#Private Enforcement

[justinspoliticalcorner]

John Russell at LGBTQ Nation:

A bill introduced by Republican lawmakers in Arkansas aims to intimidate anyone who supports or affirms young people’s social transition. Earlier this month, Arkansas state Rep. Mary Bentley (R) introduced H.B. 1668, the “Vulnerable Youth Protection Act,” and Republican state Sen. Alan Clark introduced the Senate version. As the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas and local advocacy group Intransitive note, the anti-trans bill does not actually criminalize anything. Arkansas law banning gender-affirming care for minors was already struck down by a federal judge in 2023. Instead, H.B. 1668 “weaponizes civil enforcement by permitting lawsuits against any person who supports trans young people by providing or helping to receive gender-affirming care or by affirming young people in their transition,” according to the ACLU of Arkansas. Minors or their parents can sue for minimum damages of $10,000 and up to $10 million in punitive damages for certain forms of medical care. The bill also allows Arkansas parents to sue people or medical providers outside of the state who help Arkansas youth access gender-affirming care. [...] The bill defines social transitioning as “any act by which a minor adopts or espouses a gender identity that differs from the minor’s biological sex … including without limitation changes in clothing, pronouns, hairstyle, and name.” As the ACLU of Arkansas notes, if enacted, H.B. 1668 could lead to frivolous lawsuits against “hairdressers who cut a trans teen’s hair, teachers who use a student’s chosen name, and nonprofits that offer support.” Such lawsuits, the organization says, would be unlikely to hold up in court, as the First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech and free expression. However, the law is clearly meant to chill support for trans and gender-nonconforming young people with the threat of costly lawsuits. Describing the bill as “state-mandated bullying,” the ACLU of Arkansas writes that “H.B. 1668 fosters a climate of fear, where doctors, teachers, and even parents risk financial ruin simply for supporting transgender youth. It is a blatant overreach of government power, attempting to control private decisions and to circumvent our constitutional rights, including free speech, religious exercise, due process, and equal protection.”

What a grossly hateful bill HB1668 is: In Arkansas, should this bill pass, gender nonconforming haircuts to minors would be banned under the bill that snitches on those aiding the social transition of a trans minor.

See Also:

The Advocate: GOP proposes bill that would punish supporting trans youth through new names and haircuts

[pochapal]

that thing i said a couple months ago about people being so terrified of being perceived as even 1% conspiracyminded that they'll logictwist themselves into cloying pro establishment liberalism remains extremely true given the way a non insignificant number of people online are behaving in the wake of recent events

[theladysherlock]

Deryn turned to follow Malone's gaze, and saw a trio of burly men in dark uniforms striding across the airfield.

"Who in blazes are they?"

"Pinkertons-- security guards in the employ of Mr. Hearst."

Cannot stress enough how grateful I am that this book introduced me to the Pinkertons, so I was already primed to find them shitty before I got swayed by the Private Detective-ness of it all.

[melonymint753]

since someone's dumping bad takes in the tag again I'm going to equally inflict that I've always projected my gender onto Hades, making him what I call cis-minus: he doesn't think he's a woman but does that really have to mean he's a man? Ugh, whatever, he really doesn't have the energy or desire to figure it out,

and with the sequel adding more ancient female Chthonics it's really shaping out that the underworld executive office is one big sapphic polycule + Hades, to whom Persephone, knowing about his gender kerfuffle, said he's welcome to be the honorary sapphic if he wants

he's still undecided about the title but being included felt nice.

[cannibalisticskittles]

jesus christ, man

[archivlibrarianist]

Spoilers: the filters did not, of course, block anti-LGBTQIA+ websites. They just made it harder for students to do their homework and look up medically-based sexual health information.

[itsjustthatfics]

Here is Chapter 3 of The Whole Weight of the Weightless.

"Pedri knocks gently on the door. No answer. When he opens the door, his heart does something that, in any other circumstance, Pedri would have called a flutter, but here, he thinks must be a fluke due to his lack of sleep and caffeine.

Slumped over the large oval conference table, his arm folded over his laptop as a makeshift pillow, is Gavi. His curls have grown long, almost unruly, and now they spilled haplessly over his keyboard, looking at once adorably bouncy and heartbreakingly crumpled. His lashes are dark against his pale cheeks, quivering lightly as he dreams, and his mouth forms a pout even in sleep, his lips twitching as if he is muttering to his doppelganger in another dimension, the low rumble of a snore in his throat. His face is open and calm, angelic in the morning light even in his oddly tucked position."

[constantvariations]

What about the crew members?

I cannot get over this line from the black trailer for a few reasons:

1. This is a world where there's fully functional soldier robots and AI. Why is the train manned by people in the first place? Jacques clearly motivated by money, so the less people he has to pay the better

2. We never see these supposed crew members, so there's no chance of having a visceral reaction to either their safety or demise. The only SDC workers we ever see iirc are the ones from the Adam short who smirk after throwing a smoke bomb. If we were meant to sympathize with them, it would've been better to make them shaking and scared because they're maintenance engineers instead of security (because having two types of security is expensive and stupid)

3. The SDC is enslaving and branding people, and everyone not fighting it is complicit. Blake has rescued Faunus from literal cages in SDC factories and has seen Adam's face, so she knows this intimately. Why does she care if a few accessories to slavery get blown up? Does she care more for complacent humans than suffering Faunus?

What about the crew members? Fuck em, that's what

[beardedmrbean]

Baseball bat-wielding gangs of children are mugging mothers and nannies on the school run in the latest crime wave to hit San Francisco.

Last week Noe Valley, also known as “stroller valley” because of the growing population of young families, endured 11 phone robberies that are believed to have been carried out by the same gang who are targeting women picking up children from school.

One woman was reportedly hit with a baseball bat, while another was punched in the face, before the offender ran to a getaway car and drove off.

On Thursday the police had arrested one minor in connection with the 11 robberies and were searching for the others.

Rafael Mandelman, who sits on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which is responsible for legislating, said there are a growing number of children “doing these really awful things”.

“I think, what happened with kids not being in school, I think there may be something going on with that, that we’re going to be experiencing for a while��, he said.

He added: “Those couple of years where school was erratic or non-existent, where everyone was under stress, parents and caregivers were under stress. That was probably impacting vulnerable communities more anyway. Sociologically. who knows what was going on, but I would not be surprised if we are going to be experiencing the lingering impacts of that for a generation.”

Homelessness 

The California city has slumped in recent years from one of the most desirable places to live to one crippled by opioid usage, a disproportionate rate of homelessness and rising crime.

Chesa Boudin, a former district attorney, who was ousted last year, introduced policies in office including refusing to prosecute children as adults, aggressively going after police officers who commit crime, and reducing the prison population.

There has been a 11 per cent increase in robberies for the first six months of the year when compared to the same period in 2022.

Violent robberies are being carried out in broad daylight in wealthy enclaves such as Noe Valley, a tight-knit community, where free yoga classes are held every Sunday in the town square.

One victim of the string of recent attacks, who only wished to be identified as CW, said the police appeared to have “zero interest” in investigating her attack.

She was thrown to the ground by a boy who stole her phone last Monday when she was on the way to collect her daughter from the nursery.

A neighbour’s security system caught the car on video and she was able to track her phone for 18 hours after the attack. But after she reported the crime, no investigator responded to the developments.

When she emailed a police officer to ask who she could contact to help “improve how these things get tackled”, she was told to “do some research yourself”.

The next day she was driving to the police station to complain about the response, when she saw a patrol car on the street where she had been robbed.

Punched in the face

It transpired another mother had been attacked, with the same getaway car, but this time she was punched in the face.

“For 24 hours, I had been trying desperately to get the police to engage with me to stop these guys. Zero response. And then it happened again in the same location,” she said.

Mr Mandelman said the city’s soft approach on crime has been good at “dismantling the systems” without fixing the underlying problems.

“I don’t think that our interventions for people who are committing petty crimes are particularly effective. I mean, fine, you don’t put people in jail, but what are you doing? Well, if you’re doing nothing, then what’s the outcome going to be? Not great.”

The San Francisco Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.

[hibernating-stag]

.

[nando161mando]

Idaho here. How enforceable is this if I wanted to try starting a Union or just get a group of Smash Bros players together.

[chewwytwee]

Do I go to my bullshit 'disciplinary hearing' stoned as shit

[scoop16]

[clodstargazer]

Important context: the "army" is really just a small group composed of the old man, his two (at the time) 17 year old granddaughters who are also your personal favourite idol duo, and now you, a literal kid from the street. You go by Agent 3 because you're the third person the old man found. (The guy you buy your paintball equipment from is also there sometimes)

Captain 3 is the funniest Splatoon character actually

Be some kid on the street

You're 14

Get pressured into joining the army by an old man??

Start going by Agent 3. Which is not a name

Never speak a word (you're canonically too shy)

You just start blasting??

Save the world and liberate an entire race of people somehow???

The entire rest of the series can only happen because you did this

Almost kill the protagonist of Octo Expansion (she is in love with you now)

Turn 16

Become a DJ as a hobby??

Your DJ name is DJ Sango. Sango is just "number 3" in Japanese. Still not a real name

Start taking yourself really seriously

Start wearing a cape

Get knocked unconscious multiple times

Get mind controlled???

It's fine you got better

Turn 21. The old man quits and puts you in charge of the army???

You inherit his hobo outfit. Why are you actually wearing it

Start going by Captain (still not a name)

Still never speak (a girl speaks for you) (she's a famous singer and older than you, why are you making her do this)

Do one (1) cool thing and just sit on your ass the whole rest of the game

Say booyah once