Just for once I’d like to tell the gate agents and flight attendants that my folding wheelchair is going into the onboard closet and not have them tell me there’s “no room”. Bitch that’s a wheelchair closet, not a “your bags” closet. Move your damn bags where they belong.
Ok, so according to my friendly aviation expert, this is a Big Fucking Deal. In fact, if an airline argues with you about putting your wheelchair in the wheelchair closet or even suggests there may not be room, unless there is already anotherpassenger’swheelchair in that closet, they have violatedfederallaw.
CFR Title 14, Chapter II, Subchapter D, Part 382, Subpart E, Section 382.67, Subsection (e)
“As a carrier, you must never request or suggest that a passenger not stow his or her wheelchair in the cabin to accommodate other passengers (e.g., informing a passenger that stowing his or her wheelchair in the cabin will require other passengers to be removed from the flight), or for any other non-safety related reason (e.g., that it is easier for the carrier if the wheelchair is stowed in the cargo compartment).”
This is hugely important because it means that if this happens to you, you should report their asses to the DOT. Why? Because these statistics are published every year for every airline, and the airline gets a huge ass fine for every violation. If we want to see change, we need to make airlines literally pay every time they treat us this way.
@annieelainey you should share this with your followers! This is important info!!
To my mutuals on wheels, print out the law before you fly and whip it out at the gate if they don’t accomodate your wheels.
Thanks a lot for posting this, bro! Flying while crippled is already difficult enough without people pulling this kind of shit. Also, make sure that if there is a piece of your wheelchair or something important missing off of it, that you make a big fucking deal out of it! I’ve had pieces fall off of my wheelchair and nearly lost a decoration I had on it that meant a lot to me because people were careless with my chair. Don’t let them mistreat your wheelchair.
Non-wheelchair folks:
Now that you know, speak up.
You never know when you’re going to see someone who needs an ally.
I was actually looking for this post the other day for someone who was worried about flying with their chair. I can’t remember your username, but here! this is the thing I was talking about!
Former Alaska customer service rep/trainer here:
If you have an electric chair, confirm that they’re NOT going to carry it down the jetway stairs.
They need to drive it to the elevator (this means they might need a 10second tutorial on how to turn it on). But it takes longer to get someone who has access to drive it to the elevator and instead, the baggage crew invariably tries “save time” and manhandle it down those steep, sharp stairs at the back of the jetway and this is how shit gets busted-up and outright broken. Remind the gate agent that your chair needs to go to the elevator to get down to the tarmac.
Quick tutorial: anymore, the baggage crew almost never works directly for the airline. They’re pretty much all contract companies. Meaning, they don’t report to the same people that your gate agents do. They don’t get the same training and the job is so hard that an enormous number of people quit during the week of initial training. I seldom met a ground crew member who actually knew they weren’t supposed to use the stairs.
So it is crucial that the *gate agent* knows and is enforcing the loading policy.
There is little to no contact between the gate agents and the baggage handlers unless we specifically run them down to tell them something (we couldn’t just call them, we had to go physically find them) and it can be difficult to find someone senior enough to help once boarding has begun, so I recommend touching base with your gate agent about it before boarding begins, when possible.
At least on Alaska, it was expressly forbidden for baggage handlers to carry electric wheelchairs down the stairs and it still happened all the goddamn time. If you have to, remind the gate agent that the airline is 100% liable for any damage done to a mobility device. This is true (and also an enormous pain in the ass for you) and sometimes may strike fear into the hearts of a reluctant (read: shitty) agent.
If they cannot/will not confirm, or just seem to deflect or dodge the question, don’t get out of your chair. Sit right there in the bottom of the jetway and tell them that you’ll wait until the crew supervisor arrives with the elevator key (this was always this issue, most of the ground crew didn’t have access so they needed a crew supervisor or an actual airline manager) to surrender your chair. They will probably continue boarding around you, that’s fine–if they did not build enough time into the schedule to properly load the aircraft, that’s their fault, not yours.
It deeply angers me that you have to be so knowledgeable about every tiny damn policy just to do something as simple as board a fucking plane. The only other insight I can give is that after safety, the airlines’ next biggest concern is being on-time so if you’re not being heard or helped:
Make. Them. Wait.
Agents deal with distressed people all day. Getting screamed at or cried on can happen dozens of times a day (and for most people, think 10-12 hour days). Some agents get hardened to passengers’ distress as a coping mechanism (or just because they suck, that’s true sometimes, too). But they all have a manager breathing down their neck to push planes on time. Very few non-safety problems will get addressed as quickly and concisely as one that is threatening to delay a departure.
I think I’ve reblogged this post in past but new info has been added
Today is the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Honor those killed in anti-trans acts of violence; mourn the lights in our community that have gone out; say their names and tell their stories; and vow to fight for those still with us.
As of today, November 17, 2018, any post with links, any links, even to other tumblr posts, just don’t show up anymore in tumblr’s search engine.
I just found out about it, after I posted a fic with a link to my masterlist and it got little to no notes (it shuldn’t). I was right – the moment I deleted the links, my post magically appeared in the search again. Wow.
Please spread the word to warn the others.
i don’t…..know if this is true. OP doesn’t elaborate too much so i’m not sure exactly what’s happening but anyway…
i never use the “search” feature because in general i find it clunky so i can’t really speak to that, but posts with links in them do appear to show up if you search for TAGS. (as in /tagged/[your tag here]).
i’ve been posting gifsets with links in them all day and they all show up under the tags i tagged them with, so….if they’re not showing up under SEARCH that maybe sucks but people can still see them if they’re checking tags.
or maybe this was just a bug that happened earlier today but yeah.
“OP didn’t elaborate” because I was sleeping.
Second, just like every glitch, this one may not affect everyone the same way. I used text posts 99% of the time. I also included links to my other tumblr posts in them – and then yesterday evening I noticed that my posts don’t show up when I searched for them through the tags.
But when I removed the links, my posts could be found again. I’m currently waiting for staff to reply to my message – before that happens I don’t have any new info.
UPDATE November 18th: looks like this may be just a glitch, but so far, staff didn’t reply to my mesage, so i don’t know much.
I’ve also noticed that the majority of people is experiencing the same problem as me but there are still people unaffected. I don’t know how this glitch works. Everyone must go check it for themselves – just create a post with a link to another one of your posts, tag it, and then try to find it through the tags.
UPDATE: I don’t know how much simpler I can make this: yes, the external links have been a problem for a long time.
But right now, I’m talking about the INTERNAL LINKS. I mean the links to other tumblr posts. I’ve already said this in the second sentence of my original post.
EDIT: And yes, just as every glitch, it does not affect everyone. You may not be affected, but from what I can see, the majority of people experience this glitch.
UPDATE FROM STAFF:
I guess it means thay acknowledged the bug. We’ll see if they can fix this.
[In case it doesn’t load, the image says: Hello,
Thanks for reporting this issue!
Bugs are a frustrating part of building apps, and we can’t catch them all without help from our users, so we appreciate you taking the time to create a report.
We’re currently investigating this particular issue and will do our best to get it resolved ASAP.
Thanks,
Drew
Community Manager]
LAST UPDATE:I’ve just checked, and it looks like some of the posts with internal links can be found again. Idk if the staff will work on this glitch any further, but at least some of the issues are fixed now.
im am literally begging y’all to reconsider your vice tight stance on “even daring to suggest lgbtqia+ spaces that arent clubs or bars is inherently homophobic” cause not only did everyone on this site want things like gay cafés like 3 years ago, but I cant even go to my uni’s lgbt+ society meetings any more cause all they ever do is go to a really loud bar. I’m autistic, I physically can’t cope with the environment. I also don’t drink, and this bar has 2 whole none alcoholic options that I can drink- the other 2 being cola and red bull. Not only is it just me, it’s also like all my friends at uni aswell, I made friends with a lot of queer people who don’t drink, including a trans man who doesn’t drink so he can take testosterone for longer without risking his health and anothe trans man who’s also autistic and can’t deal with clubs. It’s fucking cruel to expect us to settle with this one type of space in which we can’t cope with.
But i guess fuck me and my queer needs, cause as of the spawn of this shit awful discourse, anyone who dares suggest lgbt+ space that isnt a bar is almost immediately shut down with “thats homophobic” because?? Why? Iirc its cause asexual people started calling for more non alcohol related spaces and y’all hate asexual people with a passion so fuck the idea of accesible spaces because a tumblr user who’s ace and wanted said spaces suggested it.
News flash asshole, its not homophobic to want a queer space that’s suitable for your needs. Next time you make fun of people who ask for gay cafes or whatever because the idea sounds silly to you, bare in mind you’re acting like a right prick towards minors, disabled people, non drinkers and people who are recovering from addiction, and maybe just people who dont want to go to clubs.
The lgbtqia+ community isnt just able bodied young adults, stop acting like everything is already accomodated.
This really put into words a lot of my feelings on this topic too
in the past we already had issues with the flag for not being a good representation of the community as a whole, and that was just the colors, just the idea that it wasn’t made with the whole community in mind so this new information is even worse. the very person that created this flag is everything we’re not supposed to be. this needs to be addressed. this blows. i don’t want a person like this deciding how we define and represent our community wtf
Wtf seriously??? That fucking sucks ass
Please reblog
This article makes a pretty damn good case for a new flag that’s not even a LITTLE BIT even AESTHETICALLY related to the lesbian flag, but keeps with the “stripes of color” thing most people seem to prefer (since while I love the labrys flag, I know it’s contentious and I’ll admit I wish it’d been designed by an actual lesbian instead of a supportive gay man).
And the colors are inspired by a Sappho poem, y’all, i can’t even.
[Image is of a flag with four equally sized horizontal stripes, from top to bottom: purple, gold, green, and pink]
I have not had one word from her
Frankly I wish I were dead When she left, she wept a great deal; she said to me, “This parting must be endured, Sappho. I go unwillingly.”
I said, “Go, and be happy but remember (you know well) whom you leave shackled by love
“If you forget me, think of our gifts to Aphrodite and all the loveliness that we shared
“all the violet tiaras, braided rosebuds, dill and crocus twined around your young neck
“myrrh poured on your head and on soft mats girls with all that they most wished for beside them
“while no voices chanted choruses without ours, no woodlot bloomed in spring without song…”
—Sappho, translated by Mary Barnard
here’s the flag w/ the meanings!
Another thing I haven’t seen pointed out is that the new flag would be significantly easier to make as an actual flag. The colors are all distinct and don’t require a ton of different shades of the same color that ends up hard or impossible to find all the colors for. The same goes for any other products you might wanna make with pride flag colors.
The new Venom movie has a scene with intense flashing lights (the lab entry scene) and I received no warnings and had to leave (just for that scene) as I am epileptic!!! PLEASE share this since I’ve seen NO warnings being shared and this is very important and can prevent people from having seizures etc during the film.
People, please be careful. There are also people tracking children and people and putting bids on them based on their profile pictures on whatsapp, tracking and kidnapping them. Especially young children, so please be cautious, especially parents who have their children as their profile pictures.
Please pass this on to everyone so that they are aware of the danger. I don’t how it is all around the world but I know it can’t just be here so please please spread the word. Thank you.
I keep getting these like twice a week. Please reblog!
I get these constantly good to know my instinct to block them were good ones
I see these too! Never opened them. Be safe!
I had this sent to my phone too.
yooo stfu i got one of those today!!!
🚨🚨🚨
Hey, everyone this is very scary but not true! This rumor was spread by some non-credible enquirer style news sites. The actual app is just an app designed to try to get teenagers to use their phones less for social media and more to actually hang out by sending “invites to hang out”. When you send a request to someone without the app a text message is sent asking you to join. You can actually opt out of them by texting “stop” to the number. Check out the Snopes.
The controversy was started because the app requests contact info, email, gps location and IP address….kind of like every other app you currently have on your phone. If this app were linked to sex trafficking, you might then expect all similar apps to also be connected, but there seems to be no evidence of this.
ruby-dear archive 