#abby advocates

[pinkwright]

the easiest way for me to see if a tlou fan is full of shit is seeing if they agree w the whole "joel had it coming" n ask them what they think about ellie going after abby

[eletricheart]

the end fight of tlou2 literally killed me, I panicked, I cried, this is only my ghost talking about it because I'm currently dead in hell

[the-cimmerians]

On Thursday, Governor Tim Walz sat down for an interview with author Glennon Doyle, her partner Abby Wambach, and her sister Amanda Doyle during a taping of the We Can Do Hard Things podcast. The conversation touched on key election issues such as abortion and gun violence. However, midway through the podcast, the discussion shifted to queer youth, specifically transgender kids. Rather than shying away from the topic, Walz delivered a passionate, several-minute-long defense of LGBTQ+ rights, including transgender healthcare. He outlined his vision for the administration’s role in protecting these rights.

The question came from Abby Wambach, who turned to the topic after discussing Walz’ founding of a Gay-Straight Alliance at his high school in the mid-90s. Wambach asked, “Well, thank you Governor Walz so much for protecting even in the late ’90s queer kids. And so I have to ask, what will a Harris-Walz administration do to protect our queer kids today?”

Walz discussed positive legislative actions, such as codifying hate crime laws and increasing education, while emphasizing the importance of using his platform to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. He then addressed the role of judges in safeguarding medical care for queer youth: “I also think what Abby, your point is on this, and I was just mentioning, we need to appoint judges who uphold the right to marriage, uphold the right to be who you are, making sure that’s the case, uphold the right to get the medical care that you need. We should not be naive. Those appointments are really, really important. I think that’s what the vice president is committed to.”

He didn’t stop there. Instead, he directly pivoted to calling out national anti-transgender attack ads which have flooded the airwaves across the United States, often airing besides NFL football games and other major sporting events. The Trump administration has spent upwards of $20 million on such ads, with outside organizations spending $80 million on various races.

“We see it now; the hate has shifted to the trans community. They see that as an opportunity. If you’re watching any sporting events right now, you see that Donald Trump’s closing arguments are to demonize a group of people for being who they are,” Walz said. He continued, “We’re out there trying to make the case that access to healthcare, a clean environment, manufacturing jobs, and keeping your local hospital open are what people are really concerned about. They’re running millions of dollars of ads demonizing folks who are just trying to live their lives.”

He emphasized the importance of representation and the impact of coming out, particularly for parents who may not have been exposed to LGBTQ+ identities and therefore might lack understanding. Walz pointed out, “Look, you’re reaching a lot of folks in hearing this, and for some people it’s not even out of malice and it’s not a pejorative, it’s out of ignorance. They maybe have not been around people. You’ve all seen this, however it takes you to get there, but I know it’s a little frustrating when you see folks have an epiphany when their child comes out to them.”

The strong defense of queer and trans youth came just one day after Kamala Harris participated in a Fox News interview with Brett Baier. Baier, who maintained a hostile tone throughout, pressed Harris on transgender issues with his second question. Rather than adopting the Republican framing, as some Democrats have done recently, Harris emphasized that the law requires medically necessary care for transgender inmates and criticized Trump for spending $20 million on ads focused on an issue far removed from the priorities of most Americans. Her response prompted Baier to quickly shift to another topic.

In back-to-back days, the Harris-Walz ticket has made it clear they will not back down on queer and trans rights, despite the barrage of anti-trans attack ads. This stance is likely reinforced by the repeated failure of similar ads in recent races, including Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election, legislative races in Pennsylvania and Virginia, Georgia’s Herschel Walker vs. Raphael Warnock election, Andy Beshear’s reelection in Kentucky, and the 2023 losses of 70% of Moms for Liberty and Project 1776 school board candidates across the United States. For transgender people, these interviews are likely a welcome relief after some wavering responses from other Democratic candidates in swing states.

[great-and-small]

Hey, I know the post is from a few years ago now but I was wondering if you knew of any other papers where a species is argued for incredibly passionately, specifically ones about species no one pays attention to. I’m a design student and I’m planning on making a project using quotes from these articles to try and raise awareness for these lesser thought about species. Thanks :)

The only scientific paper I can think of of the top of my head that might fit the bill would be one about turtles I really like ‘Turtles Are Not Just Walking Stones: Conspicuous Coloration and Sexual Selection in Freshwater Turtles’ by Brejcha/ Kleisner. Also pretty much anything written by EO Wilson about ants.

I think this is a lovely idea for a project and while I don’t have any more articles to recommend at the moment, I can recall lots of books that fit this theme. If you’re willing to expand your source material to include non-fiction books about animals, you will find some of the most breathtakingly beautiful science writing in existence advocating for the most unloved creatures on the planet. Some quick ones I can recommend looking into

- Spineless The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone by Julie Berwald

- Immersion: The Science and Mystery of Freshwater Mussels by Abbie Landis

- A World in a Shell: Snail Stories for a Time of Extinctions by Thom Van Dooren (recommended to me by someone on tumblr but I can’t remember who- I loved it!)

- The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World by Patrik Svensson

Good luck with your project and thank you for thinking of the less appreciated wildlife out there!

[pattern-recognition]

not every liberation school is at an ivy league or in a metropolitan center. we haven’t made an encampment, we haven’t staged an occupation, and yet our autonomous, spontaneous, protracted study session was met with an armada of riot cops. seven students and two community members were detained, our movement restricted by police barricades, and our every act met with antagonism by the university administration and KPD. if you want to help us keep it up down in tennessee, please consider donating to the cause

[hummussexual]

BY ABBY MONTEILApril 30, 2024

More than 60 LGBTQ+ organizations are calling for broadcasters, competitors, workers, and viewers to boycott 2024’s Eurovision Song Contest following the competition’s decision to include Israel in this year’s event, which takes place in Sweden.

Support for the boycott has come from LGBTQ+ organizations around the world, including QPEN in the United States, Queers in Palestine in Palestine, Pride in Protest in Australia, and Dyke March Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

“Israeli soldiers wave rainbow flags atop the ruins of Palestinian homes destroyed by the Israeli military in Gaza — a cynical attempt to rebrand Israel’s genocide as an act of queer liberation,” the boycott’s organizers said in a press release statement.

The statement likely refers in part to a viral November 2023 post from the state of Israel's official X account, which showed an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier standing amidst rubble it what was reportedly northern Gaza holding a Pride flag that had “In the name of love” written on it in English, Hebrew, and Arabic. The post said that the soldier is “a member of the LGBTQ+ community” who “wanted to send a message of hope to the people of Gaza living under Hamas brutality.” The post was criticized by LGBTQ+ advocates for being a prime example of “pinkwashing.”

The statement continued: “Allowing Israel to participate in Eurovision — an international pop cultural event with a massive LGBTQ+ audience — further contributes to Israel’s desperate pinkwashing attempts.”

The groups’ press release noted that although Eurovision excluded Russia the day after the country invaded Ukraine, similar measures have not been applied to Israel following the January International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that it is “plausible” that Israel is committing acts of genocide in Gaza. While the ICJ stated that it would proceed on South Africa’s case charging Israel with violation of the 1948 Convention of the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the court did not order Israel to stop its military operations. Since Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 and took 250 hostages, Israeli military actions have killed over 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza and injured more than 75,000 Palestinians.

This isn’t the first time that artists and LGBTQ+ organizations have protested the international music competition’s inclusion of Israel. Back in 2019, over 100 LGBTQ+ groups endorsed a Palestinian call for a boycott of that year’s competition, which took place in Israel, following what Amnesty International described as “deliberate attempts” to kill and maim Palestinian civilians participating in protests in Gaza.

This past January, more than 1,000 Swedish musicians, including LGBTQ+ icon Robyn, called for Eurovision to exclude Israel from the 2024 competition in an open letter to the European Broadcasting Union, who said in a statement to Billboard that the Israeli public broadcaster KAN has met all the competition rules for this year and is eligible to compete.

Later, in March, over 1,900 queer artists and organizations called on the UK’s Eurovision contestant, queer actor and musician Olly Alexander, to boycott the competition out of solidarity with Palestine.

Eurovision 2024 is set to begin on May 7.

[electricneonvalkyrie]

Now, I'm not saying our girl is autistic...

Putting aside of course:

every single time she masks, her hyperfocus, protective instincts, fierce and sometimes problematic loyalty, sensory seeking through physical combat, struggling to communicate under certain social dynamics (miscommunication, anyone?), rigid ass thinking, being a blunt girlie, sensory overload, sensitivity to light, heightened sense of smell, did I say BLUNT already (this girl is immune to using any kind of filter, but boy, does she goddamn try), impenetrable moral code (based on her perspective and lived experiences), desire to advocate, has an easier time talking to the WLF war doggos than she does literally anyone else, repetitive behaviors and stims (she rocks back and forth... which can also be a symptom of trauma but both can be true), she sways, fidgets like nobody's business, she struggles to process her grief, her relationships are all intense, trouble understanding the perspectives of others (give her time, please... she'll get there 🥹), doesn't like changing from her preferred activities without warning, hyperaware (also a symptom of PTSD), complete aversion to large groups, backgammon, she's badass at every combat related skill she learns...

I could go on. And on.

Was Jerry the one obsessed with coins, or was it Abby who first fixated on them, fascinated by their rich history and auditory charm as a kid? Maybe he grew to love them because it gave him a chance to bond with his daughter. Food for thought.

But I'm not saying our girl is autistic.

I do not have a bullet point list of examples in my notes app. I don't.

She totally doesn't attract all the autistic gamers like a 🧲 because we tend to gravitate toward each other inadvertently.

I dare you to play through the game again, this time with Abby's potential neurodivergence in mind. You can't unsee it, I promise. 🤣

P.S.

If you enjoy playing video games, Abby would absolutely ask Whitney for help understanding them (in the most roundabout way possible), if it meant she had a way to better connect with you.

Picture her learning how to play Super Mario alone in her bunk. I beg you. You'll never need another visual ever again. That's how sweet it is.

(She loves the flashing star that gives her invincibility. Whenever it pops up, she makes a cute little excited noise in the back of her throat. She doesn't like the boos one bit, though. Fuck those guys.)

⭐🍄👻🐢

[gracieabrarns]

ya'll do realize that gracie is jewish right and supports israel.

no she doesn't. her whole family are huge palestine advocates to the point of providing people jobs who were fired because they were supporting palestine.

she has made several contributions to palestine gofundsme and her, her family, and even abby constantly post about palestine.

examples

do your research.

[tacticaldiary]

"There's no strong female characters!", "Give us complex women!", "We want to see a range of female personality!"

They gave you Abby Anderson. Nina Zenik. Annabeth Chase. Shauna Sadecki.

It's been a gruelling fight to get crumbs of what we want, but frankly you don't deserve them. You don't deserve them if you're going to call for complexity, then whine about how they're too 'complicated'. How those women are 'too much' and 'not enough' at the same time. How they could have been better, how they should have been changed.

You hate Abby for being too strong, you hate Nina for being too forward, you hate Annabeth for being a leader, you hate Shauna for being a child.

You're given women that are complex, that are morally grey, that can't be stamped with a 'good' or 'bad', and how do you treat them? No, even better, how do you treat the people that advocate for them?

It's fine for the men to be morally gray, but God forbid a woman step into that role like you asked.

I'm sick, and I'm so tired, and this is exactly why I love writing morally grey women. Strong women, women that are unapologetic and powerful.

Grow up.

[jacksjargon]

I'm typically only a reblogger when it comes to AFTG, but I physically couldn't help it when I stumbled across these shirts. So, here are some funny shirts that the Foxes would wear and why:

Aaron, for obvious reasons. Nicky have it to him and he wears it in secret. It's his comfort pajamas.

Renee gave this to Andrew and he wore it one (1) time and it was at an exy banquet while wild and fervent protests about his past were all over.

Any of them, really, but I imagine a three way tie between Wymack (not paid enough for this), Alison (she gives the vibe), and Dan (when anyone talks to her that she doesn't know)

Matt vibes. Dan defffffffinitely pegs that man. He thanks her.

Andrew. Renee gave him this one, too, but it's a common sight.

Aaron. Maybe Katelyn got this for him as a joke and he wears it as some pathetic, wet cat, Minyard way of processing love. They got engaged the same day. It becomes Aaron's lucky shirt.

This is either Nicky or Allison's. I feel like Nicky would wear it ironically, but it could also be one of those lesbian things for Alison

Aaron. Neil gets it for him and it's how they start to bond.

Kevin, little history bitch

Bee. The team gets it for her for her birthday. She wears it religiously every Friday.

Hear me out: Kevin. It starts as a joke because he's the only single fox (in a world where he and Thea aren't together, I'm not particularly fond of that ship), but then he wears it on a date because he's a dumbass at heart and forgot that the team would totally fuck with his closet and he managed to charm and bag the sexiest, most emotionally intelligent woman ever. They last for two years before Kevin finally realized he's gay, but they stay friends and laugh over everything.

Dan. She gives mad homebody vibes outside of exy.

Neil. Self explanatory.

Matt. He's such a wife guy, and honestly, good for him. I know that I would 100% let Danielle Wilds do whatever the hell she decided was best for me. Oh my shit.

Renee. This was from Andrew, as revenge for the other shirts. She treasures it, but only wears it on his birthday.

Alison and Neil buy it for the twins. I'm a strong advocate for bitchy friends. Love that for them

They only manage to evade death via Neil's survival skills, a pair of strappy heels, a spoon, and a small frog. Don't ask.

Matt and Nicky unironically share this shirt.

It was originally Matt's, but Dan claimed it as hers, and now he just sorts it into her clothes pile when it's his turn.

Wymack. I think Kevin would rather die than get this, so Dan (his adoptive sister), Alison (nosy bitch #1), and Neil (nosy bitch #2) tag team and sign his name for him. He goes on to have a mental breakdown, but he and Wymack get closer. Somehow it's revealed that Nicky wins the bet regarding what's going on between Wymack, Abby, and Bee.

Andrew bought this for Kevin.

Alison and Renee have matching shirts exactly like this. In response, Neil and Andrew have matching shirts that say "I like it bushy" with a cat in a bush. It's the first time the upperclassmen see Andrew smile like that without involving Neil.

This is what inspired this, actually. So, Neil. He'd wear this out and in press conferences just to piss Kevin off. Gives Andrew a heart attack every time he sees it, though he'll never admit it. No one's really sure how or where it came from, there's actually a betting pool regarding this. Alison has money on Andrew buying it. Nicky thinks it was Kevin. Renee even joined in by offering Neil.

(in reality, it was Abby. She thinks shit like this is funny. She's a fox, after all)

[millsheat]

you know i was always the one defending the show real hard. but to be frank, the trailer left me really skeptical. i don't want to be the devil's advocate, because of course -- we saw a short montage, not the whole thing. but there are few things that left me puzzled and i would like to point them out.

a lot of people, based on the trailer, assume that joel tells the truth to the supposed jackson therapist and not tommy. if that were to be true, i don't think it would have the same impact. joel telling a secret he was willing to die for to tommy shows how strong their bond remained even, after all those years. also, the whole idea of therapist in the jackson is definitely a strange one, but i am not opposing that, rather speculating of the impact this role will have. hopefully, not just the shock value.

lack of infected in the trailer -- i guess this one could be simply explained by saying that they are keeping them as a surprise. hbo offered a significantly higher budget so.

abby being buff. ah, this caused riots on twitter, and you might hate me, but i agree with them. abby's revenge journey is literally built on her appearance. it's a great example for us, viewers or players, how immersed she had gotten into her plan. she has been training for four years, just to be ready. her revenge quest eventually costs her the relationship with owen, as she refuses to spend time with him, being too focused on trailing and hunting joel down.

so, yes. abby's appearance plays an important role. no one is asking for abby to be a buffed three times more than she was on the show. but we are supposed to believe she fights off tommy, fights infected. her main skill is combat fight. i am aware that video game characters possess power that are in many aspects unrealistic. but the second game includes a lot of fights that are important for the story itself.

dina's faith. dina's jewish ancestry gets mentioned a few times, especially when ellie and dina come across the synagogue. actually, some guy on twitter was giving me shit, saying that it is unimportant for her character. i disagree. might sound odd, but we get to know dina through her faith -- when she tells ellie what is means for her, how she still says little prayers. how proud she is because she comes from a long line of survivors. she mentions her favorite traditions (apple dipped in honey). how her and her sister used to visit synagogues on the road. it shows us that dina, despite the world and despite the circumstances, pushes through. i don't think it is fair or right to erase that part of her.

these are just my thoughts. perhaps, the last one is very subjective because i, myself, come from jewish family. anyways, would love to hear your thoughts.

[inkdemonapologist]

Thoughts on the BatIM books not being canon?

Originally typed up an answer based on the one TheMeatly tweet about creators being given “freedom to make things their own” when telling stories in their world, and that the games decide the canon. I thought that “the books aren’t canon” would be a bit of a reductive takeaway from that – like, I read it as the idea that the books don’t determine the canon, and aren’t beholden to some grand future plan to make sure they fit with the games, so they aren’t a trustworthy predictor of what’s going on in the games and in the case of contradictions, the games win. Like, the books can’t be counted on for theorycrafting, but that doesn’t mean Buddy or Abby are “noncanon” Bendy characters – just that they’ll never intersect with the games. But recently Mike Mood tweeted that “if it’s in a book, it’s not canon” pretty directly, so I guess Adrienne has just been writing a Bendy AU all this time??? Lmao.

I still think this is sort of not surprising after BatDR. Before BatDR actually came out, I was advocating pretty enthusiastically for little references to book characters – I know this was sort of controversial at the time, because people were worried about the idea of making the books “required reading” and references you don’t get if you don’t READ UP ON THE LORE – but I don’t think this would be necessary. If you give Dot an audiolog that’s like “I may just be an intern here in the writing department, but even I can tell there’s something fishy going on. I’ve got to investigate. Wally’s always losing his keys in [hint for the player], I bet I can find them” then if you’ve never read the books, that audiolog tells you everything you need to know, isn’t tangled up in any Book Lore, introduces the character as if she’s new, while also being a fun chance for the book readers to be like YOOOO MY GIRL IS HERE. Even just a schedule that says Joey has a meeting with Abby Lambert, or Ms. Lambert’s name on a desk somewhere in the art department, or a couple of animation cells on desks with characters from Crack-Up Comics, would be a fun wink to the book readers EVEN IF you want the canon to not be tied up with the books. Heck, you’ve got the non-audio-log memos in this game, you wouldn’t even have to give book characters a canon voice.

But, when BatDR had NOT ONLY no acknowledgement of the books, but also….didn’t even seem to be going in the same direction? I think the writing was sort of on the wall --

-- the people writing the games aren’t taking the books into account and the books aren’t going to be referenced here. The only question was whether the books were written with the plans of the games in mind and… I’m gonna be real. The idea that the Bendy franchise doesn’t really have Plans as such and so the books are just guessing and theorising, but the games reserve the right to go off in a completely different direction if they want to is, uh, not that surprising either. Bendy and the Ink Machine has never really seemed like a thing that had a grand plan, to me, it was just fun to pretend that it did – and then when the books were actually GOOD, it sold the idea of trying to puzzle that world together even more.

So there’s a cynical part of me that’s annoyed about this being mentioned now, you know, after 3-4 different books have been purchased by fans who were interested in learning some lore while waiting for BatDR, and now that BatDR’s out it’s like “oh, well, we’ve never felt this was CANON canon” when before it wasn’t really sold that way. If this has “always” been true, then all the “is Joey gay” questions could’ve been so easily dodged by admitting that the books were doing their own take rather than determining canon, but that fans are free to accept that interpretation. Adrienne answered one AMA question about what would become of Dot in a way that implied she didn’t know, as if she’d created this character who now existed in the world and it was up to the creators of that world to determine her fate. All of this combined with that one clarifying tweet about how EVERYTHING IN THE ORIGINAL BATIM IS STILL CANON before BatDR’s release creates the picture of intentionally selling on original BatIM’s love of theorycrafting and lore-collecting because that’s what would keep fans engaged. Either they were carefully Not Mentioning that the books aren’t canon during a time when they needed the books to sell, or the decision to treat books as “noncanon” is more recent than TheMeatly claims.

But despite my complaining, I do think this is like… wise. BatDR makes it clear that writing a Mystery With Deep Lore isn’t really what they want to do with this franchise now, if it ever was, and so now that BatDR has done reasonably well they can go ahead and admit it. If they want to be able to just hand a comic project to some comics people and not have to collaboratively run every design through their own art department to make sure it’s one they’d be willing to use in the games if that character ever appears, then it’s nice to go ahead and tell fans point blank that these designs are an interpretation by a third party, not The Canon, and should be treated as such. I think it’s not a bad way to run things, to give these other creators freedom to do their own thing with the material.

But, well, as for me and my feelings… I liked the books. I got into this franchise backwards, from a fansong and fanfiction that made me care about characters from a game I’d neither played nor watched, and then finding the concept of Sammy’s ink addiction in DCTL compelling even if I’d only heard bad things about DCTL at the time – I started writing Taste of Ink in hopes of getting this out of my system so I could move on, haha. And then Illusion Of Living came out, this incredible picture of everything I wanted from the franchise, and unfortunately nothing else has ever quite measured up. Maybe that makes sense; a lot of Bendy fans had a hard time getting through TIOL. I think I wanted a different franchise all along, and back when there wasn’t any new content in the True Game Canon, it was easier to play out the thing I wanted in the leftover ruins of this one. But then the original creators came to restore those ruins, and it was a cool thing they built, but it wasn’t anything like the ruins I’d had so much fun in anymore. I’m… genuinely proud of how much I contributed to this fandom, and so thrilled that people have enjoyed what I made here. If you weren’t following me a couple of years ago I really do recommend looking back through my blog because I made A LOT OF CONTENT………. Early on I got an ask of “does ur back hurt from carrying the entire bendy fandom,” which obviously I couldn’t post because there were definitely other creators carrying it with me, but tbh there were very few of us back when I fell face-first into this obsession and I have to admit that ask gives me some warm fuzzies to this day, haha. Like, there was a little stretch of time when the version of BatIM that I imagined helped to keep the fandom afloat! But it, like the books, was never the direction that the franchise was going to go. The BatIM I loved was was collectively dreamed into existence by people who found that game’s premise compelling.

I still love Bendy. I don’t think I ever will stop. This franchise made such a huge impact on me for reasons that are still KIND OF MYSTERIOUS LMAO. I still care a LOT about this world and these characters, but I don’t know if I’ll make much more canon-adjacent fanstuff here. Cthulhu AU is giving me the human batim content I crave and several of the AUs I’m involved in have sort of become their own thing. Maybe someday I’ll figure out how to capture whatever it was in BatIM that took over my brain so intensely for more than 3 years, but I don’t know if I’ll find it in the franchise anymore.

[mariacallous]

A theatrical production based on the memoir of an ex-Hasidic transgender rabbi and activist, set to premiere in New York early next year, is scrambling to find a new home after its landlord rejected the script last week.

The landlord? The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.

The production has become a casualty of a dispute between the East Village’s Connelly Theater, which had long staged provocative works, and the archdiocese, which owns the venue. The archdiocese has recently placed the theater under increased scrutiny, exercising a clause that gives it approval of plays shown at its property. The Catholic school that serves as the go-between between the church and the theater said it is “suspending all operations of its theater,” The New York Times reported.

Abby Stein, author of the 2019 memoir “Becoming Eve: My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman,” was alerted last Wednesday that the adaptation of her book would no longer be permitted at the Connelly Theater.

“I can’t say I’m surprised,” Stein said in an interview. “I’m not going to come up and pretend, ‘Oh my God, the Catholic Church doesn’t like trans people, I’m shocked.’ I wouldn’t say that. I think we all know that. It’s just extremely frustrating that even in a place like New York, it’s still something you need to think about.”

She added, “It feels like we’re taking one step forward, two steps back. This shouldn’t be something we’re still worried about.”

Josh Luxenberg, the Off Broadway theater’s general manager for the past 10 years, resigned last Friday, telling The New York Times that he was reluctant to serve as a “censor rather than an advocate of artistic freedom.” The theater was built in the 1860s, according to its “About Us” page, which still lists Luxenburg as general manager and calls itself “a home for adventurous independent theater productions.” Its main stage theater seats 200.

The Archdiocese of New York did not respond to a request for comment. Its director of communications told the Times that the decision reflected longstanding norms about its oversight of content shared in its buildings. The archdiocese has previously required public schools renting space it owns to hold sex education instruction off-campus.

“It is the standard practice of the archdiocese that nothing should take place on church-owned property that is contrary to the teaching of the church,” Joseph Zwilling told the newspaper. “That applies as well to plays, television shows or movies being shot, music videos being recorded, or other performances.”

“Becoming Eve” tells the story of Stein’s journey as a rabbi and heir to a prominent Hasidic dynasty who left her insular community in 2012 and publicly came out as transgender in 2015. The book became a bestseller, and she became an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community and for Hasidic Jews who leave their communities. Stein is currently a part-time rabbi at the independent congregation Kolot Chayeinu in Brooklyn as well as an activist on causes including opposing Israel’s war in Gaza.

“I did not expect myself to be at the crosshairs of the Archdiocese of New York,” Stein said.

As an adaptation of Stein’s memoir, the play “centers on a conversation between Abby, her devout father and a young liberal rabbi, as they reckon with questions of gender and faith,” according to Playbill.

“Becoming Eve” is one of at least three shows booted out of the Connelly Theater by the Archdiocese. SheNYC, a summer theater festival for plays by female, nonbinary and transgender artists, said in a statement that it has also been told by the Archdiocese that it cannot use the theater next summer.

“It’s a total shock that somehow, strict conservative ideals are dictating what can happen in a NYC theater,” SheNYC posted on Instagram. “We’re heartbroken by this loss. And we’re not going to lie – this puts us in a tough spot for our 2025 season, which is also our 10-year anniversary.”

The comedy show “Jack Tucker: Comedy Standup Hour,” a solo show by comedian Zach Zucker, who is Jewish, featuring his alter-ego Jack Tucker, was in the works to transfer to the Connelly Theater in early September for a limited run following a successful turn at the SoHo Playhouse. But the archdiocese rejected the show days before it was set to begin. Zucker had to relocate and postpone the show.

In an Instagram post announcing the new dates and location, Zucker said of the Ccurch, “Why’d they do this? We’ll never know. But what I do know is that God will never stop me.”

“Becoming Eve” is written by Em Weinstein, produced by Dayna Bloom and Brian Lee, and directed by Tyne Rafaeli. It will be in previews in March and is set to premiere in April of 2025.

New York Theatre Workshop, which is producing the play, is in the process of finding an alternate venue.

“We remain fiercely committed to presenting Emil Weinstein’s compelling and singular play, Becoming Eve, in our season,” New York Theatre Workshop said in a statement. “We are profoundly disappointed by the Archdiocese’s decision and reaffirm our unwavering commitment to produce this powerful story. We are in talks with a new venue and look forward to sharing the details very soon. We are proud to produce this compelling story and to champion its artists and ethos.”

[dangerpronebuddie]

I think it's cause it's like Buck is bi largely in part because of buddies supporters loudly advocating for it for years because it made sense for him individually as a character AND because of the ship and people have shipped buddie for over 5 years at this point and some guy comes in and people ship them which is cool and all but then start acting nuts that the people who have been campaigning for a specific ship for years aren't immediately jumping ship because of a different relationship like both of them haven't been in plenty of other ones before this like if people didn't jump ship with Ana or Marisol or BT1.0 or Natalia before we knew that lasted for 3 seconds wtf do they think makes Tommy so special that he has a penis?

For real!!

(I think, partly it has to do with the fact some people in the fandom have never been normal about women ever and continue to villainize them mostly for butting into the ship).

What kills me is the fact Tommy exhibits behaviors of so many other LIs!!

Ana continuously called Eddie Edmundo -> Tommy exclusively refers to Buck as Evan

The main aspect of Abby and Buck's relationship was sex -> Buck and Tommy's entire relationship is about sex

Taylor kissed Buck at a time he was emotionally vulnerable -> Tommy kissed Buck at a time he was emotionally vulnerable

Taylor shut down Buck's concerns about the team (his family) -> Tommy shut down Buck's concerns about Bobby

Natalia put him on a pedestal when they first met -> Tommy put him on a pedestal when they first met (albeit very different ones. Being fascinated by a man who survived a lightning strike and being jealous a man has a found family are completely different matters)

It just goes on and on. But because Tommy is a man, he somehow gets a pass?? Do you think if Taylor said "your father's alive" she'd be treated as nicely as they treat Tommy? Nah.

Maybe it's misplaced happiness at the reality of bi Buck. It's incredible that we have that and got to experience it. I'm so incredibly grateful to the show for giving us that and to Oliver for treating it with such care.

But while we have bi Buck, I think we deserve better representation. Yeah, okay, it's a canon ship, that's great, but is that good enough for you? Why must we settle for good enough when great is available and has been building for 6 years? Representation matters, but good representation matters more. We deserve better than unending, flat sex jokes that are always inappropriate and a man who treats the person he's supposed to care about like he's a nuisance.

[kndrules]

Sector V autism headcanons: their experiences with diagnosis and school

Nigel also does not mask and had very obvious autism as a kid, but because of how he acted out in targeted ways, he was labeled a troublemaker instead and diagnosed with ODD. He got less support in school because of this, but he did have some resource classroom time. His parents were the core of his support and advocated for him. Nigel saw a lot of specialists as a kid and that's where his distrust of doctors comes from, as most of them wouldn't take him seriously. His autism does eventually get diagnosed in middle school, but if he had more of a say he probably wouldn't have sought a diagnosis

I know I've said a lot of this before but Allow Me To Infodump

Kuki and Wally are a category of their own because they are the highest support needs of the group (medium support needs). They were both diagnosed really young, and started having serious behavioral problems early too. Wally in particular is demand avoidant, but both struggled with meltdowns. In school, they spent part of their day in a separate setting/ resource classrooms. Their academics lagged well behind their peers. As they grew up, Kuki started to mask more and more but Wally is never able to. Kukis academics improved sooner than Wally's did- Wally was barely able to graduate high school on time. He didn't find strategies that worked for him until halfway through his undergrad years. Both of them are AuDHD

Hoagie and Abby are also similar to each other in that they're both double gifted and didn't have IEPs in school. They both appeared to have it together, so they didn't get any support when they actually needed it. They didn't know how to ask for help. Abby in particular put a lot of pressure on herself to appear perfect.

Abby is a high-masking autistic person who needs a lot of rest and space away from people to recover. She absolutely is never officially diagnosed, but she's self diagnosed. She suffers from burnout frequently, but is good at hiding it.

Hoagie actually has huge deficits in certain academic areas that they don't have a special interest in, but because they excell in other places, teachers assume it's because hoagie is just being unfocused and lazy. They have learned that they can do better in subjects like English and History if they study/write about topics they ARE interested in. But they still struggle tremendously if they have to, for example, read a book for English class that isn't interesting to them.

Hoagie gets diagnosed as an adult. Its like super obvious that they're autistic for their entire life, but their parents are definitely also undiagnosed autistic, so they saw how their kids behaved and thought "yep, seems normal!"

In general, I imagine when they went to school was in the 2000s, which is when I was also in school- special education programs were better than they used to be, but not as good as they can be now. And now, it still hugely varies from school to school. I don't think resources were very good for kids at Gallagher Elementary, since we see the teachers be terrible to their students and belittle kids who struggle academically or behaviorally.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Erin Reed at Erin In The Morning:

On Thursday, Governor Tim Walz sat down for an interview with author Glennon Doyle, her partner Abby Wambach, and her sister Amanda Doyle during a taping of the We Can Do Hard Things podcast. The conversation touched on key election issues such as abortion and gun violence. However, midway through the podcast, the discussion shifted to queer youth, specifically transgender kids. Rather than shying away from the topic, Walz delivered a passionate, several-minute-long defense of LGBTQ+ rights, including transgender healthcare. He outlined his vision for the administration’s role in protecting these rights.

[...]

Walz discussed positive legislative actions, such as codifying hate crime laws and increasing education, while emphasizing the importance of using his platform to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. He then addressed the role of judges in safeguarding medical care for queer youth: “I also think what Abby, your point is on this, and I was just mentioning, we need to appoint judges who uphold the right to marriage, uphold the right to be who you are, making sure that’s the case, uphold the right to get the medical care that you need. We should not be naive. Those appointments are really, really important. I think that’s what the vice president is committed to.” He didn’t stop there. Instead, he directly pivoted to calling out national anti-transgender attack ads which have flooded the airwaves across the United States, often airing besides NFL football games and other major sporting events. The Trump administration has spent upwards of $20 million on such ads, with outside organizations spending $80 million on various races.

“We see it now; the hate has shifted to the trans community. They see that as an opportunity. If you’re watching any sporting events right now, you see that Donald Trump’s closing arguments are to demonize a group of people for being who they are,” Walz said. He continued, “We’re out there trying to make the case that access to healthcare, a clean environment, manufacturing jobs, and keeping your local hospital open are what people are really concerned about. They’re running millions of dollars of ads demonizing folks who are just trying to live their lives.” He emphasized the importance of representation and the impact of coming out, particularly for parents who may not have been exposed to LGBTQ+ identities and therefore might lack understanding.

Appearing on the We Can Do Hard Things podcast Thursday, Kamala Harris VP pick and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) gave a resolute defense of trans and LGBTQ+ youths.

Dear Sherrod Brown and Colin Allred (and any other Democratic politician), please learn from this interview on how to properly discuss trans issues in your campaigns, and that is not give legitimacy to anti-trans arguments.

From the 10.17.2024 edition of Audacy's We Can Do Hard Things: