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mariacallous · 1 year ago

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In 2019, on the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia, a group of “rainbow hunters” embarked on a mission at a prestigious Shanghai university. They were school employees, mostly campus workers and student counselors, tasked with finding anyone with attire or accessories associated with the LGBTQ community. Those found with the rainbow flag, a prominent symbol of the gay rights movement, or other related items were given warnings and told their “parents would be ashamed” of them.

That afternoon of May 17, the university removed all visible rainbow flags and followed up by shutting down an unofficial student-run club advocating for the rights and welfare of LGBTQ students.

“I knew the crackdown was coming sooner or later, but I didn’t expect it to come so quickly,” said Bonnie, a co-founder of the university’s LGBTQ club, who has since graduated and relocated outside mainland China.

In recent years, gender and sexual minorities in China have been increasingly targeted by the authorities and social media platforms, limiting their advocacy and outreach. Most recently, in May, the Beijing LGBT Center was unexpectedly closed, and in 2021, WeChat abruptly shut down several accounts belonging to LGBTQ groups from different universities without any reason.

But nine former and current students from five Chinese universities, some of whom wished not to be quoted, told Foreign Policy that student-led LGBTQ groups have been under immense pressure for years. They’re seen as a “cult” and labeled as “radical” and “illegal” organizations and have been dying a slow death even before the recent crackdowns. Foreign Policy isn’t naming the schools and clubs or disclosing the students’ real names to protect their identities and from possible repercussions against them or their families.

“The media reports have been fixated on the 2021 crackdown,” Bonnie said. “But we were silenced much earlier than that. I wonder if our existence will disappear from memory, as the large focus is on the WeChat crackdown. I envy those organizations [blocked by WeChat] because they can unite under the same flag. But how do we tell our story?”

Bonnie met Jerlin and CMM during her freshman year in the fall of 2017 in Shanghai. Jerlin had already proposed an LGBTQ association as a freshman in 2015, but the university had yet to approve his request. Student-led organizations usually need to apply to relevant university departments, detailing their purpose and benefits to the student community and are required to find a teacher who would supervise them. Regardless of the approval, the trio, however, printed hundreds of flyers inked with the slogan “unofficial, unorthodox,” calling like-minded students interested in gender and sexuality issues to join the club. The three distributed them in dormitories and slid them underneath doors, which Jerlin said was “just like doing the job of a door-to-door salesperson.”

“We are determined to eliminate ignorance through knowledge, combat ignorance with reason, replace apathy with empathy, and treat discrimination with equality,” Jerlin said of the motivation behind starting an LGBTQ club at the university.

In its first year, the club organized movie screenings and book readings on gender and invited experts to speak about safer sex and body anxiety issues. Members also started a campaign to raise awareness and empathy toward LGBTQ students, where they went around campus with a placard asking a simple question: “I’m gay. Are you willing to hug me?” Students said many of their classmates, even those who claimed to be open-minded, often made fun of LGBTQ individuals and even called them derogatory names.

A national survey conducted in 2015 by the U.N. Development Program among some 28,000 LGBTI individuals revealed that only 5 percent of them chose to disclose their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression at school or in the workplace, fearing discrimination. A 2019 survey by the Chinese Journal of School Health involving 751 LGBT students showed that 41 percent of them had been called names and 35 percent verbally abused.

By October 2018, Jerlin said their club was already on the university’s radar. Club events were being “supervised” by school administrators, and a planned interaction on HIV/AIDS was abruptly canceled. Then the university introduced new rules prohibiting outsiders from entering the school library and study rooms, where the group hosted events. Students were then also required to reserve study rooms unlike before.

“This is when I realized the school was engaging in a witch hunt against us,” Bonnie said. “The intense scrutiny of the club made many students believe we were nothing but trouble and an illegal organization. So many of them, even those who claimed to be gay, started hating us.”

Gu Li, an assistant professor of psychology at New York University Shanghai who studies the development and mental health of LGBTQ individuals, said many university-level students could be struggling with their sexuality and self-acceptance issues. He said student groups and their organized activities may serve as an opportunity to learn about sexual orientation and gender identity while connecting with others.

“How those groups are organized and what activities they conduct are more impactful than the mere presence of the groups,” he said.

China decriminalized homosexuality in 1997 and declassified it as a mental disorder in 2001. The country’s LGBTQ community has since made significant strides—they’re more vocal in addressing their rights, and their visibility has grown dramatically. The community has been emboldened by small yet significant victories: In a 2014 landmark case, a gay rights activist sued the local government department in central Hunan province for defamation; in 2016, a same-sex couple sued a civil affairs bureau, also in Hunan, for rejecting their marriage registration, even though China doesn’t recognize marriage equality; and in 2020, viewers welcomed a video advertisement featuring a man bringing his male partner for the Lunar New Year dinner. In bigger cities, gay and lesbian bars attract large crowds, while drag shows and voguing provide a vibrant entertainment space and exposure for the queer community and allies.

The positive signals indicated a seemingly tolerant attitude toward the LGBTQ community, both from the public and the authorities. But those small wins have mostly been short-lived, as the rhetoric against LGBTQ individuals in certain quarters has turned sharply negative in the past few years. Many nationalists view their identity as a “Western ideology” similar to feminism. There are arguments against Western-style gay pride parades and rainbow capitalism in China, saying for many LGBTQ Chinese, “their familial role and national identity take precedence” over sexuality.

Meanwhile, both the central and local governments have been aggressively promoting incentives for young people to marry and have children amid China’s record-low marriage and childbirth rates. A made-up “masculinity crisis” and malicious targeting of effeminate men have also led to a shift in attitude toward LGBTQ acceptance. In recent years, television channels have blurred rainbow flags, and social media platforms have banned “sissy” men during livestreams, a term that the official state-run Xinhua News Agency described as a “sick culture.”

Then, in 2020, Shanghai Pride, a series of events rather than a parade, abruptly ended, and this year, the Beijing LGBT Center, which had been a crucial support system for the community, shut down due to “force majeure”—a common euphemism for pressure from the authorities—after almost 15 years, raising concerns over the shrinking space for the LGBTQ community in China.

Lik Sam Chan, an assistant professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and co-chair of the International Communication Association LGBTQ Studies Interest Group, said the suppression of LGBTQ activities in China could have stemmed from the ruling Communist Party’s fears of potential Western influence through such events. He said those opposing the LGBTQ community were developing a group identity by negating others and defining “what is not us.”

“What has happened in the last one or two years is an obvious, targeted suppression of LGBTQ-themed activities,” Chan said. “The LGBTQ movement and the #MeToo movement are an unfortunate target, set up by the nationalists, to solidify their sense of Chineseness.”

Targeted suppression and intolerance are creeping in at universities sooner than many in the LGBTQ community expected. In June, graffiti featuring a rainbow flag with accompanying text saying “Love is love” on a campus wall at a Dalian university in northeastern Liaoning province was vandalized. Such displays of anti-gay sentiments at schools were, however, not uncommon and frequently made rounds on social media previously.

Amy, who briefly led a university-approved club that also advocated LGBTQ issues at another university in Shanghai, said she joined the group after having a “vague idea” about her sexuality. When she came across the club in 2018 during her freshman year, Amy said she was fascinated by the rainbow flags and the diverse events the group organized, mostly focusing on gender and sexuality.

“It made me feel at home,” she said.

But the situation took an unexpected turn in the spring of 2019. Amy said a school administrator advised the club to pursue more feminist issues and “avoid LGBTQ topics.” She said a teacher repeatedly questioned her sexuality and asked if she was attracted to women. The teacher cautioned her multiple times to “not cross the red lines,” specifically referring to LGBTQ issues and the rainbow flag. Amy said the same teacher told her not to wear a rainbow flag pin after she was spotted wearing one during an event.

“‘You don’t want a stain on your resume, do you?’” Amy said, recalling what the teacher once told her. “Is it because we are inappropriate to be seen in public? It was isolating, and I felt I was being treated as an outcast.”

Amy’s experience is not an isolated case. In 2022, two female students at China’s prestigious Tsinghua University were given disciplinary warnings after leaving 10 rainbow flags at a campus supermarket counter. The students, who belonged to the school’s LGBTQ club, Purple, attempted to sue the Education Ministry over the incident, but a court in Beijing, where the university is located, didn’t accept their lawsuit.

“Symbols are powerful,” Chan said, referring to the rainbow flags and other memorabilia. “They are infused with meanings and emotions. When the LGBTQ community is constantly suppressed and their rights are not recognized, it is even more critical to maintain the visibility of these symbols so that we don’t forget our goal.”

In many other countries around the world, including the United States, there have been worrying threats against the LGBTQ community. In China, former and current university students with whom Foreign Policy spoke said their most pressing goal was to just be able to exist, though they felt there was a perceived attempt to slowly erase their identity. Taking away online and offline platforms, where they mostly shared their experiences, from coming out to combating sexual harassment to education on safe sex, is causing further harm.

When WeChat deleted dozens of accounts related to LGBTQ student groups at universities—including Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Fudan University—the messaging platform didn’t just disband online groups but severed a network that connected hundreds of thousands of people. The move came abruptly in July 2021, with many still trying to understand the reason behind it. The accounts were said to have “violated regulations”—a standard censorship catchphrase used when posts deemed sensitive by the authorities are taken down. And while some groups are still operating covertly, often under disguise, many others have shut down altogether.

A day after WeChat closed the LGBTQ accounts, Chinese firebrand nationalist commentator Hu Xijin wrote in his WeChat blog that public opinion toward the LGBTQ community was “generally inclusive” and that the government’s policies were “progressive.” But he then added that the LGBTQ community “should not seek to become a high-profile ideology in China at this time.”

But for LGBTQ individuals, their identity is not an ideology. And they say the ongoing suppression is proving detrimental to their mental health.

A study published this year surveying nearly 90,000 LGBT and gender-nonconforming students at 63 universities in the northeastern province of Jilin indicated a “higher prevalence of depression, anxiety, traumatic stress, nonsuicidal self-injury, and suicide risk” than their cisgender heterosexual counterparts. The report concluded that there is an “imperative need to improve mental health and prevent suicide” among these individuals.

A yet-to-be-published survey by Li from NYU Shanghai in partnership with the gay dating app Blued also pointed to a similar trend. The partial result, shared with Foreign Policy, showed that of the 4,310 men surveyed on Blued, 57 percent of them reported various degrees of depression, from mild to moderate and severe.

Li said various factors are contributing to the deteriorating mental health among LGBTQ people, including internalized homophobia, prejudice, and discrimination.

“We will need more care for LGBTQ people in China, such as providing more LGBTQ-affirmative psychotherapies,” he said. “Having LGBTQ-supportive communities and schools and having mental health resources available will make people feel less depressed. They will have a positive impact.”

But for now, those involved in the student LGBTQ groups said they were facing tough mental health issues.

Amy said she struggled throughout the summer of 2019: She felt frustrated, unaware of how to operate the club, and was “unsure about my identity as a lesbian and the club’s leader.” She said she forced herself to work until 2 a.m. and often questioned her efforts to keep the club afloat. Finally, in August 2020, with no support from the university, the club ceased its operation. She said she sought counseling at a facility run by the Beijing LGBT Center, where she was diagnosed with depression.

“Memories associated with this period have been filtered to only feelings, which were full of tears, fear, and disgrace, along with other members of the club,” she said. “We want the threats and shame forced on us to be documented.”

Bonnie, too, said she often questioned her conviction toward the cause and spiraled into depression for an entire year in 2019 after her university group ceased to exist. She said she was even reluctant to post anything on social media and felt she was “always being watched by people.”

In 2021, Bonnie left China. These days, she mostly dedicates her time to feminist causes and sometimes interacts with those still advocating for LGBTQ issues in China. She sees a part of her in them, trying to keep the spark alight even despite the darkness. And every time she remembers their collective struggles, Bonnie said she finds solace listening to “Hey You,” one of her favorite tracks by the English rock band Pink Floyd.

The lyrics remind her to be optimistic: “Hey you, don’t tell me there’s no hope at all / Together we stand, divided we fall.”

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roastedprune · 11 months ago

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Sooo after my first choice team got eliminated (RIP SSR) I made the next choice based on my gender envy.

This made an impossible decision between hot business suit woman and hot temple Oni.

(I chose business suit )

#omega strikers #gosh they're so pretty #pro league elimination #i don't like capitalism except when pretty woman

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bug-the-chicken-nug · 2 years ago

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on my latest rwby au bullshit, which I think i will officially start to also tag as the "Silver Wolf" AU.

Silver Wolf AU: Premise

A combo of Ruby being a wolf faunus (on top of getting rid of the stupid rule about one trait because fuck that i want her to have the ears, tail, AND sharp teeth and nails) and having silver eyes, but silver eyed warriors now being considered like... this creepy-but-unfortunately-necessary group who barely anybody wants to really associate with, under fear of it "cursing" you. By extension, they are now known as "Witches" rather than "Warriors", regardless of gender. (This also makes it possible to just shorten it to 'Witch' and have it already be pretty obvious what a character is talking about, so it rolls off the tongue better, while also creating this uncomfortable implication that these people are put on the same level as Salem despite directly opposing her.) The "curse" is a more superstitious exaggeration of the unfortunate reality that associating with them really can put you at risk of becoming collateral when they're hunted down, on top of their eyes now being not all-or-nothing Grimm nuking, but instead having a sort of "level up" system, and the potential to unlock certain abilities that can affect people too. (the new common thread being that all of these abilities have to do with sensing and/or eliminating "darkness" and "negativity", not just Grimm) The fear of association, powers that can be directed towards humans, and the societal shunning would also do a lot to help explain exactly why Witches are so scattered and fragmented, and why people know so little about them. Because in canon, it just seems like they should be heroes who everyone should know about and have a vested interest in supporting.

Relationships:

Also, this AU would 100% be a Ladybug thing. Because I can just see Blake standing up for Ruby, and Ruby immediately being head over heels in response, but having no idea how to actually express it and also being paranoid that Blake will just think she's weird like everyone else. (And meanwhile Blake is paranoid about how Ruby will react if she finds out that Blake is technically a terrorist, and also friend/sister-zoning Ruby big time for the first few volumes, less out of a genuine lack of interest and more because of her subconscious fear of commitment)

Although there'd also be other fragments of Ruby ship teases, just because I imagine this version of her to have developed "gets a crush on anyone who's nice to her for five seconds" syndrome. (Yes I'm sorry, I know a ton of y'all hate Jaune but my Ruby's friendless, bullied, avoided, desperate-for-validation ass sees him being nice to her and unafraid of her for like ten seconds and is lowkey already thinking about a spring wedding.) This also includes a one-sided crush on Ozpin, just for how I think that'd be kinda narratively interesting and potentially a little fucked up. (Especially because the full nuance of why it's interesting can change depending on how grey this Ozpin's morals end up being. Is he subtly using it as leverage? Could this version of him be dickish enough to lead her on? Does he do it on purpose? Or does he even notice her feelings at all? Does he notice and subtly try to discourage it? What happens when he gets stuck in Oscar?) And a crush on Marrow, literally just because I think it'd be funny. Marrow: *obliviously friendly* Ruby: *practically ready to become Ruby Amin, just because he's a fellow Faunus, complimented Crescent Rose, and didn't say anything about her eyes* Blake, looking on: hmst,,, don't know why but. this is bad, actually. Weiss: *sighing deeply* you obviously know why. Meanwhile I figure Yang is human, because only Summer was a Faunus, and it kinda puts this weird Thing between her and Ruby where Ruby both greatly admires and envies her, but lowkey resents her, because she feels like Yang will never truly understand what she goes through, and gets to "have it easy". On her own end, Yang has had to sacrifice a lot of social opportunities to prioritize a good standing with Ruby, because even just admitting relation to Ruby makes people treat Yang differently anyway. So Ruby thinks of herself as a burden, and Yang is desperately trying to hide the fact that she *agrees* with Ruby, deep down. She thinks the burden is *worth it*, but she doesn't know a way of properly conveying "It's okay that you're a burden sometimes, I know it's not your fault, and I still love you even if I get frustrated with you sometimes" that doesn't make her feel incredibly guilty and paranoid that she sounds insincere. And finally (at least for now) I think this would be inch-resting for Adam because now Ruby has something that can actually give her something to do with him too, and make her feel more connected to the things that go on around her. She could even have weird mixed feelings on him, stemming from him seeing her silver eyes and not only expressing approval of them, but trying to get her to come around to his side, using the extra discrimination she's faced because of them to try and butter her up and manipulate her.

#rwde #rwby #ruby rose #silver eyes #Silver Wolf AU

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genderenvyelimination · 2 years ago

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Gender Envy Elimination ROUND THREE!

PROPAGANDA FROM THE PEERS (character notes):

"I just think he has such transmasc swag and i never see people talking about it??" - team marty

"They just so cool, and I love theater kids

theyre a shapeshifte, GREEN, loove the voice, loong hair, tail" - team double trouble

#gender envy elimination #genderenvyelimination2023 #genderenvyelimination #gee: round 3 #tournament poll #fictional character poll #polls #tumblr bracket #back to the future #she ra 2018

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lazyyogi · 2 years ago

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The Somatic Body

Note: The following post shares my experience with body image, physical health, and spiritual practice. There are gender norms and generalizations. It is not meant to apply to everyone. I wanted to share some of my struggles and how somatic spirituality helped me grow through them.

My body type does not fit the gender "norm" for a male in the US. Growing up, I was reminded of this constantly by my mother, siblings, and the people around me.

Men aren't "supposed" to be skinny or too thin. They're "supposed" to be muscular, average sized, or even a little overweight (see: dad bod).

But me? I'm a hard gainer when it comes to weight. If I stress, I lose my appetite. If I don't exercise, I lose weight. And not in an attractive way but in a "you don't look healthy" way.

Because manhood is equated with strength and skinny is not strong, calling a man skinny is often used as an insult. I would know.

Never did I get to the point in which I hated my body or hated myself because of my body, but always I felt that my body was something counting against me. If I ever felt attractive, it would be despite being underweight.

This may sound strange, especially to women. Over the years, many female friends and acquaintances have said things like "I wish I had your problem." They couldn't understand why saying something like that is actually hurtful.

The simplest metaphor would be like me saying "I wish I had your problem" to an overweight woman. Firstly, it is not appropriate for me to be commenting on a woman's weight and secondly it is not appropriate for me to be calling it a problem.

Not to mention that, as a cis het male, having a body type envied by a woman was not the look I desired.

But I could understand how my hurt feelings were due to my own hangups and that their comments were coming from their own unhappy relationship with their body. And that would add to my feeling of sadness, because so many of the women making such comments were beautiful and of an appropriate weight.

All of this changed for me when I started somatic spiritual practices.

Before all the body-conscious weirdness of adolescence, I really enjoyed my human form. As a child, I loved dancing and running around and physically playing. But I grew self-conscious about dance and I felt repelled by the toxic masculinity of sports, and as such developed a kind of resentment and rejection toward my body.

If it wasn't conventionally attractive and if it wasn't going to be used for sports, I might as well pay attention to things other than my body.

Somatic practices brought me back to my body and realigned my emphasis to be on how my body feels. Rather than how I felt about my body. Working on my body through somatic practice involved finding where traumas and self-judgments were stored as tensions, misalignments, and numbness, then allowing release.

At the same time, the body becomes integrated more deeply into awareness itself.

As part of somatic exploration, I took up exercise as an aspect of my practice.

While I've always enjoyed yoga, I avoided strength training and did cardio inconsistently. But now I discovered what each had to offer me. Cardio elevates my mood and regulates my energy. Strength training builds my power and fortitude. And yoga integrates the two with grace and naturalness.

Because breakfast, lunch, and dinner are never guaranteed in my line of work, a friend advised trying protein pills with essential amino acids. These were a game changer and also eliminated muscle soreness, interestingly enough.

All the while, my primary aim with my exercise practice was to optimize how my body felt. I am turning 35 in April and I don't need to feel like I can wrestle a bear. I just want my body to support my path and spiritual practice. With my current practice, I feel the way I did in my early 20s, which means to say that I feel energetic and playful.

Over time, my physical form has changed to reflect how I feel. My body looks more muscular rather than underweight. And that's nice too.

But if rejecting my skinny body and seeking a muscular body were my primary or sole motivation, the whole experience would have been different. I don't know if I would have been able to sustain my motivation. Maybe I would start dreading exercise, or feeling guilty or upset when I had to skip workouts. Perhaps it would feel never enough or that progress was too slow.

As it stands, I look forward to exercising because it is part of my spiritual practice and it makes my body happy. I've come to learn that our energy is meant to be used. Life is meant to be spent. If you hoard energy in a miserly way, every little thing life asks of you will seem draining.

And while it is important to spend your energy generously, you must do so wisely. Knowing your limits is part of that as well.

There are many blessings that somatic spiritual practice has to offer us. While integration of body-consciousness into self-realizated buddhahood may be my primary interest, it may still benefit others not explicitly seeking enlightenment. Even on a superficial level somatic practices can cause profound changes in the harmful ways we typically relate with our bodies.

I look forward to sharing more on this extraordinarily useful field of spirituality.

Much love to you all.

#somaticism #spirituality #me #yoga #body #body postivity #psychology #mindfulness #awareness #zen

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yagurlhere · 11 months ago

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This scene...This GODDAMN scene...how it's changed on me. When I was younger and first watched this and this episode, it was all so...sad, yet sweet. The talk Paintbrush and Lightbulb had. Paintbrush coming out. Paintbrush's elimination. Paintbrush's and Lightbulb's goodbye. It all...hurt...yet healed too.

Yet, now when I look at this scene, it feels so bittersweet. As I watch this scene, I feel a mixture of bitterness and sadness, similar to Paintbrush. Is it cause I feel like Paintbrush and end up going too far with my anger too? Is it cause I hate being a sad shadow while everyone else is smiling? Is it cause I feel like maybe there could've been some extra things, like MePhone sending Paintbrush to the calm down corner and Lightbulb's reaction, or perhaps Paintbrush being a little dull yet still trying to smile and be nicer towards Lightbulb, and Lightbulb helps make them feel better? Cause my mom is watching Love Island and I hate that show cause all they do is make out? I don't know.

I just feel...lonely. Sad. Left behind. Like everyone is happy yet I am crying in the corner, and even when I'm comforted, those People are smiling, yet I'm in tears. I guess the answer might be feeling too much.

Even so, the moment the lullaby-like theme kicks in and Lightbulb helps Paintbrush with coming to terms with their identity stills makes me feel so...happy. It's so sweet.

I...feel conflicted with Lightbulb. On one side, I think she can sometimes just be...annoying, but on the other side, I'm proud of her for keeping spirits up, and sort of understand her, since she seems to carry signs of perhaps autism or ADHD, and I sort of relate and...feel bad for her. Perhaps it's envy that while I try to smile yet if something goes wrong I feel dull, she smiles all the time.

Maybe it's cause I would've handled things that Paintbrush and Lightbulb faced differently.

In the end, I feel mixed and bittersweet about the scene, and I feel like it could be a little different, but I feel like I wouldn't change much, as it's a great, heartfelt moment, and tackling things like gender issues. It's just...watching this scene and Paintbrush's elimination...it brings me to tears.

I'll probably make a vent comic where the scene's a little changed yet still very similar, like, a re-imagining of it. Thanks for listening to THIS vent.

#Inanimate Insanity #Object Show #Paintbrush #Lightbulb #Vent #Rant too sort of #Inanimate Insanity 2 #Alternate Reality Show #My eyes feel tired from the tears

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kayfabebabe · 2 years ago

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Welp one I thought of already got answered (it was Stone Cold) but uh for some of the others I thought of were: Moxley, Bryan, Eddie Kingston, Shawn Michaels, Rhea, annnd Lita were the ones I thought of ~Cryptid ((...I hope I got Eddie's last name right lmao,, im beginning to memorize him bc of you actually friendo Mitch lmao))

Friendo Chaaaaase! @cryptidofthekeys You got Eddie's last name right so worries! (I'm sorry that it took a second to answer this one, I fell asleep before I saw it <3 )

Jon Moxley - Smash From the teenage dirtbag boyfriend to now, I have a growing soft spot for Mox. (I'm, also, including Dean Ambrose here because he's too adorable and Goober-esque to ignore.)

Bryan Danielson - Pass BWYAN! Silly little goat man. I have to thank you, Chase, for this one because you once pointed out how 'Gender' Bryan is and I can't see him any other way now.

Shawn Michaels - Smash The King of Gender Envy. The OG Brat. With Shawn, I always get stuck between 'Do I want to (redacted) him?' or 'Do I want to be him?' Normally, it's both.

Rhea Ripley - Smash Okie, not to be very Queer but... Mami. I think I became 15% more Queer from watching her 'Elimination Chamber' match against Beth Phoenix.

Lita - Smash Back in Ye Olden Days of the mid-2000's, Baby Mitch had one of their first wrestling crushes on Lita. And it's continued. She's so effortlessly cool and pretty and... everything.

Eddie Kingston - S M A S H With a capital 'S.' There's something in my head that switches off when I see Eddie and I start giggling, kicking my feet and twirling my hair. It's a little ridiculous.

#Ask Answered #THANK YOU CHASE #Wonderful Friendo #The Human Speaks #Smash or Pass - Wrestling Edition #Bwyan and Shawn are Gender Goals #(Mox is also a little Gender Goals)#Ask Game #Jon Moxley #Bryan Danielson #Shawn Michaels #Rhea Ripley #Lita #Eddie Kingston

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bruhmityblight · 2 years ago

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Reposting this washpo article about the new Florida bills, anti trans and otherwise, cause people need to read them without a paywall:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/03/05/florida-bills-would-ban-gender-studies-transgender-pronouns-tenure-perks/

Florida legislators have proposed a spate of new laws that would reshape K-12 and higher education in the state, from requiring teachers to use pronouns matching children’s sex as assigned at birth to establishing a universal school choice voucher program.

The half-dozen bills, filed by a cast of GOP state representatives and senators, come shortly before the launch of Florida’s legislative session Tuesday. Other proposals in the mix include eliminating college majors in gender studies, nixing diversity efforts at universities and job protections for tenured faculty, strengthening parents’ ability to veto K-12 class materials and extending a ban on teaching about gender and sexuality — from third grade up to eighth grade.

The legislation has already drawn protest from Democratic politicians, education associations, free speech groups and LGBTQ advocates, who say the bills will restrict educators’ ability to instruct children honestly, harm transgender and nonbinary students and strip funding from public schools

“It really is further and further isolating LGBTQ students,” said Sarah Warbelow, legal director for LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign. “It’s making it hard for them to receive the full support that schools should be giving every child.”

Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors, warned that the legislation — especially the bill that would prevent students from majoring in certain topics — threatens to undermine academic freedom.

“The state telling you what you can and cannot learn, that is inconsistent with democracy,” Mulvey said. “It silences debate, stifles ideas and limits the autonomy of educational institutions which … made American higher education the envy of the world.

Sen. Clay Yarborough (R), who introduced one of the 2023 education bills — Senate Bill 1320, which forbids requiring school staff and students to use “pronouns that do not correspond with [a] person’s sex” and delays education on sexual orientation and gender identity until after eighth grade — said in a statement that his law would enshrine the “God-given” responsibility of parents to raise their children.

“The decision about when and if certain topics should be introduced to young children belongs to parents,” Yarborough said in the statement. “The bill also protects students and teachers from being forced to use language that would violate their personal convictions.”

The proposed laws have a high likelihood of passing in the State House, where GOP legislators make up a supermajority. Even before the landslide victory by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in November, very few Republicans pushed back against his policy proposals, instead crafting and passing bills that align with the governor’s mission to remake education in Florida from kindergarten through college

This year’s crop of proposed education bills accelerates those efforts, expanding on controversial ideas from the past two years and adding a few more. Tina Descovich, co-founder of the conservative group Moms for Liberty and a Florida resident, said her group backs the DeSantis education agenda “100 percent” — and that she thinks his policies are catching on outside the state.