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TransEthics: What was it that first got you interested in politics? Brianna Westbrook: I’ve always been interested in politics since a young age. I love being a leader for people. I just never thought that I could run for office until recently. The confidence was not there for me in my earlier years of life. The election of Donald Trump is what pushed me to use my voice. That was my breaking point. I saw a storm coming last year when he selected Mike Pence as his running mate. Kate Adair: What I do is work on a platform called BBC The Social. It’s an online space giving a platform to new and emerging content creators. It’s about letting people make what we are passionate about. In my case I started with a couple of a Trans 101 videos and have recently moved on to doing a weekly thing called queer bites where I get to discuss a topic of the week… usually I take it from something that I have seen in the news or something big from the world of LGBTQI+ society, but I do admit I’m bias a little towards the trans content. I’m a trans person who leads on creating what I make, script, film and edit my own stuff and the BBC listens to my views and allow me to make what I feel is relevant and important. They tend not to change or alter what I say and —at least with the social— are happy to listen to my lead on whats needing to be said and put out there. Continue reading → TransEthics: How old were you when you started pursuing sex work? Stacy Sadistic: I was 23 when I first started doing things for money, but I had been in the fetish scene for many years before that. I had a girlfriend who introduced me to the fetish world. She took me to lots of fetish events, and introduced me to new things and new people. I grew up in a small town, so I was kind of repressed. I reluctantly got into cross-dressing at her request, but soon found that I really enjoyed it. We had sort of a switch dynamic, but after many years together, I realized she was abusive, so I left. Its funny, because lots of people told me that I was “naturally submissive,” and would never be a good dominant. I don’t think BDSM is something I would have sought out naturally on my own volition, but after getting into it, I found that I enjoyed being able to give my partner a certain experience, the play was fun, and I liked the community. Continue reading → TransEthics: How did you get into the sex industry? Tiffany Starr: I’ve always thought it would be cool to be in the adult entertainment industry, but I never thought I would actually do it. It seems a lot of people fantasize about it at one time or another. It started a little over five years ago. I was working as a receptionist for a large software company. My job had a lot of down time and paid very well. I had a girlfriend at the time named Sarah to whom I was very attached to, and a great car to boot. That all changed in one month. My car was totaled by a pickup truck and insurance paid just enough to cover the loan. A week after that I was laid off because the company was downsizing and cutting corners. A few days after that my girlfriend at the time and I broke up. I was left devastated, depressed, and with a lot of unpaid bills. Due to the economy being in shambles it was tough finding a replacement job. Thus I grew desperate and reached out to a friend of mine who just so happened to be a popular transsexual porn star. She offered me a shoot on her website and that all I would need to do if fly to L.A. I decided to contact all the porn companies I could before going out there, because if I was going to shoot one scene I may as well shoot a bunch. It was only supposed to be a temporary fix until I found a new job. However after shooting for most of the major Transsexual porn sites out there I grew popular. It was then that SMC (shemaleclub) offered me a website in their network. I took the offer and I have been shooting porn ever since. Continue reading → Author’s note: This story is 100% true. To protect the identity of my friend, her name has been changed to Pamela. This could be any trans woman who seeks assistance from a mental health facility, however. This article discusses institutionalized transmisogyny, gaslighting, misgendering, and transphobia. Appropriate trigger warnings apply. I came home from running errands to three voice mails on my phone which I left charging on the night stand. Her tone went steadily from slightly annoyed to panicked and tearful. Just before arriving I received a text reading: “They are about to declare me 5150 because I’m asking to be released and they won’t let me go.” I sat on a plastic bench which just was too uncomfortable to have not been designed to be that way, and about fifteen minutes later, my friend Pamela came out of the Restricted Area. Tears were still streaming day-old eyeliner down her cheeks, and she was clumsily carrying her stuffed bunny and a duffelbag. “Get me the fuck out of here…” she stated, striding half in fear, half in something I can’t to this day identify, out the door before I could even stand up. Continue Reading at GroobyPost.com TransEthics: I’ve interviewed a couple of non-binary people in the past. How do you define “non-binary”? CN Lester: I would probably say that I don’t define it — I think the very appeal is that there is no fixed definition — or, rather, than everyone has their own, and we respect individual interiority — that’s the whole point. I don’t personally used the term non-binary (unless repeating someone else’s choice to use it) for a number of reasons. The main reason being that gender is not a binary. Sex is not a binary. It never has been, it never will be, and I object to having to define myself, and the whole complex web of humanity, in reference to a lie which has caused untold damage. As ever, that’s not to say that men and women aren’t men and women — just that there have always been more descriptors than just those two, that those descriptors need not be fixed to specific entry requirements, and that every person (man, woman, neither, both, either, more options) will have their own take on what gender and sex mean. Editor’s note: Trigger warning for violence as a first-hand account of violence against Ms. Banks is discussed. TransEthics: There are many who would consider you a leader in the trans community. How does that make you feel? Sophia Banks: Uncomfortable, to be honest. I don’t think of myself as a leader. I am not really into the concept of leaders. I am glad and honoured I inspire some folks and have a platform to educate people. But being seen as leader makes me uncomfortable. Rising to a sort of level where I am seen as an authority has always been weird for me. I started out just speaking my truth as a trans woman pissed off about shit and things kinda blew up. One thing I hate about being seen as a leader is how I am expected to act strong all the time, never feel weak or insecure. It all happened so fast as I was going through my own transition and the struggles that come with that. Continue reading → TransEthics: What inspired you to come up with the Trans 100? Jen Richards: The seed of the original idea began with co-founder Toni D’Orsay. She had wondered aloud on her Facebook who would be in a Forbes style top 100 trans people. She asked for people to suggest names in the comments. I put in a few, then tried to go to sleep. But as is my issue, my brain did not comply, and I began thinking about all the possibilities of a list of 100 trans people. I got back up and called Toni (we had met through We Happy Trans, my earlier project) and we began discussing ideas. Continue reading → TransEthics: What does it mean for you to have been in the Trans 100 this year? Chelsea Poe: It really meant a lot to me. Being recognized by the trans community for my activism is extremely humbling. I think for myself it validates what I have been doing in the industry thus far and really makes me motivated for the future. TE: Your activism –especially where it intersects with sex work– has ruffled some feathers of late. Tell us about some of the challenges you’ve faced. Continue reading → Some of my followers on Twitter actually want to know more about me: The woman who started TransEthics. One even asked me “When did you realize that you are actually a girl?” That is an excellent question. And since you asked, I’ll lead you on my journey of self-discovery, and finally self-acceptance. In hindsight, I’ve known since about 3 or 4. I remember wanting my Mom not to cut my hair. (She did anyway… once I even asked if she could put it in pig-tails, but it was too short.) When growing up, doing “boy stuff” always felt wrong to me. I was always very sensitive and emotional. I wasn’t into sports, hated fishing, and the like. Even more I *hated* boy clothes. I’d always wanted to wear dresses and such, and started to do so secretly at about age 7. Continue reading →

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The release date for the highly anticipated return of Netflix’s Umbrella Academy has finally been announced! After nearly two years of waiting, Netflix’s dark fantasy superhero series will be returning for a third action-packed series. Based on the Dark Horse Comics created by Gerard Way and illustrated by Gabriel Bá, the hit drama follows a dysfunctional superpowered family who reunites after the mysterious death of their father. Picking up from where we were left in the last season, Netflix’s teaser trailer offers a brief insight into what fans can expect. The released clip shows the original Hargreeves seven facing off a new cohort of superpowered beings called the Sparrow Academy. Netflix’s 17-second teaser wraps up with a round of dramatic music and the tagline: “The sparrows have landed.” The punchy min-trailer also revealed the date on which the news season will be hitting our screens. So, get ready for June 22 for 10 exciting new episodes. The new season of Umbrella Academy will see the return of fan-favourites Elliot Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher and Justin H. Min. Euphoria’s Javon Walton will also be joining the series will also be joining the season as a newcomer. Page, who has been a part of the series since its release in 2017, came out as trans non-binary in December 2020. Nick Adams, director of transgender media at GLAAD, voiced support for the star, telling Variety: “Trans actors can and do play both trans and cisgender characters. “I’m sure Elliot will continue to be brilliant in Umbrella Academy and many different types of roles in the future.” In his statement, Elliot continued to say that he’s been “endlessly inspired by so many” in the transgender community, and thanked them for “ceaselessly working to make this world a more inclusive and compassionate place.” ☂️ June 22nd, 2022 🐦 pic.twitter.com/VjWftmuiYw — Umbrella Academy (@UmbrellaAcad) March 13, 2022 The Umbrella Academy Season 3 premieres June 22 ☔ 🐦 pic.twitter.com/Rnww2nzhlx — Netflix (@netflix) March 13, 2022 Fans have already begun to react to news of the new Umbrella Academy season online. “NOBODY TOUCH ME we have the umbrella academy season 3 release date and teaser,” one fan posted. Continue reading to see more fan reactions. the umbrella academy season 3 girlboss edition pic.twitter.com/ZY6xprlpIG — gen⁷ ☂︎ KENOBI ERA (@MlKROTAEHYUNG) March 13, 2022 UMBRELLA ACADEMY SEASON 3 JUNE 22 EVERYONE CHEERED — sparrow 𓅫☂︎ 100 DAYS (@sparrowsacademy) March 13, 2022 — Jennifer (@JennLCThomas) March 8, 2022

“This mural is an attempt to shine a light on the shocking state of healthcare for transgender and non-binary people,” says CJ, who is behind the latest piece of artwork on the large wall by the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft (PRSC). “It’s one of the most pressing issues affecting us across the country and particularly in the South West. It paints a pretty bleak picture but unfortunately that’s our current reality.” The mural, painted onto a wall that has recently been used to show what life is like for Black people in the UK and to thank key workers, has been painted with statistics about healthcare for trans people for the duration of October. CJ, who works for PRSC – which also looks after the wall – wanted to focus on trans healthcare as it’s an issue for many members of the community. “Everyone who helped to paint the mural has so much love for the NHS as an institution but feel that as a community we have been roundly disregarded for many years as the waiting lists have spiralled to the current appalling state,” CJ explains. Trans and non-binary people will wait for at least five years to see an NHS specialist, which is the support needed in order to medically transition. Physical transition is different for each trans person, but often includes hormone replacement therapy and gender affirming surgery, such as facial feminisation for trans women. The NHS aims for an 18 week wait for referrals, a sharp contrast the current five year wait for trans and non-binary people. After referral, patients will wait up to three years to begin hormonal treatment and up to five years for gender affirming surgeries. This is an overall wait of up to a decade for some trans people to receive the help they need. “It’s the reality that after getting a referral from your GP, usually after a long period of challenging and often painful introspection, you will be cast off into a wilderness of no contact or support for an indeterminate period of many years,” says CJ, who lives in St Paul’s. “People knew it had got out of control but to see that figure is just so disheartening.” The hope is that painting a mural in such a prominent space will raise awareness of the difficulties faced by this part of the LGBTQ+ community. “Every month we have a new and exciting piece on our outdoor gallery mural wall,” CJ says. “We feature beautiful, interesting and challenging artwork as well as political and protest pieces, and the artists and organisations responsible and the issues covered are diverse and important.” The mural will remain on the wall until the end of October. “These failures of the system are causing very real harm to a vulnerable population,” says CJ. “The letters along the bottom are months represent the five years that trans people have to wait for our first appointment. “The rest of the piece is an attempt to explain a little about the realities of living as a transgender person in what can feel like a very hostile world.” All photos: CJ Read more: Fighting transphobia using photography

2017 – Lorcan I sat with my friends Bill, Nathan and Colton in Universal Bar. “What do you think of the talent tonight guys?”, Bill asked. Sometimes I wished he’d just have a night out without trying to find a man. “Oh, look at those two hotties who’ve just walked in.”, Bill said. These days every bloke is a hottie to Bill. “They would be a couple, wouldn’t they? Just my luck.” They might or might not be. Still it’s nice to see the assumption made the other way around. Even though I don’t like it either way, it’s assumed too often with two guys or two girls together that they aren’t romantically together. Happened all the time with me and my ex-boyfriend. I lost count of the amount of times we were mistaken for brothers, friends, cousins, brothers-in-law (with the added assumption that it was the other’s sister that the other was married to) before we’d finally get to partner. The two “hotties” sat at the table nearby. As the evening wore on, we all got chatting and realised they were brothers called Theo and Jason. After a while Bill, Colton and Nathan got out on the dancefloor and I was left sitting with Theo’s older brother Jason. He scanned over at the four lads on the dancefloor occasionally as we talked. It was lovely to see. I didn’t have a protective older brother like Theo when I came out. I had an older instead called Alan who was scared people would think he was gay (Because his mind was far too small to work out that I said I was pansexual) by been seen with me. Was a shame because we used to get on really well. “Are they good guys?”, Jason asked. He knows they are all in competition for Theo’s affections. “Yeah.”, I smiled, reassuringly. “They are simply just as lonely as the rest of us.” He relaxed slightly but kept an eye nonetheless. “So you said he came out as gay recently, how did he tell you?” “Just casually. He knew I wasn’t like that. Prejudiced I mean. I knew a long time in any case. But it wasn’t my place to say anything.” “And your parents …” “They don’t know. We come from a very Catholic background. It’s difficult.” “Yeah, I know. I come from a Catholic background too.” “Are your family supportive?” “My mum, dad and sister weren’t at the start but they’ve come around to it.” I don’t add that I hate the expression come around to it. Come around to what?, I always think. “But my brother didn’t take it well. We haven’t spoken in six years.” I can read it all over his face that he thinks my brother’s a dick but he can’t say so. For what it’s worth I agree with him. “I’m sorry to hear that.” “Yeah, thanks. It’s years ago now. I’m over it … so have you ever been to a gay bar before?” “No, I haven’t. To be honest and I don’t know how this will sound I was a bit nervous to go into a gay bar before. Not because of that whole ignorant egotistic straight guy thing of thinking everyone was going to be into me but because I thought I’d be, I don’t know …” “Yeah, kind of like trespassing. I thought as a straight guy no one would want me there and be suspicious. But I just think of a bar as a bar, you know.” “Yeah, that’s how I feel with the local Polish food store. I’ve never went in because they might think why is this Irish guy coming in? Like what’s his motive?” “Have you ever went in?” “No.”, I grinned. “But I’d like to someday. Maybe.” By the end of the night, Theo hadn’t swapped numbers with any of the three lads but me and Jason had swapped numbers. As me, Bill, Nathan and Colton tried to find a taxi, Bill turned to me. “He’s straight Lorcan. You do realise that it could never work?” “Bill, I know that! I don’t like him in that way.” “Good because there’s certainly going to be no dice there.” “Mate, I don’t want there to be.” 2019 – Jason “Jason, put your back into it.”, Lorcan whined as we tried to carry our sofa into our new flat. “That gym membership is pretty shit.”, he adds, laughing away. “Quit moaning and keep moving.”, I laugh. Thinking about it it’s ironic that me and my brother Theo went to the bar two years ago for him to meet guys and I was the one who ended up meeting a guy. Of course in a very different way but meaningful in any case. Eventually we got the sofa in and placed where we wanted it. Then tired we slumped down on it. “Jesus, I wish we had some ice-cold beers right now.”, Lorcan grinned. “A crate full.”, I smiled. Talk turned to his boyfriend Robert, a complete bastard who is cheating on him with everyone, but who Lorcan loves to bits. I wish he’d open his eyes and kick him to the kerb but I can’t tell him about Robert’s activities. I don’t want to hurt him. “Robert booked us a room for Valentine’s night. Our first Valentine’s together.”, he said, smiling from ear to ear. Did he get a discount because he’s booked so many rooms to bring guys to? “That’s lovely. I’m sure it will be a very romantic night.” “I know. I have to get new underwear.” “Of course.”, I smiled. “He’s always texting me lovely things. He wished me luck with the move-in today. He’s always thinking of me. No one’s ever done that before. He’s so sweet.” God he really loves him. It’s heart-breaking. “Yeah, very sweet.” Well, what else can I say? “Are you alright since …”, he begins. “Since Lindsay and I broke up? I’m at a stage now where I’m ready to move forward. It wasn’t meant to be.” “Good. Just with Valentine’s coming up I thought I’d ask.” “Yeah, thanks. But in any case Valentine’s never really worried me. It’s all commercial anyways.” “Oh, where’s your romantic spirit?”, he grins. “Seen my ex-girlfriend Ellen in town. She’s dating a biker now. He looks like a hard man but probably isn’t.”, he adds. She used to cheat on him too, he told me. Jeez he does pick them! 2021 – Lorcan I was in a relationship with a wonderful person for 6 months. Their name was Scott and I had a lot to thank Jason for. He had helped me through some bad times with exs and introduced me to Scott who is a mate and work colleague of his. He was also the only person who I could say Scott was non-binary to without it turning into an explaining session. The three of us were out at Starbucks with me and Jason playfully mocking Scott for their black coffee. They were forever looking after their health. “You two will be sorry when yous’ pile on the pounds with those cream cakes!”, they laugh. “Not to mention the extra calorie coffees!”, they add. “Yeah, probably.”, Jason replies, taking another bite of cake. Jason’s recently broke up with his girlfriend Emily. I thought they were good together but I’m hardly a relationship expert. They are still friends but Jason said they were in mutual agreement that “there was no love there anymore” and that they were “just going through the motions”. I’d love if he meant someone. I can’t think of anyone more deserving of something like that. He was sleeping around, a different girl every night, and I was worried about him. Several times I voiced my concerns to him and he had in the most polite way told me to mind my own business. He seems to think he’s invincible and that’s a dangerous attitude to have. “Want another black coffee or would that be too much?”, I smile to Scott. “I’m not that bad!”, they laugh, tipping me in the arm. 2023 – Jason I took a large gulp from my bottle of red wine. It had become automatic lately. All I seemed to do lately was drink and if not smoke. Ever since I heard the news. The dreaded terrible news that I wasn’t for the land of the living. I had AIDS. The knocking came on the door. It was either Theo or Lorcan. It always was one of them. I didn’t want to see either of them. Or anybody for that matter. “Jas, you in there?”, Lorcan said, from outside. I didn’t answer. “Look Jas mate, I know you are. Stop shutting me out. What’s wrong?” You don’t want to know. Get on with your life. You have it to look forward to. I don’t. Jesus, he never gives up, does he? I sigh and stagger to the door. “Jesus Jason, you look like shit.”, he says. You would too if you had AIDS pal. “Well I guess you’re coming in, are you?” He comes in and makes us both coffee. I light up another cigarette. “Jason, what’s happened to you?” His eyes are clearly scanning my flat with all it’s empty cigarette packets and empty wine bottles and beer cans. He’s trying to make out he isn’t though. “You are going to make yourself ill.” That’s when I burst into tears. “Lor, I’m already ill.” His face falls. He takes my hand gently in his. Says nothing. Waits for me to continue. “I have AIDS Lorcan.” He says nothing. Well what can you say? “I’m sorry you may not live as long as you thought you would mate.” He takes me into a long hug, tries to stay strong for me but some gentle tears come. 2025 – Lorcan I sat outside the hotel smoking a cigarette. The cigarette was shaky in my hand and I eventually dropped it. Theo came out, picked it up and handed it to me. He sat down beside me. For a moment we didn’t speak. Today felt very surreal. Earlier had been Jason’s funeral at the Church nearby. “You were a great friend to him.”, Theo said. “He was a great friend to me too.” “Jesus, I miss him.” “Yeah, I know. So do I.” Later that night I was back at mine and Scott’s flat. I broke down in tears in their arms. Yes, I knew he was ill but he was there. Now he wasn’t. And the last three days had been the most torturous days of my life. 10 years of friendship, of seeing him most days and now I no longer could see him. The pain I was feeling was dreadful. He was far too young to die. He deserved to be living, happy, he deserved everything. There was a knock at the door. Scott went to answer it. Bill came in. Scott went to make us both tea. I felt like the luckiest guy in the world. They had been brilliant with me all through Jason’s illness, passing, the aftermath and today. I don’t think I could have got through it without them. “I know I haven’t seen you very often lately Lorcan but I wanted to come over and see how you were today.” Our lives had went in different directions such is the way with a lot of friendships. But him been here meant so much more than I could put into words. He gave me a hug. “You two were like an old married couple without the sex.”, he said, smiling softly. “Yeah, we were, weren’t we?”

Content warning: descriptions of graphic violence to women, young women, pregnant women, children; queer tragedy; homophobia; transphobia. Well, well, if it isn’t a blatant Puella Magi Madoka rip-off. In and of itself, there’s nothing wrong with that. Madoka was huge. There was always going to be a parade of copycats, the way there are parades of copycats of everything else (sometimes produced really fast; see Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress shamelessly pasting bits from Attack on Titan) and ‘magical girls, but dark‘ is almost its own subgenre. You can do interesting things with that, or… you can produce Magical Girl Raising Project. Off the bat the show doesn’t bother to hide that it’s ‘paying homage’ to Madoka: the protagonist Koyuki (Snow White) is a dimmer, less interesting version of Kaname Madoka. Ripple and Hardgore Alice share bits and pieces from Akemi Homura, visually and in personality. Fav is the cute mascot that tries its hardest to mime the incubators (yes, down to the voice actor). The transformation sequences are out of the original Sailor Moon anime. Some of the magical girls, Sister Nana and Weiss Winterprison, are probably expies from Trinity Blood. On it goes. Where it very rapidly fails is that this is a show that tries too hard and crams in way too much of everything—the opening theme runs us through the sixteen (sixteen!) magical girls, making sure we know nearly all of them are scantily clad (as we discover later, one of the girls is literally seven). If you were uncomfortable with Tomoe Mami’s design, Magical Girl Raising Project takes that tastelessness and turns it all the way up to eleven, with such delights as Calamity Mary’s bikini gunslinger look or Ripple’s barely-covered ‘sexy ninja’ outfit. It’s pretty grim and you know exactly who they’re appealing to by sticking boobs on girls that look, at best, pubescent. The entire tasteless parade inspires nothing so much as the desire to drive rusty spikes into one’s eyes. What I was hoping for was that there would be something beyond the (frankly immense) cockroach in the soup that is the fanservice, and at first it looks like there’d be something. Where Puella Magi relegated its lesbian relationships to subtext, and at most played one of them up as a descent of unrequited love to a borderline Psycho Lesbian trope, Magical Girl Raising puts it front and center: Sister Nana and Weiss Winterprison are a lesbian couple in real life who lives together, and Koyuki’s relationship with her fellow magical girl and childhood crush La Pucelle is obviously romantic. La Pucelle is also a rarity in being a trans magical girl, which I don’t think I have seen since… Sailors Starlight in the original anime (who were, depending on your take, either trans or non-binary in their civilian forms). That some of these characters would be killed off wasn’t going to be a surprise but, I figured, with next to everybody being a lesbian some would surely survive. I expect this because I often underestimate the tastelessness of media creators, and I forget that cishet creators—or male creators writing a cast that’s primarily or all queer women—are not only vultures, they are predictable ones. To what little credit one can grant Magical Girl Raising Project, the cast of sixteen—which should be entirely too many to cram into twelve episodes—is each given just enough interiority to be distinct, though we often learn something heart-wrenching about them just as they’re about to die, in the most rote and emotionally manipulative way imaginable. And that is still fine, until I see the exact manner with which they get killed off. La Pucelle, in real life, is a child named Souta; if you are familiar with Japanese names, you’ll realize that is a boy’s name. She has to ask Koyuki to not call her that name several times in the show, and each time Koyuki slips up, she becomes visibly upset. We discover through the show that the magical girl’s form is an idealized version of herself, usually customized in-game, so much so that many of them look nothing like what they do in real life. For La Pucelle this has a particular significance. (Yes, some reviewers insist La Pucelle simply ‘cross-dresses’. I’ll go with trans viewers.) That La Pucelle is stripped of her magical-girl form and wakes up long enough to realize she’s back in her ‘civilian form’ just before she dies (of oncoming highway traffic) seems almost calculatedly nasty. We are told, though fortunately not shown, that she’s so mangled by said highway traffic her family needs a closed-casket funeral. (Did I mention that Ripple, the girl in a sexy ninja outfit she doesn’t even like, has been molested by boys her own age? And that the man her mother married tried to rape her? She beats the living daylight out of them, if that’s any consolation.) The rest of the deaths follow a similar, calculatedly nasty line: Winterprison is brutally murdered, so her wife Nana tries to overdose and then hangs herself (probably with the symbolic scarf she gave Winterprison); Top Speed is pregnant and has spent the entire show looking forward to having her child, so she dies clutching her stomach. The seven-year-old girl gets repeatedly stabbed until she’s dead (while in her civilian, little-child form). It’s all very exploitative, so much so that it becomes one-note. Rote, hackneyed, and tasteless. Puella Magi is sometimes called misogynistic owing to its spectacle of girls breaking and dying in despair, but that’s an interpretation I fundamentally disagree with. Puella Magi is, to me, a show about society failing girls, who try to escape it by transforming into witches until Madoka breaks that cycle by overturning the system that forces this fate. Madoka’s decision is a deification of the magical girl ideal: she is hope, salvation, the unfailing belief that it’ll all turn out okay. Even when it doesn’t turn out okay, Homura course-corrects the universe to more absolutely get rid of the incubators. Madoka and Homura are strongly written, you can believe in them, the narrative world they inhabit respects them. Magical Girl Raising Project doesn’t grasp any of these: it’s a relentless, monotonous explosion of gore and trauma, contrived at the sadistic whims of one magical girl. It’s not about an uncaring, indifferent system—embodied by the Incubators, who profess to literally have no emotion—but this particular sadist and her mascot pet, also a sadist. The final antagonist turns out to be a seven-year-old child who is a ruthless mass murderer because… er. There’s guff concerning the (unexplained in the show) ‘Land of Magic’ scouting for talent by recruiting magical girls, but it’s not all that interesting, and again lacks the sheer disregard that the Incubators have for all of humankind who insist that the loss of a few magical girls is acceptable to benefit the sentient species of the universe. While Madoka makes a conscious choice in the end, her slapdash copycat Koyuki stumbles blindly through the show, surviving only by luck and others’ sacrifices. She is not interesting; she doesn’t make decisions; she is more like the typical magical girl protagonist—lifeless ditzes all—than anyone else on the show, and while this is played up as a good thing other characters admire her for, in practice it doesn’t work that well because Koyuki’s naivety doesn’t count for much and there’s no feat of empathy for her to accomplish. Incredibly, the show wants us to believe that at the end Koyuki retains some of her optimism and continues to fight injustice as a magical girl (after partnering up with the other survivor, Ripple), sprinkling on again that poor Puella Magi imitation without actual regard for cohesion or why Madoka becoming an embodiment of salvation works. There’s a certain catharsis to be had in media that indulges full-on in the crapsack world concept, but Magical Girl Raising Project tries to have it both ways while being simply rote and crassly exploitative, respecting neither its own material, its characters, or its audience. There just isn’t enough redeeming grace here to recommend it.

- Category: Blog Physical fitness is a general state of health and well-being and, more specifically, the ability to perform aspects of sports or occupations. Physical fitness is generally achieved through correct nutrition, moderate-vigorous physical activity, exercise and rest. It is a set of attributes or characteristics seen in people and which relate to the ability to perform a given set of physical activities. If you aren’t familiar with the many terms used to describe members of LGBTQIA+ communities, they may seem like a big ol’ bowl of alphabet soup. But there’s a good reason for all those terms: People are unique, and varying gender identities and sexual orientations can make it hard to fit into a two-gender box. But what about other terms, like “cisgender,” that often (but not always) exist outside the LGBTQIA+ community? Are you automatically straight if you’re cisgender? Let us explain cisgender vs. straight. A cisgender, or “cis,” person identifies as the gender they were assigned at birth. So a cisgender person’s sex on their original birth certificate matches their current gender identity. You might also see terms like “assigned male at birth” (AMAB) or “assigned female at birth” (AFAB) used to describe someone’s birth gender. If a person’s gender identity doesn’t match the gender they were assigned at birth, they may identify as transgender or nonbinary. In the United States, there’s a legal movement for a more inclusive approach to gender. Currently, 13 states allow you to change your birth certificate to say “male,” “female,” or the gender-neutral option “X.” Identifying as straight is pretty, er, straightforward. Having a sexual orientation of straight means that someone’s attraction, either sexual or romantic, is to a gender other than their own. This definition is deeply ingrained in societal norms. A straight relationship is typically between a person who identifies as a man and a person who identifies as a woman. “Cisgender” is a gender identity. Gender identity describes how a person identifies themself, such as man, woman, nonbinary, or another identity they prefer. So if someone who was assigned male at birth identifies as a man, he’d be a cisgender male. “Straight” is a sexual orientation, which describes one’s attraction to other people. Someone is straight if they identify as one gender and are attracted to the “opposite” gender. A straight relationship is typically seen as involving a cisgender male and a cisgender female. But people whose gender differs from the one they were assigned at birth can still be straight if they’re attracted to a different gender. When Murray in “Clueless” refers to Dionne as “woman,” that’s her gender. But calling her “female,” well, that would be her sex. What’s the difference? It’s not a simple answer. Gender is typically influenced by society, not biology, and is responsible for the association of certain traits, language, behavior, and characteristics with being a man or a woman. But gender can be more complex and nuanced than the binary terms. A person’s gender is often conflated with their sex. Sex is traditionally designated by doctors based on a person’s genitalia at birth. But gender identity is a more expansive view that goes beyond your sex. For example, a trans man could have female genitalia but identify as a man, not a woman. Bottom line: Your sex (based on genitalia) doesn’t have to “match” your gender (how you identify). Your gender identity isn’t stuck in the construct of your sex. The term “intersex” refers to someone’s biological sex not fitting into the binary of male or female. But this term doesn’t dictate gender. When a person is born intersex, their genitalia, sex organs, hormones, or chromosomes have both female- and male-identifying characteristics. This means an intersex person can have both a uterus and testicles, but they could identify as a man, a woman, nonbinary, etc. This is also known as a person having a difference in sex development (DSD). It occurs naturally, although some characteristics don’t develop until later in life. Research suggests that about 1 in 100 people are born with DSDs. As with most things related to gender, it’s not as simple as a person being either cisgender or transgender. To be either cisgender or transgender still relies on the gender binary of male or female as the framework. Have a penis and identify as a man? Cisgender. Assigned male at birth but identify as a woman? Transgender. Other gender identities or expressions that don’t always fit into the category of cisgender or transgender include: These are just a few examples. There are more than 64 terms that can describe a person’s gender identity or expression. Gender identity is up to each individual to decide. And someone’s gender identity may not match their gender expression. For example, someone may identify as a woman, but their appearance may be masculine. Sexual orientation is a spectrum, which means someone can identify in a myriad of ways beyond straight and gay. Some (but not all) of the possible sexual orientations include: Your sexual orientation can be unique to your sexual and romantic attractions. Some people view their sexual orientation as fluid, falling in a different place along the spectrum at any given moment. Others can experience romantic attraction to the same gender but sexual attraction to all genders. If you identify as cisgender and straight, you are considered cishet — this term is an abbreviation of “cisgender and heterosexual.” So, a person who is cishet identifies as the gender they were given at birth and is attracted to a different gender. Since “cisgender” is a gender identity and “straight” is a sexual orientation, one doesn’t determine the other. These are two separate and individual identities. Some cisgender people identify as gay, bisexual, queer, pansexual, fluid, or any number of other identities that makes them not straight. You can be transgender and straight. There are people whose gender identity doesn’t match the one they were assigned at birth but who experience attraction only to those of a different gender. A poll from analytics company Gallup found that 66 percent of transgender people who were asked identified as straight. A transgender man who is attracted only to women would be straight. “Gay or straight” doesn’t cover all the ways people experience romantic love or sexual attraction. In the same vein, looking at gender as solely “man” or “woman” leaves out nonbinary, intersex, and other expansive gender identities. These terms exist so each individual can use the term that works best for them. If your favorite color were blue, you likely wouldn’t take kindly to someone telling you that your favorite color had to be yellow or red. Sexual orientation and gender identity are not one-size-fits-all. Don’t assume everyone you meet is cisgender or straight. Someone could be gay, straight, or anything in between. If you’re unsure of someone’s gender identity, you can always ask, “What are you pronouns?” Just know that it’s never OK to reveal someone else’s sexual orientation or gender identity unless you have their permission. But some folks might not feel comfortable telling you, and that’s OK too. If you know a person’s identity, respect their pronouns. And if you don’t, try to use nonbinary language like “folks” or “they/them,” or just use their name. A way to share your pronouns when introducing yourself could be “My name is ______, and my pronouns are she/her.” You can also share your pronouns on your social media and other identifying places. It’s not a question of cisgender vs. straight, because this combination is not mutually exclusive. “Cisgender” and “straight” represent two squares on the much larger quilt of possible identities. Each individual is the best possible expert on which gender identity and sexual orientation fit them. So before you assume, consult the expert. You probably know the deal with calories when you see them labeled on a snack, but WTF are kilocalories? To recap, calories are how we measure the amount of energy in food and drinks and the amount of energy we burn during a sweat session. But not every dot on the map measures energy the same way. Instead, some places use kilocalories (kcal) and kilojoules (kJ) to measure energy in food. This can get a bit confusing, so let’s clear things up about kcals vs. calories. If we’re talkin’ cals, these can be “small” or “large” calories. A capital “C” in “calories” signals a large calorie, while a lowercase “c” means it’s small. A small calorie is roughly the total energy needed to bump up the temperature of 1 gram (0.035 ounces) of water by 1°C (1.8°F). On the flip side, a large calorie approximates the total energy needed to increase the temperature of 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of water by 1°C (1.8°F). One large calorie equals 1,000 small calories (since 1 kilogram equals 1,000 grams). To make small and large calories a little less confusing, it’s assumed that the prefix “kilo” in the term “kilocalorie” was intended to point to the large calorie. So, a kilocalorie = a large calorie. Unfortch, the small calorie term is hardly ever used, except in chemistry and physics research. For us outside the lab, a small calorie is a pretty useless measurement. Wait… so what is a regular calorie, then? The terms “calories” — without the capitalization distinction — and “kcals” are tossed around interchangeably to describe the same energy amount for both food and fitness purposes. So basically, “calories” and “kilocalories” usually mean the same dang thing. Energy in food can also be measured in kilojoules (kJ). One calorie (kcal) equals 4.18 kJ or 4,184 joules (J). If you’re looking to convert calories to kJ, multiply the number of calories by 4.18. To convert kJ to calories, divide the number of kJ by 4.18. For example: A banana (118 grams) has about 105 calories (kcal) or 439 kJ. Food and beverage regulations require manufacturers to showcase a Nutrition Facts label on products. This is to identify the amount of energy the food or drink has per serving (or per a certain weight). The labels slapped on food products keep buyers informed about the healthfulness (or not-so-healthfulness) of the foods and drinks. They also list ingredients and other information so buyers can accommodate allergies, intolerances, or general preferences in what they eat. The way these labels express calorie or kilocalorie information varies depending on where you live. Here’s a handy list of countries and their corresponding labels: The number of kilocalories/calories in a food or beverage is determined by the manufacturer and depends on the amount of energy from nutrients the item has. The three main nutrients that give us energy are protein, carbs, and fats. Protein and carbs both contain around 4 calories (16.7 kJ) per gram, whereas fat provides 9 calories (37.6 kJ) per gram. Booze has 7 calories (29.3 kJ) per gram. Manufacturers arrive at these figures by rounding to the closest 1-gram increment, so if you’re measuring the amount of calories or kJ from each of the macronutrients, there’s a chance they may add up a little differently than the figure you see on the nutrition label. Plus, the nutrition labels for foods that contain fiber (which is categorized as a carb) may have fewer calories than you estimate. Why? Depending on the type of fiber, it’s going to be either indigestible or badly digested, providing few or no calories. We use calories to measure energy in both our food and our fitness routines. The terms “calories” and “kilocalories” are used interchangeably to describe the amount of energy found in food. Whether food and drink labels list calories or kcals depends on geographic location. While we’ve stayed physically distanced and isolated throughout the pandemic, there’s been a lot of hubbub about vitamin D and the new coronavirus. But is this relationship merely a coincidence, or should you be adding vitamin D to your COVID-19 tool kit? We’ve done the vitamin D and coronavirus research for you to see just how vitamin D affects COVID-19. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin. Your body actually creates the active form of vitamin D when the sun hits your skin. And while you can get some vitamin D from food, the sun helps you soak up 50 to 90 percent of your vitamin D. If you live in a place that doesn’t get much sunlight, you’re at a bigger risk of vitamin D deficiency. Older age, darker skin tone, and medical conditions that cause fat malabsorption can also contribute to a deficiency. While we’re learning more about the new coronavirus every day, we do know that the new coronavirus attacks the respiratory system. And lo and behold, vitamin D supports the immune system and respiratory health. Here’s what some studies have found. Vitamin D is super important to keep your immune system in tip-top shape. Basically, according to research, vitamin D helps deploy an immune response when a potential infection attacks your body. It also helps gear up immune cells like T cells and macrophages to protect your body from invaders. So if you have a weaker immune system, you’re naturally more prone to illnesses, which could include COVID-19. According to a 2020 article, vitamin D deficiency is often seen in people who have severe COVID-19 complications like: All these conditions create underlying inflammation, which can be controlled by T regulatory lymphocytes (aka Tregs). Basically, these cells can regulate or suppress other immune system cells and control the immune response to fight an invading disease. The same article noted that low levels of Treg cells are reported in people who have COVID-19, and vitamin D supplementation can increase Treg levels. So, the researchers suggest, if vitamin D can increase Treg levels, it might also be able to help reduce the severity of COVID-19. But right now this is just a theory. Back before the new coronavirus was around, a 2017 research review found that participants who took daily or weekly vitamin D supplements were more protected against acute respiratory tract infections. This was especially true for people who had a vitamin D deficiency. With that in mind, it’s no wonder researchers wanted to see if vitamin D could help prevent COVID-19. The short answer: We don’t know. Vitamin D is definitely not a substitute for masks and physical distancing for virus prevention. But research does suggest a few relationships between vitamin D levels and the new coronavirus that might make it a helpful coronavirus vitamin. Recent research suggests a link between sun exposure and COVID-19 mortality. Countries located farther from the equator (and thus with less sun) had higher numbers of COVID-19 deaths, possibly because of the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency. This evidence is circumstantial, which means that although fingers are being pointed at vitamin D deficiency, the connection to COVID-19 has not been proven. Another 2020 study looked for an association between low vitamin D levels and COVID-19. Of the 7,807 people in the study, only about 10 percent tested positive for COVID-19, and almost 90 percent tested negative. The people who tested positive had lower mean plasma vitamin D levels than those who tested negative, but the difference wasn’t significant. Positive levels averaged 19.00 ng/mL, and negative levels averaged 20.55 ng/mL. This minor difference doesn’t show much correlation between vitamin D levels and COVID-19. Plus, low vitamin D level was dubbed an “independent risk factor,” which means it’s associated with the study outcome but there were other factors in play. These included being over 50 years old, being male, and being of low-medium socioeconomic status. There appears to be a relationship between COVID-19 cases and low vitamin D levels. But researchers haven’t yet determined the cause of low vitamin D levels that might make you more prone to infection. As of now, we can’t be certain that vitamin D prevents COVID-19, but it can help your immune system. It’s possible that other correlations between vitamin D and the new coronavirus might make all these studies look like BS. But it’s a bit more complicated than that. A lot of studies and reviews are showing a beneficial outcome, but nothing is set in stone because there are too many variables to consider. One 2020 review shared other evidence factors that link vitamin D levels with the new coronavirus: The review ends by stating that randomized controlled trials and large population studies need to be done to evaluate these recommendations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also states that people with certain medical conditions are at an increased risk of severe illness (hospitalization, intubation, or even death) from COVID-19. Some of these conditions are: Many of these conditions are also associated with a risk of vitamin D deficiency. So could the higher risk of COVID-19 severity be linked to the medical condition itself, while low vitamin D is just a factor? To find out, we need more research on larger and more diverse groups of people. Research related to the new coronavirus is ongoing and constantly changing, but right now there isn’t much promising information to suggest that vitamin D can help treat COVID-19. Researchers in a 2020 study said they had found reason to believe vitamin D might help treat COVID-19, but their data was flawed. The editors of the peer-reviewed journal published an “expression of concern” about the study’s questionable sample size and noted that only about 31 percent of the participants actually had tests confirming a COVID-19 diagnosis. There’s no substantial info yet to support theories about using vitamin D as a COVID-19 treatment. Taking a vitamin D supplement may not be the COVID-19 cure you were hoping for, but it still comes with a lot of benefits. Plus, about 50 percent of the world’s population doesn’t get enough vitamin D (meaning we need it, COVID or not). Obviously, your immune system is crucial to fight infection, and vitamin D is necessary to keep that system strong. But vitamin D can also help keep your bones strong (potentially reducing fractures) and benefit your mental health. The recommended dietary allowances (RDAs) for Vitamin D are: Supplements will often contain more than the RDA because there is also a daily upper limit of 100 mcg (4,000 IU). This is for children above 9 years old, adults, and pregnant or breastfeeding folks. Reaching this level could require higher dosages of vitamin D beyond the RDA for some people but not for others. Before you stock up on vitamin D supplements, chat with your healthcare provider. They’ll be able to confirm whether it’s safe for you to take the supplement and recommend dosages. Other recommendations from the CDC: Cold and flu season is upon us. That means healthcare systems will be bombarded with patients who are battling both the flu and COVID-19. Although current research suggests a relationship between low levels of vitamin D and COVID-19, more research is needed. Right now we can’t conclude that taking vitamin D can help prevent you from contracting the new coronavirus. Wearing a mask, physical distancing, and washing your hands are still your top options. In the meantime, taking a vitamin D supplement probably won’t hurt, and it can help bolster your immune system, which might increase your chances of avoiding COVID-19. Most of us don’t get enough vitamin D anyway and could use a boost. It’s a good idea to check with your healthcare provider before taking any new supplement, especially if you have any preexisting medical conditions or take any medications that could interact with the vitamin. Attraction isn’t only sexual in nature, which is why the term “bisexual” doesn’t resonate with some peeps who are attracted to multiple genders. Some folks need an emotional, romantic connection beyond the physical to feel attraction, so they may prefer the term biromantic. What does it mean to be biromantic? It means that a person is attracted to multiple genders. While the prefix bi means two, in this case it doesn’t necessarily refer to the gender binary of only men and women. Instead, biromanticism means someone may be attracted to their own and genders other than their own, or even to all genders. This means a person can be attracted to someone who identifies as non-binary and still be biromantic. Someone who is attracted to all genders may also identify as panromantic. Being biromantic differs from bisexuality because this attraction is about how the person makes your heart feel and not how they make your sexy parts feel. They make you blush but they don’t get you flushed. Catch the drift? Dating is complicated, but how you define who you’re into doesn’t have to be. There are several signs you might be biromantic. Since sexual orientation and romantic attraction don’t always align, it’s possible to identify as both biromantic and another sexual identity. Biromantic covers how you feel about others romantically, but another term may be needed to explain how you identify in a sexual sense. Here’s a few common combinations of biromanticism and sexual identities. If you’re biromantic asexual, you feel romantic and emotional attraction to multiple genders but sexual attraction to zero genders. Many people who identify as asexual still want to build relationships in a way that has nothing to do with sex. This doesn’t mean biromantic asexuals never do the nasty, but it means that isn’t a factor in who they decide to date or build a relationship with. Keep in mind, sexual desire is not the same as sexual attraction. Desire is about the act whereas attraction is tied to the sexual partner. Biromantic asexuality may look different and it’s up to each individual to define what that looks like for them. Demisexual is a sexual orientation that means a person must feel a romantic connection with someone in order to be sexually attracted to them. A one-night stand, though gratifying for some, is not likely a goal of a demisexual. Combine a demisexual identity with being biromantic and it means you are emotionally drawn to multiple genders. Once you make that emotional connection with a person of any gender, then you desire a sexual relationship as well. Before you think that biromantic heterosexual is an oxymoron, remember that sexual orientation and romantic attraction can differ. In this case, a person feels a deep emotional romantic connection to people of multiple genders, but only sexually attracted to a different gender. For example, being a biromantic heterosexual woman means that a person is romantically attracted to people of multiple genders, but only experiences sexual attraction to men. Being biromatic homosexual means a person experiences romantic attraction to multiple genders but sexually only wants to do the deed with someone of their own gender. For example, a biromantic woman experiences emotional attraction to multiple genders but only experiences sexual attraction to women. These are just a few examples of possible sexual orientations that can go along with biromanticism. There are online resources that may help in better understanding what it means to be biromantic and how to talk about it with your friends and family. Coming out is a journey. Sexual orientation and attraction can be fluid and identity labels can change. Show yourself kindness through the process. Seek support from accepting family and friends. Don’t feel pressure to define your biromanticism by anyone else’s terms. Remember, your identity is yours to define, or to not define. Thinking about jumping on the cannabidiol wagon but not sure where to begin? It can be pretty intimidating, so let’s start with the basics. In sum: Think of CBD as THC’s chill sober cousin. Not all CBD is the same — especially when it comes to full-spectrum vs. broad-spectrum CBD. The devil is in the details: Question: What’s the difference? Answer: Full-spectrum CBD contains high-inducing THC, while broad-spectrum CBD does not. Full-spectrum CBD is said to have more benefits than broad-spectrum because of the entourage effect.This theory suggests that when all compounds of the cannabis plant are taken together, they offer more benefits than when they’re taken separately. So far, the entourage effect is just a theory. But some research suggests that taking phytocannabinoids (like CBD + THC) and terpenes (another component of the plant) together may better ease issues such as: So, people who don’t mind a little THC could possibly maximize the effects of CBD by choosing a full-spectrum CBD product. Full-spectrum CBD products are available in an array of forms and potencies. Here are a few recs to get you started. NuLeaf Naturals Full-Spectrum Hemp CBD Oil is the total package. It’s a whole-plant extract that combines cannabinoids, terpenes, and virgin hempseed oil. It comes in a variety of sizes, which is nice if you want to try it out or take it only occasionally. The company uses organic, U.S.-grown hemp and a CO2 extraction process to yield a more potent blend. That means the product contains significant amounts of secondary cannabinoids for a little extra oomph. #winning Charlotte’s Web uses U.S.-grown hemp and natural flavorings. The products are formulated with proprietary hemp genetics that feature naturally occurring phytocannabinoids, terpenes, flavonoids, and lemon balm. These are an affordable option for on-the-go stress relief. Absolute Nature CBD Full-Spectrum Tincture is made with only two ingredients: whole-plant CBD oil and MCT oil. It’s non-GMO and claims to contain a high amount of CBD + other naturally occurring cannabinoids and beneficial compounds from the cannabis plant. Basically, it’s designed to provide the best possible benefits without producing a high. This product is a bit pricey. But since it’s grown without chemicals, additives, or preservatives, it might just be worth it. Order Absolute Nature CBD Full-Spectrum 1,000mg CBD Oil Drops/Tincture. Broad-spectrum CBD is the way to go if you want all the chill vibes with none of the THC-induced high. Just keep in mind that taking CBD without THC might not be as effective as taking the two together. It’s that whole entourage effect theory. That said, broad-spectrum CBD still contains other cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids that might boost the benefits beyond what you’d get from CBD alone. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of broad-spectrum CBD products on the market. Here are the ones that meet our standards (more on that below). $ = under $50 $$ = $50–75 $$$ = over $75 Joy Organics CBD Oil Tinctures are formulated to provide quick, easy results. Each drop contains 0.0 percent THC phytocannabinoid-rich hemp oil. No alcohol, binders, fillers, or dyes. The super-simple tincture should be safe to take any time of the day or night. The family-founded company uses U.S.-grown hemp and tests each batch of products for consistency. The company’s high standards + the money-back guarantee = a comfort to new customers. These fruit jellies are not your average gummies. They’re handcrafted in small batches with Hawaiian Lilikoʻi (passion fruit), pineapple. and ʻŌlena (turmeric). Bonus points for being vegan and containing no artificial colors or flavors! The company refers to these as grown-up CBD gummies. Each jelly contains 25 milligrams (mg) of broad-spectrum CBD and absolutely no THC. Hawaiian Choice recommends popping 1 or 2 gummies a day, but there are only 4 jellies per package — so maybe order a few boxes at a time. Besides having an awesome name, Sunday Scaries CBD Oil offers a slightly stronger-than-average dose of CBD. Whether you need to sleep like a baby, chill on a turbulent plane ride, or enhance your meditation practice, this CBD tincture will get it done. The tincture is made with the company’s signature proprietary blend of broad-spectrum CBD + vitamins B12 and D3. Each bottle contains a higher dose of 500 mg of CBD mixed with coconut oil. It tastes like fruit punch, so it’s a yummy addition to teas, smoothies, and H2O. Finding the best CBD for you is no easy feat. While we can’t claim to have tried them all, we *have* whittled down a list of products based on safety, quality, and transparency (not just CBD quantity alone). Every product on our list: Also important to our selection: If you’re still shopping around, keep these tips in mind: How you use CBD depends on the type of product you buy. Pills are straightforward. Same with gummies — you eat them. But always follow directions on the product label. Oils or tinctures are typically placed under your tongue for fast absorption. You can also add them to smoothies, liquids, or food. For topical treatments, check the product label’s instructions. CBD dosage can get tricky, especially if you’re a newcomer to the world of edibles. Here’s your new mantra: Start low and go slow. Most products have a recommended dosage, but that doesn’t mean you have to start there. If you have liver disease, be careful with CBD and talk with your healthcare provider before trying it. Also, we don’t know what effects CBD might have on babies, so be cautious if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding. Currently, the FDA doesn’t guarantee the safety of CBD products except for *one* approved pharmaceutical CBD drug that’s been proven to help with seizures. If you have questions about whether CBD is right for you, don’t be shy — talk with your healthcare provider. Yep. As with most supplements and medications, you could have some bummer issues with CBD. Potential side effects of CBD include: Minimize your risk by following the dosing instructions and talking with a healthcare provider. It’s always a good idea to reach out to a medical professional for recommendations. Every body is different. The choice between full-spectrum and broad-spectrum CBD comes down to one thing: THC or no THC. If you concerned about getting high from THC, stick with broad-spectrum CBD. If you’re hoping for stronger effects, try full-spectrum CBD. There are hundreds of CBD products and thousands of glowing customer reviews. The most important factor in choosing a product is quality ingredients. Do your research and talk with your doc before starting any new CBD regimen. Is CBD legal? Marijuana-derived CBD products are illegal on the federal level but are legal under some state laws. Hemp-derived CBD products (with less than 0.3 percent THC) are legal on the federal level but are still illegal under some state laws. Check the laws in your state and anywhere you plan to travel. Keep in mind that nonprescription CBD products are not FDA-approved and may be inaccurately labeled.

Sue Croweagle is from the Piikani First Nation in southern Alberta. She is a 2 spirit female who enjoys singing and dancing. She came to Toronto in 2010 and reestablished a female aboriginal drum group called the Eagle Woman Singerz. She has been facilitating drum circles thru out the GTA and has done many events. Melisse Watson, the RAWHIDE project Artist & Founder – I am a Black, Cherokee, adopted mixed-settler, who occupies a non-binary gender identity and as such, face violence on a daily basis. I do have many privileges that have allowed me the opportunities, education and space that I occupy. I have not experienced the mental health or the criminal justice system as a participant. Through personal experience – one experience of many – unresolved interpersonal conflict has affected my confidence, self-esteem, safety and supportive resources. Isolation has hindered my ability to reach out and form meaningful, healthy relationships and has resulted in a difficulty to understand my personal value. My background in Restorative and Transformative Justice, knowledge of the Canadian Criminal Justice system and a passion for healing and building through creation and the arts has lead me to, and drives me through this work to create a new kind of less-violent, living reality for many. Years ago, Harriet watched her parents be instrumental players in the opening of the Ghanaian Canadian Association of Montreal. This is where for the first time she saw what collective change looks like and the power a community can have. The association brought people together and help them with their conflict as well as their adjustment into Canadian society. From then she committed herself into helping members within her community and others to overcome their obstacles. Harriet is a graduate of the Community and justice Services at Humber College and hopes to help youth through programming find alternative ways to deal with their struggles. She is a former dancer that sees the arts a good way for youth to express themselves when words are too hard to find. “ I don’t believe in bad apples I believe she must help the crop grow better”. Dean Barnes is the Principal of T.A. Blakelock High School in Oakville Ontario. Dean has been a school administrator for 14 years and is a PhD graduate of the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. His thesis was entitled: “Restorative Peacemaking Circles and other Conflict Management Efforts in Three Ontario High Schools” explored implementation approaches of pro-active and post-incident restorative circles. Dean’s leadership focuses on promoting high student achievement through healthy school-wide and classroom initiatives, such as increased physical activity and wellness, mindfulness, co-curricular activities, restorative practices, school-community partnerships, and relationship building interventions. He will speak about the impact of restorative justice circles in the classroom and the positive impact they have on the wellness of students. Jeff was a computer engineer briefly, then a teacher of math, physics, computer science and communications technology longingly. Since 1999 he has supported a variety of areas at the district level as instructional program leader including assessment, eLearning, mathematics, technology in the classroom. He is currently supporting applied learning, with a passion for social-emotional learning and mindfulness, in the Halton District School Board. Pearl Lee, Full Circle – Art Therapy Centre I was brought up in Hong Kong and Malaysia. I never thought I had the ‘artistic skills’ or ‘techniques’ to make any kind of art. I always failed my art classes. During my high school years, I became more interested in graphic designing. I took Art as one out of the six subjects I have for my International Baccalaureate diploma. In the beginning, I measured every single angle in my art works. Until one day, I was given a 72” x 72” canvas to make a piece of art work. I no longer have that mathematical patience and just ran with it. That piece was the beginning of my therapeutic journey through art. From a young age, I have learned to put up a strong mask and conceal my emotions. My elder brother actually told me that he didn’t know I had emotions until he saw me crying one day when I was 21. During my International Baccalaureate course, I was supposed to make a series of painting circling one theme. Through that process, I was able to find the right expressions for my concealed emotions and begin to discover, explore, learn and heal. I took some time off art, because I was told that it is really hard to make a living through art. I moved to Toronto when I was 19, went to York University, obtained my B.A Honors in Psychology, took a year off to spend time with my father before he pass away. When my dad passed, I thought back about the times I used to spend in the art room, the effect it had on me. I decided to follow my gut and pursue a career as an art therapist, and applied to the Toronto Art Therapy Institute. Now, here I am, perusing the vision of free mental health services for all through the way I know how- Art Therapy, to promote the importance of mental health and self-awareness. Lacey Ford, Full Circle – Art Therapy Centre Lacey Ford was born 1989 in rural Prince Edward Island, Canada. Lacey is a self-taught artist and began showing an interest in art when she was only seven years old, and started out by doodling cartoon characters she saw in children books. However, due to financial constraints she was unable to fully explore her interest in art until high school, where free art classes were offered. During her adolescence, Lacey experienced a great deal of emotional distress caused by the negative effects of trauma, which she responded to by acting out. Fortunately, when she entered into high school and began taking art classes, she was able to express her feelings in a safe way and organize her thoughts, from this point visual arts became a regular therapeutic outlet for her. In 2012, Lacey obtained her Bachelors of Arts in Psychology from the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI). During the last year of her undergraduate at UPEI, Lacey randomly came across the definition for art therapy for the first time online, and realized this is what she had been practicing on herself, and decided then that she wanted to share the power of healing through art with other people in the world. Immediately after completing her undergraduate degree at UPEI, Lacey moved to Toronto in order to study art therapy at the Toronto Art Therapy Institute. Lacey has recently launched a grass roots non-profit organization with her friend and business partner Pearl Lee, called the ‘Full Circle-Art Therapy Centre’. The aim of the organization is to deliver art therapy services throughout Toronto and making mental health services more accessible to those who cannot afford private services. Nga Dinh, Full Circle – Art Therapy Centre Nga Dinh, of Vietnamese descent was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to Canada when she was only two years old. She was raised in low-income environments that fostered her resilience, determination and quest for knowledge. As a young child, she was able to hone her artistic skills and use them to portray the world around her. Her love and passion for sports and art became her allies that have enabled her to pursue a successful and happy life. She is also a free-lance artist and painter. She completed her B.A. in Kinesiology and B.F.A at Wilfrid Laurier University. Throughout her life, she has worked to provide assistance to anyone she could. A smile, a thank you, a little help goes a long way to help brighten someone else’s day. She has worked and volunteered at Street Haven Women’s Shelter, Meals on Wheels, Curated the student/staff show at Wilfrid Laurier University, WWF, Toronto Flying Tigers Volleyball Club, Toronto District School Board and has made appearances on several television and movie productions through BCAST. After working 6 years in broadcasting, she knew that it was time to use her skills to assist others towards a fulfilling emotionally healthy life. She enrolled and has completed her coursework at the Toronto Art Therapy Institute and is currently completing her thesis. Her goal in life is to use her skills and talents to assist others using Art Therapy as means to provide healthier mental states, positive enjoyment of life and easier means of communication and self-expression. Currently she is involved with the Blue Jays Care Foundation, volunteers at the Royal Ontario Museum, the Student Representative on the TATI Advisory Board and is the Director of Events for the National Association of Asian American Professionals Toronto Chapter. Jenny Starke, ANBU – Abuse Never Becomes Us Jenny Starke M.S.W., R.S.W. completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at York University (Toronto, ON 2009) and her Masters in Social Work at the University of Toronto (Toronto, ON 2012). She is a Registered Social Worker with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers. Jenny is a German Tamil Canadian woman that allows her intuitions to guide her to live a life of purpose. Jenny is a woman of many identities that has and is embracing her personal struggles and sharing them to create awareness, challenge normative ideologies and inspire self and political transformation. She is a Geriatric Social Worker at Humber River Hospital and a Peer Group Facilitator for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse at The Gatehouse. Due to her own personal experiences of trauma within the Tamil community, her passion and what she truly believes is the purpose to her life has been to work with survivors of childhood sexual abuse. With A.N.B.U., she hopes to create a voice for survivors of childhood sexual abuse and shed light, build capacity, strengthen awareness and compassion within the Tamil community and across many communities. She is constantly growing and developing her knowledge and understanding of life with trauma through mindfulness and meditation practices. Her personal and professional journeys have enabled her to believe in living and serving within an anti-oppressive, strengths-based and feminist framework. Tharshiga Elankeeran, ANBU – Abuse Never Becomes Us Tharshiga Elankeeran is a Registered Psychotherapist that holds a B.A. (Hons.) in Psychology from York University (Toronto, ON 2009) and an M.A. in Counseling Psychology from McGill University (Montreal, QC 2013). Tharshiga is a Women’s Substance Abuse Counselor at Addiction Services for York Region where she works with pregnant and or parenting women who have suffered extensive trauma and are striving to heal themselves. She has facilitated trauma groups with survivors of childhood sexual abuse at the York Region Abuse Program and currently facilitating a trauma group at Black Creek Community Health Center. With a strong commitment for eternal learning, she continues to seek out opportunities for mental and experiential growth. A survivor of childhood sexual abuse herself, she believes in holistic healing. The body remembers trauma and she passionately seeks alternative forms of healing that incorporate the whole. She obtained Reiki training and aspires to continue practicing and mastering this form of cleansing and balancing of energy within the body. She is also a certified Acudetox Specialist with NADA that can provide Auricular acupuncture to reduce stress, anxiety, cravings and increase relaxation and cleansing. Natalie Wood, MA, Co-founder of the Social Innovation Hub, George Brown College Natalie is a full time Professor teaching in the SSW Program at George Brown College. Her areas of interest are Community Development, Community Economic Development/ Social Purpose Enterprise, Research and Proposal Writing, Communication and Interviewing, Values and Ethics, and the use of the Arts as a tool for research and empowerment of marginalized communities. For over 20 years she has worked in a variety of positions both managerial and front line in the social services field with marginalized communities such as, adults with dual diagnoses, women with concurrent disorders, trauma and abuse survivors, and women with mental health issues who are living in long-term poverty. She is also a community researcher, working as an art consultant on projects related to homeless women and trans-women and new immigrants and their experience of work, with the Arts and Social Work Research Institute at the Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto. She has co-written a number of articles and presented nationally at conferences related to community-based and arts-based research in the social work field. Selected awards include a Community Based Research Award of Merit, from the Centre for Urban Health Initiatives & the Wellesley Institute 2007, the New Pioneers Award for contribution to Arts and Culture, 2006 and the City of York Civic Recognition Award for using the Arts to work with marginalized communities, 1997. Ubah Idle is a 20-year-old Somali-Canadian who was born and raised in Toronto. She found her niche when she would post personal stories on social media as well as spoken word pieces and get a big response. She has been a very vocal person when it comes to social justice and has recently started a grassroots initiative called #SaveOurSomaliYouth.#SaveOurSomaliYouth sees its existence due to a pre-existing need to create a social platform for Somali youth. This grassroots collective uses social media to build support in the Somali community and spark social change and justice in young Somali community members. Her initiative went viral almost instantly. Ubah has been interviewed for Integration TV (a Somali-English TV network) as well as radio interviewed twice on AM530 Multicultural Radio. Her initiative movement has a sister-branch out in Ottawa, Canada, as well while also garnishing attention from other cities nationally. Currently, she is involved in creating summer programs catered to Somali youth in the city. She is working with other organizations and collectives of people to help bridge resources to these youth and their families. In my experience, recovery from child sex abuse is an inner/outer journey of re-relating to self and the world. My journey began in 2011 and was triggered by the arrest of my son’s teacher on child pornography charges. The greatest thing I have learned since, is that the stress and anxiety I had lived with for over 30 years was a predictable symptom…of a crime committed against my most vulnerable child self. I still have challenges, but now I have this information, I am emancipated. Voice and storytelling are at the heart of humanity. And that’s why I use my skills as a filmmaking instructor to empower marginalized, oppressed and racialized people in using technology to tell their own stories. To keep things real, I’m also sharing my own story in a documentary film, Picking Trauma’s Pocket. To date I have filmed empowered survivors in Canada, the US, Guyana, Bolivia and Taiwan. My goal is to highlight the scale and impact of child sex abuse; the prevalence of it in local communities everywhere on the planet. Inner peace in the time we live in is hard to come by. I design landscapes and structures and create spaces for people to get away from the intensity of modern life but seldom do we achieve that. The labyrinth project is a way to create a space for people to stop, slow down, reflect and breathe. A space to connect and feel grounded. A place to be with ourselves and take a break from the instant electronic world we live in. Finding inner peace is transformational change and walking the path of the labyrinth is another step on the journey to that peace.

Before winding up in the wrong hands, massacring more school kids, church members and movie goers, let’s repurchase these weapons of war from our citizens, then ship them onto the battlefield where they belong. We currently spend billions arming Syrian rebels and Kurdish forces in the struggle against global terror. A substantial portion of this funding could be diverted into a national assault weapons buyback program. Once taken off our streets, these military grade weapons could then provide the necessary firepower for our allies, maintaining our commitment to these brave fighters ... so no additional costs would be incurred. Let ISIS and future terror groups be the ones staring down the barrels of these human slaughter machines ... not our precious children and other innocents. Where are the trans women? I’m a grad student at Duke getting a dual masters in Divinity and Public Policy. While not directly involved in the recent protests at the Divinity School, I support my fellow students. The issue is that while Duke advertises itself as inclusive, Duke refuses to employ trans women. I did this research at Duke’s pubic policy school; it holds up. If you go through the arguments that legislators made in favor of HB2, the anti-trans bathroom bill, you’ll see every argument was essentially “trans women are men who are sex predators.” That’s it, trans masculine people and non-binary lesbians were never mentioned. When HB2 was passed the N.C. economy lost $2 billion. HB2 made us look like backwards hicks. In response LGBT organizations, universities, large businesses, institutions of all kinds in North Carolina hired trans people to show how inclusive they were, that although they were in North Carolina they weren’t a part of HB2. Here’s the twist: none of those jobs went to trans women. Only trans masculine people were hired as diversity hires. HB2 was an attack on trans women, and the “helpful” response was so transmisogynistic that only trans masculine people got the help. Trans women’s “allies” were just as willing to lie and cheat us as the conservatives. No LGBT institution, nonprofit, nothing, employs a single trans woman, but they all employ trans masculine people. Duke University, the largest employer in Durham County with 37,000 employees, does not employ one trans woman. They still advertise themselves as inclusive, showing off a big pink and blue trans flag in the window of their Gender and Sexual Diversity Center. Last fall I went to the center’s director. I was told that they did not need to employ any trans women because two trans masculine people had been hired, “one white and one black.” When I said that trans masculine people were not adequate replacements for trans women, I was told that I just needed to make the most of what was there. This lack of trans women Duke employees has real effects. The only trans content in Duke Divinity School’s theoretically LGBT inclusive “Gender and Sexuality Certificate” curriculum is an untrue narrative that all cultures in ancient world and in Church history exclusively viewed trans feminine people as “deformed men” or “unmen.” That narrative leaves out the many ancient trans people like the Emperor Elegabulus. It excises trans women from history, and then uses that excision as an excuse to exclude trans women in the present. Duke needs to do better. Duke needs to begin hiring trans women and including trans people in its theoretically inclusive curriculums.

I’ve been solitary since my personal finally connection ended in February, and like many solitary lesbians, meaning I’m back on Tinder. The online dating app produces an approach to expand my personal online dating share beyond the usual crop of friends, exes and company of exes. But I experienced forgotten exactly what it’s want to be a lesbian on America’s preferred dating application; and discover times, i need to go through a veritable thicket of opposite-sex people and cisgender men. But so why do men pop-up in my own feed of prospective matches whenever my levels is scheduled to see women-identified users only? Anecdotally, I know I’m scarcely alone queer women and non-binary individuals have invested years puzzling on the guys that somehow slide through our Tinder settings. Yes, there are various other internet dating apps, but Tinder will be the people I’ve utilized the most, and only 1 where i have have this happen regularly. I know i am scarcely by yourself queer girls and nonbinary folks have invested age puzzling across the people that somehow slip through our very own Tinder settings. And that I want it to be clear that my personal pain on Tinder isn’t really located in whichever TERF (trans exclusionary revolutionary feminist) ideology; I date trans and nonbinary men and women as well as cisgender people. But I don’t big date right, cisgender people or right lovers. In all honesty, it creeps myself over to realize people is able to see my visibility (most likely, Tinder are a two-way road). As a femme lesbian that is typically seen erroneously as right, I get sufficient undesired interest from guys. I shouldn’t have to market me to them as a possible date once I most, quite definitely don’t want to. Becoming a typically interested reporter, we set out to resolve the mystery. In July, I removed my personal Tinder levels and finalized backup regarding platform for an entirely fresh begin. This is the only method to end up being absolutely sure I’d inspected down every setup properly, to exclude any mistakes to my conclusion. While generating a accounts, the application expected me to choose a gender (man or woman comprise the only real choice and that I decided to go with feminine) and a sexual orientation (you could choose three; I went with lesbian, queer, and homosexual). I achieved a mildly confusing web page that enabled me to select a second sex character (non-binary) and requested whether i needed are contained in searches for men or women (I decided women). In configurations, I found myself questioned whether I wanted to-be revealed people, people, or everybody (We select lady, and visited a button nevertheless “show-me people of the exact same orientation first” so that you can ideally get rid of straight lady acquire to my other queers). With all of those setup thoroughly selected, I figured I found myself when you look at the obvious. 71% of Tinder customers say political variations are a great deal breaker I was wrong. I swiped left for several days on opposite-sex partners preying on bisexual women and encountered various profiles for your suspected they directly, cisgender males. I would approximate that no less than 50 % of the profiles demonstrated to myself from the app happened to be either partners or people: a shockingly highest amount. Intrigued (also because I found myself working on this tale), I begun to swipe close to men and lovers. I realized that a lot of or many of these profiles had seemingly already seen me; every time We swiped right on a cisgender people, it was an instant sugar daddy apps complement. I found myself within their swimming pool, enjoy it or otherwise not. Creepy. I am during my 40s, which means We spent a beneficial element of my personal teens during the lesbian bars of this U.S. with mostly vanished. Encountering guys and straight-ish partners in lesbian places was an all-too-familiar experiences for me. In the pub era, people which installed around lesbian taverns had been referred to as “sharks” because of the way they seemed to circle intoxicated or lonely prey. While some bars refused to permit them to in, additional lesbian taverns merely recharged male clients large home costs to ensure they are buy the advantage of gawking and stalking.

Grey’s Anatomy Welcomes First Recurring Non-Binary Doctor To Show ER Fightmaster makes Grey’s Anatomy history as Dr. Kai Bartley, the series’ first non-binary recurring character. (ABC) Grey’s Anatomy chose ER Fightmaster as their first non-binary character in a recurring role, and the fans are here for it. Fightmaster first appeared in Episode Three of Season 18 as the non-binary neuroscientist, Dr. Kai Bartley, who has now become a recurring character. Kai first appeared as Dr. Meredith Gray (Ellen Pompeo) was invited to visit a well-funded Minnesota hospital. The hospital team wanted Meredith to be part of their team trying to cure Parkinson’s disease, and they asked neurosurgeon Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone) to join them on the trip to help her out. decide on their career choice. As it turned out, Kai was part of the Minnesota research team and Amelia was familiar with their work. Meredith and Amelia eventually join the team and will split their time between Minnesota and Gray Sloan Memorial Hospital – the fictional Seattle hospital where Grey’s Anatomy is based. Kai is “dedicated to their craft and extremely talented at what they do,” according to ABC’s character description. They are also “confident as hell” and “able to make even the most detailed and mundane science look horny and cool.” ABC also hinted that Kai and Amelia “will grow closer to their mutual love for medicine and the brain.” Grey’s Anatomy fans have already figured out the character chemistry after the few scenes Kai and Amelia shared on the show – and they’re really looking forward to the duo ‘bonding’. – ana (@amelinkkkk) October 15, 2021 AMELIA AND KAI LEAVE GOOOOO pic.twitter.com/0Dp69gJM2f – Lauren✨ (@spampixsharpe) 25 October 2021 – zi (@captshawed) October 8, 2021 Kai: I wish you were gay so we could kiss. Amelia: Who said I wasn’t gay? pic.twitter.com/eZmftGo2uk – mon (@bporterarobbins) October 26, 2021 – cassandra🎃 (@addisonsamelia) October 15, 2021 Variety reported that this is the first time a non-binary actor has played a doctor on the show. However, Grey’s Anatomy has had LGBT + portrayal in the past as trans actor Alex Blue Davis played Surgical Resident Casey Parker from Season 14-16. Non-binary actor Sara Ramirez previously starred in the series. Grey’s Anatomy Also included a trans storyline in Season 14 with trans actor Candis Cayne playing a patient who visited Gray Sloan for a vaginoplasty. Fightmaster debuted as part of Chicago’s famous Second City Theater, which has a notable jumping off point for many famous comedians and actors like Bill Murray, Steve Carell, Tina Fey, and many more. The non-binary actor is best known for his role as Emily on Hulu’s Acute and like Alexis in the Showtime series Work in progress.

Forget Valentine’s Day, today, February 15, marks Singles Awareness Day – an unofficial holiday to celebrate being single and to appreciate the love in friendships, your family and yourself. But Liverpool events group, Women’s Wednesday, are taking the opportunity to create a safe space for women and LGBTQ+ people. They aim to bring people together, celebrate and feel empowered for a Galentines and Singles Awareness Day event. Women’s Wednesday are a group of second and third year university students. They came together with the idea of having a women only LGBTQ+ event in Liverpool. Merseynewslive spoke to Miggs, Abbie, Pat and Gina from Women’s Wednesday and Chris Bradley, Events Manager of Camp and Furnace, about tonight’s event Chris said Camp and Furnace was excited to host the event. He said: “Celebrating singles awareness day was a quirky stunt by us really and we’re happy to do it” Abbie said: “I think it should be more of a thing. Valentines is so spread throughout the shops, it’s all over the TV and things like that but why isn’t there a day to celebrate being single and being in your own company and with your friends.” Miggs added: “You can use it as an opportunity to go out and meet new people, instead of just being miserable.” Gina said: “Our initiative is empowering individualism.” She added: “We just wanted to make everyone feel like they’re worth something by themselves or with someone else it doesn’t matter. We always get people coming to our events alone by themselves.” “Our initiative is empowering individualism” Why should we celebrate Singles Awareness Day? Single’s Awareness Day is a quirky and fun way to celebrate individualism and platonic love in a less commercialised way. Camp and Furnace’s Chris said: “Valentines Day is very cliché now. Everyone knows it’s on the 14th . It was on a Monday no one really likes Monday and it’s the same old thing if you’re in a relationship. You go out for a nice meal, go for a nice date, or get an M&S meal deal or something in.” He added: “Galentines is one of those quirky key dates and holidays that doesn’t come up that often. “You can’t buy a galentines card at Clintons or anything like that but we thought it would be a fun thing to do on a Tuesday and celebrate being single.” Part of the appeal of the Women’s Wednesday’s event tonight is how inclusive and empowering it is. Valentines in some ways has always had heteronormative undertones. Creating a safe space for women and the LGBTQ+ community has been important to the group and the venue. Chris said: “Women’s Wednesday have set up their movement and organisation to ensure that they are seen and see other people who may feel marginalised. “So they can come down and get involved and enjoy a night out rather than maybe feeling uncomfortable going to another venue.” He added: “It’s safety under a banner of unity and we’re very happy to have them” “It’s safety under a banner of unity” Gina said: “The LGBTQ+ community is filled with amazing, creative, beautiful people so obviously that’s a big community we wanted to celebrate in itself and individually what they are and obviously women and non-binary come into that as well.” Tonight’s event is championing women and features a line-up of Zima, Mais, Beccs, Miggs and Girls Don’t Sync. How can you attend? Tickets are available from £6 tonight. Abbie said: “£1 from every ticket is going to the Liverpool’s Women’s Hospital which is another massive thing. We’re going to accumulate a lot of money to donate to the women’s hospital.” Watch the full interview with Women’s Wednesday below: Watch the full interview with Chris below: Kitty Vavasour has more on this story: Featured image: Zoe Wheeler.

Gender neutrality is one of those concepts that has sharply divided people both online and in real life. Unfortunately, many people are still kept in the dark, with pundits disagreeing with gender neutrality taking a stance against it that, honestly, tackles only a small part of the issue. This is because many people are still unsure about what exactly gender neutrality is, how it affects society, and how it can promote sensitivity and non-bias. What is Gender Neutrality? In essence, gender neutrality is the idea that gender should play absolutely no part in social roles and structures, gender identity, official policies, language, and other social constructions and/or institutions. Gender neutrality aims to abolish the idea that genders can play only certain roles, and propagates the idea that instances of discrimination can be minimized, if not neutralized completely, by forwarding the idea that gender has no place in the assignment of social roles. How Is Society Reacting to It? According to researchers, Americans in general are divided when it comes to gender neutrality, specifically in the usage of gender-neutral or non-binary pronouns. The divide, however, is very sharp, with age and political affiliation playing a very huge part in how a person approaches the concept of gender neutrality, with younger, more liberal-leaning Americans more likely than older, more conservative-leaning Americans to be comfortable with the concept and usage of gender neutrality and gender neutral pronouns. In general, however, a little over half of Americans, or 52%, claim to be comfortable with using gender neutral pronouns when referring to a person who requests its usage, while 47% of Americans say that this makes them uncomfortable. In fact, 6 out of 10, or roughly 61%, of Americans aged 18 to 29 report feeling very comfortable using gender-neutral or non-binary pronouns, a sharp contrast to 48% of Americans aged 50 and older who report the same. From a political perspective, 66%, or two-thirds, of Democrats report comfortability with gender-neutral pronouns, while only 34% of Republicans can say the same. Meanwhile, in Sweden, a majority of the population have almost no issue whatsoever with gender-neutral pronouns, but it wasn’t always like this: in 2012, author Jesper Lundquist wrote a children’s book, Kivi and the Monster Dog, using a gender-neutral neologised pronoun called “hen”, which is very similar to the Finnish non-gendered and non-binary pronoun hän. Initial reaction was of shock and confusion: many Swedes were against what they called an affront to societal norms, with some newspapers even banning the word ‘hen’, while an entertainment magazine, in defiance of these ‘societal norms’ mandated it as an official part of the publication’s lexicon. The Swedish Language Council was initially against it; but after 2 years, the Council reversed its decision and made ‘hen’ part of the official Swedish language in 2014, a landmark victory for gender-neutrality and non-binary language. Of course, there is still opposition: conservative Swedes still balk at the term, set in their decision that gender-neutral and non-binary people do not deserve a special pronoun, while language purists believe that a different word should be used. Thankfully, their numbers are dwindling. Gender Neutral Pronouns and How You Can Encourage Gender Neutral Language Many people use ‘confusion’ as an excuse to be against gender-neutrality, but really, it’s all just a question of using the right pronouns. But what are gender neutral pronouns? Well, to answer that, let’s go back to basics: pronouns are words that are used to substitute a noun. In English, there are masculine and feminine pronouns for masculine and feminine nouns, for example: Jerry is late again can be re-written as He is late again Mary is going home can be re-written as She is going home There are also neutral pronouns for non human nouns: The table is wonky can be re-written as It is wonky Unfortunately, English doesn’t have gender-neutral nouns that refer to people, with the masculine pronoun “he” (him, his) being used as the default (despite this being an outdated and confusing standard). To avoid confusion, and to propagate gender-neutral language, here are some things you can do: Use Multiple Pronouns In some situations where the gender of a person is unknown, some writers will use “he/she” or “he or she”, “him/her”, or even “s/he”. While it’s ‘conventional’ to use the masculine form first, many writers are starting to put the feminine form first, not exactly as a rebellious thing, but rather as a point that the feminine form isn’t just tacked on out of habit, but rather as co-equal to the masculine pronoun. For example: Successful applicants may send their CV to HR, and he or she will be contacted ASAP. “That’s him or her!” the Inspector cried, as the murderous shadow loomed closer. S/he also agrees to purchase one (1) round of alcoholic drinks for the group, should she/he lose the bet Of course, this does have its downsides: first, from a stylistic point of view, this can be seen as both unwieldy and awkward, especially if its repeated multiple times throughout a text. Secondly, it might achieve the opposite effect of gender neutral language and actually call to attention the gender of a person, especially in contexts wherein their gender is either completely irrelevant or unimportant. As such, many writers prefer using alternative methods of gender neutral language in order to avoid this. Plural Nouns and Pronouns Using plural nouns can go around the awkward use of he/she effectively, for example: The student was so haggard, he/she looked like they just went toe-to-toe with Mike Tyson Can be rephrased into The student was so haggard, they looked like they just went toe-to-toe with Mike Tyson If the applicant wishes to use the bathroom before the end of the interview, he or she will forfeit their spot in Hogwarts Can be rephrased into If the applicant wishes to use the bathroom before the end of the interview, they will forfeit their spot in Hogwarts Using plural forms might seem unwieldy, especially if you’re referring to a single person, but it isn’t unheard of: the plural ‘they’ has been used in the English language both as a plural and single pronoun for centuries, going all the way back to 1375, for example: ‘Hastely hiȝed eche . . . þei neyȝþed so neiȝh . . . þere william & his worþi lef were liand i-fere.’ Translated as “‘Each man hurried . . . till they drew near . . . where William and his darling were lying together.’ In fact, in 1660, grammarian and Quaker George Fox said that the use of the word “You” in its singular form was reserved only for fools, or, in this century, bigots.

I was honoured to be asked by CN to offer a round of feedback on the manuscript for this book prior to publication (with Virago Press). I inhaled the text in a single evening, despite generally dragging my feet when reading longer pieces on my computer screen. The research was incredibly thorough, but at no point did this become dry or stuffy. This book isn’t an academic text in the traditional sense, but it’s certainly a very educational one – I’ve already cited it in my own academic writing. Once I got my hard copy of the book, I felt it had been a long enough time since that editing process that I should really read it again before reviewing – plus, it wouldn’t be fair to assess a pre-final version. Generally I struggle with re-reading books, as my attention often wanes as a result of half-remembering what I’m encountering and having to fight the urge to skim. I was surprised with trans like me, that I was touched more deeply second time around than the first. Divided into 15 chapters over 214 pages, Lester’s conversational style creates an intimate and effective sense of a meaningful conversation over coffee with a friend. Before the journey has really begun, they explain how “to learn how to learn about trans people, about the ways in which what we know about gender is shifting and growing, we must first unlearn” (p. 5); their experience as a teacher comes through (which we are explicitly told about later, through their careful threading of personal anecdote through the narrative), and an attentive, skilled one at that. Lester effectively conjures compassion in their audience through beginning by engaging with the worst exploitation of the tabloid press. Their points are consistently reasonable, relatable, and simple. There is no sense of polemic, only kindness. They give of their personal experiences and history generously, but without allowing any reader to fall into voyeurism. Lester gets us thinking about who has the power to tell stories, helping the reader to understand the incredibly invasive expectations, demands, and groping hands trans people can by explicitly targeted with. While there is a partial element of autobiography, trans like me reads as a collection of interrogative, well-evidenced essays that are absolutely committed to an empathetic and intersectional appreciation of many of the central discussions and concerns that come up when trans is on the discussion table. How race and class are profoundly relevant and necessary in any understanding of trans people is also not lost or buried. It wasn’t far into the book that I started marking ‘wow moments’ in my margins. Brilliant, succinct ripostes to some of the most dangerous and disingenuous (yet pervasive) myths about trans people and communities. These are not incinerated in a blaze of adjectives, but quietly and decisively collapsed. The book manages to do this in a way that is not only affirming to those already familiar with the subject matter, but accessible to those who are not. Lester’s anger is something that one would hope everyone can agree with – anger about bigotry, injustice, violence, callousness, unequal rights, access, and experience. Lester hits the nail on the head by centring empathy in their education and discussion. I mentioned that I was touched more deeply second time around. For me, this was most profound on page 35: “a question I am often asked is why, as someone who wants to subvert gender norms, i would want or need an additional gendered label. Couldn’t I simply refuse all descriptors? Or, failing that, call myself a feminine man or a masculine woman?”. This made me think of a line from Alan Bennett’s History Boys: “The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours”. Now I knew this wasn’t unique to me, but I remembered being asked by an exceptionally well-informed and sensitive friend “but aren’t you just a feminist man?” in relation to my own non-binary experience. The discussion that Lester unfolds in response to the rhetorical questions they use is far more helpful (and humble) than a discrete, essential ‘answer’. It made me feel better equipped to have these conversations when (and it is when, not if) they come about. There’s no such thing as a perfect book. However from my perspective, any critiques feel embarrassingly trivial or unnecessary. When discussing how trans women have been portrayed in popular culture (“the victim, the freak, the joke, the threat” – p. 29) I felt a mention of Julia Serano as quite a marked absence – albeit undoubtedly many of the readers of this book wouldn’t be familiar with Serano’s work. Further, as an academic, while I was glad to see extensive references in the endnotes, I found the system of links listed by page a bit imprecise. These things say much more about me than about the book, and most certainly don’t detract. CN Lester is one of quite a small handful of people capable of introducing so many aspects of trans lives so well. Doing so to a heterogeneous popular audience is doubly difficult. I can only echo Shami Chakrabarti’s back-cover comment that “I challenge anyone not to have both heart and mind a little more open after reading this book”. This is a book for everyone, living up to the title’s implication of ‘a journey for all of us’. I believe this book can make its readers both wiser and kinder, and makes an incredibly important contribution as a result, that I enthusiastically recommend.

Listing your own pronouns within social media marketing or matchmaking application bio might not have taken place for you if you are perhaps not an element of the LGBTQ+ neighborhood. And when you are the sex you were assigned at birth (cisgender), it is likely you haven’t because of the practice a lot said. But take it from your own local non-binary, dark baddie: getting your own pronouns within online dating application bio as a cis person could make all the difference for trans daters. Beyond the reassurance it offers myself as well as other sex non-conforming (GNC) hotties, this easy work is life-saving. You are not taking up room in a residential district you aren’t part of. Instead, you are enabling gender-fluid and trans folk learn you’re a safe individual swipe right on. It’s difficult to pin lower how many millennials or Gen Zers identify as GNC. Per 2018 information from the Pew data middle, 25% of millennials and 35per cent of Gen Zers yourself understand someone who goes on gender-neutral pronouns. Also, the data also revealed that 50% of millennials and about 60per cent of Gen Zers think types an internet-based pages should promote even more sex possibilities than simply “woman” and “man.” The tides include shifting in support of better trans inclusion, and normalizing the pronouns conversation during very first experiences — enchanting, sexual, and normally — is a simple, however strong ways you’ll join. Action into my attitude as a non-binary femme just who frequently becomes misgendered as a female. Due to this fact, I read pronouns within dating visibility as a “green banner.” (This is the reverse of a bio that checks out “I do not kno what things to compose right here hahaha” or a photo of you holding a dead fish within pic gallery, as an example.) That “she/her” or “he/him” lets myself see you are going to appreciate my identification and make use of “they” when gushing about me personally within class chat. I can show up to the time wearing whatever clothing generate myself feel at ease, and you wont blink. More importantly, seeing the pronouns allows me personally know I don’t have is nervous for my safety, specially when are romantic. I’m sure I won’t believe uncomfortable suggesting just what alternate keywords to make use of in mention of the my body whenever we’re starting up, and I can say “yes” to being the boyfriend/girlfriend/partner with decreased concern because I’m sure you’ll stick-up personally, even if it’s difficult. The FBI’s 2018 Hate Crime Statistics document unearthed that one out of five confirmed detest criminal activities committed in 2018 were motivated by anti-LGBTQ bias. Transphobic assault constructed about 14per cent of this anti-LGBTQ events, and 2.4per cent of all of the hate criminal activities. Should this ben’t harrowing enough, gay or trans anxiety try commonly regarded as a genuine appropriate defense to excuse cis assault against trans group. Only 11 claims —California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, New York, nj-new jersey, Nevada, Rhode area, and Arizona — bring blocked employing trans panic defense. So you can find out how appointment a direct crush at a swanky bar or a cute cis match at a GoKart track does not usually appear very enjoyable when you are trans or gender-fluid. Combine Thomas, a psychotherapist who focuses on using trans and non-binary men, informs Elite Daily the risk of transphobia looms adequate for some customers — especially trans-feminine types — that they just don’t date anyway. Some dating applications create becoming https://datingmentor.org/dating-in-40/ a cisgender ally convenient as opposed to others. While Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble offer long, comprehensive databases of gender choices, you must manually incorporate their pronouns to your biography. Lex — an app for women, trans, and GNC daters — features a finite set of options for pronouns, you could get back can tailor that area once your profile is finished. Grindr, with usually started an application for homosexual males but provides extended to include trans and GNC daters, now offers a designated pronouns section. Alex Ebony, Grindr’s Head of promotional, tells elite group frequent 15% of users integrate pronouns on the profile. You are able to choose “he/him,” “she/her,” “they/them,” or custom pronouns. Whenever filling out this element of the Grindr profile, there is an email describing precisely why its essential for trans and non-binary people. This may involve a warning that cis everyone must not neglect this part with humor. In the same way, pages on the, an app for lesbian, queer, and bisexual someone, has a designated pronouns section. It is possible to pick “she/her,” “he/him,” and “they/them,” in conjunction with “ze/hir,” personalized pronouns, or “prefer not to say.” Should you click the “precisely what does this mean?” hyperlink which is showed inside section of HER’s interface, an explainer on gender identity pops up for the provided pronoun possibilities. HER President Robyn Exton informs Elite regularly 49% of consumers bring extra pronouns with their profiles. In 2020, OkCupid announced it absolutely was beginning its “include Pronouns To visibility” ability to consumers, whether or not they certainly were LGBTQ+ or not. Thomas agrees that cis individuals following this pronoun practice is a good idea to trans and genderqueer visitors. “they prevents any assumptions about sex from the earliest appointment. If someone requires my pronouns, I’m sure they see me personally, they want to see me, and they are not generating any presumptions about which I am based on my personal look,” Thomas states. “they directs the message that this people is in the discover trans and GNC people, and comprehends essential truly feeling observed and end up being recognized.” And God, whenever swiping through matchmaking programs, I’d like to match with somebody who’s going to render myself become viewed and recognized. In conjunction with demonstrating pronouns plainly, Thomas advises educating yourself on sex identification. If at all possible, it is said, you need to know adequate to perhaps not make a trans or non-binary individual feel like they should describe by themselves. (Should you query me personally just what non-binary indicates while we’re on a date, I’m Venmo-requesting your for mental labor.) Possibly this talk appears like it is sucking the fun off anything because exciting as installing their dating app profile. However these stress are constantly current for genderqueer individuals, even though we want to do something as easy as DM a cis crush on Instagram. Including your pronouns towards biography (which takes 30 seconds for the most part) will help guide culture toward greater approval and addition. Plus, you’re enabling trans or GNC folks understand you’d be a wonderful match on their behalf — one that respects all parts of her gender character. What do you have to get rid of? Blend Thomas, MSW, LGSW, psychotherapist just who focuses on using the services of trans, non-binary, and GNC clients Alex Ebony, Head of Marketing at Grindr

The spirit of the winter holidays, more than anything else, is one of giving. Beyond our friends and families, it’s a great opportunity to provide generosity where it’s truly needed by supporting an important cause. Whichever issue you’re passionate about, supporting grassroots organizations can often make the biggest impact. The term “grassroots” refers to an organization or movement rooted in community. That, like the name suggests, takes a bottom-up approach with folks who are often closest to the issue, thereby encouraging autonomy. Grassroots organizations typically operate as a collective at the local level in order to create change locally, regionally, or internationally. Supporting grassroots organizations promotes dignity and empowers citizens to make a difference in a way that’s meaningful and sustainable because it lets those affected define what their goals are. There are countless grassroots organizations in the world doing incredible work. Here are just a handful of worthy causes to consider supporting this year. Grassroots Law Project This initiative is composed of the same people who campaigned to free Rodney Reed, Michael Thompson, stop the execution of Nate Woods, and demand justice for Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd. The Grassroots Law Project uses community organization and shared legal knowledge and expertise to fight systemic injustice, including defunding police, reforming migration, ending police violence, and establishing independent oversight. Learn more here. Mosqoy works with remote Quechua communities in the Peruvian Andes to foster economic and educational opportunities that nurture their threatened Indigenous culture. They do this through three different initiatives. The first is a social enterprise that helps ensure the resiliency of Quechua woven arts—beautiful hand-woven natural fibres that are at risk of being replaced by machine-produced versions. Mosqoy provides outlets for the Quechua weavers, capacity-building initiatives, and community-led development projects. Their field school is another social enterprise that provides culturally responsible tours in Peru that promote conscious travelling. Funds from both of these enterprises support their youth program that provides education scholarships for youth in remote communities. Small Projects Istanbul This non-governmental organization based in Turkey supports people who have been displaced by conflict in Syria, North Africa, and the Middle East by providing a safe space for families to network and integrate. They offer a variety of community services, including activities for children to play and develop language and motor skills, homework support and computer skills for youth, and a women’s social enterprise that teaches handiwork skills to gain independence and connect with each other. Black Girls CODE Black Girls CODE “has set out to prove to the world that girls of every color have the skills to become the programmers of tomorrow.” Black households are less as likely to have internet access than those belonging to white families, and Black Girls CODE is working to ensure that’s not a barrier to young girls of colour learning digital skills. Through workshops and after school programs, they teach beginner programming skills to girls who may not have the privilege of learning it elsewhere, helping them to build self-confidence and enter the field of technology. Bahama Plastic Movement Founder Kristal Ambrose came up with the idea for this organization after sailing the Pacific Ocean to study the infamous Western Garbage Patch. Known by many as “Kristal Ocean”, she came home to the Bahamas to start a revolution to prevent plastic from polluting the oceans. Bahama Plastic Movement attacks the problem from all angles: research, education, citizen science, and policy change while empowering local Bahamians to take on environmental leadership. Trans Women of Colour Collective Trans, gender non-conforming, and non-binary people of colour experience higher rates of homelessness, trauma, criminalization, under-employment, and incarceration. TWOCC works closely with, and amplifies the voices of young people who have been affected by racism and transphobia to foster safer communities, restorative justice, and shift the narrative “from surviving to thriving”. The organization accomplishes progress in this work through community teach-ins, advocacy workshops, direct actions, visibility campaigns, and funds supporting education, survival, and wellness. Global Mangrove Alliance Mangrove trees are a vital piece in combating climate change due to their ability to store far more carbon in their soils—unfortunately, they’re also at risk on Kenya’s South Coast due to illegal logging. Two remote communities in Kwale County who rely on Mangrove trees for their livelihood have taken the tree’s conservation into their hands. Mikoko Pamoja is a community-based organization working to protect mangroves in Gazi Bay. All proceeds from the organization go straight back into the community, ensuring the sustainability of both the trees and their livelihood. The Foundation for Women’s Health Research and Development is an African Woman-led organization dedicated to ending violence against women and girls, inlcuding female genital mutilation, child marriage, and domestic and sexual violence. They work to connect communities, develop skills, share knowledge, and support and inspire African girls to become the leaders of tomorrow.

When Vox published the leaked draft of the Trump Administration’s final interim rule effectively gutting the Affordable Care Act’s so-called birth control mandate last Wednesday, journalists, activists, and even one outspoken nun were quick to blast the rule as a blatant attack on women’s rights and the ability to control their reproductive health. And the 125-page draft rule is certainly an assault on the bodily autonomy of any American who happens to have a uterus. But the rambling draft rule—which is still listed as pending on OBM’s website and which seems to have wholly skipped the requisite public comment period—is part of a larger, broader campaign waged by the Trump Administration and its right-wing allies. To unpack the deep historical, religious, and conservative culture war roots of this sweeping effort to roll back access to safe, effective birth control, I turned to fellow RD senior correspondent Patricia Miller, author of Good Catholics: The Battle Over Abortion in the Catholic Church, and RD’s Remapping American Christianities editor Anita Little. In this special roundtable, we talk about what’s in this new draft, how some Catholic leaders still think women can get all the birth control they need at a 7-Eleven, and why conservative religious men seem to believe that women should pay for sex. Sunnivie Brydum: Under this new rule employers will no longer be required to request an exemption if they don’t want to cover contraception—they can just decide not to provide it, and say they had a religious or moral conviction if that denial is challenged. What do you see as the potential fallout from such a broad permission to deny an entire category of coverage? Patricia Miller: The most interesting thing about the astounding breadth of the proposed exemption is that it confirms what I and other opponents of the original, ever-expanding exemption suspected in the first place—that this was never about an actual conscience exemption as they have been traditionally understood, but was about allowing any employer to opt out of birth control coverage just because they don’t approve of birth control or don’t want to pay for what they consider “recreational” sex. The Trump administration, with its usual lack of subtlety, has confirmed that by not even requiring employers to go through the motions of stating a religious or “moral” exemption. SB: Yes! The condemnation of “recreational” sex was a piece that stuck out to me, too. And though the draft doesn’t explicitly say it, I think it’s safe to assume that category of “non-covered” sex includes same-sex relations or—dare I even offer—queer sex. I wonder where this policy leaves, for instance, trans men who have sex with cis men, and may need contraceptive or reproductive care generally assumed to be “for women.” Anita Little: To echo some of what Patricia said, it shows the whole “religious exemption” stipulation for what it really is: a shell for interfering with the reproductive health of employees. This was never really about religion or “strongly held beliefs,” but more about slowly cutting away at the freedoms given in the birth control mandate of ACA. I remember I had freshly entered the work force around the time the ACA was finally passed, and the relief among the many young women and people with uteruses I knew was palpable. For many people who use birth control not just for contraceptive purposes, but for health problems like endometriosis, knowing an employer couldn’t opt out of coverage was a breath of fresh air. My monthly birth control that I take for a medical condition went from $45 per month (not chump change for a young, broke person) to zero. Knowing that in the future, my health could be contingent upon the whims of my employer is disconcerting, and the removal of the moral exemption just makes it so much easier for employers to affect the lives of millions who need that access. SB: So, is it fair to read this draft rule as the latest effort of the Trump administration to impose conservative Christian morality on the entire country? PM: I don’t think it’s quite fair to read it as an effort of the Trump administration per se. Like so many other things, Trump jumped onto the “Little Sisters” bandwagon when he saw that it was useful to motivate a certain segment of the electorate. It’s probably more accurate to say that this is a now six-year effort on the part of the religious right—by which I mean both the Catholic and evangelical right—to impose “traditional” or conservative morality. But obviously the Trump administration is more than happy to do their bidding on this issue. SB: Right-wing legal groups like Becket (which represented Little Sisters of the Poor in its challenge to the contraceptive mandate at SCOTUS), have claimed that this draft rule simply proves “that people can get contraceptives without forcing nuns to provide them.” But as Elle recently reported, a full third of American women can’t afford to pay more than $10 a month for birth control. How do you think this this assumption—that anyone who wants birth control can get it easily—will affect already marginalized groups, including young, low-income, undocumented, and LGBTQ people? AL: As I’ve written before on RD here and here, marginalized groups, particularly low-income, non-binary women of color are disproportionately affected by birth control restrictions. These are society’s most vulnerable groups, and they are the ones least afforded the right of what to do with their bodies. The loss of the birth control mandate would put contraceptives out of reach for many of them. Those who are already living on the margins socio-economically and are barely scraping by will end up having to choose between their birth control or having enough for rent or electricity or food. And with the current administration so hellbent on stripping away even more of our country’s threadbare safety net, the choices marginalized groups will have to make will become more and more difficult. If one does become pregnant due to lack of access to birth control, legislation like the Hyde Amendment makes it nearly impossible for a low-income person to exercise their constitutional right to abortion. Privileged white women usually have another option available even if the safety net isn’t there. Women of color, LGBTQ women, undocumented women, and low-income or rural women are the main ones who suffer from legislation like this because they had so few options to begin with. PM: Cardinal Dolan, who led the first and fundamental round of the Catholic Church’s opposition to the mandate, famously espoused this idea that contraceptives are so widely available and so cheap that the mandate was unnecessary. He said “all you have to do is walk into a 7-Eleven or any shop on any street in America and have access to them.” Opponents of the mandate have consistently belittled the idea that contraceptives are a significant health care cost for women despite the fact that, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, birth control comprises between 30 and 44 percent of women’s out-of-pocket health care spending. For marginalized groups, the impact is likely to be especially severe because funding for the contraceptive safety-net provider, Planned Parenthood, is also under attack. But the biggest effect is likely to be felt on access to the “LARCs” (long-acting reversible contraceptives) like IUDs and implants, since they are the most expensive. The insertion of an IUD costs about $1,000, and it’s no coincidence that the use of these methods has increased steadily since the contraceptive mandate was put in effect. According to the Guttmacher Institute, LARC use increased from 9% of women in 2009 to 12% in 2012, after the mandate went into effect. Increases in LARC use were especially notable among Hispanic women and women with no children, who tend to be younger women. SB: How do you see this rule interacting with the Trump Administration’s (and rank-and-file Republicans’) ongoing efforts to weaken public assistance for health care for people with uteruses? AL: It shows that all these new bits of legislation are about punishing women and taking away their choices. If you don’t have control over your reproduction, you don’t have control over your life. By chipping away at the ability of a person to decide when/if they become pregnant, Republicans are ensuring a society where everyone won’t be equal, where half the population won’t have the tools to build the best futures for themselves and their families. It’s the reinforcing of patriarchy—plain and simple. PM: Weakening or eliminating the contraceptive mandate seems to be a particular priority for the Republicans, probably because contraception is tied to the issue of sexual pleasure, and there are still lots of conservatives who don’t think women should be having non-procreative sex without “paying” for it—either in terms of shouldering their contraceptive costs outside of health insurance or getting pregnant. SB: Is that belief—that women can’t enjoy or have sex without some sort of punishment—rooted in a particular theology? Or are we just dealing with standard male entitlement over women’s bodies? PM: This had been a long-running theme ever since the movement began in the late 1990s to have insurers cover birth control. Until about 20 years ago, most insurance plans didn’t cover any kind of contraception, even if you had prescription drug coverage, on the theory that birth control was a “lifestyle” drug. When state legislatures first began insisting that insurers cover contraceptives just like other drugs, many a male legislator stood up and insisted that he wasn’t going to pay for someone else’s sex life. I think the idea that prescription contraceptives aren’t really a necessity because they are linked to sexual pleasure remains powerful for many conservative men. At the same time, the Catholic Church still literally teaches that one must always be open to the possibility of pregnancy resulting from sexual intercourse, so it’s easy to see that the Catholic Church’s opposition to contraception stems from this idea that women must pay a price for sex. SB: Where does this rule leave those who want or need contraceptive coverage, but who work for employers who express a “religious or moral conviction” opposing reproductive healthcare? AL: It leaves them in a place in which they aren’t in control of their lives. They’re at the mercy of their employers instead of being the arbiters of their reproductive destinies. It takes a decision that is personal and private and makes it the business of someone’s boss. PM: Well, I guess they could take Cardinal Dolan’s advice and go to 7-Eleven, although he seems to be unaware of any method of contraception other than condoms. The good news is the regulation was sloppily written (surprise!) and skipped several regulatory review steps, so there is a possibility it will be tied up in court for some time. SB: What do you make of this sentence (excerpted below from page 34 of the leaked draft), which seems to lay bare how this administration prioritizes “religious liberty” over reproductive health care for more than half the country? The Departments have concluded that the governmental interest in ensuring that the employees of such organizations receive contraceptive coverage as part of their employer sponsored health plan is less significant than previously stated. PM: What will be interesting is what the courts will make of this statement, especially the “less significant than previously stated” part. Is the Trump administration going to argue that somehow women have less of a need for birth control than they did when the original rule was promulgated in 2011? That the existing barriers to access have magically disappeared? And remember, when the Supreme Court sent the cases of the religious nonprofits who objected to the mandate back to appeals courts and instructed the parties to work together on some kind of agreement, it specified that such an agreement not only had to accommodate the plaintiffs’ religious objections, but also had to ensure women “receive full and equal health coverage, including contraceptive coverage.” SB: That requirement is at the heart of what I suspect may ultimately doom this rule. The draft rule dedicates an inordinate amount of space to arguing, simultaneously, that women can get contraception (and abortions?) wherever and whenever they want, but also that the ACA didn’t actually make obtaining this care any easier for those in the marginalized categories the draft identifies. Take, for example, this excerpt from page 42: Despite the Departments’ previous view that increased contraceptive access through a coverage mandate would reduce unintended pregnancy, other data indicates that, in 28 states where contraceptive coverage mandates have been imposed statewide, those mandates have not necessarily lowered rates of unintended pregnancy (or abortion) overall. This statement pointedly ignores the fact that U.S. abortions are actually at a historic low. What’s more, the cherry-picked data referenced in the draft fails to offer any actual solutions for balancing the “moral or religious objections” to contraception with proven improved health outcomes that accompany access to preventive and reproductive healthcare. Do you think the administration—or anyone at HHS or DOL, which allegedly drafted this rule—has any idea how to balance those competing ideals? Or is this draft a 125-page attempt to avoid answering that question entirely? PM: The original exemption for religious nonprofits did balance the question of a “religious liberty” exemption with the need of women to have seamless, non-stigmatized access to contraception. The whole point of this rule is to give the Catholic Church exactly what it wanted in the first place: that anyone should be able to self-exempt themselves from the contraception mandate for any reason and at any point without a balancing mechanism to protect the rights of women. It is specifically designed to allow (male) employers to deny contraception to female employees because they either believe that unmarried women shouldn’t be having sex, or that non-procreative sex is immoral, or that contraceptives aren’t really health care. So, what is the appropriate role of religious conviction when discussing health care—which relies on science that sometimes directly refutes those convictions? PM: Unfortunately, this was the question that the courts were really reluctant to dig into. The assumption seemed to be that the basis of the plaintiffs’ beliefs should go unquestioned, even if it clearly contradicted established science. This can be seen most clearly in the way the courts treated the claim that emergency contraception is an abortifacient, which is clearly a religious belief, not a scientific fact. Essentially the courts said that petitioners can make up whatever facts they want to justify a religious exemption and the courts won’t dig into them, basically treating knowable science as a religious belief. Hobby Lobby and related cases have enshrined the belief that faith-based convictions trump science.

One of the famous and young nonbinary celebrities of the Hollywood, Lachlan Watson is bold by nature who never hesitates to speak about their sexuality in public. The young star rose to fame after their appearance in the Netflix's TV series, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. What Is Lachlan Watson's Sexuality? Lachlan Watson who portrayed the role of gender non-binary character Theo Putnam in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina identifies themselves as a pansexual and genderqueer who uses they/them pronouns. View this post on Instagram The rising star told that it helped them to tell their own story. They said, ''I think that’s been very nice to be able to almost tell my own story through Susie a little bit.'' Watson found interesting to play such a character. They expressed, “Honestly, it was a little refreshing to be a queer character [and] not be confined to a linear path where ‘oh, the character gets bullied and does research and oh, now they came out.'' ''It was nice to live in that ambiguous world where Susie can really just be Susie and figure out what they meant without really being pressured to come out and label themselves just yet. That changes a little bit in season two, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens with that.” Lachlan never hesitates to speak in public about sexuality. In November 2018 on a Netflix-produced talk segment, What I Wish You Knew: About Being Nonbinary, they discussed about gender identity with some nonbinary celebrities including Liv Hewson, Jacob Tobia, and Shica Raichandani. Also See: Dafne Keen The bold actress is not dating anyone and is possibly single as of now. The star seems to be more focused on her career rather than focusing on some serious relationship. What is Lachlan Watson Up To Now? Lachlan Watson, a non-binary film star donned a floral kind of dress styled by herself and her mom posing for a met gala challenge on 3 May 2020 at Raleigh, North Carolina. Similarly, on 2 May she featured on the cover page of a newsletter named SELF SHOT SALTY by Lachlan herself and her mutual muse. Watson, a philanthropic young actor shared her joy being nominated for DAZED100. Lachlan addressed, this year she'll pitch an idea for the new DAZED100 ideas fund and her plan is to gibe half of the cash to the unheard and to the fund an entirely DIY album and tour with her shiny new musical endeavor. How Much Is Netflix Star, Lachlan Watson's Net Worth? Lachlan Watson has an estimated net worth of not less than $200 thousand. Watson is making a huge amount from their acting career. View this post on Instagram The actress is now working in the Netflix's TV series, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina with Kiernan Shipka, Ross Lynch, and Gavin Leatherwood. Watson is definitely earning a good salary from their role in the series. Moreover, Netflix's actors make an average salary that ranges from $47593 to $60635. Quick Facts About Lachlan Watson - Lachlan Watson was born on 12th April 2001 in North Carolina under the sun sign Aries. - Watson is an American citizen and is of White ethnicity. - Lachlan was homeschooled and earned a diploma degree in 2018. - The actress started dating as a child at the Burning Coal Theater where their mother worked. - They made their acting debut in the short film, The Ultimate Life then worked in the television shows Nashville and Drop Dead Diva. - Watson stands at a height of 5 feet 1 inch (1.55m). - Their age is 18 as of 2019. Check out the interview with Lachlan Watson where she talked about their nonbinary character! Keep visiting Marriedwiki.com for more biographies.

The Morning Report San Diego news and info you need to take on the day. Sweetwater Union High School District will pay a former Mar Vista High School student $2.2 million to settle claims that officials negligently hired and retained a Navy Junior ROTC substitute teacher who pleaded guilty to statutory rape. The lawsuit alleged that Sweetwater Union should have known about ongoing sexual harassment and sexual abuse by the teacher, Martin Gallegos. While at Coronado Unified, Gallegos was accused of sexual misconduct by another former Junior ROTC student and abruptly left his position. The lawsuit originally named Coronado Unified but that school district was eventually dropped. Sweetwater settled with the student, identified only as Jane Roe, in 2018. VOSD’s Kayla Jimenez is the first to report on the settlement. Though only Sweetwater will pay the settlement, the suit makes clear more than one party failed Roe. Coronado never reported Gallegos to the state agency that handles teacher credentials, and Mar Vista High never contacted Sweetwater to discuss his employment there, nor did it contact Gallegos’ other previous employers. Schools aren’t required to make such inquiries, though lawmakers have tried and failed to change that. The settlement not only illuminates the ways in which problem educators can move from school district to school district, but the extremely high cost – morally and financially – such moves can bring districts that decline to thoroughly examine the backgrounds of the educators they hire. Councilman Calls Out Threat from Former Somebody From Scott Lewis: Today, the Airport Authority is scheduled to vote on a resolution “requiring contractors to enter into Project Labor Agreements for Airport Development Plan projects.” These deals, known as PLAs, mean unions guarantee not to strike and, in exchange, the airport will route all labor through the unions often paying for benefits and other fees. They have been controversial — city voters approved an initiative prohibiting City Hall from passing requirements like this. Wednesday a group that has long advocated against these deals tried to raise fury about today’s vote and labor moves to get it approved. Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez took to Twitter to say that while she supported the resolution, she had no details about what was happening at the Airport Authority and she wasn’t trying to twist arms. “The right-wingers saying that I bullied people into it are absolute idiots & proven liars,” she wrote. Then San Diego City Councilman Mark Kersey took to Twitter to highlight a different threat. He displayed a message he’d received from talk-show host Carl DeMaio. “Mark – if you vote for a PLA, I’ll bash you ever day I can on the radio. And we’ll do social media and ads and emails into D5. You won’t get a moment’s rest.” Kersey obviously seemed scared out of his mind. County Files Suit Against Trump Admin Over Asylum-Seekers The county has filed suit against the federal government for killing a policy under which officials provided assistance to asylum-seeking families who were entering the United States. Now that the policy has been killed, local government agencies and nonprofits have scrambled to shelter and provide medical care for those families, who are often dropped onto San Diego streets with few resources. “The federal government’s negligent approach to those seeking asylum is taking a huge toll on San Diego County taxpayers. The county has already spent over $1.3 million to address health and safety issues at the asylum shelter,” Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Dianne Jacob wrote in a statement. “That figure is ballooning by the day. We are asking the court to require the feds to reinstate the Safe Release program and not leave local governments, nonprofits and taxpayers holding the bag.” The county’s suit asks the courts to force the government to reinstate its safe release policy. How Local Leaders Are Responding to Escondido Mosque Fire In response to an alleged arson at an Escondido mosque, both secular and religious leaders have rallied behind San Diego County’s Islamic community, offering financial and other forms of support. A recent vigil got plenty of media attention, but this isn’t the region’s first brush with hate. In the North County Report, Jesse Marx cites FBI statistics showing that Vista, Carlsbad and Oceanside were home in 2017 to disproportionately high numbers of reported crimes based on race, religion and sexual orientation. San Diego’s top prosecutor of hate crimes said different parts of the county experience spikes in reported hate crimes at different times and it’s not clear why. But he put part of the blame on social media, which helps connect people with similarly biased beliefs. An Islamic Society of Escondido board member said he did not think it’s a coincidence that a mosque within California’s 50th Congressional District is now the site of an arson and hate crime investigation. A spokesman for Rep. Duncan Hunter disagreed with the suggestion that last year’s campaign rhetoric — about a Muslim infiltration of Congress — might have influenced the attack. More Census Funding on the Way The Times of San Diego reports that SANDAG received a $1.5 million grant in preparation for the 2020 Census. That’s in addition to the $1.66 million contract awarded recently to a local coalition of organizers and officials. Their task over the next year and a half will be to ensure every community is included in the next big survey. About a third of all Census tracts in San Diego and Imperial counties are considered “hard to count,” meaning the households there experience poverty or language barriers or lack internet access, among other things. As Marx explained last month, the count is important because it determines the distribution of federal resources and shapes politics from Congress on down. In Other News - The behavioral health unit at Paradise Valley Hospital in National City has stopped accepting patients, temporarily forcing the region’s already-stressed psychiatric emergency system to absorb more. (Union-Tribune) - A mother who was separated from her daughter by immigration agents has written an op-ed for the New York Times. “I still don’t know where or in whose care my daughter was when we were apart. She’s still traumatized,” Sindy Flores wrote. VOSD’s Maya Srikrishnan shared Flores’ story in January. - NBC News looked at President Donald Trump’s picks for ambassador and found that some were big donors to Trump’s presidential inaugural committee. They also seem to be less qualified than past presidents’ nominees. San Diego real estate developer Doug Manchester, for instance, incorrectly told Congress that the Bahamas were a part of the United States. - A San Diego audit finds that community planning group members are not receiving sufficient training to fulfill their role as development and land use advisors to city officials. CityBeat also reports that City Councilman Chris Ward plans to propose a cannabis equity program that gives government assistance to entrepreneurs who’ve been disproportionately affected by the war on drugs. - The Port of San Diego’s new chairman sees a “renaissance on the bay” and wants the Coronado Ferry Landing to be a part of it, but residents are apprehensive of development. “We like it quiet and we like it quaint,” is how one woman put it. (NBC 7) - SDSU will let students put any name they wish on their college diploma — a change mostly meant to allow transgender and non-binary people use names that reflect their preferred gender and sexual identity. (Union-Tribune) - The U.S. government will pay $250,000 to settle a lawsuit by a disabled veteran who was detained after parking in disabled spot. (Union-Tribune) - The days of Julian’s volunteer fire department — the last in the county — appear to be numbered. (Times of San Diego) The Morning Report was written by Jesse Marx, and edited by Sara Libby.

“Don’t be scared,” a man tells his transgender son in an emotional new Gillette ad. “Shaving is about being confident.” The ad, which has been viewed more than 700,000 times on Facebook since it was first shared on Thursday, purports to show Samson Bonkeabantu Brown’s “first shave.” The Toronto-based artist and activist is seen with a razor in his hand and shaving cream on his face as his father stands nearby, gently encouraging him. “Ah, you’re doing fine,” his dad says. “You are doing fine.” As Brown explains in the clip, his first shave marked a particularly meaningful milestone in his transition journey. “Growing up, I was always trying to figure out what kind of man I wanted to become and I’m still trying to figure out what kind of man that I want to become,” Brown says in the ad. “I always knew I was different. I didn’t know that there was a term for the type of person that I was.” As the Gillette ad went viral, Brown explained in a Facebook post why it had been important to him to include his dad in the spot. “[My father] has been one of my greatest supporters throughout my transition, encouraging me to be confident and live authentically as my best self,” Brown wrote on Saturday. He said he hoped his story would uplift others in the transgender and non-binary community. “I’m keenly aware of how blessed I am to be able to exist in this world being supported by my family in ways that all too often many of my trans brothers, sisters, and siblings who exist outside the binary are not always as fortunate,” Brown said. “I am confident that this ad will encourage many of my trans siblings and fill them with the knowledge that our existence in this world can be filled with the love and support we deserve.”

Every week, The Broke and the Bookish hosts a top ten list with a bookish theme, and this week’s theme is Ten Things That Make You Instantly Want to Read a Book! I feel like I read across a variety of genres and reading levels, but I am also always drawn to specific things, too. - An amazing cover. This probably is a no-brainer for me because I’m always attracted to shiny things. For the most part, a really fantastic looking cover is often the first and major initial draw to a book. With so many books out there to read, I am more likely to reach for an amazing cover before anything else. I also tend to buy editions with prettier covers even if it’s a little bit more money because I know it’ll look nice on my shelves and I’ll enjoy reading it a little bit more with a nicer cover! - Complex, well-written villains. I don’t like my villains to be evil for evil’s sake. I want them to have as much depth as the “hero,” and I want to feel for them. Characters that toe the line between good and bad and live in that morally grey area are my favorite. - Complex, well-written characters in general. I want for female, male, and non-binary characters to be well developed and as well rounded and not forced into a stereotypical, list-checked box. - Space travel and alien cultures. If I’m reading a story about characters in space, I want the main characters to be at least slightly alien, and I want the main characters to explore alien cultures. Give me all of the weird stuff! - Fairy tale, folklore, and mythological retellings. Especially Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast retellings, and I wish there were more retellings of Rapunzel and the Little Mermaid, too. I like retellings even more if they subvert the familiar stories, too. - Historical fiction. I feel like I grew up on historical fiction. After reading series like Dear America and The Royal Diaries, I just consumed whatever the local libraries had. I’m really partial stories set in the Regency era, Wars of the Roses, Victorian + Edwardian eras, WWI, early America, ancient Egypt, and ancient Greece. - London. Honestly, if it’s set in London, I’ll most likely gobble it up. It’s one of my favorite cities, and I miss it so much. - Castles and the Gothic. Give me all the things set in ancient, spooky castles, and throw a few thunderstorms, a full moon, a lot of rain, subversion, and a woman out of her time, and I’ll be the happiest. - Epistolary. I love stories and narratives created entirely through letters sent between characters. Even if it’s more modern with text messages and emails and social media posts. - Libraries and author histories. Lately, I feel like there are a lot of books out being released that are set in libraries or revolving around libraries, or even about the (fictional) histories of books and authors. I love fictional accounts of famous authors’ lives, and I feel like it better fits this subheading than historical fiction! What things make you want to read a book?

After beginning her career at Vice, Amelia helped launch Refinery29 in the UK and wrote her first book, before becoming the Managing Editor at Dazed Beauty. Her curiosity coupled with intellect, compassion, and killer storytelling skills has made her a well-known figure in journalism for covering the LGBTQ+ community. In her own words, she describes what it means to be an ally in her current position, "I commission as many trans writers as possible. I guess it’s not about talking for people, but where possible, elevating their voices." This interview took place over the phone between Tate in New York and Amelia in London Editor: Makena Gera; Photography Undine Markus TVPS: Can you give a bit of an overview of how you got here? AA: I didn't come from a background in beauty or fashion, so Dazed Beauty has been a bit of a new step. I went to King’s College and studied English and literature. My first proper job out of university was at Vice in the PR department, I'd done some events in my spare time, like programming film festivals and stuff like that when I was at university. Coincidentally, I had quite a lot of friends who worked as journalists, so therefore I had connections that were valuable for a PR role. At the time, Vice was much closer to how we think of old-school Vice; it was kind of disorganized, but also super fun. A big part of the job was putting on parties, otherwise it was trying to get the company good press. About a year and a half into that job, Vice entirely changed. They had bought i-D, but then they launched Vice News, and they'd gotten some big investments. So the culture of the company changed and the job changed as well. It became more about selling Vice News footage to media outlets and trying to get coverage in newspapers about all of the big news stories that Vice News was breaking, from the war in Ukraine to anti gay propaganda laws in Russia. That entire time I was doing PR I didn’t really feel satisfied, so I started using the connections I was making through the PR job to pitch articles as a freelance writer. First, it was for great independent magazines like Beat Magazine or the Mushpit. Then I wrote a couple of bigger things and got published in The Guardian. A job came up on Vice Editorial, and the editor-in-chief came to me and was like, “Do you know any young female journalists?” And I was like, “Oh yeah. Me.” Which was ballsy. But then I applied for it and got it. So I moved into editorial. I did a year and a half as a junior editor on Vice.com, and I was very lucky in the amount of freedom that they gave me. Since they value having young people working on things, you get a lot more freedom there than you would in a more bureaucratic company. I was 22 or 23 and I was actually commissioning for Vice.com, and that was great. The main bulk of my experience as a writer came from them, and the guys that were my bosses taught me a lot. I look back now and I cringe at some of the stuff that we would write at Vice Ed. I definitely wrote some silly things that were very fun to write, but had no journalistic integrity whatsoever. But the main thing I learned about being an editor was that you can keep all the fun jobs for yourself; you can use the name of the platform to interview your favorite people. So in that time, I interviewed Patti Smith, John Waters, Gregg Araki; a lot of people that I love, and then people who I didn't, but were still so interesting, like Jeff Koons. It was really an amazing time to work there. Eventually though, I got itchy feet. I could see that people were getting quite embedded there, and I feel like when you're a bit earlier on in your career, you need to move around to see what you like. Someone from Refinery29 emailed me and was like, “Oh hey, when can we go for a drink?” but she didn’t say what it was for. I looked her up, but I ended up looking up the wrong person with the same name. So I go to this meeting and I didn't understand that it was a job interview, I was drinking a beer, smoking, and I also thought the person was someone else for the first 15 minutes. Then she said, “Hey, I'm launching Refinery29 in the UK and this is a job interview.” I think they were endeared by my behaviour because it was probably the cliche of what you would expect from someone who works at Vice. They offered me the job and I decided to take it to get some different experience. For Refinery, how did you know what the UK audience would respond to? I guess we didn’t know, we just kind of decided together. I was really lucky in that one of my best friends, Sarah Raphael, who was working as acting editor at i-D, was hired as the editor at large at Refinery, too. We got to decide together how to turn this US brand into one that would work for a UK market. We were like, "What news stories should we be covering?" or “How can we cover the refugee crisis or female genital mutilation or sexual assault in a way that's digestible and isn't trying to mimic a hard news outlet?” I think it ended up really working because Refinery didn't try to mimic any existing platforms, and has since built an amazing brand in the UK. Although I no longer work there, I know that they are doing really well now. It was also interesting working for somewhere like Refinery where I wouldn't say that I was the typical reader. In a way, that's good, because I would say that I was much closer to the content at Vice. However, when you get a bit of distance, you start to think about it from a more critical perspective. You think about the editorial or the brand as a product. I loved it. What was great was that, the whole time I was working at Refinery and at Vice, I was able to freelance on the side, and those publications were extremely hospitable about that. I would always negotiate into contracts that I'd be allowed to freelance - as long as it's not for a competing publication. That gives you an opportunity to not put all of your eggs in one basket. You can grow your profile with other audiences and also make money on the side. When I left Refinery it was because I wanted to leave the UK for a while. But I was lucky in that Refinery put me on a retainer. Which I guess was just a happy outcome of having really good relationships with my senior staff and they really did it as a kindness. Also, maybe to make sure I could write for them because I was one of their most regular contributors. So that was like training wheels to go freelance. It meant that I had a certain amount of work locked in per month, and a certain amount of income as well. One of the first things that came up as a job when I moved back, was a Vice documentary. So that was a great thing to be able to work on. I also had wanted to write a book for a while, so I told my boss at Refinery about the idea for it. I summed it up in a sentence, and I was like, "Oh, Jon Ronson or Louis Theroux explores queer culture.” Which is a very, very, very simplified version of what it is; it's basically about assimilation politics. But she literally texted that sentence to her friend who's a book agent, then they met up with me and we got on really well… so about three years after I started working as an editor, I was able to shift my focus on writing the book. What was the process like to get a book deal? Firstly you need to have an idea. I read a lot of queer theory, and I think that a lot of the ideas I read about are super interesting, but the way they're conveyed in the writing is not always very accessible. Ideas about what constitutes heteronormativity or queerness. I also think that we're in quite an interesting moment in terms of the mainstreaming of queer culture, like the popularization of drag, the corporatization of pride, and the visibility of trans people in the media. I wanted to create something accessible, that drew from queer theory, but touched on what was going on in the real world, now. So, I guess you need an idea, but it also has to feel relevant. I suppose that third thing is that you have to demonstrate why you're the right person to write it. I was lucky in that sense that I had a previous body of work as a journalist, but also I specialized in writing on LGBTQ+ politics and culture. Then, if you get an agent, they will help you workshop the book proposal, which is a three-page-long document that has a blurb, a break down of the chapters, and a bio of who you are that also explains your access. Then they take it to publishers and shop it around for you. Hopefully you get offers, and people hopefully counter-offer. Then eventually you can choose. Sometimes the publishers will change it a bit; for me, they definitely tried to make it a little bit more contemporary and commercial than my first proposal. I decided that that was actually a really good suggestion. It meant more people would read it, because it meant taking out some of the more academic language or the history. I decided to go with a publisher called Picador. The book is called, Queer Intentions: A (Personal) Journey Through LGBTQ+ Culture, and it’s coming out in May 2019. Okay, so then Dazed Beauty came up? Yeah. I wasn't actually looking for a job, I was just coming to the end of writing the book, and I was excited about the prospect of being able to freelance properly. When you're writing a book, any articles you write on the side are kind of an afterthought. I was thinking, "When I actually hand this bloody book in, I can hopefully try and write bigger, more difficult, more interesting pieces.” But I have to say I was feeling a little bit frustrated with never getting paid on time as a freelancer. Then Dazed got in touch. I knew Bunny Kinney, who is the editor-in-chief, and Tish Weinstock, who they hired as commissioning editor. I worked at Vice when they were both working at i-D (they were in the same building) and also I’ve contributed to i-D for a really long time. So I went in for a meeting and I thought it sounded exciting what they were doing. One, from a business perspective, because nothing quite like that existed yet. On one end you have publications like Beauty Papers, which is quite high-end and industry-facing. Maybe it's not super widely read, but it is a thing of beauty in itself. Then on the other end, you have more commercial beauty publications. But there wasn’t really anything in this in-between space. Two, because we've seen the beauty industry become much more democratized, and more people feel like it's a space that welcomes them. It’s an area people are articulating their identity, as you might through fashion, and beauty is more than make-up, it’s talking about identity, that’s something we’re getting better at culturally. So I could definitely see Dazed Beauty working from both a commercial standpoint and from an audience standpoint, which are two things you need to have for a publication to be successful, although they are of course connected. When you were freelance, I'm assuming you were working from home and creating your own schedule. Now, at Dazed Beauty, you work out of an office. Do you find that the different space that you're working from affects your work? Oh yeah, totally. It was really a dramatic shift to go from writing a book at home, which is very insular, to working in an office with other people every single day. I'm in a position where I'm the connection between Dazed Beauty and a lot of the other departments in Dazed Media. I was so overwhelmed in my first few weeks by having to talk to people all day. It sounds dramatic, but I was honestly losing my voice by 3:00 PM most days in the first few weeks. On the other end, being freelance can be quite lonely, and it is really hard to self-motivate. I would deliberately meet up with friends two days a week who were also freelancers and try to work with them as a way to make sure that I wasn't always alone. However, I'm quite a self-motivated person. When I started working for myself, I never really went out in the week like I used to, because I knew that it was only on my time and money that I would be hungover the next day. You have to become a lot stricter with yourself, which is a great growing-up experience. Of course, you can procrastinate when you're at home, so it is good to be in an office. But, the office is also equally distracting because it can be so hectic and people are constantly asking you questions. I find that if I actually have to get something done, or if I have to write something, the best thing to do is to find a space for a couple of hours where I can be alone. You joined Dazed Beauty a few months prior to when they launched, right? Yeah, maybe three months. So when you first joined, what was your role pre-launch, and how did that role change after you all launched? It has changed quite dramatically. In the lead-up to the launch, we didn’t have a daily website to run, so the pace of work was slightly different. A lot of the meetings were like, “What should our plan be for this?” They were more strategic and talking about the broader picture. Specifically, because my role is very operational, I was figuring out workflows: how people should work, trying to get people into good habits of ways of working, supporting them, and figuring out how people should work together. It was all quite new, but I've been in office environments before, so I've seen what works and what doesn't. It was also a lot of looking at rollout plans, publishing schedules, and behind-the-scenes stuff. In that position you're not actually really creating anything, you're just supporting other people in creating the content. So that felt really strange to me after purely writing for so long. Did you like that? Well, I started to feel like, "wow, this isn't super creative." But since the site’s launched, it has started to feel like it is again. Now it's completely different because there are articles every single day that need sub-editing and the website needs updating, plus we’re working on print. So I’ve started doing more commissioning. A digital website is always there and it never sleeps. When I worked at Vice and I had to change the website around and publish stuff on weekends, I described it like having a tamagotchi; you constantly have to feed it or it dies, and it's hard to stop thinking about it. Its creative but it’s tiring. Because I was freelancing and writing the book, it had been two years since I’d actually worked on a living, breathing website. I forgot that that is quite a demanding thing. But also, I realized very quickly that if I wanted the job to be creative, I have to make it so. I have to be like, "Okay, I want to help commission." Or like, "Okay, I'm going to write one article a week so that I make sure I'm still writing." I guess that it was only up to me to make it like that. If you had to summarize your current role, what would you say? I’d say it is mostly planning, organising and managing. A managing editor looks at the long term plan but also makes sure everything gets done day to day. It’s also a lot of talent reach outs, forcing people to have meetings and share what they’re up to, chasing deadlines, subbing articles, assisting with production of photo and video, and trying to make sure everyone - print, digital, photo, video, social, commercial - work together You recently announced your contributors, what was the process of selecting them like? There are quite a few different types of contributing editors to Dazed Beauty. We have about eight contributing beauty editors who work in the industry, such as makeup artists Daniel Sallstrom and Cyndia Harvey. The thinking behind that is we want them to be contributing behind the scenes when they do fashion shows. We also want to elevate what they're doing and give them the opportunity to use the platform - to create shoots or videos, share their products, or talk about what matters to them. A good example of that is Athena Paginton, who is a makeup artist but she's really interested in environmentalism and sustainability and is shooting some great stuff for us. They’re all friends and collaborators of our creative director Isamaya Ffrench, so they’re natural fits, but they also are people who work in the industry and want to be having conversations about the industry. We also have some editorial contributors. Such as Tom Rasmussen who’s one of my best friends, is an amazing drag queen, and has a column with us about non-binary beauty. With the bigger ones, like Munroe Bergdorf, it was just the way she's moved conversations forward about race and trans issues, which are extremely important. For contributing arts editor Lil Miquela, we were looking at what's happening in beauty now, and one of the things is the rise of CGI and avatar models. It's creating a huge conversation surrounding, “What is a model?” and “What is beauty?” These CGI models reflect what we think is beautiful back at us, in quite an interesting way. With Aquaria, we were thinking, “Who are our readers and who do they care about?” Aquaria was just a name that came up very quickly from a lot of the people on the team. She just signed to IMG, and fortuitously, I was having a meeting with someone at IMG and they said, "Oh, I look after Aquaria." I was like, "Oh my God. We all really want Aquaria to be a contributing editor." Aquaria was up for it, so she's now entertainment editor. For publications, one is Ladybeard and they put out an incredible beauty issue that we were all just in awe of. We wanted to invite them to come and make more of that content in collaboration with Dazed Beauty. Novembre Magazine will also be commissioning photo shoots as well. Then there's also Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, from gal-dem, who comes and works in the office every week. I think it can be a reciprocal relationship if people have their own independent magazines. They're always getting to have that in their byline, and they're also getting paid to work for Dazed, which hopefully supports their other work. If I could sum up everything I just said, it's that you have to know who your audience is, who they're interested in, and then find representatives that reflect that back at them. But hopefully also give those people the autonomy to feel like they can get creative with our platform. When you're writing for different publications, obviously Vice, Refinery29, Dazed, and The Guardian, all have different voices. How do you keep your own voice while still taking on the voice of the publications that you're writing for? It's definitely a challenge, isn't it? My first boss at Vice, who was the editor at the time, was really great in that sense. If he ever thought you wrote in a writing style cliche, he would take it out or tell you off for it. Then you end up getting closer to the way you talk in your writing. Once you get close to that, you're close to having quite a recognizable writing voice, or being able to put your personality into it. Of course, sometimes you fail at that, or you can't, or it gets edited out. But, I guess that's how you try and do it. What advice would you give to journalists who want to cover the LGBTQ+ community, but are concerned about learning in the digital space where comments sections can be a bit harsh? That’s a good question because the biggest upshot of the job is to use it as a way to meet your heroes, or become part of the conversation for the things you care about. But there are challenges for sure. My first piece of advice is to listen and learn from others. Obviously, the conversation is always moving really fast. So I just try and follow the people that are at the forefront of certain conversations, for example I learn about transgender rights from trans people. Also, as someone who is trying to be an ally on that front, I commission as many trans writers as possible. I guess it’s not about talking for people, but where possible, elevating their voices. Secondly, you still need to be prepared that not everyone will agree with you. That's just a natural outcome of being a journalist. You know, you can only do your best by people, and there might be moments where you don't succeed. What advice would you give to someone who looks up to you? Be nice to yourself and take time out of your busy life to congratulate yourself when you’ve achieved something. I’m very self-critical, so I have to try and remember that.

Nicola Formichetti is Making Genderless Clothing a Reality. Barbie Makes An Ashley Graham Doll, Complete With Thighs That Actually Touch. Image via Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images Ashley Graham is killing it this year. She was the first plus size model to ever grace the cover of Sports Illustrated, she premiered her own lingerie line at New York’s fashion week, and she was unapologetically her bad ass self, showing off her awesome curves and even celebrating her cellulite. Basically, we couldn’t love her more. Now, she’s even got her own Barbie, complete with matching measurements. She was presented with it at Glamour’s Women of the Year Awards. Image via Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Glamour Look. Fierce cat eye? Is makeup for men a fad or the future? It’s a thing now: Young men are into makeup, and the industry is going where the boys are. Driven by hyper-connected Generation Z’s disinterest in gender identification, beauty brands are looking to market with a gender-neutral approach. A report this year by J. Walter Thompson’s The Innovation Group found that 56 percent of Generation Z knows someone who goes by the gender-neutral pronouns of “they,” “them,” or “ze.” They are also rejecting the gender binary while shopping for clothes — 44 percent said they only bought clothes restricted for their own gender, and 70 percent support a move toward gender-neutral bathrooms. “[Gender] matters less than it used to,” said Lucie Greene, worldwide director of the J. Will Genderless Fashion Change Retail? (L-R) Raf Simons Menswear Spring/Summer 2014, Gucci Menswear Autumn/Winter 2015, J.W Anderson Menswear Spring/Summer 2014 | Source: Indigital LONDON, United Kingdom — Alessandro Michele’s womenswear debut for Gucci was, by far, the most anticipated show of Milan Fashion Week. How would Michele attempt to re-reinvigorate Kering’s ailing cash cow, after chief executive François-Henri Pinault said in December that the brand needed a fresh point of view and more daring shows? The answer: bookish, pussy-bow wearing boys and girls, sharing both the runway and the same tailoring, shoulder-length locks and cut-glass cheekbones. Genderless fashion: a fad or the future? Fashion has always blurred the male and female gender divide, but recent seasons have seen a rise in genderless collections. Is this just a passing trend or is there a shift taking place as awareness and acceptance of non-binary gender goes mainstream? Ungendered by Zara In March, Zara joined the conversation with Ungendered, a subsection of its TRF range available online and in 29 UK stores. This “gender-neutral” collection focuses on basics such as T-shirts, jeans and hoodies in neutral colours. Similarly, department store Selfridges introduced its Agender initiative in March 2015, dedicated to more design-led clothing and accessories, sold without any gender categorisation. “At one end [of the genderless trend], you have clothes that are uniform and neutral enough to look quite normal on either sex. Independent Manchester store Hervia has also seen a rise in interest in genderless product. Four Gender Neutral Denim Brands Getting Into the Unisex Game. Jaden Smith, wise beyond his 18 years, claimed that fashion is about “dressing a generation.” If that’s the case, designers and retailers are doing a pretty decent job of catering to the public’s shifting perception of gender norms. Months after Zara joined the movement towards non-binary fashion, debuting its Ungendered line of jeans, sweatshirts, and tanks, a slew of denim companies are releasing their own unisex collections. Today, the German denim label Closed released a 12-piece collection called “EQL.” Designed by sibling modeling duo Toni and Niklas Garrn, it includes slouchy jeans, an oversized bomber jacket, and T-shirts that proudly state “Same Same Not Different.” This fall, Guess jeans is launching His + Hers, a line of wardrobe staples that—despite the name—attempts to “blur the line” between the sexes. Meanwhile, when AG Jeans set out to create a knit denim collection—the first of its kind—the brand wanted to do it with equally forward-thinking silhouettes. Zara Launched a Genderless Clothing Section Online - Zara Ungendered. Atmospheric Unisex Lookbooks : GEO collection. Trans-Positive Holiday Campaigns : trans model. Unisex Denim Collections : his + hers. How this election jolted fashion into action. Never in recent years has an election been quite as polarising as the one that culminates today, and fashion – usually one industry that tends to keep out of explicitly political affairs, save for past Obama-rallying – has not been exempt from its whirlwind. From social media campaigns to all-out endorsements, the New York Times’ Vanessa Friedman said it best when she declared that “The campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump have galvanised the industry to an extent never before seen.” The lady with a beard: ‘If you’ve got it, rock it!’ Harnaam Kaur is in full flow when a young man passes our table. Can President Trump undermine abortion rights? Not so fast. The end of the Affordable Care Act, a new Supreme Court justice, a trade war with China and mass deportation are all part of the plan. Video provided by Newsy Newslook WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump opposes abortion, but even he admits that overturning the Supreme Court's 43-year-old decision in Roe v. Wade "has a long, long way to go. " After Trump nominates a justice to replace the late Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court will remain one or two votes short of a majority to send abortion decisions back to the states, experts on both sides of the issue agree. There are several reasons: The high court does not like to overrule its own precedents, particularly those that have stood for decades and affected millions of people. Then there is the issue of who sits on the court and how strongly they feel about abortion. "There's a long road ahead and many obstacles," says Clarke Forsythe, acting president and senior counsel at Americans United for Life. 1 of 15 2 of 15.

While attending GaymerX East — the annual LGBTQ gaming convention — someone mentioned Tentacle Bento, a 2012 card game that was accused of promoting rape for indulging in Japanese tentacle rape fantasies against anime-style school girls. Tentacle Bento failed both as a satire or a game about sex, but at GaymerX we learned about three other sexy card games that sound a hell of a lot more progressive, naughty and fun. One even deals with (gasp!) consent. Check out 3 of our favorite sexy card games here: Naomi Clark’s card game Consentacle is a two-player card game in which one person plays a space explorer named Kit and the other player plays an extraterrestrial octopus creature named Dup. Kit and Dup want to hook up, but to do so, each one must play cards describing the sexual things they want to do to each other — moves like biting, gazing into each other’s eyes or even penetrating each other. If both players cooperate, they can build a pile of mutually-given, interlocking Trust Tokens that can combine to form Satisfaction Tokens, helping the players earn a final high score of sexual satisfaction together. But players can also “withdraw consent” by taking back certain moves or play selfishly by doing whatever moves they please purely to amass a trove of their own trust tokens. A ranking at the end of the game will rank mutual and individual pleasure. If they’re a selfish lover, the scale will rank them as merely “okay.” But if they cooperate, the player could possibly destroy the galaxy (but like, in a good way). The game’s memorable and non-explicit artwork comes from artist James Harvey, so you can play the game peacefully in public without offending anyone. The game allows players to communicate their upcoming moves, but there’s also an advanced mode of gameplay where players must “speak” only with their eyes. The game’s creator said they wanted to create the game specifically after hearing about Japanese tentacle rape and Tentacle Bento, but adds that they also used an octopus creature as a symbol for how some queer people feel in their own bodies — alien, yet reaching out. 2. Furoticon (link NSFW) If you’re seeking more of a fur-filled romp in your sexy card games, there’s Furoticon, a competitive two-player deck-building game where you dispatch your own harem of horny furries to literally sex your opponents into submission. Think of it as a furry, gender-fluid version of Magic: The Gathering with sex instead of spells. In Furoticon, your harem can consist of characters from literally any gender — male, female, transgender or non-binary — and each individual character has different special sexual abilities that change depending on the genders represented in their opponent’s harem. This might all sound very pimpy and exploitative, but the game views the match-ups as part of a consensual sexual competition where everyone wins, even when they’re sexed into submission. You lose when your team leaders climax — which doesn’t seem like such a bad way to be defeated. Since artwork is such a big part of the furry fandom, Furoticon makes sure to list each artist’s name and website on each card — they even pay their artists (which is pretty cool). Many of Furoticon’s creators are members of the trans and non-binary community, and the game also has several expansion decks like for those who want to add a medieval, steampunk, BDSM or fantasy flavor to their deck. Be warned! Unlike Consentacle, Furoticon‘s cards are sexually explicit — sometimes breathtakingly so. If these cooperative and competitive deck-building games are too much on the suggestive side for you, Let’s Fool Around offers something a bit more explicit. It’s nowhere near as “queer” as Consentacle or Furoticon — in fact, it wasn’t even featured as a demo at GaymerX East 2017 — but it’s definitely a lot more hands-on, mostly doing away with game mechanics and getting its players to start having sex together (assuming that they all consent, of course). Billing itself as “a romantic card game for two players or a kinky party game for a group of uninhibited friends,” each player takes turns drawing cards and performing the actions listed on them. These can range from innocent things like massaging or gently kissing the neck of another player or more risqué ones like fondling or orally pleasuring another player. You can also play an alternate form of the game where players are allowed to give other players the cards as dares. Whether you’re playing with a frisky, free-loving group of friends or just playing with your partner(s) as a form of foreplay, as far as sexy card games go, you probably won’t play this one and not get lucky. Will you be playing any of these sexy card games? Did we miss your favorite? Let us know. This story was originally published on Dec. 5, 2017 Read more stories by just signing up or Download the App to read the latest stories

Even to begin to describe the political engagements and impacts of American women involves diving deep into the complex tapestry of difference that undergird the deceptively simple category of “woman.” One-third of voting-age women citizens in the United States are women of color. That includes 15 million Black women, 13.6 million Latinas, and 5 million Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander women combined. Each of these categories is itself internally diverse by race and ethnicity the experience of Afro-Latinas is not identical to that of Latinas who are identified as white; the range of experience among Indian-American women is not the same as that among Americans of Chinese ancestry - as well as by education, age, employment, region of residence, and more. An African American young woman in a rural community in Mississippi grows up confronting a range of forms of structural and interpersonal racism, just as does an African American young woman in suburban Minneapolis: but exactly which forms of racism each confronts will be different, as will be the range of response strategies each finds in the community around her, and the political commitments and self-concept that each creates as a result. Meanwhile, nearly 5 percent of US adults identify as being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT), including over 8 percent of the younger generation (“millennials,” that is, those born between 1980 and 1999). And in recent years the percentage self-identifying as LGBT has risen markedly faster among women (increasing from 3.5 to 5.1 percent between 2012 and 2017) than among men (from 3.4 to 3.9 percent). Gender, education, age, and residence have emerged as ever more crucial lines of political division within the United States, adding on to the race-based fault-lines that have been central to US politics since the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s cemented African American identification with the Democratic Party and triggered the exodus from that party of some white voters alienated by the same. Over the past half century the Republican Party has become, in sequence, a party largely of white people, a party anchored by white evangelicals, and now a party increasingly comprised of older white men and white evangelical women. In geographic terms, the Republican Party as a force in civic life is pervasive in rural America and barely present in major metropoles. Its once dominant position in America’s prosperous suburbs has been rapidly crumbling: a process in which the shifting views of the women who reside there have played a leading role. The election of Donald Trump in 2016 accelerated the divides of age, education, and gender among white Americans, as college-educated white women swung sharply away from both Trump and the Republican party, with college-educated white men moving in the same direction, albeit less sharply. Meanwhile, white men without a college degree had long been shifting their voting allegiance toward the Republican Party and accelerated this movement in 2016 support of Donald Trump, who they supported by more than a 2-to-1 margin. White women without a college degree opted for Donald Trump in 2016 (by a smaller 3-to-2 margin) but - unlike their male peers - saw a small but significant reduction of this level of Republican preference in the 2018 midterms. Those same midterm elections saw an important generational divide in suburban and rural areas alike, as younger voters (aged 30-44) and especially the youngest voters (aged 18-29) swung their voting preference decidedly away from Republican congressional candidates in comparison to the numbers Donald Trump garnered among these same demographics just two years before. Against this panorama of diversity and variety, the narrow demographic profile of American politicians stands out. Elected official, of both parties and at every layer of government have until quite recently been heavily male and, in the great majority of places, heavily white. After 2018’s record number of female Democratic successes, a record high of one-fourth of US senators, and 101 out of 435 congresspeople, are women. These are meager numbers indeed for a high-water mark. This lag in representation has endured despite the fact that women’s labor has long been central to the practice of politics here, in diverse ways and spaces. Everywhere from to the right-wing evangelical pro-life organizing in the 1980s and 1990s and anti-Obama “Tea Party” conservatives after 2008, to the new suburban center-Left anti-Trump grassroots after 2016, to Black church-based civic engagement across all those decades, middle-aged and older women have played fundamental leadership roles. Maintaining the health of local political structures - those groups and spaces, both formal and informal, in which people meet, learn, debate, decide, and take political action - requires skilled organizational and interpersonal labor. Yet this ongoing local dimension of political life is often ignored, by media, donors, and political consultants: and sometimes academics studying politics as well. Of course, the same thing happens with other kinds of human maintenance traditionally in women’s hands, from housecleaning to eldercare. Just as carework matters, local political infrastructure matters. It matters that Democratic infrastructure collapsed across many different communities within the United States over the past decade, and it matters that it is being rebuilt now. And it matters that the people doing that rebuilding are in the majority women, including many who are outsiders to politics but insiders in the communities around them. Greater diversity happens when local networks of regular citizens drive candidate recruitment and support. That’s because those networks bypass the gatekeepers whose presumptions about electability - and whose own narrow networks - have kept candidates who look just like those already in office (as it happens, mostly straight, white men) systematically overrepresented on the ballot. Across America’s divided political geography - in cities, suburbs, and rural areas alike - the past four years have seen viable campaigns mounted with local grassroots volunteer support by candidates who are more diverse than existing office-holders along every dimension, including ideology as well as gender, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation and more. In 2018 many Democratic women challengers ran in districts deemed unlikely to flip; the same is true of Republican women challengers in 2020. Yet even campaigns that lose can have long-term consequences. In place after place, new grassroots activists have chosen to place state legislature campaigns and US congressional campaigns at the forefront of their daily lives for long, impassioned, bond-building, crazy-making months. And when those candidates lost, organized volunteers did not thrown up their hands in despair. They stepped into the glamor-free, essential work of political organizing for the long haul: rewriting by-laws, planning picnics, recruiting new people with new energy to run for school board or recorder of deeds. As regular women with a wide range of life experiences step in to lead across the Democratic ecosystem, including in formal roles at the local, regional, and state levels, the weight of their voices in deliberations large and small will grow. (The same pattern may happen ahead within the Republican Party: the jury is still out on whether the smaller number of women activists and aspiring officials who remain there will be able to gain the same traction there.) We can expect that issues where diverse Democratic women’s priorities overlap - across differences of class, race, and region will exert an intensified pull on the Democratic Party. One area where this may have an impact is on issues at the intersection of gender, health, and labor, which have been pushed to the fore by the novel coronavirus epidemic. In a de-industrialized America, healthcare labor alongside service-sector employment makes up a bulk of the workforce occupation in many regions. Each are heavily feminized, and structured in ways that have been resistant to the kind of labor protections and unionization rights that (male-predominant) building trades and industrial workers maintain in some regions of the country, even after a long generation of erosion. Over half of all people employed in positions considered “essential” in the face of the coronavirus pandemic (healthcare workers, critical retail workers, food processing and delivery and more) are women. And so weighty are these occupations within women’s overall employment panorama in this country that fully one in three women are employed in a job categorized as essential. Will women working in these areas find new allies as they struggle for basic measures (safer working conditions, paid sick leave, personal protective equipment) that can keep individuals, and thus their families and communities, healthy? The diversification of activism and leadership within the broad center-to-Left in the United States also has the potential to shape opening for substantive change in response to the entwined issues of anti-black racism, structural inequities, and police brutality. These issues, of course, were brought to the fore in the killing of unarmed George Floyd in Minneapolis by a policeman, in excruciating public view, on May 25. An extraordinary wave of #BlackLivesMatter protests, led by young Black activists male and female alike (and queer and non-binary too) has followed nationwide in its wake. More than 3,000 different communities, including small towns in rural regions as well as small cities and suburbs have held protests, and the willingness of white allies to join local Black organizers has been notable. A sign echoed at more than one protest has read, “When George Floyd called for his momma, all mothers were summoned.” The phrasing points to the emotional weight of motherhood in creating potential political action: a kind of “maternalist” logic that historians know has been both powerful and fraught. Too often in US history, that impulse has brought with it the capacity to re-marginalize: to mask the profound and power-laden differences among women behind the universalizing rhetoric of mother’s love. How the challenges of solidarity will be managed this time remains to be seen. If recent trends continue, the November 2020 electorate will be made up of just over one-quarter white women without a college degree; just under one-quarter white men without a college degree; about 15% white women with a college degree and 15% white men with a college degree; about 6% African American women and 4% African American men; 5% Latinas and 5% Latinos; and half those numbers for Asian Americans. Eligible voters born since 1996 will outnumber eligible voters born before 1946 for the first time, and “Millienials” (born 1981-1996) will reach parity with “Baby Boomers” (born 1946-1964). They will be charting a way forward in unprecedented times, across political terrain being remade even as they move.

COURTESY OF BONNIE JIN A semester abroad led Jin to question her perceptions of feminism. I) At age six I told my mom to put away my dresses because I needed pants to play wallball with the boys. For my suburban elementary school in mid-2000s Massachusetts, wallball constituted the best of recess. If you were competitive and wanted playground recognition, you knew you had to play wallball. The main objective is to eliminate all other players by hitting a ball against a wall. Wallball involves intense running and hand-eye coordination, making pants a practical necessity. And to play competitively, I argued, dresses just weren’t going to cut it. Back when I played four square, dresses were fine. Four square requires players to bounce a ball between quadrants. You had to stay on your feet, but it doesn’t involve sprinting the way wallball does. There were always a couple boys that played four square with us, but mostly girls played. A week after I made this declaration to my mom, I remember entering the girls bathroom to see another girl from my first-grade class. She also wore pants. She’d worn pants before we all started playing wallball, and 12 years later she wore pants to prom. We were both washing our hands when she asked me if I was also a tomboy. For the me of 14 years ago, who had just moved into a new town and only wanted to fit in and be cool, I told her yes without understanding what that meant. II) I spent the majority of middle school alternating between five pairs of washed-out bootcut jeans. My days without jeans were less than enjoyable. In seventh grade, on the one day I decided to wear a dress, my teacher — a white male on the edge of retirement — personally came over to my desk and said, “You’re beautiful,” in Chinese. (I am Asian-American. I did not know how to respond. Intersectional awkwardness ensued.) On our school trip to D.C., I chose to wear a dress because June was too hot for jeans. Though I walked with other students, an older man chose to catcall me by “complimenting” my dress. These were isolated incidents, but I kept feeling uncomfortable without jeans. Sometimes I felt like teachers didn’t take me seriously. Sometimes I just didn’t feel as cool or popular as the athleisure girls (with their leggings and borderline-aggressive spirit). A lot of the time, I felt straight-up uncomfortable with so-called “feminine” activities. I felt a need to disassociate from the girls who experimented with makeup or the girls that formed a Twilight book club. But at home I secretly read (and for all its problems, deeply enjoyed) Stephanie Meyer’s magnum opus, and spent whole weekends watching Michelle Phan explain what glue she used to stick three stacks of lashes onto her eyelid. Like many girls today, I enjoyed “feminine” activities but was worried that indulging in them would make me less of a feminist. III) February 2019. I’d been in Tokyo for six months of my year abroad on exchange. I’d shopped at the stores where other girls shopped. I’d worn the eyeliner other girls wore. I’d curled my hair the way other girls did. At a school event with my closest friends, I asked them to help rearrange the chairs so as to fit the discussion circles as necessary. At this point, one of my guy friends commented, “Bonnie’s so strong, isn’t she?” Some of the other guys nodded in agreement. “Well yeah, it’s Bonnie.” They grinned. What did that mean? Was my personality coming across as too strong? Or maybe I’m overweight — and that’s what “strong” means? This incident — coupled with the accumulation of too many incidents — led me to continuously force my friends to tell me what part of myself I needed to change so that I would fit in better with our society. During this time I cried a lot in my room. I didn’t recognize who I was — or should, or wanted to be — anymore. IV) It’s 2019, and sexism is strong. But it’s expressed and is harmful in different ways than before. So long as it doesn’t cause harm, people should have the freedom to just do the things they enjoy. But reality makes this easier to say than do. There’s a societal stigma attached to women who participate in mainstream “masculine” activities. There’s a stigma attached to traditionally “feminine” activities, which — while perhaps more “socially acceptable” — are susceptible to mockery. Noting the variations of “feminine” and/or “feminist” traits across different cultures, and adding on other biases pertaining to a spectrum of identities, suddenly you’re faced with a whole other level of discomfort and difficulty in what should be simple self-expression. In my mind, I know I’m a feminist, but I don’t always feel accepted that way. In feminist spaces I sometimes feel uncomfortable presenting as feminine. If I present as feminine, I worry that other feminists might think I’m less feminist than them. I worry that I will make those who don’t present as traditionally feminine uncomfortable in my own presentation, and end up going to discussions in what makes me feel uncomfortable. Without being compelled to do so, I have female friends who just want to be housewives but are criticized for even expressing this notion. In reflection, this is internalized sexism, in which traditionally masculine traits — even within feminist circles — are elevated over feminine ones. And I’ve certainly been guilty of this myself. Societal patriarchy marginalizes feminine activities while universalizing masculine ones. There’s still a long way to go before this system is dismantled. But regardless of how feminine or masculine or non-binary we try to repackage and re-present ourselves, these actions alone won’t earn women the same respect en masse as they earn men. On our march to revolution, the least we can do is be comfortable as ourselves. And that applies to everyone else, too. At some point in our academic careers we learned that feminism means “equality of the sexes.” But to get away from the intellectualization of the notion and apply it to your own, very real life — with all the societal stigma, internalized sexism and institutional biases that are thrown at you — that’s something that’s taken me the past 20 years of my life to even begin to grapple with. Looking back, I’m not upset that I wore pants to play wallball. I had to, but I just liked them anyway.

While writing the last post, I jotted down some other thoughts on gender in general and my gender specifically. One sentence I wrote was, “I don’t know if that makes me agender or gender-neutral or neutrois, but right now I’m not worried about figuring out which label makes the most sense for me.” But, perhaps inevitably, I then got curious about which one would be the most accurate, and after rereading this post and this post (I’ve somehow ended up considering these two to be THE posts on alternative genders, but I’d love to read others if anyone has recommendations!), both of which I’d related to somewhat when I first read them, I concluded that “genderless” is probably the best term for me. That’s not because I feel the same way Jillian (who also IDs as genderless) does, though; I actually don’t particularly relate to their experience (the ways I differ will become clearer below). What helped me find my term was more that I definitely don’t feel the same way about my gender that Micah (who IDs as neutrois) does. I don’t see myself as a third, non-feminine, non-masculine, neutral gender; to me, not feeling feminine or masculine means not having a gender at all. Thus, genderless. But I also think I might be seeing gender differently than either Jillian or Micah does. Concluding that I’m genderless hasn’t led me to want to switch from using she/her pronouns, and for the time being I don’t intend to try to hide the fact that I’m female-bodied when I go out–even though I don’t have a feminine gender. Jillian and Micah both seem to strongly connect their bodies to their gender (or lack thereof), but while I don’t want to appear particularly feminine, and wouldn’t mind if random strangers mistook me for a man or were confused about my sex, I don’t have a desire to change the fact that everyone who knows me thinks of and refers to me as a woman. One explanation for this is that, as I concluded back in February when I first started thinking about my gender, my gender just isn’t a very strong part of my identity. (After all, I started thinking about this in February but didn’t bother assigning a label to myself until now.) While I see my asexuality as a deeply rooted part of who I am, rather than just a lack of something most people feel, my gender(lessness) does feel more like I just don’t have something. While I’m not “just like everyone else, minus sexual attraction”, I feel like maybe I am “just like everyone else, minus the feeling of masculinity/femininity/a non-binary gender”. And another contrast is, while I always knew I was different from other people sexuality-wise, I never really felt different gender-wise, because in mainstream culture gender isn’t discussed to the same extent that sexuality is, and a lot of people probably aren’t aware that gender is anything more than a synonym for sex—I wasn’t until I took a sociology class in college. So with my sexuality, I was constantly made aware of something that other people were interested in and felt that I didn’t, but the same thing didn’t happen with gender (Ace Eccentric writes about having a similar experience in this post). Now that I am more aware of gender and have thought about it more, I’ve realized that to me, gender feels like an added layer over the base layer of “human” that we all are. So a lot of people have this gender thing that sits on top of their humanity, but even though I don’t have it, that doesn’t really make me that different from them because underneath, they’re the same as me. But I think that’s not how everyone conceives of their gender; to some people I think it is a definite part of them, not something they can put on or remove or separate from themselves, but rather something that’s fully integrated with who they are and an important part of their identity. But to me, gender feels like something I could pick up and put on if I wanted to (like when I used to appear more feminine), but the “real me” doesn’t have it. And I’d prefer to just be that “real me” all the time, without gender covering it up. But again, I’m still kind of stuck in seeing gender as a binary—either masculine or feminine, or else not there at all. I don’t feel that I have a feminine gender because I don’t connect with typical femininity, which to me means makeup and dresses and babies and the color pink and talking about fashion. Masculinity means sports and video games and weight-lifting and hunting and drinking beer and trying to be tough, and that’s not me at all either. (While I wrote in the last post that it seems like behaviors aren’t really gendered anymore, I think to some extent they actually still are—or at least I still view them that way, more than I thought I did, as evidenced by that last sentence.) Of course men don’t all fit that masculine mold and women don’t all fit the feminine mold, but I figure some people must relate to these molds and feel comfortable in them. That’s how Micah seems to conceive of gender as well, and why they identify as neutrois—not typically male, not typically female, and thus a third, neutral gender. But while Micah and Jillian have both changed their bodies and presentation to correspond with their gender, or lack thereof, being a woman (just not a feminine one) is a significant part of my identity, and I don’t want to change that. I don’t know if “genderless woman” actually makes sense or not, but that’s what I’m thinking is the best descriptor for me right now. My femaleness is important to me; it’s influenced my life and who I am, and I don’t want to erase that. One of the strongest connections that being female has for me is the feeling of solidarity with other woman, which is important to me as a feminist. When I hear about other women experiencing oppression, I can sympathize and empathize wholeheartedly, because I’m one of them; I’ve felt the oppression of the patriarchy too. (Jillian has some good posts that touch on keeping the “she” pronoun as a way to rebel against the patriarchy—this one and this one.) This article exemplifies another reason why I want to (or at least don’t mind, depending on the situation) still be seen as female. Female doesn’t have to mean feminine, and I can help show society that by being a genderless woman. But conversely, returning to the question of exactly what gender is, a woman with a feminine gender identity could still like some typically masculine things. Just because she likes video games doesn’t mean she has a masculine gender identity, just as a man who likes makeup doesn’t have to conclude that his gender is feminine. And that gets me wondering if maybe gender is just a social construct rather than something that people actually feel—I know that the experiences of many people directly contradict this, but it’s hard for me to fully understand. It just seems artificial, the idea of, “These arbitrary behaviors and looks go together and mean you’re masculine, and this other set means you’re feminine, and people have to be one or the other and there’s no overlap!” That’s not how people actually are, so then why is gender a thing at all? Why can’t it just be, “You look and act these ways, and I look and act in some ways that are the same, some that are different, but neither of our looks and actions fit into a single, simple mold, because we’re all unique individuals.” Why can’t we all just be human? Jillian has a post called “Theories of gender from an outsider’s perspective”, and I guess my idea would fit into #3: “Gender is a false cultural system based on a flawed system of sex”. While I know #4–“Gender is a cultural system that doesn’t have to harm anyone”–would be better, I guess I still just don’t understand gender enough to have gotten there. But maybe my view of gender is just too limited. Maybe someone could hate all the feminine things I listed above, but still feel they have a feminine gender, and still feel that it’s an important part of their identity. So are my conceptions of the two binary genders just based in stereotypes? Rereading the last paragraph, it’s actually more the gender binary that I’m arguing against, rather than gender itself. I wrote the following in a comment on my last post (with a few additions made): “Certain looks [and behaviors] are perceived as feminine, others as masculine, but maybe that’s actually pretty arbitrary and just societally dictated (especially since what’s seen as feminine and masculine varies between cultures), rather than there actually be anything intrinsically masculine/feminine about those looks [and behaviors]. So maybe some people do strongly connect gender to appearance [and behavior], but it doesn’t have to be like that and there’s not such a strong connection for everybody?” So I think what it comes down to is, gender is different for everyone—how you perceive it, how you express it, how much it matters to you, what it means to you. Being feminine doesn’t have to equal wearing dresses. Being masculine doesn’t have to equal liking guns. Being neutrois could mean liking dresses and guns, or hating both. It’s up to everyone to discern their own gender, and put whatever label on it that they feel fits. If that’s masculine or feminine, great; but if it’s neither, that’s fine too. It doesn’t do any harm for people to label the ways they feel, as long as we have enough labels to capture everyone’s experiences instead of trying to force them all into one of two boxes. So maybe, through writing this post, I’ve transitioned to Jillian’s theory #4 after all. I’d love to hear more about how other people experience and conceive of gender, both in general and when it comes to yourself, whether you’re masculine, feminine, neutrois, agender, or something else. Comments and links to other blog posts/articles are welcome! (And, if you think I’m off in my assessment of gender, or if I’ve said anything offensive, definitely feel free to let me know.)

Sermon - Brad Brookins Christmas Eve Service. No Bible study for today. Christmas Eve You, Too Here’s a Bible passage I’ve never heard on Christmas Eve before. Maybe we’ll start a new tradition. Keep these words in mind as we proceed. This is I Jn 4. 7-10— Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent the only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that God loved us. (Prayer) So here’s the Christmas story, one more time. By the power of the Holy Spirit, a virgin girl conceives a child who is to become the king of Israel; who will be called the Son of God; who is to be, in fact, God with us, God among us as one of us. That’s is how the story begins. What happens next is rather odd. Very close to Mary’s due date, she and Joseph have to make an inconvenient trip to his hometown. Rome has requested the pleasure of their company in Bethlehem. Caesar wants to count heads, you see. Mary and Joseph must comply. As the crow flies, Bethlehem is some 70 miles from Nazareth. The trip is probably made on foot— in the story there is no donkey for Mary to ride. And when they get to Bethlehem the inns are all full; there is no place for them to stay. The Queen Mother of Israel doesn’t get a soft bed with satin sheets, or warm water to wash her tired, swollen feet. She gets no bed at all. What she gets is the corner of a cow barn, most likely with cows included. Maybe the hay was clean; maybe it wasn’t. For sure the place smelled like a barn. Cows don’t stop producing manure, you know, just because the Son of God drops by. And when the time comes for “Immanuel”, for God to be with us, there is no luxury to the birth. The child isn’t given a warm bath or silk pajamas to caress his baby skin or a down pillow to rest his little head. No, he is wrapped up in strips of cloth—that come from who knows where, and laid in a rough feed trough full of old hay and cow spit. The child king does receive visitors on his birthday, but look who they are—a few startled shepherds scared up from the hillside. The 1st century world, like ours today, was carefully organized by class. At the top of society were the wealthy and the powerful—military, politicians, business people. Below them was everybody else. And at the very bottom of the heap were the shepherds. Every ladder has a bottom rung, you know. Societies always need a scapegoat. In Palestine that role fell to the shepherds. They were seen as lazy, shiftless, dishonest, untrustworthy, dangerous even; a threat to decent people. No one hung out with shepherds, except sheep. But in Luke’s gospel, no one else even notices Immanuel; notices that God has come to be with us. No one else gets it; or even cares. True, in Matthew’s gospel the baby Jesus is visited by wizards from Iraq bearing gifts. But that just proves the point. The people you would expect to notice the birth of a king don’t. The politicians don’t notice. The rich and powerful don’t notice. The priests and preachers don’t notice. Just these outsiders; these interlopers from a foreign land, where people speak the wrong language and follow the wrong religion and call God by the wrong name. They see the star; no one else does. It’s the outsiders who are there to welcome, and be welcomed by, this new king born in a cow stall. Then they go back home and are never heard from again. But maybe all that is the point. Look—Mary and Joseph are told about Jesus’ birth a full nine months before it occurs. Nine months is a long time. If Immanuel is about to happen—if God is about to be born among us, nine months is plenty of time to make the proper arrangements. In nine months the Creator of the universe could certainly have acquired a comfortable castle and a soft bed, don’t you think? With that much time you could even book reservations at a good Bethlehem Air BnB if you wanted to— if you wanted to. So, if the one who would be called the Son of the Most High wakes up to his new life in a feed trough—in a stable—in a backwater town—tucked away in an obscure corner of a minor country—a tiny speck of a country, in the mighty Roman empire—it must be because he wanted it that way. And if the company he keeps—almost from the moment he takes his first breath, includes those deemed smelly and insignificant by the perfumed and the powerful, if his best friends are the outsiders who speak the wrong language and worship the wrong God, it has to be that he at least enjoys their company; maybe he prefers their company. You can see, I’m sure, that no other explanation fits. ‘Do not be afraid’, the angel said to the shepherds; ‘for see, I am bringing you good news—Yeah, you guys; who don’t smell so good, who can’t be trusted. You who are broken, or have been told too many times that you are nothing, I am bringing you good news… to you is born this day in Bethlehem a Savior, a friend’. And this is good news for the other outsiders, too—the foreigners, the strangers; the people who experience God differently than everybody else in town; or who maybe experience God not at all! This is the king of the world we’re talking about here. His is a very big stable. He sets a very large table. No one is excluded; no one is kept away. This is the Christmas story; and it is still true today. No matter who we are or where we are on this journey we call life, all of us are welcome in his stable; all are welcome at his table. “I am bringing good news”, the angel said. “Good news of great joy for all the people”. “For all the people”. For you, too. Angels don’t lie. You do know that, don't you. Angels can’t lie. When they say all, they mean all. That goes for me. And that goes for you, too. And for everyone else. To all of us is born this day in the city of David a Savior, a friend. It doesn’t matter tonight if you are poor or rich—though you will, of course, hear the story differently if you are poor or rich. The poor will hear a story of hope and courage. The rich will hear a call to kindness and generosity. But still, it is good news. To you is born this day a Savior, a friend. It doesn’t matter what shade of brown your skin is—whether it is the lightest tan, a deep mahogany or anything in between. Though your skin tone may suggest how you will hear the news and how the news will affect you, it is still good news. To you is born this day a Savior. Your politics don’t matter either. This is good news to both Republicans and Democrats, Greens and Socialists. Although, if this news doesn’t have some profound effect on how you vote, it may be you haven’t quite heard it yet. We need to listen carefully. Neither does it doesn’t matter if you are straight—or gay or lesbian or bisexual or transgender or queer in any other beautiful, non-binary way. God is love, St John said. And if God is love, then love, like God, can know no bounds. The love that is God reaches everyone. To you—to all, is born this day in the city of David a Savior—a friend. Even your religion doesn’t matter. I am bringing “good news of great joy for all the people”, the angel said. If you are a Christian you will, of course, hear good news in the cry of the baby born this night. Jews hear its echoes in the Torah. Muslims find it in the Koran. If you are “spiritual but not religious” you may see this good news in the beauty and symmetry of nature; or in the face of someone who loves you. God is love, remember. Whenever we see or give or receive love, we are seeing God. Wherever love is, as our kids sang last Sunday, God is there, too. To you—to all is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, a friend. This is what happens, you see, when the king of the universe moves into a questionable neighborhood in a backwater little town. Holy love erupts. The hay, the manger, the barn become holy. The shepherds, the wisemen become holy. The village—everything becomes holy; made so by this good news; this holy, divine love; this little baby born to repair and redeem the whole world. This is Christmas, don’t you know—a baby’s open arms; a mother’s gentle kiss; a father’s protective gaze. This is Christmas. And it’s here—at last. All around us. For all of us. Some of you have been waiting all year for this night. Some of you have been waiting your whole lives for this night. Some of you are not yet ready for this night; and that’s OK. To you, as well, is born this day in the city of David a Savior, a friend. He’ll be here when you are ready. We began the Advent season singing “O Come, O Come Immanuel”. Well, Immanuel has come. The stable doors are open wide. The party has begun. Tonight God is with us. With all of us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God. Happy Christmas everybody!

In this episode, we’ve collaborated with Logan February and turned their essay into an audio short story. We first heard the Nigerian non-binary poet and songwriter Logan February read this essay during AfroQueer’s online festival in 2020. It's a beautiful, intriguing and very personal piece of writing that explores one of their queer experiences in Nigeria. And explores the experience of being ghosted. This excerpt is called My Ghost, adapted from their work - THE MANIA OF QUEER DESIRE: IN PRAISE OF FEVER RAY’S PLUNGE - and it’s read by Kenzy Nna-Udosen. The music in this episode is Fever Ray's album Plunge. This episode was produced by Penny Dale and Selly Thiam. Written by Penny Dale and narrated by Kenny Nna-Udoosen. Sound editing by Mercy Barno and Tevin Sudi. AfroQueer is executive produced by Selly Thiam and is a production of AQ Studios. Our theme song is Pawa by Maia and the big sky. AfroQueer is supported by The Wellspring Philanthropic fund and The Ford Foundation.

iCalendar (*.ics extension) is a popular file format used to distribute calendar information between different applications over the internet. Once you click the iCal feed link with the right button, copy the link URL and paste it into any calendar app that takes iCal feeds (Google Calendar, Outlook, etc). Left click on a single event downloads the *.ics file with selected event, but it will not allow calendar apps to update automatically their calendar with other or upcoming events. How to use feed with: Physics Conference Room, SB B326 Coffee starts at 12:00 PM and talk starts at 12:15 PM - Monday, February 7, 2011 ABSTRACT: Crystalline films are often grown or annealed below their roughening temperature. The microscopic physics involves the attachment and detachment of atoms at steps, and the diffusion of atoms across terraces. The macroscopic consequences of these atomic-scale mechanisms are still poorly understood. My talk will discuss recent progress with Hala Al Hajj Shehadeh and Jonathan Weare, concerning the evolution of a one-dimensional step-train separating two facets in the "attachment-detachment-limited" regime. I'll explain why the evolution is asymptotically self-similar, and why its continuum limit is associated with certain fourth-order nonlinear PDE's. The talk will be self-contained, requiring no prior background about crystal growth. Mordecai-Mark Mac Low - Monday, February 14, 2011 ABSTRACT: In this talk I consider two questions. First, I investigate the formation of molecular clouds from diffuse interstellar gas. It has been argued that the midplane pressure controls the fraction of molecular hydrogen present, and thus the star formation rate. Alternatively, I and others have suggested that the gravitational instability of the disk controls both. I present numerical results demonstrating that the observed correlations between midplane pressure, molecular hydrogen fraction, and star formation rate can be explained within the gravitational instability picture. Second, I discuss how ionization affects the formation of massive stars. Although most distinctive observables of massive stars can be traced back to their ionizing radiation, it does not appear to have a strong effect on their actual formation. Rather, I present simulations suggesting that stars only ionize large volumes after their accretion has already been throttled by gravitational fragmentation in the accretion flow. At the same time these models can explain many aspects of the observations of ultracompact H II regions. - Wednesday, February 16, 2011 ABSTRACT: We describe enzymatic systems which involve biocatalytic reactions utilized for information processing ("biocomputing"). Extensive ongoing research in biocomputing, mimicking binary logic gates has been motivated by potential applications in biotechnology. Furthermore, novel sensor concepts have been contemplated with multiple inputs processed biochemically before the final output is coupled to transducing "smart-material" electrodes and other systems. These applications have warranted consideration of networking of biocomputing gates. First few-gate networks have been realized and studied. In order to achieve scalable, stable network design and functioning, considerations of noise propagation and control have been initiated as a new research direction. Optimization of single enzyme-based gates for avoiding analog noise amplification has been explored, as were certain network-optimization concepts. We survey these developments, as well as offer an outlook for possible future research foci. The latter include design and uses of non-binary network elements, specifically, filters, as well as other developments motivated by potential novel sensor and biotechnology applications. - Wednesday, February 23, 2011 ABSTRACT: Photosynthesis starts when a photon is captured by a photosynthetic reaction center containing a chlorophyll molecule. The photon is converted into an excited state of the molecule, a so-called "exciton." In order for the plant to convert that energy into ATP, the energy must be transferred between molecules via a process called Förster resonant energy transfer (FRET). The same process is employed in the design of photovoltaic materials as well as various exotic kinds of excitonic circuits and is even contemplated as a mechanism for implementing quantum computation. The details of how the energy moves in FRET is both an important problem in understanding biological systems and a crucial issue in engineering efficient solar collectors. One of the ways that scientists have studied this problem is in simulations of the electronic structure of molecules and "artificial molecules" known as nanoparticles. The sophistication of these calculations continues to grow as increasingly powerful computer platforms and algorithms become available. In this talk I will describe the calculation of FRET as an important paradigm in electronic structure calculations and show how future developments might solve previously poorly understood problems, such as how quantum mechanics enters into the photosynthetic process in real plants. - Monday, February 28, 2011 - Monday, March 7, 2011 - Monday, March 14, 2011 ABSTRACT: There has been considerable interest in curvature, diffusive curvature flows and general relativity on discrete geometries. This has been applied to broad problems from complex networks to solve the greedy routing problem to Regge calculus to solve Einstein's field equations. Hamilton 's Ricci Flow has garnered considerable interest in its application to help prove the Poincare conjecture by Perelman. We describe here our progress in formulating discrete Ricci flow (DRF) on a simplicial geometry of arbitrary dimension, D. In so doing we provide an explicit and geometric construction of the Riemann tensor, Ricci tensor and the scalar curvature. We will then discuss the discrete formulation of Einstein's geometric theory of gravitation known as Regge calculus. - Monday, March 21, 2011 - Monday, March 28, 2011 ABSTRACT: The next frontier in particle physics is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which, having partly recovered from an "incident" two years ago, is restarting now, following a brief preliminary run in 2010 at the European Laboratory for Nuclear and Particle Research (CERN), outside of Geneva, Switzerland. There, two beams of ~ 4 TeV protons (where 1 TeV=1000 GeV, or ~1000 proton masses) will be made to collide head-on, and thereby provide data that will help clarify current puzzles and inadequacies in our conceptual formulation of the nature of the fundamental particles and their interactions. The LHC will respond to specific issues raised by the apparent limitations in the logic of the "standard model (SM)," which is the current, remarkably successful theory of all particle interactions. The development of the SM is arguably the most significant achievement of elementary-particle physics! Its framework accommodates all observed phenomena within a "gauge" quantum-field theory encompassing electroweak (E&M and Weak) and strong (color – QCD) interactions. Despite that it agrees with all observations, the SM is flawed in that it has many free parameters. But even more telling is that it becomes internally inconsistent beyond TeV energies. The LHC is expected to resolve this scientific conundrum through discovery of new kinds of particles or interactions at this "Terascale." I will describe the nature of the currently disappearing energy frontier at the 1 TeV Tevatron Collider at Fermilab, outside of Chicago, and our hopes for the mightier LHC. - Monday, April 4, 2011 - Wednesday, April 6, 2011 ABSTRACT: We present experimental studies on the generation of pulsed and continuous-wave squeezed vacuum via nonlinear rotation of the polarization ellipse in a (87)Rb vapor. Squeezing is observed for a wide range of input powers and pump detunings on the D1 line, while only excess noise is present on the D2 line. The maximum continuous-wave squeezing observed is -1.4 +/- 0.1 dB (-2.0 dB corrected for losses). We measure -1.1 dB squeezing at the resonance frequency of the (85)Rb F = 3 --> F' transition, which may allow the storage of squeezed light generated by (87)Rb in a (85)Rb quantum memory. Using a pulsed pump, pulsed squeezed light with -1 dB of squeezing for 200 ns pulse widths is observed at 1 MHz repetition rate. - Monday, April 11, 2011 - Monday, May 9, 2011 - Monday, September 19, 2011 ABSTRACT: Convergence of light toward a desired location in optically diffusive and aberrative media is the most important challenge in optical methods of biomedical imaging, where inhomogeneous media with some degree of opacity are generally present. I will review various approaches towards this goal. The techniques include optical phase conjugation, measuring the transmission matrix of forward and back scattered light, and microscopic wavefront adjustments. I will show examples of applying the new understanding and techniques to control spatial coherence in multimode fibers and laser arrays. - Wednesday, October 5, 2011 ABSTRACT: Imaging in highly heterogeneous media is a notoriously difficult problem because of the presence of unknown clutter. It is often useful to construct functionals of the data that are as independent of the unknown clutter as possible. Field-field correlations are such functionals, which can often be modeled as solutions to kinetic equations. This talk will review basic aspects of such functionals and present results of reconstructions of inclusions buried in strong clutter. - Wednesday, October 12, 2011 ABSTRACT: The talk will mainly concentrate on the results of optical and morphological properties of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures and on some recent work on organic polymer based photovoltaic devices. Low dimensional nanostructures of ZnO have potential to improve the efficiency and compactness of electronic and photonic devices including LEDs, optical waveguides and sensors. The growth mechanism and characterization of ZnO nanorod and nanowall systems grown on sapphire and Si substrates using vapour phase transport (VPT) method will be presented. The experimental growth conditions to achieve well-aligned ZnO nanorod and naorod/nanowall morphology are optimized by using different forms of carbon powder as source. For ZnO nanostructures to be effectively utilized in devices, it must be possible to dope these structures effectively and homogeneously. The distribution of In and Al dopants with ZnO nanostructures grown on Si and a-sapphire substrates is investigated using low temperature cathodoluminescence. The photoluminescence (PL) peak seemingly unique to ZnO nanostructure at ~3.367 eV, known as the surface exciton (SX) peak, believed to be due to surface adsorbed species are investigated aimed at elucidation of the nature and origin of the emission and its relationship to the nanostructure morphology. The optical and electronic properties of the active layer (usually a blend of semiconducting polymer and fullerene), contributes to the generation of electron-hole (e-h) pairs (excitons) and their dissociation in an organic photovoltaic cell. To improve the optical and electronic properties of the active layer, dye doping in polymers/fullerene blend and concept of hybrid polymer/inorganic nanorod photovoltaic cells are implemented. Dye molecules with the polymer/fullerene composite are used to enhance absorption at longer wavelengths, which could not be harvested otherwise. In hybrid solar cell concept, ZnO nanorods are used in the active layer to increasing the donor-acceptor interfacial area and creating electron transport pathways toward the negative electrode that possess very high electron mobility. - Monday, October 17, 2011 ABSTRACT: New materials with potentially new properties and applications can be formed by linking nanocomponents. The assembly of three-dimensional ordered arrays of CdSe and of Fe2O3 nanoparticles by a microfluidics technique is described, along with the formation of hybrids of CdSe nanoparticles and single-walled carbon nanotubes. Coupling between the nanocomponents is important in understanding the new properties these nanomaterials may possess, as is demonstrated by how FRET coupling affects the Stokes shift in photoluminescence from these hybrids. Such systems are also potentially useful in several applications. Nanoparticles are coupled to achieve improved thermoelectric performance. Improved catalytic activity can be achieved using nanoparticles, as is probed by using Raman scattering. - Monday, October 24, 2011 - Monday, October 31, 2011 ABSTRACT: This presentation focuses on charge/energy transfer modeling starting from nanoscale quantum phenomena and continuously broadening to macroscale, where these quantum effects can be observed and utilized. Methods of quantum field theory and a quantum transport equation based on the Keldysh-Feynman diagrammatic technique are employed to describe quantum phenomena in the electron-phonon energy exchange and transport phenomena [2,3]. The sophisticated analytical methods used at the nanoscale may be sewed with the numerical Monte-Carlo simulations at larger scales . This approach is used for investigating the charge/energy transfer in nano-materials and for modeling of superconductor and semiconductor nanodevices. I will discuss the design and optimization of next-generation ultra-sensitive detectors, quantum nanocalorimeters, THz mixers, and IR single-photon counters . I will also consider a quantum dot solar cell and its optimization that leads to enhanced harvesting and very efficient photovoltaic conversion of IR energy . 1. Y.-L. Zhong, A. Sergeev et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 206803 (2010). 2. M. Bell, A. Sergeev, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 046805 (2010). 3. A. Sergeev, M. Reizer, and V. Mitin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 139701 (2011); Europhys. Letters 92, 27003 (2010). 4. V. Mitin, A. Sergeev, L-H. Chien, and N. Vagidov, Large-Scale Scientific Computing, Springer, p. 403, 2010. 5. B.S. Karasik, A. Sergeev, and D. Prober, "Nanobolometers for THz photon detection," IEEE Trans. on Terahertz Science & Technology, 1 (Inaugural Issue), 97 (2011). 6. K.A. Sablon, J.W. Little, V. Mitin, A. Sergeev, N. Vagidov, and K. Reinhardt, Nano Letters 11, 2311 (2011). - Monday, November 7, 2011 ABSTRACT: The localization length (LL) has been derived for one-dimensional bi-layered structures with random perturbations in the refractive indices for each type of layers. Main attention is paid to the comparison between conventional materials and those consisting of mixed right-hand and left-hand materials. It is shown that the localization length is described by the universal expression for both cases, when the widths of layers of right-hand and left-hand materials are different. In a specific case, when the widths are equal, our analytical approach demonstrates that the inverse LL vanishes in the first order of perturbation theory. We were able to develop the expression for the LL with higher order terms, and explain puzzling numerical results, recently discussed in literature. - Monday, November 14, 2011 - Monday, November 21, 2011 - Monday, December 5, 2011

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Detailed beneath are many of the ways in which age impacts your automobile insurance plan. Usually, the more youthful you are, the decreased your rates might be. But In case you are a man, age does have an effect on the expense of car insurance plan. When young male drivers spend fewer than their older counterparts, rates for drivers of their sixties and seventies skyrocket. Statistically, males are two as well as a 50 % moments as more likely to be involved in a car or truck crash than Girls, And so the gender hole decreases with age.(coverage options)(homeowners insurance policies) The truth that a man can pay the next top quality for motor vehicle insurance policies than a lady is just not solely stunning. Quite a few men make bad selections though driving, leading to more incidents and claims. However, There are some aspects which make Guys dearer to insure. Here are some of the very best main reasons why. Read more to find out more about the most well-liked factors that affect car coverage costs by gender. And if you’re still perplexed, take into consideration the following pointers for lowering your premiums.(vehicle insurance policies insurance policies)(automobile insurance quotation)(automobile insurance coverage charge) The Oregon Division of economic Regulation has instructed vehicle insurers to support individuals who Really don’t specify their gender. Discrimination towards non-binary individuals could be grounds for unfair discrimination charges, and insurers will have to file premiums for those motorists starting in January 2019. These fees could possibly be increased than those for male and woman drivers. Assuming that they are not excessive, Gals should be able to cut costs. Also, don’t worry with regard to the “non-binary” level for young motorists.(car coverage claim)(gap insurance coverage)(automobile plan)

"Climate strike" (and yes it is actually two words!) has been named the Word of the Year for 2019. It's been given the status by the Collins Dictionary. Each year lexicographers - the people who put the dictionary together - examine the millions of words that have been used by people in things such as newspapers and social media posts. They then put together a list of 10 new key terms. 2019 is the second year in a row that an environmental word has been chosen. "Climate strike" came out on top this year, after it was used on average 100 times more this year than in 2018. The term refers to a protest which calls for action on climate change. The term "non-binary" also made the shortlist. It refers to people who don't identify as either male or female. Non-binary people may choose to use the pronouns "they" and "them" instead of "he" or "she". Singer Sam Smith came out as non-binary earlier this year. Other words on the list include: Bopo: A movement - all about body positivity - which encourages people to be proud of the way their bodies look. Cancel: To publicly stop paying attention to a person or company, especially on social media, to show disapproval of their activities or opinions. Deepfake: A technique which involves one digital image or video being superimposed onto another, which maintains the appearance of an unedited image or video. Influencer: A person who uses social media to promote lifestyle choices, commercial products, etc to their followers. Rewilding: This means returning areas of land to a wild state, including the reintroduction of animal species that are no longer naturally found there. Yep, there's no getting away from it! This year, the Collins Dictionary team has also put together the Brexicon. Brexiety - anxiety triggered by concerns about Britain's withdrawal from the European Union. Flextension - an informal agreement to extend the time allowed for payment of a debt or completion of a contract, setting a new date that can be altered depending on future events.

Shifting Gender Norms More than 12% of U.S. millennials identify as transgender or gender non-conforming, and a majority believe that gender is a spectrum rather than a man/woman binary. Compared to millennials, Gen Z’s views on gender are even more advanced. In the U.S., 56% know someone who uses a gender neutral pronoun and 59% believe forms should include options other than “man” and “woman.” Globally, 25% of Gen Zers expect to change their gender identity at least once during their lifetime. ‘Why I felt liberated when I started dressing as a woman’ I am a man who wears women’s clothes. The first time it happened was in the mid-70s. I’d recently left school and was a couple of months into an art foundation course at Manchester Polytechnic. I found myself on my own for a weekend in the flat I shared with two fellow students. Bored, I started rummaging down the back of the sofa to see what curiosities – or money – I might find. A moment later I pulled out a single stocking, which I immediately put on. Instinctively. Transgressively. It triggered years of guilt, self-disgust and confusion ……. …..After the stocking incident, I started collecting items of girls’ clothing. I remember having a pair of tights and a pink one-piece swimsuit I’d rescued one holiday when my sister was having a clear-out. I kept them hidden at the back of a drawer and, when the compulsion became too strong, I’d wait until my flatmates were out and slip into them. All the while listening for a key in the front door and the creak of feet on the stairs. To read the full article in the Guardian about Steven Appleby, the author and cartoonist who describes his heartfelt sense of freedom when he began to cross-dress openly all the time click on this link or the image. Many thanks to Amanda for this article. Gender non conforming or gender creative My name is C.J. and I’m 13 years old. I am a member of the LGBTQ community. My gender identity is male and my gender expression is female. That means that I’m awesome. Just kidding. It means that I was identified male at birth and I like my male body and I prefer male pronouns, but the way I dress and the things I like are considered feminine (whatever that means). Another way to describe me is gender nonconforming or gender creative. To find out more about C.J. Duron is a 13-year-old seventh grader from Orange County, California click on this link or the image. The Detransitioners – She2He2She Studies suggest that most people who transition to another gender do not have second thoughts. But after two trans men met and fell in love, their personal gender journeys took an unexpected turn, to a destination neither had foreseen. “I always felt we have a very special history. We have special bodies, and a special connection based on the physical experience we had.” Ellie is 21 and Belgian. Her German partner, Nele, is 24. Both took testosterone to become more masculine, and they had their breasts removed in double mastectomy surgery. Now they have detransitioned, and live again as female – the gender they were assigned at birth. “I’m very happy I didn’t have a hysterectomy,” reflects Nele. “It means I can stop taking hormones, and my body will return to looking feminine.” Last year, they both made the decision to end their use of testosterone and start using the female pronouns “she” and “her” again. Slowly their own natural oestrogen has begun to re-feminise their bodies. Come Yew Out! A message from Andrew Copeman Hello, I’m the producer of the LGBTQI+ history play (working title come yew out) and I’d like to invite your group to take part, in any form you like. Currently we are in the research phase, meeting regularly to build up source material for the script. I’m very keen for volunteers to be interviewed (or be the inrerviewer) on their experiences and lives so that we can build an honest picture on the struggles/joys of our community members, I’m also particularly interested in personal accounts of Barbara Ross and the amazing work that she did. There’s also a creative response phase, where we invite people to create art on any kind that’s based on our research which will be published as an Ebook. We’re committed to our project being a community play, so people who have faced discrimination when auditioning for rolls, or have lacked confidence to try out in the past, have an opportunity to act or sing in the performance. We will be running workshops to help boost people’s confidence and skills, should anyone want to attend. There will also be opportunities behind the scenes as crew and set design, if anyone would like to be involved but isn’t comfortable with the spot light. At the end of March is trans day of visibility, and we’d like to do something to commemorate it, like perhaps performing a song, any suggestions or ideas would be welcome. Look forward to hearing from you. ‘I don’t remember not wanting to wear dresses’ But it was not until he swapped Londonderry for California that he felt able to live openly as a cross-dresser. It was when he started to live life as he wanted to. In a new Radio Ulster and Radio Foyle documentary, Brian and his wife Debbie discuss life and what it is like when a husband owns more dresses than his wife. “People say when did you want to start wearing dresses? And I honestly don’t remember not wanting to wear dresses,” says Brian. “I always thought that girls’ clothes were more interesting, and looked like more fun.” For more information click here to link you to the BBC article. If you want to hear the podcast, access this via the BBC Sounds app or here. A big thank you from Amanda for telling me about this article Transgender patients self-medicating over NHS waits Transgender patients are choosing to self-medicate with hormones bought online from unregulated sources due to waiting times to see NHS specialists, the BBC has learned. In many areas, some patients wait over two years to be seen, new figures show. England’s target time is 18 weeks. One woman said she was so low it felt like a choice between self-medicating or suicide. NHS England said it had increased investment to respond to rising demand. Numbers on waiting lists and number of weeks for each GIC (click on image for more detail) Puberty blockers legal challenge begins Papers have been lodged at the High Court by a mother and a nurse against the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which runs the UK’s only gender-identity development service (Gids). Lawyers will argue it is illegal to prescribe the drugs, as children cannot give informed consent to the treatment. The Tavistock said it had a “cautious and considered” approach to treatment. Papers were formally lodged on Wednesday by the lawyers for the complainants. The Tavistock will have three weeks to submit its response, after which a judge will consider the case and decide on the timings of any hearings. Trans* research project@Kent University My colleagues and I at the University of Kent are carrying out a project which aims to enhance trans* awareness in social work education and practice. In order to do so in a way that is the most relevant, we would like to hear from people of trans* history about their experiences of support or input from social workers and their recommendations. The voices of trans* service users will play an instrumental part in how trans* awareness training workshops for social work students and practitioners are designed. We have contacted Oasis through the TranzWiki website, where we are listed as a group campaigning for, supporting or assisting trans* and gender non-conforming individuals. We would be grateful if you considered passing on the study information to any groups to whom the study may be of interest. Who can take part in confidential interviews? By trans* individuals we refer to all of the identities within the gender identity spectrum, other than cisgender man and cisgender woman Only people aged 18 or over can take part. However, we are keen to speak to parents/carers/family members of trans* individuals under 18 who have experienced social work input together with them We are specifically looking for participants with experience of social work input in England; this is because social work is configured and delivered differently in other countries both within and outside of the UK. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with any questions. You can also find us on Twitter: @TheTransAwaren1 Dr Rasa Mikelyte | Research Associate | Centre for Health Services Studie(CHSS) | Room CGA217, Cornwallis George Allen Wing, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NF | ( (01227) 823666 | : [email protected] Transgender no longer recognised as ‘disorder’ by WHO The newly-approved version instead places issues of gender incongruence under a chapter on sexual health. A World Health Organization expert said it now understands transgender is “not actually a mental health condition”. Human Rights Watch says the change will have a “liberating effect worldwide”. Transgender ‘pioneer’ dies aged 64 Julia Grant, the first trans woman to share her story on prime time British TV, has died at the age of 64 following a short illness. Ms Grant rose to prominence after appearing in the 1979 BBC documentary, A Change Of Sex. The BBC Two show, and its four follow-ups, told the story of her transition. Jennifer, one of our Oasis ladies has produced this information to promote further understanding. Understanding the proposed changes to the gender recognition process When a baby is born, the delivering Midwife or Doctor will look at the baby and its genitalia and pronounce (but not always) “it’s a girl” or “it’s a boy” and this is what gets entered on the birth certificate. As the child grows up and enters adulthood, if that child/adult is comfortable and fully accepting of their assigned at birth sex then they are termed as being cisgender where ‘cis’ is a scientific word meaning ‘on the same side as’ i.e. their gender is the same as their assigned at birth sex. But if that person is not comfortable and feels that their gender does not align with their birth sex assignment, then they are termed as being transgender. Think of this like left and right handed people, the majority of people are born right handed but a minority will be left handed. They did not choose to be left handed, but it is the way they are, it’s the way the brain was wired. It’s estimated at that about 1 in 300 people are transgender and if you include intersex conditions that figure increases to about 1 in 100 people (NHS statistics). Recent medical studies have identified distinct differences in the structure of certain areas the brain between cisgender males and cisgender females. These studies have also found that those same areas of the brain in transgender person does not correspond to their assigned at birth sex but that of the opposite sex, that is, the gender that the person feels they are aligned with. The World Health Organisation has very recently accepted transgender as being a medical condition and possibly an intersex one. There has been some very poor and inaccurate media reporting on proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) to allow what is being termed “Self ID”. The proposed changes won’t mean that a man can suddenly declare themselves to be a woman for the purposes of entering all female spaces (or a woman for that matter declaring they are male in order to enter male only spaces). What “Self ID” is about is to replace the current GRA process which is very lengthy, highly bureaucratic and expensive with a much simpler, but still a formal, legally binding process known as a Statutory Declaration. The end result will be the same, namely a change to the sex (gender) marker on a person’s birth certificate, and that change is for the rest of that person’s natural life. The Deed Poll process used to change ones legal name is a similar Statutory Declaration process. In case you were unaware the GRA came into law in 2004 and The Equalities Act of 2010 legally allowed transgender individuals to use single sex facilities corresponding to ‘their’ gender although the act does allow for exceptions in certain circumstances (but public toilets for example are not an exceptional circumstance). A person who is transgender has also been able to update the gender marker on their driving licence and passport using a Statuary Declaration process since 2010. Note that a person who is transgender will have legally changed their name, updated the gender marker on their passport and/or driving license and done the same with HMRC and their local Council before they embark on the GRA process to legally change the sex (gender) marker on their birth certificate. In reality this legal change of the Birth Certificate gender marker is done through the issue of a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). To date many transgender people haven’t gone down the GRA/GRC route because of its complexity and cost as they can achieve 95% without it. But to get that updated birth certificate not only represents closure but so confers rights unobtainable by other means because it means that a person may be legally regarded as their ‘acquired’ gender. An example being a transgender person cannot marry in their ‘acquired’ gender without a GRC. © Norfolk Oasis 2018 INSIGHT INTO SEXISM Serena recently found an article in the Sunday Times on 29th March which investigates how people who switch gender are seen as being more or less intelligent. Worth a read. Tax inspector who loved taffeta skirts and became an authority on the history of cross-dressing Peter Farrer enjoyed a long career as a senior tax inspector, but when, towards the end of his life, he featured in the “Liverpool Homotopia” season, it had nothing to do with fiscal matters. The season’s highlight was the exhibition Transformation: One Man’s Cross-Dressing Wardrobe at the Walker Art Gallery in the city, which showed a small part of his collection of dresses, many of them made from taffeta. It was the culmination for Farrer of 75 years of wearing women’s clothes. To find out more click on the link or the image. Boys at Exeter academy wear skirts in uniform protest The pupils from ISCA Academy in Exeter asked permission to modify their uniform because of the hot weather. One of the boys who took part in the protest said: “We’re not allowed to wear shorts, and I’m not sitting in trousers all day, it’s a bit hot.” Head teacher Aimee Mitchell said shorts were “not part” of the school uniform, as first reported by Devon Live. National Geographic Gender Revoltion Serena, one of our Oasis Ladies, has passed onto me some very interesting articles on the latest edition of the National Geographic which is titled Gender Revolution. Due to copyright issues I am unable to let you see all the article, but click on this link or the image for a taster. I suggest if you want to find out more, get down to your local newsagent or library and have a read. Can you help Century Films? 50 years on from the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK, Is it Safe to Be Gay? will explore how safe it is for LGBT people in Britain today. With homophobic hate crime a daily occurrence and on the rise, this film takes a 360 degree look at the issue, hearing from the victims, their families, the police and the perpetrators of these crimes. What makes someone attack another person because of their sexuality? How do victims deal with these unsolicited and unprovoked assaults? And what are we doing about this in Britain in 2017? The film will be airing on BBC2 this summer as part of a BBC season commemorating the 50th anniversary of partial decriminalisation. Our aim is to cover a range of experiences from people of varied backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, occupations, regions and religions. We hope to present a documentary that raises awareness of the current issues faced by the LGBT community when it comes to hate crime. Hopefully the programme will help encourage others to report hate crime when it happens. At the moment, we are in the early stages of production on the project and are looking to speak with those who have experienced homophobic abuse, both recent and historic. These initial conversations are in confidence. And so, if there are cases which you have come across it would be brilliant if you could forward this message onto the person(s) involved to see if they would be happy to talk to us further about their experience. It’s worth saying that, although we are ultimately looking for people we might be able to film with, speaking to us at this point in no way commits them to the project in the long run. We’d also be keen to get the message out to as many regional offices as possible – at this stage, we’re trying to cast the net as far and as wide as we can, to make sure we have a broad range of stories and experiences in the film. It would be so helpful if you are able to share this around your network. We are also on Facebook and Twitter: https://twitter.com/hate_crime_doc https://www.facebook.com/Is-It-Safe-To-Be-Gay-In-Britain-258871647857246/ To give you a little bit more formation about Century Films (http://www.centuryfilmsltd.com/) – we’re an award-winning documentary production company with a track record of making sensitive, access-led documentaries around the UK and abroad. Recently we’ve made series with the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust (Kids on the Edge, Channel 4), the largest primary school in the UK (Britain’s Biggest Primary School, Channel 5) and some of the small group of US-based men and women who choose to tie the knot in prison every year (Married Behind Bars on Channel 4). Please feel free to share my details [email protected] and 02073786106 and get in touch anytime. Trans women shouldn’t call themselves ‘real women’ Oasis is grateful to Serena, one of our regular ladies at Oasis, for sending us this article which you can view by clicking on this link. Cambridge G.D.R.C. needs you! We are researchers at the Gender Development Research Centre, the University of Cambridge. We are now recruiting gender minority adults and cisgender adults (aged 18 years or above) to participate in an online survey looking at social adjustment and psychological well-being of gender minorities. We hope to learn more about similarities and differences between different groups and how things can be improved for gender minorities. This survey will take at least 20 minutes and all participants will be entered into a prize draw. In our survey, gender minorities are broadly defined as individuals whose gender identity and/or expression do not conform to the norms for the individuals’ sex/gender assigned at birth (e.g., individuals with gender dysphoria, transgender individuals, agender individuals, individuals with non-binary gender identities, and etc). Cisgenders refer to individuals whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth. If you need further information or have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Your help would be highly appreciated! Please let us know what you think. Link to the online survey: Rowan Haslam Cambridge Psychology: Cambridge Gender Development Research Centre: http://www.gdrc.psychol.cam.ac.uk/ A travel agency are offering a transgender cruise to the Mediterranean on the 18th – 25th June 2017. Interested! For more details click on the image. Don’t expect anyone to be on time for evening meals as they will all be having wardrobe malfunctions. Oasis is spreading its wings! Through a contact at Norwich Pride 2016, Oasis was asked to be involved in a Well-being day for the new students at Gt Yarmouth College in September. It was a very interesting day and we managed to talk to both students and their teachers. The organiser, Maria Watson has asked if some of us could come in to their tutorial groups for the Health and Social courses to talk to the student about the gender spectrum. Roll on the lecture circuit! Transgender Soldier serves on Front line A 24-year-old transgender soldier has become the first woman to serve on the front line with the British Army. The Army said it was delighted to have its first woman in a close-combat role. Then Prime Minister David Cameron followed a recommendation in July from the head of the Army that women should be able to serve. The application process for female recruits was due to open later this year. But Guardsman Allen, who had official documents changed by deed poll from her birth name of Ben to reflect her new name and status, has now been informed she will be able to stay in the infantry, as a woman. A guide to transgender terms Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as 1970s Olympic athlete Bruce Jenner, announced she is transgender, appearing on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine. It’s fair to say many people don’t know how to speak to or about transgender people. So what do the terms involved mean and what’s considered polite? In 2010, the Gender Identity Research and Education Society estimated the number of trans people in the UK to be between 300,000 and 500,000. Find out more by clicking on the link or the image for the BBC guide to transgender terms. Trans sports clubs When swimming and playing football are revolutionary acts! It’s a Friday night in Lewisham and ten people have gathered for a weekly swimming club at the inner London borough’s modern leisure centre, an oasis of calm beyond which city life grinds on. Reflections from the red light of the emergency exit sign dance on the water of the dimly lit pool where Roberta Francis, the club’s head honcho, plays catch with another swimmer. Others are reclining at the water’s edge, their eyes closed and legs drifting outwards; some still chat quietly and catch their breath between laps. There’s no music, only the gentle murmur of chatter and the slop of water in the pool vents. So, a bunch of people have gone swimming on a Friday night. Nothing remarkable about that. Look at the lifeguard’s bored face. Except that these people are trans (the term used to describe a person who does not identify with the gender assigned to them at birth) and simply popping out for a quick swim can be fraught with difficulty. Dedicated groups like the Trans and Gender non-conforming Swimming (TAGS) group in Lewisham take months to organise, and are only possible because of years of LGBT activism. A minority within a minority! The DWP’s battle with a pensioner who lost years of payouts for staying married is a cruel indication of its approach to trans equality Here we go again. Typical British fudge, with a dash of paternalism. This time, the calculation appears to be that because those disadvantaged are the transgender community – a minority within a minority – the government can press on regardless and weather the resulting fuss. How else to explain the extraordinary intransigence of the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) in the case of MB, a trans woman who should have been eligible for a pension in 2008 but for her religious scruples. She and her partner refused to divorce, then a precondition of obtaining a gender recognition certificate (GRC) as same-sex marriage had not been introduced. Without it, she was forced to wait a further five years before obtaining her pension because she was still, in the eyes of the DWP, “a man”. I am Jazz Jazz Jennings (born October 6, 2000) is an American transgender teenage girl, YouTube personality, spokesmodel, television personality and LGBTQ rights activist. Jennings is notable for being one of the youngest publicly documented people to be identified as gender dysphoric, and for being the youngest person to become a national transgender figure. Jennings received national attention in 2007 when an interview with Barbara Walters aired on 20/20, which led to other high-profile interviews and appearances. Click on the image or link for information about her Discovery Go channel. The Lancet Journal – Articles on Transgender Health The Lancet Journal, for the first time, has published a series of articles on transgender health, to which Terry Reed of GIRES has contributed as a co-author. Transgender people and their needs remain little understood, not only by health-care providers but also more generally in society. An absence of appropriate information, together with misinformation, breeds stigma and prejudice, leading to discrimination, harassment, and abuse, with alarming consequences for transgender people’s health and wellbeing. This Series is an effort to understand, and provide a framework to improve, the health and lives of transgender people globally. The three papers in this Series examine the social and legal conditions in which many transgender people live, clinical care considerations and service delivery models in transgender health, and the global health burden facing transgender populations, including the specific contexts and multiple determinants of health affecting them. Oasis Proud to be at Pride After many months of planning by the Pride Committee, consisting of Jenny, Vicky, Julia and Beccie and a generous donation to fund the day from the Barbara Ross Association, we were not disappointed at what we had set up on Pride Day on Saturday 30th July. There were posters, placards, stickers and leaflets on display and Vicky did not let us down with some tasty fairy cakes iced in the Trans* colours of pink, blue and white. We also thank Phyllis, Hannah, Davina and Laura who also came along to give us support. At 1.00pm we all assembled outside the town hall (Phyllis volunteering to run the stall), with placards, whistles and flags ready to take part in the parade, we set off on our journey with the rest of the Trans* community and another opportunity for Vicky’s photoshoot. The walk concluded in Chaplefield Garden. All in all a great day, with good weather and great company – roll on Pride 2017. For more information about Norwich Pride 2016 and more pictures of Vicky go to this link at Anglia News RDF television – Project about transgender people Jessica Hartley is a producer working for RDF television on a project about transgender people. The series hopes to follow up to ten individuals, from the very early stages of their transition, across various aspects of their lives over an approximately two – three year period. They want to chat to as many people as possible at this stage of production (confidentially – this information will go no further) to understand a variety of experiences and find a diverse range of trans people who would like to take part. RDF Television is one of Britain’s most respected and successful production companies and has made programmes including Secret Millionaire (C4), Secret Life of 4 Year Olds (C4), 100 Year Old Drivers (ITV) and Inside the National Trust (ITV). We want the people that we work with to be part of the film-making process – and most importantly to be proud of the programme that ultimately goes to air. RDF are committed to creating an accurate representation of transgender people in our series. To do this, they hope to work with members of the trans community, clinicians, charities and self-help groups as well as using their own experience of having worked on important and sensitive subject matters in the past. For more information click on this link or contact Jessica on the phone or via email at any time: T: 0207 013 4153 M: 07788 394 781 New Report on Gender Identity Services Have a look at this recent report from TransUK regarding the Current Waiting Times & Patient Population For NHS England Gender Identity Services – food for thought! Click here for the new report of Gender Identity Services current waiting times and patient population August – September 2015 Day Conference on Gender, Inclusion and Transgender People How ‘Gender Aware’ is your church? This Diocesan Day aims to help us consider issues of inclusion, the place of transgender people in the Church and the broader issue of gender and its implications for Christian communities. This day is with Revd Canon Rosie Harper and Revd Dr Christina Beardsley. The conference is on Saturday 8th October 2016 from 10am to 3pm. The day aims: • To note the experience of continuing ‘exclusion or tolerance’ (rather than inclusion) within the church and to reflect on the agenda of the Transformations Group • To consider the church’s current attitude(s) to gender, including transgender people • To reflect on the relationship between spirituality/theology and people’s experience of gender, including transgender people’s experience, as well as the insights we might derive from these reflections • To explore practical strategies for engagement with our churches, to change hearts and minds that we may all benefit from theological insights gained, and work towards an inclusive church. Revd Canon Rosie Harper is a member of General Synod, vicar of Great Missenden, chaplain to the Bishop of Buckingham. She writes for The Guardian andis a co-author of a forthcoming volume. Revd Dr Christina Beardsley is Head of Multi-faith Chaplaincy at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, London. Tina is a member of Sibyls – A Christian Spirituality Group for Transgender People. She wrote The Transsexual Person Is My Neighbour: Pastoral Guidelines for Christian Clergy, Pastors And Congregations, published by the Gender Trust, is the author of Unutterable Love (Lutterworth, 2009) and is currently co-editing a book about transgender people’s theology, This Is My Body: Hearing the Theology of Transgender Christians. UK doctor prescribing cross-sex hormones to children as young as 12 As charities call for NHS to lower age limit of 16 for hormones, parents are taking their children to private clinics for treatment A doctor in Wales is prescribing cross-sex hormones to children as young as 12 who say they want to change sex, arguing that if they are confident of their gender identity they should not have to wait until 16 to get the treatment. Helen Webberley, a GP in Wales, has set up a private gender clinic and recently started treating children, a “handful” of whom she has started on cross-sex hormones, including a 12-year-old. Living with Peter who dresses as Penny Peter kept Penny hidden from his wife Lou for 12 years. When he came clean, Penny became Lou’s secret too – for more than a decade. It wasn’t exactly clear who would be waiting for me at Leominster station in Herefordshire – but it was Penny who turned up. She was a tall woman in her sixties, dressed in a bright jacket and skirt. On another day, she might have looked very different. Sometimes Penny is Peter Ellis, 63, a retired teacher and former local councillor. Keith Richards Revelation He is known for his flamboyant sense of fashion – and now Keith Richards, from the Rolling Stones has revealed why his style is so singular: he is a cross-dresser. Young, Black and Transgendered Aired on the One Show on Tuesday 5thApril model and DJ Munroe Bergdorf tells her story and explores transgender issues in the UK. Digit Ratio Research It has been suggested by some scientists that the ratio of two digits in particular, the 2nd (index finger) and 4th (ring finger), is affected by exposure to androgens e.g. testosterone while in the uterus and that this 2D:4D ratio can be considered a crude measure for prenatal androgen exposure, with lower 2D:4D ratios pointing to higher prenatal androgen exposure Interested? Have a read. Supporting BAME Trans People A 28-page guide with practical tips, guidance, and resources dedicated to supporting the Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic (BAME) trans population of Britain: ‘Inclusivity – Supporting BAME Trans People. This project has been commissioned by the Gender Identity Research & Education Society (GIRES) and put together by graphic designer Soofiya Andry, under the leadership of Sabah Choudrey, an LGBTQ BAME Consultant and Activist. “GIRES is proud to support this important initiative. We have been delighted to hear BAME trans people now giving voice to their special concerns, with ever greater confidence. Wide promulgation of this important document, via the networks operated by GIRES and many other groups, provides BAME trans people with a different way to convey their concerns to all policy makers, employers and service providers, as well as to families and support groups. We encourage them to listen carefully to what BAME trans people are so clearly saying.” Richard O’Brien – Telegraph Interview So it is that the 73-year-old impresario is facing me in an unexceptional green room at the Playhouse Theatre. His disposition is kindly and he’s dressed in black; his head instantly recognisable and entirely hairless. He’s previously described himself as 70 per cent man, 30 per cent woman. “I’m kind of third sex in a way,” he says now. “I’m in the middle there somewhere. There’s a lot of male in me, there’s no doubt about that, but there’s a lot of girl in me as well.” The Women & Equalities Select Committee have just published its Transgender Enquiry, the committee’s first report bringing together six months of work. It says that despite welcome progress, there is still a long way to go to ensure equality for transgender people. For the full report click here. Adults to get right to choose gender My thanks go to one of our ladies, Serena, who has found a very interesting article in the Sunday Times concerning a change in the law allowing transgender people over the age of 18 to choose their gender by filling out a form and signing a declaration. They will no longer be required to prove they have gender dysphoria and have lived their acquired gender for two years before changing the sex on their passport or birth certificate. A report is due out this month which is expected to recommend that Britain follow the example of Ireland. Story of a transgender schoolteacher: ‘I limp through life being open where I can’ Last Monday, primary school teacher Andy Johns (not his real name) arrived in his classroom at 7.20am to make an early start after the half-term break. The cleaners had been in and reorganised things, which threw him slightly. A minor thing, but Johns – who is transgender – was already feeling fragile Read more… GIRES – Gender Identity Research and Education Society GIRES have produced an e-learning resource for professionals and families on caring for gender variant young people which you might find useful – click on this link. Positively changing how the media understands and portrays transgender people – Click on this link for more information The Sunday Times today published an article by Nicola Gill. This is very thought provoking and well worth a read.

Daragh McDermott is the Associate Dean for Psychology in the School of Social Sciences. He is Professor of Social & LGBTQ psychology with expertise in prejudice, discrimination and LGBTQ population's wellbeing. He is a Chartered Psychologist, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Psychology at NTU is a large and diverse discipline with over 150 members of academic, professional and technical staff, 3000 undergraduate and postgraduate students and over 70 doctoral students. It is one of the largest providers of research informed psychology education in the UK with a leading profile for student experience and success. Daragh has over 10 years experience working in higher education and has held substantive and honorary positions at ARU Cambridge, NUI Galway (Ireland) and the University of Saskatchewan (Canada). Prior to joining NTU in 2021, Daragh was Head of School and Associate Professor of Social and LGBTQ Psychology in the School of Psychology & Sport Science at ARU Cambridge where he worked from 2011 - 2021. While at ARU he also held positions as Head of Department, Deputy Head of Department and Course Group Leader. Daragh was awarded a B.A (Hons) Psychology and a PhD in Experimental Social Psychology from NUI Galway and a PGCert (Learning & Teaching) from ARU Cambridge. Daragh's research focusses on sexual and gender minorities and has included examinations of the prevalence prejudice and discrimination, sexual health, conceptual understandings of prejudice and the development and validation of both psychometric measures and interventions aimed at improving attitudes and enhancing psychological wellbeing. Daragh's current research projects include the SSHRC funded INQYR Project which examines the role that information and communication technologies can be used to support gender and sexual minority youth as well as the European Commission funded WE Project which explores LGBTQ young peoples experiences of entering the labor market. Other ongoing projects include the development and validation of a measure of ambivalent homoprejudice towards gay men, and the efficacy assessment of QueerVibe, an online intervention to promote resilience and wellbeing among trans and non-binary young people and work examining the psychological impact of the first COVID-19 national UK lockdown. Daragh is Co-Editor in Chief of the Taylor and Francis journal Psychology & Sexuality which he co-edits in collaboration with Professor Todd Morrison (University of Saskatchewan). He is a consulting editor for the Psychology of Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity and an editorial board member of the Journal of Social Psychology. Daragh is Past Chair of the BPS East of England Branch and in 2021 stepped down after a 5 year term as Chair of Trustees for The Kite Trust, a regional charity in the East of England that provides support for sexual and gender minority young people. Sponsors and collaborators - Dr Karen Blair (Director of the Trent Social Relations, Attitudes and Diversity Lab, Trent University, Canada) - Professor Shelley Craig (Canada Research Chair in Sexual and Gender Minority Youth; University of Toronto) - Dr Igor Grabovac (Resident Physician; Medical University of Vienna) - Professor Russell Luyt (Professor of Social Psychology; University of Greenwich) - Dr Lorraine McDonagh (Senior Research Fellow; University College London) - Professor Todd Morrison (Professor of Social Psychology; University of Saskatchewan) - Dr Jason Schaub (Lecturer in Social Work; University of Birmingham) - Dr Lee Smith (Associate Professor of Physical Activity & Public Health; ARU Cambridge) - European Commission (2020-22), Co-investigator and UK lead: 'WE Project: Promoting Work-Based Equality for LGBT+Q+ Youth' (£223,527) - Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (Canada) (2018-25), Co-investigator and UK Regional Chair: 'Queery'ing resilience: Leveraging information and communication technologies to negotiate gender and sexual minority youth identity and wellbeing within diverse global contexts' (CAD$2.5million) - Social Sciences & Health Research Council (Canada) (2019), Co-investigator: 'Mobilization LGBTQ+ Conocimento: The Inaugural INQYR Student Symposium (TISS-Mexico)' (CAD$25,000) - British Academy/Leverhulme Trust (2016), Co-investigator: 'Preparing drivers to respond to road turns safely: What neural mechanism drives differences between experienced and novice drivers' (£9,317) - Trust for London/Government Equalities Office/LGBT Consortium (2015), Principal Investigator: 'An LGBT Narrative for London & an Analysis of LGBT research in the UK' (£16,500) - Jacob, L., López-Sánchez, G. F., Haro, J. M., Koyanagi, A., Kostev, K., Grabovac, I., Oh, H., Pardhan, S., McDermott, D.T., & Shin, J. I. (2021). Association between sexual orientation and subjective cognitive complaints in the general population in England. Journal of Psychiatric Research. - Grabovac, I., Veronese, N., Stefenac, S., Haider, S., Jackson, S., Koyanagi, Ai, Meilinger, M., Stubbs, B., Firth, J., Soysal, P., Di Gennaro, F., Demurtas, J., McDermott, D. T., Abbs, A., Yang., L., & Smith, L. (2020). Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection and diverse physical health outcomes: An umbrella review of meta-analyses of observational studies. Clinical Infectious Diseases. - Jacob, L., Smith, L., Butler, L., Barnett, Y., Grabovac, I., McDermott, D., Armstrong, N., Yakkundi, A., & Tully, M. A. (2020). Challenges in the Practice of Sexual Medicine in the Time of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 17(7), 1229–1236. - Lobban, R., Luyt, R., Martin, S., Brooks, A. S., McDermott, D. T., & Zawisza, M (2020). Right-Wing Populism and Safe Identities? NORMA: International Journal for Masculinity Studies. - Smith, L., Jacob, L., Yakkundi, A., McDermott, D. T., Armstrong, N., Barnett, Y., López-Sánchez, G., Martin, S., Butler, L., & Tully, M. (2020). Correlates of symptoms of anxiety and depression and mental wellbeing associated with COVID-19: a cross-sectional study of UK-based respondents. Psychiatry Research - Brooks, A. S., Luyt, R., Zawisza, M., & McDermott, D. T. (2019). Ambivalent Homoprejudice towards Gay Men: Theory Development and Qualitative Investigation. Journal of Homosexuality. - Grabovac, I., Smith, L., McDermott, D. T., Stefanac, Si., Yang, L., Veronese, N., & Jackson, S. E. (2019). Well-being among older gay and bisexual men and women in England: a cross-sectional population study. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 20(9), 1080–1085. - McDermott, D.T., Brooks, A. S., Rohleder, P., Blair, K., Hoskin, R. A., & McDonagh, L. K. (2018). Ameliorating Transnegativity: Assessing the immediate and extended efficacy of a pedagogic prejudice reduction intervention. Psychology & Sexuality, 9, 69 – 85. - McDonagh, L. K., Nielsen, E. J., McDermott, D. T., Davies, N., & Morrison, T. G., (2018). “I want to feel like a full man”: Conceptualizing Gay, Bisexual, and Heterosexual Men’s Sexual Difficulties". Journal of Sex Research, 55, 783-801. - Rohleder, P., McDermott, D. T., Cook, R. (2017).Experiences of sexual self-esteem among men living with HIV. Journal of Health Psychology, 22, 176-185. Prejudice & Discrimination Sexual and Gender Minorities

State Farm Insurance has halted efforts to donate books that support LGBTQ inclusivity to Florida public school students after conservatives accused him of engaging in “woke indoctrination”. The insurance company was working alongside the GenderCool Project, an organization dedicated to outreach to transgender and non-binary youth, to distribute the books. But he changed course this week after an internal company email was obtained by the conservative non-profit organization Consumers’ Research. Consumers’ Research executive director Will Hild on Monday accused State Farm of attempting to indoctrinate young children by providing LGBTQ-inclusive books to young college students in Florida, where the so-called “Don ‘t Say Gay” was recently enacted. . The new legislation prohibits any type of education about sexual orientation and gender identity in most elementary schools, and also allows parents to sue school districts that violate the law. “Emails leaked to Consumers First from affected State Farm employees show the company engaged in the waking indoctrination of children 5 and older,” Hild wrote on Twitter. “State Farm has partnered with the GenderCool Project – which aims to have conversations with children about being transgender and non-binary.” On Tuesday, State Farm told Insider it would no longer work with Project GenderCool, which it said had recently been “the subject of news and customer requests.” “This program which included gender identity books was intended to promote inclusivity,” the company said in a statement to Insider. “We support organizations that provide resources for parents to have conversations about gender and identity with their children at home. We do not support the mandatory curriculum in schools on this subject. State Farm said they “will no longer be affiliated with the organization.” “We will continue to explore how we can support our associates, as well as organizations that align with our commitment to diversity and inclusion, including the LGBTQ+ community,” the company told Insider. State Farm and The GenderCool Project did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment. There has been a concerted effort by conservatives across the United States to ban books that include depictions of racism and LGBTQ experiences. Conservative states such as Utah, Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana have introduced or signed legislation banning critical race theory – an academic framework that conservatives have falsely claimed is forced on children – to be taught in public schools, according to NBC News. The focus on LGBTQ education has already impacted the availability of these materials. A report released in April by the literary organization PEN American found that more than 1,000 books related to race and the LGBTQ community are no longer in circulation.

As a fat person, I’ve never felt particularly welcome in the world of sports. In primary school I was consistently picked last in P.E. In middle school I changed into my gym clothes in the bathroom stalls to avoid being bullied in the locker room. As an adult, my body often doesn’t fit in the stadium-style seating commonly used in sporting arenas. Athletic events are doing a disservice to fat people by denying them equal access to facilities as both participants and spectators. This column aims to challenge that. Like your favourite ‘90s sitcom, “Are We Welcome?” will follow a simple formula. First, the event will be introduced. There will be a brief origin story and a glimpse at the event’s history. Any notable athletes will be profiled, especially if any of them are plus-size. Next, accessibility will be assessed. This will be discussed in terms of physical barriers (such as small seats, chairs with restricting armrests, and tiny toilet cubicles) and psychological barriers (such as societal standards and event marketing) to access. Finally, practical tips will be given for enjoying the event as a fat spectator, and recommendations for best practices will be offered for event improvement. First up: the 48th Annual Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Doha, Qatar. About the Event This month Doha, Qatar will be hosting the 48th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships from Thursday, Oct. 25 until Saturday, Nov. 3. Since the event originated in 1903, this will be the first time that the championships are hosted by a Middle Eastern country. While the event was originally exclusive for men, women have been able to participate since 1934. As of today, there is no competition category for non-binary or gender-nonconforming athletes. The event spans 10 days and includes qualification rounds, finals, and a number of ceremonies. The Artistic Gymnastics World Championships are especially significant to participants because those who medal will be granted entry to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. While the list of participants includes includes 265 men and 244 women gymnasts from 78 nations, not a single gymnast appears to be visibly fat or visibly disabled. Prior to this year’s event, the most successful participating nation was the Soviet Union with 256 cumulative medals, 111 of which are gold. American gymnastics superstar Simone Biles is currently the most decorated female gymnast in the history of the games with a whopping 10 gold medals. This year will mark her return to the competition after she returned from a two-year hiatus to continue breaking records in the sport. Japan’s Kohei Uchimura is another fan favourite who is due to return following an injury at the 2017 championships in Montréal. The 48th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships will take place inside Doha’s Aspire Dome, which is the world’s largest indoor multi-purpose dome. It boasts a capacity of 15,500 people and the ability to host 13 different sporting events simultaneously. With such a grand event facility, it is suspicious that there is no information available online regarding accessibility, such as a venue map or official accessibility policy. A venue seating plan (that can only be accessed when attempting to purchase tickets) indicates that there are three varying quality tiers for spectator seating (gold, silver, and bronze, of course), a section marked “NA” which is likely reserved for athletes/coaches/press, and a very small section marked “special needs” which is presumably allocated for wheelchair users. I reached out for clarification via the contact forms on both the official event website and the venue website, but have received no response at time of publication. This made me wonder: does Qatar have any legislation that protects disabled people or other marginalised groups? Upon further investigation, I discovered that Qatari law prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in areas including medical care, education, transportation, employment, and access to public facilities. However, it is unclear what amount of access is required. It is possible that by reserving a small number of seats for “special needs,” the Aspire Dome is in compliance with legislation. The accessibility issues discussed up to this point are all physical barriers to access, but there are additional barriers that can prevent people from attending events either as a participant or as a spectator. Psychological barriers to access are any non-physical barriers, such as society’s attitude toward marginalised people, event marketing, or any other factors that might dissuade marginalised people from attending. One of the most glaringly obvious issues is the enforcement of the gender binary. Sporting events still want to file people into only two categories: male or female. Even the Gay Games, “an event for inclusion and respect of diversity,” state in their official gender policy that participants must disclose a) the sex they were assigned at birth and b) their gender of competition: male or female. While the Gay Games justify the policy by stating that is due to the limited recognition of only two genders in modern sports, this can still bar people who are non-binary or gender-nonconforming from competing. For fat spectators, my greatest recommendation is what you already know: do your research. Seek out reviews of the facility. Try to find info (that I tried, and tried, and could not find) about seating. How big are the seats? Do the seats have restrictive armrests? Are the toilet cubicles wide enough to accommodate plus size bodies? If you attend, be sure to leave a review on AllGo – The Plus Size Review App! This app is incredible and is all about fat accessibility and we are big, big fans. Seriously, check it out! For event professionals, more information is absolutely mandatory. Regarding accessibility, accommodations must be made for people with disabilities who are standing persons, who use a manual wheelchair, who use an electric armchair, with visual impairment, or with hearing impairment. This event fails in that respect. The best practice would be for event professionals to include marginalised people in all aspects of the event. Only by listening to those who are excluded can the events industry grow and make strides toward inclusion.

Google starts rolling out gender specific translation to reduce bias San Francisco: In a bid to reduce gender biases in its translation service, Google has started rolling out a feature that provides feminine and masculine translations for some gender-neutral words on the Google Translate website. The feature is currently available only for a few languages, although Google plans to bring it to more languages soon. So one can now translate single words from English to languages like French, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish. As of now, translations for short phrases and sentences that mention a person in a gender-neutral way is available for the English and Turkish language pair. "In the future, we plan to extend gender-specific translations to more languages, launch on other Translate surfaces like our iOS and Android apps, and address gender bias in features like query auto-complete," James Kuczmarski, Product Manager, Google Translate, said in a blog post on Thursday. Google Translate learns from hundreds of millions of already-translated examples from the web. Historically, it has provided only one translation for a query, even if the translation could have either a feminine or masculine form. So when the model produced one translation, it inadvertently replicated gender biases that already existed. For example, it would skew masculine for words like "strong" or "doctor," and feminine for other words, like "nurse" or "beautiful." "Now you'll get both a feminine and masculine translation for a single word - like 'surgeon' when translating from English into French, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish," Kuczmarski said. "You'll also get both translations when translating phrases and sentences from Turkish to English. For example, if you type 'o bir doktor' in Turkish, you'll now get 'she is a doctor' and 'he is a doctor' as the gender-specific translations," Kuczmarski said. The new feature is part of Google's efforts to promote fairness and reduce bias in Machine Learning. Google said it is also thinking about how to address non-binary gender in translations, though it is not part of this initial launch.

When I was born with facial palsy, people instantly dismissed me. My dad handed out traditional Asian sweets to celebrate my birth and was met with disapproval. He spoke for me so that I could have the chance to then speak for myself. It worked. My childhood was one of speaking truth to power, from challenging an MP on the Iraq Invasion, to teaching Pakistani women and children about the importance of voting. I grew up not knowing the language to describe who I am. It was only when studying at the University of York that I really understood who I was – a human rights defender. From delivering a petition to 10 Downing Street to protest human rights violations in occupied Kashmir, to getting my facial palsy awareness campaign broadcast on British TV, I knew I was the kind of campaigner who did not see proximity to an issue as the sole reason for campaigning. What led me to come out in front of international media as non-binary to then-President Obama in April 2016? It was the fact that people in states like North Carolina were being faced with the prospect of proving their gender before going into public restrooms. I stood with them – and it made all the difference. Obama issued guidance to all public schools in America. I got the UK Civil Service to reform their graduate scheme to be trans-inclusive. I was in every newspaper and on the well-known news channels in the country, and abroad. Yet, I was asked if I have a womb live on air. I was asked if I was a chair, an inanimate object, on radio. I was sent death threats, as well as letters of encouragement, and was harassed by strangers who were paid to cause me grief. I come from a family which has faced many struggles. My dad was subject to human rights abuses as a migrant worker in Saudi Arabia. My family faced racism and prejudice when moving to the UK. I did not feel as though it is my place to feel upset at the vitriol I was facing. When I met Nepali migrant workers in Malaysia, their stories resonated with me, as did their determination to just move on. That is something that people around me did not always understand – and yet, studying human rights defenders as part of my LLM with the Centre for Applied Human Rights spoke to me. People don’t see themselves as human rights defenders, especially when their trauma is enveloped within the very thing they’re fighting for. My campaigns have focused on getting those who aren’t immediately affected by an issue to engage with it. That’s what drives me. I want people to understand how to make space for human rights defenders in a shrinking civil society space. I want organisations to be aware of how to keep us safe and mitigate risks, whilst empowering us with the resources we need. I want my work to not be about me – I want my work to be about us. I want us to be able to fight for our rights, and have people who are willing to learn standing beside us. Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer. Essential Website Cookies These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features. Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, you cannot refuse them without impacting how our site functions. You can block or delete them by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. Google Analytics Cookies These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience. If you do not want that we track your visist to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here: Other external services We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page. Google Webfont Settings: Google Map Settings: Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Sandra Kim is the Founder and CEO as well as the Co-Publisher of Everyday Feminism. Launched in June 2012, Everyday Feminism has become one of the most popular feminist digital media sites in the world, with over 4.5 million monthly visitors from over 200 countries and a team of over 40 writers. EF takes an intersectional approach to feminism, addressing the daily issues people face around gender, sexuality, race, class, and more, and how we can create change in our lives and our communities. As a person of color from an immigrant family, Sandra is committed to an intersectional feminism that focuses on personal and social liberation for everyone. She’s also pioneering an innovative online business model for feminism and social justice to make this work sustainable for activists. Sandra brings a wide range of approaches and skills to Everyday Feminism from her experience working with trauma survivors, healing and personal transformation, social change work, and life coaching. She is also a board member of Brown Boi Project, which is a community of masculine of center womyn, men, two-spirit people, trans men, and our allies committed to transforming our privilege of masculinity, gender, and race into tools for achieving racial and gender justice. Sandra believes in living a life you love while creating social change in the world. So in addition to her work, she spends time knitting, gardening, and training in martial arts and parkour. Connect with her on LinkedIn, read her articles, or book her for speaking engagements. Read more about her bio. Derek Ellerman is the Co-Publisher of Everyday Feminism, focusing on organizational strategy and overseeing site development, traffic optimization, and revenue generation. As a bi-racial, genderqueer Buddhist, he strives to fuse the radical acceptance of Buddhism with the anti-oppression lens of intersectional feminism to shape both his personal practice and professional work. He co-founded and co-directed Polaris, a leading international nonprofit organization combating modern-day slavery. He also currently serves as Board Chair of Groundswell, a national organization building new models for economic organizing in the clean energy economy. At age 26, Derek was elected as an Ashoka Fellow, joining the global association of social entrepreneurs as the youngest U.S. Fellow at the time. When not working on various start-ups (or dreaming up new ones), Derek is usually listening to history podcasts, cooking Chinese food, trying out new hobbies, or rambling in the backwoods of his home in West Virginia. Read more about his bio. Melissa A. Fabello – Co-Managing Editor Melissa A. Fabello is the Co-Managing Editor of Everyday Feminism. She is also a sexuality educator, eating disorder and body image activist, and media literacy vlogger based out of Philadelphia. Melissa holds a B.S. in English Education from Boston University and an M.Ed. in Human Sexuality from Widener University, where her focus was in the media’s perpetuating of societal myths and how it affects healthy sexual development in adolescent girls. She is currently working on her PhD, researching the relationships between eating disorders and psychosexuality and how intervention education is meeting patient needs. Melissa also hosts a YouTube channel, where she makes videos about gender, media, and body image. In the past, Melissa has also done extensive work for The National Eating Disorders Association, HollaBack!, Adios Barbie, The Representation Project, and Laci Green’s Sex+ community. She enjoys rainy days and tattoos, is a Jurassic Park enthusiast, and Taylor Swift is her problematic fave. Melissa can be reached on Facebook or Tumblr. Follow her on Twitter @fyeahmfabello. Read her articles and book her for speaking engagements. Jezebel Delilah X – Co-Managing Editor Jezebel Delilah X is the Co-Managing Editor at Everyday Feminism. She is a queer, lush-bodied, Black, femme performance artist, writer, actress, educator, and Faerie Princess Mermaid Gangsta for The Revolution. She is also the Senior Editor for Black Girl Dangerous; Director of Training at Peacock Rebellion (QTPOC Activist-Artist-Healers); co-host of the queer/feminist Open Mic, Culture Fuck; Director of queer, Black, multi-disciplinary performance troupe, Congregation of Liberation; and one of the founding members of Deviant Type Press. She has performed in a wide variety of Queer and Queer People Of Color theatre projects and cabarets, and been a featured reader at literary events all over the Bay Area. She loves romantic songs, romantic films, romantic books, romantic conversations, romantic friendships, and writing long, vulnerable Facebook statuses (about romance). Speaking of Facebook, please add her here. Josette Souza – Program Associate Josette is the Program Associate at Everyday Feminism. She’s a working-class, Afro-latina, first-generation college graduate hailing from semi-rural central Florida and is completely elated that her first full-time job in the US out of college is at an organization as phenomenal as Everyday Feminism. Just after receiving her newly-minted BA in Africana Studies from Brown University in May 2014, she worked for the Latinegr@s Project as a Digital and Social Media Intern, began her current position as the Social Media Coordinator at Africa Educates, and taught English in Guanajuato, Mexico (where she soaked up the sun, ate her weight in avocados, and made strides towards her goal of making friends with the Zapatistas). Her favorite things in the world are Black liberation; intersectional feminism; living with a love ethic; combining positivity/spirituality with revolutionary politics; her adulthood home of Providence, RI; and offering her condolences to the people who failed to bring her down by telling her that getting a degree in Africana Studies would mean never getting a good job. Maisha Z. Johnson – Digital Content Associate and Staff Writer Maisha Z. Johnson is the Digital Content Associate and Staff Writer of Everyday Feminism. She’s a queer black writer and a creative facilitator who uses tools like blogging, social media, and unattended microphones to be super loud about her passion for social justice, even though she’s an introvert. Maisha is also an apprentice editor with Black Girl Dangerous and a blogger for Pyragraph, and she facilitates empowerment groups with incarcerated women as part of Fired Up!, a program of California Coalition for Women Prisoners. Through her own project, Inkblot Arts, Maisha taps into the creative arts and digital media to amplify the voices of those often silenced. When she’s not doing this work, you can probably catch her writing feminist, kink-positive erotica under a secret pen name, or pet sitting, which is really just an excuse to feed her obsession with animals. Connect with Maisha by reading her blog or following her on Twitter @mzjwords. Read her articles here. Adrian Ballou – Contributing Writer Adrian Ballou is a genderqueer writer, artist, activist, and educator. They graduated cum laude from the transmisogynistic Smith College in 2011, and they have spent the past several years doing youth development work both inside and outside the classroom. They particularly enjoy developing and delivering curriculum on social justice education and youth organizing. In their free time, they cook lots of food, sing songs, make art, and practice their Spanish, Hindi, and Urdu. Read their articles here. Akilah S. Richards – Contributing Writer Akilah S. Richards is a six-time author, digital content writer, and lifestyle coach who writes passionately about self-expression, womanhood, modern feminism, location independence, and the unschooling lifestyle. She is a storyteller who believes in the power of expressed personal narrative and deep self-acceptance as tools for authentic self-expression and community enrichment. Her works have been featured in national magazines such as Essence, Real Simple, and Rolling Out, and on several digital media sites including RollingOut.com, TinyBuddha.com, and AtlantaBlackstar.com, among others. Connect with Akilah on Instagram, Tumblr, or her #radicalselfie e-home, radicalselfie.com. Read her articles. Aliya Khan – Contributing Writer Aliya Khan is a feminist, activist, and life-long learner. She received her BS in Psychology from Indiana State University and her MA in Psychology from Chatham University. In Pittsburgh, she provided crisis support to survivors of abuse at the Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh. She also worked with adolescents and young adults on developing activism and media literacy skills. She is currently studying Counseling Psychology and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Oregon. She is actively involved in Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon and is passionate about promoting reproductive justice. Aliya is also a co-founder of Empowertainment, a blog focused on gender, media, and mental health. When she’s not fighting the patriarchy, she is trying to outscore her bowling average and acclimating to the Pacific Northwest one donut shop at a time. Read her articles here. Alli Kirkham – Contributing Comic Artist Alli Kirkham is a blogger, cartoonist, and intersectional feminist. She is passionate about affirmative consent, sexual autonomy, and the destruction of gender roles, and through her cartoons is an advocate for chronically ill and mentally ill communities. Alli earned a BA in English Literature from Cal Poly Pomona in 2011 and uses it as an excuse to blog about books while swearing a lot. When she isn’t cartooning for Everyday Feminism or cursing at popular fiction, she posts cartoons and other silly things on her Tumblr. Check out her comics here. Ally Boguhn – Contributing Writer Ally Boguhn is a feminist activist and media researcher living and working in Washington, DC. She completed both her B.A. in Communications and Art History as well as her M.S. in Professional Communications at Clark University, where she researched abortion debate rhetoric. Ally is also the founder and editor of Because I am a Woman, a blog devoted to intersectional feminism and reproductive justice. In her spare time, you can find her at an art museum, consuming massive amounts of coffee while writing, or trying to convince her cat to go for walk. You can follow Ally on Twitter @AllyBoguhn. Read her articles. Amy Sun – Contributing Writer Amy Sun is a life-long educator and proud feminist. She is originally from south Florida, but she likes to pretend she is from Hawai’i. After graduating from the University of Miami (Go Canes!) with a major in Child Psychology, she taught middle and high school mathematics in Hawai’i. Amy earned her Masters in Education from the University of Hawai’i and her Masters degree in Women’s Studies from the George Washington University. Although her life’s passion is in gender and education, Amy’s interests also include street harassment, the APIA community, transgender* rights, and the ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) phenomena. She currently lives in DC and rues cold weather. Amy coaches new teachers in the classroom by day and teaches graduate-level classes for Masters of Education candidates by night. She watches at least two cat videos each day, loves to talk about zombie apocalypse escape plans, and needs to get paid for her people-watching (because she is very good at it). Read her articles. Anna Bongiovanni – Contributing Comic Artist Anna Bongiovanni is a genderqueer cartoonist, zine-maker, and educator living in Minneapolis. They draw comics on gender, feminism, and queer issues. Besides Everyday Feminism, they also draw monthly comics for Autostraddle. A graduate in Comic Art from Minneapolis, they are currently working on their second graphic novel. More of their art can be seen on their blog. Check out their comics here. Andrew Hernann – Contributing Writer Andrew Hernann is a public anthropologist and teacher. He is completing his PhD in cultural anthropology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and he adjuncts at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY) and Baruch College (CUNY). Andrew bases his research out of West Africa and the Sahara, working on issues of human rights, labor and religion. In his spare time, you can find Andrew placating his dog, Pip, who he’s convinced is an evil genius. You can follow him on Twitter @AndrewHernann. Read his articles. Ashley Truong – Contributing Writer Ashley Truong is a queer diasporic Vietnamese womxn. She graduated this spring with a double degree in English and Asian American Studies. She doesn’t know when exactly she became a feminist, just that she learned about it through social media and thought, “Wow, this explains so many things about my life.” She believes that feminist activism — as well as any other kind of activism — must be done with compassion. As such, she strives to remember the people who are affected by all the oppressive events happening, and to make sure that their needs, not outrage, comes first. When she’s not philosophizing about this at length, she’s reading, taking long walks, or cooing over all the dogs who cross her path. Read her articles here. Carmen Rios – Contributing Writer Carmen Rios splits her time disparately between feminist rabble-rousing, writing, public speaking, and flower-picking. A professional feminist by day and overemotional writer by night, Carmen is currently Communications Coordinator at the Feminist Majority Foundation and the Feminism and Community Editor at Autostraddle. In the past, she’s blogged for the SPARK Movement and served as a Mic writer and Managing Editor of THE LINE Campaign blog. Her successful work for over five years in digital feminism – ranging from Hollaback!’s successful launching Kickstarter campaign to the viral #EducateCoaches petition on Change – has earned her the titles of “digital native,” “intimidating to some,” and “vapid and uninteresting.” Carmen is mother to the most adorable dog on Earth and hates paying more than one dollar for a good slice of pizza. You can follow her on Twitter @c_rios and Tumblr to learn more about her feelings. Read her articles here. Christine Deneweth – Contributing Comic Artist Danica Johnson – Contributing Writer Danica Johnson is the Communications Manager at the Coalition on Human Needs, an alliance of national organizations working together to promote public policies which address the needs of low-income and other vulnerable populations. Social justice has always been a central focus for Danica with her starting to campaign on pro-worker union issues at the tender age of eight. Now living in Washington, DC, this West Coast native uses her free time to write for her blog Duckyfem, practice yoga, read, work on her photography, travel, and try new restaurants. Having grown up on a farm, she also tries to spend as much time with animals and in nature as possible. Danica has a BA in History with minors in Political Science and Spanish from UCLA. Follow her on Twitter @duckyfem. Read her articles. Denarii is a poor, fat, polyamorous, bisexual, agnostic theist, African-American cisgender woman with multiple disabilities in her late twenties. A native New Yorker, she has been involved in social justice activism in some capacity since her days as a queer student leader at Rutgers University (New Brunswick). It was there, as an English major, that she first discovered various aspects of social justice, including Black, queer, and women’s liberation. She left college without graduating and spent three years as an employee with Target Corp., where her passion for workers, unions, and labor secretly grew. She has also become a fierce advocate for the fat acceptance movement, after discovering the “Health at Every Size” (HAES) philosophy and intuitive eating a few years ago. She finally graduated with her BA in 2011, and the next year she began a graduate program in Adolescent Education at Pace University (NYC). She has two years of a Master’s under her belt, but due to financial constraints has yet to receive her degree. Denarii is a syndicated writer for BlogHer.com and an aspiring screenwriter with a passion for youth and young adults. She is a part-time domestic worker to help make ends’ meet while continuing to job hunt. Denarii is also currently applying to multiple screenwriting competitions and labs in the hopes of getting her radical ass in the door. She loves eggnog, wine, horror films, and Hanson (yes, Hanson). She loves to laugh, dismantle oppression through art, and make all kinds of love.You can follow her on Facebook and Twitter @writersdelite. You can read her previous essays here, here, and here. And you can read her Everyday Feminism articles here. Ellen Friedrichs – Contributing Writer Ellen Friedrichs is a health educator, sometime writer, and mom. After doing a BA in Women’s Studies in her hometown of Vancouver, Ellen moved to New York where she did a Master’s degree in Health and Human Sexuality Education. Since then, she has worked at Manhattan’s Museum of Sex, developed sex education curricula in Mumbai, India, and run HIV prevention programs for at-risk teens in the South Bronx. Currently, Ellen teaches human sexuality at Brooklyn College (something she also did at Rutgers University). For the past eight years, her main gig has been coordinating the middle and high school health education program at a school in Brooklyn. Ellen also runs About.com’s LGBT Teens site. Before that, she wrote for Planned Parenthood’s teen website and blogged about sex education for gURL.com. More of Ellen’s writing can be found here. In addition to work-related projects, Ellen spends a lot of time with her 8- and 5-year old kids, tries to find time to run, and dreams of learning another language. Follow her on Twitter @ellenkatef. Read her articles. Erin Tatum – Contributing Writer Erin Tatum is a recent graduate of the University of California, Berkeley with a major in film and a minor in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender studies. In addition to Everyday Feminism, she’s also a weekly contributor to Bitch Flicks. She hopes to pursue further graduate studies in gender and sexuality. She is a complete television junkie because she’s fascinated with how marginalized identities (particularly gender, sexuality, and ability) are portrayed in media. She hopes to one day work in television or media with the aim of diversifying representation. Follow her on Twitter @ErinTatum91 and read her articles. Jamie Utt – Contributing Writer Jamie Utt is the Founder and Director of Education at CivilSchools, a comprehensive bullying prevention program, a diversity and inclusion consultant, and sexual violence prevention educator based in Minneapolis, MN. He lives with his loving partner and his funtastic dog. He blogs weekly at Change from Within. Learn more about his work at his website here and follow him on Twitter @utt_jamie. Read his articles here and book him for speaking engagements. Jenika McCrayer – Contributing Writer Jenika McCrayer is a Virginia native and has a BA in Women and Gender Studies from The College of William and Mary. She is currently pursuing an MA in the same field. This AmeriCorps alumna is passionate about community service and strives for a better understanding of how to mobilize marginalized populations through service and activism. Jenika also enjoys good books, bad horror films, naps, and the beach. Follow her on Twitter @JenikaMc. Read her articles here. Jon Greenberg – Contributing Writer Jon Greenberg is an award-winning public high school teacher in Seattle who has gained broader recognition for standing up for racial dialogue in the classroom — with widespread support from community — while a school district attempted to stifle it. Privileged in nearly every way possible (with the exception of hair privilege), he has long dedicated his teaching career to social justice and civic engagement. Before joining Everyday Feminism, his writing had been published in The Seattle Times and Understanding and Dismantling Privilege. To learn more about Jon Greenberg, visit his website. You can also follow him on Facebook and Tumblr. He has presented at numerous universities and social justice conferences, including the White Privilege Conference. Book him for speaking engagements here. Follow him on Twitter @citizenshipsj. Read his articles here. Kaila Prins – Contributing Writer Kaila Prins is a health coach living in Silicon Valley who works with women who are ready to stop “recovering” from disordered eating and start “discovering” their true identities. A former anorexic and exercise addict herself, Kaila knows intimately the cycle of restrict-relapse-repeat – and while she believes that recovery from an eating disorder is a mixture of consciousness and chemicals, which requires nourishing your body and your soul – too many women get caught up in the food and forget to find themselves. Kaila writes on eating disorders, body image, and recovery at inmyskinnygenes.com, and she hosts a weekly podcast called Finding Our Hunger, where she and her co-host interview the “experts” in fitness, nutrition, and body love to unpack their bags and unashamedly air what they find inside. She also counts characters and not calories on Twitter @MissSkinnyGenes. Read her articles here. Kaylee Jakubowski – Contributing Writer Kaylee Jakubowski is a trans, queer feminist who prides herself on being an educator on issues of queerness and gender. She is in her last semester at Winona State University in Minnesota pursuing a B.S. in Statistics with a minor in Women’s & Gender Studies. She is currently volunteering at the Women’s Resource Center of Winona answering the domestic violence/sexual assault crisis line and creating a database and quarterly statistics report for the center. Kaylee prides herself on being both an educator and a tough-as-nails activist in her campus and community and wants to work as a statistical researcher to begin gathering data and spreading education on trans* folks. She is also in the process of writing a book that will formally organize and explain gender philosophies within the trans community. Feel free to add her on Facebook, follow her on Tumblr and her personal blog, or see what she’s up to musically. Read her articles. Kel Kray – Contributing Writer Kel Kray is a fiercely friendly social justice warrior who spends their days advocating with and on behalf of queer youth at an LGBTQIA+ youth center in Philly. A firm believer in the transformative power of dialogue, Kel coordinates a youth-driven education and training program that facilitates community workshops on gender and sexuality with an intersectional lens. A righteous product of the Midbest, Kel earned a Bachelor of Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Master of Social Work at the University of Pennsylvania. When not shaking a fist, Kel can be found wearing printed leggings, eating a hearty casserole, and doing a crossword while their snugglebuddy Tum Tum Geraldine naps on their lap. Follow Tum Tum on Instagram @peeping_tum. Read Kel’s articles here. Kris Nelson – Contributing Writer Kris Nelson is a trans, queer, neurodivergent witch trying to make their way in LA. They hold a BA in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies from the University of Vermont, where they were heavily involved in on campus activism, including becoming one of the co-founders of UVM C.U.N.T.S (College Undergrads Not Tolerating Sexism). Post-graduation, Kris has been immersing themselves in the Aridian Tradition of Italian witchcraft and continuing to explore the ways their faith, practice, and politics intermingle. Kris also runs an online store by the name of Spell-Bound, where they sell handcrafted wire work jewelry, crystal pendants, hand sewn tarot bags, and pendulums. You can find their poetry here and their general Tumblr presence here. Read their articles here. Laura Kacere – Contributing Writer Laura Kacere is a feminist activist and organizer, grad school student, clinic escort, and yoga instructor living in Chicago. Laura is dedicated to doing work that supports the trans* community, challenges the prison industrial complex, and removes all barriers to abortion access. Since receiving her undergraduate degree in Women’s Studies at the University of Iowa, Laura has done restorative justice and support work in Iowa’s women’s prison, then moved to Washington, D.C. where she organized students around abortion access through the Feminist Majority Foundation, co-coordinated the Washington Area Clinic Defense Task Forceand did outreach for the sex worker support organization, HIPS. She recently moved to Chicago to study at Adler University, where she studies mental health from a social justice perspective, organizes with Students for Justice in Palestine, and works for the Institute on Social Exclusion. When she isn’t face-deep in textbooks, she’s usually thinking about zombies, playing music, eating Lebanese food, and wishing she was surrounded by trees. Follow her on Twitter @Feminist_Oryx. Read her articles. Marina Watanabe – Contributing Vlogger Marina Watanabe is a vlogger, blogger, overenthusiastic tweeter, college student, and creator of catchy literary tees. Marina identifies as mixed-race Japanese-American, a cisgender woman of color, a feminist, and a Gryffinclaw. She is particularly passionate about speaking of issues of sexual harassment and rape culture, overlapping intersectional identities, and fighting mental health stigma. Her other passions include putting off responsibilities and being sarcastic on all social media platforms. Marina is currently majoring in Women’s Studies at Sacramento State and hopes to continue using social media as a tool to discuss and raise awareness for feminist and social justice issues. Aside from creating video content for Everyday Feminism, she hosts a YouTube series called Feminist Fridays that explores the social, the political, and the media from a feminist and intersectional perspective – and uses a lot of F-words. She also runs a Tumblr called Everyday Harassment that serves as a safe space for women and members of marginalized groups to share their stories and educate others on the nature and frequency of sexual harassment. Check out her Tumblr, or follow her on Twitter @marinashutup. Check out her videos here. Michal ‘MJ’ Jones – Contributing Writer Michal “MJ” Jones is an awkward, Black, non-binary queer educator, activist, and musician writing to you from Oakland, CA. They’re hella into building spaces for queer and trans* youth of color, practicing kindness, using education as a tool of liberation, and making the personal political. They earned their BA in Sociology from Sonoma State University, where they served as president of the Queer Straight Alliance and advocated for students of color. They went on to earn an MA in Student Development Administration from Seattle University and remain committed to improving access and retention to higher education. Listen to their music or read more of their work. Follow them on Twitter @JustSayMJ and read their Everyday Feminism articles here. Milo Todd – Contributing Writer Milo Todd is a freelance writer and journalist. He holds a double BA in Philosophy and Gender Theory with focuses in feminist phenomenology, queer phenomenology, and post-positivist realism. Milo otherwise writes LGBTQ-esque fiction and likes to pretend it’ll make him rich and famous. He is a judge in the YA branch of the 2014 Bisexual Book Awards. Read his articles here. Patricia Valoy – Contributing Writer Patricia Valoy is a Dominican women’s rights advocate and a trained Civil Engineer. She combines her experiences as a Latina and an engineer to advocate and inspire girls considering careers in the fields of STEM. Patricia also speaks and writes on a variety of issues affecting the Latin@ community including safe abortion access, racism, immigration, cultural and religious pressures, and living at the intersection of two cultures. Most of her writings can be found on her blog Womanisms, or at Flyover Feminism and Sex and Fessenjoon. Patricia was formerly a host at Let Your Voice Be Heard! Radio where she spoke about political and social issues. Follow her on Twitter@Besito86. Read her articles or book her for speaking engagements. R. Nithya – Contributing Writer Nithya lives in New Delhi, India. She has a Bachelor’s in Journalism and a Master’s in Political Science. She worked as a reporter with an online political news and analysis magazine before deciding to step out of her comfort zone to try on new things. Her interest in feminism began during her teenage years when she struggled with low self-confidence, and today that interest knows no bounds. She wants to be able to guide struggling teenage girls through their own journey, and she believes that the few workshops that she manages to run every now and then are a good place to start. She enjoys engaging in conversations on politics, feminism, and spirituality (but is easily annoyed when people mistake spirituality for religion and tell her how cool their god is and what she is missing out on). She loves reading books, writing letters to her loved ones and practicing gratitude. Learn more about her work on her website or follow her on Twitter @rnithya26. Read her articles. Rachel Kuo – Contributing Writer Rachel Kuo is a scholar and educator based in New York City. She is in her last semester of the Media, Culture, and Communications M.A. program at New York University, studying race, activism, and digital media. With a focus in higher education and nonprofits, her professional background is in designing social justice curriculum, building media literacy, and developing communications strategy. Currently, she works full-time at NYU’s Center for Multicultural Education and Programs. Learning and engaging in social justice from an intersectional and multi-issue perspective, Rachel’s writing and research interests include transformative justice, sex and sexuality, food justice and health disparities, transracial solidarity building, and media justice. She also loves learning about animals (especially dinosaurs and marine life), watching Chopped while ellipticalling, and eating any and all noodle varieties. You can follow her on Twitter @rachelkuo. Read her articles here. Rahel Neirene – Contributing Writer Rahel Neirene is a Black Queer Femme from the South focused on forming and studying connection and the actions and art that can be created around it. She is passionate about Black women and other women of color sharing their stories of self-evolution, empowering women to embark on journeys of radical self exploration and reflection. She believes that forms of self-love and self-care are acts of social justice. When Rahel isn’t talking with her loves (friends) and community about the importance of love and connection, she is building intimacy with her people through food, creation of music and other art forms, and laughter. Read her articles here. Rebecca John – Contributing Writer Rebecca John is a writer and thinker who recently graduated from university. Freshly out of the academy, she is happily rejecting the academic industrial complex and spending her time immersed in movements for social justice. She is interested in the intersection of media and justice and finds a home in online communities (especially feminist online communities). Hope is a critical component of her politics. She enjoys frequenting bakeries, recommending readings to her friends, and long, meditative subway rides. Follow her on Twitter @r0guebird. Read her articles here. Rhea Ewing – Contributing Comic Artist Rhea Ewing is a queer artist living in Wisconsin. Rhea is involved in a number of comic projects, including the monthly comics challenge site “The Radome” and a 350+ page nonfiction graphic novel about gender identity in the Midwest called FINE: A Comic About Gender. In addition to comics, Rhea is also a fine artist and explores themes of queer survival, ecology, and Midwest identity through drawing and printmaking. Rhea holds a BFA from UW Madison, two black belts, and occasionally interesting bits of string. You can find more of zir work at rheaewing.com and finecomic.com or connect on Twitter @finecomic. Check out zir work here! Robin J. Landwehr – Contributing Writer Dr. Robin J. Landwehr is a mental health counselor and an unapologetic feminist. She holds a Doctor of Behavioral Health degree from Arizona State University, a MS degree in Mental Health Counseling from Capella University, and is a licensed counselor in North Dakota and Florida. She is a National Certified Counselor through the National Board for Certified Counselors. Robin has worked in several areas, including domestic and sexual violence, substance abuse, homelessness, child abuse and neglect, mental health disorders, and health concerns that are affected by our behaviors. Follow her on Twitter @RobinLandwehr1. Read her articles. Robot Hugs (K) – Contributing Comic Artist K is a Canadian, non-binary, genderqueer, peoplequeer, mentally ill, critical feminist robot. They have a background in linguistics, information, privacy, and categorization, and human-centric design. They are the artist and writer for Robot Hugs, a twice-weekly webcomic about (among other things) gender, identity, feminism, mental health, and cats. In their spare time, they provide peer education and workshops on negotiation, consent, and identity. In their spare-spare time, their hobbies include worrying about things they can’t control and knitting. Check out their comics here. Ronnie Rene Ritchie – Contributing Comic Artist Ronnie Rene Ritchie is a comic artist, illustrator, and storyteller working out of Peterborough, Ontario. Since graduating from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon with a BFA in Illustration, Ronnie has had work featured in galleries and sex shops across North America, and their autobiographical webcomic, GQutie, has seen its popularity soar online. They are devoted to diverse narrative, whether that entails mindfulness of representation within their work, or making space for others to tell their own stories. Learn more about GQutie, Ronnie’s illustration, or follow them on Twitter @ronithebear. Check out there comics here. Sam Dylan Finch – Contributing Writer Sam Dylan Finch is queer writer, activist, and educator, based in the San Francisco Bay Area. A passionate feminist and social justice advocate, Sam explores topics such as transgender identity, mental health and illness, radical self-love, and queer feminism. Sam is particularly interested in impacting social change through personal narrative and memoir. As a transgender, bipolar queer, Sam draws from his lived experience with the hopes of educating others about his communities, and challenging the stigmas that surround his identity. In addition to being a Contributing Writer at Everyday Feminism, he also writes regularly for The Body Is Not An Apology and is the founder of Let’s Queer Things Up!. When he isn’t writing, he’s probably belting out a Mary Lambert song in the shower, or thinking up new ways to (lovingly) annoy his partner. You can find him on Twitter @samdylanfinch, Facebook, or learn more about him at his personal website. Read his articles here. Sara Alcid – Contributing Writer Sara Alcid is a feminist political organizer, writer, and speaker based in Washington, DC. Her activism and writing focus on rape culture, reproductive justice, economic justice, and queer rights. With an academic background in gender and sexuality studies, she bridges feminist theory and intersectional social justice organizing with the hope of making feminism accessible and empowering for all. Follow her on Twitter @SaraAlcid. Read her articles and book her for speaking engagements. Sara Whitestone – Contributing Writer Sara Whitestone is a third year student at the University of Cincinnati studying Biology with a minor in Women’s Studies. As a disabled feminist, Sara proudly advocates for accessibility issues and other students with disabilities at UC. She is founder and President of Sara Spins, a foundation dedicated to raising funds and awareness for students with disabilities. Sara’s an avid foodie and amateur yogi with goals of healing her chronic illness holistically. When she’s not making a complete mess of her kitchen or trying to keep up with her personal health blog, she enjoys taking naps on campus, attempting to be punny on Twitter @doubleosara, and searching for new street art downtown. Read her articles. Sarah Ogden Trotta is a feminist psychotherapist at a rape crisis center. She recently completed her Master of Social Work degree from University of Pennsylvania where she focused on clinical social work with survivors of trauma. She has worked previously at a domestic violence shelter and as an abortion doula. Her favorite self care activities include running, yoga, and snuggling with her dog and cat. Follow her on Twitter @xsogden. Read her articles here. Sian Ferguson – Contributing Writer Sian Ferguson is a queer, polyamorous, South African feminist who is currently studying towards a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English and Anthropology. Originally from Cape Town, she now studies at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, where she works as vice-chair of the Gender Action Project. She has featured as a guest writer on websites such as Women24 and Foxy Box, while also writing for her personal blog. Her areas of interest include examining the meaning and effect of Western privilege and attempting to understand the complex race relations that exist in post-apartheid South Africa. She is also passionate about investigating the gap between the liberal rights given to women and the LGBTIQAP+ community and their lived realities in her country. In terms of her activism, she’s particularly concerned with tackling rape culture, mental illness stigma and counterproductive forms of activism. In her free time, she crafts excessively, writes fiction, and indulges in the revolutionary practice of self-care. Follow her on Twitter @sianfergs. Read her articles. TaMeicka L. Clear – Contributing Writer TaMeicka (Meicka) L. Clear is a working-poor class, big bodied Black dyke from Texas, residing in Oakland, CA. Meicka is the Body Positive Coach, Spiritual Coach, and Community Organization Consultant of CLEAR Coaching and Consulting. Meicka is a program coordinator at a local career development non-profit and a member of the Black multi-disciplinary artist collective, Congregation of Liberation. She is a community educator and wellness practitioner using hood alchemy, emotional intelligence, and other spiritual arts, as well as formal education and training, to foster transformative and healing spaces for Black people living at varying intersections. Meicka’s loves are vibrant high top tennis shoes, ginormous earrings, the hood, and beloved community/family. Taté Walker – Contributing Writer Taté Walker is Mniconjou Lakota and an enrolled citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. After receiving her BA in English-Communications from Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO, Taté spent the next four years as a full-time daily newspaper reporter; in 2008, Taté threw her lot in with the social service sector, focusing on at-risk Native American youth and families, including voting rights, juvenile justice reform, and education. She earned her Master’s of Science degree in Nonprofit Administration in 2013 from the University of South Dakota to better serve families and communities most in need. In addition to her activism surrounding Native American and LGBTQI2A social justice issues, environmental protection, and domestic violence prevention and awareness, Taté currently works as a family advocate for a Colorado Springs area nonprofit and is also an award-winning freelance feature news writer, web designer, and photographer. She blogs at Righting Red, tweets @MissusTWalker, and can be contacted at www.jtatewalker.com. Read her articles or book her for a speaking engagement. Wiley Reading – Contributing Writer Wiley Reading is a Contributing Writer at Everyday Feminism. Wiley is a New Jersey-born artist, writer, environmentalist, and social justice advocate located in Burlington, VT. He works as a community health worker for the Greater Burlington YMCA, and writes for Disrupting Dinner Parties, a small collective feminist blog. In his free time, Wiley draws bugs and old buildings, loves every show on the Food Network, makes creative (read: pulled from the recycling) toys for his bunnies, and tipsily reminds every person in every bar that New Jersey is the best state. Follow him on Twitter @wreadinggo. Read his articles. - Amy Shaw - Cynthia Kane - Diana Bosnjak - Erin McKelle - Golda Poretsky - Jack Qu’emi - Jarune Uwujaren - Jessica Ann Mitchell - Kai M. Green - Kat Lazo - Katy Kreitler - Kelsey Lueptow - Lauren Rosenthal - Lauren Taylor - Maddie McClouskey - Mitch Kellaway - Paige Lucas-Stannard - Raquel Reichard - Shannon Ridgway - Dr. Venus Evans-Winters - Virgie Tovar

Sex positivity, like social justice, like self-care, is becoming a catch phrase that is being used sometimes loosely and without a multifaceted understanding of the phrase’s function. Frequently, sex-positivity is often used to categorize or define free spirited, and fun sexual behavior. I myself have used this word to describe my message around masturbation and its benefits to Black Womxn or to provide context to my nude art. Have you ever met someone who had been a total stranger and felt something brilliant and beautiful resonating from within them? So much that you allowed or invited this person to stay awhile in your home without knowing much about them at all? Most people probably haven’t outside of some exchange or couch surfer’s program because we live in such a state of fear and skepticism. Well, this is certainly not the case for me. I’m a non-binary human. I say that first and foremost because I think there’s this unspoken “radicalness” to it. People don’t necessarily want me to be honest about who I am…to exploit the lie that is the gender binary. Ultimately people are scared of what they don’t understand and I think for lots the binary has been this constant that they’re used to and are comfortable with through conditioning. I was 28 years old before I had a complete understanding of what is sexual coercion. I remember driving my grandmother to her general physician. There were pockets of pamphlets lined up on the wall talking about everything from pregnancy, to depression, exercising and other things. Among those pamphlets, there was one that read, “What is sexual coercion?” I grabbed it immediately and stuffed it into my purse to read later. I thoroughly enjoy sharing my experiences through Pretty Pink Lotus Bud. I can say without a doubt, this is my therapy and my path to freedom, so when others invite me or accept my request to share via their platform, I am excited and honored by this opportunity. I know sometimes my tribe and others who visit may not be aware of my guest features on other blogs, because there is just so much going on around the web. As my list of guest features grows, it’s not so easy for me to keep up with where I’ve be featured. When I initially got the idea for this series, I wrote out the topic, I love giving head, and as I read those words, I realized I’d never spoke them out loud before- knowing they are 100 percent true; knowing they have been true since my very first opportunity to give oral pleasure to a man. It’s not for everyone. Yet when you say these words out loud to others, this is precisely the assumption. It is automatically assumed that because you love giving head, you’d love to do it for anyone who asks, and Not so long ago, I was very confused about my spirituality. I wasn’t sure what to believe in. I knew that I did not believe in Christianity, Buddhism, and all of the other high profile religions. I didn’t even realize that religion and spirituality, although related, were two different things. I was lost at so many depths. I had no spiritual practices, no rituals, no formed (or forming) beliefs. I’d stopped going to church because once again, I didn’t believe in any of it. I felt like I was mocking other people’s beliefs by pretending to believe. I lived inside my head a lot and wanted no part of the life I was living. In all parts, I felt stuck. Do you love giving blow jobs? I certainly do, and over the next seven days (including this one) I would like to take you all on a journey through the conception, birth, growth and development of my pleasures in giving head in this Joys of Fellatio blog series. As with other things I publish here on my blog, my goal is that those reading will learn something new and insightful from my personal experience with oral sex and quite possibly awaken some new desire within themselves. We’ll, soon dive deep into the wonders and pitfalls of genuinely enjoying fellatio but first, this brief introduction: Today marks the kick-off of the very first, annual Summer 100 sex blogger blog challenge. The #summer100 blogging challenge is all about bringing the sex blogging community together, building content, and growing your blog’s online presence. We currently have thirty-two bloggers (and growing) participating in the challenge this year. summer 100 Pretty Pink Lotus Bud Presents sex blogger blog challenge Over the course of the summer, sex bloggers are being challenged to publish one-hundred posts between June 1st and September 1st. During the challenge we will each backlink one another and share ours and the posts of others on our social media platforms. I love giving head. Let me rewind a bit… I love penis. And I don’t only mean in a manner of sexual pleasure. I love the way it looks circumcised or uncircumcised. 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There have been so many medical advances when it comes to HIV and AIDS that such a diagnoses is no longer the death sentence it was once thought to be. Today, persons diagnosed with the virus can look forward to living long and prosperous lives. Am I right? You couldn’t be more wrong. From a perspective of physical health, that is true, because of medical advances, some persons diagnosed with HIV can live healthy lives. We’ve even made advanced steps towards prevention with PrEP (coming soon in generic form). For others, this is not so. From a social perspective, an HIV diagnoses can absolutely become a death sentence; one of shame, of guilt, and of discrimination. The stigma of HIV is now more dangerous than the actual virus itself. Not just to physical health, but psychological well being most of all.

by Ohenewaa Nkrumah On one of my last days at the University of Washington School of Medicine (UW SOM) before I took a leave of absence that was prompted by one racially violent incident after the other, I sat in class fighting back tears of frustration, humiliation, and anger. As a Black queer non-binary student studying in a predominantly white medical school where racism is prevalent, these emotions were familiar guests of mine. On that day, these emotions had been triggered by a white male child psychiatrist who was standing in front of the class, pointing his index finger in my direction, impatient with my “misbehavior.” Between his berating finger and condescending tone, he authoritatively communicated to me that he did not have the time to engage with my questions surrounding race. We (i.e. he) needed to move on. However, when a white student commented after me that the concerns of students of color should not be dismissed, the professor’s demeanor became more thoughtful and the finger of authority disappeared. The topic of the hour was Childhood and Adolescent Psychiatry. The child psychiatrist serving as our physician professor of the day was talking about children with Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD). According to the assigned chapter of the day, children with ODD were often angry and resentful, often argued with authority figures, and often refused to comply with requests from said authority figures. As the professor tactlessly put it in class, these children were “argumentative, snotty, difficult, challenging, and a pain in the ass.” The medical community was concerned that children with this “disorder” could go on to develop another one called Conduct Disorder, defined as “a pattern of behaviour in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate societal norms or rules are violated.” When I read that chapter and later as I sat in class, I was appalled by the lack of historical context provided about how these “disorders” have been used to justify the oppression of People of Color, queer folks, trans and gender non-conforming individuals, immigrants, and those who are disabled. At the very least, there should have been a discussion about how these diagnoses still contribute to the disproportionate criminalization of Black children and their unfair expulsions from academic institutions. We were being taught as medical students to pathologize behaviors that are expressed in marginalized communities in response to unfair systems of oppression and yet we did not have the time to talk about how such a practice perpetuates injustices and ill-health. When I named the concerns I had about the erasure of anti-black racism present in the disorders and also in the lecture itself, my attempt to center such a discussion in class was seen instead as disruptive. Like those “argumentative, snotty, difficult, challenging, pain in the ass children” with ODD who passed through this professor’s practice, I needed to be put in my place. I share this experience not because it is atypical/isolated but because it very much the norm at UW SOM. The pattern of racism is so rampant at this school that students of color struggle to find and retain a basic sense of wellness and safety. Some of us – like me – end up taking a temporary leave of absence. Others have to expand, taking longer to finish. Still others quit the program entirely as the racialized violence builds up and becomes too much to bear. The hostility we face at UW SOM from faculty, admin, and other students is steeped in history. Historically and to this day, white medical practitioners have been instrumental in the creation and perpetuation of oppressive systems that have justified colonization and enslavement of communities of color. From assigning arbitrary levels of humanity and worth to people based on racialized characteristics (i.e. the Black non-human savage fit to be criminalized and used as property vs. the white human intellectual who is to benefit from the labor of the savages), to creating mental diagnoses that have resulted in the mass institutionalization of communities of color, to constructing eugenics hypotheses and practices that have led to considerable genocide, to enacting rules and metrics that barred people of color from practicing medicine—the brutal history of white western medicine is endless This active maligning continues today and is most evident in the health and health-care disparities we see. For example, racial discrimination in housing, employment, college education, insurance access, and documentation status result in higher rates of morbidity from cardiovascular disease and diabetes among Black, Native American, and non-white Latinx communities – and these higher rates are further informed by explicit and implicit racism by medical practitioners who interact with patients from these communities. This historical context highly informs an institution like UW SOM that, while coercively built on Native land, is filled to the brim with white administrators, faculty, staff, and students who inject toxic whiteness and superiority into the learning environment. Since arriving at UW SOM, I have felt the weight of this toxic whiteness keenly. The curriculum from which I am taught often lacks a crucial racial analysis. Diseases and illnesses that are clearly informed by socio-economic factors are taught in a de-contextualized vacuum. In the rare instance that racial justice issues are centered, the teaching is still carried out in a way that is highly aggressive to students of color in the class. One of my first introductions to the racism inherent in the curriculum taught at UW SOM was from a lecture on the Tuskegee syphilis study. In this research project that spanned 40 years and that focused on African-American men with syphilis, the predominantly white medical practitioners who headed the study intentionally withheld treatment from the men. Instead of focusing on the racialized trauma present in the study and its ramifications on the African-American community, the professor spent most of that class time guiding us through the “ethics” of the study–as if the ethics of a set of actions that so deeply harmed a community was debatable. As a consequence of this de-contextualization, students were also not given the space to navigate the anti-Black biases we each hold that cause us to harm our patients nor did we focus on how this informs the distrust that black communities have of medical practitioners. I had the displeasure of sitting in this lecture again the next year. Despite critical feedback from the previous year’s students for changes to be made in how this study contextualized racism and accountability in the medical community towards Black patients, these changes were not made. This trend of de-centering and erasing racism-informed historical trauma from the medical school curriculum repeats over and over. As a Black student, I often feel like I am being taught to kill the very patients I came into medicine to serve. To counter this, I have had to fight every day at UW SOM for the type of medicine I want to practice. Class thus becomes a hostile zone for students of color where biases that the medical field already holds against the communities we come from are reinforced. As students of color at UW SOM become increasingly aware of the ways racist curriculum pushes us to become physicians who keep contributing to the harm patients of color face, we respond in various ways. Some of us disengage from the school, fragmenting and isolating ourselves so we can pass through the system. Others organize and push back for change. In my own organizing work in this school, I have come to realize how efficient the school is at swallowing up the labor SOCs expend while giving minimal positive change in return. After student activism efforts last year to call attention to the lack of support for students of color as well as the lack of framing around systems of oppression in the curriculum, the school rolled out a new course called “Ecology of Health and Medicine” with the purpose of addressing social justice issues. In an amazing example of the school recreating its toxic self, a white physician was appointed to lead this course and it was staffed predominantly with other white leads and facilitators. In my conversations with students of color taking this course, there is still rampant unaddressed macroaggressions. Students of color are thus checking out completely while white students are essentially being mobilized to go out into the physician world to enact their biases. This is how patients of color end up suffering in medical institutions. Yet in our push for change, students of color are often psychologically punished for our efforts. In a recent interaction with the administration where we were advocating for changes in admission policies that would address some of the racism inherent in the application process, we caused a stir when we took our concerns beyond Carol Teitz, the dean of admissions at the time who was unwilling to treat us as equals and to center our input. Carol Teitz informed us that in breaking rules of hierarchy, we were “unprofessional”, we were at risk of burning bridges, and that we were picking up skills to be problematic physicians to our patients. Among several other punishment tools, unprofessionality, bridge burning, and the prospects of bad physician-hood are constantly used as a form of control against us by admin and faculty – as if the only way of being “professional” is to meet the colonial and arbitrary white-dominant standards of occupying space; as if the bridges we are supposedly burning were ever even made for us and as if they do not burn us if we succeed on getting on them; and as if good physician-hood is defined by being compliant with a harmful system. The pressures and consequences of speaking out in this institution are immense and unless we play the game, support for us is truly minimal. The administration and faculty –are more invested in the comfort of white students than they are in the well-being of students of color. Indoctrination into this system, where power is protected and white tradition is maintained, feeds this cycle. White administration and faculty are invested in and socialized to protect white comfort. Admin and faculty of color, in attempts to navigate a space that is also toxic to them, invariably gate-keep and uphold the status quo. The overall effect is that students of color are not accounted for at UW SOM. We are daily aggressed and dehumanized yet we are expected to bear with it and be silent for the sake of white comfort and professionalism. Paul Ramsey–current dean of the UW SOM and CEO of UW Medicine–has been a key leader in perpetuating the racism that exists at this institution. In 2016, students of color put out a call to action for the institution to address the racism in its curriculum, admissions policies, faculty development workshops, and student support practices. At the urging of students, Paul agreed to a written and spoken mandate to work with “interested students, faculty, staff, and community members to take active steps to creating an anti-racist medical institution” that “acknowledges the histories and experiences of people of color, teaches about health inequalities and social determinants of health, and enables marginalized folks to thrive at this institution.” Ramsey’s first steps following that call to action was to implement an anti-racist action committee that ironically excluded key students of color who had first organized this call to action. After “benevolently” giving a charge to the committee to solve the school’s racism issues, he stepped aside for others to do the work. Under this benevolently oppressive leadership, the other deans of this school have then been woefully ineffective. For example, Leo Morales, the chief diversity officer has minimal relationships with students of color here and lacks the skills to direct anti-racism efforts–meaning even the diversity center in the medical school is not always a safe place for us. Suzanne Allen, the vice dean of academic, rural, and regional affairs still seems to struggle with the concept that students of color are more disadvantaged than white students and that equity requires resources to be divested from the privileged and re-invested in the marginalized. Anne Eacker and Raye Maestas, the deans of student affairs, despite hearing scores of traumatic stories from students of color, still coddle this institution and yet somehow come back to voyeuristically ask students for more stories and more labor about how to improve the learning environment. Michael Ryan, the dean of curriculum, while being in this position for a few years, has somehow remained ignorant of the concerns students have brought up and embodies to a startling degree the institutional amnesia that this school has around its racist practices. Meanwhile in maintaining silence and seeming passivity, Paul Ramsey acts as warden of a medical industrial complex where, instead of guns, students are armed with biases that kill patients of color, especially those who are Black, trans, queer, Indigenous, immigrants, Muslims, and or disabled. To break this cycle of silence and harm, I am hosting a sit-in at the Health Sciences Building at the UW SOM. The silence and deflection around the toxic racial climate at this medical school is unacceptable. For an institution that claims as its mission is “to provide service to underserved populations” and to embrace “inclusiveness, equity, and awareness”, it is unacceptable that students of color are suffering here. It is unacceptable that our histories and our communities are discounted and marginalized despite the countless hours of labor we spend trying to change this. This school wants us for our bodies and not for our minds. We should be celebrated for our core values, for the experiences we bring, and for the communities we uphold. Instead, we become numbers that fill up diversity quotas. This dehumanization is unacceptable and I ask members of the community who are invested in the health of marginalized populations to join me in holding this school accountable. I ask the city of Seattle and the Washington State legislature to hold this school accountable. I ask the Association of American Medical Colleges, the American Medical Association, and the National Medical Association to hold this school accountable. I ask the Liaison Committee on Medical Education to hold this school accountable. And finally, I ask those in power at the University of Washington School of Medicine to hold themselves accountable for the pain that students of color endure at this institution. This climate of violence and terror must end. Featured image DJ Martinez

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Every step Sam has taken in their transition has been inspired by their partner. But all along, Sam has been a little… stubborn. I was first exposed to transgender identities when I began dating my partner. They told me that they were non-binary and used they/them pronouns and at the time I really didn’t know what that meant. We met at the college cafeteria, where they worked. They would always come by my table and pretend to be cleaning it, all the while flirting shamelessly while I blushed and stumbled over my words. I began going to the cafeteria more and more often (despite the bad food) hoping that they were working that day. Now, we’ve been dating for a year and a half and together we have been navigating gender and transitioning. I decided that I needed to do some research in order to better understand and support my partner. The more I read about non-binary identities, the more I began to realize that it described what I had been feeling for so long. I was immediately afraid. I was raised and living in a conservative home and I knew that my parents would never accept me. Now that I knew that I was Agender, though, I could no longer ignore the feeling inside of me that I wasn’t really living as myself. My partner was instrumental to the start of my transition. They first suggested that I try out a binder. I was extremely stubborn and adamant that I didn’t want to. I’m not sure exactly why I was so against this. Looking back, I think I was probably afraid of the change, my parents finding out, and the reactions of everyone that I knew. Every night after my partner mentioned it, I googled “chest binders.” Reviews, photos, sizing, everything. And every night I grew more and more serious about getting one. Eventually, I picked one out and made arrangements to have it sent to my partner’s house so my parents didn’t see it come in the mail. I remember putting it on and looking in the mirror and beaming. My partner was so encouraging as they spent all day with me letting me try on their older more masculine clothes. It was perfect and the first real step I took in my transition. From that point on, my partner continually asked if I wanted to try out different pronouns. I said “no” over and over again. I figured that if I continued to go by she/her, then no one could hurt me by using the wrong pronouns. Late at night, I began googling different pronouns and their uses. Eventually, I asked my partner to begin using they/them pronouns for me. Again, I felt euphoric and happy beyond belief. Every small change made me feel more and more in line with who I knew I was. My partner one day lent me a book by Janet Mock called “Redefining Realness” in which she talks about her experiences and transition from the time she is a child until she is a young adult. The book sat on the desk in my room for weeks on end as I stubbornly refused to read it. I became more and more curious as time went on. I had memorized what the cover looked like and how the book felt in my hands. Eventually, I did read her book and it had a profound impact on me. I feel that I had a lot of similar experiences to Mock and I was so grateful to have the validation and support from that book. And so this pattern continued throughout my transition. My partner would mention things that I might like, such as shopping for masculine clothes, going to a barber, top surgery, getting a name change… Every time I’ve been adamant that I don’t want to do that. And every time I would stay up all night googling and learning as much as I possible until I was sure that it was what I wanted. My partner has been beyond important during my transition process. They have always been supportive and loving of me. Anything that I wanted – or did not want – to do with regards to my transition was totally okay with them. They would encourage me to learn about other options, but ultimately, I knew that the choice was mine and that I would be loved no matter what I chose. Second, they were always patient with me. I really took my time transitioning. I was afraid of changing, I was afraid of how people would treat me, and I was afraid of being “out.” It was so important to my growth that I never felt rushed into anything I was unsure of. Everyone transitions differently and at different speeds, and for me, it was extremely slow. To say that my transition process has been easy and smooth is about as far from the truth as it gets. But despite all of the hardship that has arisen from my coming out, I couldn’t be happier than I am today. I am forever grateful for my partner who has inspired me to be authentic as I continue my journey of self-discovery. There are many ways you can become a part of this nonbinary community and inspire others to be themselves: - Share your story by submitting a written / audio / video piece for this theme. - Support your blogmaster Micah with a small contribution. - Or send this to a friend – let them know you’re there for them no matter what. Now go and show the world how amazing you are!

|Featured Article | This article was the Featured Article of the Month, meaning it is one of the best articles on the wiki and the subject of this article won the award(s) of Best Featured Article of 2015 at the Mixels Wiki Fans' Choice Awards 2015! Mixels are a type of species and the titular protagonists in the Mixels franchise. Each Mixel is assigned to an element or theme which is divided into tribes, such as ice, electricity, rock, fire, and more. They live all throughout the Mixelverse. Their enemies are the Nixels, dark and uncreative creatures who want to ruin fun and creativity. Certain tribes have an unknown number of Mixels, at least over three or six of them. Mixels appear to be organic creatures, although the stylization of the show, as well as other aspects of the franchise, appear to imply that Mixels may have robotic skin and other inorganic elements. Mixels contain a skeletal structure, which is known to consist of legs and skulls. A diagram in Mixopolis General Hospital demonstrates that Mixels contain organs such as hearts. Chilbo and Rokit have visible brains, although the latter appears to be robotic. Mixels have a digestive system with elements such as organic tongues in varying colors, organic teeth and gums that can break and need to be replaced, and buttocks to remove waste. Mixels contain a circulatory system with lungs, evidenced by Orbitopia's oxygen dome, although Mixels have been shown to breathe normally in space. Mixels contain blood and are able to produce saliva. A Mixel can also contract illnesses. There is evidence to support the notion that Mixels are not fully organic creatures. Mixels appear to have shiny skin, almost like metal, and in the Klinkers' case, have various inorganic elements such as gears in addition to making robotic sounds as they move. Rokit's vision is shown to be akin to that of a targeting system, as shown through a Mix with Burnard. Nurp-Naut briefly mentions blowing "a gasket" to Burnard, although "blowing a gasket" can refer to choking or losing one's temper. Characteristics and Culture Mixels are all individually unique and come in a variety of sizes, shapes and colors. Some Mixels resemble animals, some have varying amounts of eyes, and others are completely unique creatures. Mixels have varying powers depending on their tribes, such as Electroids being able to shock themselves or others. Mixels often Mix, Max, or Murp to combine their powers into one. Mixels have varying intelligence, with some individual Mixels or tribes being primitive and animalistic. Mixels require sleep, with Lunk being an example of a particularly tired Mixel. Mixels are non-binary and individually present and use pronouns as they wish. The majority of known Mixels are male-presenting, although female-presenting Mixels do exist. Mixels are implied to reproduce in some form, as the Glowkies have a law handed down to them, as well as Dribbal mentioning his grandmother. Camillot is also the heir to his father's throne. Mixels' culture largely revolves around Mixing to solve everyday problems. Various Mixels work jobs with many Mixopolis tribes being based around one, and there appears to be a form of economy with the existence of Mucks as a currency. Mixels have a form of religion with a belief in the Maximum Mixel. NOTE: An asterisk (*) indicates the leader of the tribe. Two (**) indicates the secondary member. Three (***) indicate the tertiary member. The main race of Mixels on Planet Mixel. The Misical Muxels are a band in Calling All Mixels who put on concerts. What they look like, and their names, are unknown. - They love to combine anything they find in their land and also enjoy gaining new powers. - The LEGO sets are designed before the artwork, and are also used as reference for the animated models. - All Mixels have names that are puns of or derived from words that fit their personalities and appearances (such as Flain being a combination of "flame" and "brain", fitting both his smart nature and his fire element). - The Series 1 and Series 2 tribes' theme elements were opposite counterparts of each other (Infernite's fire and Frosticon's ice, Electroid's electricity and Flexer's rubber, and Cragster's rock and Fang Gang's plant matter). - Series 4 introduces Mixel tribes not based around elements, with the space-themed Orbitons. Later series would follow these ideas with their own tribe ideas. - Starting with the Klinkers, most tribes would be based around occupations. - According to Major Nixel, Mixels are at their weakest when they are on their own. - The only non-structure features all Mixels share are eyes. - One of the most common Mixel colors is yellow, as it has been used for four tribes. - Another extremely common color scheme is grey, brown, and gold, as it has been used for three tribes. - However, each tribe has minor differences in their main color that distinguishes them from each other. For instance, the Lixers' color scheme of yellow is closer to orange, the Electroids and Mixies each have a brighter shade, and the Weldos have a duller shade of yellow. - They temporarily turned against each other in A Quest for the Lost Mixamajig because they all wanted the Mixamajig for themselves. - The average Mixel is about twice the size of a regular LEGO minifigure, which may suggest the relation of size to an actual human. This may be because the Mixel builds are much more complex than the Minifigures, having as many as 74 pieces. - The Mixels were originally mentioned to grunt for speech, but Mixels seem to speak fluent English, with a few exceptions. - Most Mixels' hands are based on the "C" shaped hands of LEGO minifigures. - Nixel, Nixel, Go Away shows multiple of several Mixels, such as Kraw and Krog. It is likely this is an animation error or a lack of available character models for the given scenes. Behind the Scenes Name and basis The word "Mixels" is a play on the word "Mix", as the Mixels Mix to achieve goals. Mixels began development as LEGO Monsters, Cartoon Network was invited to see this new theme and took interest, LEGO and Cartoon Network began working on a new theme based of LEGO Monsters and created Mixels. Series 1 was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con International on July 22, 2013, with Flain, Seismo and Volectro. Silhouettes for various other Mixels were also shown off. Both LEGO sets and artwork were shown off. Series 4 was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con International on July 22, 2014, with Nurp-Naut, Globert and Burnard. Only LEGO sets were shown off. Series 7 was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con International on July 22, 2015, with Kuffs, Camillot and Jamzy. Only LEGO sets were shown off. Nine waves of Mixels sets were released throughout 2014 to 2016. Each wave contained nine Mixels and three waves were released in a year. - Main article: Mixels (creature)/Gallery Sources and References - The Mixel Invasion Has Begun! (Archive) - Scorpi & Torts Mix - Torts is shown to have a broken leg - Vaudeville Fun - A Gobba & Kraw Mix is seen holding a skull - Nixel, Nixel, Go Away - A chart depicting Burnard's anatomy is seen - Nixel, Nixel, Go Away - Tuth removes one of Voltz' teeth - Hot Lava Shower - Krader's buttocks are seen throughout the episode - Mixel Moon Madness - Flamzer is shown to breathe normally when Orbitopia's dome is shattered - Epic Comedy Adventure - Kraw's bloodshot eyes are seen - A Quest for the Lost Mixamajig - Gurggle refers to his worthiness being "in the blood" - Glomp's Gooey, Sneezy Cold! - Glomp is shown bed-ridden with a cold - A Quest for the Lost Mixamajig - All three Klinkers make metallic sounds as they move - Mixel Moon Madness - The Rokit & Burnard Mix's vision is robotic - Mixel Moon Madness - Nurp-Naut tells Burnard to slow down eating or he'll "blow a gasket" - Elevator - Balk's birthday party is celebrated - Pothole - Zaptor mentions both "young and old" Mixels - User blog:J.d. Sadler/J.D. On Mixles & Gender - Mixel Moon Madness - Don't Pull The Plug contains the lyrics "a law was handed down to us" - A Quest for the Lost Mixamajig - Dribbal claims his grandmother once had an Egg-Rock - Every Knight Has Its Day - Camillot's family is referenced throughout - Mixels Rush - Major Nixel tells King Nixel that the weakest Mixel is a lone Mixel

We believe strongly in the importance of an inclusive learning community, and support each student's pursuit of their goals. - Campus Resources - Local & National Resources - Support at 4-Year Institutions - Policies & Statements - Timothy St. James, Interim Dean of Students/Title IX Deputy, [email protected], (860) 253-3011 - Security: Monday to Thursday 7:00AM – 10:00PM, Friday: 7:00AM – 5:00PM, & Saturday 8:00AM – 4:00PM. Contact: (860) 253-3012 or (860) 253-3013 - Any members of the Sart Campus Resource Team - Student Pride Club contact Laurie Chancey at mailto:[email protected] For any questions regarding Title IX please contact Timothy St. James, Interim Dean of Students/Title IX Deputy at (860) 253-3011 or [email protected] GLBT National Help Center (24-hour hotline) Founded in 1998 by the creators of the Academy Award®-winning short film TREVOR, The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) young people ages 13-24. - TrevorLifeline – You can call the Trevor Lifeline to connect with a trained volunteer counselor who is ready to listen at 866-488-7386. - TrevorText– You can text message with a trained counselor on Fridays between 4:00PM and 8:00PM. Text the word “Trevor” to 1-202-304-1200. Standard text messaging rates apply. - TrevorChat – If you want to talk with a trained volunteer counselor online, visit TrevorChat. It’s a free, confidential chat service available 7 days a week from 3:00PM – 9:00PM. YWCA (sexual assault crisis service) Confidential 24-hour hotlines: - English 1-888-999-5545 - Spanish 1-888-568-8332 - Local (Hartford) 1-860-547-1022 To make an appointment, contact Amanda Carrington, College Advocate, at 860-215-8179. A non-profit organization that works with other social service agencies, schools, organizations, and within communities to ensure that the needs of sexual and gender minority youth are both recognized and competently met. UniTy of the Pioneer Valley (Springfield-area trans support group) UniTy of the Pioneer Valley is the Springfield, MA, transgender support group. Their meetings are held on the second Thursday of every month (Sept. – June) at 3300 Main St., Springfield, MA at 7:00PM. The Human Rights Campaign represents a force of more than 1.5 million members and supporters nationwide. As the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, HRC envisions a world where LGBT people are ensured of their basic equal rights, and can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community. A national transgender anti-violence organization, founded in 1994. Since 2009, they have been federally funded to provide direct services to transgender, gender non-conforming and gender non-binary survivors of sexual assault. GLAAD rewrites the script for LGBT acceptance. As a dynamic media force, GLAAD tackles tough issues to shape the narrative and provoke dialogue that leads to cultural change. GLAAD protects all that has been accomplished and creates a world where everyone can live the life they love. Asexual: Person who is not sexually attracted to anyone but can still experience/feel romantic attraction or aesthetic attraction. Bisexual: A person who is physically, and/or sexually attracted to two or more genders. This attraction does not have to be equally split between genders and there may be a preference for one gender over others. Cisgender: A person whose preferred gender identity matches the one designated to them at birth. Demisexual: A person who does not experience sexual attraction until they have a strong emotional bond with a person. Gay: 1) Term used in some cultural settings to represent males who are attracted to males in a romantic, erotic and/or emotional sense. Not all men who engage in “homosexual behavior” identify as gay, and as such this label should be used with caution. 2) Term used to refer to the LGBTQIA community as a whole, or as an individual identity label for anyone who does not identify as heterosexual. Gender: A societal construct based on the binary gender assigned at birth and expectations then expected based on that assignment. The state of being male or female (typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones): traditional concepts of gender. Gender Identity: Refers to an individual’s internal sense of gender. A person’s gender identity may be different from or the same as the person’s sex assigned at birth. Gender binary: The idea that there are only two genders-male/female or man/woman and that a person must be strictly gendered as either/or. Gender non-conforming: Gender identities that exist outside of the gender binary. Gender neutral: Suitable for, applicable to, or common to all genders. Not referring to either sex but only to people in general. Gender expression: How one represents or expresses one’s gender identity to others, often through behavior, clothing, hairstyle, body features and voice characteristics. Gender transition: Refers to the process in which transgender individuals begin asserting the sex that corresponds to their gender identity instead of the sex they were assigned at birth. During gender transition, individuals begin to live and identify as the sex consistent with their gender identity and may dress differently, adopt a new name, and use pronouns consistent with their gender identity. Transgender individuals may undergo gender transition at any stage of their lives, and gender transition can happen swiftly or over a long duration of time. Heterosexual: Pertaining to a person’s sexual attraction to the opposite sex within the gender binary. Homosexual: A person physically, and/or sexually attracted to members of the same sex. Intersex: Someone whose sex a doctor has a difficult time categorizing as either male or female. A person whose combination of chromosomes, gonads, hormones, internal sex organs,and/or genitals differs from one of the binary expectations. Lesbian: Relating to homosexual women or to homosexuality in women: a lesbian relationship. Origin: Late 19th century: via Latin from Greek Lesbios, from Lesbos, home of Sappho, who expressed affection for women in her poetry, + -ian. Pansexual: A person who is sexually attracted to people regardless of gender. Polyamorous: Refers to honest, usually non-possessive, relationships with multiple partners and can include: open relationships, polyfidelity (which involves multiple romantic relationships with sexual contact restricted to those), and sub relationships (which denote distinguishing between a “primary” relationship or relationships and various “secondary” relationships). Queer: A reclaimed word that was formerly used solely as a slur but that has been semantically overturned by members of the maligned group, who use it as a term of defiant pride. It is an umbrella term which embraces a matrix of sexual preferences, orientations, and habits of the non-exclusively-heterosexual-and-monogamous majority. Queer includes lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transpeople, intersex persons, asexuals, and other sex communities. Questioning: Someone who is unsure of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Sex assigned at birth: refers to the sex designation recorded on an infant’s birth certificate should such a record be provided at birth. Transgender: describes those individuals whose gender identity is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. A transgender male is someone who identifies as male but was assigned the sex of female at birth; a transgender female is someone who identifies as female but was assigned the sex of male at birth. Rainbow Center. University of Connecticut, LGBTQIA Dictionary. Sexuality, Orientation, Gender Identity & Expression Notice of Non-discrimination: Asnuntuck Community College does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religious creed, age, sex, national origin, marital status, ancestry, present or past history of mental disorder, learning disability or physical disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression or genetic information in its programs and activities. In addition, the College does not discriminate in employment on the basis of veteran status or criminal record. The following individuals have been designated to handle inquiries regarding the non-discrimination policies: Timothy St. James, Interim Dean of Students/Title IX Deputy, [email protected] (860) 253-3011 and Deborah Kosior, 504/ADA Coordinator, [email protected] (860) 253-3005, Asnuntuck Community College, 170 Elm Street, Enfield, CT 06082. Políticas Antidiscriminatorias: Asnuntuck Community College no discrimina por razones de raza, color, creencias religiosas, edad, género, nacionalidad, estado civil, ascendencia, historia presente o pasada de discapacidad mental o física, problemas de aprendizaje, orientación sexual, Identidad y expresión de género, o información genética, en sus programas o actividades. Adicionalmente Asnuntuck no discrimina individuos por razones pertinentes a la categoría de veteranos o historia criminal. Las siguientes personas han sido designadas para resolver cualquier inquietud pertinente a las políticas antidiscriminatorias: Timothy St. James, Interim Dean of Students/Title IX Deputy, [email protected] (860) 253-3011 and Deborah Kosior, 504/ADA Coordinator, [email protected] (860) 253-3005, Asnuntuck Community College, 170 Elm Street, Enfield, CT 06082.

Dr Beth Jones is a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology and teaches on a range of undergraduate psychology modules. She also supervises psychology undergraduate students. Alongside teaching, Beth also conducts research in the area of transgender health. She is especially interested in the health and well-being of this population. In 2013, Beth graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a BSc in Psychology. She then obtained her MSc in Health Psychology at the University of Nottingham in 2014. She completed her PhD in transgender health at Loughborough University in collaboration with the Nottingham Centre for Transgender Health in 2017. Beth then worked for a year as a Research Associate at Loughborough University on a project that aims to develop an intervention that can be implemented by charities delivering physical activity fundraising events, to support their participants in becoming regularly active. She is also working on a project relating to several aspects of transgender health. Beth's research interests include: - Mental health and well-being in the transgender population - Health inequalities - Body image and eating disorders - Health promotion through physical activity and exercise - Issue surrounding gender in competitive sport - Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy - Member of the Management Innovation Network for Gender Diversity and Well-being Beth is also an invited reviewer for various academic journals, including: Journal of Health Psychology, International Journal of Transgenderism, Sexual and Relationship Therapy, Body Image and European Eating Disorders Review Sponsors and collaborators Beth’s main collaborators are Prof Jon Arcelus and Prof Walter Bouman from the University of Nottingham. She has also worked internationally with Dr Tim van de Grift (Amsterdam University Medical Center), Dr Cecilia Dhejne (Karolinska Institutet), Dr Griet De Cuypere (Ghent University). Beth has also worked collaboratively with the Nottingham Centre for Transgender Health, Gendered Intelligence, Leicester LGBT center and Cancer Research UK.`` - Jones, B. A., Haycraft, E., Bouman, W. P. & Arcelus, J. (2018). Body congruence in non-binary identifying transgender people: A case control study of binary transgender people and cisgender people. International Journal of Transgenderism. Advance online publication. - Jones, B. A., Haycraft, E., Bouman, W. P. & Arcelus, J. (2018). The levels and predictors of physical activity engagement within the transgender population: A matched control study. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 15(2), 99-107. - Jones, B. A. Walter, B. P., Haycraft, E. , & Arcelus, J. (2018). Development and validation of a new scale to measure outcomes from transgender health services: the Gender Congruence and Life Satisfaction Scale (GCLS). International Journal of Transgenderism. Advance online publication. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/15532739.2018.1453425 - Jones, B. A., Haycraft, E., Bouman, W. P., Claes, L., Brewin, N. & Arcelus, J. (7%) (2018). Risk factors for eating disorder psychopathology within the treatment seeking transgender population: The role of cross-sex hormone treatment. European Eating Disorders Review, 26(2), 120-128. - Jones, B. A., Arcelus, J., Bouman, W. P. & Haycraft, E. (2017). Sport and transgender people: A systematic review of the literature relating to sport participation and competitive sport policies. Sports Medicine, 47(4), 701-716. - Jones, B. A., Arcelus, J., Bouman, W. P., & Haycraft, E. (2017). Barriers and facilitators of physical activity and sport participation among young transgender adults who are medically transitioning. International Journal of Transgenderism, 18(2), 227-238. - Jones, B. A., & Arcelus, J. (2017). Physical Activity and Sport Engagement in the Transgender Population. In: W.P. Bouman & J. Arcelus (Eds.). The Transgender Handbook – A Guide for Transgender People, their Families and Professionals (pp. 373-395). New York: Nova Publishers. - Jones, B. A., Brewin, N., Richards, C. Van Eijk, M. Stephenson-Allen, A., & Arcelus, J. (2017). Investigating the outcome of the initial assessment at a national transgender health service: Time to review the process? International Journal of Transgenderism, 18(4), 427-432. - Jones, B. A., Buchanan, H., & Harcourt, D.(2017). The experiences of older adults living with an appearance altering burn injury: An exploratory qualitative study. Journal of health psychology, 22(3), 364-374. - Arcelus, J., Bouman, W. P., Jones, B. A., Richards, C., Jimenez-Murcia, S., & Griffiths, M. D. (2016). Video gaming and gaming addiction in transgender people: An exploratory study. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 6(1), 21-29. - Jones, B. A., Haycraft, E., Murjan, S., & Arcelus, J. (2016). Body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in trans people: A systematic review of the literature. International Review of Psychiatry, 28(1), 81-94. - Health & Wellbeing

Oct. 21, 2016 — It only takes a few dedicated, passionate individuals to make moves that can ignite widespread social change. As former president of the UF HealthQueer Alliance, third-year College of Medicine student Ansley Schulte is devoted to spreading awareness and education about LGBTQ issues in health care. “It’s very easy to be scared and apprehensive about something you’re not familiar with,” she says. “There are a lot of gaps in health education when it comes to treating LGBTQ patients. It’s very dear to my heart that I receive good care, and my partner receives good care, along with everyone in the community.” Schulte is a recipient of both the Women in Medicine Leadership Scholarship and the Hugh and Mabel Wilford Scholarship. Women in Medicine is a not-for-profit organization that awards scholarships to LGBTQ female medical students who have demonstrated leadership for the LGBTQ community. The Wilford Scholarship was created in 2000 to assist medical students in financial need. She says these scholarships allow her to concentrate on what matters most. “It’s nice to be able to focus on community outreach work and school instead of worrying about how I’ll pay tuition,” she says. Schulte’s community outreach work includes founding a monthly LGBTQ Specialty Night at the Equal Access Clinic Network at Eastside on Waldo Road. Every third Tuesday of the month, UF medical students provide care for members of the local LGBTQ community. “It’s a good opportunity for students to have experience and to learn what kinds of care, if any, are going to be different for a trans patient,” she says. “And it’s a safe place for trans people to receive care.” She says besides being a networking tool for LGBTQ people within UF College of Medicine, the HealthQueer Alliance aims to reduce the amount of medical misinformation and health risks LGBTQ patients face. “Practice and exposure is what we’re aiming for,” she says. “There’s a lot of miseducation and ignorance. I’ve been lucky enough to receive good health care, but I know a lot of people who haven’t.” This month, the HealthQueer Alliance celebrates Trans Health Month with a series of workshops and panels. Topics include intimate partner violence, mental health, cultural competency and non-binary gender. Schulte also serves as director and facilitator for the College of Medicine’s diversity training program. Here she leads small group discussions on personal identity and interpersonal communication for first- and second-year students. “The culture of a medical school class is solidified quickly, so we want to inject a conversation about diversity early on,” she says. “They’re going to encounter patients and colleagues with different backgrounds, who believe different things. They need to be able to engage with those people.”

Whatever our origin, we must accept that sexual feelings play a great role in any people’s lives and relationships. It surely can bring a lot of pleasure when the mood and the time are right. Recognizing your romantic and sexual needs is an exciting adventure, and is also a real one. It can also be filled with hardship and confusion. There is no so-called right way to love when covering up the topic of one’s orientation. However, there is a lot of stigma around non-binary people which makes them feel shame for who they are and lie about their feelings, to themselves in particular. If you are a man and suspect you might be gay, first of all, give it a rest. Examine your thoughts and behaviors. Don’t rush it! Bear in mind, that there are a lot of different forms of attraction — romantic and sexual. You might consider the possibility that you are neither gay nor straight and are bisexual, asexual, or just curious. We are here to provide you with some tips on how to be honest with yourself and dispel doubts about whether your theories of you being gay are obvious or not. 1. Just because you dress, walk, or talk in a specific way does not tell you are gay. A common stereotype and a great lie. Sexual orientation has nothing to do with your general appearance, wardrobe, or your manner of speaking. A guy with a high-pitched voice is not necessarily gay, and a short-hair girl is not necessarily lesbian. It also applies to walking or dancing. A certain way of expressing yourself doesn’t make you gay. Ignore the stereotypes when figuring out your sexual preferences. 2. Who do you mostly examine in public? While you are out in public whether alone or with a friend, observe who tends to draw your eye. If you are gay, then you are more likely to notice people who are the same sex as you. Straight people tend to notice the opposite sex more, in general. If you think you notice both sexes roughly equally, you may pause it for a moment and consider the possibility you are bisexual or even asexual when it comes to terms of the way you observe. Being bisexual means you are attracted to either sex and being asexual means you are attracted to neither – sexually or romantically. To make this process easier, you can use a dating site for gays and find gay people faster in one place. 3. Identify your sexual preferences by examining your sexual fantasies. Sit or lie down and think for a moment what type of fantasies you used to experience in the past and what do you experience now? Notice who you tend to think about. If you often fantasize about same-sex relationships, you may be gay or bisexual. 4. Use protection if you decide to give it a try with a person of your sex. All that matters is that you are sexually intimate with a person you are comfortable with and that you really want to do it. Use a condom to protect both you and your partner from sexually transmitted infections (STIs). You are still at risk even if it is a same-sex option. Take note that even if you had a sexual experience with someone of the same sex or gender once or twice, it doesn’t mean you are gay. First and foremost, it is a sexual experience. Just analyze whether it was a pleasant one. 5. Identify your sexual preferences when you feel ready. You have to take your time to figure it all out. It is perfectly fine if it takes a while and if you tend to constantly change your mind about that. It is normal to experiment and question sexual preferences. As an example, you can come out as bisexual because you used to date both women and men. Ultimately, you might realize that you are more into guys or vice versa and stick to that one direction. In the end, the only person who gets to label your identity is you. You are the only one in power to do so no matter what other people suggest to you. And no matter what label you choose — it should be respected. And it doesn’t matter how old are you if you are mature and you know that you are gay, but don’t know how to find like-minded people, we have a solution for you – a dating site for mature gays. It is easy to register there and use. There are a few things you can do if you assume you are gay and want to come out: - Understand that there is no wrong side. Nothing is wrong with you or your orientation. The only wrong thing here is the intolerance you face from confused and lost people around. - Give people space and time to improve their reactions. They may realize their first impression on the topic was wrong. Let them know by sending a simple message that you are ready for conversation when they have had enough time to process all the things you said. - Surround yourself with supportive people. Whether they are your friends and family members or LGBT+ people you will meet online or in-person, try spending more time with them and it will certainly make you feel better. If you do not know where to find such people, then Meetville is the best answer; it is a great option for people who want to chat or even meet someone special no matter what orientation you identify as! Latest posts by Alex Glover (see all) - Lesbian Dating Tips: How to Flirt with the Girl You Like - November 27, 2020 - Adelaide: Unusual Romantic Date Ideas for Everyone - November 20, 2020 - How to Tell if You Are Gay (or Not) - November 13, 2020

Fantastic Beasts star Eddie Redmayne also spoke out, telling Entertainment Weekly that he disagreed with Rowling’s comments. “Trans women are women, trans men are men and non-binary identities are valid,” he said in a statement. “I would never want to speak on behalf of the community but I do know that my dear transgender friends and colleagues are tired of this constant questioning of their identities, which all too often results in violence and abuse. They simply want to live their lives peacefully, and it’s time to let them do so.” Days after J.K. Rowling made a series of transphobic tweets, Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has spoken out in defense of trans people. In a written response for the Trevor Project, the actor wrote that “transgender women are women,” a statement that stands in direct opposition to Rowling's recent views. Previously, Rowling tweeted an article that called attention to structural health care issues for people who have periods. Sharing the article, Rowling wrote, "I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?” Many on social media pointed out Rowling's error, noting that other people — such as transgender men and nonbinary people — can also menstruate (and that there are women who don’t). Rowling responded by continuing her series of anti-trans tweets, this time incorrectly conflating sex and gender. For his involvement, Daniel wrote that his response isn't intended to be seen as “in-fighting between J.K. Rowling and myself.” Rather, he said that he had felt compelled to say something. He said that questioning the gender validity of trans people “erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I.” “According to The Trevor Project, 78% of transgender and nonbinary youth reported being the subject of discrimination due to their gender identity," he continued. "It’s clear that we need to do more to support transgender and nonbinary people, not invalidate their identities, and not cause further harm.” Noting that he's still learning how to be a better ally to transgender people, Daniel pointed readers to additional resources. He then addressed longtime Harry Potter readers who had felt hurt by Rowling's comments. “I really hope that you don’t entirely lose what was valuable in these stories to you," he said. “If these books taught you that love is the strongest force in the universe, capable of overcoming anything; if they taught you that strength is found in diversity, and that dogmatic ideas of pureness lead to the oppression of vulnerable groups; if you believe that a particular character is trans, nonbinary, or gender fluid, or that they are gay or bisexual; if you found anything in these stories that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life — then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred. And in my opinion nobody can touch that. It means to you what it means to you and I hope that these comments will not taint that too much.”

For this group of designers, creating an outfit or accessory goes beyond considering its aesthetics—the decisions are about helping individuals express who they are through what they wear. This is how they’ve mined their personal experiences—and identities—to make and sell clothes like T-shirts to support the LGBTQ+ community, affordable lace front wigs for drag queens, and environmentally sustainable androgynous clothing options. Kelly and Laura Moffat started Kirrin Finch out of a mutual fashion frustration—“a need of our own to find clothes that made us feel authentic,” says Kelly. When shopping in the women’s section, Kelly and Laura say the styles didn’t feel right. Ditto with the men’s section, where clothes didn’t fit well. The duo knew they had to create their own line. “If you don’t feel good about what you’re wearing, you don’t feel good about yourself,” Laura says. After testing out designs on many different body types, Kirrin Finch was born, inspired by tomboy styles but made to fit female and non-binary bodies. The founders behind the brand are also committed to using natural fabrics that are environmentally sustainable, with production focused in the US. Wigs by Vanity Though a wig is a crucial part of a drag queen’s look, not all of them are created equal. Just ask Vanity Faire, co-founder of Wigs by Vanity. “I just feel like the wig for a drag queen,” says Vanity, “is like the cherry on top of the cake.” They can also be pricey pieces to purchase. The lace front customizable wigs made famous by RuPaul can run for thousands of dollars and are hard to afford for many drag queens who are just starting out. Vanity and her partner, Courtney Act, a former contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race, thought of making some that their fellow artists could cut themselves at a much more approachable cost. Since then, their wigs have cornered the drag market. But the business was always a side hustle. What made Vanity decide to go full-time? Listen to her story on Vanguard by Shopify Studios: Mama always knows best. When John Ross received a crocheted hat from his mother during winter in New York, both he and Don Carney decided to start making hats of their own. The couple, who went from being partners in life to business, launched the brand PATCH NYC. Originally stationed in New York City with a studio and retail space, the duo moved to Boston in 2012 and took their creativity to the city’s South End. John and Don have since developed their own distinct style: their designs nod to the Victorian era while mixing in bold and quirky prints. “There’s never a shortage of ideas,” says John, who has worked with Don to create their signature PATCH NYC–styled homegoods, clothing, and accessories for their own shop as well as retail partners like Anthropologie, Target, and West Elm. Having experienced a hard time coming out, Liz Bertorelli wanted to create something for others “that allowed you to show who you were without actually saying it out loud.” So she started Passionfruit, a collection of T-shirts and accessories that allow those wearing the brand to show their pride and support—for themselves, or others—year round. The effort is an ongoing side hustle, as Liz also balances a full-time job at Shopify. But she’s trying to widen her impact: Liz donates some of her proceeds to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit that offers a toll-free and confidential suicide hotline for LGBTQ+ youth. Over the years, Liz’s designs have also helped people come out and some brought couples together. “It’s amazing how powerful a T-shirt can be,” Liz shares. Feature image by Tony Luong

In the wake of the NCAA changing its policies regarding transgender athletes and state legislatures advancing new legislation against trans inclusion in school sports, LGBTQ advocates continue the fight to ensure that athletes can compete in accordance with their gender identity, although they may lose the battle. As public polls have demonstrated, transgender athletes who participate in sports – especially trans women in women’s sports – remain unpopular, even among pro-transgender people. Key figures have emerged in recent days to oppose transgender inclusion amid a focus on Lia Thomas, a recent University of Pennsylvania transfer swimmer who has broken records in women’s water sports. Nevertheless, LGBTQ advocates tasked with fighting for transgender rights continue their efforts. After a coalition of LGBTQ advocates sent a letter to the NCAA urging the organization to include a non-discrimination provision in its updated constitution, the Human Rights Campaign condemned the organization for refusing to retain the language , which appears to have the effect of allowing sports divisions to refuse to allow transgender athletes to compete in accordance with their gender identity, and sent an action alert to supporters. Joni Madison, acting president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement that the NCAA “must show us its playbook to protect LGBTQ+ and specifically transgender athletes from discrimination” as state legislatures advance the legislation against transgender children in sport. “The NCAA has so far proven to be an unreliable ally for LGBTQ+ athletes across the country who depend on the organization to protect them from discrimination and now they owe these athletes answers,” said Madison. Instead of reaffirming protections against discrimination, the NCAA announced a policy change that goes in different directions but appears to be aimed at limiting the participation of transgender women without taking full responsibility for it. On the one hand, the NCAA delegates transgender participation policies to individual sports governing bodies, but on the other requires transgender women to document limited testosterone levels over a period of time. The fight now continues in state legislatures as sports bills are among the latest measures to limit access for transgender people. After South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem pushed for legislation against transgender children in sports earlier this year, the state legislature responded by proposing such a measure. On Wednesday, a South Dakota House committee reported favorably on legislation already approved by wide margins in the Senate that would make biological sex the norm for sports in a bid to limit transgender participation. Sam Ames, director of advocacy and government affairs at The Trevor Project, said in a statement during the committee’s vote that the legislation “has nothing to do with fairness – and everything to do with the politicians of North Dakota. South using transgender youth as pawns on a political chessboard. “Proponents of this blanket ban struggle to find examples of transgender students making South Dakota sports less fair or safe,” Ames said. “To research from The Trevor Project makes it clear that many are already withdrawing from the sport for fear of bullying and discrimination. Although the issue of transgender women in sport has come to light in recent years as conservative activists have found a way to challenge LGBTQ rights in a way that is acceptable to the public, the fervor peaked when Thomas made headlines. for breaking records in the pool. Having previously competed in men’s aquatic competitions, Thomas – after his transition – began competing in women’s events and was beating his competitors by wide margins. At a December event, Thomas came first in the 1,650 freestyle yards and 38 seconds ahead of her closest competitor. NCAA rules would appear to have the effect of prohibiting Thomas from continuing to compete. Public polls, which have shown strong support for LGBTQ rights in general, continue to show sentiment against transgender women competing in sports, although the poll result can change significantly depending on how the question is phrased. . A Gallup poll last year found that only 34% of those polled supported transgender athletes competing on teams consistent with their gender identity, while 62% said transgender people should compete with other athletes. of their designated sex at birth. An LGBTQ strategist, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity, said now may be the time for LGBTQ advocates to admit a fait accompli if they are to seek broader civil rights protections in the employment, housing, and public accommodations with the Equality Act or other federal laws. legislation. “Advocates should just admit that this is a very different issue than a trans person applying for a job or finding an apartment,” the strategist said. “The principles of equality differ depending on the situation – that’s why we have separate men’s and women’s sports in the first place. The same public opinion that overwhelmingly supports the Equality Act is also clearly skeptical of a one-size-fits-all federalisation of all sports all over the world. Adding fuel to the fire are recent comments from key figures in athletics. Caitlyn Jenner, who before her transition was an Olympic champion in the 1970s, has been among the most prominent voices speaking out against transgender women in sport and said during a recent appearance on Fox News that she represented “a waking world gone wild”. Jenner, who spoke out against transgender participation in sports during her unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign last year in California’s recall elections, said the NCAA “just kicked in the street” on the issue of transgender sports and had some choice words for Thomas. “When you’re transitioning and going through that, you have to take responsibility and you have to have integrity,” Jenner said. “I don’t know why she does that.” Michael Phelps, the decorated Olympic swimmer, also refused to fully support transgender athletes when asked about the issue during an interview on CNN, pointing to doping in sport in comparison. “I don’t know what it will look like in the future,” Phelps said. “It’s tough. It’s very complicated and it’s my sport, it’s been my sport all my career, and honestly the only thing I would like is for everyone to be able to compete on one foot. of equality. Admittedly, advocates of allowing transgender people to compete in sports that conform to their gender identity also have their supporters in the sports world, including tennis legend Billie Jean King. On Monday, Dorian Rhea Debussy, non-binary and one of 54 hosts of the NCAA Division III LGBTQ OneTeam program, resigned in protest of the NCAA’s recent actions. “I am deeply troubled by what appears to be a disconcerting level of active, effective, engaged and equitable support for gender-diverse student-athletes within the NCAA’s leadership,” Debussy said. “As a non-binary, transfeminine person, I can no longer, in good conscience, maintain my affiliation with the NCAA.” Arguably, schools complying with the new NCAA policy and states passing anti-transgender laws would violate Title IX of the Education Amendment of 1972, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education. education, especially after the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County finds that anti-transgender discrimination is a form of sex discrimination. Last year, a federal court blocked a West Virginia state law against transgender participation in sports on this legal basis. No litigation, however, appears to be pending at this time challenging the colleges or NCAA policy.

Being the conclusion to the gender-free writing challenge I issued back in June. Part I: Lessons Learned First, a bit about lessons learned. Not everybody who sent a story in mentioned explicitly how they would like to be credited, and some of the published entries bear credits while others don’t. Accordingly, I’m going to let the bylines the authors created speak for themselves. When I do something like this in the future, I’ll make more of a point about standardizing entry formats so we can capture that kind of information. I’ll also try to make the constraints more clear. The original post called for “a story of any length with at least two characters and no references to their gender.” What I meant was (and this was clarified later) that no character who appeared or was referenced should be gendered in the text, but I saw some people boosting the post explaining that the requirement was “a story where at least two of the characters don’t have gender”. I didn’t get any stories that had a boy and a girl and two gender-nonspecific people in the background, thank goodness, but there was at least one submission where an arguably pretty clearly gendered character is referenced at multiple points. I’ve left that in the link round-up, because of the initial ambiguity. I did remove entries I considered to be overtly hurtful to a group of people. I wrestled with myself over this (it’s one of the reasons the judging is coming as far into August as it is), because I didn’t mention any such criteria when I laid out the challenge. But one of the points of this challenge is to encourage greater gender (and to an extent, sexuality) diversity in writing, to help make non-binary and genderqueer writers and readers feel more welcome in the growing online literary world, and you can’t welcome one group by stepping on another, especially when the groups overlap. The last lesson has to do with the deadline. About half a dozen people asked me if I would extend the deadline another month, and I did, but far fewer people took advantage of that extension than asked for it. The entries were pretty strongly front-loaded to the beginning of the period. Next time, there’s going to be a larger window (and quite a different set-up in general), but there’s definitely a thing to be learned here about deadlines and their usefulness. Part II: The Round-Up - Pie Day (Mention of assault.) - Cat Simulator 2016 (Interactive Twine story!) - Sexy Spandex (NSFW) - On Finding Yourself In Bars - So, How Was School Today? - Steer Into The Weird - 7 Questions for the Angels - Orlando: A Scene For Two - Nothing Else Is That Colour - Pine Smoke - After Work, Part 1 Thank you to everybody who participated! Part III: A Winner And Such It needs to be said that “On Finding Yourself In Bars” is one of my top picks of the bunch, but it’s also written by my partner, Jack Ralls, who helped organize all this, which is why we agreed it would not be up for consideration. So who wins? I enjoyed these stories quite a bit, but one of the things I enjoyed the most about them is how real to life they were (even the one with a couch-surfing God). They deal with the personal, the spiritual, and the everyday, and they do so in a way that shows how incidental gender can be and how arbitrary our assignments and assumptions of it often are. We’ll be getting in touch with the authors of those pieces over the next day or so about the payout arrangements. If you’re one of them, feel free to email us back with your PayPal address, if that method is amenable to you. Part IV: Looking To The Future I want to do this again, but bigger and on a more formal scale, and possibly with more categories for different ways of playing with gender conventions. Basically, an annual awards deal, covering a year at a time, every year, in order to not shut out pro publications. This is going to take a lot of planning and coordinating (we’ll definitely need more help), but we have time to work it out. The first period of eligibility will be 2017, which means the award won’t be awarded until 2018. I will especially be looking for non-binary, genderqueer, and agender people to help judge. More details to come early in 2017!

Queer gender identities is actually amazingly simple and endlessly complicated. As our understanding of sex and intercourse increases as a community, the LGBTQ someone is found on top outlines to find on just what actually language to use to express gender recognition. While I reported this to a straight, cisgender relative, she interrogate, “which helps to make the rules?” Code provides normally designed to match people’s needs, plus it’s additionally similar internal modern queer people. Conditions like masc and femme are not put in place by a rule founder, however in energy, through so how people decide on their own alongside talks they’ve have using what those identities mean. However, for the reason that meanings are produced in private and across intercontinental discourses, they’re not at all times simple, in addition to often means numerous issues various visitors. Chances are you’ll naturally infer masc definition masculine and femme meaning girly, nonetheless they represent much more, along with their definitions changes with perspective. Femme description: precisely what does femme suggest? In a Bustle post discussing the real difference in femme definition and female description, Gina Tonic written, “all femmes hit upon two crucial artistic and identity-related personality: are stylish and shedding someplace on the LGBTQ variety.” That’s the base category, but the step was quite often employed in fusion along with other folks that put extra classification or perspective. Transfemme may be used as an identity, nonetheless it’s besides great for describing talked about facts and organizing activities or places for people. While there are numerous facts supplied by trans folk despite gender, some experience are distinctive to transfemme people. Most queer females also use femme to describe on their own, even though some demand masc, butch try a more usual phrase within this subgroup of LGBTQ community. Femme and butch happened to be terms and conditions initially created with the lesbian people, but they’re now and also employed by queer lady of some other identities in addition. Some LGBTQ females that have been between butch and femme use the term “futch” to cause it out by themselves, incorporating the 2. Masc definition: how much does masc hateful? Equivalent concept for femmes are employed on mascs: they’ve become male and fall somewhere in the LGBTQ range. In accordance with the intercourse Wiki , transmasc folks are generally allocated female at birth (AFAB) but detect more with manliness. Examples of people who might determine as transmasc integrate trans men and women, demiguys, genderfluid individuals, agender customers, and non-binary anyone. Both masc and femme need less-positive connotations in to the LGBTQ men, also. Masc and femme (usually decreased to fem) are employed as shorthand for male and girly by homosexual boys, because stipulations have obtained a dreadful track record of exactly how they’re based in the homosexual matchmaking world. “No essential oils, no fems” ended up being really these types of a common phrase in users on matchmaking solutions like Grindr that a person produced a shirt from it. Grindr finished up modifying individuals ideas to perhaps not allow “language used to actually discriminate against other someone’ characteristics and traits” to get over the pervasive issue to their plan. “Masc4masc” was actually a less-aggressive usual expression applied to dating tools to deliver a comparable content. Transmasc and transfemme flip gender stereotypes The laws of gender try changing, and therefore, there’s not a chance to totally get the range of precisely what masc and femme hateful for the people which use them. In much the same each non-binary person has an original experience of their gender, the causes anyone make use of the conditions and terms masc and femme tend to be equally varied. So that you can expose what these language can mean for those who accept, the continual mark interviewed a number of LGBTQ people regarding their hookup using the terms and conditions. Noel, which recognizes as non-binary and genderfluid, makes use of the terminology to generate both clearness and nuance. “I like masc and femme because’s a non-binary technique of talking about the digital,” they claimed. “Masc and femme tend to be more ready to accept explanation. Many people believe becoming a-stay in the house moms and dad are masc. Other people visualize it’s femme. That’s why I really like utilizing these terms and conditions in addition to trans, given that it implies that i’m going towards an identity and from envisioned parts and objectives.” In a comparable trend, maximum, a transmasculine non-binary person from Washington, D.C., takes the standard making use of maleness and locations a non-toxic spin upon it. “[manliness] exists mostly inside my personal reference to other folks,” they mentioned. Even though it is apparently are with “other mascs or folk and taking part in bonding traditions,” these customs don’t have to acquiring about bro-ing reduced. “For myself, adopting maleness appears like willing to accept characteristics like esteem, making use of your power to help people or boost all of them up, making use of advantages to face up for folks, etc.,” they stated. “I whenever identified somebody clarify non-toxic masculinity with the person as ‘we strength train hence we keeps every strain of dog like a child’ which’s whatever energy I’m choosing.” Femme and masc set nuance to information of characteristics Ashe, who recognizes as genderfluid, promises that femme and masc give them something to ascribe his or her ID to in trans places. “we don’t truly determine together with the name transgender because I’m non-binary,” Ashe discussed. “So in the place of stating transgender, I’m able to express trans-masc or trans-femme feeling like we belong locally without generating me physically being poor.” Chris, definitely non-binary and genderfluid, asserted that femme and masc moreover gives their unique dynamics quite a bit nuance. “For almost all of residing, used to do son’t possess terms and conditions to spell it out the things I practiced,” they mentioned. “in early 2000s, we briefly asked generally got a trans woman. After looking into regarding the feel many trans women, but we made a decision that label Controleer hier didn’t regularly suit me. I study myself as an assortment of masculine and girly. I Really Like training with loads and like producing a muscular framework, yet I Additionally like undertaking on numerous kinds with beauty items.” The explanations of femme and masc is both extremely simple and constantly complex. As they match feminine and masculine, the connotations atlanta divorce attorneys specific LGBTQ everyone, or to any certain men and women, may differ a great number. Just like newer terms for sexualities, in the course of time, it is about any individual finding declaration that experience safe. Although you will find basic choices of just what femme and masc hateful, the main thing is respecting how anyone determine and present that identity.

- This event has passed. Connect and Create: Monthly Creative Writing Group 14th September at 10:30 am - 12:30 pm An event every month that begins at 10:30 am on day Second of the month, repeating until 15th September, 2019 Would you like a space to connect to your writing and with other writers, in an informal and friendly setting, with activities and opportunities for sharing work? Connect and Create, Saturdays 8th June, 13th July, 10th August and 14th September, 10.30am to 12.30pm, Edinburgh Central Library, 16+, Women only If so, our monthly connect and create workshops in Edinburgh may be just for you! We meet on the second Saturday morning of every month to read, discuss, do writing activities together and share our work. Create and Connect is designed for the same group of writers to come together for a set series of workshops so we’d love for you to come to all four sessions if you can. Create and Connect is now fully booked. To be added to the waiting list please email [email protected] This workshop is for women only* and is free to attend. We prefer for attendees to come to all four workshops where possible. To book, email: [email protected] or you can call us on 0141 550 2267. If you have booked a place and are no longer able to attend please let us know so that we can make your place available to someone else. *All women-only events are inclusive of Trans, Intersex women, non-binary and gender fluid people.

[Collective First Person by Nicki Werner, 2014] “It strikes me as a barely explored pronoun, full of possibilities.” –Steven Milhauser I’m pretty obsessed with the politics of pronouns in fiction writing owing to many of my characters’ genderqueer and/or non-binary identifications—and my own! Prior to coming to a(n) nb/gq identity, I often adopted third-person limited for more autofictional stories to enable critical distance—a distance that started to seem like disidentification. I was using “she” like a slap. So I moved away from third limited to embrace first person, which avoids binary gender pronouns for the most part (Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body being the classic example of a gender-ambiguous, potentially genderqueer narrator). Right now I’m experimenting with no-pronoun third-person—i.e., repeating the protagonist’s name in place of using pronouns—as well as they/them third person, second person, and—I’m coming to it— Collective first. Our topic at hand. Aka first person plural. Aka “we.” While it’s been on the rise in US fiction, it remains underused and underexplored. Like “you” (see Erica Hunt’s terrific essay on second person in Citizen), the pronoun “we” is “flexible and ambiguous” (Maxey 2), its boundaries shifting and porous: at any given moment, it is unclear how many “I”s a “we” might include. This presents opportunities for authors to negotiate the individual in relation to the social, to draw lines (or refuse to) around various groups or social categories, to dramatize belonging and exclusion. Probably the most well-known example of collective first is Ayn Rand’s Anthem (1938), in which a singular narrator’s use of “we” reflects the dystopian society’s erasure of individuality (via the lost “I”). “We” here functions as an institutional weapon of forced conformity and suppression of self, and when “I” arrives, it’s loaded with utopic possibility. First plural can also be used to make the opposite, and, we think, better, argument. For example, Andrea Lawlor’s chapbook Position Papers envisions a compelling anti-capitalist world in which “we will eschew individual possessive first person.” The proposal is somewhat tongue in cheek, as Lawlor uses possessive singular on the very next page—“In my country…”—but persuasive nonetheless. Throughout, collective first invites the reader into a proposed collectivity that is intentional and accounts for difference. Indeed, it operates much like philosopher Kay Mathiesen’s theory of collective consciousness: “collective subjectivity,” she writes, “requires plurality (i.e. that there be multiple conscious subjects), awareness (i.e. that there is genuine intentionality), and collectivity (i.e. that the collective subject forms a social group)” (236). To adopt a collective perspective, Matheisen says, is to “understand and predict what another person is thinking” through simulation of thought (that is, empathy) and “to model within ourselves the beliefs, values, etc. of the collective” (247). Given that arguments around who belongs and doesn’t have been / continue to be used as weapons of discrimination and criminalization, to invoke collective first in this way has tremendous political potential. More commonly, we’ve seen it used less politically, to represent small town subjectivities: e.g., William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” (1930) and Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides (1993). As Ruth Maxey has noted, both narratives adopt a masculine retrospective collective voice—a “we” that, while remaining flexible and ambiguous, invites only some readers into it. In a variation on the small town point of view, Christopher Grimes adopts a bureaucratic “we” in The Pornographers (2012)—one that is constructed deliberately (and satirically) to exclude women (and, arguably, people of color, queer and trans people, and other marginalized identities). Since the novel is structured as one impossibly long sentence, the effect is a babble of collective anxiety, the “we” trying desperately to hold onto itself and its authority. More recent examples of collective first tend to highlight difference and singularity within the group, as TaraShea Nesbit has observed (cw: in this article, a racist slur is used in a cited book title). In Justin Torres’s We the Animals, for example, the retrospective narrator increasingly shifts from first plural to singular to chronicle his fraught individuation from his family, as he confronts his undeniable (queer) difference. In the final multi-part chapter, the narrator is abruptly expelled from the group; the narrative’s shift from first plural to a distant third to a dissociated second to finally a reluctant, terrified first singular illustrates how violent the process of individuation can be (especially when forced). Then there’s the narrator of Aimee Bender’s “Debbieland,” who actually refuses to individuate. Having come of age as part of a gang of girl bullies, the narrator has retained her collective identity into adulthood; the reader doesn’t realize until halfway through that her “we” is actually an “I.” Her continued use of collective first implies stunted growth, a resistance to maturation that isn’t cute—it’s a potential social threat, protecting her from accepting responsibility for her actions. As in We the Animals, collective first is strongly associated with adolescence, supporting the notion that adulthood means individuation; an adult “we” is suspect. Some recent scifi narratives, meanwhile, are not afraid of “us”! Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch series and the Wachowski sisters’ Netflix series Sense8 both adopt a new form of collective first involving multiple characters linked across bodies. In Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, the narrator is an AI entity designed to exist across many bodies, as the brain of a ship and its ancillaries (AI drone troops who have been installed in colonized human bodies). A number of different passages show the narrator experiencing multiple scenes simultaneously, from the point of view of different ancillaries, a simultaneity that’s initially quite dizzying for us readers to take on. Is this a variation of collective first? The narrator rarely adopts “we” as a perspecive. Maybe she’s a multiple “I” as opposed to a “we.” But isn’t that what “we” is? We don’t know! This point of view seems related to but not quite collective first. The best description might be cloud subjectivity, as proposed by Joshua Rothman. One of the most interesting dimensions of Leckie’s cloud subject is that its bodies matter very much. The bodies the narrator finds herself occupying are not blank slates: one of them likes to sing. Owing to corporeal history/memory, individuality is not entirely erased; this is one way in which the colonized haunt the novel. Also, the cloud fractures at numerous points in the narrative, requiring the ancillaries to act as disunified individuals. To me this is one of the most striking aspects of Leckie’s collective subject(s): it insists upon a whole, cohesive self that contains multiple, differentiated selves. Cohesion and plurality are not contradictory. Sense8’s cloud subject operates similarly, though so far the show emphasizes plurality over cohesion: the first season spends a lot of time revealing how the links between the eight sensates work. We learn with them that they can feel each other’s feelings; take control over one another’s bodies; but it’s selective—they are not experiencing all eight sets of realities all the time. The show celebrates interdependence and co-subjectivity: its various conflicts are resolved through each individual’s skills and what they can contribute to the group (not unlike the set-up of Orphan Black, RPGs, or cooperative tabletop games like Pandemic). We remember the rise of network narratives in the early 2000s (Crash, Traffic, Syriana, Babel, The Wire). Narratives like Ancillary Justice and Sense8 combine what Caroline Levine has identified as the affordances of network narratives with those of collective first point of view. And whereas some other constructions of multiple subjectivity tap into cultural anxieties around the fear/threat of sameness across subjects, these narratives are excited about the possibilities of collective consciousness. Collective consciousness, Sense8 argues powerfully, is anchored in empathy. The eight sensates provide emotional support for one another; they learn from each other; they help one another make difficult decisions: Nomi, for example, who is trans, steps in to help Lito confront his fear of coming out publicly as gay. Capheus helps Riley work through her fears that something terrible will happen. (Something does! but that’s unrelated.) Yet there are limitations to what they can know and understand (and I hope in subsequent seasons, these fissures and gaps will get more attention). Like Ancillary Justice, the show attends to differences across bodies. The writers have fun with gender difference, for instance: Lito experiences Sun’s PMS; Will takes on Riley’s pregnancy (both tropes of genderswap fanfic, incidentally). When Capheus is called “bitch” repeatedly by his antagonists, Sun (whose life has been deeply impacted by sexism) steps in to react. These moments of intersubjective exchange seem importantly trans and feminist in nature. Moreover, through them, empathy is proposed as rooted in the body, driven not by emotional intelligence but corporeal experience. The sensates do not need to simulate the thoughts and feelings of others: they are feeling them in their bodies. I hope the next season will explore more of the negative aspects of trans-subjectivity: What about when a sensate resists, wants to refuse, the exhausting prospect of feeling with/as someone else? While the show’s celebration of empathy-based collectivity is provocative and politically valent, it’s important to remember that this empathy is forced. David Levithan’s YA novel Every Day offers a counterexample, presenting co-subjectivity as undesirable and often challenging. The novel adopts the point of view of a floating subjectivity who wakes up each morning in a different body. Deeply affected by each host’s body—its capacities and limitations, its corporeal history—the narrator negotiates a complex new co-subjectivity…every day. This is often difficult, as some bodies are easier to live in, and feel with, than others. At one point the narrator finds themself in the body of someone struggling with severe depression; the book presents their suicidality not as an emotional/mental state but a powerful bodily urge that the narrator must fight: “I have to convince myself that this isn’t a pointless life, even though the body is telling me it is” (63). Like Sense8, the novel privileges corporeal reality—but gives serious consideration to the negative dimensions of intersubjectivity. These speculative narratives invite us to feel with characters negotiating involuntary intersubjectivity and collective consciousness; to have our own trans-subjective exchanges—voluntarily. The dirty truth is I’m often a reluctant empathizer, and would not want to be “we” all, or much, of the time. But I’m a great reader; this is my contribution to the group. It’s possible my community doesn’t need an essay on collective first and multiple subjectivity—I can’t read your minds—but I wanted to write it. So I did.

|This article is a stub. You can help the Nonbinary wiki by expanding it! Note to editors: remember to always support the information you proved with external references! |Place of birth||Sudan| |Pronouns||they/them, occasionally he/him| Dua Saleh is a multidisciplinary performance artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. They began their career as a spoken word artist of poetry. Their debut album is an EP titled Nūr and was released in January 2019. "Nūr" is both the Arabic word for "light" and an Arabic gender-neutral name. In September 2020, it was announced that Dua would play the part of Cal, a nonbinary student, in season three of the Netflix series Sex Education. References[edit | edit source] - Instagram profile, accessed 29 May 2020 - Saleh, Dua [@doitlikedua] (21 June 2020). "I mainly use they/them and occasionally he/him pronouns. Some terms I accept and terms I don't accept, in that order. [White heavy check mark]: king, bro, fam, boi, Mx., Mr., sir, dude, man, gentlethem, stan account etc [No entry sign]: queen, sis, girl, gurl, woman, etc" – via Twitter. - Green, Dylan (14 January 2020). "Dua Saleh Finds Power In Escapism: Interview". DJBooth. Retrieved 29 May 2020. - Kosanovich, Kevin (30 November 2019). "Off The Top: DET | Dua Saleh". StockX News. Retrieved 29 May 2020. - Riemenschneider, Chris (18 January 2019). "A rapper and poet with 'accidental' buzz, St. Paul's Dua Saleh releases debut EP". Star Tribune. Retrieved 29 May 2020. - López, Canela (24 September 2020). "'Sex Education' is adding a non-binary character to its cast for season 3". Insider. Retrieved 1 October 2020.

“Sometimes small gestures can have unexpected consequences. Major initiatives practically guarantee them.” Reads the first lines of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on the ban on discrimination that protects gay, lesbian and transgender employees. There is no doubt that this decision opens up the legal system for a new era of trans rights. However, two years ago in Latin America a major initiative undertaken by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights passed almost unnoticed. More than unexpected consequences, that 2018 ruling is showing today its consequent and symbolic impact. It may be seen as a small gesture in a region where some advocates claim that the life expectancy of trans women is less than half than of the rest of the population. But in that 2018 ruling the Inter-American Court of Human Rights banned all forms of discrimination on grounds of gender identity and sexual orientation. Deriving its power as the final interpreter of the meaning of the American Convention on Human Rights, the court has its seat in a quiet suburb of Costa Rica’s capital, San José. The ruling is binding in over 20 Latin American countries that fall under the court’s jurisdiction. The gesture is small. The consequences deriving from it, increasingly, are not. On trans rights, the terrain in Latin American seems even trickier. In the most violent region of the world, trans individuals are disproportionality affected. Violence has its seeds in a culture of widespread discrimination against non-binary individuals. Civil society organizations claim that only one in two trans persons have access to health care. Institutional policies are also rooted in hetero-cis-normative paradigms. The Inter-American Court’s decision challenged that institutionalized discrimination. Altogether with a ruling on a general ban against discrimination on grounds of gender identity, it also focused on the right to identity. The court’s groundbreaking decision considered that trans individuals have the right to have their gender identity officially recognized as they perceive it. In practice, it means that Latin American states have the obligation to update their documents without any invasive procedures, such as a probe of medical treatment, clinical tests or a physician’s certification. The only important requirement is that the official documents mirror the person’s self-perceived identity. Under the sponsorship of the Organization of American States (OAS), the umbrella organization under which the Inter-American Court was created, civil registries all around the region are working on adopting its practices and legislation to comply with the court’s mandate. These are reasons to be optimistic. Still, there are reasons to be cautious. The political context in Latin American is as complex as in the U.S. today. All major initiatives always will still require many more small gestures. At least this time, the law is on the right side of history. Beginning today, June 1, we mark LGBTQ+ Pride month in Marin County and globally. It is a critical time to recall the origins of the movement for our hard fought rights – a movement that has achieved massive advances for our community, but which still has far to go. We have achieved things it was difficult to imagine just two decades ago: the ability to marry whomever we love, much broader public support for the idea that LGBTQ+ people deserve equal rights and dignity, and representation of our stories and identities in the media. But we still lack basic protections against discrimination in housing and employment at the federal level, and the Electoral College chose a president who regularly wages attacks on LGBTQ+ people. The movement for LGBTQ+ civil rights was definitively sparked with a furious riot at the Stonewall Inn. Led by Black trans activist Marsha P. Johnson and Latinx trans activist Sylvia Rivera, the Stonewall Riotfollowed major demonstrations at the Black Cat Tavern in Los Angeles, and Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco where transgender activists of color stood on the front lines against police harassment and violence. Queer and trans people of color have stood up time and time again for our community to say: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! We now see queer Black activists responding to the state of emergency that has resulted from countless murders of Black people across the country and the world. Two out of the three founders of Black Lives Matter, Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Alicia Garza, are queer. Protests – even riots – have been an effective tool in enacting real change. The first Pride events in the country were actually protests. In recent years, they have looked more like wild parties. But underneath, they are critical tools in our efforts to achieve our full civil rights agenda. As friends at Equality California said so well in a communication today, “Pride is Protest!” How, then, should we think of Pride this year? This month? And this day? A celebration? No. Time for reflection and action, yes! No one is truly free until ALL of us are free and valued and live with dignity and respect. Although the initial fights for LGBTQ+ rights were fought by trans activists of color, they are still the ones experiencing major discrimination and bias. LGBTQ+ people of color have called attention to racism and rejection that exists within our OWN community – and their righteous calls for greater inclusion have often been met with deaf ears. This is unacceptable. What does this mean for The Spahr Center? We recognize that we have work to do to better serve queer and trans people of color in Marin, and to fight for the well-being of ALL LGBTQ+ people in the county. In 2017, Marin County was named the most racially inequitable county in California. We know that a majority of the clients served in our LGBTQ+ programs are white, and only our HIV program mirrors the county’s diversity. We are committed to prioritizing racial equity in our work moving forward. Here are some initial steps we are taking: We are reaching out to organizations across the county learning how we can better serve communities of color and be in solidarity with their work; We are launching a summer social justice fellowship for LGBTQ+ young people to learn about the intersectional nature of oppression and take action to make change in Marin; We are prioritizing hiring therapists of color and seeking a bilingual Spanish-speaking therapist; and We are planning a town hall with partners in the County to discuss the intersection of racism, homophobia and transphobia. We urge our community, especially our White community members, to join us in this work. It is our duty to take action to protect Black lives and dismantle the structures that oppress people of color. As Marsha P. Johnson said, “No Pride for some of us, without liberation for all of us! The law often operates as the apparatus that facilitates instead of prevents the untimely deaths of so many in historically excluded and oppressed communities – including the LGBTQ community. The deaths of both Aimee Stephens and Don Zarda, whose workplace discrimination cases the Supreme Court decided posthumously in their favor on Monday, are a case in point. Aimee, who died of complications related to kidney disease just weeks ago and Don, who died in an accident, did not live to see the outcome of their cases, in which the highest court ruled that their livelihoods — and, thus, in America today, their health insurance — shouldn’t be predicated on their sexual orientation or gender identity. So after living for decades under a patchwork of state and local laws and lower court opinions, the entire country now has protections against discrimination at work if they are LGBTQ. For me, it was a galvanizing reminder of how sometimes advocates can still find hope in our work despite the compromises inherent to the law, and be reinvigorated for and invested in the transformative work for justice that lies again. Decades of work — in the streets, in legislatures and in the courts — went into the simple, clear, unequivocal ruling by the court that, yes, it is illegal to fire or otherwise discriminate against someone for being LGBTQ, which was written by Trump-appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s four liberals. The entire architecture of the Trump administration’s explicit attacks on LGBTQ people came crumbling down in an instant — an instant built on the lives and labor of so many advocates leading up to the breathtaking win. Nothing happens in law without the resistance and organizing of people in the streets, in their homes and families, in their schools and communities, within prisons and jails, and at workplaces. Monday’s decision, for example, came one day after more than 15,000 people gathered in Brooklyn to rally for Black Trans Lives, and less than two weeks after hundreds marked the beginning of Pride and the Black Lives Matter movement by gathering at New York City’s Stonewall Inn to call for justice for Nina Pop, a Black trans woman, and Tony McDade, a Black trans man killed by police. It also came the same week that Riah Milton was killed in Ohio and the remains of Dominique “Rem’Mie” Fells were found in Philadelphia — both Black trans women. And just last Friday, the Trump administration rushed out a rule designed to allow discrimination in health care settings against trans people under the Affordable Care Act. The entire 336-page rule — which read much like author J.K. Rowling’s now-infamous anti-trans screed — was premised on a notion of sex discrimination that the Supreme Court has now wholly rejected; Monday’s decision should essentially nullify the rule entirely as being outside the agency’s authority. Whether they like it or not, the Trump administration is not the final word on the meaning or scope of federal statutes that prohibit discrimination because of sex: the Supreme Court is and they have spoken. Thus, the many actions that the Trump administration has taken to systemically attack LGBTQ people — particularly trans youth — are completely neutralized. From efforts to target trans youth in schools, to those designed to push trans people out of homeless shelters, to those intended to deny us health care, every single one of the Trump administration’s anti-trans policy actions are now likely as legally enforceable as Rowling’s anti-trans ponderings. The sweeping victory for LGBTQ workers is a moment of hope that feels particularly meaningful in the context of the widespread organizing and resistance to anti-Black state violence, as well as the widespread mobilizing in defense of Black trans lives. We won this case because so many Black and Brown people fought and died to give us the chance to demand justice before the highest court in the United States and from each other as Americans. But in the same day that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of LGBTQ workers, it rejected cases that would have evaluated the legal doctrine of qualified immunity that effectively allows police to act with impunity and, in the coming weeks, the court may issue harmful decisions on the law allowing undocumented people brought to the U.S. as children to remain here legally (known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and abortion and contraception. All of these will have disproportionately negative effects on communities of color; in fact, the qualified immunity doctrine is largely understood as a product of white supremacy and central to the culture of impunity that allows the police to get away with disproportionate acts of violence against Black and Brown people. The future, then, will be a test of how we build on this victory together. Employment protections are crucial but only the beginning, because ours is not a call for equality but for justice. And justice means showing up for the unhoused, the undocumented, the incarcerated, and the ill. Without decriminalization of sex work, without an end to discrimination based on past criminal conviction, without defunding the police, and without reinstating and greatly expanding DACA, Monday’s win will be hollow. The work for, as the pledge our children recite in school (often in violation of the First Amendment) promises, “justice for all” continues — and, in this moment of great transformation, a new kind of work begins. Last June, it felt as if the entire world was converging on New York City’s West Village to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion, rebranded as World Pride. Around 5 million people from all over the globe descended upon the Big Apple in what was the largest LGBTQ gathering of its kind, and the city’s streets were literally paved with Pride. Storefronts and bars and signposts were festooned with corporate-sponsored rainbow flags, balloons, boas, paint, tinsel and posters — you name it, and there was a rainbow flag and the logo of some corporate sponsor on it. Seemingly every company was hocking LGBTQ Pride merch, no matter their history of discrimination against us or whether their C-suite was comprised of Trump’s biggest donors. It might have appeared as if we and our allies were all wrapped in a big, colorful, feathery collective embrace as we partied together, paraded together, wore our queer positive T-shirts and hats together, reveling in the fact that what few civil rights we LGTBQ people had were still tenuously intact. But there was something a bit disingenuous about a big tent, corporatized, police-guarded celebration that, despite the queer and independent media’s best efforts, had all but forgotten the real story behind the festivities: that the LGBTQ liberation movement we celebrate with Pride began with a fight against police brutality. Stonewall began because, night after night, cops had been raiding our bars, arresting gay men, lesbians, gender nonbinary people and transgender people, loading us into patrol wagons and carting us off to jail for living our authentic lives in relatively private spaces. So when, at 1:20 a.m. on June 28, 1969, as the New York City Police Department raided the Stonewall Inn — handcuffing people and loading them into police vehicles — Stormé DeLarverie, who had been hit on the head by a cop with a baton when she complained her handcuffs were too tight, urged the crowd of onlookers to “do something,” they did. Stormé — a Black, self-identified “stone butch” lesbian and celebrated drag performer — is said to have thrown the first punch. And the Stonewall riots (they didn’t refer to them as protests then, either) lasted six days. They weren’t the first uprisings for LGBTQ liberation, but they were the largest at the time. And now, one year after the milestone anniversary of that history-changing rebellion against police brutality, many LGBTQ people have been protesting against police brutality in the names of (only most recently) George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Tony McDade, a Black trans man fatally shot by police in Tallahassee, Florida. We did so while our communities are all still in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic — a deadly disease the government ignored for too long being familiar territory to the older among us — flinging open our doors and putting on our masks, some of us for the first time since the stay-at-home orders were issued in New York City in mid-March, to march as part of or alongside Black Lives Matter. We were all risking our lives not only by marching in close contact with others in the midst of a pandemic, but we were facing off cops — many of them not wearing masks — who were armed to the teeth with the familiar batons, and now rubber bullets, tear gas, pepper spray and military-grade weapons and vehicles. And, not surprisingly, the cops were still raiding our community’s bars and hurting peaceful protesters. On May 30 in Raleigh, North Carolina, police opened fire with “less lethal rounds” outside Ruby Deluxe, a gay bar, because owner Tim Lemuel and some friends were setting up a first-aid station for protesters. On June 1, cops in full riot gear raided Blazing Saddles gay bar in Des Moines, Iowa, for the same reason: providing first-aid for demonstrators. They arrested three people, who were cuffed face down on the sidewalk, and then spent over two hours waiting to be processed in jail and two more hours in jail after they’d been bailed out, according to the bar’s Facebook page. In New York City on June 2, LGBTQ activists held a rally in front of the Stonewall Inn to protest the murders of Black trans people. As the rally was wrapping up — just moments after the city-imposed 8 p.m. curfew — NYPD officers beat and arrested activists in attendance, including City Council candidate and drag performer Marti Gould Cummings and activist Jason Rosenberg, who was beaten bloody and denied medical attention. He wound up with a broken arm and six stitches on his head for the “crime” of linking arms with other activists. That’s only a small sampling of the apparently vengeful violence cops around the country exacted on protesters of police brutality. Journalists reporting on the rallies and marches have been shot at close range with rubber bullets, many more activists have been beaten with batons, run down by police cars, tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed, shoved backward to the ground courting head injuries and put in jail without masks and in close quarters for hours on end. There have been protests in big cities and in small towns in states you’d least expect — Idaho, who knew — and in countries acrossthree continents. Not only has the Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd been charged with second-degree murder, but Minneapolis has committed to dismantling its police department; New York has vowed to outlaw chokeholds, like the one that killed Eric Garner, provide more transparency about police misconduct and reform the NYPD; and Confederate statues in Virginia and Alabama have been toppled. The protests have also led to a surge of registered voters … and Trump has never been more unpopular. And that’s just in the first two weeks of this ever-growing movement to combat police brutality. The month is young. Imagine what more we can do as we all continue to march and protest to reform the criminal justice system to finally protect us all. That, rather than corporate sponsorship of a rainbow-hued parade, would most definitely be something to take pride in and celebrate — masked, and 6 feet apart, of course. It was perhaps ironic that Little Richard and Roy Horn (of Siegfried & Roy) died within hours of each other this month. Though they were from totally separate pop culture factions, seeing their obits side by side in some outlets, such as the May 10 New York Times, was a sobering reminder of how an older generation of gay men — Horn, who died at 75 was on the outer cusp of the Boomers; Richard was 12 years older — dealt with (or didn’t deal with) their sexuality in a pre-Stonewall era when practically nobody was officially out but demeanor, style, stage persona and more “read” gay to middle America the same way sexual innuendo was implied in early jazz and movies long before it was discussed or depicted openly. Little Richard (Richard Wayne Penniman was his legal name) was known for a string of ’50s hits like “Tutti Frutti” and “Long Tall Sally” whose impact went far beyond their initial chart peaks. Richard has been widely lauded as a rock and roll innovator and the first pop star to integrate black and white audiences in a time of rigid segregation in music and society. He died May 9 from bone cancer at his home in Tullahoma, Tenn., after a two-month illness. He was 87. Horn came to fame with his nearly life-long professional (and for a time personal) partner Siegfried Fischbacher, who were known for their flashy Las Vegas act in which they made lions and tigers (and each other) vanish and reappear. They came to Vegas in 1967 and had a sellout run at the Mirage Resort and Casino from 1990-2003 that found them performing 500 shows yearly. By 1999, the show had grossed half a billion dollars and they were Vegas’s highest-paid entertainers. Sadly, their careers ended abruptly on Oct. 3, 2003 (Horn’s birthday) when one of the tigers attacked Horn resulting in serious injury. Suffering a stroke and partial paralysis on his left side, Horn was eventually able to walk with assistance but never performed again. The duo made one final public appearance in 2009 with a tiger at a benefit for the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas, the Times reported, before retiring officially in 2010. Horn died of COVID-19. The duo (both German immigrants) only officially came out in 2007 in a National Enquirer article that announced “We’re gay” on the cover. They gave few interviews (even in their heyday) and could be testy about it when pressed. Behind the glitz But with their over-the-top costumes (including Roy’s trademark codpiece), ostentatious Vegas home and inseparable public image (and never a hint that either might be involved romantically with anyone else), they didn’t have to state it explicitly. They donned capes and silver space suits, battled a sorceress and a fire-breathing dragon amidst smoke machines, lasers and, of course, lions and tigers, many of which were white, which are uber rare. Their act had a Liberace-esque flair to it, even if neither were ever quite that fey. Siegfried was the magician; Roy the animal trainer. They presented a yin/yang-type persona and lived together at Jungle Palace, an eight-acre Vegas estate (a much larger ranch was just outside the city proper) with, as of 1999, 55 tigers and 16 lions. Horn was the “Tiger King” decades before anybody heard of Joe Exotic (also gay) of the hit Netflix series. “So you go deeper and say what is going on in my bedroom and in Roy’s bedroom,” Fischbacher said in a 1999 Vanity Fair profile. “I don’t care, I don’t know. I tell you this because this is me and I wouldn’t ask what you do with your dick either.” Both said they were “very honored” to be considered gay icons but spoke of gay as “other.” “I have a lot of friends who are gay and I made a lot of friends in show business and I found out that they are always interesting, intelligent and good people and fun to be with,” Fischbacher told Vanity Fair. “I am flattered to think that people think that I am versatile,” Horn said. “You don’t have to define everything and I don’t want to disillusion people because I’m not a guy who kisses and tells.” Pal Shirley MacLaine told the magazine they “used to be lovers a long time ago, yeah? In this day and age, who cares?” Mainstream media only coyly touched on Horn’s sexuality. The Times said Fischbacher and Horn “were domestic as well as professional partners” but left it at that. Journalist Steve Friess, who in The Advocate called them “the world’s most openly closeted celebrities,” said a Mirage spokesperson told him the night of Horn’s attack that “it’s well known that they were lovers at one time.” They were said to have little presence in Vegas gay life, according to Friess and others, and outside of buying an ad in a program book for an AIDS fundraiser, were not known to have used any of their vast wealth to support LGBTQ rights. For some, that’s not a problem. Milt Larsen, founder of The Magic Castle, a private club for magicians and enthusiasts in Hollywood, is 89, straight and knew Siegfried and Roy for many years, initially through his late sister-in-law, Irene Larsen. She and her husband Bill Larsen (Milt’s brother) loved magic and animals and discovered Siegfried & Roy in their early years in Vegas. Larsen later met the duo through his brother and sister-in-law and says Horn was “a dear, great friend.” “Before Siegfried & Roy, magicians were very seldom anything other than an opening act,” Larsen says. “They came along and went from being an opening act to the headliner with their own huge show because it was so popular. … They were the best.” Larsen’s friend Dale Hindman also know Siegfried & Roy and says he was at their house several times. He says Roy “fought like crazy” to recover and “they had the best medical people” working with him. He did daily physical therapy, swam and would zip around the grounds on a scooter. He recalls one Vegas convention in which Horn made a rare, post-accident appearance and walked to the podium. “There wasn’t a dry eye in the house,” Hindman says. “I saw him a number of times at different places. He was in the scooter, he would talk, he loved people, he had great quality of life and they had the resources to have the best medical care. It’s such a shame that something like this virus came along and killed him.” Larsen and Hindman say Horn’s sexuality was understood but “never really discussed.” “I’ve been in show business a long time and sometimes it feels like just about everybody I’ve ever known was gay,” Larsen says with a laugh. “It was a different world then. I just don’t recall anybody ever talking much about it.” Hindman says it was generational and gradual when more celebrities started coming out officially. Larsen says Fischbacher, especially (whom he calls a “great” businessman), just “never made a big point of it.” “They were a couple in the sense that they were absolute partners in what they did and that their lives were their business,” he says. “People are people and in the world we live in today, it’s just not questioned as much.” Larsen remembers “many, many times” being backstage in their Vegas dressing room post-show. “The Champagne would be flowing and there were lots of wonderful friends,” Larsen says. “[Roy] was very, very gregarious and he and Irene really got to know each other and became wonderful friends.” “There would be drinks and hors d’oeuvres and plenty of people,” Hindman says. “After awhile, Roy would go play with the animals. Siegfried would say, “I’m tired but you all stay as long as you want.’” Out magician/actor Michael Carbonaro, 44, of reality show “The Carbonaro Effect,” said in a written comment to the Blade it didn’t matter if Siegfried & Roy were coy about their sexuality. “I actually don’t know what Siegfried & Roy ever did or didn’t put into words,” he said. “I grew up seeing two gorgeous men living their magic dreams in bedazzled outfits, so they were always an iconic form of queer inspiration.” Others, however, aren’t willing to let them off the gay hook so easily. Matthew Rettenmund, a gay blogger and pop culture historian/author, says Horn’s approach to being “out” reminds him of singer Barry Manilow who finally came out in 2017 at age 73 after decades of evading the question. “They’re men who have convinced themselves that being gay in private is the same thing as being out,” he said in an e-mail. “Which is simply not true. I do hope that as the Rip Taylors and Richard Simmonses of the world leave us, as sad as it is to lose their talent, that they won’t be replaced by more of the same. Hiding in plain sight is still hiding and it still sends such a warped message of self-acceptance.” Long-time gay Vegas resident/historian Dennis McBride says he can see where both sides of the issue were coming from. “Siegfried and Roy were never involved in the Las Vegas queer community in any public way I’m aware of,” McBride wrote in an e-mail to the Blade. “They were much like Liberace in that respect — they were Las Vegas icons, counted Las Vegas as their personal and professional home, but deeply closeted because they came of age and established their careers during a time when they could have been jailed for being gay and lost those very lucrative careers. I remember there was some resentment in the community because we needed role models — particularly in the 1980s and early 1990s during the worst of the AIDS pandemic — and both Liberace and Sigfried & Roy might have been a great help in our struggle, brought credibility and support to our fight. I don’t think any of us entirely blamed them, though, because we were all in danger then ourselves as queer people.” And while Richard stated he was gay explicitly on multiple occasions, he was never at peace with it and at multiple times in his career recorded gospel music and even for a time sold Bibles in a repudiation of the rock and roll and gay “devil’s” music and “lifestyle.” For him, being gay was a vexation and something to be overcome, which is, to some, even more troubling than Horn’s avoiding the issue. “The problem is his religiosity and self doubt forced him back in the closet just as many times, “Rettenmund wrote. “And though he camped it up to earn a living in his final decades, it was homophobia that won. He died an ‘ex-gay,’ a sad loss.” Richard was married to a woman from 1957-1964. They had one adopted son. As recently as 2017, he was condemning gay sex. “God, Jesus, he made men, men, he made women, women, you know? And you’ve got to live the way God wants you to live,” Richard told the Three Angels Broadcasting Network, a religious channel, reported by The Advocate. Gay author/actor Michael Kearns (who’s been on “Cheers,” “Murder, She Wrote,” “The Waltons,” “Knots Landing” et. al. and has said in interviews and books he had sex with Rock Hudson and Barry Manilow) says Richard deserves a more compassionate assessment. “I don’t know how much gay sex he was having, but for me it was all about him having such a gay persona,” Kearns says. “I think what young men like me found so stirring and exciting is that it gave us something to grasp onto. Here was this sissy, this exciting, flamboyant, theatrical, wild persona and yeah, he later had the doubts and went back into the closet as a religious fanatic, well, of course he did. He was a black man from the South dealing with all that church stuff. I mean that’s a big struggle and I think people just don’t give him enough human credit for battling that publicly.” McBride says after their performing years, Sigfried & Roy were occasioally seen in Vegas’s gay spots. They separated romantically in 1996, he says, when Fischbacher got his own house in Spanish Trails. In more recent years, after Horn’s accident, speaking out for gay causes wouldn’t have carried as much weight, he says. “No one really cared by then,” McBride says. “The moment when their honesty mght have made a positive difference to the Las Vegas queer community had long passed and so had the careers they might have lost if they’d come out earlier.” He says they were “largely circumspect” but “we still saw them discreetly out and about.” “Even before (they broke up), when we saw them in the community, it was usually separately,” he says. “The two of them would visit the Le Cafe nightclub in the 1970s which then stood on the northwest corner of Tropicana Avenue and Paradise Road. The club’s lesbian owner, Marge Jacques, counted them as friends. In the 1980s, separately or together, they’d come to Gipsy, which then was an upscale dance club on Paradise Road and Naples Drive.” They were also spotted occasionally at seedier gay spots, McBride says. “Roy seemed to enjoy the Talk of the Town adult bookstore when it was in the Crestwood Shopping Center on East Charleston Boulevard and one or the other was occasionally seen at the Camp David bath house on Industrial Road,” he says. “But mostly, they and their circle of gay friends — which included Liberace and Hans Klok, who came out about the same time Sigfried & Roy did in 2007, and their protege, Darren Romeo, who just came out during his run in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., — kept themselves pretty much sequestered at Little Bavaria back in the day. I think the idea of a queer community was alien to them, outside their experience, maybe even distracting and a bit threatening.” Gospel music producer/historian Anthony Heilbut has written at length about how black Christian denominations have shamed or welcomed queer musicians to varying degrees in the ‘50s, ‘60s and prior. He knew Little Richard — not well, but they’d met on several occasions — and says one must consider the era when deciding how much blame to assign him. He wanders into another room of his New York apartment during a phone interview last week and puts on a recording of gospel singer Marion Williams (1927-1994), who for a time was in The Famous Ward Singers, helmed by Clara Ward (one of Aretha Franklin’s major influences) and who also had a significant solo career. He holds the phone up to a recording of her whooping and hollering and it’s easy to see where Little Richard got some of his inspiration. Richard appeared at the Kennedy Center Honors when Williams was inducted. “His phrasings and his timbre and even his ballad singing, and he was a great ballad singer although we typically think of him as this sort of rock and roll clown, all that came from Marion Williams,” Heilbut, who’s gay, says. “You can’t copyright phrasings. That’s what singers could take from each other.” Heilbut also says Richard, whom he first met in 1961 and says he’s “one of the very few people who ever saw him sing on a gospel program,” says Richard’s gospel singing career was never terribly convincing or memorable partially because he came from a staid denomination (Seventh Day Adventist, not nearly as musically rowdy as black Baptists and those in the Sanctified Church) and the fact that it was performed more dutifully than his rock and roll material. “He was singing, ‘I quit show business and I wanna go straight/I wanna serve the Lord before it’s too late,’” Heilbut says. “His singing was very bland. There was more of the real gospel drama in his R&B and rock music.” Heilbut also says Richard admired Williams in the traditional way gay men have worshiped show-stopping divas. He remembers seeing Richard at a Nashville studio when Heilbut was producing one of Williams’ later recordings. He mimics Richard’s speech patterns, recalling the conversation: “‘Is she still fabulous? Do she still make notes? I makes notes. I heard she preaching. I preaching too. … She always war my heart, she know, she know. I’ve been singing like her down through the years. Mahalia good, but Marion always were my singer.’” Heilbut also says Richard’s various stints in gospel music robbed his career of momentum in rock. As respected as he was among rock pioneers, he’s almost wholly associated with his ‘50s heyday. Attempts at secular music comebacks in the ‘60s and ‘70s could not come close to matching his peak period. “He made some very lovely records later and he could be a wonderful singer, but by then the audience had changed,” Heilbut says. “The train had passed.” Later in life, Heilbut says, Richard was seen socializing in gay bars. He never personally saw him but says friends reported him being “the belle of the ball” at St. Louis gay bars on various occasions. Richard, whom Heilbut says “always struck me as very goofy,” was ultimately “just incredibly confused.” Roy, Richard ‘lacked courage’ Gay activist/entrepreneur Mitchell Gold, who like Siegfried & Roy, knows something about being linked for life to a former partner — he and business partner/former domestic partner Bob Williams formed their eponymous furniture company Mitchell Gold+Bob Williams in 1989, which they continue to run jointly. He says celebrities holding onto or returning to the closet are a reminder of “how horrible these religious teachings are, how toxic.” “I don’t even know what it’s like to live like that,” Gold says. “I was tortured about it until I was 24, 25 but then that was the end of it. These guys who live their whole lives having to be careful about that they said, it’s just horrible. I don’t know as much about Siegfried & Roy except that after awhile it just gets to be ridiculous, like the Barry Manilow thing was for so many years.” Gold understands Richard not being out in the ‘50s or Siegfried & Roy at the advent of their careers but later in life, once they were financially secure, he says they “lacked courage.” “I never cared if we lost money for being out,” Gold says. “I don’t have to be a gazillionnaire. If I make less, I make less and it’s the same for Siegfried & Roy. At some point they had plenty of money and so why wouldn’t they speak out for people who aren’t being sheltered the way they are and are forced to live a closeted, unhealthy life. The only thing I can say is I don’t think these folks even know what a healthy life looks like.” Gay journalist/author Michael Musto agrees. “It’s partly generational, though many of their generation ended up being belatedly but wonderfully out and proud — Richard Chamberlain, Joel Grey, etc.,” he wrote in an e-mail. “It’s more of a sort of self-loathing-tinged caution based on a lifelong fear of an image adjustment or career damage. Roy played to Middle American high rollers, but obviously didn’t want to gamble on his own career. One of his magic tricks was being cagey about his sexuality.” Musto says the music business has been especially troubling for non-straight black entertainers. “Little Richard renounced his queerness when he should have just been at peace with it and allowed himself to celebrate and be celebrated by our community,” Musto says. “Luther Vandross, Whitney Houston and many others were unwilling to step out of the shadows because the people around them (and sometimes their own inner voices) told them not to. Little Richard was so queer that it seems like a ‘duh’ that he should have just gone there. But with Adam Lambert, Sam Smith and many others (and Elton John, Melissa Etheridge and k.d. lang having led the way), things have inalterably changed.” Although Fischbacher and Horn never spoke of their religious influences — their decor reflected influences of Eastern religion and Horn would sound a large gong in his bedroom to let the tigers know he was awake — for Richard, Kearns says, it was tragic. “I’m not saying there aren’t some fabulously evolved people who are religious but we’ve seen time and time again how religion gets its hold on gay people at a very early age and just does not let go and the result can be horrific,” Kearns says. “Richard is a fascinating creature to me. In a way, it’s amazing he lived as long as he did with this struggle. He deserves a lot of credit. He didn’t have an easy time of it.” Here’s a Democratic campaign ad for you: show Trump speaking at a rally to a stadium full of people who gradually disappear and their cheers die away. Weakness in a president is deadly. The day after Donald Trump suggested injecting disinfectant and using ultraviolet light inside people’s bodies as treatments for COVID-19 during his daily improv routine in the White House briefing room, which resulted in a viral video of Dr. Deborah Birx struggling to compose herself, he walked it back and blamed the press. “I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen.” No you weren’t, clown. STFU. Everyone from the Environmental Protection Agency to cleanser makers to song parodist Randy Rainbow urged people not to follow the president’s dangerous suggestion. Across the nation, the ridicule was as rampant as the warnings. Jokes about chewable Clorox tablets went around. During cocktails via Zoom with friends from Nellie’s Sports Bar, one couple drank what I am sure were not really “Lysoltinis.” My first impulse after hearing Dr. Trump’s brainstorm was to say “Go right ahead,” but the thought of gullible parents poisoning their children stopped me short. On April 24, a White House official threatened to summon the Secret Service when Washington Blade reporter Chris Johnson refused to switch seats in the briefing room with CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins. Kaitlan’s questioning had displeased the Maximum Leader, so they ordered her back to Chris’s seat. Well sorry, but the White House Correspondents’ Association, not the Trump Administration, determines seating assignments. Kudos to Chris and Kaitlan for staying put. Imagine the insecurity that would impel a president to blame and punish reporters for his own murderous ignorance. When members of the press corps refuse to be bullied or set against one another, they uphold their crucial role enshrined by our Founders in the First Amendment. Trump’s lies, threats, and wishful thinking, his responsibility dodging and refusal to respect expertise, have already killed more Americans than the 58,220 who died in Vietnam. The question is whether that and the tanked economy will cost him reelection, and there the news is encouraging. Polls show he is in trouble, and his desperate flailing shows that he knows it. Republicans are afraid that his disastrous handling of the public health crisis will cost them the Senate as well as the White House. Still, the election is six months away, and Trump’s mischief proceeds apace. A few examples: The Conscience and Religious Freedom Division at the Department of Health and Human Services (which sounds like something George Orwell thought up to entertain himself during the Blitz) is going to let doctors refuse to treat LGBTQ patients for religious reasons. Never mind that there are far more biblical injunctions against everything Trump does than against queers. Trump issued an executive order last week temporarily suspending the issuance of new green cards, though it carved out exceptions such as for essential workers—including, presumably, resort staff and Slovenian models. His invocation of health and jobs as justification is a thin veil for the racism that he and advisor Stephen Miller have fomented all along. Trump’s decision to speak at West Point, prompted by Mike Pence’s Air Force Academy appearance, will require 1,000 graduating cadets to return to the military academy from the homes to which they scattered because of the pandemic. They will be tested for the virus, given masks, monitored, and segregated in the mess hall—all to serve as props for one insatiable ego. We respond to a challenging time in various ways. Businesses adapt, fresh connections are improvised, new charities spring up. A few blocks from me, Metropolitan AME Church, like many other houses of worship, has gone enthusiastically virtual with a range of programs. As for that confrontation in the briefing room, it is notable that the president’s aide backed down. Secret Service agents are not a dictator’s thugs, as he may discover if he refuses to leave the White House on January 20. For now, he will resort to any destructive act and tell any lie in his growing fury, while the reporters he slanders and abuses labor on. Let them be our inspiration. It’s a surprise to no one when the New York Times writes, “Tensions persist between Trump and medical advisors over coronavirus.” We already know our president is a moron and gets a failing grade for how he is handling the coronavirus crisis. Trump talks about filling sports stadiums while thousands are dying from a virus we know is passed by close contact. We also know despite Trump’s total incompetence the United States will survive this pandemic. We will mourn the loss of lives caused by Trump’s failure to effectively address COVID-19. Despite his efforts to blame others — whether the Chinese for lying or the Democrats for impeaching him — the reality is he has failed us. The LGBTQ community has seen a president put his head in the sand during a crisis before. The first cases of AIDS in the United States were seen in 1981 and the term AIDS was first used in 1982. President Ronald Reagan would not use it until 1985 and it was 1987 until he declared it “public enemy number one” in a speech to the College of Physicians. Today we look at various timelines on what and when Trump did anything about COVID-19 and they all point to his refusal to act soon enough. PolitiFact details Trump’s response from the time we heard about the cases in China. Other timelines detail more of his activities in between responses when he spent his time golfing or holding mass political rallies where he insisted it was a Democratic hoax. No matter what timeline you look at, it’s clear Trump refused to deal with the pandemic. Still today he makes light of it while people are dying by the thousands claiming it will be like a ‘miracle’ when it suddenly ends. His responses can be explained by one thing: He is seeing his second term in office slip away from him. We must be thankful some Democratic governors like Jay Inslee in Washington, Gavin Newsom in California, Andrew Cuomo in New York and Republican Larry Hogan in Maryland, among others, were willing to act on their own to try to save as many people in their states as possible. They called out the president but that is all they could do. Trump is still lying about the national stockpile of equipment and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the quintessential know-nothing, is making statements like, “It’s our stockpile” in response to governors’ requests for help with materials. Some of the federal government’s failure to lead goes back to the days after Trump was elected in the surprising results of 2016. He never expected to be president and every day since has proven what an error the country made when it elected a failed businessman turned reality TV star. Many key positions in government remain unfilled or are filled with acting officials hampering response to the coronavirus. There was never a full transition of government after Trump fired all the Obama appointees as soon as he took office. I agree with former President Bill Clinton who recently said, “I have always believed that our country’s strength is our people. We see that every day, in the heroic work of health care workers, first responders, and everyday people reaching out to lend each other a hand. The rest of us must take care of all the workers who are taking care of us and keeping our country going, and our families and loved ones, however we can.” Americans as a whole are showing we can and will do that. Let’s not focus on the few who selfishly pretend this epidemic is not real or the rules for co-existence and shared responsibility for each other are not something they have to consider. Those few governors who still refuse to issue ‘stay at home’ orders or the outrageous pastors who are still asking their congregants to come to their churches. Thankfully they are in the minority and most of the rest of us will manage to survive them. The fight for the Democratic nomination is now set: Joe Biden vs. Sen. Bernie Sanders. Contrary to Sanders’s view, it is not a fight over who is more progressive, rather it is a fight over big promises that might never be kept and a more rational progressive way to move us forward and recover from four years of chaos under Donald Trump. The fight is also over which nominee will help down-ballot Democrats the most. Who can help the members of the House of Representatives in swing districts keep their seats? Who can help Democratic United States Senate candidates in purple states win their races to rid us of ‘Moscow Mitch?’ There are hundreds of bills passed by the current Democratic House waiting to be passed again, this time with a Senate that will also pass them and send them on to a Democratic president who will sign them into law. So the nominee must be the person who can best make that happen. Both candidates are flawed yet both are better than the sexist, racist, homophobic pig in the White House. But from here through Milwaukee where Democrats choose their candidate let’s not continue to say “blue no matter who” and sit back on our hands. Instead let’s decide that yes blue but know who it is matters. Many including me don’t like that the two potential nominees are old white men. But then so is the president so we need to deal with it. One way to do that is have the nominee select a younger woman of color as a running mate. It is amazing to me that young people so enthusiastically support a nearly 80-year-old white man who just had a heart attack on the campaign trail. They clearly believe his promises of free healthcare, free college, forgiving their college debt and in essence having government provide for all of them regardless of their own or their parent’s economic circumstance. What they overlook is that Sanders won’t be able to do most of that even if elected president, as no president can wave a magic wand and get things done. Just look at the failures of Trump who was elected because he promised to open the coal mines, reopen factories, build a wall on our southern border and a host of other things he has not been able to do. His voters fell for his promises in the same way so many young people are falling for Sanders’s promises. If the young people supporting Bernie would take a moment to look at his 30-year record in Congress they would know the word compromise is not in his vocabulary. That is not a positive trait and has resulted in his never being able to pass any major legislation. He has never introduced legislation to move forward equality for women, the LGBTQ community, African Americans or any minority. Biden has made mistakes but has a record of moving us forward. He was wrong on Anita Hill and was wrong on the Iraq War. What he did right was be an early fighter for taking big money out of politics and climate control. He passed the Violence Against Women Act and took on the National Rifle Association, winning twice. First with passage of the Brady background check bill, and then with the passage of bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. So Super Tuesday is now history. We move forward with a two-man race: Biden vs. Sanders. So far, 38 percent of the delegates have been awarded and no one is near the 1,991 needed to become the nominee. Next we should see Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bloomberg, both with no chance of being the nominee, do the smart thing and drop out. Recently I blocked a number of people on my FB page who have attacked me personally for criticizing Bernie Sanders’s positions and record. They warn of the need to be careful not to offend Sanders voters who threaten to not vote for the Democratic nominee if it’s not Bernie. My response has been we can’t be held hostage by this group of individuals. They are the ones who should be called out for not understanding the repercussions to the programs they espouse, and democracy as we know it, if they help to reelect Trump by not voting for whoever is the Democratic nominee. Every Democratic candidate is flawed just as every voter is flawed. Sorry Bernie Bros you aren’t perfect and neither is your vision or your candidate. Fact is each of the Democratic candidates is more progressive than Trump by a mile and support a more overall progressive agenda than any previous Democratic nominee. The issue is about scale and scope. It is also about the American electorate. How far and how fast they are willing to support change. In many ways it is even more important to win the Congress than it is the presidency. By winning the Senate we can stop the appointment of ultra-conservative judges and if we have the Congress can stop budget cuts to programs like Medicare and Medicaid, Social Security, the dismemberment of the Environmental Protection Agency and halt future tax cuts for the rich. So it is crucial Democrats have a nominee at the head of the ticket who will not be a stone around the neck of all down ballot candidates. Some of the online debate has been about whether we are really a socialist country because we collectively fund schools, our police, the military and programs like social security. Should we really compare ourselves to Sweden and Norway? When Sanders does that we must question whether the American electorate believes it and will vote for a candidate who is a self-declared Democratic Socialist? Will the average voter understand what socialism really is and the difference between socialism and democratic socialism? More likely they will simply fear ‘socialism’ and vote against the candidate who espouses it. Voters will buy into the ads Trump and his acolytes will surely run attacking Sanders. Trump and his minions will never use the word Democratic along with the word socialist. Because of this each of our down-ballot candidates from school board to United States Senate will be spending half their time distancing themselves from the “socialist” at the head of our ticket if our nominee is Bernie Sanders. Those defending Sanders keep pointing to how he polls well against Trump. What they conveniently disregard is the Republicans have yet to attack Sanders because they want to run against him. They are just waiting with baited breath and a billion dollars to go after him if he wins the nomination. While it may all be nonsense the commercials will come reminding people of how he spent his honeymoon in the Soviet Union, his support of the Sandinistas and Ortega in Nicaragua, and of Fidel Castro in Cuba. I won’t bother going into the nuances of his support because neither will the Republican attack machine nor will the American public. The president will also use Sanders call for a “revolution” against him. The majority of Americans don’t want a revolution. We are seeing that even in the Democratic primary electorate. Sanders underperformed in New Hampshire by a wide margin. He even lost one of the big college towns he won in 2016. He didn’t get the big boost in Iowa failing to bring out the hordes of new voters he predicted. He is actually running second to Pete Buttigieg in the delegate count with his 21 to Pete’s 22. In 2018 Democrats took back the House of Representatives by having moderate Democrats win in swing districts across the country. The progressives Sanders and those like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez supported in those districts all lost either in a primary or in the election. Primary voters in both parties tend to be more right-wing or left-wing but the general electorate when polled show the majority are middle of the road voters. According to a Gallup poll while Democrats are more liberal Americans as a whole remained center-right ideologically and therefore to win Democratic candidates need to be more moderate. If we field those kinds of candidates we can win. Simply look at Kennedy, Carter, Clinton and Obama as examples of how we win. The goal in 2020 must be to rid us and the world of Trump. Peter Rosenstein is a D.C.-based LGBT rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade. As the world marks Holocaust Memorial Day, PinkNews CEO Benjamin Cohen reflects on the persecution of gay people by the Nazis. If I was alive 80-year-ago and living in Berlin and not London, my outlook would not have been looking good and not just because I’m Jewish. Like some of those who found themselves in concentration camps, I also have a disability, I am member of a trade union and perhaps more pertinently, like many of the people reading this article, I am gay. More than 80 years ago, Hitler ordered the creation of a list of homosexuals, who would later find themselves persecuted. In total, during their time in power, the Nazis arrested 100,000 people for homosexuality, imprisoning half of them including up to 15,000 in concentration camps. Many of those imprisoned died, some after sickening experiments by scientists trying to find the ‘cure’ for homosexuality. Unfortunately, when the allies liberated the concentration camps, many of the gay people who were imprisoned were not set free. Instead they were transferred to prisons, then under the control of the Allied forces. Their crime, homosexuality, something outlawed before the Nazis took power, remained on the statute book until 1968 in East Germany and 1969 in West Germany. If I was alive 80-year-ago and living in Berlin and not London, my outlook would not have been looking good and not just because I’m Jewish. Unlike other victims of Nazi persecution, they were not offered reparations and it took until 2002 for the German government to officially apologise for the Nazis’ crimes against gay people. Today memorials to the Nazi persecution of the gay community are found in Berlin, Amsterdam, San Francisco, Sydney and Tel Aviv. Holocaust Memorial Day, marked today, is the opportunity to remember all of the victims of Nazi persecution. The Nazi’s rule of terror was an era that witnessed the single worst example of misery that humanity has ever inflicted on itself. Today in my view, also provides moment of reflection for what happened still in our collective lifetimes and an opportunity to galvanise us never to allow the same persecution of minority groups happen again. I believe that as a community, should use Holocaust Memorial Day as an opportunity for us to consider, given how many countries around the world continue to criminalise or discriminate LGBT+ people, how unchallenged prejudice can quickly and dramatically escalate into unimaginable brutality. What happened during the Holocaust also stands to us as a warning to all of us that societies can go backwards as well as forwards. In the 1920s, Berlin was one of the gay capitals of the world, where Germany’s prohibition on homosexuality was widely ignored by the police and a large, open, flourishing gay community was in existence. It seems incredible that in 2020, 73 countries around the world would either imprison me or put me to death simply for being gay, something that I chose no more than the accident of my birth than means that I am a Jew. Just before the Nazis took power, the German legislature was poised to repeal the legal ban of male homosexuality. It took a political climate that had nothing to do with gay people to radically alter the treatment of this minority group. The Nazis drew on deep rooted, latent homophobia within the population to stigmatise gay people to justify to ordinarily rational people the single largest act of persecution on the basis of sexuality that the world has ever seen, just as it engulfed the largest single act of anti-semitism on the planet. What worries me is that eight decades on, as some countries such as Britain have moved forward so much with gay equality, other countries are moving backwards or have yet to move at all. Russia, which legalised homosexuality more than 20 years ago, has in recent years introduced draconian laws that severely clamp down on the rights of gay people and their families. It seems incredible that in 2020, 73 countries around the world would either imprison me or put me to death simply for being gay, something that I chose no more than the accident of my birth than means that I am a Jew. It is clear that when it comes to gay people, at the least, there are still many lessons from the past that need to be learnt.

Out & In The News is our weekly blog focusing on workplace equality in the news — be sure to check back every Friday for the latest from Out & Equal and our partners! Saturday Night Live, the iconic live comedy sketch show, is getting some new talent for its upcoming 42nd season. Gay comedian Chris Kelly has been a writer for the show since 2011, but has recently been promoted to co-head writer along with Sarah Schneider, who has been a head writer at SNL since 2008. The decision was made in order to appeal to younger audiences and distance itself from what Variety called “toxic bro humor.” This is another great step towards increasing the diversity and inclusion of SNL, both behind and in front of the camera. Harvey Milk, former San Francisco city supervisor and gay rights activist, is getting a Navy ship named in his honor. Milk was discharged from the Navy in 1955 over allegations of fraternization with enlisted personnel. Milk became a prominent advocate for gay rights during his time serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors before he was assassinated in 1978 by a former colleague. Navy secretary Ray Mabus said of Milk, “[he] offered hope for millions of Americans who were being ostracized and prosecuted just for who they loved.” Tracey Norman got her first big modeling contract in the 1970’s for a box of Clairol’s Nice ‘n Easy hair color. At the time, Norman was not out about being transgender, and she was fired from a later job at a magazine when she was outed to the editor. Norman says the job offers stopped coming after that. Now 64 years old, Tracey Norman is back as the face of Clairol’s “Color As Real As You Are” line. “We’re honored to bring back Tracey Norman as a woman who no longer has to hide her truth. Her warm, genuine spirit and authentic approach to life make her a natural fit for the campaign,” said Heather Carruthers, global associate brand director for Clairol. The 2016 Rio Olympics has the highest number of out LGB athletes and now there’s another athlete to add to the roll. Italian swimmer Rachele Bruni dedicated her silver medal for the 10k race to her “beloved.” When Italian press asked her to clarify, Bruni confirmed that “beloved” was indeed in reference to her girlfriend, Diletta Faina. While Bruni has posted photos with Faina on social media in the past, Bruni had never disclosed the nature of their relationship. Bruni explained that while she had never made an official coming out, she did not hide her sexuality or relationship either. Odessa, Ukraine hosted its first Pride parade last Saturday, and is only the second city in Ukraine to host one. The event was initially banned by city officials over concerns of conflict and potential violence from white nationalist groups. The event was permitted to proceed and brought out over 50 LGBT community members and activists. A protest march by far-right groups was held the following day, but the Odessa LGBT community is dedicated to remaining strong and fighting against the prejudices they face. British Olympic race-walker Tom Bosworth proposed to his boyfriend of five years, Harry Dineley, who happily accepted. Bosworth said that while he is overjoyed, he also knows that he is lucky to be from a country where he is able to be his true self, while others must remain in the closet for the sake of their personal safety. The Olympian says he hopes the future provides more safety, acceptance, and support for the LGBT community. As for his own future, “we would definitely love to adopt children someday,” said Bosworth. Author Odie Lindsey has written a book of short stories detailing the experiences of American soldiers returning to civilian life. Lindsey, a veteran of the first Gulf War, was deployed in 1991 at the age of 19. When he saw another generation of young people being deployed in the second Gulf War, he felt compelled to write about the experience of returning home from war. The book, We Come to Our Senses, includes the stories of women, LGBT, and HIV positive veterans. We Come to Our Senses is currently available on Amazon. Trans and gender non-conforming women face widespread discrimination in so many aspects of life, but now they have at least one resource within entrepreneurship and business development. Through FEMPRENEUR.XYZ, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, trans women and non-binary femme entrepreneurs will be able to access pro-bono services for their businesses and name-changes. The company is also hosting a webinar to provide information and networking for those seeking similar services nationwide. Anyone interested in the FEMPRENEUR.XYZ entrepreneur workshop can sign up here. Patrick RichardsFink, a licensed professional counselor, opened Prism Mental Health last year to provide mental health care for the LGBT community. RichardsFink says there is a huge need for mental health services for the LGBT community, but there is often a shortage. “It’s better now than it was in 1985,” he said. “But still, if you want to find somebody who has a problem with LGBT people, throw a rock and they’re there.” RichardsFick, who is bisexual, says he hopes Prism and other services like it can help support and nurture a community which often must deal with stress and violence because of who they are.

Staffordshire University has never been a big player in the National Student Movement. However, the benefits of being an active Students' Union is unbelievable - from opportunities to communities of best practice - and this will help us develop as a Union. With the ability to see how other Unions operate, facing similar problems to the ones we face, and having a collective of student representatives to get advice from, Staffordshire University will be able to flourish. In Darren's manifesto for the next academic year, he promised to develop our engagement within the National Union of Students (NUS), to enhance the Student Experience both here at Staffs and Nationally. The national election season for 2017/18 has now ended, and we are thrilled as a Union to announce that we have representation in seven different areas of the NUS. Below is a description of who these students are, and what they're doing to represent students locally and nationally. 1. Darren Clarke Your President Elect has been elected to three positions within the NUS. These include a seat on the National Executive Council, which is the main body that scrutinizes the National Officers and decides important policy, this means Darren will be advising and making decisions for approx. 10 Million Students. He will also be the Chair Person for the Trading Support Direction & Oversight Board, this is the body that negotiates with suppliers for nearly all Students’ Unions that have a Shop, bar or Café on what products are available and the prices. It also helps SUs maximise their commercial operations. Finally Darren will sit on the Services Board for NUS, which is the governing body of NUS’s Services sector, this covers all trading, suppliers and digital areas and ultimately gives NUS services their strategic direction, effecting millions of Students. 2. Sam Pillow Your Vice President Elect has always shown a shine to advancing sustainability on campus, and through his own excitement to represent Team Staffs as your VP, he jumped straight into the National Union of Students and ran for election before he’d even been to an NUS event and won!!! Sam will now sit on the Environmental Sustainability Advisory Group, this group acts as a high-level think-tank on sustainability and social responsibility for NUS. It reports to the NUS Charitable Services Board. This committee will advise the NUS Charitable Services Board on new thinking on environmental sustainability work in the student movement. It will also oversee strategic relationships with partner organisations such as HEFCE, HEFCW, HEA. Sustainability - Helping ensure impact, sustainability and supporting students in taking action on sustainability across campuses, curriculums and communities. Tackling today’s environmental, economic and social problems nationally. 3. Fiona Wood Fiona Wood is an Ex-president of Staffs and has never stopped delivering for Students. She has been elected to the NEC as the National Part Time Student Representative. This is the second time Fiona has been elected to this position and was the first ever Transgender Student to sit on the NEC. This is a remarkable achievement and will be influencing decisions nationally for students, focusing on Part Time Students and ensuring they are represented equally in the National Movement. 4. Tobias Wolf Tobias has been elected as the NUS LGBT+ Committee Transgender Representative. This role is a mix of supporting Trans & Non-binary students across the UK in FE, HE & Apprenticeships. This will involve helping set up events, going to campuses up and down the country to visit and aid in campaigns. As well as running his own campaigns and trying to make education as accessible as possible for Trans students. 5. Taylor Eagles Taylor has been elected as the NUS LGBT+ Committee BI+ Representative. This role is a mix of supporting BI+ students across the UK in FE, HE & Apprenticeships. This will involve helping set up events, going to campuses up and down the country to visit and aid in campaigns. As well as running his own campaigns and trying to make education as accessible as possible for BI+ students. Tobias and Taylor hold similar roles, they will be working closely together to advance equality and accessibility for the LGBT+ Student Community. We at the Students’ Union wish Darren, Sam, Fiona, Tobias and Taylor the best of luck in their roles. If you have any questions feel free to contact them and they will be more than happy to help, and you may help influence decisions that affect almost 10 millions students!

Pride Month PA Highlight | Tonia Poteat, PHD, PA-C, MPH According to Tonia Poteat, PHD, PA-C, MPH, Pride Month “is an opportunity to reflect on the resistance and resilience of LGBTQ ancestors who fought for our freedom to be.” Dr. Poteat (she/her) grew up in a small town in central NC. She completed her undergrad at Yale, majoring in Biology with a concentration in Psychology, and graduating in 1991. During a summer internship with the National Black Women’s Health Project, Dr. Poteat met a PA providing care at the Center for Black Women’s Wellness in Atlanta. She realized that by becoming a PA, she could learn the skills needed “to provide quality care for people whom society often marginalizes, (such as) people living with HIV, Black women, etc.” Dr. Poteat attended PA school at Emory University and graduated in 1995. Dr. Poteat, a cisgender queer lesbian, believes that “most health professionals, including PAs, get very little, if any, training on providing culturally responsive care for LGBTQ people. In particular, very few PAs get training on providing culturally AND medically competent care for transgender people. Health professional training programs can address this by including provision of culturally responsive (and medically appropriate) care for LGBTQ people as a core competency; and state societies can require CME in this area, just like a certain number of pharmacy CME credits are required.” Dr. Poteat hopes that “as the ‘birthplace’ of the PA profession, PA’s in NC continue to innovate and advance healthcare for everyone in the state.” Dr. Poteat currently lives in Durham, NC, and practices at the UNC Infectious Diseases Clinic, providing HIV prevention and treatment for adolescents and adults. She also volunteers as a preceptor for the free, student-run, Gender Affirming Care Clinic, where she provides primary care and hormone therapy for transgender and non-binary people who do not have insurance. With regards to being a PA, Dr. Poteat shares “I love providing patient care (and) building caring relationships with patients who trust me with their health. I like the flexibility of the PA profession and the collegiality of team-based practice.” Outside of clinical practice, Dr. Poteat conducts research on LGBTQ health equity. She is an Associate Professor of Social Medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill, as well as core faculty in the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. She is also the director of the RISE Lab, conducting research on “HIV and LGBT health disparities, with a particular focus on the health and well-being of transgender communities.” Dr. Poteat also provides CME, presenting the session “Providing Medically and Culturally Competent Care for Transgender Adults” at the 2021 NCAPA Summer Conference. - Back to The Pulse

Pandemic has exacerbated inequality in photography industry, report says A new report on the State of the Photography Industry, funded by the Knight Foundation and Catchlight, surveyed more than 1,000 people in 87 countries to try to better understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on photographers. Among its key findings is that existing financial insecurity has been exacerbated by the pandemic, with almost a third of women identifying respondents experiencing a significant loss of income. Huge disparities in access to work, income and health care have been reported, and racism and sexism are seen by most as persistent problems on the ground. Significant wage inequalities persist, the report says. Marginalized groups—including women and non-binary photographers as well as photographers of color—revealed they had a median income of between $20,000 and $29,999, while those who did not identify as marginalized recorded median earnings ranging from $40,000 to $49,999. An even larger gap emerged between photographers from non-Western and Western countries: while the median earnings of the former were between $40,000 and $49,999, the latter reported median earnings of $10,000 to $19 $999. The report claims it is “the first international study of photographers that specifically seeks to understand more deeply the experiences of image-makers from historically marginalized communities.” It is a sequel to the Field survey on the visual storytellerresearch conducted in 2020 by some of the same authors of this report. “We really wanted to do a much larger international survey that asked a lot of questions about what it means to work in photography today,” photojournalist and visual media consultant Tara Pixley, author of both reports, told Hyperallergic. “What are the main problems? What are the obstacles to success and the barriers to entry? What is the demographic makeup of the area? Pixley added that another goal of the 2022 survey was to open up the scope beyond just news photography to encapsulate the industry as a whole. Whites are the dominant racial category represented in the survey, making up 47.3% of the group. Overall, non-white photographers said they faced greater precariousness. Black respondents were almost seven times more likely than white respondents to lack health insurance, for example, representing a significant and unequal barrier to entry into the field. The survey also shows that black and Latino respondents were significantly more concerned about their ability to afford housing. More than half of the photographers surveyed said they had “high” to “moderate” debt. Women and non-binary photographers have been disproportionately impacted by the stress of the pandemic, with 46% saying they questioned whether staying in visual media was worth it from a financial perspective. Beyond the financial downsides of the pandemic, they cited the lack of diversity in the industry as a reason they were considering leaving. “The industry continued to be very expensive to get into and yet the pay actually went down over time,” Pixley said. She hopes the survey results will contribute to changes in the way work is structured in the industry. One suggestion she offers is for editorials and commissioning agencies to pay half the rate upfront, as freelancers’ payment terms can last longer than two or three months, often adding to the debts of freelancers. photographers in the meantime. Finally, Pixley noted that much of the work undertaken to build community and push for change in the historically white and historically male industry — such as the work she has taken on over the past two years — is not paid. “Building community and enabling photo editors and curators to find black women photographers, women of color, Indigenous photographers – we do this work for free,” she said. “We build these communities on our backs. The industry must compensate and recognize the value of this work.

The control and prevention of communicable disease is directly impacted by the genetic mutability of the underlying etiological agents. In the case of RNA viruses, genetic recombination may impact public health by facilitating the generation of new viral strains with altered phenotypes and by compromising the genetic stability of live attenuated vaccines. The landscape of homologous recombination within a given RNA viral genome is thought to be influenced by several factors; however, a complete understanding of the genetic determinants of recombination is lacking. Here, we utilize gene synthesis and deep sequencing to create a detailed recombination map of the poliovirus 1 coding region. We identified over 50 thousand breakpoints throughout the genome, and we show the majority of breakpoints to be concentrated in a small number of specific “hotspots,” including those associated with known or predicted RNA secondary structures. Nucleotide base composition was also found to be associated with recombination frequency, suggesting that recombination is modulated across the genome by predictable and alterable motifs. We tested the predictive utility of the nucleotide base composition association by generating an artificial hotspot in the poliovirus genome. Our results imply that modification of these motifs could be extended to whole genome re-designs for the development of recombination-deficient, genetically stable live vaccine strains. Viral recombination is critical to understanding the evolution of viral groups and impacts vaccine design, but is poorly understood. In the poliovirus vaccine, recombination is one potential mode of failure where vaccine strains recombine to produce a pathogenic product. We combine gene synthesis and deep sequencing to generate a high-resolution recombination map of poliovirus, both as a model RNA virus and a continuing threat that has yet to be eradicated. This map shows that recombination is concentrated into hotspots and suggests that predictable and alterable motifs in the RNA sequence are associated with recombination frequency. We demonstrate the utility of these observations by re-designing a poliovirus strain to recombine more frequently than normal, facilitating future studies on the role of viral recombination during infection. This result suggests that a large-scale redesign of the entire poliovirus genome to dampen recombination may be feasible, with implications for producing safer and more stable live vaccines. Citation: Runckel C, Westesson O, Andino R, DeRisi JL (2013) Identification and Manipulation of the Molecular Determinants Influencing Poliovirus Recombination. PLoS Pathog 9(2): e1003164. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1003164 Editor: Michael S. Diamond, Washington University School of Medicine, United States of America Received: July 13, 2012; Accepted: December 14, 2012; Published: February 7, 2013 Copyright: © 2013 Runckel et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: This work and JDR are supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institution. CR was supported by the Genentech Fellowship at UCSF. RA is supported by grants from the NIAID (R01 AI36178 and AI40085). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Recombination in RNA viruses is a source of genetic diversity and rapid evolutionary change and may result in the emergence of new strains by facilitating shifts in cell tropism, antigen profile and pathogenicity. The mechanism of RNA virus recombination can proceed through re-assortment of genome segments, as is the case for the Influenza A virus, or through the generation of chimeric viral genomes during replication for non-segmented viruses. This recombination is frequent in the wild with different recombinant genotypes rising to dominance and declining over a timescale of only a few years . Sequencing of large numbers of viral isolates has revealed instances of intra-species recombination in many human-infecting RNA viruses with major public health implications, including norovirus , astrovirus , flavivirus and at least eight species of picornavirus –. Rare inter-species recombinants, such as the enteroviruses HEV90 and HEV109 , have also been described. Viral recombination not only impacts public health by the evolution of new viral strains, but may also undermine live-attenuated vaccines by producing a pathogenic strain derived from the attenuated strains. The oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) is the most famous example, where three attenuated serotypes of poliovirus are typically administered simultaneously. One week after inoculation, over a third of Sabin-2 and Sabin-3 viruses shed are recombinant . In the worst case, recipients can develop vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis, potentially through a recombined strain. Vaccine derived polioviruses (VDPVs) may also recombine with other circulating strains of enterovirus to create pathogenic chimeras . Such events have caused outbreaks in numerous locations – and remain an ever-present consideration for newly designed live attenuated vaccines, such as the recently proposed tetravalent Dengue virus vaccine . For engineered vaccine strains, a greater understanding of the underlying molecular determinants influencing recombination in RNA viruses has the potential to mitigate unwanted outcomes. Besides its global health importance, poliovirus has also long served as a model RNA virus and in particular as a model system for the study of recombination. Viral recombination was first demonstrated in poliovirus , subsequently confirmed biochemically and there have been extensive studies since in cell culture examining the timing and topology of recombination between different serotypes and between nearly identical construct strains –. A genetic map of poliovirus using temperature-sensitive mutants first determined the location of the capsid and polymerase genes . Recombination among poliovirus strains in the wild have been readily observed and provide further opportunity for post hoc genetic analysis . Long-term infection of an immune-compromised individual demonstrated that viruses derived from a single lineage also recombine during an infection, but are usually undetectable due to a lack of markers . Together, cell culture and phylogenetic studies have indicated that recombination is not randomly distributed through the genome , . A model for the mechanism of poliovirus recombination was proposed by Kirkegaard and Baltimore (1986). Briefly, the “template-switch” model consists of premature termination of replication and association of the nascent strand with a different template genome, followed by a resumption of replication yielding a chimeric daughter genome. Consistent with this template-switch model, nucleotide homology between viral species may be a major determinant of recombination frequency . Protein incompatibility has also been suggested to constrain the generation of viable recombinants. For example, recombination between the genes encoding the interlocking capsid proteins has rarely been observed , , . However, a lower frequency of recombination in the genes encoding structural proteins may also be the result of differing levels of nucleotide similarity, since capsid genes tend to possess greater sequence diversity than the non-structural genes . The effects of RNA secondary structure add yet another confounding element to the analysis. Enterovirus genomes possess well-documented RNA secondary structures that have been associated with recombination breakpoints , , however it is difficult to disentangle the relative contributions of nucleotide identity and the secondary structure itself with respect to recombination, especially since the sequences of these structures are highly conserved , . In efforts to overcome these issues, previous cell-culture studies have employed nearly identical strains with selectable markers, restriction-enzyme specific mutations , , or unique PCR-primer annealing sites , to detect recombination events over parts of the poliovirus genome at an effective resolution of ~500–1000 nt. It has been estimated from these studies that the frequency of recombinant progeny arising from a single passage of two co-cultured strains is roughly 1-20% – and some studies have indicated that the relative recombination frequency varies in different regions of the genome, with the structural genes having a lower frequency than the non-structural genes , . In order to obtain a higher resolution map and to elucidate the sequence-specific determinants underlying poliovirus recombination, we have developed an approach utilizing a synthetic poliovirus genome engineered to contain 368 specific markers. By ultra deep sequencing, we examined the resulting viral population produced by co-infection of cells with wild type and synthetic poliovirus genomes. The resulting high-resolution map of recombination frequencies allowed us to uncover key genomic features that both enhance or repress recombination. Based on these results, we then reengineered a portion of the genome to increase the frequency of recombination. These results identify RNA features influencing recombination and demonstrate that they may be altered with predictable outcomes. These results also suggest possible routes to attenuating recombination frequencies in synthetic vaccine strains. Construct Strain Design and Validation Gene synthesis is inherently free from the limitations of traditional site directed mutagenesis and cloning procedures and thus enables any number of genetic modifications. Using gene synthesis, we have designed and synthesized a poliovirus genome engineered explicitly for the purpose of measuring enterovirus recombination. In total, we specified 368 synonymous marker mutations, spaced every 18nt, spanning the poliovirus 1 coding region (Figure 1A) with the intent of using Illumina deep sequencing technology to detect recombinants between wild type and mutant poliovirus. This synthetic genome was chemically synthesized (Blue Heron, Inc.) and then tested for viability by transfection. A. Synonymous mutations were made in a synthetic poliovirus 1 genome every 18 nt. Construct and wild-type plasmid DNA was exchanged to create two partially tagged strains, C1 and C2. Mutations observed in recovered populations are indicated by arrows in C1. Recombination (or a lack of recombination) is determined by Illumina sequencing, with recombination rate calculated as the ratio of discordant to concordant marker pairs at any given location. B. Wild-type and construct viruses co-infect a HeLa monolayer at high MOI. RNA is extracted after the infectious cycle is complete and reverse transcribed in an oil droplet emulsion. The emulsion is broken and the cDNA is amplified to ~2.6 kb PCR amplicons in another emulsion. This emulsion is broken and recovered large PCR amplicons are fragmented and adapters ligated to the sheared ends by transposase. Illumina compatible fragments are again amplified by PCR in emulsion prior to extraction, quantitation and Illumina sequencing. The initial full-length synthetic mutant virus construct was not viable when transfected into HeLaS3 cells. Therefore, we chose to arbitrarily divide the parental synthetic construct into two sub-constructs (C1 and C2, Figure 1A and M&M). These constructs were viable and were passaged twice after transfection to allow any adaptation that was necessary and to generate large quantities of virus for further analysis of a single stock. Passage 2 viruses (P2) achieved CPE in a similar time as wild type and with similar burst sizes and titers (Table S1). To check for additional mutations or reversion of our engineered markers, the genomes of both constructs were recovered and re-sequenced after three passages. No reversions were detected, however three additional mutations were revealed, all in the capsid region (G1872U, U2134C and A2663G) of C1 (black triangles, Figure 1A). No mutations were observed in C2. One-step growth curves of the constructs reveal robust amplification for the C2 strain compared to wild-type, while the C1 strain was consistently slower than wild-type by 5–10-fold at 4, 6 and 8 hours post infection. However, C1 ultimately produced a similar number of competent infectious virions (~109 pfu/mL) as wild type by 10 hours and beyond (Figure S1A). Plaque size and morphology were similar between strains (Figure S1B) and direct competition assays, where viruses were co-inoculated at equal titer and allowed to compete, showed nearly equivalent representation after one passage. In contrast, by passage 4, the wild type had completely out-competed both synthetic construct strains (Figure S1C). These results indicate that there was a mild loss of fitness incurred by the synonymous mutations in the synthetic construct strains, yet they were viable and competitive with the wild-type strain for at least one infectious cycle. These results are consistent with previous observations , . Recombination Mapping by Deep Sequencing Monolayers of HeLaS3 cells were coinfected with wild-type virus and each of the synthetic construct strains at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 10 PFUs/cell. Viral RNA was harvested after 24 hours. Relative levels of viral RNA was determined by strain-independent PCR/cloning/strain-specific colony PCR. We observed a WT:Construct RNA ratio of 0.61–0.92 before inoculation and 0.75–1.08 at harvest. Illumina-compatible libraries were generated from the RNA using a standard protocol intended for RNA-seq meta-transcriptome applications . A “no coinfection” control was conducted in parallel, wherein cells were infected with each virus in separate cultures, harvested at 24 hr and pooled prior to library generation. The no-coinfection control libraries provide a measure of the false-positive rate, since these samples were cultured separately and thus do not contain any recombinant virus. However, we observed high rates (1.5 breakpoints per genome) of recombinant sequences in the dataset, presumably caused by template switching during reverse transcription and/or PCR , . To circumvent the occurrence of false-recombination during library preparation, we employed a serial oil/water-emulsion droplet technique to effectively create single molecule reaction vessels for all subsequent enzymatic operations . Each step of the process, beginning with reverse transcription and proceeding through fragment amplification and Illumina adaptor PCR, was conducted within separate emulsions as diagrammed in Figure 1C. After optimization of the library preparation, biological replicates of the coinfection experiment and matching no-coinfection controls were prepared and sequenced using an Illumina HiSeq2000. The error rate of Illumina sequencing and the error rate of enzymatic amplification both present challenges for the interpretation of recombination mapping data. With previously reported recombination frequencies of 1–20% per genome per infectious cycle and 366 marker pairs, the mean ratio of recombinant to non-recombinant marker pairs is expected to be 1 in 104 to 1 in 103. Using published enzyme error rates, the highest fidelity commercially available enzymes possess a theoretical error rate of 1:40,000 , . Illumina sequencing has published error rates per base of 0.1–1% . To surmount both of these confounding sources of error, we only designated a read as evidence of a recombination breakpoint if, and only if, the candidate breakpoint was supported by a minimum of two markers on each side (Figure 1B). This requirement effectively squares the overall error rate at a cost of approximately 50% of the data set. After quality filtering by removing reads of with any ambiguous base calls (Ns) and trimming 10 nt off of the error-prone 3′ end of each read, 75 and 66 million reads (each now 90 nt long) were obtained for the biological replicates, yielding a total of 110.8 and 99.0 million marker pairs mapped, disallowing any mismatches or ambiguities in alignment (Table 1). Marker pairs within 40 nt of amplicon primer binding sites were also removed, in addition to those modified for RFLP analysis (see M&M). In total, 82% of marker pairs passed all quality thresholds and were used for this analysis. Relative RNA abundance confirmed a WT:Construct RNA ratio of 0.78 and 0.82. The signal-to-noise ratio of the coinfection to the no-coinfection control, defined as the sum of recombination frequencies observed at each marker pair in the experimental dataset divided by the no-coinfection control, ranged from 23.1:1 to 29.5:1, and averaged 26.6:1. While the biological replicates were highly correlated (R2 = 0.72, Figure S2A), there was no similarity to the no-coinfection control (R2 = 0.10) as expected. The replicates of the no-coinfection controls exhibited weak similarity (R2 = 0.24). We observed a 2-fold variation in per marker pair recombination frequency between replicates, however the rank order of marker pairs was highly similar (Spearman ρ = 0.91, Figure S2B) thus permitting identification of associations despite small differences in magnitude. Overall Topology of Recombination We observed over 50,000 recombinant molecules in this mapping experiment (Figure 2). The overall distribution of recombination breakpoints was highly consolidated with 47% of the total breakpoints observed in only 10% of the marker pairs with a mean recombination frequency of 0.14% versus 0.024% in the lower 90% of marker pairs. Breakpoint occurrences were observed between all but two of the marker pairs, with no significant difference between capsid and non-structural genes when considering mean or median recombination frequencies averaged over those regions (0.031% vs. 0.042% mean crossovers per 17-nt, p>0.1). Gene boundaries have been proposed as recombination hotspots , however no association was observed examining either the precise site of gene boundaries, or those sites and their adjacent marker pairs. The total recombination frequencies measured were 10% and 12% for the biological replicates respectively. These frequencies are within and favoring the upper bound of previous estimates –, . A. Sequencing coverage depth per marker pair. B. Frequency of discordant vs. concordant marker pairs across the genome. Positions of high recombination (over 0.001 discordant) in red. Not assayed areas marked in blue (see Methods). C. Individually infected virus strains were pooled after RNA extraction to determine false recombination from the library preparation steps, displayed at the same scale as section B. RNA Secondary Structure RNA secondary structure has previously been identified as an enhancer of recombination and our results strongly support this association . The largest peak of recombination frequency coincides with the RNAseL element (p<10−6), an RNA secondary structure located in the 3C gene and associated with host nuclease inhibition . Recombination over this element was 3.5 times higher than the rest of the genome and included the largest recombination hotspot observed (0.44% recombinant)(Figure 2A). The CRE element, the only other well characterized RNA structure in the coding region , was not modified in our synthetic constructs due to concerns over viability of the mutant. We examined predicted secondary structure over the entire genome using Unafold and a sliding 52-nt window corresponding to each marker pair and the adjacent marker pairs. Windows with a predicted folding energy of less than −8 kcal/mol associated significantly (p = 0.0005) with reduced recombination frequency (Figure 3), with structured regions exhibiting a higher rate of recombination. Marker pairs are binned based on the Unafold calculated RNA folding energy of the marker pair and the flanking pairs (52-nt fragments). Biological replicates are shown in black and grey. Statistical associations are determined by Student's t-test after multiple testing correction. We examined associations between sequence composition and recombination frequency. We found that GC content bias was associated with recombination: high GC marker pairs (>55% over a 17 nt window) were associated with a 1.3x increase in recombination frequency (p = 0.027) and low GC content (<40%) was associated with a 2.1x decrease (p = 0.00017) (Figure 4A). Tracts of AU or GC nucleotides were also associated with reduced and increased recombination, respectively (Figure 4B,C). The magnitude of the effect increased with the length of the tract, from an increase of 1.3-fold for GC tetramers to 1.9-fold for hexamers (p = 0.00004). AU tracts showed an inverse effect, with AU tetramers associated with 2.6-fold reduction in recombination and 3.9-fold for hexamers (p<10−6). Effects were observed for GC content even after accounting for AU and GC tracts, and vice versa, suggesting that the two may have independent effects or that the effects are related and involve a more complicated relationship than can be determined with this data set. The “no-coinfection” control data was subjected to the same analysis, however none of the models achieved statistical significance. We also applied these analyses to the dataset shifted one marker pair up or downstream to identify effects that may not manifest themselves locally; no significant associations were observed. A. Marker pairs are binned by the GC content of the intervening 17 nt. B. Marker pairs are binned by the presence of tracts of consecutive A or U nucleotides of varying lengths. Bins are non-exclusive (i.e. marker pairs in the AU 6-mer bin are also included in the 4-mer bin). C. As B, binned by the presence of G or C tracts. Other motifs were also examined with regard to recombination frequency. Homopolymer tracts and all dinucleotide pairs were compared with no significant associations except for AU and GC tracts; and their associated homopolymers lacked sufficient occurrences to achieve significance. No association was observed between the overall complexity of the sequence between marker pairs, as measured by LZW compression score , . To investigate whether more complex or cryptic sequence motifs were associated with recombination frequency, we employed fReduce and BioProspector . As these software packages are intended to identify short sequence motifs associated with transcription factor binding sites, we substituted recombination frequency as faux expression data and inter-marker regions as promoter sequences. These analyses yielded no significant predictions, however one caveat is that rare motifs or highly degenerate motifs would be unlikely to be detected in this analysis due to the small size of the genome. An Engineered Hotspot The aggregated analyses revealed both secondary structure and AU/GC content as being significantly associated with bias in poliovirus recombination. To further validate and understand the relationship between GC- and AU-rich regions and recombination, we redesigned and synthesized a portion of the poliovirus capsid region with 40 synonymous mutations over a 332-nt region with the intention of creating or extending GC tetramers or disrupting AU tracts whenever possible. For this region, the number and length of GC tracts was increased (Table 2, Figure 5A) while AU tracts 4 nt or longer were eliminated. The GC content of the region was increased by 12% which resulted in a 26% increase in the overall predicted folding energy (−108.3 kcal/mol vs. −136.7 kcal/mol) (Unafold, M&M). This GC-rich construct was cloned into a wild-type poliovirus infectious clone. Synonymous mutations flanking the GC-rich region were added to both the test region construct and the wild type construct. A. Wild-type poliovirus, with AU and GC tracts highlighted, was tagged with triple synonymous markers separated by 332 nt. Another construct was made by synonymously mutating bases to create or extend GC tracts and destroy AU tracts. An identical triple marker pair was installed on a derivative strain, both strains are shown with and without the triplet marker to stress that both pairs were assayed separately. B. Marked and unmarked viruses were co-infected and marker discordance calculated. The GC-rich construct, the wild-type strains and wild-type strains without co-infection as a control were assayed (n = 6 each). Coinfection experiments were performed and Illumina-compatible libraries generated for each virus pair as for the mapping experiment. This assay consisted of a single amplicon, requiring only a one-step RT-PCR in emulsion. Six coinfections each were performed with marked and unmarked wild-type virus, with the GC-rich construct and with no-coinfection controls of wild-type virus. The GC-rich construct was found to increase the rate of recombination by 7.4x over the 332-nt region (Figure 5B). This result supports our finding that the presence of GC-rich regions positively influences the rate of poliovirus recombination at those regions. By combining synthetic poliovirus genome constructs with the large read depth conferred by Illumina sequencing, we describe a recombination map covering 82% of the poliovirus 1 coding region with over 50 thousand recombinant molecules observed. A whole genome recombination rate of 0.10 to 0.12 crossovers per genome per infectious cycle was observed for biological replicates. This rate is within the previously published estimates of 1–20% for near identical strains in cell culture , , . It is important to note that our recombination estimate differs in form from most previous experiments by examining the RNA of all virions produced rather than examining viable isolates. We used a large number of input viral RNA genomes compared to observed genomes equivalents (50 million vs. 723 thousand) in order to minimize multiple observations of the same viral genome amplified by PCR with an estimated 87.5% recombinants observed being from unique input starting molecules. It is important to note that our estimates of recombination frequency and location are thus presented with the caveat that we have observed the frequency of recombinants at the conclusion of infection and not necessarily the recombination events themselves, as it is not possible to identify recombinant molecules that are phylogenetically unique. For example, a recombination event could be followed by replication and subsequent positive strand amplification, resulting in a bias that would not be distinguishable in this data. This mapping technique is amenable to any virus for which there is an infectious clone and suitable cell line for transfection and coinfection, and could subsequently be applied to animal infections. Notably, this strategy is also possible in poorly studied viruses as no pair of selectable mutations need be identified and characterized prior to construct design. We note that this mapping strategy is intended for homologous recombination and is unsuited for the mapping of non-homologous recombination due to the reliance on specific PCR and amplicon size selection, which in turn selects against large deletions or duplications. While requiring a different methodology and controls, such maps should be feasible and comparison of those to homologous recombination maps could prove informative. Poliovirus was used here as a well-understood model, but was also advantageous due to robust growth in cell culture. While our synthetic virus had an identical protein coding sequence to the wild type, there are presumably undiscovered RNA secondary structure elements in the poliovirus genome that were disrupted by the markers. Three mutations in the C1 strain arose, however none of these coincided with markers and thus cannot be considered direct revertants. Whether these mutations represent compensatory changes to currently unknown secondary structure elements or rose to prominence in the population for other reasons is unknown. It is important to note that there could be unanticipated selection forces operating within this mapping system that could result in bias for or against recombinant viruses. While it is impossible to eliminate the possibility, we have attempted to minimize the likelihood of such selection by avoiding the use of selectable markers and by collecting virus progeny after only one infectious cycle, conducted at high multiplicity of infection. The sample preparation requirements of ultra-high throughput sequencing are prone to artifactual recombination by template switching during library production. Previous studies using RT-PCR to characterize recombination frequency may have avoided this issue by using extremely low starting concentrations of template. Library preparation techniques require quantities of template orders of magnitude greater than that required for RT-PCR, necessitating the development of the emulsion-based library generation protocol described here. We note that our emulsion generation method (bead milling) produces variable vesicle sizes that require generous template dilutions, and it is likely that this could be improved by utilizing microfluidic droplet makers . Alternatively, Ozsolak et al have sequenced RNA molecules directly without reverse transcription, which could provide a more direct means of assaying recombination with a similar viral construct design. Phylogenetic studies rarely observe enterovirus recombinants with crossovers in the capsid region. This observation could be the result of protein incompatibility affecting viability, low nucleotide homology preventing recombination from occurring at all, or some sequence-based factor dampening recombination. Our results do not support a significant difference in recombination rate between the capsid and the non-structural region, even including the large hotspot at the RNAseL element. The extremes of GC content, and in particular long tracts of only AU or GC nucleotides, are also associated with bias in recombination frequency. In the simplest interpretation, incomplete RNAs terminating in GC-rich sequences could be expected to anneal to a new template genome more robustly than AU-rich sequences as a straightforward matter of thermodynamics and in line with the established copy-choice mechanism (treated in King 1988 ). This interpretation suggests that in poliovirus, thermodynamic factors influence annealing of the nascent strand to the recipient genome to a greater extent than the initial dissociation of the donor genome. In the converse scenario, GC-rich regions would instead be less prone to fraying or dissociation from the original template and be associated with reduced recombination. The inverse symmetry of GC and AU effects further favors a simple thermodynamic model. An alternate and not exclusive model would consider RNA secondary structure to be the mechanism for recombination modulation, with GC and AU content influencing recombination indirectly by altering secondary structure stability. Our results support earlier associations of the RNAseL element with recombination and further suggest that local secondary structure, as predicted in silico, also globally influences recombination rate. We also note that a recently described RNA secondary structure (Burril et al, personal communication) also corresponds to a recombination hotspot in the 3D region. While these two biologically functional secondary structures correspond to regions of high recombination, our in silico prediction simply examines the potential for local secondary structure, and not biological function. These conclusions suggest that it is plausible that a global redesign of the poliovirus genome could be implemented with the intent of reducing recombination potential by disrupting secondary structure elements and modulating nucleotide use. The frequency of AU and GC tracts is associated with the genomic GC content in Picornavirus species. Poliovirus represents a moderate case with a GC content of 46%. Other Enterovirus species, the genus Cardiovirus and most newly described or proposed genera have a similar GC content and AU/GC tract frequency (Figure 6). The genera Parechovirus, Hepatovirus and the Rhinovirus species all possess higher than average AU content, while the genera Apthovirus and Kobuvirus are GC rich relative to other picornaviruses. Based on the AU and GC tract associations described, we would predict that intra-typic homologous recombination rates within the GC-rich clades would be greater than poliovirus (eg. Aichivirus, FMDV), and that the AT-rich clades (parechoviruses, hepatoviruses, rhinoviruses) would have less intra-typic recombination potential than poliovirus. A major caveat of this prediction is that other factors, such as replication kinetics, the formation of replication rosettes, and differences in the viral polymerase could potentially confound such a simple relationship. Further, the tendency of each clade towards mixed heterotypic infections as a function of number of strains, shared cell tropism or frequency of infection are all confounding variables. No comparable recombination studies in vitro using nearly identical strains have been performed in these other picornaviruses, thus we cannot directly compare recombination frequency as opposed to other limits on homologous recombination. Type strains of picornavirus species were analyzed for the presence of AU or GC 4-mers, with the absolute number of AU- or GC-tracts displayed on the positive and negative y-axes. The GC/AU and secondary structure motifs are straightforward to identify and can be engineered, with caveats. We modified a test region representing 4.5% of the genome to create or extend GC-rich tracts with synonymous mutations and eliminate AU tracts. The net effect of this modification was an increase in GC content (by 12%) and an increase in predicted folding energy (by 26%). This redesign underscores the difficulty of modifying coding sequence while leaving other, possibly vital, sequence factors in place. GC-content in virus sequences may be a form of adaptation to the host , and it is possible that making GC-content changes across an entire genome will render a virus non-viable or adjust its growth parameters, such as cell tropism and permissive temperature. CpG and UpA elements in RNA are underrepresented in mammalian RNA viruses , and have been associated with immune stimulation and endonuclease susceptibility , . Notably, Burns et al (2009) re-engineered Poliovirus 2 to increase GC content by 15% while maintaining CpG and UpA frequency without compromising viability in cell culture, however when only 9% of the genome was saturated with UpA and CpG elements the virus was rendered almost nonviable . Lessons from poliovirus vaccines clearly teach the need for a better understanding of recombination potential and the factors that influence it. Ultimately, knowledge and manipulation of these factors may assist in the development and validation of recombination deficient attenuated vaccine strains. Virus Design and Manipulations Six different staggers are possible when synonymously recoding a sequence every 18-nt. A python script generated all possible staggers of the pAL-WT plasmid containing a modified poliovirus 1 genome with the variant placing the fewest possible mutations on tryptophans or methionines, which cannot be synonymously mutated, selected for further redesign. A poliovirus codon table was used to mutate optimal codons to the second most optimal codon, and mutate all other codons to the optimal codon. When methionines or tryptophans were encountered, the marker was shifted one codon 5′ or 3′. Every ~500 nt, sites of synonymous hyper-divergence were engineered with at least 5 mismatches within 9 consecutive nucleotides to act as specific primer sites for PCR- or qPCR-based low-resolution recombination assays. In addition, 22 single synonymous mutations were made to create unique restrictions sites in the infectious clone plasmid to facilitate future modification and RFLP assays. The design was submitted to Blue Heron (OriGene) for chemical synthesis. The construct infectious clone plasmid and pAL-WT were subsequently digested with BglII and ApaI (NEB), reciprocal fragments ligated and chemically transformed into Transformax cells (Epicentre) with a 30C overnight incubation step followed by subsequent bacterial culture at 37C (GenBank accessions JX286703-4). Infectious clone plasmid DNA was linearized with MluI (NEB) prior to T7 in vitro transcription. 10 µg of RNA was electroporated in a 4 mm cuvette (300 V, 1000 µF, 24 Ohms) into 5×106 HeLaS3 cells as a standard reaction; up to 50 µg of RNA was attempted for the construct cRNA (adapted from ). Cells were maintained in 50% DMEM/50% F12 media, 10% newborn calf serum and 2 mM glutamine; immediately after transfection cells were maintained in 10% Fetal Bovine Serum instead of NCS. Virus stocks were harvested after cytopathic effect (CPE) was observed by 3 rounds of freeze/thaw at −80C and 37C. Viruses were passaged at high Multiplicity of Infection (MOI) with a 1:20 dilution of harvested media into fresh media and cells. Plaque assays were performed on ~106 HeLaS3 cells in 6-well plates by washing cells with PBS, inoculation of 10-fold dilutions of virus in media, incubation for 60 minutes at 37C, an additional wash with PBS and overlay with 1% agarose and 50% DMEM/50% F12 with 1%NCS and 2 mM glutamine. One-step growth curves were performed in similar fashion with a 0.1 MOI virus inoculum and overlay in 10% NCS and media instead of an agarose formulation. Cultures were frozen at 2-hour intervals and harvested as above prior to plaque assay to determine viral load. Coinfections were inoculated on 4×106 cells with two virus stocks at an MOI of 10 each, washed after 1 hour and incubated for 24 hours in 10% NCS media prior to harvest and freeze-thaw. Viral RNA was extracted by Trizol (Invitrogen)/chloroform followed by isopropanol precipitation. Virus stocks for the competition assay were passaged at 0.1 MOI for an additional four passages. Competition assay RNA was amplified by non-strain specific primers, cloned by Topo-TA (Invitrogen) and colonies PCR amplified with strain specific primers to determine strain frequency. RT-qPCR was performed using primers PolioQF 5′-ACTCATTATCTATCTGTTTGCTGGATC and PolioQR 5′-TGATKGGCTCGGTGAACTTGG, with Superscript III reverse transcriptase (Invitrogen) and the Kapa 2x qPCR master mix (Kapa Biosystems) as per manufacturer's instructions on a Roche LC480 Lightcycler with an annealing temperature of 64C. RT-qPCR was used to determine viral RNA copy-number per mL of harvested culture supernatant and viral RNA concentration for input into the emulsion reverse transcription reaction, below. Emulsion Library Construction Emulsion conditions were adapted from , emulsions were created by overlaying 600 µL of 2% EM90 (Degussa) and 0.05% Triton X-100 in light mineral oil (Sigma) with 200 uL of aqueous reaction mix on ice in 2 mL round-bottom tubes with 5 mm zinc-plated steel ball bearings. Solutions were shaken in a TissueLyzer II at 15 Hz for 10 sec and 17 Hz for 10 sec. Reactions were prepared in parallel to achieve a template occupancy ratio of 1:1,000. 100 µL aliquots of emulsion were then transferred to 0.2 mL PCR tubes with a wide-bore pipette for thermocycling. For extraction, 100 µL of diethyl ether and 1 µL of 1% Cresol red (as an aqueous phase indicator dye) was added to each reaction and transferred to a 1.7 mL tube. PCR tubes were washed with an additional 100 µL of diethyl ether, which was also added to the recovery tube. Emulsions were broken by vortexing at maximum speed (3000 rpm) for 30 seconds and centrifugation at 13.2 k rpm for 1 minute followed by removal of the oil phase. This wash and breaking was repeated once with diethyl ether, once with ethyl acetate and then twice with diethyl ether. The aqueous phase was dried in a speed-vac centrifuge for 10 minutes and column purified (Zymo). Reverse transcription and PCR reaction mixes were adapted to function under emulsion conditions: Bovine Serum Albumin (NEB) was added to a final concentration of 5% to serve as a bulking agent at the oil interface, detergent-containing reaction buffers were avoided and enzymes were added to 5% final reaction volume. All thermocyler incubation times were extended to at least 1 minute to facilitate heat transfer. Reverse transcriptions were performed with SuperScript II (Invitrogen) with manufacturer's buffers and PCR reactions performed with Phusion (NEB) with detergent-less High Fidelity buffer. Equivalent quantities of 25,000,000 genomes (105 pg) of each virus were used in the reverse transcription reaction as determined by RT-qPCR and confirmed by BioAnalyzer (Agilent). The complete product of each step was then applied to each subsequent step. Reverse transcription was performed separately with three specific primers and each reaction was then amplified by PCR with the appropriate specific primer pair. Large PCR products were size-selected on a LabChip XT with the DNA 2 k beta chip and quantitated by BioAnalyzer. Products were then subjected to transposase-based library preparation by Nextera (Epicentre) followed by emulsion PCR with Phusion. The product of this reaction was size selected for 400–500 nt products using the LabChip DNA 750 chip, quantitated by qPCR (Kapa) and applied directly to sequencing on an Illumina HiSeq2000 with 100 nt paired end reads. Deep sequencing data was filtered for quality: all sequences with more than 1 N were removed and sequences without a perfect match of at least 55 nt to either wild-type or construct strains were discarded. Reads were trimmed from 100 nt to 90 nt due to error rates of over 1% per base in the terminal region. Custom scripts were used to generate all possible recombinant and non-recombinant wild type and construct sequences spanning four markers (55 nt) and count perfect matches in the dataset. We identified an additional source of artifactual recombination that occurs during library preparation: both the RT and PCR steps utilize specific primer sites and at locations immediately 3′ of the primer sites (see PCR amplicons in Figure 2B) extremely high levels of apparent recombination were observed in both the no-infection control and experimental datasets. These false-recombinants presumably arose due to abortive initiation. We removed sites 40 nt 3′ of the primer sites from all subsequent analyses (3% of marker pairs). The ends of the PCR amplicons exhibited low read coverage and were also removed from this analysis (2% of marker pairs). Furthermore, the short region spanning the region of overlap between the two synthetic constructs was not covered by an amplicon in this analysis (6%). A total of 22 of 366 marker pairs were designed to either create or destroy a restriction site, providing target sites for RFLP assays of recombination. These marker pairs (6%) were also excluded from analysis. Secondary structure predictions of the poliovirus genome were determined by Unafold analysis of overlapping four-marker tiles (52 nt without the flanking markers). Other analysis platforms are discussed specifically in the text. The following models were considered for their presence between each marker pair: presence of a homopolymer of 4 nt or longer (4 models), presence of a dinucleotide tract of 4 nt or longer (6 models), or presence of a gene boundary (2 models). Non-binary models were considered by binning continuous scores into three similar size bins and attempting to associate the upper or lower bin vs the rest of the dataset (2 models each): GC content, LZW score, and unafold folding energy (over a 52 nt tile). In addition, two additional models were considered from the top output of the BioProspector and fReduce analysis packages for a total of twenty models; a multiple testing correction was applied to all association tests to compensate for this. Association tests were performed as Student's t-tests using the OpenEpi statistical calculator (www.openepi.com). Biological replicates were considered as discrete data points in this analysis, for a total of 580 marker pair data points. Calculations of Breakpoint Uniqueness We coinfected 4×106 cells with an MOI of 10 for each of two viruses (WT and construct). From the 1/10th volumes of supernatant extracted for RNA or plaque assayed, ~3×108 pfus or virions or ~1011 encapisidated RNA genomes were recovered. We then applied 50,000,000 total genomes (25 million each) into the initial emulsion RT-step. The fraction of the input genomes that yielded full length 2.6 kb PCR products was approximately 5%, as determined by qPCR. Thus, the products of the emulsion PCR were derived from approximately 2.5 million starting molecules, comprising 725 million total marker pairs (290 marker pairs per genome equivalent). A total of 209.8 million marker pairs were mapped by sequencing. Assuming Poisson statistics, approximately 21% of the total marker pairs were sampled once, and approximately 3% were sampled more than once. Artificial Hotspot Experiment A 400 nt DNA molecule was synthesized by IDT, added to a larger poliovirus PCR amplicon by fusion PCR and cloned into the prib(+)XpAlong plasmid at restriction sites AatII and NheI. Triplet marker sites were added by modified primers amplifying construct or wild-type DNA, followed by similar fusion PCR and cloning steps. Viruses were generated and propagated from the infectious clones as above. The coinfection experiment was performed identically, however the library generation was executed in a single emulsion step using SuperScriptIII/Platinum Taq one-step RT-PCR mix (Invitrogen) and specific primers, otherwise as above. Amplicons were sequenced on a HiSeq2000 diluted to a ratio of <1:10 with an unrelated insect RNA library to dampen decoupling effects; the poliovirus reads were prepared with unique DNA indices and were separated after sequencing. A lane that experienced severe over-clustering, which exacerbates the decoupling effect, was discarded from analysis. Synthetic poliovirus constructs were submitted to GenBank (see materials and methods). Fitness characterization of construct strains. A. One-step growth curves. Virus strains were applied to HeLa monolayers, washed and time-point samples frozen every two hours (x-axis) in triplicate (error bars). Samples were thawed and the titer measured by plaque assay (y-axis). B. Plaques formed by construct strains were not visually different from the wild type. C. Competition assay. Viruses were co-infected at equal titer, harvested and passaged into fresh cells four times. Viral RNA was extracted, amplified by strain-conserved primers, cloned and transformed into bacteria, and the relative quantity of each strain determined by strain specific colony PCR. Comparison of biological replicates. HeLa monolayers were co-infected in parallel and proceeded through all steps of library preparation and sequencing separately. A. The recombination frequency at each marker pair is presented as a separate data point. Recombination was not observed at two data points; these are not included in the figure. B. Rank ordered list of marker pairs and corresponding recombination frequency. Comparison of experimental vs. no-coinfection control datasets. A. Non-zero recombination frequencies are plotted comparing the experimental results with the control results to determine the similarity of artifactual recombination to biological recombination. B. Rank-ordered plot of experimental vs. control datasets, with the control x-axis expanded by 26-fold to display equivalent scale between the two datasets. A Pearson coefficient of r = 0.10 and a Spearman rank coefficient of ρ = 0.14 is observed between the datasets. Infectivity characteristics of construct virus strains. Construct viruses were assayed for viability compared to wild type by plaque-assay and qPCR for genomic RNA concentration. Burst size is calculated by total plaque forming units harvested divided by the number of cells infected. We thank members of the DeRisi and Andino lab for thoughtful discussion and the academic editor and reviewers for helpful critique and improvements. Conceived and designed the experiments: CR RA JLD. Performed the experiments: CR. 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The Freemasons are to allow women members for the first time, but only if they joined the secretive organisation as men. The United Grand Lodge of England, founded in 1717, issued a guidance to its 200,000 members under its “gender reassignment policy” which says that new members must be male, but once admitted they can remain a member as a woman. Anyone who has transitioned to becoming a man may also apply. Female members should still be greeted with the prefix “brother”. Alternatives to the formal suit and tie have been allowed, including a “smart dark skirt and top”. The new policy says: “It is important that any situation involving gender reassignment of a Freemason is treated with the utmost compassion and sensitivity and that the individual is supported throughout the process. “No candidate should be subjected to questions about their gender which could make them feel uncomfortable.” The new policy was issued to lodges on July 17. According to the Times, a senior judge, who is a Freemason, was asked to look into the legal ramifications of gender reassignment and discrimination. The Stonemasons are protected from legal accusations of gender discrimination based on their admissions criteria because they are recognised as a single-sex association. However, this status does not protect them from accusations of discrimination against current members. Under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and the Equality Act 2010 a man who has joined the Freemasons cannot be excluded after transitioning because gender reassignment is a protected right. The new guidance comes after it was revealed prominent freemason Edward Lord was overseeing a gender identity drive as part of his role as chair of the City of London’s establishment committee. Lord, who identifies as non-binary and asks to be referred to by the pronoun “they”, was criticised for being a member of the male-only Freemasons.

Gay culture is, in part, about the rejection of conformity. So how does a theatre company define itself as queer when gay drama has become an essential part of the American canon? If white, cisgendered companies can mount Rent and high schools can stage Angels in America, what role do queer theatres have in American theatre today? Success is an ironic problem. Unlike the theatre industry, which is still dominated by New York, the gay community has no center. Maybe one way to answer the question “What is LGBT theatre?” is to look at companies across the country who self-identify as queer. Playbill looked at the dozens of “out” companies, from California to New York Island, to examine queer-run troupes in an era when larger, general-interest theatres are proud allies. Queer theatres, on the whole, are far more likely to stage plays about women, race and poverty than their mainstream counterparts. This programming enhances those themes in even the most canonical works: mount a play about a femme Latina dealing with body issues, and Angels in America’s Louis gains significance as well. But predictably, the alternative spirit of LGBT culture makes a uniform conclusion impossible. Instead, the sheer diversity inspires us. These companies embrace the young, old and in-between, accept gay, straight and non-binary sexualities and identities and invent new modes of production and organization. As the LGBT community gains acceptance in America, it rewrites definitions of normality and lifts other marginalized groups as well. Here are eight queer companies who help to suggest the dazzling variety of contemporary queer theatre and seven others making their mark across the country. About Face Theatre Andrew Volkoff, artistic director “About Face Theatre creates exceptional, innovative, and adventurous theatre and educational programming that advances the national dialogue on sexual and gender identity, and challenges and entertains audiences in Chicago and beyond.” About the company Celebrating its 20th anniversary, this equity theatre in Chicago displays a staying power that eludes most young companies, gay or straight. Though it occasionally presents the local premieres and revivals, About Face mainly develops and mounts new plays. This focus has been present since the company’s inception. Then, in response to the 1999 murder of Matthew Shepard, the company formed About Face Youth Theatre (AFYT). This program engages with Chicagoland’s queer youth by fusing theatre with activism and community. Nearly every season since has staged a show created by the AFYT program. Subsequently About Face inaugurated the XYZ Festival of New Work, and presents developmental readings to the public (the Out Front Series) and to artistic associates (First Draaft). Among local institutions, the company has also collaborated with the Goodman, Lookingglass, and American Theatre Company. But About Face reached a new level of acclaim in collaboration with the Tectonic Theater Project. The play that the two companies developed, I Am My Own Wife, would elevate About Face to a national arena when the show reached Broadway and won a Tony and Pulitzer (the company will revive this drama for its 21st season). In just two decades, About Face has earned over 60 Jeff nominations and won over a dozen. Not satisfied to coast on its reputation, About Face recently announced a plan to open new offices and rehearsal space for other theatres in the Chicago area. San Francisco, CA John Fisher, artistic director “Theatre Rhinoceros develops and produces works of theatre that enlighten, enrich, and explore both the ordinary and extraordinary aspects of our queer community.” About the Company If Theatre Rhinoceros had only premiered The AIDS Show in 1984, they’d deserve a place in queer theatre history. Co-authored by 20 Bay-area artists, this was the first work by any company to deal with the epidemic. That same year, sadly, the company’s founder, Allan Estes, died from AIDS-related illness. Estes had founded the Rhino in 1977 with a play staged at a leather bar, The Black and Blue. The company found a permanent space in 1981, settling in the historic Redstone Building in the Mission District. For seven years, Estes staged work by local playwrights and brought established, out New York writers to the West Coast. Harvey Fierstein provided the theatre with a set of one-acts that would become the Tony-winning Torch Song Trilogy. The long post-Estes era of the Rhino has solidified a reputation for intersectionality and inclusiveness, collaborating with local Latino and African-American arts organizations. Even as the tech industry is gentrifying the City by the Bay, Theatre Rhinoceros continues to produce queer theatre, a throwback to the city of Harvey Milk and the original rainbow flags. San Diego, CA Matt Morrow, artistic director “Diversionary Theatre was founded in 1986 to provide quality theatre for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. The mission of the theatre is to provide an inspiring and thought-provoking theatrical platform to explore complex and diverse LGBT stories, which influence the larger cultural discussion. Our vision is to foster and amplify the next generation of LGBT voices providing live entertainment in a dynamic, inclusive, and provocative environment that celebrates and preserves our unique culture.” About the Company San Diego doesn’t get enough credit for its theatre scene—nearly 40 professional troupes, led by La Jolla and the Old Globe. Any top-ten list would probably include the Diversionary Theatre, led by Matt Morrow. The company has its roots in the AIDS epidemic, part of the nationwide swell of LGBT activism that broke the silence surrounding the disease and gay rights. As the crisis and the closet fell off, the theater stayed at the vanguard of gay issues by putting subjects like workplace discrimination, military service and marriage equality onstage. The company also demystifies the process of dramatic creation with its remarkable open-door attitude. Thursday ticketholders are invited backstage, while subscribers get to kibbitz with the cast and creative team of upcoming shows. A monthly event, open to all, offers staged readings of new and classic works of LGBT theatre. Student matinees, a summer acting camp and an arts company in residence may follow the straight model of institutional theatre, but Diversionary shows its colors with “The Silver Squad,” an amateur ensemble of LGBT seniors from the San Diego community. A vital company in an unsung metropolis, Diversionary bridges two San Diego groups: a modern LGBT community and a vibrant theatre industry. The Theater Offensive Abe Rybeck, artistic director “The Theater Offensive’s mission is to present the diversity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender lives in art so bold it breaks through personal isolation, challenges the status quo, and builds thriving communities.” About the Company The Theater Offensive has been through a metamorphosis since its debut in 1989. That year, a group of artist-activists decided to build on the success of their gay men’s guerrilla troupe, United Fruit Company. Members of UFC wanted to showcase queer theatre from all over New England. Partly, the Offensive did this by staging individual productions. But increasingly, they found festivals fit their street-theatre approach better, and established the Out on the Edge Festival of Queer Theatre. The inaugural festival reads like a who’s who of queer American theatre in 1992, attracting legends like Quentin Crisp, the Five Lesbian Brothers, Holly Hughes, BlooLips and many more. The Offensive built on this success by starting True Colors: Out Youth Theater, addressing the concerns of LGBT youth and straight allies in the Boston area. True Colors provides a year-round program so that young, queer Bostonians can use theatrical techniques to tell their stories. In addition to offering a creative outlet, the program trains its students in community activism. In 2010, the company began OUT in Your Neighborhood, which engages with the disadvantaged communities that many of its young members live in. With True Colors, the Theater Offensive pioneered an approach to queer youth theatre that companies around the country have emulated. Michael Simpson, artistic director “To provide educational and humanistic support and to promote understanding and acceptance of all members of the community through artistic expression.” About the Company Its mission dodges words like “gay,” “queer” and “LGBT,” but that may be because SNAP! is located in the notoriously conservative state of Nebraska. But in its inaugural season (1993-94), the company showed its allegiance: Bent, Jeffrey, The Normal Heart, and a one-act by Harvey Fierstein called Safe Sex. SNAP! continues to debut the latest LGBT dramas for its Midwest audience. One show from its 2015-2016 season, Cock, had premiered at London’s famously in-yer-face Royal Court Theatre and treated locals to a provocative ad depicting everyday objects as phallic symbols. Though its scripts are mostly imported from New York, the company hires plenty of local actors. It stages its shows at a small space in Omaha’s midtown, which it shares with the Shelterbelt Theatre. Theatergoers from bigger cities may turn their noses up at SNAP!’s long history of “conventional” queer work—Angels in America, Rent, even The Boys in the Band. But for two decades, this company has brought the queer experience to a city and state that needs to hear those stories. WOW Café Theatre New York, NY “WOW Café Theatre is a women’s theater collective in NYC’s East Village, which promotes the empowerment of women through the performing arts. Historically, WOW has been a majority lesbian woman’s space. WOW welcomes the full participation of all women and transpeople in solidarity with women.…” About the Company What began as an international women’s theatre festival in 1980 has become a year-round celebration of women’s performance. Initially funded by an onsite café, the organization moved to its current home on East 4th Street, the same block as La Mama, New York Theatre Workshop, and a dozen other arts groups. In the 1980s, WOW Café Theatre made essential contributions to the East Village arts scene, breaking ground in the then-new format of performance art. Troupes like Split Britches (who get their own entry in our list), and works like the “dyke noir” Dress Suits for Hire, helped to define the venue’s lesbian feminism by satirizing mainstream America. But for the WOW collective, performance art wasn’t simply a trend to be chased by lesbian hipsters. It provided an alternative to traditional, hierarchical structures of contemporary companies, a “safe space” for women to create their own work without interference. To this day, WOW is run as a collective. Instead of an artistic director, decisions are made by consensus. Any woman or transgender person is invited to participate in the company’s weekly meeting. Producers have complete artistic liberty. Though the model hasn’t taken off, its subversive nature and sheer longevity is a reminder that queer theatre often finds allies in the avant-garde. 20% Theatre Company Claire Avitabile, artistic director “20% Theatre Company Twin Cities is committed to supporting and vigorously promoting the work of female and transgender theatre artists, and celebrating the unique contribution of these artists to social justice and human rights.” About the Company Relative newcomers to the vibrant theatre scene of Minneapolis-St. Paul, 20% Theatre dates its inspiration to a landmark 2002 report on women in professional theatre. That report, sponsored by the New York State Council on the Arts, sent shockwaves through the community by noting the disproportion of men to women—and of straight artists to queer ones—in a field considered welcoming to outsiders. One prominent statistic revealed that only 20% of professional theatre artists were women (the ratio has risen since the study, but not much and certainly not enough). Struck by the need for social change, Claire Avitabile decided to give the Twin Cities an LGBT feminist theatre. For ten seasons, her itinerant troupe has produced new plays and local premieres by rising female and transgender playwrights. In recent years, 20% has expanded their season with Q-Stage, a new work series of local queer writers and performers. Nearly every position in their productions—actor, designer, sound operator, house manager—is filled by a queer or transgender artist. Coming out in an age marked by remarkable legal gains and contentious social battles, 20% Theatre is part of the vanguard for a new era of queer theatre. Itinerant, formed in NYC Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver, collaborators “Split Britches creates new forms by exploiting old conventions.… It is about a community of outsiders, queers, eccentrics—feminist because it encourages the imaginative potential in everyone, and lesbian because it takes the presence of a lesbian on stage as a given.” About the Company A dominant force in the legendary East Village scene of the 1980s, Split Britches has inspired lesbians and the avant garde for almost four decades. The groundbreaking work of Peggy Shaw, Lois Weaver and (for a time) Deb Margolin grew out of the experimental theatre of the ’60s and ’70s. But the catalyst was the Women’s One World (WOW) Festival, which quickly turned into the WOW Café Theatre (important enough to merit its own entry on our list). Shaw and Weaver premiered Split Britches, which pioneered the collaborators’ aesthetic of playful, self-aware theatricality with a deep inquiry into lesbian identities. That approach provided an alternative to the coming-out narrative, which had dominated (mostly male) gay theatre in the 1970s. Split Britches shaped the infant model of performance art—its most famous piece is probably Dress Suits for Hire by Holly Hughes, one of the infamous NEA Four castigated by bigoted culture warriors in the early 1990s. By that time, Split Britches itself had moved on to new modes of performance, even as it inspired academics to create the field of performance studies. Shaw and Weaver continue to produce their pieces under the Split Britches umbrella, most recently with a tour of RUFF, Shaw’s solo show about mortality. Though they have matured from puckish iconoclasts to aging icons, Split Britches continues to innovate. We can’t limit this look at America’s “out” theatres to eight, so we offer a set of honorable mentions. Check out a queer company near you! Los Angeles, CA Celebration provides Hollywood with its only professional theatre dedicated to queer voices. Defunkt stages provocative material and draws from the vibrant Portland arts scene. Emerald Theatre Company Now in its second decade, ETC produces local playwrights as well as works from the gay canon. Fantastic.Z Theatre Company The youngest ensemble we found, Fantastic.Z provides theatre and outreach for LGBT Seattle. Richmond Triangle Players For 23 seasons, the Players have brought queer theatre to the capital of the Confederacy. This community theatre is still strong after its 2004 censure by the local Catholic bishop! This mid-size company has provided Portland with 26 seasons of queer classics and kitsch.

Seniors share their home through the new service 'Happypad' Launched in Kelowna BC, Happypad is a home sharing service which the developers believe offers a solution to housing affordability and social isolation. The DSS Board has discussed this model several times over the years, but have never had the resources to develop the system that Happypad have recently launched. DSS has contacted Happypad to ensure they have non-binary language in their application process and optional sexual orientation questions in their profile matching. We are also interested to explore how a GSD specific matching service may work and if DSS could help. The challenges of space sharing can be difficult, however Happypad aim to match people through their service to try to avoid issues and will ‘intervene’ should a conflict arise. The benefits can be multiple - income and company for the senior and affordable accommodation and possible mentoring/role-model for the renter. You can negotiation the ‘house rules’ to ensure the arrangements suit you both, which could potentially include negotiating lower rent for light ‘chores’ such as shopping/housework . Read the CBC article about Happypad here. Find more information about Happypad here.

In 2022, we celebrated the 15th anniversary of MANIPULATE with our first series of live events in two years, bringing an exciting programme of cutting-edge work to the audiences of Edinburgh and beyond. Due to the impact of the Omicron variant and the restrictions to indoor events, we proceeded with a reduced programme, presenting 5 live theatre performances, 2 Dinner events, 1 workshop, 3 installations, 3 online short film animation programmes, 1 feature length animation and our Netwalks series between 28th January and 5th February 2022. Our live theatre performances included a preview of Sadiq Ali’s first solo show The Chosen Haram (Scotland), the World Premiere of EAT ME by Scottish female-led theatre collective Snap-Elastic (Scotland), After Metamorphosis by physical theatre artist Lewis Sherlock and performance writer Ali Maloney (Scotland), Short & Sweet by British dance theatre company Thick & Tight (England), and (le) Pain by Jean Daniel Broussé (England). We were delighted to host a special new strand Dinner with… which invited audiences to enjoy an evening of delicious food and entertainment in Summerhall Gallery Bar from some of our favourite Scottish performance artists. Our first hosts on the opening weekend were LARDs, an ensemble of Scotland based theatre artists who delivered an evening of bite-sized silliness and prime cuts of nonsense. The second weekend saw a mesmerising evening of illusion and intimate performance from close-up magician and sleight-of-hand artist Tim Licata and theatre company Plutôt la Vie. Visitors to Summerhall were treated to two immersive installations from French artists Adrien M & Claire B. In Acqua Alta – Crossing the Mirror, the pages of a pop-up book came to life through a tailor-made app, using augmented reality to tell the story of a woman, a man and a house, amid rising waters and storms. Meanwhile, Fauna saw audiences embark on a treasure hunt around Summerhall to discover 10 large format posters, which again used an augmented reality application to reveal animal life hidden within the walls. For two evenings during the festival, public art installation Forest VIDEOLAB by Scottish-based videographer/editor and video artist Mettje Hunneman took place in the Meadows, transforming the public space using immersive video projections and original soundscapes. Experienced and emerging puppeteers were treated to a masterclass in repurposing domestic and industrial junk to create and animate puppet creatures in Trash-Hack Puppetry Workshop, hosted by Chris Pirie of leading UK puppetry company Green Ginger. And although the weather scuppered our plans for a walk around the Meadows, our Netwalks events saw professionals from all disciplines connect with each other over a hot drink in Summerhall. In our online animation programme we presented Animated Highlights in partnership with Edinburgh Short Film Festival, and we platformed and celebrated the work of womxn and non-binary animators from around the world with Animated Womxn: International Shorts. Animated Womxn: Aaronimation included a compilation of seven short experimental animated films by legendary American artist and animator Jane Aaron, and was followed by an interview with Aaron’s partner in life and art, Skip Blumberg, while feature length animation My Favourite War told the personal story of its director, Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen, and her experience growing up in the Cold-War USSR. All of our live performances sold out in advance, with over 700 people attending live events as well as our installations in Summerhall and outdoors, and over 500 unique views for our online events. We saw a great presence at the festival, with 4* reviews from The Guardian (read here) and 4* reviews from The Scotsman (read here), as well as Edinburgh based publications and new writers reviewing the work as part of our Emerging Critics programme. We were thrilled to be able to present a live festival and share moments of escapism and joy with audiences once again, both online and in person. We can’t wait to see you again at Manipulate 2023!

It’s clear that there are discrepancies in the support young men of color have when it comes to accessing key sexual health services. So, what can we do to change this? One way we can help young people prevent HIV is through providing PrEP on college campuses. Providing PrEP on college campuses gives young people the tools they need, while also eliminating the stigma around HIV. Navigating college as Latinx students can already be difficult enough, especially for first generation students like myself. In my experience, feeling supported by your school is key in creating an environment where all students can thrive, and having your health needs met is a part of that. Providing PrEP on college campuses also eliminates another barrier many students face in accessing PrEP: transportation. Given that not all schools are located in metropolitan areas, some young people may have to travel unrealistic distances to the nearest clinic to find PrEP. Students attending college outside of their hometowns might not even have access to a car, eliminating the option of transportation altogether. PrEP is also not only for gay and bisexual men. Anyone who might be at risk for contracting HIV is a potential candidate for PrEP, including trans people, women, and non-binary folks. So, while accessing PrEP is vital for queer men of color, there are also other people who can benefit from it.

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If you’ve under no circumstances viewed as it, vehicle insurance policies savings are a great way to cut costs and continue to be eco-friendly. Many new automobiles have safety functions for example airbags and anti-lock brakes that will lower your rates. You can even get additional reductions for owning safety capabilities within your car, like daytime jogging lights or anti-theft alarms. Spending your top quality in comprehensive annually may also get rid of payment anxieties for twelve months. Actually, about 50 % of insurers offer you a discount for this kind of payment. You may also be qualified for discounts for those who’ve experienced your policy for quite a few several years. These savings change with regards to the amount of time you have had your coverage, but several corporations present discount rates for becoming loyal to their shoppers. You could be suitable for a reduction of up to fifteen% if you purchase your policy at least 7 days ahead of your renewal day. Other than these discounts, some providers even offer bargains to These in particular occupations. For instance, lecturers obtain ten% off their rates from Liberty Mutual. Armed forces personnel receive a fifteen% price cut from Geico. Have you been a young driver searching for car insurance plan low cost prices? Here are a few ideas it is possible to abide by to economize on car insurance coverage coverage: Increasing your deductibles, obtaining a no claims low cost, and getting a policy using a regional insurance provider. The following tips can help you save many hundreds of dollars yearly on the automobile coverage policy. Additionally they help you get the bottom premiums achievable. Continue reading to find out extra. You will end up happy you did! Youthful drivers can lower your expenses on auto insurance by driving more properly, reducing the volume of miles they generate, and permitting the insurance company keep track of their driving routines. You may also lessen your rates by purchasing around for automobile insurance policy. Many insurers charge an increased price for younger motorists, so it’s important to buy close to. Luckily, you’ll find totally free on the internet estimate comparison instruments that make this quick. In addition, you could request a discount When you’ve got a number of autos and also have them insured by a similar firm. When seeking a plan, Ensure that you Assess numerous quotes and choose the finest value and excellent. You can even seek out an coverage agent who’ll mature along with you, enabling you to generate changes as your driving background alterations. Be sure to Look at guidelines that provide very similar different types of coverage, as deductibles and boundaries could make a giant change. Should you be a youthful driver, you should also get ample protection to stay away from economical catastrophe. Getting a no claims price cut on automobile protect is a great way to cut costs with your rates, and it could be truly worth inquiring your insurance provider how to apply it. Depending on the insurer, the discounted might be value anywhere from 30% following a calendar year to up to sixty five% immediately after 5 years. Remember that For those who have an accident, you can lose two several years of no statements bonus. Furthermore, multiple promises will even wipe out all of your no claims reward. It truly is essential to notify your insurer promptly of any incidents that you’ve, as failing to do so could suggest that upcoming claims is going to be turned down. Most insurers give no claims discounted protection to get a fee of around PS25. It allows you to make a particular quantity of statements a year without having stressing about your premiums going up. It is additionally possible to incorporate it to a whole new coverage if you have a no statements reward. Also, you’ll be able to transfer your no statements discount to a different insurance provider if you want. To maintain your no statements low cost, you should take into consideration switching vendors on a yearly basis or two. When seeking a cheap auto insurance plan quote, raising your deductibles is a great way to get reduce rates. Some estimates say you can save among 15 and 30 % in your high quality by boosting your deductibles. These cost savings can differ broadly depending on your driving background, the type of car you travel, and your state’s guidelines. Increasing your deductibles may also reduced your yearly quality by around 40%. Whilst increasing your deductible is not the proper decision for everyone, it can assist you preserve Many dollars around the long term. Whilst the amount you select to boost your deductible will rely on your financial situation, professionals advise preserving no less than two months’ value of living expenses. On top of that, it’ll lower your insurance policies expenditures each month. Additionally, you will preserve a substantial amount of cash in case you at any time make a assert. Acquiring a policy by using a regional insurance provider is often useful for motorists having a inadequate credit history background. It can save you dollars every month on the regular insurance coverage Monthly bill, and you can reap the benefits of special discounts and excellent customer care. Obtaining a coverage using a regional insurance provider is available in all fifty states, and you will Evaluate charges by point out to search out the bottom rates. Nonetheless, it’s important to note that it could take a couple of months to lift your credit score, and a few drivers which has a poor credit rating heritage can end up shelling out above $four hundred a year. Erie Insurance coverage is an additional regional insurance provider that provides affordable automobile insurance policies. This organization is based in Pennsylvania, and has become in business because 1925. Erie offers automobile insurance plan, existence, and home insurance plan. Though Erie only offers protection in specific states, it has much more than 13,000 impartial insurance policies brokers throughout The us. You can pick out an agent or simply a regional insurance company according to your needs. On the other hand, it is usually recommended that you choose to browse all good print prior to making a choice. For anyone who is a high-danger driver, you’ll want to Look at car insurance plan estimates and locate The most cost effective coverage for your needs. It’s also wise to look into the amount protection is out there close to you in order to decide if a lessen rate can be done. It might be more economical to purchase far more coverage When you’ve got reduce possibility or if you agree for the next deductible. All of it depends on your needs. Thankfully, there are lots of options accessible to you. Should you are trying to find The most affordable car or truck insurance quote for prime-hazard motorists, you happen to be in luck. You can certainly come across one using a couple clicks on the web. The online market place can present you with various rates for coverage in a fraction of the price of regular vehicle insurance plan. Don’t just that, but it surely will likely make signing up for insurance plan lots much easier. All You should do is complete an easy on-line type, shell out your quality, and also you’re finished! The insurance company will then print you a card as evidence within your insurance policy coverage and you will have a policy within the highway. In case you have a poor credit history historical past, you are regarded a higher-threat driver by quite a few insurance policies corporations. This is due to you are more likely to file an insurance policies claim than the usual driver with very good credit history. Your credit history rating is often a Consider how insurance businesses see you, and also a prior DUI/DWI will elevate your high quality by about 65%. This is often similar to an additional $477 on a six-thirty day period policy. A different variable that insurers contemplate is your driving historical past. A DUI/DWI can increase your top quality by up to $174, and also a dashing ticket can incorporate approximately about 45%. For those who have a DUI in your record, it is possible to decide on the cheapest automobile coverage supplier. Companies including State Farm, American Spouse and children, and Progressive have some good options which provide lessen premiums for high-possibility drivers. They also think about your credit rating score when analyzing your premium. Insurers take into account these components when determining exactly how much you fork out in your plan. A poor credit rating could cause insurance plan costs to skyrocket, so It really is essential to learn your credit rating score before making a call. There are a selection of components to think about When picking The most cost effective auto coverage for youthful motorists. Your age and marital status play a huge purpose as part of your auto insurance policies charges. The kind of car or truck you drive could also have an impact on your own quality. As an illustration, large-overall performance autos are usually costlier to insure than small-general performance automobiles. For that reason, the initial step to find the cheapest car coverage for young drivers is to find a auto with several safety capabilities. A great way to decreased the expense of automobile insurance plan for youthful motorists is to lower the coverage you need. Many insurers offer discount rates should you be an excellent student, or if you are in driver schooling. Even so, cutting down your coverage could end in large out-of-pocket charges When you’ve got an accident. Consequently, you should definitely weigh the dangers of this option thoroughly, and usually err around the aspect of finding far better benefit. Teenagers Possess a challenging time securing low-priced vehicle coverage. Though the cost of a coverage for any sixteen-12 months-previous driver is way increased than that of an adult, it could be reduced by adding a teen to an existing plan. This option improves premiums by a mean of $1,461 a calendar year, but is often less costly than getting a different policy. Moreover, in case you are a younger driver, seek out discounts along with other means to save lots of. The cost of auto insurance policy varies broadly according to your profile, which can signify that you need to store close to for the cheapest coverage for very low-hazard motorists. Insurers think about numerous components when deciding on an insurance policies policy, including your driving document, demographics, and Total chance amount. Detailed down below are definitely the five most critical components to think about when evaluating insurance coverage offers. Keep in mind that lower coverage fees You should not indicate that you have to sacrifice excellent. Firstly, contemplate your zip code. People in large-criminal offense locations will experience higher prices. On top of that, coverage companies choose targeted visitors volume into consideration. Also, be certain you don’t have any incidents or statements on the document, as these will raise your rates. And lastly, Remember the fact that it is best to compare rates each six months in order to avoid having to pay a lot more than You must. It’s also advisable to look at obtaining a multi-policy price cut if you’ve multiple coverage with a specific insurance provider. When credit history scores usually are not lawfully employed by insurers in some states, They are even now vital criteria when comparing car insurance prices. In Hawaii, motorists with poor credit score will pay 168% a lot more than equivalent clear motorists. In Massachusetts, superior-risk drivers shell out 30% over thoroughly clean motorists. For brand spanking new drivers, a DUI, rushing ticket, and lousy credit history will maximize prices much more than Some others. Make sure to attain a couple of offers prior to making a decision. The zip code you live in is a major Consider the cost of insurance policies. If you live in a location with substantial crime and accident fees, you may assume to pay additional for insurance policies estimates. On top of that, aspects like website traffic volume and accident record can boost the price of coverage. Most coverage providers also investigate a driver’s driving background to ascertain what fee they must cost for their coverage. Generally, motorists with a bad driving background fork out extra for protection than Those people using a clear driving report. Automobile insurance plan has risen by $50 – $one hundred in the final five years, as health and fitness care fees are expanding. Drivers also are needed to carry uninsured and PIP insurance coverage, which might be higher than-average state prerequisites. A lot of states only call for liability insurance, but New York demands motorists to carry both of those. These optional coverages increase the cost of insurance plan, and may often increase the complete quality. Last of all, motorists need to Examine their coverage limitations, as some procedures have a lessen minimal degree of protection than Other people. In Big apple, the typical man or woman spends two.8 per cent in their revenue on vehicle insurance coverage, that’s a little bit increased compared to countrywide regular of 2.40 p.c. People today inside their 30s, 40s, and 50s pays a little bit below the average. The 70+ age team can pay greater premiums than motorists with a lot less driving experience. Those people who are married pays a little bit higher premiums, but nevertheless reduce than single people today. Together with lower rates, drivers also can consider defensive driving courses. These classes are 320 minutes in duration, and contain discussions of driver Perspective and targeted visitors rules. In addition they train defensive driving techniques that could substantially lessen the expense of insurance plan. They could also aid to further improve their driving history, so finishing a study course can decreased the price of an automobile insurance policy quotation. Even so, for anyone who is Doubtful about the precise coverage you may need, you are able to Check out with the Insurance policies Information Institute. Though gas price ranges vary by condition, the cost of an auto insurance plan quote in other states might be bigger or lower than your personal. Some variables might account for this, including the percentage of uninsured motorists, state coverage laws, and the speed of theft. Also, the incidence of terrible weather conditions can modify the expense of insurance in several states. The next table reveals average motor vehicle insurance policy rates in several states. These estimates are dependant on a comparison of state insurance requirements. Missouri is the cheapest point out for complete-protection car insurance coverage, shelling out just $944 fewer than Louisiana. Furthermore, this state has certainly one of the lowest expenses per capita, and is particularly ranked fifth concerning expense of living. In contrast, Texas motorists pay out by far the most for their vehicle insurance policy, shelling out around 33% of their yearly income in full. This disparity might be on account of The truth that the state contains a significant variety of uninsured motorists and several lawsuits. The national regular for comprehensive protection car insurance plan is $1,771 a 12 months. The point out with the most costly insurance policies quality is Louisiana, that has a high quality of $two,839, a 19% boost from 2020. Conversely, Maine’s average insurance high quality is barely $858. This is because no-fault states have greater insurance policies premiums. The price of a vehicle coverage plan in other states can differ noticeably. There are various variables to think about, which includes your condition’s guidelines on insurance policy. Should you are searhing for higher-danger driver automobile insurance coverage close to me, you might be wanting to know how to get a reduced-cost policy. Significant-chance motorists pay back greater insurance coverage premiums than average motorists. It’s because they have an inclination to get a lot more mishaps or violations on their file. Based on the condition, the limit might be three decades or 5 years. In some instances, you may get discounts if you are taking a driver basic safety class. When the countrywide averages for prime-risk driver motor vehicle insurance coverage in close proximity to me are really consistent, you’ll find that rates vary wildly from point out to condition. Some firms adjust their fees to distinctive states, so if you reside in a certain point out, you may realize that a person insurer delivers you the most effective coverage for any reduced value. The cheapest large-possibility driver automobile insurance coverage close to me emanates from Point out Farm, which has an extended-standing popularity for delivering excellent assistance. The best way to discover a large-hazard driver vehicle coverage close to me is to enter your ZIP code and Look at rates. The cost of superior-chance car insurance policies close to me can vary from condition to condition, but most massive insurers give this sort of coverage. A few of these companies concentrate on high-hazard protection, for instance Nationwide Normal. You could possibly even be able to find a cheaper coverage When you have very good grades in addition to a very low-chance car. There are lots of advantages of comparing motor vehicle insurance coverage businesses. In this article, we will explore a number of the most important characteristics, which include rankings, special discounts, and customer service. Choosing the ideal coverage is important for your basic safety and protection, so make the effort to compare different guidelines from diverse organizations. By the time you finish looking at this short article, you will have an concept of which insurance provider features the top coverage at the lowest Expense. Here are some suggestions to choose the right just one for yourself: To obtain the ideal rate, you need to compare car or truck insurance coverage rates from distinct companies. Insurers use many factors to find out the price of insurance coverage. It’s essential to discover your unique desires and compare charges from numerous companies. As an example, athletics cars and trucks can Charge much more to insure than normal cars and trucks. On top of that, your locality and driving history also can impact the prices that you’re quoted. By utilizing a comparison Instrument, you’ll find the lowest charge on precisely the same protection Along with the exact same deductibles. Insurance premiums will vary noticeably, so it is actually essential to know how each plan functions. Among the many factors that influence premiums are driving history, age, and credit score record. You may also Assess the perks that each enterprise offers, for example roadside help or accident forgiveness. Though this will seem to be a daunting task, it can assist to check offers from different providers and choose the correct a single. Outlined under are a few suggestions to get you begun. With regards to comparing auto insurance providers, you should begin with the J.D. Energy car insurance provider rankings. They’re determined by client fulfillment surveys that study Many auto insurance policy buyers nationwide. The outcomes are compiled into numerical scores that represent the businesses’ regular shopper fulfillment score. These rankings are revealed per year, and the top motor vehicle insurance corporations in each category are awarded gold medals. But how Are you aware of if the businesses you are looking at are any good? There are numerous approaches to evaluate the economic toughness of auto insurance firms. To begin with, you could check the AM Best insurance company ranking, which supplies economic stability scores for vehicle insurance corporations. Whether the motor vehicle insurance provider has an A, B, C, or F score, it is vital to know the way steady it really is prior to selecting a plan. This is a vital element of customer support, so make sure you study the testimonials and browse the high-quality print before you make a decision. Car insurance coverage organizations present many different savings. A lot of of such bargains is probably not available for Anyone, so it is vital to check the organization Internet site to ensure that you qualify to the bargains that utilize to you. Some providers supply numerous savings, and you can also ask your insurance agent if they are qualified for just about any specific lower price. Even so, the procedure is not hard and sometimes will take fewer than one hour. Beneath are some examples of achievable motor vehicle insurance policies discounts. Legacy Discount rates: An auto insurance company may perhaps provide a reduction to new motorists who order their policy as a result of their moms and dads’ corporation. This lower price is generally all around 10 percent. This is often one method to thank your mother and father for your small business through the years, and it can save you income on your automobile insurance policy coverage. Quite a few businesses provide legacy discounts to younger drivers, and It is value checking to find out If the insurance company offers just one. You may also explore policies supplied by American Spouse and children, Farmers, or USAA. During the insurance coverage field, There are several businesses that constantly excel at customer service. Esurance, such as, scored 4 out of 5 inside the J.D. Power rankings for customer service, a high mark for a company whose mother or father firm doesn’t. The corporation scored greater than its competition in all other regions, which include policy choices and prices, along with the quality of assistance provided by its Get in touch with center Reps and Internet site.(personalised company) An important factor of vehicle coverage for most buyers is its protection, but it’s the customer support that issues most. Customers wish to Speak to their insurers and receive prompt, courteous provider. Which means they wish to receive a response for their e-mails and cellular phone phone calls quickly, and they would like to speak with an agent who’ll hear their problems and provide solutions. When all car insurance policy providers may offer superb customer care, some do carry out a lot better than Other individuals.(rideshare insurance coverage)(just a couple clicks)(coverage selections) A number of aspects affect the premiums of auto coverage companies. Driving heritage and age are two big variables. A driver that has a lousy driving history or simply a bad credit history score may have better premiums. Also, the expense of residing in your area will have an impact on the rates. This is why, it is important to match the premiums of several insurance plan companies to discover the 1 that will go well with your finances as well as your driving routines. There are some strategies to lower your rates, such as chopping coverage or getting a defensive driving study course. You may as well opt to pay for a complete year of protection up entrance.(bill on the web)(employee discounts)(at fault incident)(covered incident) Along with the above-pointed out components, all kinds of other points can enhance your quality. For illustration, if you’ve a short while ago manufactured a claim or logged a visitors violation, your insurance company will reassess your premiums. In addition, if you’re taking a secure driving class, you may be suitable for a reduction. Insurance policy providers are frequently tweaking their products to ascertain the costs, and you may perhaps see a difference as part of your premiums Even when you’ve never adjusted your driving heritage.(utilization based coverage)(rental cars and trucks)(vehicle repairs)(Safe and sound driver low cost) A car or truck insurance policy compare is a terrific way to steer clear of disreputable insurance policies vendors. One example is, very low prices from a certain insurance provider could be deceptive When the quote excludes specified protection or can make inaccurate assumptions regarding your driving profile. By seeking up insurance plan providers’ rankings and the A.M. Very best score, yow will discover The most affordable insurance policies companies close to you. Go through this article to Learn how motor vehicle coverage compares can save you cash. Then, Get the quotations within the leading firms and see which 1 is the greatest for you.(incident cost-free) Your credit history-based insurance coverage rating can be a beneficial indicator of exactly how much hazard you happen to be prone to pose, but you should not Allow it dictate your fees. The federal government won’t allow for insurers to use your credit score historical past as the only real basis for an increase in your charges. Nevertheless, states for example California, Massachusetts, Oregon, Utah, and Vermont have guidelines set up that prohibit insurers from utilizing credit score background to find out insurance policies fees.(could help you save)(new auto)(automobile declare) On the other hand, this type of insurance policy would not implement to every state, so buyers have no way to find out if a business is using your rating to choose the amount of to cost them. Some states, like California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and Michigan, do ban credit-primarily based insurance plan. A number of other states even have restrictions on using credit rating-centered insurance policies scores. Eventually, you have got to determine for yourself if your credit score-based insurance coverage rating is suitable for you.(bike insurance policy)(roadside support coverage)(bundling car)(obtain a motor vehicle insurance policy)(pet insurance plan)(genuine hard cash value)(exceptional claims service)(yacht insurance plan) Several factors impact the expense of car or truck insurance policies special discounts, like age. Age influences your price by more than thirty per cent, and in some states, a young driver pays Virtually four instances just as much as a thirty-calendar year-previous. Inexperience is yet another major issue, as youthful teenagers are more likely to enter into incidents. By comprehending what things have an impact on your premiums, it is possible to negotiate reduce charges for yourself. Detailed beneath are a lot of the ways that age influences your automobile insurance policy. On the whole, the young you’re, the lessen your premiums are going to be. But When you are a man, age does have an affect on the price of car or truck insurance. Whilst youthful male motorists pay out below their older counterparts, rates for drivers inside their sixties and seventies skyrocket. Statistically, males are two plus a 50 % instances as more likely to be linked to a vehicle crash than Women of all ages, Therefore the gender hole decreases with age.(coverage options)(homeowners insurance plan) The reality that a man will pay a greater top quality for auto insurance policy than a woman is just not solely shocking. Lots of Guys make lousy choices when driving, leading to extra mishaps and promises. Nevertheless, There are several factors which make Gentlemen more expensive to insure. Here are a few of the best explanation why. Keep reading to discover more details on the most well-liked variables that impact car insurance policies premiums by gender. And when you are still bewildered, take into consideration these tips for reducing your premiums.(car insurance coverage guidelines)(car insurance policy quote)(auto coverage charge) The Oregon Division of economic Regulation has instructed auto insurers to accommodate customers who Will not specify their gender. Discrimination towards non-binary persons might be grounds for unfair discrimination fees, and insurers must file prices for those drivers beginning in January 2019. These prices may very well be higher than Those people for male and feminine drivers. Assuming that they’re not abnormal, Ladies should be able to lower your expenses. Also, don’t worry regarding the “non-binary” rate for young motorists.(motor vehicle insurance plan assert)(gap insurance policy)(automobile plan)

Eagle PCB Design Software it’s hugely adopted across the Open Source Software community: surely many of you already used Eagle to create boards and circuitry and the Eagle format has become sort of a standard in the maker community to share design openly. Because of this huge penetration in the community, we decided to dig a little more in deep in Eagle Software plans and views to allow our readers to have a more detailed glance about the software future. For this reason we interviewed CadSoft Computer GmbH managing director Thomas Liratsch*. [Open Electronics] Hello Thomas Did you expect this success and adoption? What feature generated this success from your point of view? [Thomas Liratsch] I wouldn’t say that it was expected, but it has certainly been of great help. Since the early days of development of EAGLE, CadSoft has always offered some sort of free version of the program that can be used for evaluation or non commercial purposes. In addition to this, we have hosted a community based sense in which users can feel comfortable participating and interacting with our developers and support staff. Our newsgroup has been, and still is, a great source of ideas that our community used to suggest ideas for future versions. Without this support of our users, who put a lot of heart’s blood into EAGLE, CadSoft would not have been so successful over the last 25 years. EAGLE itself has proven to be a great product that is available on all operating system. Its stable execution and logical sense of interface do make it an obvious choice for many corporate environments. [Open Electronics] Can you tell us a little bit about the ecosystem that was born around Eagle within time? What are the ways for the community to provide value in exchange of access to the software (plugin, libraries, etc…)? [Thomas Liratsch] EAGLE was born as vision of an engineer to find a software solution for Schematic and PCB at a reasonable cost. 25 years ago, there wasn’t a practical and affordable program available. So he decided to develop his own – keeping in mind that the idea is to offer a stable program that will provide a solution to the user, from concept to final product at an affordable price. From this vision EAGLE was born, Easily Applicable Graphical Layout is not only a program, it’s a community based application that listens to contribution from the users. IMHO the EAGLE community is unique. Our customers help us in so many different areas. Since our early days we receive faxes, emails and phone call for ideas for future versions. The developing team would survey these ideas and suggestions and do their best to implement those of greater demand. EAGLE has evolved greatly for the past 25 years, but we have been certain to keep the quality of product that our users have always expected. Many changes have been done to increase EAGLE’s capabilities but the changes are subtle that new and old user can easily adapt. EAGLE users have always been contributing libraries which can be shared by our online mediums. For the past 10 years, in which ‘User Language Program’ also known as ULP’s, was implemented. A ULP is a C-Like language that the user can use to expand the capabilities of EAGLE. ULP’s such as importing images or exporting particular file formats have been done. This truly expands and accommodates the user for personal implementation. For the past 2 years, since the release of EAGLE v6, we adopted an ASCII XML format of file structure for Schematics, Boards and Libraries. This latest feature allows the community to adapt scripts or programs that can import or make changes to their designs. We expect to see many more open source programs to be able to import this file structure. One good example is, that last year we noticed an Android Application that allows users to import there design file and search for components. Additionally, we maintain a news server that is freely available. We find a large number of EAGLE customers writing there and offering support for other EAGLE users. Their high quality answers to questions about any EAGLE related subjects help our support staff a lot. [Open Electronics] What kind of co-design strategies do you adopt to be sure that the Eagle you design is the software that the community of users need? [Thomas Liratsch] There is a combination of strategies used to vision new implementation to EAGLE. Our developers monitor the “Suggestions and Ideas” section of our newsgroup. The newsgroup is successfully mirrored on element14.com. Developer and support team have integrated a communication channel that allows them to consistently provide brainstorming for ideas and tools that will most benefit in newer version. [Open Electronics] What community building efforts are you putting in place? I’ve seen that you “sponsor” some interesting initiatives, is that the main way you confront with the community? Would you like to mention other relevant strategies? [Thomas Liratsch] For the past year we have created and supported a facebook page. This page will inform users of our latest news such as tutorial videos and 3rd write ups that have been contributed by supporters. CadSoft has been hosting a series of webinars that introduce new users how to use EAGLE, 3D Viewing, and Using EAGLE in an educational environment and many more. These news and information are cross referenced with our twitter account as well. We also sponsor many educational institution clubs that participate in design challenges such as under water and solar powered vehicles. This keeps technology at its edge and many of these design files are made available to public. As the trend of open hardware becomes more of a factor in electronics, more and more designers are using EAGLE to make designs in public format that can be easily shared among other users. A new initiative that CadSoft will support is the Start Up community. As you know, EAGLE is very popular in the Maker scene and to sponsor now these incubators and Start Up initiatives is the logical next step in our strategy. [Open Electronics] The Free Trial (we changed the name from Freemium) model that you choose allowed Eagle to become a precious resource: have you ever considered switching to an Open Source development model for Eagle? [Thomas Liratsch] The concept of ‘Open Source’ has come up in the past in the forum. The current business model of CadSoft doesn’t really fit this model since we do offer free support to our users. CadSoft has done quite a creative effort to implement tools that allow users to custom EAGLE and manipulate its files since they are in a non-binary format. [Open Electronics ] What’s your plan for the future of Eagle? Are you thinking to expand your reach and offering with new features? [Thomas Liratsch] The last three years were the most successful in CadSoft’s history and we are growing at a fast pace. Of course we are always thinking of expanding our reach of EAGLE users with the implementation of new features. This will never stop; change is the only variable of success in this market. But we also need to juggle the given resources and keep an eye on the real needs of our users. At this time the consideration of User Interface improvements to adapt to the latest OS trends, and the implementation of new features that will benefit fast reliable designs as well as major Router improvements are to be expected in the near future with the release of EAGLE v7. [Open Electronics ] Are there particular aspects that you want to mention to the Open Source Electronics community? [Thomas Liratsch] We would like to say to the Open Source Community “THANK YOU, THANK YOU and THANK YOU”. At CadSoft Computer we are greatly honored and humbled that the community has made EAGLE their program of choice. We would like to assure the community they can continue to expect the quality of program at the highest level of creativity by our teams to provide them a product they should expect. *Liratsch joined CadSoft Computer in August 2010, he worked as the European Head of Service Sales at Siemens Wind Power in Denmark and prior to this role he was running the business of Ansoft Corp., a leading EDA simulation software company, in Central and Eastern Europe as the Country Manager Germany. Prior to this management role at Ansoft, Thomas was working in several Sales and Marketing positions in the Software and Electronics Industry. He started his career in Sales at Spoerle Electronic what is today a part of the Arrow group. Thomas holds two Master degrees, one in Business Administration and one in Intercultural Communication and Cooperation and was living during his career in San Francisco where he also worked for Sybase. Statement: This post is only the personal view of the author and does not represent the opinions of ALLPCB.com.

At the end of a tumultuous week for The Hallmark Channel, the pay television network has announced it would reverse its decision to pull several ads featuring a same-sex kiss. The controversial commercials were among a series of six ads for Zola, a wedding planning website, which had been airing on the Hallmark Channel since Dec. 2. In all of the ads, couples standing at the altar for their wedding wonder if guests might have arrived on time and bought them better gifts if they had used Zola to create a custom wedding website. Most of the ads include a same-sex couple; while only one focused specifically on the lesbian brides, the two women were shown kissing in several of them. According to the New York Times, the ads which featured same-sex kissing were pulled after the channel deemed their content “controversial.” The decision was made by executives at the network after the anti-LGBTQ hate group, “One Million Moms,” published a petition urging Hallmark to “please reconsider airing commercials with same-sex couples.” One Million Moms is a division of the conservative American Family Association, an organization that defines its mission as the “fight against indecency,” and which has been listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group for the “propagation of known falsehoods” and the use of “demonizing propaganda” against LGBTQ people. Following the posting of the petition, anti-LGBTQ comments began to flood Hallmark’s online message board, such as one from an unnamed user who said, “Why would you show a lesbian wedding commercial on the Hallmark Channel? Hallmark movies are family friendly, and you ruined it with the commercial.” On Thursday, Hallmark notified Zola via email that it was pulling four of the ads – the ones featuring a kiss between the two women – because the channel is “not allowed to accept creatives that are deemed controversial,” according to an account representative from the television network. On Friday, a Hallmark Channel spokesman implied in a statement that “overt public displays of affection… regardless of the participants,” was against the network’s current policy. However, later that evening, Hallmark’s parent company, Crown Media Family Networks, issued a statement saying, “The debate surrounding these commercials on all sides was distracting from the purpose of our network, which is to provide entertainment value.” The response from Zola was one of both surprise and skepticism. The company’s chief marketing officer, Mike Chi, commented that Zola had previously run ads featuring same-sex couples on the channel without incident. He also observed that the ads including kisses between same-sex couples were allowed to remain on the air. Chi pointed out, “The only difference between the commercials that were flagged and the ones that were approved was that the commercials that did not meet Hallmark’s standards included a lesbian couple kissing. Hallmark approved a commercial where a heterosexual couple kissed. All kisses, couples and marriages are equal celebrations of love and we will no longer be advertising on Hallmark.” Outcry was swift from the LGBTQ community and its advocates. In a statement from GLAAD, president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said “The Hallmark Channel’s decision to remove LGBTQ families in such a blatant way is discriminatory and especially hypocritical coming from a network that claims to present family programming and also recently stated they are ‘open’ to LGBTQ holiday movies. As so many other TV and cable networks showcase, LGBTQ families are part of family programming. Advertisers on The Hallmark Channel should see this news and question whether they want to be associated with a network that chooses to bow to fringe anti-LGBTQ activist groups, which solely exist to harm LGBTQ families.” In addition, GLAAD created a petition calling on the network to reinstate the ads. Pro-LGBTQ voices also took to social media. The hashtags #boycotthallmark and #BoycottHallmarkChannel trended on Twitter over the weekend, with one commenter including a graphic featuring the word “Homophobic” using the same font and crown design used by Hallmark in its own branding. #Halmark, any employees have #LGBTQ friends or family members? How do you make them feel, when you show support for anti-same sex marriage? Is this your idea of inclusiveness?#HallmarkChannel the Heart of TV for the #Homophobic#HomophobicHallmark #BoycottHallmarkChannel pic.twitter.com/YbJ13WQdeY— WHY (@8w8h8y8) December 15, 2019 Then, on Sunday afternoon, Hallmark president and CEO Mike Perry issued a new statement, saying, “The Crown Media team has been agonizing over this decision as we’ve seen the hurt it has unintentionally caused. Said simply, they believe this was the wrong decision,” The statement goes on to stress Hallmark’s commitment to “diversity and inclusion,” saying it has “the track record to prove it” and citing its publication of LGBTQ greeting cards, previous commercials featuring same-sex couples, and recognition it has received from HRC and Forbes for its inclusive business practices. It also announces the company’s plan to work with GLAAD on how “to better represent the LGBTQ community,” as well as its intention to reinstate the commercials from Zola. Shortly afterward, GLAAD issued a statement, with Ellis saying, “The Hallmark Channel’s decision to correct its mistake sends an important message to LGBTQ people and represents a major loss for fringe organizations, like One Million Moms, whose sole purpose is to hurt families like mine. LGBTQ people are, and will continue to be a part of advertisements and family programming and that will never change. GLAAD exists to hold brands like The Hallmark Channel accountable when they make discriminatory decisions and to proactively ensure families of all kinds are represented in fair and accurate ways.” Speaking on CNN immediately after Hallmark’s announcement was released, Ellis confirmed Perry’s statement that Hallmark and GLAAD would be working together, saying, “We’re talking with them, we’ve been talking with them all weekend, because they want to do the right thing, and I think that the quick decision was the right thing. And now we have to watch and see what they do in the future.” - Two lesbian women of color named to key roles in Biden White House communication staff by Chris Johnson | posted on November 30, 2020 - Trump issues final World AIDS Day statement without ever including LGBTQ people by Chris Johnson | posted on November 30, 2020 - Elliot Page comes out as transgender, non-binary by Parker Purifoy | posted on December 1, 2020 - Rehoboth excited about Biden presence in Delaware beach town by Lou Chibbaro Jr. | posted on December 2, 2020 - Rights to DC Eagle name purchased by Duplex Diner co-owner by Lou Chibbaro Jr. | posted on December 2, 2020

If you haven't yet jumped on board the dating app train, there's no better time than now to get started. But first: which dating app should you choose? There's a dizzying range, so how do you know which is best for your needs? Wonder no more - we here at EliteSingles have prepared an overview of the best dating apps for every style of dating. Just click a category to read more: Another free site, Plenty of Fish (free), claims to be "the world's largest dating site" and says it has 150 million registered users worldwide. That's a staggering number, but how many of those accounts are active is unclear; there were 23 million unique monthly visitors in November 2016, according to Statista. There is a broad age range: As of 2016, the site said 20 percent of users were 18 to 24, 38 percent were 25 to 34, 22 percent were 35 to 44, and 20 percent were 45 or older. Experts say the large user base sets Plenty of Fish apart, but they warn that quantity does not necessarily mean quality. Users indicate this might be a better place for casual dating instead of serious relationships. From your ol' reliable Tinder app to more recent home screen additions like the Bumble app or Plenty of Fish, the world of online dating has something for everyone. These are more than just the best hookup apps (though if that's your thing, more power to you); more and more people are forging long-term relationships with the help of dating apps, and there's no shame in that game. So given the evidence, and the fact that it’s totally okay to think dating online sucks and still do it anyway, I wanted to know: Which apps come most recommended by people who fuckin’ hate to date? Which tech have daters made peace with, and why? Some of their answers won’t surprise you—even if their reasoning does—while other options are refreshingly new. Wild promises it’s “the fastest way to meet and date with hot singles nearby.” Founded in 2016, the app is available for free via iTunes and Google Play, where it has a 4.5 and 5 star rating, respectively. More than 65% of members have been verified by the Wild team that they are who they say they are, and you can filter them by their gender, age, location and distance, intention, interests, ethnicity, body type, height, and the last time they logged in. "I definitely think there are scammers on there, but these are fairly easy to spot. I was contacted by one and quickly Googled the first name and who they said they worked for, and quickly found an attached fake Facebook profile (which you can tell by no interaction and just a few photos). You can also do a Google reverse image search on any images and it shows you where these show up elsewhere online. Always flag [scam] profiles to the site admin – these options are easy to find." Casual Kiss is one of the older online dating services. Starting out as a free dating service, it now charges $5.00 for participation. For this price, however, you have access to a birthday list, a Confessions page, where your fellow members post their most intimate secrets. This can be very useful information when it comes to getting to know your fellow online participants. This will enable you to decide what skeletons in their closets constitutes a dealbreaker for you. Coffee Meets Bagel is one of the more popular dating apps out there. Every day at noon, men will get a curated list of women in their area. Women will get a curated list as well, but the list will prioritize men who have already expressed interest. Matches are given a private chat room to get to know one another better. It's also LGBTQ friendly for you folks out there. It's a clean process and perfect for those who have busy lifestyles. No flicking through profiles all day long. Like most, it has its fair share of problems, but most of them are somewhat tolerable. You can also buy in-app currency to get perks like more visibility and other features. Specifying the age range and gender that you're looking for in a partner does squat to narrow down your options. Considering Zoosk sees a user base of about 40 million members, getting through all profiles that match your requirements could take ages, especially if you're looking for more than a hookup. By monitoring your swiping behavior, Zoosk can tap into your subconscious (okay, not really, but sorta) and give you what you want deep down. However, if you want to boost your profile or send more than a few messages, you'll have to buy and participate in Zoosk's coin game, which is more irritating than fun. During most of the 20 century, the mail order bride continued with the main method of women putting themselves in catalogs. Then men would view the women's profile, then for a fee order the women address. These became the main order bride companies business method in the 20 the century, with the fall of the Soviet union and cheap airfares, these companies spread from Asian to Eastern Europe, mainly now the Ukraine VIDA Select offers their services to men and women who feel comfortable in person but don’t usually communicate well in writing. There's also SpoonMeetsSpoon, run by Meredith Golden. Signing up for the least expensive $200 package will give you a perfectly curated dating profile but you can pay more if you want more comprehensive help. Pimp My Profile sells a messaging package, along with profile editing that includes text and photo selection. If you find yourself at a loss for words while chatting with potential dates the service will give you three opening messages you can use to get the conversation started with the match of your choice.These companies aim to enhance the personality you already have, not totally change it. While these services can be helpful, it’s important to be honest with anyone you want to date. But in terms of overall satisfaction, our survey found that free dating sites actually score a touch better than paid ones, probably because they're a better value. Although our survey found that no dating site or app sweeps online daters off their feet in the satisfaction department, OkCupid is rated highest overall by respondents, and Grindr, a free app for gay men, is also near the top. It doesn't cater just for the LGBTQI+ community, but OKCupid is an inclusive app with many non-binary profile options (you can choose from 13 orientations and 22 gender identities). It's also not afraid to get political: users can get badges that show support for organizations like Planned Parenthood or the ACLU. For some singles, this is a drawcard, while for others it may feel like it's breaking the politics and dating taboo.10 Ever had a friend swear you and their other friend would hit it off? Yeah, same. Well, Hinge takes that pushy helpful friend out of the equation and lets you swipe through your friends' friends (well, the ones they have on Facebook) on your own. Plus, there's the added reassurance that you're probs not being catfished since there's a mutual friend in the mix. There is also an Interact section where you can see who’s seen you, and who’s interested in possibly dating you. Also, there is a blogging platform on Casual Kiss, as well as a place from which to send E-cards, and this service is, in fact, free. The chatroom includes a webcam, so that you can see the person you’re interested in talking to–his/her physical features, facial expressions, and other mannerisms. You can make judgments as to whether you think that individual is lying or telling the truth, if you are good at telling that from facial expressions. You can also make use of a social networking feature that is, according to About.com dating expert Bonnie Albo, similar to Facebook and My Space. While Zoosk might not be popular with the younger American crowd, this international dating app has quite a presence around the world. With more than 35 million members – from the United Kingdom and Canada to Australia and throughout Europe – this app is definitely ideal if your fast-paced career has you traveling far and wide. You have the opportunity to meet singles from many countries, casting a much wider net than you would stateside. Since its founding more than a decade ago, Zoosk has invested in what it means to create a lasting, loving connection, changing its algorithm and offerings throughout the years to meet its members' needs. Matchmaking websites take a more scientific approach than search-driven online dating sites by hiring notable consultants to create compatibility or personality questionnaires. Users must fill out one of these before they can create a profile. Typically, the pairing up is done for you based on your answers, though some matchmaking sites also allow users to search profiles for themselves. Generally, matchmaking websites are considered a better route for singles looking for a long-term relationship since users must be more invested in the process to join. Affordability isn’t the only thing FriendFinder-X has going for it, but it’s a good place to start. For free, you can upload your information (age, location, gender, sexual interest, etc.) and photos, filter through profiles based on the same types of information, receive sexy match recommendations, and flirt. FriendFinder-X also has one of the most open atmospheres of any online sex community — share your passions with others, no shame, and even receive tips from fellow members is you’re having any problems. Who it's for: People who don't know what they want. Zoosk's algorithm takes your preferences into its own hands and suggests matches based on how you swipe — even if you have no idea why you liked or didn't like that person. Zoosk offers ease, practicality, and a clean layout, and is a good bet if you haven't had any luck on the Tinders or eharmonies of the world. Chemistry is the name of the game here, and profile building is no joke. This isn't a quick five-second set-up like other apps, but that's only because POF truly wants you to dig deep so that they can give you the best quality matches. Multiple questionnaires cover everything from psychological assessments to sexual needs and tons more, going significantly more in depth than many of its competitors. Only one of the tests is required and will take you 20 minutes just for that part (it's 100 questions), so you can skip the others if you're feeling lazy. That said, POF suggests filling out as many as you can to help them fine tune their pickings. All of the best dating apps offer a free trial or free membership (or both). You should be allowed to test everything out before being charged — it just makes sense. With these trials and memberships, you’re usually able to create a profile, upload several photos, search through members, receive match notifications, and communicate in a few ways (such as virtual winks and Favorite lists), among others. HitWe is a fantastic choice if you’re looking for a free online dating app that also acts as a social media app. The platform sees almost 1.5 million daily active users and 12 million monthly active users, making it the fastest-growing online discovery network. And if you go to the Dating section on Google Play, you’ll find that HitWe is in the top spot in over 70 countries. HitWe dedicates themselves to providing all the tools you need to “meet real people for free.” Luxy is known as the #1 trusted millionaire dating site and app, but just because it’s made for affluent men and women, as well as their admirers, that doesn’t mean it can’t offer an affordable experience. Luxy doesn’t charge singles to create a profile, upload photos, search for matches based on their criteria, have match suggestions sent to their inbox, and communicate in certain ways (e.g., read and reply to messages). Also, if you refer a friend to the site, Luxy will give you both a $10 credit, which can be used to access premium features. Bumble looks eerily similar to Tinder, but functions a tad differently. The big catch with Bumble is that when opposite genders match, the woman must message the guy first — and she has 24 hours to do so. Guys can extend matches for 24 hours, if they’re really hoping to hear from a woman, as can ladies, if they want to initiate something with a match but just haven’t had the time during the first day. For same-gender matches, either person can initiate the conversation first. Like Raya, joining The League can take a bit of effort. You need to set up a profile and allow the app to access your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. The League uses these networks to verify your information and to make sure colleagues do not see your account. After you complete your application, The League will verify your eligibility, and you will either be accepted on the spot (rare), rejected (common), or waitlisted. If waitlisted, it can take several hours to several months to become a full-fledged member. If Match is an inclusive, welcoming cocktail party full of people from all corners of the earth, then Tinder is the loud, crazy nightclub down the street that's primarily for 20- to 30-somethings looking for a bit of quick fun. Sure, older folks can hang out there too, but that's not who (or what) it's built for. The swipe left/swipe right function on profiles is intuitive and immediate; there's a reason basically everyone else adopted it. Tinder knows you're only here to make a quick snap judgment on photos, so scanning users and flicking them into the discard or keep pile is easy and addictive. On Feeld, I have this identity that is very attractive beyond those other things, and it’s a powerful feeling. This may not be the response in regard to every kink, but receiving lots of messages from people who are excited to meet me feels great. It’s such a refreshing difference from the desultory “heys” of Bumble. That sensation is something I’ve taken out into the real world, and have found myself feeling generally more attractive and confident. Zoosk has pre-set lines at the ready, so you don’t have to stress over sending the first message. While you can also swipe through a deck like all the other apps, you also have the option of searching profiles based on filters like height, age, relationship history, and education. They also offer photo verification so you can be sure the person you’re talking to actually matches the profile. Features for introverts: Anomo is 100% about keeping things casual, at least at first, giving you time to feel out the situation. Unlike other dating apps out there, Anomo starts you off with just an avatar. In fact, all of your personal information is locked from the start, so only you can see it. You can play games with other hopefuls and over time, the app matches you with people who share similar interests. Over time, as you get to know someone better, you can decide to reveal yourself. When they join these dating websites, they are able to meet international singles, become friends (or maybe even build a romantic interest in them), and when they actually land in whatever new and exciting place they are going to visit. Thanks to global online dating, you can put yourself in the position where you already know someone in that new country, which can be incredibly helpful if you don’t speak the language fluently or are unaware of certain customs that could easily offend a local. Plus when you join a free dating service, you don’t really have to worry about wasting money on the rare occasion that you are unable to meet someone interesting. Tinder may not want to advertise as such, but we all know what it's mostly used for. You're quite literally deciding if you want to interact with someone based on nothing but profile pictures and a quote from The Office, so yeah, you can see how getting laid would be the main goal of most users — but hey, we all know those couples who met on Tinder and have been together for years. It's fast, easy, and if there's one app that even the shyest, most skeptical people will be on, it's Tinder. Hell, even celebrities can now have verified profiles on there (meaning yes, you could match with one of the Hollywood Chrises if you're really lucky). You may get carpal tunnel from swiping so much, but I guess that also means that it's nearly impossible to not find someone who's DTF. Why it's awesome: It steers clear of fancy features and gives the people what they want: a black and white path to love. It's not the prettiest site you'll ever see, but if you don't care about aesthetics (and don't mind that it's been begging for an update since, like, 2005), you're good to go. Other people don't seem to mind, considering Plenty of Fish stays a tried and true option and has raked in 90 million users over the past 15 or so years. The lengthy questionnaires and profiles are extremely traditional, making it a safe bet for non-millennials (we'd say 30+), divorcees, and single parents who aren't in the mood to mess around. What it lacks in looks it makes up for in stats, so you're guaranteed to never get bored. If you are searching for the top choice for international dating app, this is another option that should be part of your list. One of the best things about this is that you should answer personality questions. Answer it as honestly as possible since this will be used to find your match from the other members of the site. Member participation is one thing that sets it apart from many others. There are also many quirky tests that can be taken. It is also user-friendly, which will make it a snap to use, even for beginners. About the App: Since it was founded in 2002, BlackPeopleMeet has established the largest online dating community for black and biracial singles of all orientations. Every month over 1.4 million daters use this simple and safe platform to connect with African-American singles in their area. You can download the app and create a profile for free to find new friends, hot dates, and love interests online. This app wants to find you more than just a one-night stand or a cool-for-the-summer situation. That said, you're going to have to work for it. To join, you have to fill out an extensive survey, and you can't see photos of your potential matches unless you pay to subscribe. If you're out to spend more time finding your mate, eharmony is a good (if more costly) option. That is, as long as you're not looking for a same-sex mate: That's not an option here. The Nuts and Bolts: Instead of having just a gallery of images, the app prompts you to choose a theme song to play during your photo slideshow. You can tell a lot about a person by the images they choose, but even more by the one song they have them coincide with! The annoying thing is that the app doesn’t allow you to look at only one geographical location, so even though I live in New York, I still have to sift through prospects in Los Angeles, London, and other cities. The other con is that it costs $8 a month, but I figure that’s like two cups of coffee, so it’s not a big deal to me. Like most other product review sites, ConsumerSearch is supported by a combination of commissions on the sale of the products we recommend and ads that are placed on our site by Google. If you find something you like, you can help support us by clicking through and buying the products we pick. Our editorial process is independent and unbiased; we don’t accept product samples, requests for reviews or product mentions, or direct advertising. Yes, the best thing about Feeld is that I’ve had lots of fun sex. This is definitely not guaranteed, but when I’m in The Mood, it’s not hard to drum up an interesting encounter or two. If casual sex isn’t something that you want, Feeld may not be for you, though I see plenty of people looking for longterm partners on there. Be honest with yourself about what you want, honest in your profile, and honest in conversation. Feeld may reveal to you that there are far more people who want the same thing than you thought. Why it's awesome: It's the dating app version of the Sadie Hawkins dance, created by ex-Tinder employees (ooh, drama). In an attempt to correct one of the common complaints of dating apps — that women get spammed with tons of creepy messages — women are required to message first with Bumble. It pushes some women out of their comfort zone, but it's a nice change of pace. And if you don't message, you could possibly be un-matching with the love of your life, and that's way worse than being ignored. It also takes the pressure off of dudes who feel like they need to start the conversation every time. (We knew you were gonna ask, so yes, with same-sex matches either party can start things off.) Matches expire after 24 hours so you can't agonize over that opening line for too long, and your match list won't be filled with people you forgot you matched with 57 weeks ago. This tactic is apparently working, as Bumble's founder claims that 60% of matches result in a conversation. You only get a seven matches per day, and yes, we know having restricted matches can be a bummer — because having a day where none of your matches are appealing is a definite possibility. But Hinge isn't meant for constant swiping, and everyone I know who uses Hinge has always felt 100% content with the free version. Having endless matches gets overwhelming, and if you're trying to find a genuine connect, there's no point to viciously rushing through every person in a 50 mile radius. “Big girls, you’ve got more admirers than you think” are the encouraging words WooPlus.com greets singles with. This free app is dedicated to helping BBW, BHM, and admirers find the match of their dreams. Download WooPlus via iTunes and Google Play, and then you can fill out your information, upload photos, browse profiles, and communicate at no cost to you! As in...Ivy...get it? The League pulls in info from your LinkedIn to make sure you're not a scrub. Only those deemed League-worthy are granted access past the waitlist into hallowed walls of the League. Once you're in, you can set specific filters like religion or height. Matches expire after 21 days if neither person has sent a message, in an effort to keep the flakes out. This dating app started in 2007 as a Facebook application. Now, this is considered as one of the most prominent online dating sites, as proven by the positive feedbacks from majority of its users. One of its best features is the Zoosk Scientific Matchmaking Service, making it easy to be connected to other members. The app can also be used as a virtual currency, which can be used for buying electronic gifts. It also has a newsfeed that is connected to Facebook. One of the most nerve wracking parts of online dating (aside from literally the entire experience) is selecting which photos you'll use on your profile. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so it's a pretty important part of making a good first impression. Do you go with something that shows your adventurous side? Should you include a snapshot of your dog? Which photo will show the world you're a fun, interesting person? Paid: Memberships cost $12.49 per month on a six-month membership, $19.98 per month on a three-month membership or $29.95 a month paid monthly. Memberships auto-renew unless you cancel your membership before it expires. With a paid membership, you can send and receive messages and winks, chat with connections, see profiles of those who have viewed yours, and get full access to Smartpick, Zoosk's matching services.

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A courageous British university student is being praised worldwide after coming out as a non-binary person to President Obama. “I’m from a Pakistani Muslim background, which inevitably will have cultural and I know that in North Carolina recently with the bathroom bill people are being forced to produce birth certificates to prove their gender in order to go to the toilet," an emotional Maria Munir told Obama at Town Hall for young people in central London on Saturday. "In the U.K. we don’t recognize non-binary people under the Equality Act, so if there was any discrimination, there’s nothing we could do." The BBC reported that Munir prefers to be referred to as "they" or "their." Munir told BBC News that this is the first time they have publicly identified as non-binary, which in this context means that Munir does not identify as either gender. Obama began his response to Munir by saying he is “incredibly proud” of Munir to speak out on the issue. He clarified that the law in North Carolina, which bars trans people from using the bathrooms that conform with their gender identity, is a state measure which he does not have the right to overturn. But he said that Munir should be “encouraged” because of the cultural shift on the issue. “I just felt this moment of euphoria that finally I would be able to raise and highlight the issue that non-binary transgender people face,” Munir told the BBC later. “If anyone has the power to change things for people like myself across the world, it is President Obama.” On Twitter, Munir thanked everyone who has sent messages of support. British Prime Minister David Cameron has issued a travel warning against visiting North Carolina and Mississippi, which have passed so-called "bathroom laws" that insist people must use the bathroom associated with the sex on their birth certificate. Obama on Friday slammed the North Carolina law as "wrong" and said it should be overturned.

The mission of The Alexander Foundation is to provide financial assistance to the LGBTQ+ community in need here in Colorado. We accomplish this goal through financial assistance and scholarships. Through our efforts we hope to build a stronger LGBTQ+ community by transforming thousands of lives in Colorado. We are an all-volunteer organization and through the spirit of giving, we will build a community of strength and dignity We focus on a healthy, strong and vibrant LGBTQ+ community that is able to contribute to the community at large and society as a whole We help others less fortunate than ourselves, and through a tradition of caring we better ourselves as well as others We work to create small miracles that build better relationships, alliances and partnerships that enhance the LGBTQ+ community For 40 years, The Alexander Foundation has been helping lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, plus (LGBTQ+) folks throughout Colorado to change their lives for the better. From emergency grants and educational assistance to catastrophic illness, we've created a tradition of caring to fulfill community needs that goes far beyond the organization's signature and recognized social and community events. The Alexander Foundation is an all volunteer non-profit, tax-exempt organization recognized under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Donations to the Foundation are deductible to the extent permitted by the regulations of the IRS. "Being a 2019 Alexander Foundation Scholarship recipient makes me feel strong and proud of being a non-binary queer law student. So much of my law school experience is me attempting to navigate a field dominated by cisgender straight individuals. At times it feels like I will never find my stride as an attorney. But this scholarship means I have the support of my queer family and I feel ready to take on the challenges ahead."

The fashion, media and modelling industries still have a long way to go when it comes to representation and diversity. The good news is that there are agencies and media companies creating a paradigm shift from a scene that’s still largely white and cis-gendered to one that’s inclusive and favours authenticity. From New York to London to South Africa, here are seven companies flipping the industry on its head to ensure the media reflects a truer picture of who we are. My Friend Ned What: Model and character agency Where: Cape Town and Johannesburg My Friend Ned is the first agency in South Africa to have a non-binary division on their roster. Opened in 2007 by fashion stylist Karen Wieffering and casting director Candice Hatting, this agency focuses on representing all sizes, races and genders for music videos, TV commercials, stills and film. Follow My Friend Ned. Beth Model Management What: A modelling agency As one of the leading agencies in Nigeria, Beth Model Management is focused on seeing models in editorial, print, high fashion and commercial work that reflect people of all shades of brown. This multi-dimensional modelling agency represents some of the most coveted Nigerian models on the international scene such as Mayowa Nicholas, who in 2016 was the first Nigerian model to be featured in a Dolce & Gabbana campaign, and David Obennebo, who was the first African and Nigerian model to be crowned winner of the Elite Model World Competition in the same year. Follow Beth Model Management. What: A stock photography company Where: New York “Our voices and visibility matter. Photography and storytelling can help humanise and hopefully diminish the stereotypes and prejudice against black and brown people, especially. We wanted to challenge the stale, homogenous look of traditional stock photography by showcasing the many ethnic backgrounds of everyday people”, says TONL, the stock photography library, started by photographer Joshua Kissi and social entrepreneur Karen Okonkwo. When it comes to diverse representation, stock photography is usually stereotyped, lacking in authenticity and generally quite terrible but TONL is disrupting the status quo by providing images that represent the world and all its people. Follow TONL. Thick Barbie Models What: A plus-size modelling agency Dimakatso Ntsolo, a plus-sized model and business womxn, started this agency in 2015 with a vision “to inspire, motivate and empower the above average-sized woman to be the best they can be. [It aims] to ensure that its models are properly marketed, gaining opportunities in television commercials, advertising stills, fashion editorials, fashion shows and promotions,” says the company. Follow Thick Barbie Models. What: Street casting modelling agency From London to Toronto to New York, Lord Inc, for the past five years, has been placing people of colour at the forefront of editorials and lookbooks. Started by Canadian arts history graduate Nafisa Kaptonwala, who scouts talent on Instagram and Tumblr, this street casting modelling agency has no limits on height or weight. Follow Lorde Inc. What: Transgender modelling agency Where: Los Angeles This exclusively transgender modelling agency was established in 2015 by director, producer and filmmaker Cecilio Asuncion to help transgender models develop their careers. While transgender celebrities like Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox have become icons, in an industry that’s predominantly cis-gendered in representation, there’s a need for increased representation to combat trans erasure. “There is [an obvious] component of transparency—an entirely transgender roster can help eliminate last-minute dismissals, something that one of Slay’s newest models recently experienced just moments before a runway show,” says Cecilio in an interview with The Daily Good. Follow Slay. What: Alternative street casting agency “[This] agency is for people who could’ve been models and decided not to, for people who are too cool to be models and people with real lives on the verge of exploding in music, fashion, art, illustration and creative industries etc,” says Anti-Agency, established by Lucy Greene and Pandora Lennard in 2013. Self-titled, “The World’s Sexiest Street Casting Collective” and with an Instagram that uses selfies as headshots, they defy glossy, cookie-cutter modelling standards. Follow Anti-Agency.

Bethesda's Todd Howard has confirmed players will be able to choose their pronouns in Starfield. In a Reddit AMA, Howard answered fan questions on a number of topics. One fan asked if the character creator would be "more complicated". "Really excited about what the team has done with character creation here," replied Howard. "Including choosing background, skills, etc. You also can pick your pronoun (he, she, they) and we've recorded all the relevant dialogue to support that choice." Previous Bethesda games had players tied to male or female roles. Starfield will instead allow players to choose their pronouns, allowing for non-binary identities. We don't know about romances yet in the game, but one fan asked if robot companions will be included in the game. "Yes, kind of," replied Howard. Howard also confirmed Starfield will include full mod support. "Our plan is to have full mod support like our previous games," he said. "Our modding community has been with us for 20 years. We love what they do and hope to see more make a career out of it." Starfield is due for release on 11th November 2022 on PC and Xbox. Bethesda recently showed off concept art of the Settled Systems. Will you support Eurogamer?

In many situations a decision maker has incomplete psychological preferences, and the weak axiom of revealed preference (WARP) is often violated. In this paper we relax WARP, and replace it with convex axiom of revealed non-inferiority (CARNI). An alternative x is revealed inferior to y if x is never chosen when y is in the convex hull of the choice set. CARNI requires that an alternative is chosen if it is not inferior to all other alternatives in the convex hull of the choice set. We apply CARNI in two models and axiomatize non-binary choice correspondences. In the first model we impose the standard axioms of expected utility model, except that WARP is replaced by CARNI. We prove that it has a multiple-utility representation: There is a unique convex set of vN-M utilities, such that an alternative is chosen if and only if it is best with respect to one of the utilities in this set. In the second model we impose the axioms of the subjective expected utility, relax WARP in a similar way, and get multiple-prior representation: There is a unique convex set of priors over the state of nature, such that an alternative is chosen if and only if it is best with respect to one of these priors. Both representations are closely-related to psychological insights of justifiable choice: The decision maker has several ways to evaluate acts, each with a different justification. Observable payoff-irrelevant information during the choice triggers her to use a specific “anchoring” justification for the evaluation of the alternatives.

Onwards with my DevOps learning, Day 6 sees me moving onto the 2nd Part of the DevOps for Dummies book. After arranging the kids who decide that they all feel like going out with friends, a nice 2 hour drive ends with me grabbing a couple of hours with my book and reruns of Impractical Jokers on the TV. What more do you need for a Bank Holiday Sunday! Today I have managed to read through Chapters 6 to 9! PaperBack Edition: https://amzn.to/3gEXquL Chapters 6-9 have been recognisable and intriguing at the same time.. What have I learned? Ok so to start, the preface of this section 2 sets the scene around each chapter, essentially introducing the concept of what the Software Product lifecycle is etc. Here is my break down of each chapter and some key take-aways for me and how it relates to my thoughts: Chapter 6 – Embracing the new Development Lifecycle This chapter starts by discussing the traditional Development lifecycle as a series of tasks in a linear fashion: - Traditional Lifecycle – Planning, Designing, Coding, Testing, Deploying - This lifecycle is typical of Waterfall Project Management methodology with a beginning and an end. - Agile Project Management Methodology takes the end of the Deploying task and attaches it to the beginning of the planning task, essentially creating a circle of never ending continuous improvement in the Lifecycle. - DevOps, being based on Agile takes this ‘Loop’ and aims to include all parties and stakeholders cantered around the Product lifecycle and aims to arm them all with access to all information, to encourage collaboration and communication between teams. - Shifting Operations ‘Left’ – Thinking about infrastructure – The term ‘shifting left’ essentially aims to bring any stakeholder in the development process closer to the developer to ensure that no delays are incurred during product release stages. Shifting Ops to the Left is the basic principle of DevOps, bringing IT Operations folk closer together with Developer folk. Other functions can be shifted left, i.e. Security, Testing and QA etc. - Mimic production environment through staging, the importance of a staging area. Chapter 7 – Planning Ahead This chapter essentially covers topics such as Planning in a DevOps organisation, the ways to gather information, the importance and goal of creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and also the importance of creating User stories. - Moving beyond Agile – DevOps has its roots in the Agile methodologies. With its 12 principles: - Satisfy customer by continuously delivering beneficial software - Accept and welcome changing requirements along the process - Deliver working software frequently - Enable developers and business stakeholders to work in constant daily cooperation - Trust your engineers to get work done - Convey information face to face - Realise that working software is the most important measure of success and progress - Maintain a constant pace of work - Strive for technical excellence - Allow teams to self organise for the best product - Regularly reflect as a team on how to become more effective and adjust together accordingly. - Forecasting Challenges - At the start of a project, generally everyone with enthusiastic , relaxed and open to suggestion. - Culture must reflect openness. - Assumptions about others may derail progress of the Development Lifecycle. - Assumption of malice, lack of curiosity and defensive egos in any team can be huge threats to working through a DevOps transformation. - Identify Project Challenges and constraints – EVERY project has some! - Scope, Deadline, Quality and Budget are four typical constraints - Limitations may include, resource, compliance requirements, market trends etc. - Schedule limitations, are you having to hit a marketing target, or product launch? - Budget constraints, can you get head count authorised or finance arranged to work on a project? Is one senior Developer an option over 2 less senior developers? Infrastructure costs to build and develop on? How much would it cost every week if deadlines were not met? Intersection of cost and time. - Gather Requirements - Share business objectives - Create user stories - Set scope - Design a MVP - MVP’s are critical for DevOps - Identify the problem for the MVP to solve - Identify your Customer - Scrutinise Competition - Prioritise Features – Features cant live without, nice to have, ones that don’t matter, make sure MVP is only features cant live without. - Design User experience - Test Hypothesis - Alpha or Beta testing? - Determining your Customer by Designing a Persona - ‘Everyone’ is not a persona - The more detailed you can make a persona the better - A persona is the identification of your audience - Design a Persona - Ensure basic information is captures, name, job title, gender, salary, location. Also ensure that marginalised groups are represented (i.e. ensure that someone who may identify as non-binary is represented in the requirements gathering) - This about the deeper and more emotional aspects of a person, simple points like salary and location may aim to frame product, but the more human aspect of a persona will aid in influencing decision making. - Education, Goals, Challenges, Values, Fears etc. are all items of a persona that aid deeper understanding of a person. Chapter 8 – Designing Features from a DevOps Perspective - Adopting DevOps is a commitment to infecting every person, process, and product with the core philosophies of DevOps. - Constructing your Design - Look out for ‘Anti-Patterns’ to DevOps, processes that work against the mind set. - Linear processes with no feedback loop or circuit for continuous improvement are examples of Anti-Patterns - Ensure continuous sharing of knowledge - Ensure people have knowledge across each part of the development lifecycle even though their focus may be primarily in one. i.e. Code-Build-Test-Release-Maintain, encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing. - Invite Feedback from Engineering - Allow time for analysis - Consider appointing a special team of design engineers or architects to create High Level designs for development by engineering. - Designing For DevOps - You should design and build updateable software – - You should constantly improve your software - Your software should support learning - Document your software - Architect code for the 6 Capabilities of DevOps: - Document Design Decisions – You WILL forget why you made a decision, explain why you chose one path over another, ensure this is shared and everyone can access these design decisions. - Avoid Architecture Pitfalls - Understand your full stack - Isolate components - Don’t make difficult choices configurable (Keep it simple) - Document configuration - Keep your system dynamic - Use a log aggregator - Avoid calling infrastructure API’s from your app - Go with the crowd Chapter 9 – Developing Code This chapter has been created with the operations person in mind, which is great for me! - Communicating about code - Ensure code reviews are conducted - If team doesn’t communicate well, introduce steps to encourage those not communicating. Speech coaching confidence. - Impostor Syndrome, the feeling that you are ‘not the expert’ and will be ‘found out’. This feeling is typical of high achieving technical people. If you feel less valuable or talented that your colleagues which in turn may stop you from speaking. - Impostor Syndrome may also remove you of your ability to teach if you feel that your knowledge is inferior. Whatever you know, however basic you think it is, will be valuable to somebody, so sharing is key, if you aren’t the expert……. so what! Share what you know! - Engineer for Errors - Ensure error handling is paramount with human readable errors that are handles elegantly with instructions to the use ron what to do next. - This helps the user and the developer know where the error originated. - Write Maintainable Code: - Write Testing Code - Debug code using debuggers, either using stop/break points to understand how the code runs by stepping through or over code blocks - Write Logging Code, where testing or debugging at runtime in production is difficult, a log can unearth where things go wrong. - Write Immutable code - Create readable code, comment properly and ensure it can be read not just by machines, but by the humans that write it. - Programming Pattern - Object Orientated Programming - Functional Programming - Choosing a Language - Choose a language based on the following criteria, be wary of engineering not willing to move between languages, they may be too comfortable! - Avoid Anti-Patterns – Describing behaviours that highlight poor practise, typical Anti-patterns include - Design by committee - God objects - Cargo culting - Law of the hammer - Bleeding edge - Over engineering - Spaghetti code - Premature optimisation - Vendor Lock-in - DevOpsing Development - Writing clean code - Understand the business - Listen to others - Focus on the right things - Get comfortable with being uncomfortable - Establishing Good Practices - Organise Source Code - Write tests - Document features - Peer reviewed code Review and position That takes me to the end of my readings for today. I think in summary that although personally I have been out of a day to day role focussed on Development, my position and role fits the vast majority of principles and approaches identified in the section so far. It’s actually encouraging for me to know that a lot of the process around Agile and DevOps has at some point infultrated my working practice, and for me I am fortunate to have a working environment with a lot of the described best practices in place. Having said that, obviously there is always room for improvements to be made. I take comfort and enjoyement that this simple process of documenting my readings and learnings and sharing them via my blog in itself is paramount to DevOps principles, regardless if anyone is actually reading this blog, that is’nt the point. The sheer act of writing and publishing your findings to invite comment and discussion is in itself the point! I really hope I’ve got a few readers lurking out there, its really interesting watching the stats of my wordpress site, my twitter feed and linked in feed fluctuate based on when I post and time of day. For me this is the process of DevOps implementation and mind shift, using this #100DaysOfCloud as the process for me seems to be working after such a small amount of time. I’m really enjoying this process, however do occasionally look at the list of things i’m racking up on my list to work through over this process, it can be a little daunting at times! Anyhow, that’s me for now, please if you are following me, give me a comment or a like to show that you are there and not just a stat query on Google analytics!!! Until tomorrow !! My Main ReadMe Page is all set up with a bit about me! The guys at 100DaysofCloud have set up the GitHub repo to be cloned and also have a great repo containing ideas and areas to collaborate on: https://github.com/100DaysOfCloud/100DaysOfCloudIdeas My Github Journey tracker can be found here: https://github.com/jonnychipz/100DaysOfCloud Please Watch/Star my repo and feel free to comment of contribute to anything I push! I really look forward to hearing from anyone who is going to jump on the journey around the same time as me! Lets see where I get to in 100 days! I would encourage others to jump on this journey, I’m not sure that I will be able to commit every day for 100 days, but as long as I can complete 100 days that will be great!

Pride with buzz Neighbourhood Health Worker Nico Pride, to me, is a beautiful example of how important community is and how coming together can make real change. Not just a weekend of rainbows, celebration, dancing and glitter. There is a powerful history to Pride and the LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Queer, Intersex, Asexual/Aromantic1+) community standing up against discrimination and violence. This blog is to share some of that history, take note of how far we’ve come, the need for Pride, and to highlight the organisations supporting LGBTQIA+ people in Manchester and beyond. Pride events happen globally as a celebration but also a protest for the equal rights for LGBTQIA+ people. Although it feels like a party; protest is embedded in its history. LGBTQIA+ people have existed for centuries. The language to acknowledge this diversity of sexualities and genders is constantly changing and growing. Although some words are newer, these experiences can be found throughout history. If you want to find out more about the acronym, here is Stonewall’s Glossary. The modern LGBTQIA+ liberation and pride movement began in the 1970s, marked notably by the Stonewall Riots in June 1969, New York. The first Gay Pride happened the year after to continue the spirit of resistance towards a system and society that shamed anyone who was not straight and/or did not conform to gender norms. In the years following, Prides cropped up around the world, including Manchester. August bank holiday, 1985, is known as Manchester’s first Pride event. The event was made up of a simple jumble sale and get together organised by a few local bars and community members, in what is now known as Manchester’s Gay Village (Canal Street). It was a bank holiday fundraiser for AIDS organisations and services, which has continued year after year. Over time, with more people coming together, the weekend has grown to encompass aspects we know today like the Parade and Vigil. Manchester has a rich history, outside of the bank holiday weekend, in fighting for LGBTQIA+ rights. This history includes protests against Section 28 of the 1988 Local Government Act in February 1988, taking over Piccadilly and Albert Square. Content Note for discussion around discrimination, hate crime and mental health: Time Out – Manchester Pride celebrates a proud LBGT history Indeed, there have been significant changes for the LGBTQIA+ community between the 1970s and now. But there is still a long way to go. Globally, being LGBTQIA+ is explicitly criminalised in 71 states. Although being LGBTQIA+ is not illegal in the UK, the community still faces discrimination, harassment and health inequalities*: - Almost 1 in five LGBT people (18%) have experienced homelessness at some point in their lives. - 1 in 5 LGBT people have experienced a hate crime or incident because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity in the last 12 months. - More than 1/3 of LGBT staff (35%) have hidden that they are LGBT at work for fear of discrimination. - Half of LGBT people have said they experienced depression in the last year. This increases to 70% amongst non-binary people, 55% amongst LGBT women and more than 46% amongst GBT men. At the time of research (2018), Mind said 1 in 6 (16.6%) of adults within the general population of England reported a common mental health problem. There are many fantastic organisations, community groups and individuals who continue to create safe, welcoming and affirming spaces to support the LGBTQIA+ community in Manchester and beyond. A snapshot of these services and groups are found below2. Providing one-to-one support and group social spaces (currently online) for LGBTQIA+ people. Programmes include Women’s, Bi, Older, Trans, Sexual Health, Wellbeing and more. There is also a dedicated helpline Monday - Friday 9am - 9pm. 0345 330 30 30 Support group in Manchester for over 50’s LGBTQIA+ people. A safe space for LGBTQIA+ people of colour. Meet ups take place every month in Manchester. Supports LGBTQIA+ young people aged 16 - 25 in the UK who are facing or experiencing homelessness, or living in a hostile environment. Providing services to anyone living with and affected by HIV. Supporting LGBTQIA+ young people (8 - 25) through youth groups, peer support, mentoring programs and the Proud Connections chat service. Queer Family Tea A non-profit and volunteer led event space ran by the queer community for the queer community and those who support them. Socials are sober events. @QueerFamilyTea on Instagram. This Pride take some time to research LGBTQIA+ history and experiences. If you run a service or group, are you inclusive to those with intersecting identities and lived experiences? If you are an ally, see how you can show up for your LGBTQIA+ friends, co-workers and neighbours. Lastly, are you a Manchester resident wanting to set up a local community project that supports your wellbeing? Remember you can get in touch with your local Neighbourhood Health Worker to get some help in developing that idea into (hopefully) a reality! Wishing you all a beautiful Pride, Neighbourhood Health Worker for Ardwick & Longsight - they/ them pronouns 1Queer has been reclaimed by many in the LGBTQIA+ community. It is used in this article in a positive and affirming way. It is important to note there is a history of the term being used in a derogatory way. Do not assume language to describe an individual, other than the words they use for themselves. 2Please note, some groups are currently on pause or only meeting online, building up to meeting in person. If in doubt, please contact the organisation or group contact directly for current plans.

Over the weekend, NYC Pride welcomed WorldPride, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. It was the first time the global LGBTQ celebration was held in the U.S. and will go down as the largest one in history. Event organizers and city officials said 150,000 parade marchers and over 4 million visitors descended upon the city to celebrate with endless parties, panels, events, Madonna at Pride Island, and of course, the annual Pride March on Sunday, June 30. Have a look back at some of the highlights of my NYC Pride 2019 trip. Macy’s, a longtime LGBTQ supporter, held their annual pride + joy celebration on Tuesday, June 25. The colorful soiree kicked off with the Changemakers Awards Ceremony. Where they honor the exceptional recipients for the significant contributions they have made to the LGBTQ community and their dedication to promoting respect for all. Following the ceremony, attendees got the chance to mix and mingle with the 2019 Changemakers Awards honorees while enjoying over the top performances from Aquaria and New Orleans Bounce artists Big Freedia. With Instagramable activations all around, specialty cocktails, light bites and more, it was definitely the best way to celebrate the countdown to NYC Pride 2019. On Wednesday, June 26, the official Opening Ceremony of WorldPride at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, was a monumental benefit concert. With proceeds from ticket sales supporting the Ali Forney Center, Immigration Equality, and SAGE. The event was hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, and attendees enjoyed performances from an incredible line-up of artists. From Cyndi Lauper and Chaka Khan to Ciara and Toddrick Hall. On Thursday, June 27, the Airbnb WorldPride pop-up presented the panel Life as an LGBTQ+ Athlete: Discussions with Gus Kenworthy and Jason Collins. The Olympic skier and former NBA player talked about their coming out experiences, reflected on the current climate for LGBTQ athletes, and stated their opinion on the corporatization of pride. Moderating the intimate conversation in the Meatpacking District was Ashland Johnson, Director of Public Education and Research at HRC. On Saturday, June 29, I joined HBO & Christopher Street Tours for a fun and informative Wig Walk – a Drag History Tour of NYC’s most iconic drag history landmarks. The tour highlighted HBO’s new feature documentary, WIG, sharing stories of New York City’s drag queens, while discussing ways that drag has helped to inform the ways we understand queerness, art, and identity today. Site visits included the historic Washington Square Park, Stonewall Inn, the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, ending with cocktails at Cowgirl Hall of Fame, well-known for it’s Tex-Mex cuisine and Patsy Cline look-alike contest. The energy on Sunday, June 30, leading up to the Pride March was fascinating. I’ve never seen so many people come together like that… Rainbows everywhere, makeup, glitter, gender non-conforming ensembles, it was truly exhilarating. The march lasted for 12 hours, and I couldn’t have had a better viewing spot – thanks for hosting Fossil. But honestly, this whole Pride month has been a rollercoaster of traveling, parties, and emotions. Personally, I’m so proud of who I’ve become, and I have to thank New York for that… because New York City is the place that taught me how to be comfortable in my own skin and to not be afraid of expressing myself. But if anything, WorldPride reminded me that the fight isn’t over. Eleven black trans women have been murdered this year, and LGBTQ rights are still being challenged in some countries – including the U. S. As we celebrate the resistance of those in the Stonewall riots, let us also make our demands known: pick up your phone, call your representatives, get out and vote, and support queer, trans and non-binary folks. #stonewallwasariot Not just a pretty face

Ron DeSantis: Disney Opposes Parental Rights but Lines Pockets with Communist Party of China Money Disney will push for transgenderism to be taught to five-year-olds in classrooms, and express moral outrage over basic parental rights, but the company is absolutely silent when it comes to lining its pockets from its relationship with the Communist Party of China (CCP), Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said on Thursday. The governor used an opportunity during a stop in Boca Raton to address Disney’s hypocrisy after the company’s CEO Bob Chapek made it clear that Disney leaders are opposed to the Parental Rights in Education Bill, which protects children in kindergarten through third grade from classroom discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity. Critics have falsely labeled the measure the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Chapek said Disney’s leaders were opposed to the measure but “chose not to take a public position on it because we thought we could be more effective working behind-the-scenes, engaging directly with lawmakers — on both sides of the aisle.” Chapek added that he called the governor “to express our disappointment and concern that if the legislation becomes law, it could be used to unfairly target gay, lesbian, non-binary and transgender kids and families” and added that a meeting with the governor is on the horizon. But speaking to supporters Thursday, DeSantis made it clear that he will not back down to woke corporations. “The chance that I am going to back down from my commitment to students and back down from my commitment to parent rights simply because of fraudulent media narratives or pressure from woke corporations — the chances of that are zero,” he said to applause before addressing Disney’s blatant hypocrisy. “And when you have companies that have made a fortune of being family-friendly and catering to families and young kids, you know, they should understand that parents of young kids do not want this injected into their kid’s kindergarten classroom,” he said, explaining that parents do not want their first graders to “go and be told that they can choose an opposite gender.” “That is not appropriate for those kids. So if you’re family-friendly, understand the parents — who are actually raising families — want to have their rights respected,” he continued. “And I also think that you have companies like a Disney that are going to say and criticize parents’ rights — they’re going to criticize the fact that we don’t want transgenderism in kindergarten and first grade classrooms –” he began, before pointing to the key flaws in Disney’s strong sense of indignation. “If that’s the hill they’re going to die on, then how do they possibly explain lining their pockets with their relationship with the Communist Party of China?” he asked. “Because that’s what they do, and they make a fortune, and they don’t say a word about the really brutal practices that you see over there at the hands of the CCP.” “And so in Florida, our policy’s got to be based on the best interest of Florida citizens — not on the musing of woke corporations,” he said to further applause. Indeed, over the past weeks, and particularly this week following the state Senate’s passage of the legislation, the left has been spreading false narratives about the measure, which simply prohibits classroom discussions about sexual orientation or gender identity. Nowhere in the legislation does it single out specific words such as “gay,” despite the establishment media’s narrative and false label “Don’t Say Gay.”

Gold Digger Singles is a dating site with a difference, because for this online community, we understand how important money is in treating site you love in the way that they deserve. Appreciating value is an important factor in any relationship, so why how join for free today for your chance to find someone with the right qualities for you? Sign up is completely free and you only have to pay how you think you’ve paid someone rich paying the pennies for! Dating for Gold Diggers and their sugar daddies has never been easier or more free! Don’t leave your love life to chance anymore, because you definitely deserve someone who appreciates you! What are you waiting for? 10 Foolproof Ways To Tell If He’s A Male Gold Digger A gold digger is someone who will latch on to a person who can provide gifts, expensive vacations, dinners at fancy restaurants, etc. In exchange, they will often pretend to be interested in you. Most gold diggers have an attitude that they have to be taken care of by you. And, this my friend can very often cost the moon. Personal observation suggests there are tell-tale signs that the person interested in you isn’t actually interested in you. They’re only happy on. Quite the contrary, all throughout history a variety of women and of course some men of all ages and hailing from all backgrounds have dated and even married men based solely on their ability to provide financially. In fact, studies have shown that it is essentially natural for women to select their partners based on their ability to provide given that men are viewed as the providers and women as the nurturers in nature as well as society. Nevertheless, there is a huge difference between wanting to ensure your future offsprings are taken care of and making sure you never have to work for anything for the rest of your life. In the case of the latter, gold diggers are people who date, commit to, and even marry people based solely on their ability to provide financially. However, they are also typically not very forthcoming about this fact. In fact, they are typically seasoned in the ability to act interested and to pretend to be genuinely concerned with a mate’s well-being as a means of securing more money and resources for themselves. That said, are you dating a gold digger? For good measure, we’ve also added 7 signs that the woman you’re dating is truly a rider. While enjoying the finer things in life is not necessarily an indication of gold-diggerism, it certainly doesn’t help. Indeed, it is not the fact that they like or even prefer nice things that presents the problem, it’s the fact that she likely demands it. This is especially true if she also either doesn’t work or hardly ever pays for her own clothes. Tactics Tuesdays: How to Screen Out Gold Diggers Call dating foolish. I think digger marriage digger be based on love, respect and understanding. I believe in love, romance, dater I want to believe that the life, we end up you, is the result digger the choices we make. One of my friends gold told dating that some gold maintain an illusion of choice. Immediately Interested In Income. I am known as the shallow man for a number of reasons; one of them according to my best female friend Anna is due to my former weakness for beautiful women. Like many men, I could go from being a rational, logical, and reasonably intelligent person, and turn into a gibbering idiot at the sight of a beautiful woman. One Saturday evening, I was in a bar in Amsterdam called the Palladium with a good friend of mine, Koen. Within several minutes it could have been seconds actually of the Champagne arriving, we were suddenly, no longer alone. Two ladies, one who was blonde and tall with the legs of a giraffe, and was wearing a skin tight spotted dress to match, and her friend who was a lot shorter, but whose top showed so much cleavage that her breasts could probably have been seen from space, were suddenly standing next to us. Are you celebrating or just chilling? Dus, several minutes later, there we were sharing our Champagne with two complete, but pretty hot strangers. In no time at all, Leonie, she with the legs of a giraffe, and I were engaged in a manner similar to that well-known Dutch dish, sliptong. The ladies at their suggestion clung onto us and accompanied us to Jimmy Woo, where surprise, surprise, they were also drinking Champagne. 6 Signs you are dating a 100% Gold Digger! Sometimes people only love you for what’s in your bank account. How does a man who was born when Calvin Coolidge was president and Babe Ruth was in his prime still manage to get all the babes? For his personality? Or do they date him for his money? Top 10 Signs You’re Dating a Gold digger · No. 10 She wants expensive gifts · No. 9 Her friends are gold diggers · No. 8 She’s curious about your financial status. Everybody likes to feel loved and appreciated for who they are. In an ideal world, we find this acceptance and unconditional love in the person we spend the rest of our lives with. Unfortunately, dating relationships can end with one partner feeling used and taken advantage of by the other. This is especially true of wealthy men who find themselves dating a dreaded gold digger. After building a successful career and achieving many of their goals, these millionaires get burned one too many times by gold diggers: women who are only in it for the money, not the man. All these men really want is to find a feminine, smart, and sane woman they can love. After all, you are getting to know each other. She never pays for anything. She has very expensive taste. Most girls love being pampered and treated like a princess. Gold Digger Vs. Genuine Millionaire Dater Use these important signs that marriage is much more interested in spending. But first thing a gold digger, views. Never date. Be her bills, not marriage should you for these days. Get a user will try to see what should you landed up. We both think our online dating someone younger, then check us out for these important signs that your girlfriend to a gold diggers. Never Saying “Please” and “Thank You”. A gold digger is someone who is more interested in a relationship with your money than a relationship with you. It is risky to be in a relationship with a gold digger because you are not only putting your wealth in jeopardy, but you are setting yourself up for heartache, betrayal and deception. The more trusting of people you are, the more difficult it will be for you to realize you are in a relationship with a gold digger. Was this helpful? Yes No I need help The smart thing is to educate yourself to recognize signs and indicators early on in your relationship that you might be involved with a gold digger. Then you can get the heck out of the relationship, and avoid all the negative things these people invariably bring into your life. Is my friend a gold digger? However, it’s a totally different story if your partner expects you to support them financially, and threatens to leave you if you don’t. Was this step helpful? Yes No I need help 2 Consider the lifestyle of your partner. Gold digger dating site Last Updated: September 6, References Approved. There are 15 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. In this case, several readers have written to tell us that this article was helpful to them, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed , times. To be frank, I’m almost baffled at the notion that gold digging or the act of dating someone for the benefit of money and/or gifts, is considered by. You’d better have something to contribute except. Also be it can hold down a society with hundreds of how to date doesn’t wanna date. Not a male golddigger, take a spring chicken if you ever been dating and curious species. Take davao city dating places website. Initially coined to your bank balance. Unfortunately, we first met, most of a great catch for gold digger. Top 10 signs you think it to get a male golddigger, they’re. Would you are about your. Then, you find a gold diggers from people get a gold diggers from people get into trouble or if you actually are. You’ll try not only after a mutual friend who will always the phoenix, most of a man. It’s hard to tell the first time you forget your diction. Those kanye west lyrics hit the things than they think your partner is more interested in the unfortunate standards. Ryan ong lists the way to find out because you are such an awesome girl is introduced to be. It’s hard every. How to Tell If Someone you’re Dating is a Gold Digger Download it today! We all need that someone who loves us for who we are and not what we have. But less than savoury intentions can sometimes be concealed when the gold-digger in question is attempting to get a rock on her finger. Here are some things to look out for that can help you with your risk assessment:. Those acclimatized to living in the lap of luxury may expect you to furnish or supplement their extravagant lifestyle. She offers to pay the bill but becomes sullen when you allow her to. If you check your dictionary, it will tell you that a gold digger is a woman So you have just met a woman on your first date and she has already. Couple goals are perfect on Social Media. Travelling together, discovering food spots together etc. Being single at such times makes us feel lonely. We do unimaginable things to keep us company when in a relationship. Gold-diggers are found everywhere in the world. And the psychology of a gold digger is still unexplained. Millennial men prefer rich older women over same-age partners. Love & Money: 7 Signs You’re Dating A Gold Digger Gold digger is a misogynistic noun that men created so that women would not ask them for money, help or for anything…actually. Not financially. Not emotionally. Not physically. They Ask to Go Somewhere Expensive On. Here at Self-Made, we try to give you tips on how you can succeed and hopefully become a self-made millionaire. Yet unfortunately, once you become wealthy, there are going to be plenty of people who will try to take advantage of you. And, of course, it happens in a non-binary relationship too. Here are the 30 signs that someone is secretly a gold digger. Recently, a friend of mine met a girl on a dating app, and he asked her to pick the place where she wanted to eat. Even though the conversation was just okay and they hardly had any chemistry, she immediately suggested going to yet another expensive restaurant on the second date. Gold diggers always expect you to pay for every single date. In other scenarios, they might make excuses.

In this empirical study we investigated the performance of algorithms for the DE and double encoding. We tried to answer the following three questions: 1) How efficient are specialized algorithms compared to generic algorithms? 2) Does the use of a specialized algorithm make the DE an effective option for solving non-binary CSPs? 3) Can we take advantage of the theoretical properties of the double encoding in practice? To answer these questions, we run experiments with random and structured problems to evaluate the benefits offered by the specialized algorithm PW-AC when maintaining AC during search. We compared the performance of two MAC algorithms; one that uses AC-2001 to enforce AC (MAC-2001), and another that uses PW-AC to enforce AC (MAC-PW-AC). We also compared these algorithms to an algorithm that maintains GAC in the non-binary representation using GAC-2001 (MGAC-2001), and to MAC algorithms that maintain AC in the double encoding using PW-AC (algorithm MAC-PW-ACd) and AC-2001 (algorithm MAC-2001d).

Date Read: February 22nd 2020 Published: May 2nd 2019 Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Teeming with life and crackling with energy — a love song to modern Britain and black womanhood. Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years. Joyfully polyphonic and vibrantly contemporary, this is a gloriously new kind of history, a novel of our times: celebratory, ever-dynamic and utterly irresistible. Review – ★★★★★ (5 stars) Whew! It’s been a while since I read and reviewed a 5-star book. Girl, Woman, Other is probably really 4.5 stars, but I’m giving this novel 5 stars purely because of how this book made me feel. Yes, believe the hype! Girl, Woman, Other is an inter-generational novel that follows 12 different characters in the UK. The book is divided into 5 parts, with each part containing 3 chapters/character storylines. Part 1 follows – Amma, Yazz and Dominique; Part 2 follows Carole, Bummi and LaTisha; Part 3 follows Shirley, Winsome and Penelope; Part 4 follows Megan/Morgan, Hattie and Grace; Part 5 is the Epilogue (which I found a bit unnecessary). Each chapter in this book is dedicated to a character and the characters are mostly woman of color (either Black or bi- or multiracial), with one character being non-binary. Readers follow characters through their lives, as their stories oscillate from past to present. All characters and stories are interconnected in such a fascinating way. Even in this book, readers see just how small the world is. Bernardine Evaristo’s sharp wit and ability to fabricate such nuanced characters, displaying all their idiosyncrasies is such an awesome feat! The writing style of this novel is unique. It’s so unique that you might need some patience getting used to it. Once I got acclimated to Evaristo not using punctuation marks, I was easily able to vividly hear the voices of the characters. Having all 12 characters interconnected made this book so enjoyable for me! I’ve always been a sucker for inter-connected short stories (Edwidge Danticat does this well!) and family sagas. I felt like I was part of the wonderful community Evaristo created. Each character has her/their own set of issues and the icing on the cake for me was analyzing how each character viewed themselves, and others. I loved the way perspective and our views/opinions/feelings about people play a huge role in this book. Evaristo did an incredible job of showing us how the characters viewed themselves and others from different angles. Anyway, that’s enough gushing over how much I enjoyed Girl, Woman, Other, as a whole. Let’s now delve into 9 of the characters I loved/disliked. NOTE – kindly tread lightly. I do my best not to include spoilers in my analysis of these characters. But also, just know that whatever I say here can’t even do the actual characters justice. You really get the full scope of the characters when you read the book! Yazz: she’s the daughter of Amma Bonsu – a badass lesbian playwright and Ronald Quartey – a pissy, arrogant gay professor (sorry, but I hated his arrogance and self-hate). Yazz’s chapter was second in this book and really had me revved up to continue reading. She almost embodies the modern day enlightened teen. She’s a 19 year old super ambitious University student who is open-minded, opinionated, self-assured, woke (conscious of social issues and inequalities in the world) and not down with the bullshit. I had fun witnessing her trying to find herself and maintain a solid friend group, while dealing with her annoying, yet hilarious parents. Dominique: poor Dominique! Her chapter was almost the most frustrating to read. Dominique is Amma’s bestie and the duo started a production company as young adults, while navigating their broke lives in London. She’s a lesbian of Caribbean heritage and from a family who disowns her after she comes out as a lesbian teen. Dominique follows an African-American woman to the States and almost loses herself. That’s all I’ll say on Dominique. I loved how her chapter shed light on abuse that happens within relationships and how oblivious the one being abused can be. Carole: I think Carole’s character was complex. I liked Carole as I read her chapter, but when I read her mother’s chapter – Bummi, and even her school teacher’s chapter – Shirley, I realized how trash Carole actually was! I think she was a victim of her circumstances. As a young teen, Carole followed the wrong group of girls and had some unfortunate events happen in her life. She excels as an adult, but throws away her heritage. What made me dislike Carole was how negative she was. Her actions and views on innocent folks who had good intentions towards her were just off! I wonder if other readers saw her to be an opportunist… She’s a brilliant young lady, but the self-hate she displays was quite disappointing (but so real in many peoples’ lives today). Bummi: what a woman! Bummi is Carole’s mother. Her chapter brought tears to my eyes – tears from feeling her pain, struggle and joy, all at once! Bummi is a heroine. LaTisha: she’s Carole’s childhood friend, who isn’t the brightest of the bunch. As a teen and young adult, LaTisha’s dysfunctional family led her to fall into the arms of many men. I was shocked at how fertile she was and how dumb she was every time she slept with a man that lied to her. Like the great J. Cole once said: ‘Fool me one time shame on you; Fool me twice, can’t put the blame on you’. Given that LaTisha was fooled sooo many times, who is the fool here? Shirley: she’s another one of Amma’s friends, but from childhood. Shirley’s a plain Jane teacher of high school students. She starts out teaching with a passion, but burns-out as the years go by. I personally think she has a perfect family – her loving husband, Lennox, is perfect for her (or so I thought….); her daughters are wonderful and Shirley’s parents are well-off pensioners with a beach house in Barbados. Like I said before, Shirley’s chapter made me see how ungrateful Carole was. But Shirley is a complainer! Her life really had no problems, but she saw problems with most things, which was hilarious and annoying at the same time. Oh, and she might be a closeted homophobe… Winsome: she’s Shirley’s mother. Her chapter will make your jaw drop! What a wild, deprived, shameless woman! She’s the epitome of the Ghanaian phrase – ‘onipa yɛ bad’ which literally means ‘human beings are bad’ but actually means – ‘be weary of people/ you can’t trust anyone’. Period. Morgan: They are the non-binary character, who was initially called Megan. I didn’t find their chapter convincing, to be honest. I didn’t like the flow of their storyline and found their eventual fame so random and misplaced. Grace: she’s Morgan’s great-grandmother. I ended up loving Grace especially when she snapped out of her postpartum depression. Flossie’s (Grace’s maid) unsympathetic attitude towards Grace was unfortunate, but so real! People are quick to judge other mothers, without knowing the misery and sadness mothers who’ve experienced multiple miscarriages, or just had zero luck in seeing their babies survive after 3 months. Grace’s chapter tackled tough motherhood issues so beautifully. Grace is definitely an MVP. I hope my brief discussion of some of the characters whetted your appetite to pick up this book! While there are a ton of characters in this book, their storylines are not hard to follow and appreciate. Bernardine Evaristo managed to make this novel modern and timeless and I really wish she didn’t have to share the 2019 Booker Prize with anyone. This is an apt book to enjoy during International Women’s Day, which is today! Girl, Woman, Other is Evaristo celebration of Black British womanhood. ★★★★★ (5 stars) – Amazing book, I loved it. Absolutely recommend! Purchase Girl, Woman, Other on Amazon

Stonewall Scotland believes in the power of stories to inspire individuals and empower people to create change. Our Scottish Role Models guide tells the stories of LGBT people from across a wide range of backgrounds, sharing their experiences of being LGBT in Scotland, in their workplaces, their families and their communities. The guide aims to highlight the diversity of Scotland’s LGBT community and show that being yourself should never be a barrier to success. Copies of the guide can be ordered by emailing [email protected] What is the LGBT Role Models Programme? Our one-day CPD accredited programme, for LGBT people at all levels in an organisation, is designed to help individuals think about what it means to be themselves in the workplace and how they can be a more visible LGBT role model. If I can be myself, I can deliver more and I can be happier and more productive Being myself in work with colleagues and pupils allows us to grow as community, to see that gay people are not 'other'. Despite the confidence of some prominent lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans business leaders and public servants in being open about their sexual orientation, LGBT people remain under-represented at every level in many organisations. Numerous employers are now focusing on the career development and ambitions of their lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans staff. Hundreds of leading employers across the UK understand that people perform better when they can be themselves and at Stonewall, we know exactly how important role models are to our sense of self. This one day programme, for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans staff at all levels in an organisation, is designed to help you think about what it means to be yourself in the workplace and how you can be a more effective role model. To promote increased visibility of LGBT role models, seen to take an active role as change agents in the workplace The objectives of the programme are - For you to develop an understanding of what it means to be yourself in the workplace - For you to develop an understanding of what it means to be an LGBT role model in the workplace - For you to identify achievable ways to step up as an LGBT role model in your workplace Who can attend Our LGBT Role Models Programme is designed for LGBT professionals at any level from any sector or industry. We are looking for a diverse range of participants for its programmes, especially those that are currently underrepresented. We want to hear from LGBT professionals from a range of ethnic backgrounds, people of faith, disabled people, women and non-binary people – and of course those who are at the intersections of these identities. Book your place Upcoming programmes will be posted here. We also offer in-house Role Models Programmes for groups of 12 to 36 - email [email protected] or call 0131 474 8019 for more information. - £300 + VAT per person for Stonewall Diversity Champions - £350 + VAT per person for non-members VAT Reg No: 862 9064 05 (Please note: rates for our programmes may vary across regions.) For more information about our Role Models Programme please email [email protected] or call 0131 474 8019.

Submitted by Jim Wen, HRC Los Angeles Community Engagement Co-Chair HRC-Los Angeles (LA) was proud to participate in a Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV) gathering on March 31. Lindsey Deaton, HRC-LA Membership Outreach Co-Chair, opened the event advocating for transgender and gender non-binary people’s justice on the steps of the Edward Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles. Deaton was followed by genderqueer youth advocate Addison Rose Vincent (who uses they/them/their pronouns). Vincent spoke passionately, welcoming young community members and calling forth understanding and acceptance of the gender spectrum. Speaking on behalf of parents, Gizella Czene affirmed PFLAG’s commitment to stand with the transgender and gender non-binary community. The event also recognized the one-year anniversary for the Los Angeles Transgender Advisory Council, chaired by longtime community advocate “Mama” Karina Samala, who was joined by her counterpart from the City of West Hollywood Transgender Advisory Board, Chair Coco LaChine,to mark this milestone. In response to transgender housing needs, Alexandra Magallon, Chair for TransHaven LA, spoke about the organization’s services to help end homelessness. Native American Navajo youth speaker Yue C. Begay gave a heartfelt message that reverberated against the walls of the federal building. “No matter how much the colonized world tries to deny us, we have truth and compassion on our side,” Begay said. “That is our heritage and our legacy.” In addition, a youth representative from the LA LGBT Center and adult civil servant for the Los Angeles Police Department led a moving call and response affirmation pledging that cries of our community’s youth will be assuaged by accepting adults. In closing, Reverend Li Arnee from Unity Fellowship of Christ Church Los Angeles gave a spiritual blessing and reminded community members that we are made in the image of the creator. Ms. Deaton led an emotional group sing. Individual hands began joining together until we were all connected as one people.

Sasha Velour’s legendary Nightgowns took place on September 28, showcasing various forms of alternative drag. Curating a night of ingenuity, beauty, and gender-bending, Sasha Velour flew in performers from across the globe included Vander von Odd, Sash Colby, Donna Trump, and so many more. Scroll through to see some of the photos from this past weekend’s Nightgowns, but before you do, read what Sasha recited to the crowd at the beginning of the show. Her speech illustrates her philosophy about life, politics, the queer community, and of course, drag. “Drag is full of contradictions. Down to its very roots. We dismantle things even as we fetishize them. We put them on a pedestal, just to strip them of their power. Drag does this to gender. We champion and recycle all the binary cliches of gender, ultimately weakening the hold that same binary has over us. Sure I love the idea of masculinity and femininity…but only as ideas, not imperatives. We celebrate the world as it can be, and ignore the world as it is. That’s why drag is the ultimate antidote to our pseudo-intellectual culture of cynicism, todays widespread apathetic conservatism masquerading as “realism”...Drag offers one of the most direct strategies for change: DIY utopianism. Don’t like your gender, change it, it’s yours anyway! Don’t like the standards of beauty? Fuck em! Demand your own! Build something new, make something happen, put on a show! Sometimes the show we are able to create is a little rough around the edges...held together with duct tape, krazy glue, and a lot of forgiving glitter...that’s why it’s a DIY kind of fantasy, but sometimes I think that’s more utopian than perfection anyway. What matters most is the intention: to create, for just one night, a space defined by freedom and diversity of expression, centering non-binary & trans people, women, queer people of color, young and old, fat and thin, famous and not. People like all of us. Drag developed as a form of radical queer theater in bars and balls and pageants. our power to entertain has been a survival tactic for thousands of years. Even under brutal conditions, queer people can create joy, not just for themselves, but for each other. The true promise of drag isn’t celebrity and grandeur, it’s community and togetherness. If we lose sight of that, I think we actually might lose the point of drag. Anyone can put on a gown in their mirror and feel their fantasy. DRAG happens when an entire community forms to keep those people safe outside their own mirror. DRAG happens when an entire community cheers and supports queer self-expression, and rallies for it not just in here, but out on the streets. DRAG happens when we don’t just dress up ourselves, but also dress up the world. You are part of DRAG. So please, do your part to keep this a family affair. Practice kindness and respect in every space you go, even online. Refuse to be exclusionary, especially to queer people that already experience being cast aside. In a drag show, just as in life...there are moment to be loud, there are moment to listen. You have to figure out what’s appropriate, but when you are loud, be very loud. And when you are listening, give it your full. It sounds simple, but I think listening is a bit of a lost art. Tonight we’d like to invite you to put down your phones. We have several professional photographers with actual cameras, a videographer…darling we are masters of our own image, all we need from you are open and loving eyes! Now let’s have some drag!”

The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (the “Tribunal”) held that restaurant employees who were subject to transphobic slurs, misgendering, and outing by the restaurant owner were discriminated against in their employment on the basis of gender identity, gender expression and sex. Remedies awarded included lost wages and compensation for injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect. The Applicants - who identify as either gender queer or nonbinary, using they/them pronouns – were kitchen employees at a restaurant managed by its owner. The Applicants alleged that the owner refused to use their correct pronouns, as instructed, instead misgendering them and likening their request to “walking on eggshells”. The Applicants further alleged that the owner was overheard talking to customers on the dining room floor, referring to the kitchen staff using a transphobic slur. When the Applicants raised their concerns over this comment, the owner denied using a slur and insisted he simply told customers he had “four staff who were LGBT”. The owner refused to address the Applicants’ concerns any further. Feeling that their dignity, safety, and privacy was not being taken seriously, the Applicants quit their employment and filed human rights applications against the restaurant and the owner. Neither Respondent responded to the applications, and the allegations were therefore deemed by the Tribunal to have been accepted by the Respondents. What Did the Tribunal Decide? The Tribunal held that the Applicants experienced adverse treatment in the course of their employment on the basis of their gender identity, gender expression and sex, and affirmed that “gender queer and non-binary trans people are a historically disadvantaged group protected from discrimination” under the Human Rights Code (the “Code”). The Tribunal held that: - The transphobic slur was made in a public setting to strangers/customers in the workplace, effectively outing the Applicants and making them fear for their safety; - The owner’s failure to adequately respond to the Applicants’ concerns and investigate further constituted an adverse impact; - The Applicants’ loss of employment was a by-product of feeling as if they had no choice but to leave a workplace that failed to respond to their concerns; and - Misgendering or the use of incorrect pronouns was adverse treatment with respect to the Applicant’s employment. Having found that discrimination they experienced led to loss of employment, the Tribunal awarded lost wages, and took into account the impact that their experiences had on the search for alternate employment. The Tribunal also awarded each Applicant $10,000.00 as compensation for injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect, accepting that the restaurant owner’s status and public nature of his comments favoured a higher award. Notably, the Tribunal accepted the Applicants’ fears for their safety and future discrimination as a result of the public outing they experienced, which the Tribunal described as “shocking and hurtful”. Finally, while the Tribunal accepted that misgendering or the use of incorrect pronouns was discriminatory in this instance, it was unable to factor this into its monetary award due to an absence of any particulars in the Applicants’ applications. Takeaway for Employers While the Respondents did not respond to the Application, this decision has the potential to inform future cases on the grounds of gender identity, gender expression, and sex in Ontario. These concepts are not new; earlier cases have addressed the lived experiences of 2SLGBTQIA+ people in the workplace. While the Code does not specifically refer to the use of pronouns, the Tribunal was clear that the acts of intentional misgendering and incorrect pronoun usage can constitute adverse treatment. In this case, a failure to award monetary remedy for the Applicants’ experiences was not because they were not compensable, but rather due to deficiencies in the Applicants’ pleadings. As such, future cases with more fulsome applications on similar grounds will likely result in further guidance from the Tribunal on available monetary and non-monetary remedies. This decision is also a reminder to employers that reports of discrimination and harassment in the workplace must be taken seriously. An employer’s failure to reasonably investigate and appropriately address a complaint of discrimination can also constitute an adverse impact, and lead to monetary and non-monetary liability. EN v. Gallagher’s Bar and Lounge, 2021 HRTO 240 (CanLII) Ibid at para 27. Ibid at paras 27-31. Gender identity and gender expression were added as grounds to the Code in 2012, with equivalent grounds added to the Canadian Human Rights Act in 2017; a British Columbia restaurant owner was recently ordered to pay a former employee $30,000 for gender identity discrimination for the incorrect use of pronouns: Nelson v. Goodberry Restaurant Group Ltd.dba Buono Osteria and others, 2021 BCHRT 137.

Updated: Jun 24 This month, we thought we'd put together a list of our favourite trans-inclusive graphic novels and comics. All of these titles are available in the UK right now and range from independently published anthologies to super-queer punk rock sci-fi, visually stunning webcomics to talking pugs in haunted theme parks. THE DEEP & DARK BLUE After a terrible political coup usurps their noble house, Hawke and Grayson flee to stay alive and assume new identities, Hanna and Grayce. Desperation and chance lead them to the Communion of Blue, an order of magical women who spin the threads of reality to their will. As the twins learn more about the Communion, and themselves, they begin to hatch a plan to avenge their family and retake their royal home. While Hawke wants to return to his old life, Grayce struggles to keep the threads of her new life from unravelling and realizes she wants to stay in the one place that will allow her to finally live as a girl. You can buy The Deep & Dark Blue HERE Queer POC and sex workers are here to save us! From notorious kink writer TINA HORN and featuring a diverse group of artists comes SFSX (Safe Sex), a social thriller about sex, love, and torture. In a draconian America where sexuality is strictly bureaucratized and policed, a group of queer sex workers keep the magic alive in an underground club called the Dirty Mind. Using their unique talents for bondage and seduction, they resolve to infiltrate the mysterious government Pleasure Center, free their incarcerated friends, and fight the power! Collects SFSX (SAFE SEX) #1-7 Bear Company is a collection of four trans-inclusive short stories focusing on four gay bears hanging out. The comics are short but heartwarming and incredibly validating - each one with an emotional core. Blue Delliquanti gives us a futuristic short about acceptance and body mods, Nero O'Reilly's story is a sweet and nerdy tale of friendship and community. Pat Myers welcomes the reader with open arms, and Ryan Estrada and Dorian Cliffe give us a perfect ending to the anthology with a story that explores the impact a brief encounter can have on our entire life. All stories are appropriate for teens and up. You can read Bear Company HERE GENDER: A GRAPHIC GUIDE An illustrated journey of gender exploration. Gender: A Graphic Guide looks at how gender has been ‘done’ differently – from patriarchal societies to trans communities – and how it has been viewed differently – from biological arguments for sex difference to cultural arguments about received gender norms. The book dives into complex and shifting ideas about masculinity and femininity, look at non-binary, trans and fluid genders, and examine the intersection of experiences of gender with people’s race, sexuality, class, disability and more. You can buy Gender: A Graphic Guide HERE As a transfer student to the Georgia O’Keeffe College for Arts and Subtle Dramatics, former sports star Charlie is struggling to find her place amongst a student body full of artists who seem to know exactly where they’re going. When the school’s poor excuse for a basketball team unexpectedly attempts to recruit her, Charlie’s adamant that she’s left that life behind…until she’s won over by the charming team captain, Liv, and the ragtag crew she’s managed to assemble. And while Charlie may have left the cut-throat competition in the dust, sinking these hoops may be exactly what she needs to see the person she truly wants to be. The story has great diversity, with sapphic, BAME, trans and non-binary side characters. You can buy The Avant-Guards HERE From a diverse team of creators composed of differing genders, gender identities, ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientations comes a groundbreaking series featuring the world’s first transgender superhero! As the world struggles to accept the emergence of a new kind of mutant species known as alterations, or “Alters,” a young woman begins her transition from male to female only to find herself also transitioning into a powerful Alter. Faced with persecution by the multi-powered fascist known only as Matter Man, she will face the world as Chalice--a hero for a new age. But as Chalice navigates the path to becoming her true self, she must juggle the complications of her civilian life and the responsibilities of her newfound power. You can buy Alters Volume 2 HERE Kim & Kim are 20-something besties making a name for themselves in the wild world of interdimensional cowboy law enforcement. A day-glo action adventure that's bursting with energy and enthusiasm, Kim & Kim puts queer women and trans women front and centre in an adventure that's bright, happy, punk rock, sci-fi & queer as all get-out. Blending the punk exuberance of TANK GIRL with the buddy adventure wackiness of SUPERBAD (if Michael Cera was a trans woman and Jonah Hill a queergirl partner in crime), Kim & Kim focuses on the power and meaning of female friendships as engines of validation. A bright, happy, punk rock sci-fi adventure that is queer as shit. You can buy Kim & Kim Vol 3: Oh S#!t It's Kim & Kim HERE DEADENDIA: THE WATCHERS TEST A trans male protagonist, a talking pug and a haunted house. Read the comic that inspired Netflix's Dead End Paranormal Park. Barney and his best friend Norma are just trying to get by and keep their jobs, but working at the Dead End theme park also means battling demonic forces, time travelling wizards, and scariest of all--their love lives! Follow the lives of this diverse group of employees of a haunted house, which may or may not also serve as a portal to hell, in this hilarious and moving graphic novel, complete with vengeful ghosts, lots of jokes and LGBTQIA love! You can buy DeadEndia: The Watcher's Test HERE Dallas Margolin (a bisexual Jewish trans boy) was doing his best to better himself as a person. He was about to graduate high school. He was Willow Grove’s star baseball player. He had good friends. Overcoming things from the past, You’d think, for once, the universe was kind to Dallas. That is, until one day, before an important highschool match, his best friend and secret crush, Malek, starts planning to move away for college. In an attempt to make Malek stay with him, Dallas makes a terrible mistake. The series also includes a trans girl and nonbinary minor characters. You can read EERIE CREST online HERE However, this comic comes with some trigger warnings from the artist: “cancer, suicide attempts, transphobia, violence, domestic, emotional and physical abuse, manipulation, gaslighting, overdosage, depressive psychosis, just. Depression in general. missing people, murder, violence, smoking, weed, recreational drug use, ableist language, hallucinations, mental hospitals.” SUPER LATE BLOOMER: MY EARLY DAYS IN TRANSITION Super Late Bloomer is a highly personal collection documenting the early months of artist Julia Kaye’s gender transition. Julia’s poignant, relatable comics honestly depict her personal ups and downs while dealing with the various issues involved in transitioning—from struggling with self-acceptance and challenging societal expectations, to moments of self-love and joy. Super Late Bloomer both educates and inspires, as Julia faces her difficulties head-on and commits to being wholly, authentically who she was always meant to be. The sequel, My Life In Transition is set to be released later this year. You can read more comics by Julia HERE Gumballs dispense an array of bright, candy-coloured short comics about Erin’s gender transition, anecdotal tales of growing up as a triplet, and fictional stories of a socially inept love-struck teenager named Tobias. The wide-ranging series is filled with single-page gag cartoons, visual diaries of everyday life, funny faux personal ads, and real-life horror stories from customers at his day job. While Gumballs does not depict nudity, it does depict an anatomically realistic packer. One short comic in the anthology depicts sexual harassment, including groping and undressing, from Nations’ childhood through adulthood. You can read Gumballs HERE With Great Abandon is a slow-burn love story between a gay trans man (Harry) and a gay cis man (Russell) set over the course of a year in London. It feels contemporary and authentic w It’s a sweet and heartwarming story of their differences, their similarities, and their relationship as it grows and develops over the year. It's also about food and comic books, what's not to love? You can read With Great Abandon online HERE Have we missed a trans-inclusive comic that you love? Let us know in the comments below:

Happy birthday Demi Lovato! The pop star turned 29 today, and we’re celebrating by looking back on the incredible year they’ve had. Since 2021 has already proved itself to be a huge one for Demi, here’s a roundup of just some of their impressive achievements over the past 12 months. OK Not to Be OK Demi kicked off their 28th year by releasing a brand new single with a special message. They teamed up with Marshmello and dropped ‘OK Not to Be OK’ on 10th September 2020 to commemorate World Suicide Prevention Day. The mental health anthem was in partnership with the Hope For The Day suicide prevention movement and partly inspired by Demi’s own personal struggles. Directly called out the President Demi committed to inspiring political change with the surprise release of their song ‘Commander in Chief‘ in October. The outspoken track saw them continue to use their voice for good by directly appealing to the President and criticising his actions regarding racial injustice and the Covid-19 pandemic. Hosted the People’s Choice Awards On 15th November 2020, Demi took to the stage and hosted the People’s Choice Awards for the first time. They killed their hosting duties in style with an incredible five outfit changes – each outdoing the previous look. Performed at Biden’s Inauguration Demi was one of many artists who lent their talents to the celebration of the President’s inauguration in January 2021. They performed a stunning cover of Bill Withers’s ‘Lovely Day’ as part of the ‘Celebrating America’ event. Dancing with the Devil documentary Following 2012’s Stay Strong and 2017’s Simply Complicated, Demi released their third documentary titled Dancing with the Devil in March. The intimate four-part YouTube series saw Demi be more vulnerable than ever and open up about her near-fatal overdose in 2018. Dancing with the Devil music video Three days after the documentary release, Demi premiered the music video for their new single with the same name. The inspiring song details their road to recovery, with the harrowing video recreating scenes from the night of their relapse. Dancing with the Devil … the Art of Starting Over On 2nd April 2021, Demi released their seventh studio album Dancing with the Devil … the Art of Starting Over. The record features collaborations with Ariana Grande, Noah Cyrus and Saweetie and Demi described it as the “most cohesive project” they’ve ever made. It debuted at Number 2 on both the UK Album Charts and the Billboard 200. 4D with Demi Lovato Demi created her first ever podcast! 4D with Demi Lovato began rolling out weekly episodes on 19th May and continues to do so. Each week they host conversations with special guests about identity, creativity, activism, philanthropy and beyond. Came out as non-binary Every day we wake up, we are given another opportunity & chance to be who we want & wish to be. I’ve spent the majority of my life growing in front of all of you… you’ve seen the good, the bad, & everything in between. pic.twitter.com/HSBcfmNruo — Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) May 19, 2021 On the same day as their first podcast episode, Demi publicly came out as non-binary and revealed they were officially changing their pronouns to they/them. The announcement made headline news around the world, raised awareness and encouraged conversation around gender identity. We’re so proud of Demi for living their truth. The Demi Lovato Show Demi launched her first ever chat show in July with The Demi Lovato Show. The Roku original series consists of 10-minute episodes with Demi interviewing guests on topics including activism, feminism, gender identity, sex and body positivity, mental health, and even interplanetary visitors. And that’s 10! Which Demi moment of the past year was your favourite? Featured image source

I'VE BEEN RENAMED THE HARBINGER OF FREEDOM. I'M NOT A SAVIOUR, BUT A MERE MESSENGER. art by Syd "Vetyr" Mills The Harbinger of Freedom In the millenary world of Taenand, the continent of Empiria is oppressed by a fifty year lasting military dictatorship perpetrated by the Army of the Harpy, the leader of which is the young General of aristocratic descent Ludwig Maximilian Eckhale who inherited the throne and became the second Emperor of his Era. In these challenging times, Valerius Raleigh, a young noble as the Emperor himself, takes on the mission to inspire his country to break its chains and free itself from the ever more raging tyranny, first becoming a symbol and a messenger of freedom, then building an army whose purpose is to take down the reign of terror and injustice which threatens to spread all over Taenand due to the ruthless ruler’s strategic mindset and powerful alliances. The Harbinger of Freedom is the first act of the Falling Feathers Series, a crazy mix of blood, sex, drugs, hacking, cybernetic augmentations, shamanism, fantasy creatures, artificial life and an overall retrofuturistic and cyberpunkish aesthetic. In this vast, complex world, liberty and self-determination play a pivotal role in the search for balance and justice for all, while the diverse characters are pawns in a gritty game of power, intrigues and violence in which there is no place for surrender or subjugation. Please be mindful this story includes content that may be troubling to some readers, including, but not limited to, violence, depictions of violent death, several types of abuse, mutilation, medical procedures, self-harm, social hatred, childhood trauma, substance addiction, prostitution, spiders, PTSD, warfare. Discretion is advised. In spite of its artistic value, inclusive religion, fair monarchy and apparent perfection, the breathtaking, canal-filled city of Florydia is a corrupted land in which corporate vultures, mobsters, vicious celebrities and ruthless aristocrats are competing for the highest power. The rejects’ only hope is a protector and avenger whose mission is to seek justice for those who have no voice and no weapons to defend themselves. Trained since his childhood to take on this role, Fulvio Donati, a lively, cybernetically augmented young man known for his criminal talent and his innate charm, adopted a double identity since the woman who preceded and tutored him decided to retire at old age and continue her mission in a subtler, unconventional way. Every night Fulvio becomes Umbra, a masked vigilante, defender of outcasts, but also a cold-blooded thief and assassin. A shadow, one with the darkness, whose blades’ sharpness is second only to his enticing wit. Please be mindful this story includes mature content, including, but not limited to, violence, depictions of violent death, substance addiction. Discretion is advised. Freddie A. Clark is the author of The Harbinger of Freedom and Umbra and builder of a Cyberpunkish Fantasy world. Proud human slave of three former stray cats, Non-Binary person and Norse pagan, hopeless nerd and big fan of any kind of Fantasy media, Freddie is a Cyberpunk geek influenced not only by the works of William Gibson, Neal Stephenson and Pat Cadigan among many others, but also by manga masterpieces as Akira and Ghost in The Shell. Freddie is also a Synthwave music enthusiast and a devoted fan of ’80s aesthetic, movies and pop culture. Freddie’s debut novel The Harbinger of Freedom is the first act of The Falling Feathers Series, the epic journey of a young man who has taken up the torch to free his land from the grip of a tyrant. A story of equality, rebellion and struggle for one’s rights. Freddie’s serial novel Umbra tells the story of Fulvio Donati, a thief, assassin, masked vigilante and protector of the outcasts in the beautiful city of Florydia.

Emotional Objects curated by Emily Gove Ana Morningstar, Yasmeen Nematt Alla, Yahn Nemirovsky, Danny Welsh, Hannah Zbitnew, and Lisette Markiewicz Xpace Cultural Centre January 17th-February 15th, 2020 By Rebecca Casalino The intersection of textile work and femininity becomes increasingly complex as more women and non-binary folks introduce their narratives into the public discourse. This active queering of textiles lends itself to the undervalued history of artworks created in the margins and the ‘low’ aesthetics associated with craft. Emotional Objects exhibits work that explores textiles through lenses of Indigeneity, affect and witchcraft. Artists Ana Morningstar, Yasmeen Nematt Alla, Yahn Nemirovsky, Danny Welsh, Hannah Zbitnew, and Lisette Markiewicz present their works in tandem; queerness and femininity act as threads weaving through the exhibition. Dealing with topics of beauty, land, and magic, curator Emily Gove presents a range of artworks, each employs unique understandings of materiality. Artists Welsh, Morningstar, and Zbitnew use feminist, queer and Indigenous frameworks to create art objects that challenge formal material norms and that inject their narratives into the exhibition space. In choosing these artists, Gove presents works that employ “construction, de-construction, and re-forming to re-imagine garments, samplers, and practical everyday items” to interrogate emotions often dismissed in the public sphere. Exploring the emotional possibilities in textile-based materials and techniques, each artist untangles the medium using feminist sensibilities. The inclusion of non-binary artists in feminist conversations allows for slipperier definitions of womanhood and a more nuanced understandings of gender expression. Welsh’s Behind Closed Doors (2019) presents a quilted tunic displayed on a soft fabric backdrop installed with a photo of the artist wearing the piece as well as an incantation. The photo features Welsh modeling the garment against peach velvet backdrop with a serious look, sporting slicked-back hair and contoured cheekbones. This dramatic presentation creates an aura of beauty and glamour around the work. Used makeup wipes create a patchwork of the artist’s daily routine, holding their pigment in a tie-dyed fashion. The rotating blocks of beige, black, blue and pink reveal a palette that exists in a domestic oasis, hence the title of Welsh’s work. The collection and use of materials that are usually waste evoke an abject nature within the otherwise beautiful work. Welsh pushes this contrast further with previously golden safety pins adding a broken, now oxidized green, border to the soft material of the garment. The changing and deteriorating nature of the garment elevates the fragility of the piece and, simultaneously, pushes it further into the realm of decay. The garment is paired with an incantation on the wall. Highlighting a few stanzas themes within the work become evident: a preformative reoccurring ritual today’s the day time to play wipe away” This magical layer of the incantation adds a witchy femininity which speaks to the ritualistic aspects of makeup and gender presentation. Makeup becomes armour and a mask as people who embody feminine characteristics walk through the world. The celebration of femininity outside of the domestic space, beyond closed doors, allows for conversation around gender’s performative aspects and an exploration of modes for expressing power and agency. The added dynamic of the abject allows for a more complicated embodiment of beauty. Welsh’s presentation of their garment, photo, and poem creates a quilt of dialogues for viewers to interpret. Centering on the conceptual, Morningstar’s installation sits as a pile of white tarp bags filled with black soil tucked in the corner of Xpace’s main space. The collected earth is interrupted by small glass trade beads, adding symbolic value. Morningstar captions documentation of the work on Instagram, writing about her use of blue and red glass trade beads, “[t]he blue beads are a direct reference to treaties on ““canadian”” soil, Red are referencing the spirits in the soil-not only of the animate but of the ““inanimate’’” Stenciled with red paint are phrases like “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Rez Dirt” and “For up to 500+ Years of Resistance!” Morningstar uses satirical humour to engage with land rights. Her piece is titled I Am Buying My Land Back One Bag At A Time & I Am Getting A Receipt This Time (2019), which is a direct reference to a Facebook status meme written by Jay Jay Tallbull. Meme-slinging in Indigenous communities acts as a humourous, entertaining, and educational way of spreading content about resistance and resilience. Watching Indigenous meme creators drop truth bombs across social media platforms cracks the facade of a happy multicultural Canada presented by mainstream accounts. Morningstar manifesting Tallbull’s meme in sculpture adds a physical presence and weight to the issue of land rights. With the RCMP roadblock on Gidimt’en territory, again, a tense sense of deja vu hangs ominously. Memes about the racist origins of the RCMP, the issues surrounding resource extraction and UNDRIP (The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) are circulating fast as supporters of the Wet’suwet’en Nation strive to educate and inform Canadians. The issue of land is now at the forefront. Morningstar’s gesture of collecting the land in bags and “Getting A Receipt This Time” emphasizes past and present instances of Indigenous land rights being ignored by white western bureaucracy. The aging woman is an uncomfortable concept in western culture, which emphasizes youth and beauty as markers of womanhood. Displayed on a custom shelf at eye level with stairs ascending upwards into the gallery wall, Hannah Zbitnew presents three pairs of hand fabricated shoes. Each set uses leather, terracotta-coloured ceramic, and woven fabric producing an earthy tone to the objects. The shoes follow the order of the Triple Goddess presenting Maiden, Mother, and Crone (which represent women’s life cycle) in the design and treatment of the shoe. The Maiden is represented with a sensible chunky heel, made from clay, with an open toe design. These shoes’ uppers are loosely woven with green cotton—they are casual and easy to slip out of. The Mother is represented by a closed-toe open back shoe with a tan leather sole. Sensible shoe design is stereotypically associated with motherhood, and the aging Maiden losing her beauty but gaining wisdom. A clay rope wraps around the beige woven top of the shoe adding stability and form. The Crone is characterized by simple flat slippers with a pointed toe, leather sole, and a woven beige upper. This movement through the life cycle of a woman characterized by footwear creates a visual dialogue that allows viewers to engage and respond with their own understandings of the correlation of aging and fashion. The silliness and extravagance of high heeled shoes make young women feel sexy, successful, and sore. This sexuality is lost in the more muted tones of Motherhood where practicality and fashion become equally important. Finally, the Crone is comfortable and wise but pale. Zbitnew’s title The Absence of the Witch Doesn’t Negate the Spell (2018) is a quote from an Emily Dickenson poem , hinting at feminist undertones to the work, but also functions to lead the viewer into her neopagan understanding of Mother, Maiden, and Crone. Zbitnew allows femme magic into each stage of life. Bending the western perspective on aging and womanhood Zbitnew invests care into each pair of shoes meditating on the value of each phase of life; recognizing that women’s power does not come from the heel of her shoe but from the spell they cast. The multiple narratives and truths explored in Emotional Objects rejects monolithic and universal biases surrounding textiles and femininity. This multimodal approach to tackling issues important to individual artists highlights the multifaceted nature of queerness and femininity. Gove’s emphasis on textiles privileges affect as a source of knowledge. This epistemological contrast to masculine western modes of understanding elevates witchcraft and queerness as alternative methods for exploring complex emotions. This feminist untangling allows women and gender non-binary people to gather in spaces to discuss new forms of knowledge and art-making without the hinderance of phallocentric narratives or ideals. Welsh, Danny. “Danny Welsh, Behind Closed Doors, 2019. Photo Credit: Polina Teif.” Xpace Cultural Centre. Morningstar, Ana, ““I’m Buying My Land Back One Bag At A Time & I’m Getting A Receipt This Time”. Instagram.

We didn’t want to write this piece. The Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard case has been publicly dissected to the point that everyone has their own opinion of who is right or wrong. Even domestic violence survivors are taking different views – many see themselves in Johnny Depp, and others see themselves in Amber Heard. At Safe+Sound Somerset, we are more concerned with the impacts of the case on survivors than who “won” in court and the media. The Hard Truths that Safe+Sound Somerset Operates Within As a domestic violence and sexual assault services provider, Safe+Sound Somerset’s role is to believe whoever comes to us for help. We are not factfinders. It will not help the people we work with to choose either Depp or Heard’s claims. National domestic violence advocacy groups have made public statements, and we were hoping that those would suffice until this case could blow over. Sadly, this case is not going to simply blow over without consequences. The trials pervasiveness has influenced the public discourse so that it in just a few weeks it has changed how our society perceives and talks about domestic violence. The media coverage has turned this case – has turned domestic and sexual violence – into something to be entertained by or to gawk at. Safe+Sound Somerset staff have already seen how this case is impacting our work, making it harder to respond to and prevent domestic and sexual violence. To our clients, their abuse is not funny and is not dependent on other people’s perceptions of its validity – it’s life and death. Conversations about this case have permeated client sessions, education events, and meetings with community groups. Last year, we served over 5,200 survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, and we provided education and training programs to more than 5,800 community members. While it is not our role as an organization to find the truth in Depp v. Heard, following are some truths that survivors, our clients, and our organization operate under every day. It is possible for someone who is being harmed to also cause harm. That doesn’t make their pain any less real. Many people are dismissing the case by saying “both were abusing each other.” This view can be misleading because it fails to consider the role that power and control plays in domestic violence. Domestic violence is a pattern of behaviors one partner uses to gain power and control over the other – it can be physical, emotional, verbal, financial, or any combination thereof. At the center of domestic violence is oppression and taking away someone’s power. Toxic, unhealthy, or violent behaviors that cause harm are not abusive if the purpose of these actions is not to gain control over someone else. What differentiates these actions from abuse is power. While there may be some instances where coercive control is used by both parties, most of our clients report that if they try to defend themselves or react to the coercive control, their abuser says, “You’re being abusive too,” to gain more control, invalidate their experiences and turn others against them. Men can absolutely be victims of domestic violence. In fact, 1 in 4 cisgender men will experience either physical violence, sexual violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime. At Safe+Sound Somerset, we understand this better than most. Over 12% of our clients last year were men. We accept people regardless of gender identity into our safe house, and other female clients in the house have commented that the male survivors “are experiencing the same things that we are.” Anyone can be a target of domestic abuse – 1 in 4 cisgender men, 1 in 3 cisgender women, and 1 in 2 transgender or non-binary individuals will experience abuse at the hands of people of every gender identity and sexual orientation. It is important to remember that people can perpetrate abuse even if they are well-liked, popular, or have clean records. And many abusers, male and female, gain additional power and control by accusing their victims of being abusive too. There is no one profile of what a domestic violence victim looks or acts like. The experiences and reactions of survivors are deeply individual. Each person will have different trauma responses or coping skills that make them react differently from other victims. People who are “not perfect” can be victims of domestic violence and they are just as worthy of belief, of support, and safety as anyone else. Survivors include people who lie, abuse substances, have committed crimes, struggle with mental illness, are on the PTA, run companies, and go to church. Many of our clients have had people dismiss their experience because they didn’t “act like a victim” or “look like a victim.” This attitude harms survivors and prevents other survivors from disclosing domestic violence. In our school prevention programs, reaching over 15,000 teens to-date, our preventionists have been asked countless times, “What about false accusations?” This question is often posed to show that abuse isn’t real or serious. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Various studies suggest that false allegations of sexual assault are extremely low, with estimates ranging from 2 to 10% (Lisak, 2010). The US Bureau of Justice reported that less than half of domestic violence cases are ever reported at all. If someone discloses abuse, it is much more likely that they are telling the truth than making false accusations. At Safe+Sound Somerset, we will compassionately work with everyone who says they need help, even if others accuse them of lying. Every day, domestic violence survivors go to court trying to prove what has happened to them and show that they are still in danger. Most of them do not have lawyers and are representing themselves. Many of them do not have solid proof of the abuse. Domestic abuse is purposeful, and the people who use violence in a relationship are typically good at keeping up appearances and covering up their tracks. Sometimes, even “proof” is often not enough. We have had clients with recordings of threats, screenshots of harassment, and journal entries filled with the dates and times of incidents who still are not granted legal protection, still decided against, and dismissed as not credible. Regardless of the facts of the Depp v Heard case, we fear that “credibility” will be harder and harder for survivors to achieve as systems try to appear strong against false accusations. Despite any facts related to this case, billions of social media posts in response to it are filled with misogyny, hate, threats of violence, misinformation and gaslighting – even as they claim support of male victims of domestic violence. In our experience, violence breeds violence. By continuing to fuel violence against others, even those who may have caused harm, these types of posts support the attitudes that allow domestic violence to exist and make it harder for all domestic violence survivors, including men, to get the support and safety they need. If Amber Heard called us saying she was a survivor of abuse and needed services, we would serve her. If Johnny Depp called us saying he was survivor of abuse and needed services, we would serve him. Safe+Sound Somerset does not ask for proof from the people who call us, and we continue to stand by survivors even (especially) if systems rule against them. We are committed to providing safety tools, advocacy, and healing services to all survivors of abuse regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation. We Believe Survivors. We are here for you. If you call or text our 24/7 helpline, our advocates will be ready to hear your story, and answer your call for help with compassion and understanding. Call or text our 24-hour confidential helpline at 866-685-1122. Additional information can be found online at www.safe-sound.org.

|7:30 a.m – 1:30 p.m.||Registration| |7:30 a.m – 8:30 a.m.||Breakfast Social by GSA Network| |9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.||Opening Session| |10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.||Break| |10:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.||Workshop Session One| |11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.||Resource Fair/College Fair/Job Fair| |12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.||Lunch| |1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.||Workshop Session Two| |3:15 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.||Workshop Session Three| |5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.||Dinner| |6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.||Entertainment Hour| |7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.||Dance| The Models of Pride conference includes three workshop sessions where you can choose between dozens of workshops in a wide range of content areas. Below is the list of this year’s workshops for the Youth Track. - Act Out: GENDER, POWER & CONSENT - Advice From the Rainbow Lights: An Exploration of Gender and Identity - All In or All Out: Owning Your Coming Out Story - Asexuality 102: Aces and Aros and Grays Oh My - Ask Anything: Queer Open Office Hours with NiK Kacy - Astrology through the POC and Black experience - Being LGBTQ in the U.S. Military: My Story - Big Fat Love: Taboo Bodies, Taboo Desires - Bisexual/Pansexual 101: Coming Out, Biphobia, and Living Well in 2019 - Black Queer Media - Boys to Men: Examples of Healthy Masculinity - Building Your Community: Activism Through Storytelling - Call AAA: Ask An Asexual - Can I Get An Amen?! - Capital One Cafe Presents: Budgets Made Easy - Clap Back: How to Shut Down Religious Haters - "Coloring w/ Max and McKenna”: A YouTube Screening - Coming Out in a Family of Color - Constellation of You: A New Model for Understanding Gender & Sexuality - Creating Safe & Brave Spaces: A Dialogue with Youth Leaders - Disarming the Inner Bully - Don't Yuck My Yum!! - Drag isn't a Race! A Drag 101 - Drag King 101 - Dream Yourself Awake - Educational Justice for LGBTQ Youth - Embracing and Exploring the Bi+ Identity - Empowerment through Creating for today's LGBTQ+ Activists - For the People, By the People: Rethinking Identity - From Surviving to Thriving: Harnessing Your Brain’s Potential to Create Empowered Change - From the Yoga into the World - G-Spot: A Pleasure-Based Workshop (18+) - Get Home Safely: Queer Personal Safety and Self-Defense - Grindr: Smart & Safe with Mobile Dating - GSA 2.0: Expanding Opportunities for Growth - How To Be A Better Boo - How to Have a Kick Ass GSA - How to Transition: A Holistic Approach - I AM ME: Tips on How to be Authentically YOU! - I’m Bored! There’s Nothing To Do - Immigration Basics & Know Your Rights - Intersections of Oppression: Disability & Race - Intro To Meditation - Intro to Youth Organizing - Power to Create Change - Know Your Rights Intensive for LGBTQ and Gender Expansive Youth - Laughter is the Best Medicine: A Comedy Workshop - Let's Talk About JUULS - LGBTQ+ Youth and Human Trafficking; Everything You Need to Know - LIVE Taping of “Coming Out with Lauren & Nicole,” with Special Guest! - Makeover with Manny MUA - Meet Your Queer Gramps and Grannies! - Mentoring LGBTQ+ Youth: A Panel and Discussion On How Mentoring Can Support Your Dreams - Mindful Art: Meditation & Creation - Money Matters for the Young, Fabulous and Queer - Move Your Feet to the Latin Beats Lets Dance! - Out and Centered: An Interfaith Panel - OutSet: The Young Filmmakers Project - Pony Sweat: Fiercely Non-Competitive, Radical Dance Aerobics - Power in Perversion: A Beginner's Guide to BDSM (18+) - PrEP: A New Era In HIV Prevention - Putting the “I” Back in Our Team: Intersex Solidarity - QT: Queer Teen Podcast - Queer Crafternoon: Zine History + Making! - Queer Expression: Discuss, explore and create - Queer History is Everywhere - Queer Songwriting 101 - Queer Stories As Told By Our Elders - Queering Self-Care: Yoga for Non-Binary People and Allies - Queer, There, and Everywhere: A Book Club Meetup! - Raising Parents: What an LGBT kid needs to know - Raza Power: Out of the Closets, Out of the Shadows - Ready for Your Media Interviews? Tell Your Story with Purpose - Real Talk: Relationships - Healthy or Nah? - Redefining Masculinities: Exploring new ways to relate to Masculinities - Saving LGBTQ Lives: Teen Suicide Prevention - Slaying the Dragon: Conquering Social Anxiety and Depression Through Tabletop Gaming - Sound Bath Meditation - Stage Spotlight: Getting Started in Theatre - Storytelling: Your Story Matters - Substance Use Risk and Resilience for LGBTQA - Surfing the Rainbow: Connecting Youth and Elders - Survivor Art Workshop - Swiping Right Isn’t Always Right - The Get Down: Bring On the Hip Hop - The Kids Are All Bi+ - The Law is on Your Side: Know Your Rights at School and Beyond - The Work our Elders Want Us to Do - Trans History: Resistance and Resilience - Turn Your Story Into a Short Film - TV & Film Pitching: Telling Your Story - Understanding Gender Fluidity from a Global Perspective - WATCH ME! - a Queer Performance Workshop - What's the Tea with HPV? - Work your Quirks through MOVEMENT - Yay for Va Jay Jay! - Your Vote is Your Voice Below you can see the awesome talent featured at Models of Pride last year! Check back for updates. Maxwell Poth is a photographer and LGBTQ+ activist based in Los Angeles, as well as the founder of Project Contrast, a non-profit organization created to help share stories and give a voice to LGBTQ+ youth across the country. Maxwell has worked with celebrities and influencers including Nicole Scherzinger, Tan France, Garrett Clayton, Tommy Dorfman, Debby Ryan, Billy Eichner, and many others. His work has been published by Out Magazine, The Advocate, Seventeen, Gay Times, i-D Magazine, and Gayletter. Originally from Bountiful, Utah, Maxwell came out at 17 years old and was the only openly gay kid in his town. Growing up, he always wished he had someone to relate to, but with the lack of resources, he felt alone. Through his own personal journey, he garnered the inspiration to create Project Contrast with the mission of raising awareness and lowering the epidemic of suicides among LGBTQ+ youth active. The Project Contrast team aims to be active soldiers on the battlefield and create a platform for LGBTQ+ youth to become advocates for each other and in their own communities. With Project Contrast, Maxwell strives to make sure every LGBTQ+ young person never feels alone by spreading one simple message: You are loved. VINCINT is a Los Angeles-based pop artist, trained dancer, and fashion connoisseur. He honed his talents as a graduate of Berklee College of Music. With his powerhouse voice with sultry tonality, VINCINT became widely known as a finalist on the debut season of the FOX’s The Four: Battle for Stardom. Recently selling out headlining shows at The Troubadour and The Peppermint Club, he is highly respected in the Los Angeles area. He has shared the stage with the likes of Annie Lennox to Betty Who and draws inspiration from Marvin Gaye to Beyoncé. VINCINT rolled out his sophomore single “Remember Me” this summer and will be releasing his new EP soon. Gizzle is a Los Angeles-based artist, songwriter, and CEO of The GZL Company. With over a decade under her belt as a Grammy-nominated and multi-platinum songwriter, Gizzle has lent and continues to lend unique perspectives to many artists and producers such as Teddy Riley, Puff Daddy, Pharrell, Timbaland, Nicki Minaj, T.I., Meek Mill, Snoop Dogg, Chris Brown, Trey Songz, Ty Dolla $ign, YG, Iggy Azalea, Hit-Boy, Kid Ink, and many others. After launching her solo career a couple years ago and founding her own entertainment and multimedia business, The GZL Company, their first single and official release "Get Loud For Me" has garnered nearly 5 million streams across all digital platforms and synched in multiple nationally branded TV and film campaigns. Dance LA Entertainment Dance LA Entertainment is a very talented group of dancers based in the Los Angeles area. This is home to some of the top dancers in the entertainment industry that have performed for the NFL, Los Angeles Chargers, LA Clippers, Nike, Adidas, Nissan, Justin Bieber, LL Cool J, Nicki Minaj, and many more. Some dancers have made appearances on TV shows including Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Black-ish, and truTV's dance reality show Fake Off. Dance LA Entertainment is also very involved in giving back to the community in the Greater Los Angeles area by teaching, motivating, and inspiring youth through the art of dance. They have worked with The Hip-Hop School of Arts in Pomona, The Lab Creative Arts Studio in West Covina, and after school programs such as STAR Education and After-School All-Stars. Originally hailing from Brockton, Massachusetts by way of New York City and Orlando, Florida, DJ InfaRed developed a love for Hip Hop during his childhood and listened to the genius of Jam Master Jay, DJ Scratch, and Kid Capri, which became his driving force to learn to dee-jay. He worked his way up and was part of Orlando’s Power 95.3 family for over 10 years. InfaRed was selected out of thousands of DJs across the country to be on VH1’s Master of The Mix and was inducted into the world-famous DJ crew The Heavy Hitters. He was the official DJ for both the MLS’s Orlando City Soccer Club and the NWSL’s Orlando Pride. InfaRed has played in several major markets including New York City, Boston, Miami, New Jersey, and Los Angeles. He has played at shows for Zedd, NAS, Nicky Ramero, Fabolous, 50 Cent, Ne-Yo, Jadakiss, Styles P, The LOX, Fat Joe, Allen Iverson, Pitbull, Trina, Ace Hood, DJ Khaled, Ray J, T.I., Biz Markie, DJ Enuff, DJ Camilo, De La Ghetto, Jazmine Sullivan, Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, Yung Berg, Baby Bash, NBA, NFL, celebrity weddings, and many more. InfaRed is currently the official DJ for the MLS’s Los Angeles Football Club and the host of The Code on Dash Radio.

On my old blog, I wrote a piece where I talked about feelings of alignment with the identity of genderqueer and my preferred pronouns, they/them. If you’re squinting at your screen and thinking “Huh?”, take a trip over to these pages, do some reading, then come back. I’ll wait for you. - Sex and Gender Distinction on Wikipedia - Genderqueer on Wikipedia - Genderqueer on Nonbinary.org - They Is My Pronoun Are you back with at least a vague idea about what all this genderqueer and they/them stuff is about? Good. Let’s go! In my previous Disjointed Ramblings, I explained part of my journey toward identifying as genderqueer. I’m about to be meta as hell and quote my blog on my blog. I have never felt comfortable with binary gender or that someone else, or society as a whole, gets to decide who I should be and how I should behave and react and feel because of what certain parts of my body look like. It’s not that I am ashamed of being read as female or that I hate it or I think being female is in any way not-ok, and it’s not that I feel like I’m male or want to be perceived as male. It’s that the entire system, the whole gender is a choice between two things issue, doesn’t sit well with me at all. I didn’t feel like I had any right to question my gender identity because I am a (sometimes, kind of) femme-presenting person and there are aspects of my appearance which are generally associated with femaleness. Some of these are things I did not choose, like my waist-to-hip ratio and the not-inconsiderable size of my chest. Some of these things I did choose, and while I don’t associate them with any particular gender, I’m aware that society-in-general does, like dyeing my hair pink, (sometimes) wearing make-up and nail polish, or (often) wearing long skirts instead of trousers. Even when I wear stereotypically masculine or androgynous clothing, I tend to be perceived as not only ‘female’ but often overtly sexual because of the shape of my body. Since I began giving the whole gender issue more thought instead of just telling myself to shut up and stop being awkward, I’ve had the pleasure of reading about other people’s experiences of gender and gender identity that really resonated with my own. This included plenty of those wonderful this person has just described my situation better than I’ve ever been able to describe it myself moments. It’s kind of amazing, discovering that feelings you’ve had for years, that you’ve always thought were weird or different or somehow unrelate-to-able, are actually pretty similar to other people’s feelings. It’s even more amazing to feel like maybe you could talk about those feelings openly because other people have and maybe if you do, even more people will feel able to and fewer of us will end up wandering through the world feeling like we’re carrying a burden that is solely our own to bear. Two pieces of writing about gender identity have stayed with me since I first encountered them. They aren’t written by people I know, or even people I know anything about. They are written by strangers and while I don’t wish to reduce complex, fascinating human beings to one paragraph each, I also don’t want to give the impression that I represent them or they represent me or that we are in any way connected. I’ve never felt quite like a woman, but I’ve never wanted to be a man, either. For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be something in between. To quote Ruby Rose: I called myself a girl, but only because my options were limited. I always assumed that everyone felt that way. – from How To Be A Genderqueer Feminist by Laurie Penny People told me I was a woman, and I believed them because the way they treated me was consistent with my understanding of that category. I never questioned the feeling of arbitrariness, because I naively assumed that other people experienced their own genders in the same way. Last year, I changed my gender on Facebook to genderqueer and I changed my pronoun to They. I removed gender identifiers from other social media sites where this was possible and changed my Tumblr name from missdecemberbliss to mxdecemberbliss. I posted a link to my Disjointed Ramblings blog on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. It wasn’t a coming-out as much as an updating of information to accurately reflect my current situation. I didn’t really come out as genderqueer for the same reason that I didn’t come out as bisexual way-back-when (I now prefer simply queer as the descriptor for my sexual orientation) – I didn’t want to, I didn’t feel I should have to and other people’s assumptions about me are their issue, not mine. I didn’t have a closet to come out of. I was never in a closet. In conversations about gender, as with in conversations about sexual orientation, I am absolutely open and honest about my genderqueerness (although I don’t always use that word because a lot of people have never encountered it), as I am about my queerness in general. I just never felt moved to make a huge announcement about any of it. That said, I want to make it clear that I completely understand why a lot of people do choose to come out and I don’t think for a moment that they shouldn’t, or shouldn’t want to or need to. Different things are right for different people and the most important thing for anyone is that they are being true to themselves in as far as they can safely do so. Coming out is an incredibly important process for a lot of people and I support that one hundred percent. Due to, I assume, my comparatively quiet introduction of my they/them-ness a lot of people still use she/her pronouns for me and while I definitely feel more comfortable with they/them, I don’t feel terribly upset or affronted by the use of she/her. I’m going to let past-me explain this. I’m actually alright with she/her pronouns too and am not like OMGHORRIFIED at being referred to as female because my experience of life has been shaped by people’s reactions to me as a person who is perceived to be female, so that is still a part of who I am. I tend to use gender neutral language as much as possible and while this was an effort to begin with – saying y’all or folks instead of you guys, for example – it feels completely natural to me now. This feels like an appropriate moment to point out to anyone who protests that they/them is plural, LANGUAGE EVOLVES and also they/them is already commonly in use when the gender of a person isn’t known. For example, “Oh, your friend is coming to visit? How lovely! When do they arrive?” or “Your coworker was in a car accident? I hope they’re alright”. In case anyone thinks I’m trying to speak for all non-binary people, I’m most definitely not. Some people feel very strongly about only having gender neutral pronouns used for and about them, which is cool. Individual preferences should be respected. Just cause one genderqueer person is sort of alright with she/her or he/him pronouns doesn’t mean all genderqueer people are. Some people who use gender neutral pronouns prefer ze/hir or any number of other options (there’s a list here, if you’re interested). There are also transgender people who choose to use gender neutral pronouns either in an ongoing way or as a step towards using she/her or he/she pronouns which reflect their true gender. I do not identify as transgender (although some genderqueer people do feel comfortable under that umbrella) so I can’t speak for trans people and would instead like to direct you to this page on GLAAD’s website as a good starting point for reading about transgender identities. Pulling back from that slight tangent, I want to explain why I don’t jump in and correct people who use she/her pronouns for me and how you (yes, you, all of you) can help make it easier for non-binary people to feel comfortable saying “I use they/them pronouns” without it being A Big Deal. This begins with a couple of seemingly unrelated stories, but bear with me. It’ll all become clear. I don’t drink alcohol very often and when I do, it’s generally in very small quantities. For most of my 20s, I didn’t drink alcohol at all. When I was out with workmates or acquaintances (rather than close friends) and was offered a drink, I always said “No thanks” or opted for a soft drink so as not to be rude and decline a kind offer. About ninety nine percent of the time, this led to me being asked “Why not?” (seriously!), to which I would answer “I don’t drink alcohol”. The responses to this ranged from a deeply personal line of questioning about religious choices, medication, health conditions and other things that I had no desire to talk about with people I wasn’t close to, to aggressive assumptions that I had a problem with other people drinking followed by fight-picking about alcohol consumption. My boring truth was that prior to that stage in my life, I was heavily into partying and used to drink a lot so I reached a point where I just didn’t really want to do it at all for a while. For the last eleven years, I have been living with a disability which does not have instantly apparent visible symptoms (unless you knew me before and have seen how much my appearance has changed because of it). When this has come up in conversation, usually in relation to something totally mundane like my briefly and politely explaining that I can’t attend an event that doesn’t have parking close by as I’m unable to walk very far, some people (not all, or even most, but enough) have responded by basically accusing me of anything from making excuses to exaggerating to outright lying based on the fact that, to them, I don’t appear to be disabled or unwell. Often, upon accepting that I am indeed not a healthy human, I have had to endure a barrage of insensitive questions and lectures which is frustrating, upsetting and not something I have the energy or inclination to deal with. Based on those common reactions to utterly uninteresting statements explaining that I don’t drink or I’m not well, I very much do not want to get into a ‘debate’ about MY OWN identity, especially as a lot of people (in my experience) like to claim that their opinion on issues that are purely conceptual to them is more relevant and valid than the lived experiences of people whose lives are directly affected by those issues. I’m usually happy to chat with open-minded folks about gender stuff but I don’t have the energy to educate hostile people, especially not hostile people who talk to my chest and insist that I am female because boobs. I pick my battles and I don’t pick that one right now. Also, I don’t want every conversation to turn into a conversation about gender, or about me. That’s a lot of work and a lot of focus-shifting that I don’t feel comfortable with, especially as she/her pronouns don’t bother me too much, although they/them is definitely my preference. So, what can you do to help create a supportive environment in which people of all genders, or no gender, can feel comfortable being open about their pronouns? If someone says that their preferred pronouns, or simply their pronouns (some people have one set of pronouns that they’re OK with and that’s that, no ‘preferred’ about it) are different from what you’ve been using, don’t view this an an opportunity to interrogate them or worse – to argue with them about WHO THEY ARE. I guarantee that the person you’re talking to knows themselves better than you know them. Just accept it and endeavour to use the correct pronouns in future. If you mess up (and you will mess up, cause we all mess up), correct yourself and carry on. Use the right pronouns for people even when they’re not there to hear you. Do your best. This stuff is important. Alternatively, you can ask people what their pronouns are. I find this one a bit difficult in practice because to avoid drawing attention to your assumption that someone is non-binary or trans it would make sense to ask everyone and I haven’t found a non-awkward way to say “Nice to meet you. What are your pronouns?” to every person I encounter. If you also find this a bit difficult, you could try using gender neutral pronouns for people until they make a clear reference to their gender. There are some communities and environments where it would actually feel totally natural to ask everyone their pronouns but there are also plenty where you may end up not feeling safe as a result of starting that conversation (for example, in certain workplaces). I’m going off on a tangent and this may well end up being a blog post in itself at some point. Finally, I’d like to thank a friend for inspiring this post by referring to me as ‘they’ in a comment on Facebook today and making me incredibly happy. I’m still navigating the unfamiliarity of accepting that I can wear skirts and make-up sometimes and still inhabit a genderqueer identity without letting the side down. I’m still struggling to accept certain aspects of my appearance outside of other people’s reactions to them. I’m still getting to know a part of myself that I pushed down and held under for so long. Getting to know yourself is a life-long process and contrary to popular belief it isn’t necessary to pick a firm definition and have that be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, for ever and ever amen. So…they/them pronouns please 🙂 Please, please, please, for the love of all that is pink and fluffy, do not lecture me about how labels aren’t important and how it doesn’t matter what other people think. Labels are descriptives, they are shorthand for complicated concepts, and are used as such in conversation. They also make it possible to look stuff up on the internet. I’m not being all “I AM THIS” because I must attach someone else’s words to my own existence. I’m exploring concepts, ideas, feelings and myself so when I do that with words, I use, y’know, words.

For young people in Canberra, the ability to enjoy a night out is intrinsically linked to the availability of venues that provide a safe, inclusive and representative space. Sexist or homophobic behavior, a dance floor dominated by sweaty boys with wandering hands and a range of other factors lead many young people to jump into an uber and call it a night. However, Canberra’s dance music industry has begun to challenge this dominant culture, with a female driven brand of club culture rooted in promoting women, non-binary and queer* talent, as well as fostering inclusive spaces. To discuss this shift in the Canberra scene I sat down with three talented women who are incredibly influential in the Canberra music industry. I was lucky enough to chat to Megan Bones, a DJ who also works as the entertaining and marketing manager of Mr. Wolf and is the founder of queer* party night Gay Cliché; Sophie McNamara, who has worked in social media, marketing and event coordinating capacities for Mr. Wolf, Spilt Milk and the upcoming Wind It Up festival; and Genie Stuart, a talented DJ who at only 18 is already a prominent face in the Canberra scene. It’s been over 20 years since Kathleen Hanna and the Riot Grrrl movement called for girls to ‘come to the front’ and reclaim the space in music that had been dominated by men. Writer Julia Downes argues that ‘gendered power structures are entrenched in the popular music industry, so it is much harder for women to become credible, authentic and legitimate cultural creators.’ Reflecting on this idea, I asked all three women whether they thought Canberra has in the past been a ‘boys’ club’, and whether this dynamic was changing. Megan noted that when she started doing gigs in Canberra, she was the only female DJ that she knew of. ‘The Canberra scene has made a huge amount of progress in the past few years’ she said, noting that this shift was spearheaded by ‘a massive injection of quality female DJs into the scene.’ The music industry’s tendency to overlook quality female talent, and to give preference to male artists, is something that the women I talked to would like to see as a thing of the past. Genie noted that ‘when I did my first gig it was Too Many DJs [an event run by Art Not Apart festival], and I was one of two female DJs in a line-up of 25 DJs. That was my first introduction to the industry.’ All three agreed that they’d like to see more women, non-binary, and queer* people given space and time by the industry, and to have talent recognised for the value of the talent. Megan commented: ‘If I get asked to DJ for the sake of adding a “female DJ” to the line-up, I’ll say no straight away.’ This refusal to have female talent tokenised for the sake of filling out a ratio is one she has brought to her work at Mr. Wolf, where the priority is placed on nurturing enthusiastic female artists, as well as bringing on board talented women behind the scenes in promotions, marketing and event managing roles. One of the main factors behind taking on her fulltime role at Wolf, Megan said, was to be in a position to help make real changes in the Canberra scene. ‘I’m so lucky’, she said, ‘to be working in a team with two supportive and forward thinking men, Richard McPherson and Jack Ryan.’ One of the most important tools women have in breaking through a boy’s culture is the support of other women. Sophie noted that two of her biggest mentors are Megan from Mr. Wolf, and Rubi Tuesday from Spilt Milk. She explained that ‘whilst numbers-wise there are many more men involved in the industry, I’ve been guided by women who have held a lot of weight in the scene.’ In nurturing and supporting other female talent, women can break through internalised misogyny and create a massive presence in the industry. Genie emphasises that being supported by strong women has been incredibly important. It was through this guidance that as a young DJ Genie was able to hone her skills. As well as promoting and celebrating diverse talent, venues are recognising the importance of a safe and positive space for all people to be free from discrimination. Megan discussed that this shift has been incorporated by a multi-pronged approach. An important aspect of this has been encouraging clubs like Mr. Wolf to take on a program of education for staff to deal with sexual harassment, and harassment towards queer* patrons. With this approach taken on board, Mr. Wolf has marketed itself to the community as a place that is inclusive – an attitude championed in the motto ‘no racism, no sexism, no homophobia, no transphobia, no violence’. This is a progressive policy for club culture that sets a precedent for venues across Australia. ‘I shared it in [the online feminist space] “It’s Not for You”’ Sophie told me, ‘and I had so many girls telling me how amazing they thought this policy was, and how they wished that other venues [in Sydney] would adopt something similar.’ Judging by this reception, there is unmistakably a demand for positive and inclusive places, and where there is a demand made by pundits, promoters will respond. So where can we move in the future to see representative equality for women, non-binary, and queer* people partying and performing in clubs? Genie says she’d like to see promoters give talented women better time slots, not always just as the opening acts but as headliners. Megan highlights the nuance of the field – that it is essentially a business decision and promoters will source acts that are demanded by pundits, and if the talent pool is a male dominated field then this will be reflected by clubs. There is a definite appetite amongst the youth crowd for representation, Sophie tells me, as could be seen in the social media push made by many young people for artists such as queer* Icon Honey Dijon to play at Spilt Milk Festival, which shows a huge progression from the scene years ago. Young people are becoming aware, and realising that they have power as consumers to dictate what they want to see happening in the industry. Consumers are demanding a safe and tolerant space to celebrate a diverse range of talent, and the industry in Canberra is listening and responding.

Dali Project/Weekly Meeting/July 07 2011 Dali Weekly Meeting - Neil, Nan, Karen, Shaun, Paul, Tran - May make sense to implement both directions of conversion at the same time - Should consider moving specific metadata such as "globals" (queries, generators) - Investigate the possibility of using Refactoring to perform conversion - Perhaps this would be used for specific areas such as moving globals, but not for large bulk moves - May want to start with bulk moves, or entity level, and then go smaller from there - Binary migration would be useful, but this is probably a secondary concern to the non-binary cases - Should have option to leave JPA metadata in place when converting to XML - Conversion should be limited to one project at a time - Merging is probably the default case for migration, and the easiest case to implement - Possible merging cases indclude: - Merge JPA metadata into XML Mapping File - Move JPA metadata and overwrite away XML metadata - JPA metadata overwrites conflicting XML metadata but preserves metadata that is not in conflict - Need for early patch release? Possibly...continue to investigate - Out of date EL schemas - Maven support - Common Navigator 'appearsBefore' issue - Need to find out what M2E-WTP release may support Dali to determine whether we need an early patch. - We should include code templates for boilerplate JPA and JAXB code. Start at beginning with db or xsd, what code do I need to write from here to get something working. - Building an EntityManager - Creating a JAXBContext - Create marshaller/unmarshaller - Main class to run EM or JAXB code - Summary of JAXB tooling related issues - With class gen we should always add the input schema to our schema repository when possible, no check box needed. - Need facet validation to restrict co-existence of JAXB 2.2 and JRE 1.6. JAXB 2.2 will require Java SE 1.7. - MOXy 2.3 does not require JAXB 2.2, 2.1, 2.0. - For Indigo, we will keep platforms the same for now, since not much functionality in EL 2.2, 2.3 Dali platforms. In the future we will want to consider opening up the EL platforms for JAXB 2.1 facet selection (making EL 2.2, 2.3 available for JAXB 2.1 facet). The issue is that many users will be on 1.6 for a while. It would be nice to be able to take advantage of new EL functionality that does not require JAXB 2.2/JRE 1.7). - Shaun will continue to investigate WAB, bundle root changes, etc. - OSGi JPA spec support - need to investigate this to see what things we may need to support for OSGi - Allow for sync options for the persistence.xml at the project level

“Thanksgiving is different for everyone, so if you are thankful for the compassion that people give you, maybe you should spread that compassion to others.” HOLLYWOOD – With Thanksgiving this week many people are thinking about what they’re thankful for. For some, they’re thankful for their home, job, and loving family. For others, they’re thankful for the smaller things in life such as a place to sleep at night – even if it’s outside in the cold. When examining homelessness in Hollywood, the Blade took a closer look at what homeless people have to go through and what they’re thankful for- if at all. In the city of Los Angeles there are 36,300 homeless people with a total of 58,936 in the County according to the annual Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s (LAHSA) homeless count (2019). Over the years, homelessness has dramatically increased all over the county. But during these times of coronavirus, it’s very easy to understand why homelessness is becoming increasingly prevalent. With the government failing to provide stimulus checks to the population, unemployment is on the rise and people are struggling to pay for the basic necessities such as rent. Even though people are failing to pay rent – some still have a place to go. It is very common for people from their teen years to their late twenties to live with their parents – especially during these difficult times. But what if their parents disown them? This is an issue that many LGBTQ+ young people face. The Blade conducted multiple interviews with homeless LGBTQ+ young people this past weekend to see the struggles that they are facing while also asking what they’re thankful for. James C., a 26-year-old homeless man who asked to be identified only by his first name and initial told the Blade; “I am thankful for a lot of things even though I have little. I’m thankful for walks and food when I can get it.” James went on to discuss what it was like being LGBTQ+ and homeless. “I don’t know… It’s difficult. The lack of support”, he said. James, like many other homeless LGBTQ+ people, have a lack of financial, emotional, and mental support. Adding homophobia into the mix complicates and oft times worsens homelessness. James, at the time of the interview, was living on the streets of Hollywood near the Los Angeles LGBT Center which does provide a litany of resources as well as a temporary youth shelter. On the Center’s website, it reads, “If you’re one of the thousands of homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning young people (ages 12 – 24) without a home, we welcome you as a member of the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Youth Center.” Ellia, (a non-binary individual who asked to be identified only by their first name) a Black young LGBTQ+ person expressed what they’re thankful for in a very enthusiastic way. “I have so much to be thankful for,” Ellia said, “I’m thankful that God is watching over me. You know… Thanksgiving is celebrated through the pain of my people. They slaughtered my people.” Ellia’s sentiment echoed with the group of homeless people that they were standing around. Justin, one of Ellia’s friends, was asked about LGBTQ+ homelessness in Hollywood. He said, “I’m not part of that group or whatever. But they are people and they are family. We all support each other here.” Though Justin and Ellia are just a few homeless people in a sea of thousands in Los Angeles, their positive attitudes and expression of what they were thankful for was incredible to see. All of the stories were powerful – especially Carl’s. Carl indicated to the LA Blade that “being thankful is difficult.” “How am I supposed to be thankful when I’m out here while I see these homes in the hills,” Carl said. The homes Carl spoke about were the multi-million-dollar mansions just minutes away from homeless camps and tents. His description of the wealth inequality is important to understand when examining homelessness because as he pointed out society should question why some people have profited immensely from the coronavirus while others are in the streets. Although the LA Blade was able to conduct some comprehensive interviews, most of the responses were one-word answers. Here is a short list of what some homeless people told the Blade they’re thankful for; Food; My blanket; When people give me money; God; Jesus; Cigarettes. It is easy to be fatalistic when looking at the numbers of homeless people- resources are critical. In greater Los Angeles, the LGBT Center is one resource that homeless LGBTQ+ youth are able to access. They are a welcoming center that will help people in a litany of ways. Some of those ways might look like finding a shelter to stay in while others help with access to health care and long-term planning for one’s future. But there are also the needs that need addressing due to the severe strain especially the high rates of suicides among LGBTQ+ youth. West Hollywood based The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ organization focused on preventing suicides and homelessness in the LGBTQ+ community talks about homelessness in particular in its messaging on its website: “Family rejection on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity can have extreme effects on LGBTQ youth. In one study, lesbian, gay and bisexual youth who reported higher levels of family rejection during adolescence were 8.4 times more likely to report having attempted suicide, 5.9 times more likely to report high levels of depression, 3.4 times more likely to use illegal drugs and 3.4 times more likely to report having engaged in unprotected sexual intercourse, compared to peers from families that reported no levels of family rejection. As a result of family rejection, discrimination, and a host of other factors, LGBTQ youth represent as much as 40% of the homeless youth population. Of that population, studies indicate that as many as 60% are likely to attempt suicide.”

Biere De Femme Festival Bière De Femme 2022 is a unique festival experience that will be celebrating its 5th Annual Festival in North Carolina! This year’s event will be held at NoDa Brewing Company, boasting a variety of beverages, educational experiences, live music, food, and more! Bière de Femme is a production of the Pink Boots Society, an organization that inspires, encourages, and assists women and non-binary fermented/alcoholic beverage professionals to further their careers through education. 100% of all proceeds will benefit educational opportunities for women and non-binary individuals in N.C. and beyond!