Okay Tumblr, here is the deal, I need your help. All of your help.
My mom works for Chrysalis, a nonprofit domestic violence shelter in Phoenix, Arizona. I cannot praise Chrysalis enough, honestly.
It’s the only domestic violence shelter in the valley that caters to all victims - women and men. Gay, lesbian, transgender, straight, pregnant, teenagers, men and women, they offer help and protection to anyone who is a victim of domestic violence. Not many other shelters can say that.
From the article:
Arizona’s law bans abortion at an earlier gestational stage than similar laws recently enacted in the country (at least nine states have some form of abortion ban) and it bans abortion at a critical time when most women undergo prenatal testing to evaluate their own health and the status of a pregnancy. The ban would force a physician caring for a woman with a high-risk pregnancy to wait until her condition imposes an immediate threat of death or major medical damage before offering her the care she needs. The ban also contains no exceptions for a woman who receives the devastating diagnosis that her fetus will not survive after birth, thereby forcing women to continue to carry to term fetuses they know will die.
“This law forces a sick, pregnant woman to wait until she is on the brink of disaster before her doctor can provide her medically appropriate care,” said Dan Pochoda, legal director of the ACLU of Arizona. “We will continue the fight to protect women’s health and to ensure they can get the care they need.”
[Trigger warning: domestic violence]
Okay, I wish I would NEVER have to make a post like this.. but here it is.
That’s Emily, a girl I’ve known for about 10 years. That’s her face a couple of days after her boyfriend beat the shit out of her. She has to get facial surgery for broken bones, a titanium plate inserted for her “pulverized cheekbones”.
She has been amazingly open about her experience and very optimistic, retaining her sense of humour, but her ex-boyfriend hasn’t been caught yet. He beat her in Arizona but he might be out of the state by now.
His name is Chris Young. He’s a raver and a DJ. I’m not friends with him on facebook, so I can’t get any better pictures than that. But you can see that she trusted him. And he broke that trust in trying to break her.
If you see him, please call the Tucson Police. IF you know ANYTHING about him, call the police.
It’d be great if people could reblog this for her.
SIGNAL BOOST!
(Source: knotateenwolfblog)
Bikers Against Child Abuse make abuse victims feel safe
These tough bikers have a soft spot: aiding child-abuse victims. Anytime, anywhere, for as long as it takes the child to feel safe, these leather-clad guardians will stand tall and strong against the dark, and the fear, and those who seek to harm.
The 11-year-old girl hears the rumble of their motorcycles, rich and deep, long before she sees them. She chews her bottom lip, nervous.
They are coming for her.
The bikers roar into sight, a pack of them, long-haired and tattooed, with heavy boots and leather vests, and some riding double. They circle the usually quiet Gilbert cul-de-sac, and the noise pulls neighbors from behind slatted wood blinds and glossy front doors.
One biker stops at the mouth of the street, parks in the middle of the road and stands guard next to his motorcycle, arms crossed.
The rest back up to the curb in front of the girl’s house, almost in formation, parking side by side. There are 14 motorcycles in all, mostly black and shiny chrome. The bikers rev their engines again before shutting them down.
The sudden silence is deafening. The girl’s mother takes her hand.
The leader of this motorcycle club is a 55-year-old man who has a salt-and-pepper Fu Manchu and wears his hair down past his shoulders. He eases off his 2000 Harley Road King and approaches the little girl.
He is formidable, and intimidating, and he knows it. So he bends low in front of the little girl and puts out his hand, tanned and weathered from the sun and wind: “Hi, I’m Pipes.”
“Nice to meet you,” she says softly, her small hand disappearing in his.
….The unruly-looking mob in her driveway is there to help her feel safe again. They are members of the Arizona chapter of Bikers Against Child Abuse International, and they wear their motto on their black leather vests and T-shirts: “No child deserves to live in fear.”
I’ll admit - this made me tear up. I’d never heard of BACA before. Now I want to find the WA and OR chapters, and give them some money. I can’t give them a lot - I live hand-to-mouth - but they deserve my support. Surviving abuse is not - *not* - easy. These bikers have taken on a nearly-impossible task, struggling to make it a little easier. Amazing. Absolutely wonderful.
ahhh crying
This is kind of all sorts of awesome
As I post, there is currently an Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 tournament going on. There’s lot of hype for that next to Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition. Also, there were also a couple arcade stick modders from Anomaly Arcade Sticks on site for repairs as well as a raffle for a free dual mod and a free arcade stick. Also at the event, a locally known cosplayer going by the name Jettie Monday and a reporter from the Geekssociated Press.
Team hAZmat, based in Arizona, has been hosting ranbats for the past several weeks and streaming via twitch.tv. This was the final week for the series. Although I do not have an arcade stick for the time being, I go out of my way to check out the events since it’s important to support the local fighting game community.
Hopefully the next time that Team hAZmat hosts another ranbats, I’ll have an arcade stick ready. :-) For now, I’m gonna try to stay awake as the tournament finishes up.
All right, so I’ve done all my 12 hours of volunteering Thursday and yesterday for Phoenix Comicon. That means I have the rest of the days to roam and check out panels. Hooray!
Let’s see…yesterday, I went and checked out a couple of panels (namely the Shin Megami Tensei one). I’ve also played the music games in the room next to main gaming room. It is mostly fighting games this year save for a Modern Warfare 3 tournament on Sunday. There should be a tournament for Street Fighter x Tekken, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition later on today.
I was able to go to a party long after the stuff around PCC pretty much died down. It was an incredibly good night. I got to meet more people with common interests in games, comics, etc. They came from a variety of backgrounds like art, business and technology. The best part was knowing that there was a lot of passion and ambition. It was awesome.
Can’t wait for the day ahead of me today. :D
Here are some highlighted passages from the article:
“I do not support the goals of Planned Parenthood because I believe in life,” she said. “They believe in choice. So let’s just cut right through the fat and tell it like it is.”
“I guess it’s imposing what I believe in,” she said. “We can still put responsible limitations on those kinds of issues. And that’s what we’ve attempted to do.”
The governor said there is nothing wrong with government getting involved in issues of morality.
“We are a moral country,” she said. “We are a moral society.”
When it comes to matters of health and family planning, do we really want a governor imposing her own beliefs on others?
If there is any more important time to donate to the local Planned Parenthood and support pro-choice candidates to office, now would be the time. As a matter of fact, there’s even a political action committee in Arizona dedicated to electing pro-choice women to office for 8 years called Arizona List.
Jan Brewer seems relentless on cutting off health services to low-income and uninsured folks that need it. Yeah, that seems economically wise. How is it even “pro-life” of Brewer to cut off access to health services to low-income folks that try to get out of poverty in order to obtain a better life for themselves? How is it even “pro-life” when Brewer finds it perfectly ok to diminish someone’s ability to decide for themselves when to have a family? Not only that, but her lack of respect for the separation of church and state truly shows when she says that there’s nothing wrong with government getting involved in issues of morality.
If there was anything I would want people outside of Arizona to know, it’s this: there is a pro-choice presence. It’s always been here and it won’t go away.
Yay, AZHP’s back with a new site!
Based in Arizona, AZHP has been around since 2005, setting up gaming events for much of the cons in the state. Their forum was a hub for anime and gaming enthusiasts (at least, that’s how I remembered it when I was lurking around the forums). I love seeing something local grow, particularly if it’s something that’s gaming and geek related.
There will be updates from AZHP coming up within the next couple of weeks as it gets closer to Phoenix Comicon.
I was around 16 or 17 when AZHP came up that time; it used to stand for Arizona Hobbyists Paradise.
AZHP does a lot of gaming setups for the comic/anime conventions and gaming tournaments in the state. The focus was basically on getting a bunch of like-minded people together (namely anyone who was into gaming, anime, and any other sort of geekery that could be named) while running gaming events as well. An acquaintance of mine I was hanging out with at the time when I was playing DDR had mentioned about the site. Whatever DDR scene there was in Arizona was not as strong as it used to be, so I started to lurk around a few convention-related (Anizona) and fighting-game related sites (Tekken Zaibatsu) while finishing up high school. Eventually, I came around to checking out AZHP and came around to the forums because a few of the DDR players I knew were there. As far as I know, AZHP (along with Devastation and Team Hazmat) is pretty awesome.
The Pause Button (also based in Arizona) talks with AZHP founder Frank Castle (yes, that’s his name. I know, Punisher and all. XD) about the relaunch of the website, changing the meaning of AZHP to suit their expansion to out-of-state events, and things that they’ll have for Phoenix Comicon.
It’s been on my mind for sometime now, and I’ve noticed that there really isn’t much of a presence of the Arizona gaming communities on Tumblr. I can definitely say that there’s a fairly strong community in Arizona, particularly if we’re talking fighting games here.
Hmm…should I do it?
Governor Jan Brewer has signed the bill banning state funding towards Planned Parenthood in Arizona.
As someone who has previously utilized Planned Parenthood’s services when she didn’t have health insurance, words fail me.
I’m not a Christian, but it’s good to know there are Christians who aren’t homophobic and that Arizona has moments where it doesn’t suck. I wasn’t able to make it out for the Pride Festival, so here’s one of the accounts.
A small group of us, from the church I attend, but not a church “sponsored” activity, embarked upon an outreach to show love for our LGBTQ brothers and sisters at the Phoenix Pride Parade last Saturday. We made a bunch of signs, got there early, and scoped out some prime real estate along the…
