(Did you know we had an official blog? Check it out!)

We’ve made some updates to our website’s blog recently to make it a better experience for everyone!

First off, we’ve opened comments back up to the public! A while ago we switched it to be member-only, but the function seemed to be unused, so now it’s back open to everyone so it can see some more use. Comments are anonymous, and must be approved by staff before they show up publicly.

Secondly, blog posts now show tags, and clicking on those tags will show you related blog posts with the same tags! A minor change, but it should make finding what you want to read more pleasant.

Aside from that there are also some miscellaneous changes including a couple more share options and a rearrangement of author and publication date to make it look cooler. The blog overview page now also has a way to sort by tag.

We post to our blog twice a month, once with a newsletter, and once with a regular blog post. If you haven’t seen it yet, I’d check it out!

Blog

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

We have four asks sitting in our inbox about how beings can be activists and support the movement, but I haven’t responded to them yet because I feel like it’s not that simple.

At some point soon we’ll have resources on the website for how to do activism. We’ve been adding Learning pages recently and I intend on making some for various methods of activism, such as Advocacy and Organizing.

In the short, I’ll try to sum some stuff up. If activism was as simple as a set of instructions, then everyone would be doing it.

The important part is having a concrete goal. If you start with something large scale like “the global acceptance of xyz people”, then you can’t easily create a way to get from point A to point B. Its about starting with a more concrete goal, in our case it was “create in-person spaces for paraphiles and transids.” I feel like it’s important to have a team, so from there I recommend meeting up with others who want to achieve the same goal. Then find out what your method of operation is. For Bt+, it was creating events and inviting members to them. And then at that point you create a plan, which for us involved making a website, researching event venues, doing regular meetings, breaking into the local queer scene, etc.

That’s just one way to do activism, there’s also Advocacy, where you publicly announce your support for a cause, you could do this by putting fliers up around your city. There’s Lobbying, where you try to influence ruling on legal items, you could do this by putting together a mailing list where you email people when important legislature is coming up that should be opposed.

There’s a lot of ways to do activism. I’ll try to get around to these asks soon, but hopefully this answers everyone at least a little bit. I’ll try and work on those activism learning resources soon. Thank you!

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

Happy November everyone! Did you know that Therianthropy Day falls within November? In case you didn’t, Therian Pride Day falls on the first full moon of November every year! It celebrates the “first howl”, a therianthropy event held in the late 1990s. If you’re nonhuman in any way, then find a way to celebrate!

Our November Social will be this month. At this point it feels kind of redundant to say that every month, since we always have socials, so I might refrain from saying that in every monthly newsletter. If you want to attend then Join to be a member of Bt+ now! If you are unable to be a member or don’t want to for whatever reason, then you can come along as a guest of another registered member if you know someone who’s signed up with us.

We have also announced our December Social! This time around there’s an optional RSVP. Using the RSVP will help us get a better idea of how many people will be attending that way we know how much food to get, how many chairs to lay out, etc. If you’re bringing guests then you can include the amount of guests you’re bringing in your RSVP, but, again, it’s optional.

Finally, we are proud to announce that we have a new staff member, Aspen Rose! You can read about her on the recently improved / still a work in progress Staff page.

Feel free to reach out and Contact us if you have any comments, questions, concerns, or suggestions for Bt+! Have a happy November, everyone!

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

A lot of people want to do activism, but a lot also don’t know where to start. Here’s a four step plan that simplifies activism down to its most basic elements.

1. Have a specific goal. This is the most important part. Most people have a grand goal like “to see a day where radically queer people are accepted”, but that is big and is based on a lot of smaller goals. Something like that requires community, representation, information, etc. Instead, come up with something specific. My goal for Beyond the Plus was “to bring our IRL community together”, but you can also have goals like “to dispel misinformation about paraphilias” or “to help transid people get gear/affirming accessories”.
2. Meet people with a common goal. When it comes to activism, you have to do it first, otherwise you’ll never know if someone else will do it, but that doesn’t mean you have to do it alone. Find others that have the same goal in mind, and work with them to reach that goal. Many don’t know how to even meet others like them, and that’s where the internet is really useful. Put yourself out there and say that you have certain activism goals, and discuss them with trusted people. Maybe even meet them in-person if you know how to be safe about it.
3. Develop a method of operation. Even something as non-specific as “to bring our IRL community together” raises questions, the main one being “what does that look like”? Work together with your team to discuss what the method of operation of your activism looks like. For us, it’s hosting private events for vetted members, giving them a space to mingle and be themselves.
4. Create a plan. This is the hardest part. Now that you have your ultimate goal, your team of activists, and the way you’re gonna do your goal, now you have to figure out how to get from where you are to where you want to be. This involves planning, and that’s going to look different for whatever your goal or MO is. For us, it goes something like “1. Build a website. 2. Research event venues. 3. Advertise and network to build our community. 4. Vet applicants and create a group of members. 5. Hold events and invite members.”. A plan can be something simple like that, even if parts of the plan are hard, like making a website. But now that you have each individual piece, you can research into each of them. Don’t know anything about making a website? Well now you can set aside some time to do just that! Don’t know anything about local event venues? Try to ask some friends or look online to see what you can find.

This oversimplifies activism a bit, but I think it’s a solid place to start for people who are interested in making a change. If you’re interested in activism, then I implore you to start by choosing a goal, find the change you want to see. Then meet people who want to make change too. With your new team, you can decide what form that change takes place. And then you can decide how to get from point A to point B.

#queer #gay #beyondtheplus #lgbt #lgbtq #paraphilia #orientation #transid #identity

(We’re gonna be sending newsletters through social media now as well!)

Happy October, everyone! This month we’ve got some pretty big news in a few different areas. I apologize for the recent radio silence, we’ve been hard at work and haven’t had a lot of time to focus on communications.

For starters, October Socials is indeed happening! Everything is planned out, but we still haven’t received confirmation from our venue yet about the event. I haven’t wanted to publish the details about it just yet in case they end up cancelling on us or in case there’s a technical difficulty, so stay tuned. It won’t be as early as September Socials was, so no need to panic about scheduling. We will publish information about the socials as soon as we can be 100% confident about when and where it’ll be happening.

The next piece of news is one that’s been mentioned before, and it’s about our members. Starting now, officially, we are moving away from email being our main contact point with members. What this means is that instead of delivering private member newsletter emails regarding events and the like, notices for members will be displayed on the site itself. Providing an easy way for us to reach you and for you to respond to, say, surveys, from the comfort of our website. We are going to actively be improving many parts of the website to accommodate this, and sort of make it a one stop shop for our members to get all the Bt+ info they need. If you are a member and haven’t accessed your account since sign up, then I encourage you to Login, bookmark the page, and check the home page every week or so to see if there’s new information.

The public mailing list will likely remain, that way everyone, member or not, can get notifications and news about new blog posts, events, activism opportunities, and the like. Current members have been automatically subscribed to this mailing list, but future members will not be. If current members want to unsubscribe, then they should be able to at the bottom of any page of the website through the “Unsubscribe” button.

The final big piece of news is the reason why we’re stepping away from the email dependency, and that’s that we’re adding a new contact option for members, Signal! Now, in addition to being able to sign up with email, you can (and are encouraged) to use Signal as your main contact point instead. This offers pros and cons compared to email, but the biggest pro is that its more secure, and many potential members have shown hesitancy to sign up due to not wanting us to have their email. Current members can move from email to Signal by using our new Member Support form, a page where members can submit requests directly to us about assistance they need regarding their membership.

We’ve been hard at work making Bt+ as good as it can be for our members. You asked, and we listened, and we are fully dedicated to keeping our members safe and happy. Once again, keep an eye out for info regarding October socials. We will likely send out an email once we can, since it would be unreasonable to ask people to just check the site every day, but that will hopefully be the last email regarding events. Our events are booked out months in advance, so our plan for here on out is to announce information about future events one month in advance, that way members don’t need to frantically check the site for new info.

Thanks for reading!

#queer #beyondtheplus #lgbt #lgbtq #gay