I’ve already tweeted about this but here’s a longer post for all naturalized citizens especially those who have been visibly marked a “other” and aren’t part of the “again” when Trump says that he’s making America great “again.”
(All of you sad white liberals can suck it up, buttercups, because some of us have some real work to do to prove that we belong here before President-elect Trump is sworn in. The stuff that applies to you is at the end.)
Trump took the support of white suburban women, those are also the types of women who want to adopt foreign children like they’re some kind of charitable, exotic vase. This does not mean they will necessarily ensure citizenship for their adopted children. For foreign adoptees who were 18 by 2000, you are not covered under the current Child Citizenship Act (2000). If you do not have proof of naturalization and even though you were raised here your entire life, you can be deported:
- “Korean American Adoptee Faces Unjust Deportation” (Angry Asian Man, 10/27/2016)
- “A South Korean Man Adopted By Americans Prepares for Deportation” (NYT 11/1/2016)
This brings me to the point of my post: naturalized citizens, get proof of citizenship while Obama is still president. Naturalized citizens can use two documents to prove their citizenship: a U.S. passport and a Certificate of Naturalization (N-550, N-750).
U.S. Passport info:
- Routine processing for a new passport typically takes 4-5 weeks and there is an expedited processing option (2-3).
- Here is a link to info about passport application and/or renewal processes and needed documentation: https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/passports.html
- Here is a PDF of fees to apply for a new passport or renew your old one: U.S. Passport Fees
Now, onto the Certificate of Naturalization:
The Certificate of U.S. Naturalization (form N-550 or N-570) is a document issued by United States government as proof of a person having obtained U.S. citizenship through naturalization (a legal process of obtaining a new nationality). The Certificate of U.S. Naturalization has been issued since October 1, 1991 by the USCIS, and on or before September 30, 1991 by Federal Courts and particular State Courts. The United States Certificate of Naturalization is proof of an individual’s U.S. citizenship through naturalization. Only naturalized United States citizens can apply for a Certificate of U.S. Naturalization. If you are not a United States citizen, you must first apply for US citizenship.
Source: Certificate of Naturalization
If you are already a naturalized U.S. citizen and don’t have a copy of your Certificate of Naturalization, you can apply for a new one here: Application for Replacement Certificate of Naturalization. What you should know:
- These were apparently issued in 1991 so the yellowed certificate of my citizenship from the 1980s on yellowing, delicate paper might not cut it. I am applying for a new certificate of naturalization but not before I scan both sides of it and find a notary to sign something that says they saw it.
- The fee for another copy of Certificate of Naturalization: $345
- Trans* naturalized citizens, you can request a new Certificate of Naturalization due to a legal change in gender. Will this change under a Trump presidency? Who knows? Who wants to risk it?
I saw a lot of white people who were SO SHOCKED and SO SURPRISED their fellow white people voted for Trump. I saw tweets about “hurting” for their friends who were women, immigrant, minority, trans, queer – and god help us if you fall into more than one of those categories. That’s not even to mention the undocumented and those on work or school visas – immigration has a lot of fucking narratives and its time you start realizing that.
So, do you want to help? Here are two ways to start helping your immigrant friends.
First, you can help your naturalized friends by getting their paperwork and money in order: planning, finding a translator, helping with gathering paperwork and looking over their paperwork before its submitted; lending emotional support, accompanying them to immigration services and/or other appointments. Take some of that #ImWithHer sentiments that led you to donate to Hillary’s campaign and buy “nasty women” t-shirts and give your friends cold hard cash so they have proof of citizenship either in the form of a U.S. passport or Certificate of Naturalization.
Second, you can start writing your senator and pressuring them to support of bill S.2275 – Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2015 introduced by Sen. Am Klobuchar (D-MN) designed to prevent the kind of tragedy facing Adam Crapsner in the stories linked above:
This bill amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to grant automatic citizenship to all qualifying children adopted by a U.S. citizen parent, regardless of the date on which the adoption was finalized.
An individual born outside of the United States who was adopted by a U.S. citizen parent shall automatically become a U.S. citizen when the following conditions have been fulfilled:
- the individual was adopted by a U.S. citizen before the individual reached age 18,
- the individual was physically present in the United States in the citizen parent’s legal custody pursuant to a lawful admission before the individual reached age 18,
- the individual never acquired U.S. citizenship before the enactment of this Act, and
- the individual was lawfully residing in the United States on the date of enactment of this Act.
An individual who meets such criteria, except for lawfully residing in the United States on the date of enactment of this Act, shall automatically become a U.S. citizen on the date on which the individual is physically present in the United States pursuant to a lawful admission.
I’d also like to add that it’s a good idea to at least consider having certified copies of any citizenship documents made if you can, and at least photocopies too. Try to have someone you trust hold on to a copy, someone who lives in a different household.
We know someone who has had their paper copy of their documents destroyed and were deported. Thankfully because they had American born family members who were in a position to fight for them, they were eventually able to return…with no real follow up for what they had suffered.
Tag: fairness
It bothered me that there were no Squibs allowed in Hogwarts. Fine, I can get that Squibs would not be able to do any wand magic, and would not be able to fly a broomstick. They still apparently possess enough innate magic to see the school and other magically hidden locations. Out of the classes at Hogwarts that the kids take, a Squib could take and benefit from the following classes: History of Magic, Astronomy, Divination, Care of Magical Creatures, Herbology, MUGGLE STUDIES, Potions (there will be little foolish wand-waving here), Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and partially theoretical classes on Defense Against the Dark Arts and Charms.
That’s a long list of classes. And some of them are particularly upsetting to me because there’s stuff like History of Magic being left out- that’s their own history they’re being barred from learning. Since Squibs are often forced into the Muggle world, a Squib would make an ideal Muggle Studies teacher and would no doubt be able to teach a more realistic and informative class than someone going off of biased wizarding texts. Squib kids looking into living in the Muggle world would absolutely benefit from learning Muggle studies, especially if they’re from a mainly pureblood family who doesn’t venture out all too often.
And then there’s the rest of them! Arguably you could have a Squib gifted with prescience, and Divination is supposed to be a very accessible branch of magic. Squibs being excellent at taking care of magical plants and animals and making groundbreaking advancements, Squibs working in tandem with each other to breed different magical herbs for potions, Squib potion masters creating all sorts of amazing concoctions. Squibs working with muggleborns and using logic and science to advance magic theoretically, Squibs being huge pro-muggleborn/pro-muggle advocates, Squibs making star charts and Squibs going into the muggle world to use their healing potions in their jobs as nurses and doctors.
Squibs being so completely shut out of magical education was such a sore point for me in the books, especially viewing the treatment of our only prominent Squib- an angry, bitter, glorified janitor often at the mercy of brats with wands. I’m not justifying or endorsing his abusiveness at all, but this was an awful character to use to explore people without magic in a society that bases your worth on it. A lot of time Rowling seems to validate Wizarding prejudices more than she challenges them. While I really enjoy reading the headcanons about Hogwarts being very accessible to people with disabilities, I can’t bring myself to see that as the case with Squibs being treated as they are.
Bolding mine. Squibs always read to me like the learning-disabled of the wizarding world and the fact that they were just sort of shoved under a rug is such a perfect metaphor for how students with disabilities are treated in most schools BUT IT DIDN’T FEEL LIKE SHE WAS CRITICIZING THE ACTION and just. So much about Hogwarts gets so gross the more you think about it.
There was a quote from Rowling about how she was conflicted about how to treat people with disabilities in HP when magic cures things, and I felt like screaming SQUIBS ARE DISABLED BASED ON YOUR LAWS OF YOUR UNIVERSE, and how you JK Rowling are treating them is SHITTY.
this is so true omg. from the harry potter wiki:
“Even families that are tolerant of Muggles and Muggle-borns seem to regard Squibs poorly. For example, the Weasley family seems embarrassed to have a Squib who works in the Muggle world as an accountant in the family. Also, many wizarding families are anxious to see early signs of magical ability and are upset by the prospect that a member might be a Squib.”
“The term likely comes from the English expression “a damp squib” (dud firecracker), an expected delight that disappoints.”
this sounds exactly like the shitty narratives written by non disabled parents of disabled children :///////
For all of you who are reblogging this, I highly suggest reading Leigh A. Neithardt’s “’Spinched’: The Problem of Disability in the Harry Potter Series” in Critical Insights: The Harry Potter Series (I can’t find a version of the essay accessible online, sorry). Neithardt goes into a couple of the disability issues in the series, and one of the characters specifically examined is Filch:
“Filch is pained by having to admit that he is a Squib. Even though readers, like Harry, do not know what one is, they likely guess that it is something negative. Filch believes that it is the reason for the cruelty inflicted on Mrs. Norris. Ron’s amusement at Filch’s condition demonstrates an immaturity that actual people may have when discussing someone’s disability. Likewise, Ron’s assumption that Filch is bitter is akin to the assumption that people without disabilities may make about those who have them – that the wish they were like “everyone else,” and are bitter toward those who are “normal.” … Rowling doesn’t just “make him” a Squib, however. She makes him despised by most of the students. She then has Ron attribute bitterness and, perhaps, jealousy to Filch because of his disability… the only substantive pieces of information [readers] get about him are that he has a disability and a nasty temper.” (279-280)
Highly unfriendly reminder that Neville Longbottom was subjected to abuse by his uncle until the age of eight in repeated attempts to “surprise” him into doing accidental magic.
At least two instances of this were clearly life-threatening (being dropped off Blackpool Pier and nearly drowning, being dropped head-first out of a window), so the train of thought seems to have been “well if he’s a Wizard he’ll survive and if not…oh well, he was a Squib anyway.”
Note that apparently his grandmother had no problem with this, since she allowed his uncle to keep coming around Neville after the drowning incident, and her primary reaction to Neville being dropped out of a window was tears of joy that he finally displayed some magic.
Recall that in the book (SS chapter 7, original hardback U.S. edition, page 125) Neville’s recounting of this was written as though it was no big deal, and he happily relays how his uncle basically “rewarded” him for surviving this abuse and proving himself magical by buying him his pet toad, Trevor.
sHIT I FORGOT ABOUT THAT
it’s been so long since i read that i had completely forgotten about that wow
I know there are a lot of people terrified of a Trump presidency for a lot of reasons, but some of the most vibrant horror I’m seeing is coming from young queer people. These people were in middle school or grade school when Obama was first elected, when Glee came on with its revolutionary act of portraying a blatantly Disney-saccharine gay love story. RuPaul and Ellen are huge tv stars, Sulu owns Facebook. RENT is a musical theatre standby performed in high schools. Marriage equality and bathrooms have been their biggest fights. So this? Looks like the apocalypse.
It’s not. Within my lifetime, a president laughed at hundreds of thousands of people dying of AIDS. Within my lifetime, that was a death sentence, not a footnote on a Grindr profile. Within my lifetime, “transsexuals” only existed as cruel punchlines. The only trans guy I had even heard of at 19 was from a movie about him being murdered. Ellen was a pariah who had lost her show for coming out. Being gay was career suicide if you were anything but a hairdresser. It was automatic dishonorable discharge from the military.
This is not saying Trump couldn’t undo a lot of that. But not all of it. And even if, EVEN IF he did? Queer people survived. Flourished. Got to where it is now. And where it is now includes a younger generation who will not go back, and in another 20 years, will be the CEOs, the senators, the governors, the president.
If you don’t give up.
Don’t you fucking dare give up.
i’m scared and angry and tired because yeah, i marched in the 80′s, when people threw rocks and bottles at the pride parade, and i thought we were fucking DONE with that.
but don’t for one second think i won’t fight again if they make me. don’t for one second think i won’t fight to my last breath.
trump voters are an extinction burst. the last diaper baby tantrum of straight whites who are terrified that the loss of their privilege means they’ll be treated the way they’ve always treated others. if we hang on through this, if we keep fighting, we will prevail.
so quit planning your fucking suicide, kidlets. let uncle jesse show you how we do it when we’re fighting against The Man under threat of death, not sending anon hate to shippers. you think you can’t do it, but i did it when i was your age, thinking all the while that russia was gonna nuke us any second, and i’m still here.
don’t get me wrong, babies, i wish you didn’t have to see this. i’d protect you from it if i could. i tried to protect you from it. but assholes persist. so i’m taking the old sword down from over the mantel, and i’m gonna show you how to take a swing.
Go out tomorrow, find a cause. NARAL, ASPCA, Planned Parenthood, A New Way Forward, The Innocence Project, Oxfam, Greenpeace… find out about programs and groups that deal with human trafficking, with racism, with sexism, with women’s health, LGBTQA rights, with what you want to fucking change! Sign up, and fucking fight.
Intern at your local congressional office! Stuff envelops! Listen to citizen complaints! Help dig us out of this shitstorm!
Donate money! Donate time! Be a Big Brother or a Big Sister. Reach out and find what your community needs! Join a litter collecting squad or write cards for people at an elderly community or buy a family in need groceries.
There is. So. Much. You. Can. Still. Do.
Online activism is all well and good, but these groups need feet on the fucking pavement. Don’t confuse shouting at people online as activism! So put up, and let’s shut this racist, classist, misogynistic, rape apologist down.
here is an extremely easy thing to do! the next time you buy pads or razors and you have enough money to buy an extra pack or a travel set of toothpaste / toothbrush, buy an extra one and donate it to a women’s shelter! or buy good socks or good underwear if you can afford it!
A quick note based on my post-Brexit experience in the UK – in the time period after the election, your biggest threat will not be Trump and his government. It will be your newly validated bigot neighbours. After Brexit, hate crime shot up by 60% in the UK nearly overnight and it still hasn’t returned to its pre-Brexit level. I imagine the same will happen in America. Be careful. No matter who they are, Trump voters are not your friends. Be safe. Your biggest enemy right now is the neighbour you went to church with and the people you pass on the street every day. Lock down. Go to ground if you have to. Look out for one another. Please, be careful.
you can throw all the blame on thirty party voters, or you can also factor in that this is the first election in FIFTY YEARS without the voting rights act protections making sure people of color and other marginalized groups can get to the polls
ok i didn’t know anything about this so
and
Seventeen things you have to learn for yourself
as a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Pansexual
or otherwise Queer youth
by the time you are seventeen.One is that the first Pride was a riot
I don’t mean that it was full of laughter, or that it was some grand party
where everyone spiraled up to dance among the stars
because the only glittering that night
was broken glass on cobblestones.
The first Pride was a riot
on the backstreets of New York
and they never tell us
that night
we won.
The only protest
in a decade full of turmoil
where the cops had to hide out in the bar they raided
and run from shouting rioters
who fought to reclaim the only patch of ground they had ever claimed as theirs
the first Pride was a riot,and two, around the same time it took place
it was a debated topic in the gay community
whether or not they should say
that they weren’t mentally illwhich, three, homosexuality was removed
from the American Psychiatric Association’s list of mental illnesses
in 1974
congratulations
all it took was a vote to declare that, whoops, we were never mentally illexcept, four, there are still teenagers being tortured today
in what some dare blaspheme as “therapy”
used to destroy their self-identity
in the hopes of making them normal.
except, four, the queer community still carries overwhelmingly high rates for poverty and homelessness and depression.Did you know that, five,
over half the children forced into conversion therapy
commit suicide?And six, that lesbians
were regarded as “hangers-on”
of the movement
by much of the gay community
before the AIDS crisis?Because it turns out, seven can wear a rainbow on your shirt
and still be a bigot.
There are people who stick rainbows in their ears
or wear them on their fingers
or slap them across their cheeks in badges of defiance
and will still hate you for the color of your skin
or the size of your thighs
or your gender
or the way you like to kiss two or more genders
or none of the above.
Don’t ask me why this happens
it just does
I think it might be that we’ve all been taught to hate ourselves
for so damn long
that we don’t understand what to do
in a space with no hate.
Or maybe it’s that the space seems too small, becauseeight, there are people who will tell you that you are not enough
that you do not reach the magical benchmark of “gay enough” to pass through the gate even
especially
when you are some flavor of the rainbow other than straight-out gay.
eight, this is bullshit
eight, those people are bullshit.
eight, you are enough.
eight, there is always enough room.nine, there is no overarching “homosexual agenda”
sorry
we’re all kind of flailing along in here trying to figure out some way to make it work
when most of us have nothing in common
except that society looked at us in different ways and decided we didn’t fit
so we could all go be misfits together
under one big rainbow flagbut just so you know, ten, there are plenty of other flags
there is one for you, I promiseand eleven, misfits may not all need the same things
but we need to stick together, especially in a world wheretwelve—refer to point seven—there are lesbians who hate other lesbians
for having the audacity to be born in a body
that everyone looked at and saw “boy”
which brings me tothirteen, there is so much to understand.
fourteen, you need to understand
because we need to stick together
and to stick together we do not have to be the same but we do have to understand
and it will be hard because
you were probably thrown into this world with no warning becausefifteen, being queer is not genetic and we are not unique among minorities
in that we collect our heritage through broken bits of history and research in a world constantly working to make those misfit bits go away
but we are unique in that when we try to prove our legacy
we can be laughed down
or re-erased
or flat out ignored
but I swear to you
you have a history as old as Alexander the Great
as beautiful as Sappho
as dignified as Abraham Lincoln
and as proud as Eleanor Roosevelt.But even with that behind us
sixteen,
they have always watched us die.
because even though the bystander effect is bullshit, sixteen
Kitty Genovese was a lesbian, sixteen
Ronald Reagan is a mass murderer, sixteen
our children, your brothers and sisters and siblings of all stripes and all colors and sexualities and genders are being murdered
through neglect
and rejection
and hate.Sixteen, there is an entire generation of gay and bisexual men
missing from history
because the government chose to do nothing
when they were dying by the thousands.
sixteen, we died from the disease and died from going back into the closet and died for staying there and died for coming out,
sixteen, they laughed at us because they believed god was punishing us for daring to love,
sixteen, ashes of your forerunners rest on the lawn of the White House because
SIXTEEN, THEY HAVE ALWAYS WATCHED US DIE.SEVENTEEN
you are allowed
to be angry.
You do not have to be one of the nice gays
or one of the nice trannies
or sweet or kind or educate the rest of the world in something less than a yell
you are allowed to be so furious it scalds your bones
at the way we are forgotten
and passed over
at the way, as soon as June becomes July
we are expected
to go back to dying in silence
and mourning our dead
and kissing all alone
when no one can be offended
at the sight of us.
You are allowed to be angry
and scream down the stars
to shatter like broken glass at your feet
because you know what?
The first Pride
was a riot.
October 11 (via spondee-soliloquy)
@vaspider, have you seen this? I think you might like it.
(via skadisprawl)
I cried. I cried.
(via vaspider)
i witness pictures of a “relaxing” woman and i think: it is funny how they see us. in the movies under the shower, the actress stands with shaved legs, leaning into the water, opening her mouth with a sensuous sigh. our sleepovers are supposed to come with bras and tight panties, laughing our painted lips over pizza you don’t see us eat. we take walks in the park in good heels, look excellent after running, always have a gentle smile on our pristine faces.
an artist draws a piece about how women alone don’t have to be sad that they’re alone, they should relish in it, which i thank him for giving me permission to do. the result of his work is half-nude ladies draped like linens over their couches, flashes of thigh gaps and open lips, breasts swelling pleasantly, a yawn and and stretch that shows off her hipbones.
the only evidence i have that i’m normal is considered comedy. our reality is comedy. lying in bed under three covers, bra off but sweater on, laptop positioned directly under lack of a chin: that gets a laugh. in the movies, the quirky girl in a cute-ugly but somehow flattering pajama set gets caught at the supermarket and it’s a nice romantic scene where we find out how awkward it is for her to exist without makeup, without her best effort to please sexually. she sees her boss or her cute friend or whatever else makes us laugh and cringe and the next time we put on “real clothes” before we go out shopping.
the real world exists somewhere outside the picture of women. we come home and strip off our bras, but instead of that being a still image of a delicate female stepping away nude, it’s a moment of our peacefulness. the narrative so often stops here, us heading our improbably slim legs to the bedroom. but instead our breasts don’t always hang evenly, instead some of us do not have breasts, instead we swipe a hand over our tired faces and smear our makeup but are too lazy to take it off. our bodies crack and crunch and do not stretch like a cat but instead in weird directions, we rush out our breath and slouch and barely keep our eyes open. we lie with our thighs touching and our stomachs hanging because it’s comfortable. we sling ourselves undainty over whatever will support our weight. our showers consist equally of staring into the void as of unflattering angles while we wash; our bodies never come pre-shaved and for some reason our underarm hair is really persistent or our leg hair is dark and shows even after shaving or maybe both. our sleepovers mostly feature netflix and wine, getting food on our faces, eating until our stomachs make round pleased hills, talking trash and swearing up storms more than we paint our nails. we don’t go to the store in cute-ugly clothes, we go because we forgot to buy tampons or we dropped all our rice on the ground or because we’re human and we need supplies to survive.
there is a very strange body-positive rule where somehow, we always end up under the slogan “beautiful.” our loneliness, our adulthood, our moments where were are not even being judged – i should remind you that those are beautiful too. but the truth is that you don’t need to be beautiful. and these moments in particular, that belong to you: they’re yours, they don’t need to be told that they exist in some plane of desirability. who cares if they’re ugly, if they’re truly self-serving and unflattering and indelicate. when you are home, you are finally human, returned to skin that itches in awkward places and ugly habits and it’s okay. they won’t show you a version of that without laughing about it, but we are real, we don’t keep ourselves perfect in even our peaceful moments. it’s okay. i know you might be worried what happens if you get a partner or roommate and they learn you live this way, that you’re messy and forget to brush your teeth sometimes and get food all over the place when you eat and i’m telling you: you’re not unusual. you’re just human, and these moments aren’t somehow shameful. they’re not untouchable and unspeakable because they’re not pretty. because instead they’re human.
we aren’t here to be watched, and we don’t need your approval.
we weren’t created to always please. sometimes we get to take a break from beautiful.
With one cover, Erika Schenk is shattering stereotypes about fat and fitness
Erika Schenk has been an avid runner for nearly a decade. But 18-year-old Schenk isn’t just gorgeous and fit — she’s also a plus-size model. That’s why the world rejoiced when Schenk’s Women’s Running cover hit newsstands. And rightly so, people are finally starting to understand the truth about weight and fitness.
Racism is not in your intent. Your intent is immaterial in how racist your actions are. This isn’t about you BEING a racist. It’s about you DOING A THING that is racist. Your intent doesn’t change it. Your ignorance of its meaning doesn’t change it. It’s got nothing to do with you as a person and everything to do with the meaning of your action in the context of sociocultural history.
– moniquill (on red face & cultural appropriation)
I’m just going to reblog this again, since some people apparently need reminding.
(via darkjez)
DING DING DING DING.
(via mirandaadria)
Steel Phoenix Studios 