#Rated G

[frameacloud]

Some fact checks about plurality

The "Bible of psychiatry" is the DSM. In 1994, the DSM changed the name of Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) to Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). This was in response to a moral panic where critics claimed that the condition was fake.

The original and current diagnostic criteria do not require trauma for DID (or MPD) (DSM-III, p. 259; DSM-III-R, p. 272; DSM-5-TR, p. 331).

The international counterpart of the DSM is the ICD-11. Its essential features for DID do not require trauma, either.

Both books say that not all cases of multiple personalities are a disorder or a severe impairment. Psychiatry recognizes that medicalizing them is not always appropriate.

Plurality (or multiplicity) is a community umbrella term for many ways of being more than one person in a body. Psychiatrists who know enough about DID are aware of it. Plurality includes but is not the same as DID.

The community has always included plurals who formed for reasons other than trauma. Dividing the community by excluding non-traumagenic plurals and calling them fake is new. That only started in August 2014 on Tumblr, unheard of elsewhere.

When that started, a trauma-caused DID system created the word "endogenic." This means plurals who formed naturally rather than from trauma. The Lunastus Collective coined it in solidarity with them.

(Similarly, the coiner of another umbrella term, "alterhuman," is a member of a traumagenic OSDD system who supports endogenic plurals. The purpose of that word is for plural systems to unite with other sorts who differ from usual definitions of human individual, valuing what we do and do not have in common, instead of in-fighting about who is more legitimate.)

Community historian LB Lee gives several good reasons why-- as trauma-surviving plurals-- they choose not to call themselves "traumagenic" or divide the community by origins. If I may briefly paraphrase a couple of these: If you see suffering as your whole foundation of who you are, then you have a more difficult time envisioning a better situation. If you want others to respect you, a losing strategy is to put down people who are seen as similar to you.

Neither psychiatry nor the greater community of plurals see trauma history as an important distinction in determining whether someone is plural.

[otherkinnews]

One anti-furry bill died, the other two wait to be heard

(This blog post was originally posted on the Otherkin News blog on DreamWidth by Orion Scribner on March 24, 2024.)

Content warnings: Rated G. An urban legend that describes an unsanitary situation. Sexism against transgender people, including attempts to prevent them from going to school or using facilities, and outing children to their parents. A straw-man version of furries being used to try to discredit transgender people, in a way that could cause trouble for people who identify as nonhuman.

So far this year, Republicans have proposed three pieces of legislation that are opposed to furries or people who identify as nonhuman. That’s something they started doing last year, inspired by an urban legend about litter boxes in public schools, which they made up in parody of transgender students asking to use school restrooms. We’ve been ending up calling these “anti-furry bills” as we keep track of them in our Otherkin News blog. Furry isn’t the accurate word, but it is the word that Republicans use in the urban legend and usually in the bills too. Every once in a while, I’m checking on the status of the bills, and trying to see if there are any new ones. Here is the update for this week.

1. Oklahoma House Bill 3084 (OK HB 3084) “Schools; prohibiting certain students from participating in school curriculum or activities; effective date.”

Background: We wrote about this bill in detail in a previous Otherkin News post. The bill says that furry students should be taken out of school by animal control. Its only sponsor (writer) is Justin Humphrey (he/him). This seems linked with his opposition to LGBTQ people, as well as his efforts to legalize animal fighting. Later, Jim Olsen (he/him) took over as principal sponsor of the bill. He proposed changing it to have the same text as an unrelated bill of his, one requiring public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.

Update: The bill’s current status hasn’t changed since our last update. It’s still at 25% progression toward becoming a law. Its text hasn’t changed from what it was originally, so it's still about furries.

2. Mississippi House Bill 176 (MS HB 176) “Gender dysphoria; require school personnel to notify parents of student who request to be referred to as different gender or nonhuman.”

Background: This was introduced at the same time as the first bill. As we previously wrote about it, the bill is mostly against transgender students in a way that could put them in real danger. It would require schools to out transgender students to parents, and to allow faculty to not accommodate any student who “identif[ies] at school as a gender or pronoun that does not align with the child's sex on their birth certificate, other official records, sex assigned at birth, or identifying as an animal species, extraterrestrial being or inanimate object.”

Update: This bill’s current status is dead! Hooray! It died in committee on March 3. When a bill dies, that means that it won’t progress toward becoming a law.

3. Missouri House Bill 2678 (MO HB 2678) “Prohibits students from engaging in ‘furry’ behavior while at school”

Background: We previously wrote about this bill. The bill says to pull students out of school for being furries or purporting to be animals. The bill’s only sponsor is Cheri Toalson Reisch (she/her). This appears to be connected with her opposition to transgender people as well as her efforts to undermine public schools in favor of charter schools.

Updates: This bill hasn’t changed or moved forward. It’s still the same as it was when it was introduced. A hearing hasn’t been scheduled for it, and it’s not on a House calendar.

-

About the writer: This blog post was written by Orion Scribner (they/them), who has been a community historian and archivist for more than ten years.

[2nd2ndalto]

I have a headcanon that all the demigod kids routinely end up in each others beds/cabins at night, because nightmares and trauma and whatnot. So I wrote this smol fic.

~~~~~

There Is Rest and There's You

The first time Nico sees Annabeth leaving the Poseidon cabin at an ungodly early hour (having been dragged from his warm bed by Leo and Jason for an ungodly early errand), he flushes, quickly looking away. Because it's obvious, even to him, that she’d spent the night. But Annabeth merely sleepily raises a hand in greeting and continues on her way back to her own cabin.

Jason, maybe noticing Nico’s discomfort, simply shrugs. “Musical cabins,” he explains. “Happens a lot.”

Leo nods in agreement. “Yep. I had some really wicked nightmares last week, three nights running. I ended up on Jason’s floor. Would have been in the bed, but Piper got there first,” he adds, disgruntled.

Huh, Nico thinks. Musical cabins. That's a little weird.

After that, he pays more attention. It’s not unusual, as it turns out, to find the Apollo cabin overstuffed with various campers early in the morning, rivalling even the occupancy of the Hermes cabin. Sometimes it’s couples tucked in together, but more often it’s friends, siblings. Seeking comfort, and sleep.

It's six months into Nico's stay at Camp when he begins forgetting to lock the door to Cabin Thirteen. He nearly runs Harley through with his sword the first night he finds the younger boy fast asleep in his cabin. But after that, it quickly becomes routine to wake to the quiet comfort of someone else’s soft snoring across the darkened room. Most often it's Will, brushing a warm hand over Nico's forehead before settling into the other bed, but sometimes it's Harley, and several times Leo, complaining that Jason’s bed was already full.

It’s a little weird, but surprisingly nice. Nico begins leaving his door unlocked most of the time.

On a night late in February, the nightmares are worse than usual. Nico wakes in a cold sweat, heart pounding, tears welling behind his eyelids. He does what he usually does - dresses quickly, and walks. There’s something meditative about the rhythm of his boots on the ground and the sharp, cold air on his skin that usually settles him.

But the thing is, it’s really cold. And after only about half an hour he finds himself standing in the central green, torn. He can't feel his toes, but he can’t quite stomach the thought of returning to his own empty cabin, either.

His frozen feet lead him up the stairs to Cabin Seven. And gods, it’s warm inside.

There’s a soft rustle of blankets from Will’s bunk.

“Nico?” Will’s voice is soft and scratchy. “What’s wrong?”

The taller boy is out of bed and across the cabin in a heartbeat, reaching for Nico’s hand. Scanning him, Nico knows, blue eyes wide with worry.

Nico shakes his head. “I’m fine. Just - couldn’t sleep,” he murmurs, and the concern on Will’s face fades to sympathy.

“The bunk above mine is empty,” he says simply.

And that’s that. Nico climbs up, snuggles in. Will’s messy blond bedhead pops over the edge of the bunk, his smile fond. He squeezes Nico’s arm. “Sleep tight.” And then he disappears.

Nico worries it might be awkward, in the daylight. It’s anything but. The Apollo cabin is a riot of sound and motion in the morning. Austin flings a stuffed turtle at Nico's head. Nico's foot is hanging off the edge of the bunk, and Kayla tickles it, cackling when he squeaks.

“Breakfast time, sleepyhead,” she chirps.

“Sleep well?” Will asks as Nico climbs back down.

And the thing is, he really did.

Time passes. The nightmares wax and wane, but they get easier, mostly.

Until one night in July. It’s almost a year to the day since he came to stay at Camp - Nico thinks, later, maybe that’s why the nightmares hit particularly hard. He wakes shaking, gasping for air, convinced he’s fading again, permanently this time. It scares him so much more than it did when it was actually happening. He shoves his hands against the wood of his headboard, hard, positive they’re going to slip right through. They don’t, but he can't shake the panic.

Nico’s up and out the door in the space of a breath, no hesitation as he makes a beeline, barefoot, for Cabin Seven. The air is cool for July, the full moon shining bright above.

He can feel his panic ease the second he closes the door behind him, soothed by a quiet symphony of soft breathing.

But the bunk above Will’s is occupied tonight, and as Nico's eyes adjust, he realizes all the others are, too.

“Nico?” Will’s voice is a whisper. “Nightmare?” He sits up, silhouetted in moonlight.

“Yeah.” Nico steps closer. “Looks like you’re all full in here, though. I’ll see you in the morning.”

He turns to leave, but Will grabs his arm. “I’ll come with you.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll be fine. You go back to sleep.”

Will gazes at him in the dark, fingers still wrapped around Nico’s wrist. “Or you could stay. Here.”

“There’s no room, though.”

“I have room,” Will whispers.

Nico blinks at Will’s bunk, then back at Will, his stomach attempting to leap into his throat. Will’s eyes are wide, nervous.

“I... um -” Nico begins. He can feel his face heating at the thought of it.

“Gods, di Angelo, just stop talking and get into his bed. Literally no one cares,” Kayla grumbles from the next bunk over. There appears to be at least one Demeter kid in her bed. Maybe two.

Will’s fighting a grin now and he shrugs. Nico shrugs back, then… climbs into the bed. Will scoots over to make room, pulling the blankets over them both. And gods it’s warm, and it smells like Will, and when nothing else calms him, that always does.

Nico lets his eyes close. Then -

“Do - do I feel like I’m fading?” he asks in a whisper, echoes of the nightmare flashing behind his closed eyelids.

Will gazes at him. Then he reaches for Nico’s hand.

“No,” Will whispers. Someone clears their throat nearby and Will grimaces, yanking the blankets over their heads.

“Did something happen?” he asks, his breath brushing Nico’s face.

“No, just - nightmare."

Will nods in understanding. “No. You’re good,” he smiles. He goes to pull the blankets back down, then seems to reconsider.

“That’s um… that’s usually why I end up in your cabin. At night.” he admits, quiet. “Sometimes... I just need to make sure that you’re still solid.”

Nico stomach flip-flops. "Oh."

Will shrugs, sheepish. He pulls the blankets back down, settling on his side. "Here," he says, reaching for Nico's hand again. "Then neither of us has to worry." He tangles their fingers together, reaching out to lay his other hand on Nico's arm, tethering him.

Will's soft smile in the dark is dazzling, and his hands are warm, and Nico worries his own answering smile might just light up the entire cabin.

When he wakes hours later to the familiar sounds of chaos, his head tucked against Will's shoulder, Will's face buried in his hair, well. He thinks maybe this musical cabins thing isn't so bad after all.

Notes

This is a short one! I tried to challenge myself to write something coherent in 1000 words or less. I almost managed it.

It is also my personal headcanon that Harley kind of attaches himself to Nico & sees him as a big brother. This comes up in something else I'm working on as well.

I would love to hear your related headcanons! Snuggly demigods! Sleeping in heaps like puppies!

Jason may not come up much in my fics but please rest assured he is Always Alive.

[steddieunderdogfics]

fics from 10k-20k words (challenge monday): “if you have a minute” by MacksDramaticShenanigans. if i remember correctly, the word i had in mind while reading this was ‘enchanting’. so so good.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/41346693

if you have a minute by MacksDramaticShenanigans

@stevethehairington

Rating: General Audiences

10,681 words, 1/1 chapters

Archive Warning: No Warnings

Tags: Not Canon Compliant - Stranger Things 4 Vol. 2, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Vecna (Stranger Things), Post-Upside Down Destruction (Stranger Things), Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Steve Harrington Needs a Hug, Stressed Steve Harrington, Comforting Eddie Munson, Rain, Screaming as a form of catharsis, Diners, First Kiss, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, in the sense that steve is very stressed and worried, and eddie gives him an outlet and tells him it's going to be okay

Summary:

They pass the cigarette back and forth for a few quiet minutes. And there’s something about Eddie’s presence that’s helping just as much as the nicotine. Eddie holds the cigarette back out for Steve, blows the smoke out in a smooth, steady stream, and tilts his head. “You working tomorrow?” He asks. Steve shakes his head. “Not tomorrow. Why?” Eddie pushes himself off of the wall. “Great,” he declares and grins. “We’re doing something then. You and me. I’m gonna take you somewhere.” Steve’s face scrunches. “What? Where?” Eddie tuts and wags his finger. “Nope, not telling you,” he says. “You’ll find out tomorrow. Meet at my place at nine. Don’t be late.” He doesn’t give Steve a chance to argue or further question it. Just throws a little salute and turns on his heel, disappearing around the corner. Or, the one where Steve’s anxiety doesn’t get the hint that they defeated the Upside Down, and Eddie knows just how to help.

Thanks for the rec!

This rec is a part of Challenge Monday. The challenge this week was Between 10k - 20k words.

Know a fic that deserves extra love? Submit through our asks or the submission box!

[saioumaarchive]

"This was it. This was his doom. His downfall. May everyone remember him for what he was. Hilarious. Intelligent. Insanely good looking. And a liar. Amen."

~ Psychiccupid, "Lies On Ice"

It's by Psychiccupid, so you already know it's going to be adorable! In this treat of a fic, Kokichi insists that he's a professional ice skater despite never having skated in his life. When Shuichi calls his bluff via a date to an ice rink, Kokichi's left with no choice but to double down— right?! I adore the author's portrayal of these two being so clearly in love and comfortable with each other. The story is lighthearted and fluffy without being lazy in terms of characterization, and while I would gladly read another five thousand words, I think 2k is plenty of room to have fun with this idea and keep it engaging all the way through. Drop by to leave a comment today!

Rated G 1,864 words, one-shot Published 29 December 2021

~ Mod Equinox

[otterandterrierwrites]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Leia Organa/Han Solo Characters: Han Solo, Leia Organa, Chewbacca (Star Wars) Additional Tags: Movie: Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Developing Relationship, Missing Scene Summary:

Han has a pending conversation with Leia about his new role in the Rebel Alliance.

Late entry written for Day 4 of Han/Leia Appreciation Week 2024 @hanleiacelebration, for the prompt "Belief", although it also works for Day 5, "Favourite scene/quote"!

[eeriansadowtwopointoh]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Past Skyfire/Starscream, Skywarp & Starscream & Thundercracker (Transformers) Characters: Starscream (Transformers), Jetfire | Skyfire (Transformers) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe, SkyStar Week, Skystar Week 2024, prompt: surrender, Defection, of a sort Series: Part 3 of Miracle, Part 4 of SkyStar Week 2024 Summary:

Starscream has had a lot of time to ponder Skyfire's presence on Earth, and it has led him to one conclusion. Megatron trying to shoot him just solidified his plan.

@skystarweek

[klaineccfanficlibrary]

Soul Mate

Author: fablewriter

Rating: G

Status: Completed in May 2013

Word Count: 5,195

Summary: Klaine soulmate AU | They don’t know each other, but people know them. Kurt Hummel is the famous fashion designer, who wears a cuff around his wrist and says that his soulmate’s name is his own business, but jokes at interviews about it. Blaine Anderson is a young, successful singer/songwriter who does the same things, keeping the name hidden from everyone. But what happens when he accidentally tweets.

Tropes/Genre: soulmate!Klaine, fashion designer!Kurt, singer!Blaine, social media, Niff, one shot

Read at: [PDF]

[annaofthenorthernlights]

Dear Simone, I love your TBL fanfic gift; it was it short but so sweet! I absolutely love it! I was hoping that you can do another TBL fanfic request, if you don’t mind. If you agree, could you do a montage fic of Henry, Katrina and the passengers working together on fixing Linus after the whole bridge collapse rescue, please. Do take your time with this, I’m okay with whatever decision you choose, I’ll respect your decision. Thank you and have a good evening.

My dear friend! Your request made me smile - it´s a special moment in the short-film, it is. Well then, I hope you will enjoy what I tried to do with this one. ☺️

Allow me to combine this request-fill with @fictober-event 2024 - day 23 - "we can fix this - I know we can!"

and share with @thebravelocomotivefans

A matter of teamwok

Fandom: The brave locomotive (short film) Words: 1155 Rating: G Summary: Linus didn´t move. His wheels were broken, and his steam dome has burst into a million pieces. It had been too much for the little train. The bystanders stood in silent grief, shocked and excruciatingly afraid to move, as if they might disturb blue train´s last minutes on this earth…

Read on AO3

[frameacloud]

Therianthropy Day is Friday, November 15, 2024

Therianthropy Day is held every year on the first full moon of November. This year, in 2024, that falls on Friday the 15th. According to NASA, this also happens to be a supermoon, which means it’s slightly brighter than usual.

Why that date, and what is the history of that holiday? 

Therianthropy Day commemorates the first Howl, which was held 30 years ago in November 1994. A Howl is when therians meet up together in person. That was a year after the first therians started to meet up together online in November 1993. Therians first proposed commemorating it as a holiday on that date in 1996, in a conversation thread you can still see here. Based on that history, in 2016, Muninn the Raven proposed observing it as Therianthropy Day, though the first posts and community poll about it attracted little attention. I think the holiday finally really caught on in 2021, when I first saw many therians posting on social media about fun things they were doing for it.

What are therians, anyway?

If therianthropy is a new idea to you, or you want to explain it to others who are unfamiliar with it, this essay is a quick and easy to understand introduction to it. It’s available in several languages already, and more translations would be great.

Learn more about the history of the therian community by reading the Timeline of the Therian Community written by @liongoatsnake

What can we do for Therianthropy Day?

I’ve seen therians celebrate it by wearing gear (for example, a necklace with the therian symbol, or clothes with pictures of their species), meeting up with their therian friends, and howling at the moon.

Enjoy some indie games and zines about therianthropy from this hand-curated itch.io collection. Some therian highlights from that: SlumberDragon’s zine of self-care tips for animal folk, @who-is-page’s therianthropy-inspired solo journaling game Wolf In Man’s Clothing, puppygirlbelly’s interactive story I Am Dog(s), and Digital Freegans’s zines THERIANARCHY and BEAST PUNKS.

Are there days for other sorts of alterhumans too?

There are. Alterhuman Day commemorates when Lio of the Crossroads System coined that word on September 26, 2014. Otherkin Day is on July 9, commemorating when the word was coined in 1990, though Arethinn has found that the word’s origin is a little more complicated than that. Plural Events says that Plural Pride Day is the third Saturday of July, and Plural Acceptance Week is that week.

[otherkinnews]

Republicans introduce a 7th anti-furry bill and work to undermine student freedoms on a wider scale

(This blog post was written by Orion Scribner and N. Noel Sol, originally posted on February 18, 2024 to the Otherkin News Dreamwidth, at this link.)

Content warnings: Rated G. An urban legend that describes an unsanitary situation. Sexism against transgender people, including attempts to prevent them from participating in sports and using facilities like everyone else, and attempts to stop them from transitioning.

Summary: In 2023, Republicans began to propose laws (bills) in the US that would be against people who identify as animals. They base these on an urban legend that says schools provide litter boxes for students who identify as animals. Republicans made up that legend in parody of transgender students asking to use school restrooms (Scribner and Sol, 2024). The newest of these bills is Missouri House Bill 3678 (MO HB 2678). It’s the third such bill in 2024, bringing the historic total of these bills up to seven. This bill was written as part of a Republican effort to undermine public schools (which can’t ban transgender students from using the right restrooms, and students have First Amendment rights) in favor of religious charter schools (where students aren’t protected in those ways). The following blog post is a seven minute read.

What the Missouri bill says

Missouri House Bill 3678 (MO HB 2678) has the title “Prohibits students from engaging in ‘furry’ behavior while at school.” You can read this bill and see the latest actions on its official site, the Missouri House of Representatives, or on a third-party legislation tracking site, LegiScan. This bill was introduced this week, on February 13th, and read a second time on the 14th. It would add a law into the Revised Statutes of Missouri (RSMo). It would go in the part of the state laws about education, in Chapter 167, titled “Pupils and Special Services.” It would say:

“A student who purports to be an imaginary animal or animal species or who engages in anthropomorphic behavior consistent with the common designation of a ‘furry’ while at school shall not be allowed to participate in school curriculum or activities. The parent or guardian of a student in violation of this section shall remove the student from the school for the remainder of the school day.”

The same as the other bills like it, this bill is based on an urban legend, not on anything that was done in real life by students, furries, and/or people who identify as animals (McKinney, 2022a). This bill's wording looks like it was based on a bill from another state, Oklahoma House Bill 3084 (OK HB 3084), or its predecessor last year, Oklahoma Senate Bill 943 (OK SB 943). It shares their inaccuracies: though there are real people who identify as animals, surveys show that most furries don’t, and the dictionary definition of the word “anthropomorphic” means resembling a human, not resembling an animal (Scribner and Sol, 2024).

Who wrote the bill, and what is its context with that author’s other motivations?

The Missouri bill’s only sponsor (writer) is Cheri Toalson Reisch (she/her). She is a Missouri Republican who has supported anti-transgender bills in the past. One of those is MO SB 39, which would ban transgender students from participating in their gender’s sports division (both in private and public schools, up to and including in colleges and universities). Another one is MO SB 49. It would bar minors from accessing gender transition related surgeries or medications, removes adult coverage of hormone replacement therapy and any gender-affirming or transitioning surgeries from the Missouri Medicaid program, and denies prisoners and inmates access to any surgeries related to gender transitioning. She described both these bills as a “great move in the right direction,” and has been vocally critical that they were not harsher (Central MO Info, 2023).

Reisch is familiar with the urban legend started by conservatives of students using litter boxes in school bathrooms. She has posted about it on Facebook, telling her constituents that it is actively happening in Missouri and accusing the Columbia school district of taking part in it, stating “This is happening in Columbia Public Schools also. Yes, the janitor has to clean the litter box” (McKinney, 2022a). That's never happened. Schools say they have not been providing litter boxes to students in this way, and even deny that they have had any students identifying or behaving as animals, according to reliable fact checking resources (Reuters, 2022; Palma, Snopes, 2023).

Reisch has a history of being especially critical of the Columbia school district, which is one of the largest and most successful school districts in the state (McKinney, 2022b). She’s used this urban legend to attack the district’s legitimacy. This may be because Reisch prioritizes independently-run charter schools over standard public schools. Earlier this year, she sponsored MO HB 1941, which would allow for charter schools to operate within the Columbia school district without the district’s sponsorship.

Why are Republicans criticizing public schools and favoring charter schools?

In the US, the normal types of schools for children up to about age 18 are called public schools. Families don’t have to pay for their children to attend them. They represent the ideal that everyone growing up in the country should have equal access to school, regardless of income, class, race, religion, or ability. Because public schools are government establishments, the US Constitution protects the students’ rights there. The First Amendment of the Constitution protects the freedom of speech and religion of everyone, and that’s for students in public schools, too. In the landmark 1969 case Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, students sued because they had gotten suspended for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court decided that it would be as tyrannical to prevent students from expressing political opinions within public schools as it would be in any other government establishments. The Court said students don’t “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” In 1948, McCollum v. Board of Education had decided that public schools can’t give religious instruction during the school day. In 1962, Engel v. Vitale decided they can’t make students pray (Pew Research Center, 2019). Public school dress codes often aren’t as fair as they should be, but for the most part, their students can wear what they want and what their parents allow.

In contrast, what are known as charter schools in the US are privately owned, so they’re allowed to have requirements or education goals which would be considered a violation of the First Amendment. Some of them have religious affiliations and may be owned or operated by religious organizations. This can affect the way the school is run. For example, Oklahoma charter St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School has planned Catholic religious instruction classes, and the school’s active and intentional participation in what it refers to as “the evangelizing mission of the Church” (Fitzpatrick, 2023). Charter school dress codes can be much more strict. They are often segregated by gender stereotypes, forcing girls to wear skirts and boys trousers, no exceptions. This has been challenged in some places against specific schools, such as in North Carolina earlier this year in a lawsuit against the Charter Day School Inc (Chung, 2023). These challenges are the outlier and not the norm, however; gender-segregated dress codes are still a very common practice for charter schools overall. Charter schools also require applications and choose students based on random lottery systems. However, studies find that charter schools are more likely to ignore parents inquiring about the enrollment process if the student has a disability or other special needs (Darville, 2018). Unlike public schools, they don’t welcome everyone.

The freedom of expression in public schools is important for transgender students. In 2020, the case ​​G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board decided in favor of transgender-friendly restroom policies in high schools. This precedent helps protect transgender students’ rights in public schools, but doesn’t apply to charter schools. During the course of the case, the Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund told the Court why to decide against transgender rights. In an effort to invalidate transgender people, the Fund compared transgender people to otherkin. The Fund used the word “otherkin,” and described them at length, mostly accurately but derisively (Brief Amicus Curiae, 2017, G.G. v. Gloucester Cty Sch Bd). This case was part of what inspired the Republicans to later make up the litter box urban legend. We don’t know if that particular brief inspired the legend too.

Republicans may be promoting charter schools because this would give them greater control over impressing their views about gender, religion, and politics on young generations. They may be undermining public schools because the separation of church and state limits their power to do so there. The urban legend and these bills are part of that.

Background about all of the furry bills and the urban legend that inspired them

To learn about this year’s first two anti-furry bills, read our post about them from last week (Scribner and Sol, 2024). That post also summarizes the four anti-furry bills last year, and the litter box urban legend. For further information about those aspects, you can watch our lecture about last year’s bills and what you do about bad bills (Chimeras, Scribner, and Shepard, 2023), and watch Chimeras’s lecture about the litter box urban legend (Chimeras, 2022).

What happens next with Reisch’s anti-furry bill?

The bill is at 25% progression toward becoming a law. The House heard the bill twice, but it hasn’t been voted on. At the time that we write this blog post, they haven’t scheduled the bill’s next hearing.

About the writers of this blog post

We are Orion Scribner (they/them) and N. Noel Sol (she/they), a couple of dragons. We never write articles with the assistance of procedural generation or so-called artificial intelligence (AI), and that type of content isn’t allowed on Otherkin News.

References

“Brief Amicus Curiae of Public Advocate of the United States, U.S. Justice Foundation, and Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund in Support of Petitioner.” Gloucester County School Bd. v. G. G. ex rel. Grimm, No. 16-273, 2017 WL 192454 (Jan. 10, 2017). http://files.eqcf.org/cases/16-273-amicus-brief-public-advocate-et-al/

Central MO Info (May 19, 2023). “Representative Toalson Reisch Disappointed in Senate’s Version of Trans Bills.” Central MO Info. https://www.centralmoinfo.com/representative-toalson-reisch-disappointed-in-senates-version-of-trans-bills/

Chung, Andrew (June 26, 2024). “US Supreme Court turns away case on charter school's mandatory skirts for girls.” Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-turns-away-case-charter-schools-mandatory-skirts-girls-2023-06-26

Darville, Sarah (Dec. 21, 2018). “Want a charter school application? If your child has a disability, your questions more likely to be ignored, study finds.” Chalkbeat. https://www.chalkbeat.org/2018/12/21/21106398/want-a-charter-school-application-if-your-child-has-a-disability-your-questions-more-likely-to-be-ig/

Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962). https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-supreme-court/370/421.html

Fitzpatrick, Cara (Sept. 9, 2023). “The Charter-School Movement’s New Divide.” The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/charter-schools-religion-public-secular/675293/

G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board. 972 F.3d 586 (4th Cir. 2020). https://casetext.com/case/grimm-v-gloucester-cnty-sch-bd-8

House of Chimeras (Aug. 12, 2022). "Litter Boxes in School Bathrooms: Dissecting the Alt-Right’s Current Moral Panic." OtherCon. https://youtu.be/WVjXOmN2IlU

House of Chimeras, Orion Scribner, and Page Shepard (2023). “Litter Box Hoax 2: Legislature Boogaloo.” OtherCon 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsXy_ctC4Jc&t=1425s

Legiscan. MO HB 2678. https://legiscan.com/MO/bill/HB2678/2024

Legiscan. MO HB 1941. https://legiscan.com/MO/bill/HB1941/2024

Mccollum v. Board Of Education, 333 U.S. 203 (1948). https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-supreme-court/333/203.html

McKinney, Rodger (Aug. 25, 2022). “State Rep. Cheri Reisch criticized for 'unwarranted' claim that CPS students use litterboxes.” Columbia Daily Tribune. https://www.columbiatribune.com/story/news/politics/elections/local/2022/08/25/state-rep-cheri-reisch-criticized-for-unwarranted-claim-that-cps-columbia-students-use-litterboxes/7895082001/

McKinney, Rodger (Feb. 6, 2022). “State Rep. Cheri Reisch states 'Columbia sucks' when referring to public schools in education hearing” Columbia Daily Tribune. https://www.columbiatribune.com/story/news/education/2022/02/06/cheri-reisch-states-columbia-sucks-when-referring-to-cps-in-education-hearing-mo-leg-basye/6662719001/

Missouri House of Representatives. MO HB 2678. https://house.mo.gov/Bill.aspx?bill=HB2678&year=2024&code=R

Missouri Senate. MO SB 49. https://www.senate.mo.gov/23info/BTS_Web/Bill.aspx?SessionType=R&BillID=44407

Missouri Senate. MO SB 39. https://senate.mo.gov/23info/BTS_Web/Bill.aspx?SessionType=R&BillID=44496

Palma, Bethania. (January 30, 2023). “How Furries Got Swept Up in Anti-Trans 'Litter Box' Rumors.” Snopes. https://www.snopes.com/news/2023/01/30/how-furries-got-swept-up-in-anti-trans-litter-box-rumors/ Archived on March 30, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230330232007/https://www.snopes.com/news/2023/01/30/how-furries-got-swept-up-in-anti-trans-litter-box-rumors/

Pew Research Center (Oct. 3, 2019). “Religion in the Public Schools.” https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/10/03/religion-in-the-public-schools-2019-update/

Reuters Fact Check (October 18, 2022). “Fact Check-No evidence of schools accommodating ‘furries’ with litter boxes.” https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-furries-rogan-litterbox-idUSL1N31J1KT Archived February 13, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230213110524/https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-furries-rogan-litterbox-idUSL1N31J1KT

Scribner, Orion, and N. Noel Sol (Feb. 9, 2024). “Will Oklahoma Call Animal Control on Students?” Otherkin News. https://otherkinnews.dreamwidth.org/92680.html Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969). https://openjurist.org/393/us/503

[2nd2ndalto]

Adventures in Babysitting

Will comes home to discover an unexpected babysitter in his house.

- - - -

(This work is an outtake from Fall Down With You, but you certainly don't need to read one to understand the other)

- - - -

Will drags his feet up the steps to his front door, fumbling and nearly dropping his keys. He’s been at the hospital for so many hours he hasn’t even seen sunlight today. He misses it almost as much as he misses his husband and their infant daughter.

When Will last saw Nico, his husband had looked dead on his feet, eyes more shadowed than Will’s ever seen them, valiantly using the last of his wits and energy to shush and rock and bounce a screaming baby. Nico had still managed a half-smile as Will kissed them both goodbye.

Will’s mom likes to say that Nora has her days and nights mixed up, but Will’s not convinced the baby has any concept of time at all, her naps no more than a long blink and her night sleeps interrupted repeatedly for bottles and cuddles and diaper changes and seemingly random, ear-splitting screaming.

The two of them had decided this was the best plan, when they brought Nora into their lives – that Will would continue with his residency and Nico would take a year’s leave from his post-grad studies. It had seemed so sensible at the time, when it was just the two of them, discussing it all with level heads and eight hours’ sleep every night. Now it feels ridiculous that they ever thought this would be easy.

Nico’s bearing the brunt of it, of course. But then there’s the perpetual ache in Will’s chest that comes from knowing he’s physically unable to help as much as he wants to. And besides that, a fourteen-hour shift seems like an interminable amount of time in the life of someone who’s less than 100 days old.

“She smiled,” Nico had told Will one day last week, ecstatic. And Will had been thrilled, of course, but then he’d promptly burst into tears because gods, he’s just missing so much. Nico had held tight to Will with one arm, Nora in the other, all three of them in tears as Nico tried to reassure Will that this was only the first of many smiles.

Finally managing to turn the key in the lock, Will steps inside, pulling the door shut behind him and lowering his backpack to the floor. The house is blessedly quiet, and he takes a moment to lean against the closed door, eyes falling shut. A moment later he feels himself wobble, head bobbing. He should probably find a horizontal surface before passing out. Toeing off his shoes, he makes his way quietly into the living room. There’s no telling where or when there might be a sleeping baby these days, and they’ve learned very quickly to never, ever disturb one of those.

“Good evening, William,” intones a deep voice.

Will nearly jumps out of his skin. He turns to see his father-in-law - the Lord of the Underworld seated in the glider chair, lit somewhat ominously from the lamp above, their eight-week-old daughter nestled in his arms.

Will clutches at his chest. “Jesus! I mean – Hades! Um – sir.”

Hades rolls his eyes. It reminds Will so much of Nico that he almost laughs. Would have, probably, if he weren't deathly afraid of waking the sleeping child in Hades’ arms.

“There’s no need to call me sir, William. You may call me by my name. As we have previously discussed.”

“Sorry, sir – Hades.”

Will definitely hadn't been expecting company, and he’s suddenly painfully aware of his own disheveled appearance, not to mention the dishes in the sink, the unvacuumed carpet and the coffee table strewn with various baby accessories. He restrains himself from starting to tidy.

“What – um – what are you doing here?” Will stammers. “I mean, not that I’m not pleased to see you, but –”

“My son is sleeping."

Will feels his eyes go wide. “Just – just like a regular sleep though, right? Not, like –”

Hades’ expression softens, marginally. “Yes. He is slumbering. In your – um. Bedroom.”

“And you – you’re –”

“I am babysitting, William.”

“Oh. Wh-why?” Will’s voice comes out higher than he planned.

They gaze at each other for a long moment. Will's so exhausted he wonders if he might be hallucinating this entire encounter.

Hades clears his throat. “My son was badly in need of rest. I believe he prayed to me in a moment of weakness. But I was only too pleased to be summoned to spend some quality time with my granddaughter.”

Will blinks, his tired brain still struggling to make sense of the scene before him. Nora’s dark head is nestled into the crook of Hades’ shoulder, her pudgy cheek squashed against the faces of the damned undulating within his robes. It doesn’t seem conducive to sleeping. But then again, she is a granddaughter of the Underworld.

“Well, um. Thank you,” Will says. “I can take her now though, sir. Hades.” He takes a step towards the god cradling his infant daughter, but Hades shifts the baby, holding her closer.

“You will not.”

“I – won’t?”

“My son tells me you worked many hours at the hospital today. Is this accurate?”

“Well. Yes. Fourteen hours,” Will admits. Honestly, if he hadn’t been confronted by his father-in-law in his living room, there’s probably no way he’d still be upright. His feet and back ache, eyes burning with tiredness.

Hades studies him for a moment. “Sleep, William.”

Will spares a longing glance towards the bedroom. “Really? Are you – are you sure you don’t mind?”

“I do not mind. I intend to stay and offer my assistance until Wednesday morning, at which point your father will arrive.”

Will blinks. “My father? As in… Apollo?”

Hades inclines his head. “Indeed. It is high time that we gods became more involved with our earthly relations. Now, go to bed.”

Will showers first, quickly, just enough to feel he’s gotten rid of the lingering hospital smells. As he pads down the hall, he swears he hears a low, mournful voice singing in the living room. He shakes his head in disbelief.

Will quietly lets himself into the bedroom, heart swelling as he catches sight of his husband, buried in blankets, only a familiar mop of dark hair visible. He climbs into bed as quietly as he can, but Nico stirs when Will nudges close to him. He smells a bit like sweat and sour milk.

“Oh good, now I can sleep properly,” Nico mumbles, snuggling closer to wrap himself around Will. He sighs contentedly, head tucked under Will’s chin, tangling their legs. “How was your day?” The words are hot against Will’s chest.

“It was awful. Nico – your dad is here,” Will whispers, still not entirely sure he didn’t imagine it.

Nico lets out a giggle. He pulls back to gaze at Will, looking a bit guilty.

"The last two days have been a nightmare – I was just so desperate for Nora to sleep. I accidentally prayed to my dad, and he showed up."

Will makes a soft sound of sympathy, brushing the hair off his husband's forehead. "I'm so sorry I wasn’t here. Does he like… does he know what to... do?”

Nico shrugs. "He had her fast asleep within five minutes of getting here. Said he used to do the same thing with me."

"That’s actually kind of sweet," Will says, letting out a laugh of the ridiculousness of the situation. "Do you think he’s using some kind of Underworld magic on her?"

"At this point I kind of don’t care," Nico admits.

"You didn’t try to send her to the Underworld the old-fashioned way, did you?" Will teases.

"I mean. She is kind of a monster."

Will laughs, pulling his husband back into his chest.

"I just… I love her so much, Will," Nico mumbles, suddenly sounding tearful. "I’d lay down my life for her without a second thought. But I – I also just want things to be normal again. I want to sleep in bed with you all night. I want to eat a whole meal without anyone screaming at me."

Will hums in agreement, stroking Nico's hair.

“This is so hard," Nico whispers.

“I know, love. Why didn’t you call me?"

“What were you going to do? It’s not like you could leave work. I know how busy things have been there for you lately. I didn’t want to give you another thing to worry about.”

Will sighs. "It has to get better eventually, right?" he murmurs. "I mean... people keep on having babies. Some people even have lots of them."

"Yeah," Nico whispers.

Percy had told them as much, when he and Annabeth had come to visit last week. Will had tried to ignore the haunted look in Percy’s eyes.

"Anyway," Nico continues, sounding incredulous, "my dad said he was proud of me for asking for help. And now he's got like, a whole lineup of babysitters planned."

Will giggles. "That should be entertaining, at least," he says, trying to imagine his own father calming their screaming daughter.

"One day at a time, right?" Nico asks, already sounding half-asleep.

"Yeah," Will breathes. He's already planning on getting to work late tomorrow, determined to cuddle his sleeping husband as long as possible. "Hey. I'm proud of you for asking for help too," he says into Nico’s hair.

"It's good practice. For both of us. We can do this, right? We can... parent better than we were parented?” Nico mumbles. His words are sleepy and slurred, and Will squeezes him tighter.

“I hope so. It's got to help that we want to, right?”

Nico mumbles something unintelligible, melting into Will, heavy and warm. He presses his nose into Will’s chest, the same way Nora does when Will wears her in the BabyBjorn.

Will relaxes into his husband's embrace, willing himself not to respond to Nora's every peep and sigh in sleep the way his brain has already become accustomed to. Someone else is in charge, for the moment.

Everything is okay.

- - - -

Notes:

1. Thanks ever so much to @anything-thats-rock-and-roll for the beta!! 2. When I was a brand new mom, I had a fantasy that ~something would happen to me - not something terrible, but an accident or injury that would put me in the hospital for a few nights so I could GET SOME SLEEP. It didn't happen. I still survived. :) But man, non-sleeping babies are the absolute worst.

[steddieunderdogfics]

Yeah, We're Doing Tattoos by TwistedSiren86

@twistedsiren86

Rating: General Audiences

3,870 words, 1/1 chapters

Archive Warning: Creator chose not to use

Tags: steddie, Eddie Munson is a Sweetheart, Gay Eddie Munson, Bisexual Steve Harrington, eddie and steve are married, Dad!Eddie Munson - Freeform, dad!steve harrington, Trans Eddie Munson, Fluff, Happy Ending, One Shot, Family Fluff, Tattoo Artist Eddie Munson

Summary:

Eddie and Steve are married with their toddler daughter Lily, who has the artistic muse her father has. So when Lily gets caught drawing on her walls with crayons, Eddie has a better idea.

Thanks for the rec!

This rec is a part of Theme Weekend. The theme this weekend is Tattoo Artist AU.

Know a fic that deserves extra love? Submit through our asks or the submission box!

[thegaysofgenosha]

growing pains by ikeracity (part 1 of fosters)

Rating : General

Word count : 12,577

AU : Kidfic

Summary : Twelve-year-old Erik Lehnsherr is an angry, closed-off foster kid with trust issues and a bad temper. Ten-year-old Charles Xavier is a lonely kid in boarding school who just wants a friend.

Logan pretends he doesn't think they're both fucking adorable.

Warnings : None

[theravenfics]

Chasing Tails by KellieAltogether (6,359 words, general audiences)

“Is this meant to say raven?” Four years out of veterinary school, there were plenty of animals Adam Parrish hadn’t had the opportunity to deal with yet, but he never expected a corvid to come through the doors of the practice. Rural Virginians had a slew of pets, from dogs to snakes to chinchillas, along with an even larger slew of livestock, but ravens weren’t high on the list of domesticated animals in and around Henrietta. Adam Parrish is a veterinarian in Henrietta, Virginia. He's used to dogs. He's used to cats. He never thought he'd treat a raven. Or a pygmy goat. Or a fennec fox. Or an emu. But then Ronan Lynch shows up.

@givemonetatry: this had me smiling all the way through, i love ronan and his menagerie

[otterandterrierwrites]

@she-she88 replied to your post “Hey guys, I want to try to do a very silly, random...”:

16&13&36

​14 Days of Scoundress 2024 ♥ February 2nd

Terribly corny crap

She agreed to this statue, this tribute erected on the main plaza of Hanna City. She agreed to standing here, in person, as speakers and performers parade by. She has been seeing a therapist for a while, even. She’s dealt with this.

So why the fuck can she not get it together?

Leia hasn’t broken, not yet. But she has achieved that by fixing her unblinking eyes on the statue of her parents, with all of two billion names etched on it, until their features blurred, as she tries to trick her brain into thinking she’s staring at nothing but a shapeless mass of ore. Which means that, sooner or later, she’s going to tear up anyway. Exactly what she’s been trying to avoid.

She cannot break in public. Will not. She hasn’t learned how to do it gracefully, for public consumption, and she’s not interested in doing so. Grief is one of the few things that remains hers.

Maybe if her bantha-brain of a husband were actually there to hold her hand like he promised he would be—

Leia grits her teeth, frustrated at herself. No, this isn’t on Han. This is on her, for forgetting what it was like to get by without him. How did she do it before?

By numbing yourself to everything but rage, she reminds herself, and burning the candle at both ends. Tucking it all away until it was safe to crash down.

As if she’s somehow summoned him through the Force, she finally spots Han, pushing through the throng of onlookers at the plaza until he’s at the front. He waves at her and grins when he catches her eye. Even at a distance in her official pod, Leia sees his gaze soften with concern—probably as Han clocks in her expression. Leia doesn’t even want to think what she must look like, her features sitting like a too-tight mask on her face, but it’s all she can do to keep the emotion at bay.

Then he’s waving at her again, making sure she’s looking at him, and brings one hand to his mouth… and blows into it, in her direction.

Leia blinks in confusion. Han brings his hand to his lips a second time—kissing it, she realizes, and flings it exaggeratedly to where she stands, drawing baffled and mildly annoyed looks from his neighbours, most of whom probably don’t recognize him. He does that once more, ending with a sweeping gesture instead. The muscles on her face, which felt locked beyond her help, finally relax, like a trap that’s been disarmed, and she even manages an eyeroll at her husband, who smirks at his success.

What a goof.

Later, he makes his way to her, and the people around her definitely recognize him, giving them a moment of privacy.

Han steps forward, his arms half-raised to embrace her, but she holds her hands up and looks over his shoulder.

‘Wh—?’

‘I’m looking for security,’ she deadpans. ‘I’m calling the cops on you for that terribly corny crap you just pulled.’

‘Ha,’ he says, then huffs a little as Leia throws herself at him, burying her face into his chest, arms tightening around him just for a moment, just to let him know how she’s feeling, the grief that snuck up on her and still demands release, but also the gratitude for him, and his terribly corny crap.

‘It worked. You were supposed to catch it, though.’

‘Was I?’

He presses a kiss into the crown of her head before she steps back. ‘Sorry I couldn’t make it sooner, sweetheart.’

‘That’s alright,’ Leia says, grabbing his hand as they begin to make their way back home. ‘You were right on time.’

******* Prompts:

16: in grief

13: “I’m calling the cops on you for that terrible shit you put me through.”

36: [blowing] a kiss in the air and send of the gesture towards the partner