It’s a really effective piece of world-building. It shows there’s not just one altered moment in history that made this awful universe. It’s the entire nature of humanity that’s different, and it’s reflected in the culture, which in turn, reinforces those traits in its audience

obviously the struggles of straight women and gay men are not the same, but they do share the feature of "absolutely despised by straight men" and I do think that's an important intersection to acknowledge at times

being a queer Catholic in America is so different now than it was under Pope Benedict. that's not because Francis made any sweeping policy changes! it's because ordinary Catholics who ALREADY WANTED to push for progressive change suddenly felt they had the Pope's encouragement to do what was right

I think we are watching a similar thing happening now with Pope Leo. on issues related to worker's rights, government abuse of power, immigration, etc, he came out of the gate strong. if you are a Catholic for whom those things are important, feeling like you have the Pope's backup really matters

so if you are a priest who is strongly opposed to what ICE is doing in your community, EVEN IF you have a conservative bishop, EVEN IF your parish skews Republican and pro-law enforcement, Pope Leo getting in the game has made it exponentially safer to stick your neck out and stand up against ICE

bsky.app/profile/did:...

Hazlethorn by CG Drews