motivation that may be behind someone's gender identity. Today we look at a cross dresser and its natural to assume they identify as the gender they're clothed as or theyre nonbinary, but what if they are just a normal transvestite ? Its probably even looked at as strange by other lgbtq people for them to be a transvestite who ISN’T transsexual or non binary.

I understand that this is a vulnerable culture where the attitude is that these individuals need support , but just because someone has a cynical attitude or is a person like me that harbors doubts , that person is labeled as " a hater " and they aren't listened to, but are probably openly mocked. On the contrary I think doubts are essential and I think its not a positive thing that any opinion that doesn't read as 100% supportive and completely the same as everyone else's is shot down.
My opinion has changed through life experiences I've had , and I basically feel like aside from expression through art, there's no need for me to assert my self image on other people . I guess its like, you know, its like big whoop. I think if being gay or being trans doesn't make you special , that's a good thing, because at means those things are normal. Everyone my age and under is gonna have that moment where they realize gender as its defined in the 21st century is just a concept that has the weight of mist. Everyone has had that one time where they experimented , and it either stopped being an experiment or it stayed that way.

And even though I actually prefer the company of people who are progressive in this way, for me to outright explain this , that's gonna come off as me taking a negative view of it. The reality is its just that I personally feel like there's a point at which its time to move on. Yes, there's a constant struggle with bigotry. But for the people my age , there's no need that their gender identity or their orientation should be anything more than a foot note on the story of who they are, because there's a lot more to a person than just that. That's my vision for my generation , for us to stop focusing on the superficial and move on to becoming something bigger that will dwarf these minutiae. Something that's not about the vindication of our ideals, or what sets us apart, but what were really capable of when we move past the outdated human paradigm of the 20th century. That's what the first two decades of a century are usually about : moving past the paradigm of the previous.

Elisa Carlson