#End torture against transgender women
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Amber Kim's move to a men's prison for a consensual sexual encounter is a crime against humanity. It's a crime against humanity that our culture tries to render unmournable, but it is nonetheless a heinous crime, and a stain upon the legacy of all the officials who abet or tolerate it.
Even when cisgender women rape other cisgender women in prison, they are not transferred to men's prisons. One does not have to believe that consensual sex in prisons is acceptable to acknowledge that this transfer is a double standard. And yet this is the treatment transgender women can expect, apparently: a brutal double standard of violence, wherein our presence in any space is that of, at best, a conditional visitor. Yet when push comes to shove, we are more impoverished, more violated, and more mistreated by our patriarchal society.
The state of Washington must reverse it's decision. If it cannot be compelled to do so, then Kim's sentence must be commuted - even if we accept that prisons can perform justice, surely we all agree that justice is never forwarded by torture; that a day served of a sentence in the form of torturing a minority is not, in fact, a day closer to any kind of justice.
The use of either solitary confinement or sexual violence against a transgender woman as a means of control is so far beyond the pale that it must be opposed under all circumstances.
#Transmisogyny#prisons#feminism#End torture against transgender women#Amber Kim#I'd like to be a little less angry here I think I'd be more compelling#But unfortunately this particular post is me getting my thoughts onto paper for the first time about a thing that has been driving me insan#for like months
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if youre the kind of person who talks about how liberation movements dont need to be progressive about lgbt issues or women's rights bc all that can be worked out after the ppl they are fighting to liberate get their basic human rights yet whines and cries about south korean feminists being 'transphobic' then honestly i think you should die
im not denying that transgender ppl face extreme hardship in south korea. that absolutely is smth thats occurring and it must be addressed. but if youre criticizing the south korean feminist movement, which is a crucial liberation movement that is fighting to end the epidemic of extreme violent oppression of women within the nation, for transphobia and not the korean men who are the ones doing basically all of the violent transphobia against trans women over there then idk what to tell you besides that youre a misogynist
the situation in south korea for cis women is so dire. its beyond dire. its liberation or death/rape/torture for them right now. they can work out any transphobia they may or may not have within their feminist movement after they win back cis women's rights not to be raped by their brothers and fathers and neighbors bc at the moment thats pretty much the only thing on their minds considering how widespread its become
#hoodie talks#when the male population of a country cannot even handle the idea of a woman wanting to be treated with respect#do you really think that country is ready for a transgender liberation movement?#its gonna get there eventually! it will! but women kinda need to have the right to exist in public before that happens#anyway i think south korean women should overthrow the government and start killing men and i mean it
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Y'all I'm scared
I'm not an adult, I am a minor. I can't vote, and my word practically means nothing. Please, if you're a young adult, don't vote for Trump. For starters, Trump will strip people of their careers, leaving many, many people without jobs, or he would change people's jobs to a 'better job' in his eyes (at least that's what i got from the article). Secondly, he's going to make the people that investigate the president work *for him*, and that federal employees have to pass a new civil service test he made (prove their loyalty? I dont know, i didnt see the test). He's going to make a travel ban on Muslim-majority countries to "keep out the terrorists", which not only is racism but if someone has family members in one of those countries, and those family members want to move to them, that'd be *impossible*. He's practically going to brain-wash immigrants to be all-good Americans, to not hate him, to basically call him the best. He's going to end birthright citizenship, so people born of illegal immigrants can not get a citizenship from federal agencies. He's going to end transgender rights, so no more surgeries, transferal hormones or hormone blockers. He's going to make project 2025 continue in it's tracks if he wins, and if that happens, civil servants will be sacked, giving Trump even more power, dismantling the Department of Education. I'm genuinely on the verge of tears right now. I wont lie to you, I'm really young. And that dismantling of the DE means that Trump is going to change the curriculum however he likes, which in turn means kids won't learn about important stuff, they're going to have to pay for their food, (which a lot of families, like mine, can't really afford). He's going to make abortion illegal in every state, and the women/people with female anatomy that have been S/A'd or R-worded won't be able to get rid of the outcome of that traumatizing, terrible situation. It's not good too, since nearly 70 PERCENT of those cases are against CHILDREN 17 AND UNDER. A CHILD BEING FORCED TO GIVE BIRTH COULD KILL THE CHILD. It's so horrible, it's vile. I am sure a whole group of you is nonplussed, and I am too, but I can tell that voting for trump obviously isn't going to end well. He's going to send MILITARY workers out on *PEACEFUL* Protests, which weren't endangering anybody. He said he LIKED WATERBOARDING (I'm assuming he's going to do that to secret agents, stuff like that) and thought that it *wasnt tough enough*, so he likes torture. He's going to make birth control so hard to get a hold of, which sometimes is used to help women with terrible periods that leave them bedridden, and he's wanting to end Planned Parenthood, which speaks for itself, since its not good at all.
That's not even all of it. (Read: https://apnews.com/article/trump-policies-agenda-election-2024-second-term-d656d8f08629a8da14a65c4075545e0f) Please, if this man wins he's going to make America terrible. A living hell for all of us, and he needs to lose. I'm scared; I can't do anything, basically, but I can say this. Don't vote for him, I beg you. He's not going to make America great, he's going to make it a borderline dictatorship. If you think these aren't enough reasons, that's because I didn't cover them all. You can watch videos on youtube, tiktok, anywhere, I think, and there are going to be so many reasons. From an American to another (if you are one or just live in the country), do not vote for trump. I live in a red state, and I am ashamed. I hope some of you will vote for the right person, AKA anybody but Trump.
#politics#please help#very important post#no trump#stop#america#trump#vote blue#us elections#project 2025#dead serious#information#psa#us politics#us election 2024#fucking vote#voting#american politics#donald trump#kamala 2024#kamala for president#kamala harris#biden#president#2024 election#2024 presidential election#election 2024#usa politics
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Here we go again. Another institution, brimming with self-righteous faux outrage, is trying to airbrush JK Rowling’s name out of history. This time it’s the turn of the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) in Seattle, Washington, which has removed the world-famous author’s name from its Harry Potter exhibition. Last week, the museum announced that while it will continue to display memorabilia from the Harry Potter books and films, it wants no association with their supposedly problematic creator.
Explaining the decision in a 1,400-word blog, the museum’s exhibitions project manager, Chris Moore, brands Rowling a ‘cold, heartless, joy-sucking entity’. Moore, who identifies as trans and uses ‘he / them’ pronouns, takes exception to Rowling’s ongoing interest in preserving women’s hard-won rights over the ‘right of anyone who insists they are who they say they are’. Once again, Rowling’s reasonable and rational defence of women’s sex-based rights is being presented disingenuously as ‘hateful’ or ‘harmful’ towards transgender people, and therefore deserving of cancellation.
Moore even seems to think it would be better if Rowling had never existed. ‘We would love to go with the internet’s theory that these books were actually written without an author’, he writes, ‘but this certain person is a bit too vocal with her super hateful and divisive views to be ignored’.
Strikingly, Moore goes a few steps further than most of Rowling’s critics. He doesn’t just accuse her of transphobia. He also accuses the Harry Potter books of peddling ‘racial stereotypes’, promoting ‘fat shaming’ and, perhaps most heinous of all, lacking ‘LGBTQIA+ representation’. Surely to goodness there must have been a few pansexual / nonbinary students in the imaginary, magical school of Hogwarts? Shame on JKR for not giving them a voice, eh? The headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, might have been gay, but apparently that’s not enough in our world of 764 genders.
I find myself torn about this particular non-event, to be perfectly honest. On the one hand, I realise this is simply the latest in a long line of attempts to shut Rowling up. ‘I saw Goody Rowling, in the barn, consorting with the devil!’ is the tone of every such outburst. By now, these tricks have become cheap and obvious to anyone observing closely. The smears are always baseless.
On the other hand, the attempts to erase Rowling are deadly serious. Each attempted takedown inevitably leads to her receiving the vilest, cruellest abuse. Abuse which, if you’ve ever taken the time to read it, contains some of the most horrific things one human could say to or about another. Rowling is no doubt a tower of strength and resilience, having been on the receiving end of this bile for years. But it’s probably still having an effect on her, deep down.
Perhaps there is an upside to this stunt by Moore and the MoPOP, however. Removing Rowling’s name from the museum, and condemning her as ‘super hateful’, is so infantile that most right-thinking people will likely see it for the foolishness it really is. Sunlight, on occasions such as these, has a remarkable effect of highlighting the absurd and often cruel behaviour of the gender ideologues. People are getting wise to these smear tactics now that they are so regularly churned out. The problem is it is difficult to get people to speak out against them.
Sadly, most people are still too scared to speak up. This shouldn’t surprise us when the extremist factions of the trans movement use threats of rape, violence and torture to bring people into line. They doxx people’s addresses and workplaces, so the heretics can be hunted down and vilified, resulting in the loss of earnings, jobs, reputations and more. There are countless examples of this. And no doubt there will be many more to come.
Faced with this, we cannot simply stand by and shrug. We have to stand up to the smears. The truth is that Rowling has never said anything untoward about trans people. She has been critical of the behaviour of some trans fanatics. She has been vocal in her support for single-sex spaces for women and girls. And yes, she has vociferously defended herself against hourly abuse. As she damn well has a right to do. But she is not the bigot she has been made out to be.
It’s time we all speak up for what is right. It’s time to break the cycle of fear. It’s time we called out this public assault on JK Rowling – and on all the other gender-critical feminists who’ve been similarly maligned. We need to put a stop to this authoritarian movement.
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James Dreyfus is an actor who has starred in Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Absolutely Fabulous and The Thin Blue Line.
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The smear campaign against JK Rowling
Here we go again. Another institution, brimming with self-righteous faux outrage, is trying to airbrush JK Rowling’s name out of history. This time it’s the turn of the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) in Seattle, Washington, which has removed the world-famous author’s name from its Harry Potter exhibition.
Explaining the decision in a 1,400-word blog, the museum’s exhibitions project manager, Chris Moore, brands Rowling a ‘cold, heartless, joy-sucking entity’.
Once again, Rowling’s reasonable and rational defence of women’s sex-based rights is being presented disingenuously as ‘hateful’ or ‘harmful’ towards transgender people, and therefore deserving of cancellation.
On the other hand, the attempts to erase Rowling are deadly serious. Each attempted takedown inevitably leads to her receiving the vilest, cruellest abuse. Abuse which, if you’ve ever taken the time to read it, contains some of the most horrific things one human could say to or about another. Rowling is no doubt a tower of strength and resilience, having been on the receiving end of this bile for years. But it’s probably still having an effect on her, deep down.
Sadly, most people are still too scared to speak up. This shouldn’t surprise us when the extremist factions of the trans movement use threats of rape, violence and torture to bring people into line. They doxx people’s addresses and workplaces, so the heretics can be hunted down and vilified, resulting in the loss of earnings, jobs, reputations and more.
Faced with this, we cannot simply stand by and shrug. We have to stand up to the smears. The truth is that Rowling has never said anything untoward about trans people. She has been critical of the behaviour of some trans fanatics. She has been vocal in her support for single-sex spaces for women and girls. And yes, she has vociferously defended herself against hourly abuse. As she damn well has a right to do. But she is not the bigot she has been made out to be.
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The end doesn't justify the means
The transgender collective is one of the most full of people with mental health problems. People who practically live online and who, the second they read a negative comment, or get rejected, or become incels, hate themselves, can't get over it, can't breathe, can't live. And they need so much help. They're angry they don't feel right in their bodies. They're sad they can't find true love like they see others find. And they hurt so badly when they don't like their reflection in the mirror. They're isolated by family and friends who don't understand, and end up living online, believing everything they read. They think pills, surgeries, and convincing the world to act like they don't have problems will be the solution, but they're wrong. They don't even want to listen to therapists and doctors who're just trying to help, so they campaign so that they're not lawfully forced to see a doctor before transitioning.
You becoming full of hate, cancelling people and threatening them is not going to help them. Hate has never saved a life. They need love. They need a lot of medical help, therapy, counselling... Many transmen are simply women sick of sexism who believe life would've been better as men. Many transwomen are just men who don't feel they fit in with other men, that perhaps it's be better to be a woman. Only a small percentage of the collective are actually simply trans individuals who are mentally healthy and in full mental capacity to decide to transition. But those who aren't so lucky are in desperate need for mental health professionals who help them heal their minds before they can decide to transition. Life-changing decisions can only be made with a health heart and mind, it's the only way to ensure you won't regret something you won't be able to help.
A lot of these damaged individuals cannot withstand the idea that there's something wrong with them, because there's so much prejudice about mental health problems. You say you've got depression or something and it's like you're less than everyone else all of a sudden. People don't accept that it's simply illness, conditions, disorders, that have treatments, that can be improved, but you need to accept them first and to understand having a problem doesn't mean you're less good than anyone else. Would you be ashamed of saying you've got cancer? no. So don't be ashamed to say you're mentally ill. It's OK. There's help. But you have to accept it.
Instead, they're advocating to remove requirements of health evaluations before transitioning. And then they're trying to convince you that you're a bad person for the fandoms, books, people you like and support. That you are killing them. But it's not you. What's killing them is poor mental health. What's killing them is people who actually tell them to kill themselves, people who won't hire them for who they are, or who'll actually murder them in the streets. Not your love for Harry Potter. And if it does, it says more about the depth of their health issues, than it says anything bad about you.
Do not support a movement based on hatred. Do not support a movement that all the time tells people to kill themselves. That actively threatens you with death, rape, abuse and assault. That makes you feel you want to die. That makes you feel guilty just for loving say, Harry Potter, when you've done nothing wrong. Love can NEVER be wrong. They say the end justifies the means. That the people you're torturing don't deserve to live in the first place. That they're horrible TERFs. But they're wrong. Ask yourself, how often have you heard of any supposed Terf who's taken a knife against a trans people? And how often have you heard a supposd Terf simply beg for trans people to have access to mental health help? Since when is wanting people to be helped by professionals a bad thing? Since when is having love and passion for a fandom a bad thing? And since when are collectives who campaign with hatred, who threaten left and right, the good side of history?
Who are you to judge? Who are you to decide who lives and who dies? Who are you to decide some people deserve life and love, but others, it's your duty to threaten them and kill them?
You know, Hitler turned Europe upside down because he kept telling people that Jews were a cancer of society. That they deserved to die. They started by simply saying they should scrub the streets with toothbrushes, and people didn't think that was so bad. They laughed. They taunted the Jews because it seemed innocent fun. And look where it ended.
If you weren't so far-removed from the world in the US, if you were more aware of Nazism, you wouldn't let anyone brainwash you and put hatred, guilt and the responsibility for others' lives into your hearts. The only people responsible for life and death are politicians, doctors, cops and firefighters and other health and safety workers. Not you. Not kids online. The end doesn't justify the means. Don't let them put darkness into your hearts. Don't become instruments of hatred and violence and threats. Don't let what happened with Nazism happen to you.
#lgtb#lgtb+#gays#lesbians#bisexual#transgender#queer#feminism#women#women's rights#politics#society#mental health#mental health disorders#health#second world war#nazism#hatred#hate movements#sexism#misogyny#trans radical activists#radical activism#trans#transmen#transwomen#harry potter#fandom#j. k. rowling
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The Sisters of Dorley
I love the web serialized novel The Sisters of Dorley by Alyson Greaves. Still I’m reluctant to talk about it, because well, it’s a story about forced feminization. The title refers to Dorley Hall, which is that old trope of the genre, the facility which forcibly turns bad boys into good girls. It masquerades as a girls university dorm in a fictional English town.
Forced feminization fiction is as a rule, trashy fetish porn. And It’s often trashy fetish porn built on the extremely problematic idea that being a woman or woman-like is degrading and humiliating, especially if you are a man that gets feminized. It’s the sado-masochistic thrill of the idea that such porn works on.
Yet many closeted trans women eggs do read such stuff, because it’s usually the first result if you search for fiction about the forbidden but fascinating subject of “transgender” or “transsexuals”, or more directly “men being turned into women”. At least that used to be the case years ago, we have options for better fiction nowadays. But not that many years ago, you’ll probably end up on sites like fictionmania. And because of internalized transmisogyny, we do feel shame about our transfeminine desires, do fetishize our own womanhood (in ways that usually hurt ourselves more than anyone else), and do develop submissive and masochistic tendencies. And so forced fem fiction, as bad as it usually is, does speak to us. When you are ashamed of being transfem, exploring such feelings in reading fiction is easier. The fantasy of being forced into womanhood is appealing, when you don’t have the courage yet to transition yourself.
The appeal of forced fem fiction usually goes away when transfems actually transition, which inherently means overcoming to some extent the internalized transmisogyny that makes one feel ashamed of who one is. Instead one must develop pride in ones womanhood, to feel that being a woman is not degrading but actually awesome.
Yet I did read The Sisters of Dorley on the recommendation of some trans people on twitter. And the fact that it was written by Alyson Greaves who is a proud trans woman writer meant something. And I was extremely pleasantly surprised. This is not trashy fetish porn, but an actual novel, with good writing and characters who develop and you care about. It’s forced fem as literary fiction.
It does actually deal with and interrogate the genre in very interesting ways. Greaves has noticed while so much forced fem deals with womanhood as degrading, the trope of “bad boys turned into good girls” does have the possibility of another view of womanhood, as redemptive, as an improvement for the person being feminized.
So there are actually two different Dorley Halls in the world of the novel, one is the system run in the present day of the story by Aunt Beatrice, and the one in the novel’s backstory, that was run by the mysterious “Grandmother”. Both are facilities that basically kidnap young men and forcibly transition them, but they are very different.
Grandmother’s Dorley Hall ran according to the idea of “womanhood as inherently degrading, at least when applied to those who’d been assigned male.“ It was basically a torture facility, ran by a sadistic woman who wanted to torture and degrade disadvantaged young men by forcing womanhood on them. One of the rich aristocrats who funded it used it as a source of feminized men to rape. Grandmother’s Dorley is basically how much of forced fem porn stories work, at least on an ideological level.
Yet there were a few victims who survived the ordeal and came to embrace womanhood against all odds. And because the goal of Grandmother’s Dorley was to abuse and humiliate them, their gender identities were not respected and instead denigrated to further hurt them. And this points out a contradiction in forced fem fiction. If the goal of the feminization is to punish and humiliate, a victim of forced fem that comes to embrace womanhood would not be respected.
One of the victims of Grandmother’s Dorley is Beatrice, who is one of those who not only leaves and survive the place of torture, but comes to embrace the womanhood that was initially forced on her. She uses her connections, most importantly a romantic-sexual relationship with the aristocratic heiress to the family fortune which largely funds Dorley, to take over the facility from Grandmother.
And she continues the forced feminization, but now in a different way and with a different purpose. Its target is now young men, whose masculinity makes them hurt other people and themselves, and whose misogynistic violence is rewarded by a patriarchal society. And Dorley kidnaps these young men and turns them into women to redeem them and make them into good people. Beatrice and her helpers (who are almost exclusively the women the system creates) in this mission believe this is justified because forcibly separating these bad men from their masculinity and manhood is the only way they’ll become better people. These men can only become feminists if they first become women. The Dorley system uses force and violence to do so, but not more than is necessary.
And the Sisters of Dorley believe this because they are proof that the system works. They were once men who hurt others and themselves, were forced femmed, accepted their womanhood and became good people. And once they fully reform, they are free people who can leave Dorley hall forever if they wish. And even if they are taught traditional femininity, the graduates of the program are free to become butch lesbians and while none become men again (although they seem to have the freedom to do so), many become non-binary and that is respected by Beatrice and the Dorley sisters.
In Beatrice’s Dorley, womanhood is redemptive, a way of improving people, not a source of humiliation. It’s surprisingly appealing for a system that is built on kidnapping and forcibly transitioning people in a literal torture basement. The men often deserve it by being the perpetrators of misogynistic violence. I have both experienced violence and verbal harassment from these men and I have hated them since childhood. There is a part of me that wants to take such men to a torture basement, castrate them and forcibly turn them into the women they hate. And in the world of the novel, it’s a way of reforming them, they become better, happier people by the end of the process. It sounds better than prison. It’s easy to become Dorleypilled (as some of the characters call it in Beatrice’s system) reading this novel. Despite it arguably being a brainwashing cult, I tend to dislike the victims and share what they are trying to brainwash them into.
Of course a believability problem for forced fem fiction is the question of how it would even be effective? Wouldn’t the forcibly transitioned people just feel dysphoria from being forced into womanhood and be either unhappy in their new gender or detransition?
But The Sisters of Dorley confronts that question and tries to make it plausible. And the writing is good enough that it succeeds. The system has a lot of “wash-outs” that can’t accept being made into women and who disappear, are killed. The system instead tries to target men for whom masculinity is “a double-edged sword”. It also hurts them as well as others. Men who are able to feel such guilt about what the bad things they did as men and want change so badly that they are able to accept becoming women to escape their former selves.
The novel also makes the very valid observation that a lot of cis people are not that attached to their gender. Trans people generally care very much what gender they are. And some cis people have strong feelings about being men or women, but other cis people don’t care. They are fine being men or women, but they are fundamentally indifferent to their gender and they are men or women just because that’s what they were given, because that is the gender assigned to them at birth. Such people are able to accept the Dorley transition.
Some people just choose to accept becoming women, especially when the alternative is death, it’s as simple as that.
This intelligent discussion of gender is one of the delights of the novel and shows how Alyson Greaves has a good handle on human psychology. Her characters, despite their implausible circumstances feel real. One of the main characters is Christine, who is one of the Sisters who were forcibly transitioned by Dorley. And by grounding her change in the very understandable desire to become a better person and leaving your old self behind, it makes this gender journey feel real, she feels like a believable character.
If the Dorley women are trans or not is a question the novel grapples with. But the novel also deals with the kind of transfemininity that exists in the real world. The book’s premise is that a closeted trans woman, Stef Riley, infiltrates the Dorley feminization programme. This is the main driving source of the plot and story. Stef does some detective work after a close friend is taken and transformed by Dorley, and comes close to figuring out Dorley’s deal. But Stef thinks it might be a secret programme providing transition care to trans women, and tries to find it. Stef is close enough to the truth that when she tells Christine, a Dorley woman, she panics and gets Stef’s kidnapped by the program. But even after the truth is revealed, Stef decides to stay, because Dorley will help her.
And I think her interactions with Dorley is a good examination of why forced fem fiction is so appealing to trans women, especially those who are pre-transition, despite the genre’s deep-rooted transmisogyny. Stef is caught in a depressive spiral and bad circle that probably feels familiar to many trans people. Her dysphoria causes depression and yet her depression saps of the energy to transition, to make that brave step. So she wants to be forced to transition by Dorley, as she feels she can’t do it herself. And it’s real for the character, but this is a good illustration of why the fantasy of forced fem is an appealing one to trans women.
And there is another reason. As all good forced fem facilities do, Dorley provides free transition healthcare, including expensive facial feminization surgery, with no waiting list. Dorley women are usually cis passing because of that. Stef is a poor student living in England. If she was to transition the normal way, she would have to use the NHS which is infamously terrible trans healthcare, with long waiting lists and provides limited healthcare options. So Dorley would give her a much better transition than the NHS would. It’s a dark joke: “The fictional forced fem facility might kidnap and mutilate people against their will, but it does provide much better medical transition care than the NHS”. And it’s funny because it’s true. I live in Sweden and not the UK, but our system has pretty much the same problems. It’s great biting satire of how badly the NHS in particular and the world in general treats trans people. It’s an under-discussed appeal of the forced fem fantasy for trans people: part of it is that someone else will pay for your transition.
It’s a novel that has some really insightful things to say about being a trans woman in general. It has some of the best and most hard-hitting depictions of dysphoria I’ve read. You can tell this is a story written by a trans woman. You don’t have to be one to write good trans women characters, but it sure does help and this novel clearly benefits from some insider knowledge of being transfem.
And it’s just a really good novel in general. There is some great prose here with some interesting and challenging and intelligent observations on gender. There are engaging characters who change and grow and interact in interesting ways, there is mystery, there is humour (I love the jokes written on the mugs the Dorley people have). It’s just a damn good read that I became addicted to. It’s a long novel at over 33 000 words and my e-reader puts the page count at almost 900 pages, and will become even longer before it is finished, but it is so well-written that reading it is a pleasure.
Granted its ideal audience is kind of limited: trans women who once read forced fem fiction during their repressed egg phase and now wants a serious novel dealing with that genre. I don’t know how other people will take this, but it’s unironically a really good book. It redeems one of the most dubious porn fiction genres by giving it a trans woman’s mature perspective and some great writing.
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Saturday, June 26 saw the third London Trans Pride march for ‘BIPOC trans people, trans women, trans sex workers and trans kids’ (sorry transmen, they forgot you again!), and here’s some of the #bekind signage from it.
There is speculation on social media that these calls for murder were made by 51-year-old Sarah Jane Baker, as someone who looks like Baker is holding one of the signs, they’re in Baker’s style and they even use Baker’s slogans.
Baker, who wants to become Britain’s first transgender MP, was once jailed for armed robbery, and kidnapping and torturing a family member. While in jail, he tried to murder a fellow prisoner and began identifying as a woman. He ended up serving 30 years until his recent release.
Baker has since written a book which is essentially a guide for gaining privileges as a man in jail, by saying you’re a woman.
As with Aimee Challenor and Morgan Page, Baker is no outlier. Here he is with Monroe Bergdorf.
Also: Baker was an actual speaker at the march, giving an inspiring message to young women that even if they lose the ability to orgasm by taking testosterone, it doesn’t matter because “you spend hours on foreplay and that shit is good too”. Nice piece of advice there from a middle-aged ex-convict to young women.
As Rachel Rooney put it on Twitter: “I've been going to Pride on & off since the mid 80's & I don't recall any of the top speakers there having a history of kidnap, torture & attempted murder… Maybe I just didn't look hard enough.”
You might be asking yourself: if a person has a history of extreme violence, and he’s possibly issuing death threats against a woman amid calls for criminal activity, is that not a police matter? Why haven’t they intervened? Is it because they’re too busy arresting women for posting pictures of Suffragette ribbons?
Perhaps the answer can be found in this video by a Metropolitan Police officer at London Trans Pride who made a statement to attendees saying: "If you need anything, give us a call on 101 or 999", which the Met LGBT+ Network thought was an appropriate message to publish.
On the same day, at Paris Pride, men who identify as women physically attacked lesbians because they were defending their sex-based rights.
And in Spain, Feminist @LauraStrego was violently attacked by a trans activist while participating in a peaceful demonstration on women's rights.
So confident are these violent misogynistic men about their sacred status, one even went on Spanish television with a T-shirt saying ‘KILL THE TERF’.
This brings us back to where we began, with JK Rowling, who you may remember wrote the following words in her moving essay, which is so dangerous that trans rights activists spent a lot of man-hours telling people not to read it.
“We’re living through the most misogynistic period I’ve experienced. Back in the 80s, I imagined that my future daughters, should I have any, would have it far better than I ever did, but between the backlash against feminism and a porn-saturated online culture, I believe things have got significantly worse for girls. Never have I seen women denigrated and dehumanised to the extent they are now. From the leader of the free world’s long history of sexual assault accusations and his proud boast of ‘grabbing them by the pussy’, to the incel (‘involuntarily celibate’) movement that rages against women who won’t give them sex, to the trans activists who declare that TERFs need punching and re-educating, men across the political spectrum seem to agree: women are asking for trouble. Everywhere, women are being told to shut up and sit down, or else.”
#UK#Graham Linehan#I stand with JK Rowling#Sarah Jane Baker is a man#Sarah Jane Baker is committed violent crime#Monroe Bergdorf#Pride speakers with a criminal history#Spanish feminist attacked at Pride#Laura Strego
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I recently asked reddit for some LGBT history from countries other than the US. Here’s what I got:
Germany
The Weimar Republic was surprisingly accepting of "alternative lifestyles."
During the Weimar Republic, Germany had a pretty active LGBTQ scene, with some major films and songs being produced, despite it still being illegal at the time. However, there was also a push to decriminalize homosexual behavior which sadly wasn't passed as the Nazis came to power.
This was based of two factors: after WW1 the authoritarian culture of Prussia sorta received a long overdue pushback. People were kinda sick of it, especially since these losers led them into a seemingly pointless war to begin with. Second: A LOT of men died in WW1 - and the army did not exactly prefer LGBT people. So with a lot of regular folks dead, the percentages of the total populace was sorta shifted. This also pushed the women's rights movements at the time for a similar reason.
Magnus Hirschfeld was helping trans people transition, crossdressers get crossdressing 'licenses', and generally advocating for and helping the LGBT community in the early 1900s in Germany. Nazis ended up raiding and burning down his research institute.
Hirschfeld was a gay polyamorous man. He was one of the first advocates for trans and gay rights but his work was destroyed by the Nazis.
The institute he headed even did the first modern gender affirming surgeries. The institute was destroyed and many people who were there (including the first known person to undergo complete MtF surgery) were killed by the nazis and the place was little more than bombed out ruins at the end of the war.
More information on the institute
Pre Nazi interwar Germany (Weimar Republic) was pretty open when it came to not only sexuality, but also gender identity. The Nazis put a stop to that & tried to destroy any & all research into either, but, for a brief moment, it was there.
Russia
Pretty sure all Russian LGBT history was erased before we even had a written language, but Russia almost got gay marriage legalized in the first soviet constitution (didn’t happen bc Stalin)
The early soviet period (pre-Stalin) is sometimes called “the first sexual revolution” as opposed to America’s “sexual Revolution” of the 60’s. Broad women’s suffrage, female employment and education, parental leave, advancement of GSM rights & decriminalization of abortion. This unfortunately did not stand the test of time & reactionary sentiment.
Additional Source
UK/ Britain/ England
The lead singer of Judas Priest is gay. The commenter’s father thought it was kinda funny because it didn’t match with his biker aesthetic, but the commenter doesn’t think he considered how much leather he wears on a daily basis
Hell bent for Leather was a track off Killing Machine. It was written by lead guitarist Glenn Tipton (who is straight), but it's fun to find alternative meanings in Priest songs. A second commenter likes to pretend a lot of the lyrics Halford sings are gayer than they actually are.
A couple people mentioned how uncomfortable it was seeing Ru Paul interact with British drag queens because he barely knows anything about British culture.
Ru Paul got angry that a British drag queen hasn’t seen the Golden Girls because “it’s gay culture” and then not five minutes later someone had to explain to him who Alan Turing was.
Alan Turing, who was an incredibly noteworthy figure (He made the Enigma codebreaker machine, which broke the code that was used by Nazis during the war and basically sped up the war by a significant margin. He also set the foundations for artificial intelligence, one achievement he was named for: the Turing Test), was homosexual and prosecuted multiple times because of it
Shakespeare was probably bisexual (some of his sonnets had homoerotic subtext/were sent to a younger man). Plus, Hamlet is gay as fuck.
Sonnet 46 was very gay. Here’s a link!
King James 1st was corrupt and used his position to promote his gay lover to higher positions than he should've gotten.
The 13 year old king James 6th of Scotland and 1st of England fell in love with a 37 year old catholic Franco Scottish man. The king gave the older man so much free shit that other lords started getting salty and his lover ended up converting to Presbyterianism out of loyalty to his young lover. He also fell in love with a man who ''was noted for his handsome appearance as well as his limited intelligence.''
Clearly James was into himbos, and women too.
He had a secret tunnel connecting his bedroom to George Villiers’s bedroom.
His relationship with Villiers was basically common knowledge and a source of much amusement and mockery. He also once said that his relationship with Villiers was equivalent to the relationship that Christ had with John the Baptist
Much more recently, there's obviously JKR and the banning of puberty blockers and Margaret Thatcher opposing LGBTQ+ rights by passing a law meaning you couldn't 'promote homosexuality'.
Prince Philip was a racist twat (and probably a huge homophobe knowing him).
Gay marriage only became legal in 2014.
The Wolfenden Report was published in 1957, and it recommended the decriminalization of homosexual acts between consenting adults. It was a huge topic of public debate, and ultimately led to the Sexual Offences act of 1967, which legalized sexual acts between consenting men aged 21 or over in England and Wales (sexual acts between women were never explicitly criminalized). Scotland decriminalized sex between men in 1980, and Northern Ireland in 1982.
For a totally batshit real-life bit of gay history, check out the show A Very English Scandal. It's about a politician, Jeremy Thorpe, who put a hit out on his former lover who was threatening to go public with the fact they had had a relationship.
Austria
Gay marriage was legalized in Austria about 3 years ago. The worst thing is that it'd have staid illegal if the Supreme Court wouldn't have jumped in and declare it to be unconstitutional.
Austria did have something called "partnership" which was where gay couples could officially register with the state as couples but not receive any of the benefits of married het people
They still have super backwards Transphobic laws requiring for example "real life experience" to get even diagnosed. Basically you're forced to be and live as feminine/masc as possible and a doctor them judges if you're femme or masc enough. It's torture
Australia had widespread, over 60% approval of gay marriage for well over a decade before the government legalized it. The governments were actually going against the people for a very long time by denying it.
Taiwan/ Hong Kong/ Mainland China
When Taiwan recently legalized gay marriage, their official statement was something along the lines that they were casting off Western-imposed values and returning to their own traditional values and the entire western lgbt community ridiculed them in a "if that's what you need to tell yourself" sort of way but it's actually the truth.
Prior to western colonization, the Imperial Chinese attitude toward sexuality was not dissimilar to Greco-Roman attitudes in that a man must marry a woman to beget legitimate heirs but whatever else he does on the side is his own business. It wasn't until Victorian colonizers came along and imposed homophobic attitudes on China that China started treating gays like abominations. In Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China, as indeed most of the world, homophobia is a western value imposed by colonizers.
Bonus history: there is an actual saying in Arabic that was in widespread use across the Middle East and North Africa for thousands of years from classical antiquity until European colonization. The saying goes "Women are for babies, [young men] are for fun."
The commenter specifies that this means “college-aged twinks,” not children
Another commenter speculates about when homophobia arose in China and how. They also add that in Rome, bottoms were stigmatized.
There’s a story of Emperor Ai of the Han dynasty & him cutting off his sleeve for his boyfriend
There is also a god worshipped in Taiwan, the Rabbit God Tu'er Shen, whose domain is managing love and sex between same-sex attracted people. He is meant to be the incarnation of a soldier from the 17th century, who fell in love with an imperial inspector and spied on him bathing, and was tortured and killed by that official because he was offended by the spying. A villager from the soldier's hometown dreamed that Tu'er Shen appeared to him and said that because his crime had been love, he had been appointed to manage the affairs of gay people. The villagers erected a secret temple to the soldier, and people have been praying to him ever since.
South Africa
South Africa became the first nation in the world to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in its constitution. It was also first country in Africa to legalize same sex marriage in 2006. What really set them back for so long was apartheid.
There is some speculation that that Shaka Zulu was gay since he never took any wives
South Africa's post Apartheid constitution was the first in the world to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation in 1996.
South Africa was also the 5th country in the world and only country in Africa to legalize same sex marriage in 2005.
Even before that the Constitutional Court ruled that sexual orientation was not relevant when deciding child custody in 2002.
Transgender folks have been allowed to change their sex in the population registry since 2003.
Conversion therapy is not illegal yet and public opinion still needs some work.
Spain
In Spain gay marriage was legalized in 2005, now they are considered one of de gay-friendliest countries in the world. The commenter is a lesbian and has never been closeted or directly experienced discrimination for being a lesbian.
In July 2005, Spain became the third country in the world to explicitly legalize gay marriage, after a thirty-year struggle following the fall of Franco's dictatorship, during which most activism was carried clandestinely (as it was illegal).
From 2007 onwards, Spanish [binary] trans people can legally correct the name and sex fields of their IDs and currently, there's a push for a law that would allow for legal recognition of non-binary Spaniards.
Despite the dictatorship in the 60s, there were cinemas that specialized in gay meet ups. Trans women also had ways to get passports so they could go to the US for surgery.
Ireland
In Northern Ireland, same sex marriage only became legal in 2020 and the leader of the most popular party is homophobic transphobic racist and sexist af. In fact, the majority of the party are but some of the quotes from the biggest party leader are depressing.
Same-sex marriage was only legalized in Ireland in 2015. Homosexuality was decriminalized in 1993.
When Ireland legalized same sex marriage by popular vote in 2015, it was still something you got horribly bullied for in schools if you were out. Queer people got an apology from the Taoiseach in 2018, for the suffering and discrimination we faced from the State prior to the legalization of homosexuality.
In the case of trans rights, in 2015 the Gender Recognition Act was signed into law. It allows legal gender changes without the requirement of medical intervention or assessment by the state as long as you are over the age of 18.
Ireland has fines and jail time for anyone found guilty of attempting conversation therapy.
Ireland has seen a lot of progress in LGBT rights in the last 6 years but even up to the 2000s, citizens left their family members and friends to rot for being LGBT+. It still happens all over the country, especially in circles that are still fanatically Catholic. As the Catholic Church has lost the iron grip on the country, people have become more accepting of the LGBT+.
India
The Kamasutra(ancient text on sexuality etc.) has an entire chapter dedicated to homosexuality
The Arthashastra, a 2nd century BCE Indian treatise on statecraft, mentions a wide variety of sexual practices which, whether performed with a man or a woman, were sought to be punished with the lowest grade of fine. While homosexual intercourse was not sanctioned, it was treated as a very minor offence, and several kinds of heterosexual intercourse were punished more severely.
Sex between non-virgin women incurred a small fine, while homosexual intercourse between men could be made up for merely with a bath with one's clothes on, and a penance of "eating the five products of the cow and keeping a one-night fast"
Milk, curd (cheese), ghi (clarified butter), urine, and dung are the five products of a cow
The commenter adds that this is not a terrible punishment.
The Mughal Empire mandated a common set of punishments for homosexuality, which could include 50 lashes for a slave, 100 for a free infidel, or death by stoning for a Muslim
On 6 September 2018 the Supreme Court of India invalidated part of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code making homosexuality legal in India
Prior to the British colonization of India homosexuality was not all that looked down upon when compared to what happened when the British took over and instituted anti gay laws.
The Hijra (literally means third gender) were seen as normal and have been accepted since long before Christ, as evidenced by the Karma Sutra. The British took videos of them to take back to demonstrate how the Desi were “barbaric”.
Bonsia
In Bosnia, there was a one pride parade that ended with religious extremists ruining it and the police not doing anything. It was supposed to be 5 maybe 3 days long but ended in like 1 or 2.
The Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe mapped out the entire night sky with only his eyes. It laid the foundations of many later scientists, such as Isaac Newton. He was a very rich nobleman, so much so that he owned 1% of Denmark's money. He had a pet dwarf that apparently could see the future, which sounds pretty gay. He was also part of the Elefant Ordning, which consisted of rich and strong Danish men.
Philippines
Despite many attempts to legalize same-sex marriage, the Philippines still didn't budge. Being gay in itself is legal, but same-sex marriage still isn't.
Philippines ,the most Catholic Country in Southeast Asia, has held the largest Pride Parade in Southeast Asia.
Serbia
Serbia didn't have history from about 16th century to 1800's when the 1st revolt happened and failed till 1813's... Then yet another in 1830's for semi independence from Turks, and full in 1836
During the last lingering Ottoman rule over autonomous Serbia, Serbia was one of the very first few countries to have legal mostly everything... it then got removed with like 3 constitution changes and then it didn't move forward for a looong time
Switzerland
Would you have thought that small, conservative Switzerland was a center of the international gay community during the mid-20th century? The magazine "Der Kreis"- the circle - was the only queer magazine in the world that kept publishing during WWII. It was edited in Zurich and distributed internationally, which often meant illegal smuggling, even into nazi Germany. The magazine's annual ball was attended by hundreds of gay men from all over Europe each year. The whole thing was kept strictly secret from the public, though it was known and tolerated by the police.
The Kreis club disbanded in 1967, as repressions grew heavier after a number of murders in the scene had caught the public's attention. By then, other European and American groups took its place, publishing their own magazines.
They made a movie about it.
More info about Der Kreis
As of today, Switzerland doesn't allow gay marriage. A country-wide referendum will be held this fall on gay marriage.
The commenter speculates that gay marriage will be legalized.
A few people expressed surprise that Switerland is socially conservative and several people explained that women’s right to vote was only place in the 70s.
There’s a movie about it
Turkey
A Muslim Persian (born in modern day Turkey) philosopher/mysticist named Mewlana who is known for his sayings on acceptance and love for one another was gay! He had exchanged letters with his instructor Shams and wrote homoerotic poems to him! In Turkey this is ignored by many due to the country's stance on homosexuality
More information
Norway
The commenter’s hometown and the neighboring town arranged their first pride parade/event in 2017, which is a big deal for a small place and one of the local priests went livid and went straight to the newspaper and social media to condemn it. A local rapper wrote a short and to the point article in the newspaper calling him out for all kinds of things which was a great read. Then to top it off, the priest arranged for a "Jesus Parade" in protest to be held the day before the pride parade. Only like five people walked in it, not including the priest of course because he happened to be on vacation in Spain that week. The pride parade itself was a success though! It's become an annual event. Covid has put some breaks on it though, but they're making a documentary this year about the pride celebrations.
Hungary
Hungary has no same sex marriage or transition rights
Police are unkind to protestors
During “commie times,” being queer was illegal so queer people went to the gulag
Belgium
Same sex marriage was legalized in Belgium in 2003 (right after the NL who were the first in the world). The commenter says that same-sex marriage has always felt possible and she is confused about other countries’ actions.
Poland
Polish president on public assembly: 'LGBT is not people, this is ideology'.
Denmark
WHO took their sweet time declassifying being transgender as a mental illness, so Denmark got sick of waiting and became the first country to stop classifying it as an illness.
Australia
In Australia same-sex marriage wasn't legal until 2017.
Portugal
Portugal is know for having one of the most (if not THE most) peaceful revolutions in history back in the 60's, with only 4 deaths total.
Canada
Operation Soap.
Mexico
To learn more, watch Dance of the 41 on Netflix.
Netherlands
NL was one of the first countries to legalize gay marriage in 2001
Sweden
In Sweden they used to classify Homosexuality as a disease during the 20th century so in protest people would call in too gay to work.
New Zealand
When same sex marriage was legalized, the parliament broke into song.
The song
Other
Homosexuality is illegal in 73 countries, some by death or life in prison.
Only one country in Asia has legalized same-sex marriage: Taiwan
FNAF is older than same-sex marriage in the US
Condor Operation
I think this is some important stuff so please reblog so more people can see! And, if you would like to add to or correct anything here, feel free to do so!
#history#lgbt#lgbt pride#pride#lgbt history#world history#queer#usa#germany#uk#world war 2#austria#taiwan#south africa#spain#ireland#india#bonsia#philippines#serbia#switerland#turkey#norway#hungary#bengium#poland#denmark#australia#portugal#canada
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Wip Re-Introduction: A Rope In Hand
❛Horror is like a serpent; always shedding its skin, always changing. And it will always come back. It can’t be hidden away like the guilty secrets we try to keep in our subconscious.❜
♧ Title: A Rope In Hand [ARIH]
♧ Status: First Drafting
♧ Point of View: Third Person, flexible between a few
♧ Genre: Dark Fantasy, Supernatural, LGBTQ+, Action, Drama
♧ Warnings: This story revolves around the occult. There will be talk of witch hunts and trials and cults. There will be torture methods used to gain confessions, and these methods will be justified under religious belief. There will be toxic and abusive relationships, particularly family; finding an escape from them, and healing from the trauma. There will be homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and colonization. There will be major character deaths, but I can spoil after the book ends the main characters do get a happy ending. Each chapter and scene posted will have personalized warnings, but these are the main things to expect.
♧ Featuring: The majority of the characters will be LGBTQ+, from pansexual, homosexual, to asexual; genderfluid, agender/nonbinary, and transgender. Each character is complex and morally grey. Yes, they will do things that are blatantly terrible, or actively good. Overall, they will be morally grey and questionable at best. There will be complex world-building, from both the universe it takes place in, and the religious pantheons brought up. The religions brought up will be polytheistic and animism-themed. The romance between the major characters will be slow-burn enemies to friend to lovers, and them learning to love themselves through one another. There will be an exploration on generational healing, and unlearning toxic, and bias believes.
♧ Setting: The setting is influenced by Victorian London, and Medieval Ireland. There will be mention of other places, primarily western Europe, the Ottoman Empire, Ancient Rome, Eastern Asia, and Napoleonic France.
♧ Synopsis:
In the town of Arkaley, in the northwest of the Duchy of Ruairc, the people have been plagued by bad fortune and crime. Attacks of bandits on the road, raids from pirates on the shores, untimely deaths of children and young women, elected officials coming out corrupt; there is no end in Arkaley of the suffering the locals endure.
Rationally, to explain such a bad string of luck, there is only one possible explanation: Witchcraft.
The Duchy of Ruairc already has a history of witchcraft: the Ó Ruaircs turned out to be witches, the Abondé incident in Salem, the Liathain incident in Trakee; the Ruaircs have their record. Perfectly acceptable for everyone to assume the worse of the Ruairish, as they have proved to be nothing but.
To prove his worth, the young Reverend Prudence Clemency Frye, takes up the task of quelling this coven of witches and heading this witch-hunt. Young and naïve, witch only knowledge from books and little hands-on experience, he’s unprepared for this challenge. When he finally leaves the town, well… everyone would rather put this incident behind them.
♧ Tease:
My darling dear, a knave so clear
You appear, so bravely near;
Do you hear my darling dear, sneers of austere jeers?
Behave, my dear, when I am near;
For peers will lear, in their fear,
Allow me o' dear our persevere
So my fave you appear
And volunteer a slave so dear
in an atmosphere we fear.
my darling dear, wave so clear
Depravely as we leave, and give a souvenir;
My lips to yours, as you crave in these fallin' years.
Be brave darling dear, and give into hearts o' queer.
For mine you be, your darling dear,
To the stars you have swore in love, so crystal clear.
My peers shall sneer, but whore I be, and you I crave
Oh so bare. slurs and glares, just listen to my prayers.
Kiss me love, and leave o'they to a'crave
In this atmosphere that we fear
Their own, o' pure, knave so dear.
♧ Excerpt:
".... This is wrong." Prudence finds the words slipping from his lips, voice a quiet whisper; a breathless tone of voice. He allows his fingertips to falter against scarred skin, watching as Mastema turned his cheek, he pressed himself into the palm of Prudence's hand. Eyes closed, a smile curled on his face. Prudence couldn't help but smile at the scene, but slowly, slowly, slowly, he rescinded his hand; breaking the hold.
"Revered..." Matching his voice, Mastema replied. Maintaining such a soft voice, as he shifted himself forward on the bed. One foot to the ground, the other drawn beneath himself. Over Prudence he leaned, resting one palm to the sheets, the other lifting to seize Prudence's hand before he could recoil back. "You have made me feel something in which I've never felt before..."
From where he laid, Prudence could only form a soft frown. He knew he could draw his hand back, the grip was far from tight. But he didn't. He laid there, allowing Mastema to hold his hand. "... This is wrong, Mastema."
Mastema frowned; he matched the reaction Prudence wore. Through it, he forced a half-smile, tightening his grip on the other's hand, and forward he brought Prudence's hands to kiss the knuckles. "... If this is wrong, I do not wish to be right."
At the response, Prudence shook his head. "It is not for us to be right or wrong, the gods—"
At the angle he sat, Mastema shifted once more. He dropped Prudence's hand, to lean forward; to lean in close. Both of his palms found the other's cheek, as he touched their foreheads to one another. "... Do not force your will onto another." In that soft whisper, he spoke. Eyes closed, breath drawn in. "Is that not a Commandment of our Creator?"
"I..." Prudence faltered. In, he drew his breath, to try to steady himself. "... I did not take you for the religious sorts."
"I'm not." Mastema all too quickly retorted. But as he was, he laid; this proximity. "But you are."
♧ Characters:
The Order of Witchesbane
Prudence Clemency Frye; The Reverend
Half Fae/Half Human • Intersex • Genderfluid • He/They • Homosexual • Homo-demiromantic
The bastard son of Lord Zachariah Frye. Raised by his father, with his mother dying young, he took to following in his footsteps. He became a religious young man and an active witch-hunter. A part of him desires his father’s acceptance, his praises; the other part despises his father and everything the man stands for. In recent years, he has joined the De La Cruz household, becoming an apprentice beneath the famous Witch’s Advocate; upholding the beliefs that not every witch is evil and has foul intentions, and the ones that mean harm are the only ones that should be hunted.
Zachariah Frye; The Bloodhound
Human • Male • He/Him • Bicurious • Aromantic
The oldest living member of the Order. Now he is the man that holds the face of the Order, who you think of when they come to mind. Cold. Vindictive. Despotic. Violent. He is not a good man. He is firm in his beliefs and stubborn to change. Once his mind is made up, he cannot be reasoned with. He is blindly convinced of his beliefs and his cause to eradicate every living witch, unfazed if he has to fill a few innocent thousands in the process.
Calisto Ferzan Hermengildo Melchior Lorencio De La Cruz; The Witch’s Advocate
Half Fae/Half Human • Amab • Nonbinary • Genderfluid • He/They • Asexual • Aromantic
A witch-hunter in title alone, Calisto has been making enemies since he could first talk. He’s always enjoyed being the underdog, going against the expectations of society, being ridiculed by his peers. The sole reason? Proving them wrong. To ridicule his own peers for their outdated beliefs, he’s taken to defending witches, proving them innocent of their ‘crimes’, and going on to help them to set up a life in a country more accepting of witchcraft
The servant of Calisto, never seen far from his side. He is a servant in name alone and is more-or-less an assassin, a hitman for Calisto. Held in contempt by Athylian society for being a foreigner, he often treated by others more as a slave than a servant. To help be unseen, to help the De La Cruz Household, Michelotto endures the treatment and goes as far to be perceived as ignorant, alongside him being born a mute. Keeping his true intents and intelligence duly guarded, only a handful are aware he is also a witch.
Myk'loumihr [Michelotto Dougal] Siavash; The Man-Servant
Witch; Amab • Agender • He/They • Asexual • Aromantic
Austin Duvine; The Lord Without A Ring
Half-Human/Half Fae • Amab • Nonbinary • He/They • Pansexual • Demiromantic
One of the younger members of the order, Austin relies on his father's wealth and name. He doesn't care for responsibilities, he doesn't care for hard work. He's a playboy at heart. He's fit to hold social events, and use his natural talent to gib and fib his way through life. He'll keep his mixed feelings to himself, struggling with doing the right thing or upholding tradition.
Alistair Lavine; The Witchfinder General
Human • Amab • Agender • He/They • Bicurious • Aromantic
The best friend to Zachariah and his right hand. Where Zachariah is business and lacks charms, Alistair can charm a crowd and hold their attention. He knows how to feign being an ideal human, without letting on his own bloodlust; he's a monster in human skin. At the end of the day, unlike Zachariah, Alistair does have morals and standards he will abide by, even if they come back to ruin him.
━━━━━━━━━━
The Vakari Coven
Ausrine Baoghal; The Lady
Witch • Female • She/Her • Bisexual • Aromantic
The woman in charge of the town, widowed and inheriting the right to rule as her husband had no heirs. She is a manipulative and dangerous woman, eager to commit any sin or crime for more power. She, in truth, cares only for herself and would feel no remorse if she had to turn on one of her coven to further her own agenda.
The magistrate and also the chief policeman of the town. He maintains a calm, but manipulative personality. As a front, he presents himself to be fair and just, liked and favored by the people for genuinely caring for them. While in truth he has his own heinous and sinister agenda, aiding Ausrine in her plans.
Leary O'Laoghaire; The Magistrate
Witch • Male • He/Him • Bicurious • Aromantic
The oldest member of the coven, Dairine lives under the guise of an elderly woman, who lives alone with her children and grandchildren already leaving her to live their own lives. She is a kind and understanding woman and cares for the younger witches in the coven. She will not support Baríon with her agenda, nor does she care for the servant girl, she even despises the so-called ally Ausrine claims to have and who they all adhere to.
Dairine Ó Séaghdha; The Crone
Witch • Afab • Agender • She/They • Asexual • Aromantic
The acting servant of Barion, Anisha’s true loyalties lie elsewhere. She stays within the town, serving the coven while acting as the eyes and ears of someone, the person who is truly pulling the strings. She is the one to relay information and letters between the coven and her master. She is a quiet woman, that keeps her head down and her mind to herself. She only shows her true, confident and demanding, nature behind closed doors with the coven when they dare to question her.
Anisha Kaur; The Servant
Witch • Afab • Demigirl • She/They • Asexual • Aromantic
The charming son of Leary. Many whisper that is part fae, due to his charm, if it’s true or not many are unaware. He is a very sophisticated young man, that has managed to wrap the entire town around his finger. While on the surface he is alike his father is a caring, compassionate, charming young man, something sinister brews beneath. He is devious, demanding, domineering.
Nathir O'Laoghaire; The Magistrate’s Son
Half-Witch/Half-Fae • Amab • Agender • He/Him • Bisexual • Aromantic
Being the baker's daughter, Liannah helps around the bakery and family business. Unlike the company she keeps, she is a reserved young woman. She is polite and maintains her manners with whomever she is dealing with. She has the patience of a saint and rarely loses her cool. Liannah is a woman with a calm demeanor about her, being a woman many are comfortable around due to her peaceful and calm aura.
Liannah Ó Buachalla; The Baker’s Daughter
Witch • Afab • Genderfluid • She/They • Asexual • Panromantic
Ausrine's bastard son she had with a spirit she bargained with for more power. Since he was young, he was raised by the servants of the house, and the coven, over his own mother; the two have more of a business relationship over a family one. Since he cares less about what his mother does, he spends his time with Liannah and Reyes, either at the bakery or getting into trouble somewhere. With Reyes as an influence, Mastema is a flirtatious man that enjoys scandals and making the most of life
Mastema Baoghal; The Knave
Half-Witch/Half-Spirit • Amab • Genderfluid • He/They • Pansexual • Demiromantic
Rochan Misra; The Charlatan
Half-Witch/Half-Spirit • Amab • Queer • He/She • Pansexual • Aromantic
A foreigner to the Coven, born and raised in the Duchy of Incali. At a young age, he became a traveling charlatan, recently settling within the coven only as he befriended Liannah and Mastema and enjoyed their company. Now, he is the local bad influence: scamming locals out of their money at the taverns, wooing and seducing young men and ladies alike, always trespassing and vandalizing something. He is trouble but has a heart of gold when it matters.
ARIH: : @hekat-ie, @writings-of-a-narwhal, @silent-creed
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Taglist:
General: @endlesshourglass, @writerray, @poore-choice-of-words, @alexwritesfiction, @primusesgiantmetalballbearings
Both: @cecilsstorycorner, @little-boats-on-a-lake, @hazard-writes, @egg-shark
#Wip intro#wip introduction#writing community#writeblr#writeblr community#writers of tumblr#writers on tumblr#original writing#original story#fantasy#fantasy writing#fantasy writer#Morri's collection#Morri's Fish Tank#Wip: A Rope In Hand#Wip: ARIH#Witches#witchcraft#occult#dark fantasy#supernatural#My writing#My wip#My edits#Again I said redo an intro#But a new aesthetic#I'm kind of liking this one#So I'll probably redo them all..#Again
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In 1838, the Boston police department became the first modern policing institution in the United States. Prior to Boston, however, white Americans created unofficial “slave patrols,” which served as local law enforcement groups that operated differently from state to state. This meant that in Southern states, for example, the groups were used for controlling Black Americans who tried to escape enslavement; and in the North, the predecessors to the police focused on repressing any kind of rebellion or strike by laborers. American policing was created out of a need to control violently those who went against the status quo.
By 1857, additional departments were created in New York City, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Newark, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. By the twentieth century, the country saw major changes to policing, thanks to August Vollmer, the first police chief of the Berkeley, California, police department, established in 1909. As chief, Vollmer introduced new policing policies to his department, including lie detector tests, a police records system, police training schools, and mounted officers. He also helped to militarize U.S. police departments. Years after he served in the military, Vollmer credited his time fighting in the Spanish-American War with teaching him the “military tactics” needed because at the end of the day, Vollmer espoused, police officers were “conducting a war, a war against the enemies of society and we must never forget that.” His training schools, which were implemented nationally, were centered on “the coercive institutions and practices of the imperial state that create and sustain empire,” which refer to “colonial conquest, the violent suppression of anticolonial dissent, and counterinsurgency operations.” Police adopted many of these reforms across the country.
At the University of California, Vollmer was the head of their criminal justice program, where his “students took courses in which they learned about different ‘racial types’ and how ‘hereditary’ and ‘race degeneration’ led to criminality.” These sentiments were internalized by U.S. police departments across the country, many of which have also been infiltrated by white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Between 2018 and 2019 alone, police officers shot and killed at least two thousand Americans. Black Americans are viewed by law enforcement as more suspicious than white Americans, a sentiment that emboldens nonlaw enforcement persons, like George Zimmerman, to treat Black citizens as dangerous and therefore disposable. Two-thirds of 8,000 police officers surveyed across the country view police shootings as “isolated incidents” that have nothing to do with larger social issues. Black and Brown communities are less likely to rate police officers highly. In 2020 alone, the list of Black women and men killed by police includes Tina Marie Davis, a fifty-three-year-old mother killed by police in Spring Valley, New York; Breonna Taylor, a twenty-six-year-old emergency medical technician shot and killed by police while she slept in her Louisville, Kentucky, home; Tony McDade, a thirty-eight-year-old Black transgender man shot and killed by police in Tallahassee, Florida; Mubarak Soulemane, nineteen, shot and killed by police in West Haven, Connecticut; Lebarron Ballard, twenty-eight, shot and killed by police in Abilene, Texas; Kanisha Necole Fuller, forty-three, shot and killed in Birmingham, Alabama; Modesto Reyes, thirty-five, shot and killed by police in Marrero, Louisiana; Malik Canty, thirty-five, shot and killed by officers in Paterson, New Jersey; and Dijon Kizzee, twenty-nine, shot and killed by police in Los Angeles, California.
Another form of police brutality is sexual assault. Chattel slavery created an economic system in which white men tortured and raped enslaved Black women and children, who were then subsequently forced to give birth to the resulting children. Policing was born out of the same anti-Black violence that allowed Americans to justify—and which continues to excuse—the violence of enslavement, from slavery to prison. Police departments across the United States are equipped with resources that allow them to physically assault and restrain citizens at any given moment. Along with guns, tasers, handcuffs, and rubber bullets, law enforcement also uses sexual violence as a tool.
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Little Lady Of Mine
Halfdan+Transgender! Reader (Modern AU)
(A/N): Hey lovelies,
HUGE DISCLAIMER: I am not personally a transgender person so I just wanted to say that if you find this in any way offensive, I am ready to delete this, just know that I had this idea and I felt like it was perfect for this period.
I also wanted to tell you that if you have any suggestion to write better transgender characters, just let me know, since I have just started and I low key hope that this won’t suck, but please DO LET ME KNOW WHAT I CAN DO TO BECOME BETTER!
I also wanted to say thank you to @volvaaslaug (who probably hates me by now, because I am constantly bothering them) because they gave me some interesting suggestions and even suggested a lovely web series that I absolutely suggest to you as well! (Her Story)
This being said: I really hope you’ll like it!
WARNINGS: Mention of Transphobia and Depression, Transphobic Insults, Being Outed, Fear of Relationships and Comments.
You had loved Vesterfold since the first time you had moved there.
You had a nice job, although it wasn’t the best you could do it did pay the rent and you were also able to put aside a bit of money for the operation.
You had also developed a few friendships, although no one in the new circle of friends you had created around you knew about your ‘little secret’, because in the end it had been barely a month since you had transferred in the northern city, with the excuse of your new work at the bar.
And certainly, the climate was much more open than your closeted city, full of the narrow-minded people you had been running away from.
And then there was Halfdan.
He was the brother of the owner of the bar you worked in, and many times you had met him trying to run away from everyone, gaining a few free cocktail on the way, something he did not only because he owned partly the establishment but also because you found him inevitably cute, so you couldn’t deny him his daily glass of bourbon.
Although it was 9 a.m. in the morning.
He had a mix of dark biker vibes, with his pretty gelled blond hair and his leather jacket always on him, but you feel a softer aura that got you quite enamored with his shy personality.
You’d sometimes talk together, although your secrecy and his shyness made it difficult to have anything deeper than small talk when you were together, and you had caught him looking at you a few times, meanwhile you were serving drinks and you had noticed a few knowing smirks from his foreign friend, Bjorn.
He had been the one that had tried to set you and Halfdan up, although you always pushed it back, because boyfriends and lovers were something that you tried to swear off.
It was all a mess when things like this happened, you knew it all too well.
There were people who fetishized ‘your condition’ and there were others who would have found it sexy till it was brought out in the world, and then they were the firsts that threw stick and stones at you.
No matter the fact that behind closed door they enjoyed the thought of you.
So, you had been avoiding Bjorn’s attempt to set you up, joking that you ‘couldn’t just date your boss’, but when Halfdan had been the one marching to you to ask you out, your mind had gone blank and you hadn’t had any idea of what to say and what excuse to use and in the end on Friday night you were left choosing a dress and cursing yourself and your mind.
Why had you accepted it, when you knew that this couldn’t go further up than a small date?
It would have simply left you to torture yourself about the thought of a relationship with Halfdan.
You knew all too well that sadly, men like him, didn’t like women ‘like you’.
It would just make you fall again in the deep pit of sadness your life had been before you decided to move away.
But you had tried to push away all the overthinking you had done in these days, to try to appear relaxed at the date, in a small restaurant that Halfdan had suggested since it was the best in the city.
He had been a perfect gentleman, offering to come and pick you up and pushing your chair behind you as you sit down and complimenting on the dress you had chosen, a completely enamored look in his eyes, as he said it, making you smirk softly and hid your face in the menu.
“… are you… are you liking it in Vesterfold?” he had asked, hiding his own blushing face behind a menu, although he looked to know it by heart, as he suggested where you could find the freshest meals and the greasiest ones “… sorry if I am awful at this, I just… I haven’t had a date… in… in actually centuries”.
You had giggled softly, as you reassured him, gently putting down the defense of your menu.
“… don’t worry, I am in the same situation” you had commented, meanwhile he dropped for the surprise his own menu.
“With an angelic face like that? I doubt it” he had replied, with a truly surprised look, as you giggled louder “… Gosh, honestly what is a pretty girl like you doing in a shit place like my brother’s club?”.
“… just running away from responsibilities” you had commented lowly, with a sad smile.
“… aren’t we all?” Halfdan’s smile had matched your own “… but let me tell you (Y/N): I am glad that in your run, you walked in that bar”.
“… flatterer” you had been simply able to reply, even more when Halfdan looked at you with that smirk that made you feel all liquid inside.
Strangely dinner had been comfortable, since Halfdan seemed not only to be an amazing listener but also he seemed to understand what arguments could be deepened and which you didn’t like talking about, easing you up in giving him a little information, without needing to straight up lie to his face.
He had also insisted to pay the bill, telling you again with that small smirk that if ‘you desperately wanted to pay the bill, you would have done so next time you went out’.
Today he had been the one to ask you out, hence it was only fair he paid.
Next time you would have invited him outside and you’d have paid the bill.
A clear invite for one more date, something to which you weren’t exactly against, even more when the entire date had kept itself purely chaste.
Although as you both went out, his hand fell by his side, right next to yours, and slowly and slowly it came closer and closer to yours, till you decided to damn yourself gripping it.
He reacted with a blush that shone even in that dark night, which instead made you smirk, although you were again surprised by the tall man when he gently draped his leather jacket on you, noticing that you were shivering.
‘It won’t take too long to reach the car I swear’ he promised you sweetly and this time he was bolder, pushing you closer to him ‘… is this alright?’.
‘I am already feeling warmer’ you joked with a knowing smirk sent to him and right when you were reaching the parking lot, you saw a familiar silhouette and a breath choked in your mouth.
You moved closer to Halfdan, who didn’t notice it, meanwhile he searched in his pockets for the key.
You tried to put a bit of space between you and the known face, although it wasn’t possible anymore as he came to your side to open the door.
You hoped that for once your luck would work in your favor.
But it didn’t and suddenly the man was in front of you, turning to you who faced Halfdan, having finally fished out the keys from his pocket, and now he was ready to unlock the car, but then it was too late.
“Look who is here” the man commented arrogantly, and you were faced with Edgard, an old friend of your times in high school, when you hadn’t started the hormonal therapy, but you had already started transitioning, mostly in secret through some more feminine clothes and a bit of make-up you’d wipe off before coming back from school “… the freak”.
A shadow appeared on your face as you felt Halfdan still behind you, and he lightly pushed you back, coming face to face with Edgard, a third of his muscles weight but with no brain or sense of self-preservation.
“… you look incredibly real, also… the surgeon you paid must have been very very good” he continued commenting, as Halfdan grabbed the front of his shirt.
“Listen dude, you are ruining our night, I don’t know if you understand it… but we’d prefer to be left alone” he commented, lightly raising the man a bit “… fuck off”.
“Oh man, didn’t she tell you?” Edgard continued on goading him on, as you tried to have Halfdan back off “… or should I say did he…? Do you still have your cock? You are probably screwing old guys to get it removed, aren’t you?”.
Now a rather horrified shrink left your mouth at the truth being out, hurting you in every conceivable way.
But what truly got you was the way Halfdan’s whole body stilled and before you knew it, you had run away, not truly knowing where to go.
Just. Needing. To. Get. Away.
You had felt this way for your entire life, your high school life being completely hell for people like Edgard, who couldn’t simply accept that there was a reality that was different from the boring one he had lived in his whole life.
That people like you weren’t freak.
But were simply… people.
You could already see what would happen.
Halfdan would undoubtedly talk with his brother about this and by next week you’d be fired.
Probably Halfdan wouldn’t spread the word around, because he was afraid of having fallen for such a ‘trap’ but you would have lost the chance to go out with him again, after the lovely night you had been having.
Gosh… you fucking knew it.
You had gone through it so many times.
You were running right outside the parking lot, when an hand gripped tight your arm, and you were reeled back, right when a car appeared in front of you, almost running you over, hadn’t you been brought back by your own personal angel.
Which turned out to be a red-cheeked Halfdan.
“… please don’t run” he commented breathing heavily “… I am an old man, and you’ll give me a stroke”.
You were surprised that he hadn’t already tried insulting you, but maybe he did need to catch on his breath.
“That fucktard, by the way, I took care of it” a bloodthirsty grin appeared on his face “… I am sorry you had to go through that, it wasn’t certainly a planned idea for my date night”.
An awkward silence appeared between you two.
You didn’t know whether you should have just faked nothing happened and just let Halfdan bring yourself or confront him about what Edgard said.
In the end you just felt like you had to at least tell him you didn’t fuck old men for a living.
“… it wasn’t true what he said” you commented through your teeth, nervously “… about the older men, I wouldn’t date you for money or…”.
“That’s good, because Harald is the rich brother” he commented with a light laugh, as he reached out for your hand softly “… ok that wasn’t… nice of me, but… believe me I know that you aren’t faking it… I had the time of my life on this date and might I be so presumptuous to say that you did too?”.
You choked on air, again, nervous and unsure, as Halfdan blushed lightly letting you choose the pace of this relationship.
And it had never happened to you.
And it scared you.
“… but about the other thing… I…” you choked on a sad smile, meanwhile Halfdan patiently waited for you, lowering his gaze to make you feel less pressure on yourself “… I am a woman but…I am not… I am not operated, so I understand it… if you aren’t comfortable…”.
You didn’t know why you blurted it out, but usually with most people that was a dealbreaker, because it made you stick between two states and it made people uncomfortable, because they couldn’t put their noisy tags on you.
But if there was one thing you knew by now, it was that it wasn’t your fault.
You couldn’t change your thoughts and body to appease them.
But you still understood why Halfdan might not want to continue a relationship with you.
“… it is ok, if you want to end things here, I wouldn’t expect you…”.
“Listen… “ he commented, as he softly, moved you closer to him, trying to calm his body, to make himself appear less threatening and you couldn’t help but relax under those attentive moves “… it doesn’t change anything”.
“… seriously?” you weren’t used to people being so calm about it.
“Seriously” he breathed out “… you are the pretty girl I have had a crush on since the first moment you started working, which might make me pass off as the creeper…”.
You shut up Halfdan with a quick kiss to your lips, so fast that although you did effectively shut him up, it almost didn’t seem to happen and you laughed a bit at Halfdan’s ridiculous kiss face, as he slowly came back from it, blabbering something about ‘you definitely thinking that he was a creeper now’.
“… nobody had ever… been as gentle as you with me” you commented “… that is why I am… nervous”.
“I am sorry you had to go through that” he replied “… I mean… it is human decency to treat you like anybody else”.
“… not everybody has had the decency of that” you muttered, as Halfdan gently brought you closer, enveloping you in a soft hug, as he felt you completely shattering against him, but he simply smiled at you continuing his mission to reassure you.
You didn’t know if an entire day passed or an hour, what you knew was that Halfdan gave you all the time, making sure that you were comfortable once you were back in the car, even making a bit of fun with you to try to bring you a smile on his face.
‘Gosh people will think that this has been an awesome date if they see you cry’ he had tried to humor you, and your hand shot over his, as it stood on the gear shift, which made him turn around to you.
“… it was an awesome date” you confirmed it to him, as you gently moved in for another quick kiss, gaining a totally enamored look from Halfdan, who peppered a few more kisses on your lips.
And to think that you had worn lip-gloss because you were sure that there wouldn’t be any kisses.
Meanwhile he kissed you, he asked you, where he didn’t have to touch you and where he could.
He tried to avoid questions, letting you speak in case you wanted to, wanting to make you feel comfortable, although sometimes he’d interrupt you with a question, always trying to word it carefully but not as if you were a glass doll, but more like he wanted to give you all his respect.
Your eventually started a long conversation, meanwhile Halfdan held you comfortably, which was interrupted by Harald’s call, since he was worried his brother wasn’t home and you could hear a very distinct ‘please tell me that you didn’t get kidnapped and instead got laid’ which made you and Halfdan blush.
The man quickly shushed his brother with the promise of being home in a few minutes, after he dropped you off.
The rest of the ride was spent in silence, this time a comfortable silence lulling you in a peaceful mood, as your hands were joined together on the gear shift-
“… thank you for the lovely night” you commented once you were home and Halfdan insisted to escort you to the threshold of your apartment, as if he expected Edgard to appear again and attack you, although… from his slightly bruised knuckles you wouldn’t have to worry about any transphobe coming at you, soon “… if you haven’t changed your mind, we could do it again”.
“It’s more like… if you haven’t changed your mind…”.
“Don’t sell yourself short” you joked, with a laugh that made Halfdan kiss you.
And he did kiss you, on your lips, softly and gently.
“… goodnight, little lady of mine”.
#Halfdan#Halfdan Reader#Halfdan x Reader#Halfdan Imagine#Halfdan Fic#Halfdan Angst#Angst#Halfdan Fluff#Fluff#Halfdan Moodboard#Vikings#vikings imagine#History Vikings#Vikings Moodboard
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Hi Chibi... So.. I met a girl who thought she was trans because everyone told her that only boys can love girls. So she thought she had to be a boy. She even took testo... Now I'm always thinking what if Grell thinks the same way. We know for sure that she's into men and we don't know if there really was something with Madame Red... I'm so confused right now...
Dear 1hellofacookie, again,
Honestly?! In what country does that girl live!?!? To the best of my knowledge there is a plethora of hoops and gatekeeping one has to jump through, which may take YEARS. For some people the hurdles can be so ridiculous or the wait stretched so much, it becomes such an unbearable torture they just take their own lives.
Only after overcoming ALL the hurdles of “are you a 3829% sure you ARE trans????”, healthcare professionals start to even consider giving anyone hormones. Hormones are heavy sh*it man! Especially testosterone; once administered the effects are irreversible.
If gone by the procedures in countries that I know of, somebody going: “I like same-sex people, so I must be trans” would never have been taken seriously. Besides, as explained in this post, gender, sex and sexuality have absolutely nothing to do with one another. Professionals who deal with somebody’s genderdysphoria or transgenderism, AND have the authority to prescribe somebody something as drastic as mofo HORMONES, really should know better.
I am not saying you are lying, but I am saying that if that girl really just got hormones because she thought she was trans simply for being interested in girls, whoever was in charge needs to be fired 50 years ago.
As for Grell,
I am sorry, but I don’t really understand your question. Do you mean to ask whether Grell just THINKS she is a woman because she likes men, but is in fact a man? Just double checking.
Like I said before, we don’t actually know that much about her, so I have no idea what her journey was. But I can say for certain that somebody who PROBABLY killed herself because of being denied her identity will have thought about things a bit more thoroughly than “I like men, homosexuality doesn’t exist, so I must be a woman, yeah let’s end this life.” Homosexuality has/had been taboo in the Christian society she lived in, but its existence was known. For somebody to have conceived the idea of transgender identity is a bit harder in those times. In other words, Grell thought through the possibilities quite innovatively.
Another thing we do know for certain is that Grell’s pain in great part revolves around a grudge against women who throw their wombs away, or actively choose to never bear a child. That to me is a rather clear indication that Grell’s realisation of her gender identity has to do with her gender, and not sexuality.
It could be that Grell’s sexuality helped her think outside the box, but otherwise, her sexuality has nothing to do with her gender.
#Grell#Grell Sutcliffe#Grelle Sutcliffe#tw suicide mention#tw gatekeeping#transgender#Honestly that so-called professional needs to be FIRED
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“If I Ever Were to Lose You...”
As a huge fan of Naughty Dog, it should come as no surprise that I bought The Last of Us Part II on day one. It mattered not that the plot had been leaked a month or so ago. Nor did I care how divisive the game was among the gaming community (honestly, I’m not sure what the exact reason is for the vitriol. The reasons are numerous, ranging from the fact that many believes Naughty Dog was pushing an agenda - if you played the Left Behind DLC, you would have known that Ellie was gay - or that Abby was not painted as a moustache-twirling villain). I loved the first game and I knew that I would appreciate the morally grey narrative that The Last of Us Part II promised. So, with the work day over, I journeyed once again through a post-apocalyptic United States of America.
The Last of Us Part II begins with Joel returning to the town of Jackson. After a fraught conversation with his brother, Tommy, about what had happened at the end of the first game, he brings back a peace offering for Ellie: a guitar. From there, the game jumps forward in time by five years with Ellie waking up late and gently teased by her friend Jesse as they prepared for the day ahead.
I quite liked the first few moments of the game as I took in Jackson. It reminded me of the old west, what with a saloon, blacksmith and horses. But it also painted a more positive picture of the apocalypse, with children playing in the snow and building snowmen. Jackson was a flourishing community. Yes, it had its issues with Infected roving around the countryside, but there was a sense of camaraderie that the first game lacked.
It wasn’t long, however that the game switched to an unknown character: Abby. She had made her way down to Jackson with a group of her friends. It wasn’t made entirely clear what her objective was, initially, but it was revealed in her conversations with Owen that she was looking for someone.
The first part of the game played well - jumping from Ellie to Abby and back again during the course of the day. It all culminated when Abby runs into Joel and Tommy (stationed at the ski lodge) as she tries to dodge a horde of Infected. Joel and Tommy save her, but are too far away to make it to Jackson. Abby offers them shelter in the mansion that she is staying at with her friends. But once within, it is revealed that the person that Abby and her friends were searching for was Joel and that they were seeking revenge for what happened to the head surgeon that was killed at the end of The Last of Us.
As Joel is being brutally tortured, Ellie learns that both Joel and Tommy have not checked in. With Dina and Jesse, she goes in search for them. Finally, she stumbles upon the mansion that Abby and her friends are residing in. Before she can rescue Joel, she is wrestled to the ground and witnesses Abby smashing Joel’s head in with a golf club - leaving Ellie devastated and suffering from PTSD.
Thus, begins her quest for revenge as she heads to Seattle.
The initial moments of the game made it very easy to hate Abby. After all, most of us that picked up the title had played through the original and felt a tight connection with Joel and Ellie. While their actions throughout the first game bordered on morally questionable, they were the protagonists and who the players were able to control. In the world of the post-apocalypse with fungus zombies, it made a certain amount of sense that it was a dog-eat-dog world out in the wilderness. With Abby killing Joel, however, it felt like a line was crossed - making it very easy to slip into Ellie’s mindset of seeking revenge for the loss of her father-figure.
After Ellie arrives in Seattle, finding Abby was no easy task. With the Seraphites and the WLF roaming the streets, Ellie was hard-pressed to find a non-violent solution. Particularly when many of the WLF and Seraphites were of the ‘shoot first, ask questions’ later mentality when it came to trespassers. It wasn’t long before Ellie started tracking down Tommy and the members of Abby’s party. But after an encounter at the Seattle Aquarium, Ellie decided to abandon her quest due to Dina’s declining health. As Ellie and her team prepared to go home, Abby manages to track them down at the theatre that they were staying in and ambushes them.
It was here that many players felt dismayed as the game jumped back again to the start of the three days in Seattle to explain Abby’s side of the story. Through flashbacks, the game revealed that her father was the head-surgeon that was killed by Joel. Years afterwards, Abby continued to suffer nightmares from what had happened. Seeing her story also shed light on how many of her team were suffering from guilt after what had happened in Jackson. This was particularly evident in Abby’s interactions with Mel.
Also, her relationship with Owen was both endearing and troubling. The flashbacks helped paint a picture of their relationship and the troubles that came from Abby’s devotion to training and Owen’s more hesitant approach to working with the WLF. Let’s also not forget how that at the end of Seattle Day One, Abby then slept again with her ex-lover. I mean really? His current girlfriend is pregnant and the two you broke up more than a year ago. At least Abby was able to respect Mel’s wishes and decline Owen’s offer of going to Santa Barbara together.
I liked how it built up a complicated backstory for Abby and helped emphasise that she was not a cut-out copy of the mindless AI enemies that I often faced. It also helped me understand more of the WLF, though I found their compound in one of the old stadiums Seattle less impressive than the city that was built in Jackson.
Her quest to help her friend and then, two young Seraphites also placed in perspective that the world of The Last of Us carried very much an ‘us versus them’ mentality. Considering the fact that I was watching The 100 while playing only cemented the fact that everyone was looking out for ‘their people’ and screw everyone else. And while Yara and Lev helped break some of the prejudice Abby held against the Seraphites, there was also a sense that she was only helping them to alleviate the guilt that she had for her previous actions.
But after discovering the bodies of Owen and Mel, her anger resurfaces and she decides to hunt down those responsible. The fight with Ellie was difficult. Mostly because these were two young women who had many similarities and both were filled with hatred and loathing for the other. In the end, Abby won their first encounter and would have likely killed both Ellie and Dina had not Lev stepped in.
By the time the ending rolled around, however, it was easy to see how much Abby had changed as a prisoner of the Rattlers. She had lost weight and her hair was now a lot shorter than it had been. The confidence she had during the ten or so hours I played as her was gone. Instead, she seemed exhausted. It wasn’t much of a fight as an ongoing struggle between committing to the cycle of hatred or breaking away. After nearly successfully drowning Abby, Ellie decides to let both her and Lev go.
Some might have thought that Ellie forgave Abby for what she did to Joel. I don’t. Rather, it seemed that Ellie came to the conclusion that taking an eye for an eye was not worth it. Particularly after she gave up the safe and happy lifestyle of living with Dina and JJ. This was also true for Abby. In fact, she did not want to fight and only did so when Ellie threatened to hurt Lev. Even then, the battle was half-hearted at best with Abby throwing haymakers that were far too easy to dodge.
The narrative of The Last of Us Part II is a poignant study into the human condition, hidden beneath a traditional tale of revenge. Like The Count of Monte Cristo, which was referenced in dialogue in Abby’s story, it demonstrates the devastating consequences of a person’s need to right the wrongs that were inflicted on the people involved. What many seemed to misunderstand about the game was the fact that there were no ‘good sides’ or ‘bad sides.’ Abby is not the monster that she was first portrayed as. Nor is Ellie like the heroines in the comics she liked to read and the trading cards she collected.
They are all people, looking to survive. And that, perhaps, is what I liked about The Last of Us Part II.
What I also liked about The Last of Part II was the setting. Having visited Seattle in the past, I was excited to see the aquarium - which I visited four years ago. While it didn’t seem to match up exactly with my memories of the place, I still found it exciting to recognise some of the landmarks - such as the Ferris Wheel.
Then there were the flashbacks to simpler times. I loved exploring the Natural History Museum of Wyoming and climbing atop the replica of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Ellie’s enthusiasm about astronauts also proved to be incredibly touching as she divulged everything she knew to Joel.
And though some might consider that Naughty Dog was pushing an agenda by including Lev as a transgender male, I didn’t mind. In fact, it seemed very refreshing that people referred to Lev with the correct pronouns. Even if they were terrible slavers with Infected chained up as pets.
The gameplay also helped to heighten many aspects of the story-telling. This was particularly evident when it came to Abby and her fear of heights. I was fascinated at how just by looking down from a towering structure, Abby would begin to breathe more heavily as her fear took hold.
Other than that, the combat systems were reminiscent of the first game. Stealth was key to surviving, although I much preferred controlling Ellie when it came to fighting the Infected. Mostly because of her unbreakable knife and the fact that she was able to craft Molotov cocktails. When playing as Abby, however, I was much more aggressive.
Overall, The Last of Us Part II wove an interesting narrative of revenge, justice and forgiveness. It might not have been what many fans wanted, but it was what we got. In our current times, it’s easy for people to construct a dichotomy between two opposing forces, but in life, that is hardly ever the case. While Naughty Dog did not break the mould when it came to the combat, it was still serviceable. The Last of Us Part II was fraught with moments of terror as I was being chased by Infected, but managed to soothe them with the humanising aspects of the characters. I suppose that was what made the game for me. The character development and the ability to explore a ravaged world while learning about the people that lived in it.
Now let’s just hope that COVID-19 won’t have the nasty side-effect of making all those that contracted it zombies.
On a side note: why was Abby so swole? I mean, there was nothing wrong with it, but I found myself distracted by her biceps and triceps.
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Wyoming: Bill to ban female genital mutilation (FGM) passes despite pushback by radical trans activists
We repeat: this is an immigration problem. If we didn’t import people from third world countries who mutilate women, we wouldn’t need laws to protect against them.
A Wyoming bill to ban Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) was nearly defeated by fierce opposition from trans activists, on the grounds that it would outlaw genital surgery on minors for the purposes of so-called "gender reassignment."
House Bill 127 – Prohibition of female genital mutilation was brought by conservative Representative Dan Laursen. It criminalizes the cultural practice of FGM, which affects some refugees and immigrants from Africa and the Middle East imported to the United States, as aggravated assault and battery.
The bill defines FGM as the partial or complete removal of the clitoris, sewing the vaginal opening to be permanently closed, and other harmful procedures. According to the World Health Organization, over 200 million women globally have been made to suffer from this human rights violation.
In addition to the criminal provisions, the bill allows victims to bring civil claims against their mutilators for years after the commission of the crime. It also instigates a state-wide education campaign. This protects an estimated 400-600 girls in Wyoming by law, and who now have a remedy for this barbarism.
It's so frustrating that we are literally put a side for others.
— hibo wardere (@HiboWardere) June 9, 2020
Hibo Wardere, anti-FGM campaigner and survivor, had a message for the trans activists who would have stopped the bill, leaving girls in Wyoming at risk of this deeply traumatic form of violence. She said trans activists who conflate FGM with so-called gender reassignment surgery were "disrespecting our trauma, taking over our trauma, which you shouldn't be."
"FGM is about a child being held down, against their will, and their genitals are mutilated... Stop diluting these two issues."
Initially, the bill to criminalize this atrocity against girls soared through the Wyoming house. The cause of protecting girls and women from FGM has widespread bipartisan backing among lawmakers. Ethically, it is a no-brainer, an easy issue for everyone to unite against. More than 30 states have already outlawed FGM.
This didn't deter the trans activists, however, who are hardly known for their compassion or strong moral compass. With the tunnel-vision and moral selfishness so characteristic of their movement, they are happy to support and sustain the most extreme form of discrimination against girls—with extreme lifelong physical and mental health consequences–in order to retain plastic surgeons' entitlement to profit from removing children's healthy reproductive organs, and homophobic parents' option to have a potentially lesbian girl's body altered to make her look more like a straight boy.
With so many vested interests, and with the gender lobby having such deep pockets thanks to billionaires with inherited wealth, legislating with regard to transgender medical "care" is a highly contested issue. The exemption clause in the bill dealing with "gender reassignment surgery" drove a wedge between various political groups that otherwise agree on wanting to end the violation of women's rights that is FGM.
The contested exemption clause specified that a medical procedure would not be caught by the criminal law “if the person on whom it is performed is over eighteen (18) years of age and requests and consents to the procedure.” Adult male transexuals could continue to have their bodies surgically altered if they wish. What the trans activists objected to was the fact that such surgeries would be considered FGM if performed upon a girl—a human female—under the age of 18.
Although Hibo Wardere rightly objects to the conflation of African and Middle Eastern FGM with American and European gender reassignment surgery for adults of both sexes, there are undoubtedly parallels between the two cultural practices which might make separate legislation challenging to parse in practice, when the physical outcomes can be indistinguishable.
There are, of course, differences. One is a brutal assault, the other a highly managed process involving medical technology. One is performed in a non-sterile room with crude instruments of torture and no anesthetic, the other in an operating theatre under anesthetic. In one, the assault is sprung upon the unknowing girl, and is only possible if the violators restrain the child by force. In the other, well-meaning adults manufacture consent to the procedure by way of a medical pathway. In one, the woman ends up with severe lifelong health problems requiring medical intervention, greatly aggravated if a man makes her pregnant. In the other, the woman will be unable to have a baby because her sexual organs have been re-sculpted, or removed entirely.
One is criminalized in many countries, e.g. in the UK, where it was outlawed in 1985 but only successfully prosecuted for the first time in 2019. The other is criminalized in some countries, e.g. Thailand, which was a GRS tourist destination for sixteen year olds like the male child of the founder of pediatric transitioning lobby group Mermaids, before that country imposed a ban. The mother engaged in acts which would be criminal, had she been an African or Middle Eastern woman taking her child abroad for FGM.
In one, there is no pretense of consent. The atrocity is inflicted on a completely unwilling, terrified girl who is tortured and made to suffer appallingly. In the other, the adults who supposedly care for her collude in the manufacturing of informed consent to lifelong sterilization, bone loss, heart problems and cognitive deficits. The atrocity is inflicted on her in a medical setting, while she believes they are acting in her long-term best interests.
Yes, the two phenomena are different by degrees, and should not be conflated. But, from a legal perspective, how do you ban one without doing a grave disservice to the girls who are left with no recourse when they realize what has been done to them?
One of the bill's sponsors, Senator Affie Ellis (R-Cheyenne), said she would withdraw her name if trans 'rights' were up for debate as part of the process. “For that very narrow reason [of ending FGM] I signed on to this bill,” she said. Ellis did finally vote in favour of the bill.
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Note: an earlier version of this article said that the bill had not passed, but it has passed the Wyoming legislature and will be enacted July 1, 2020.
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PS: Wyoming you say, but there are no Muslims in Wyoming.
Wrong, they are invading Wyoming just as they are every other state in America. Here are just a few of our Wyoming posts in recent years before the sharia police went into action.
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UK; NG — . In recent months, several prominent feminists have been inundated with threats of violence and death after publicly acknowledging female biology or expressing opposition to the very modern notion that there is no notable difference between women and male individuals who identify as women.
Rosie Duffield
Rosie Duffield, a British Labour Party Member of Parliament for Canterbury, pulled out of the Labour Party conference last month after being advised of threats to her safety. The threats were the latest in a bullying campaign that ramped up against the MP last year after she liked a tweet suggesting “individuals with a cervix” are “women.”
Ms Duffield explained that, as one of only “500 women who have been through the doors of the House of Commons, compared with 5,000 men,” she had been on the receiving end of misogynistic abuse, including intimidation at her home and threats from Twitter trolls, since taking the seat in 2017. However, the increased vitriol she received after acknowledging that the only humans who have a cervix are female has left her “completely terrified,” she stated last October.
“The more abuse you get, the more nervous you are,” Ms Duffield said following her withdrawal from the conference. “I find myself doing live television or speaking events and really carefully reframing what I want to say. That can make me quite angry, because it means I am not being myself, so it does really affect you.” On the matter, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons, stated: “Parliamentarians, who have been elected to speak up for their constituents, should be able to attend their own party conference without fear of harm.”
JK Rowling
At the Trans Pride protest in London this past June, trans extremists prominently displayed placards calling for the death of British author JK Rowling, who is best known for writing children’s books. A sign inked in bright red lettering that read “#Kill J.K. Rowling” was placed on Bomber Command Memorial, a war memorial in Green Park. Two men marched together with a placard in the colors of the pink and blue trans flag and shaped like a heart. The words “Rot in Hell Rowling” were scrawled in black across the heart.
Other photos of the protest show marchers, including Sarah Baker – a transgender-identifying male who became an activist after serving prison time for the kidnapping and torture of a family member and the attempted murder of a fellow inmate – holding signs written in the same hand as the “#Kill J.K. Rowling” sign.
Threats to harm or kill the children’s author became plentiful after she famously tweeted, “People who menstruate. I’m sure there used to be a word for those people.” Following a backlash against the tweet, in which she was branded a “TERF” by trans extremists, Ms Rowling offered reassurance that she “respect[s] every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them” and “would march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans.” Ms Rowling noted, however, that despite her support for the trans community, “sex is real and has lived consequences,” and “my life has been shaped by being female.” Her tweets fueled a torrent of abuse by trans extremists that is ongoing.
One that stands out was transgender-identifying activist and model Tara Wolf’s ominous challenge to JK Rowling last year: “Meet me outside! Hyde Park! Let’s f**king have at it, you c**t!” Mr Wolf became infamous in 2018 after joining two other transgender-identifying young men in a vicious attack on women’s right campaigner Maria Maclachlan. Ms Maclachlan was attending a feminist gathering at Speaker’s Corner that the pack of youths were opposed to. At the trial of her attacker, Ms Maclachlan was reprimanded by a judge and later punished with a denial of compensation for the violent crime, because Ms Maclachlan did not remember to consistently refer to her male attacker with his preferred female pronouns throughout her testimony.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, whose works include novels, short stories and non-fiction, received international backlash from trans extremists and at least one graphic death threat earlier this year after describing as “a perfectly reasonable piece” an essay in which Ms Rowling expounded on her reasons for “speaking out on sex and gender issues.”
Akwaeke Emezi, a Nigerian lgbo and Tamil writer who released debut novel Freshwater in 2018, the year she also publicly revealed a ‘non-binary’ identity, urged people to take violent action against her former mentor Ms Adichie. “I trust there are other people who will pick up machetes to protect us from the harm transphobes like Adichie and Rowling seek to perpetuate,” she posted in one of a series of tweets in January, and noted that she herself would be enjoying peaceful time in her garden while others carried out the massacre.
According to an essay written by Ms Adichie, Ms Emezi first attacked her after a 2017 interview, in which Ms Adichie had stated, “I don’t think it’s a good thing to talk about women’s issues being exactly the same as the issues of trans women.” Following the interview, Ms Emezi had compared Ms Adichie to a “murderer.” Trans extremist trolls from around the world had flooded Ms Adichie’s Facebook comments and Twitter mentions at the time, leveling threats of violence and racist abuse, challenging her intellect and demeaning her nationality. Without naming names, Ms Adichie’s 2021 essay called out “certain young people” who, while “social-media-savvy,” are
Ms Emezi raged that the essay was referring to her, and was “designed to incite hordes of transphobic Nigerians to target me.” Noting the bloodthirsty attacks on women who dare to point out that biology and certain experiences and challenges faced by women and girls do not precisely align with those of males who identify as transgender, one feminist wryly remarked: “We’ll let females at serious risk of FGM [female genital mutilation], forced pregnancies, baby farming, death during pregnancy, etc., just suffer it cause addressing and focusing on those issues [is] not ‘inclusive’.”
#Rosie Duffield#Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie#JKR#trans violence#male projection#Any group that can threaten others over hurt feelings are not really oppressed
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