#lynn ban last post

[politicsusa]

Lynn Ban, ‘Bling Empire’ cast member, dies weeks after skiing accident

Lynn Ban, a jewelry designer who was a cast member on the Netflix reality series “Bling Empire: New York,” has died, her family announced in a statement on Wednesday.

She was 51.

“My mum passed away on Monday,” Ban’s son, Sebastian, wrote in a post on her verified Instagram, along with a series of family photos. “I know she wanted to share her journey after her accident and brain surgery, so I thought she would appreciate one last post sharing the news to people who supported her.”

Read more

[chappellroansdreamgirl]

good luck, babe! [e.w x fem!reader.]

chapter one.

author's note!<3 - this is inspired by chappell roan's unreleased song good luck, babe! i lllloooovveee chappell roan! this was originally going to be just a LONG ASS one-shot but i don't think i can write any more tonight 😭😭 . BUT I REALLY WANNA PUBLISH IT SO HOPEFULLY YOU GUYS LIKE IT!!!! also forgive me if there's any grammar/spelling errors... i'm posting this at 12:59 am🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶 . reblogs and comments are SO appreciated!!! i busted my ass for y'all 🤗 .

content warnings - SLIGHT angst, reader has internalized homophobia and is outright homophobic to ellie, reader is in the closet, ellie is a lovergirl and she's going through the five stages of grief, modern!au, reader gets sexually assaulted/harrassed, LET ME KNOW IF I MISSED ANYTHING ELSE!!!!

special thanks to!!!!: @sharkfemme and @dykedearest FOR HELPING ME OUT!!!!!! and also LYNN AND MAXIM!!! ALL FOUR OF YOU ARE AMAZING BETA READERS I'M KISSING YOU ALL THROUGH THE PHONE RN!!!

------------------------------------------------------------

it's fine, it's cool.

ellie's grip on her glass got impossibly tighter as her eyes never left your figure, your body swaying to whatever shitty mainstream pop music that was playing.

ellie williams hated secrets. she hated surprises, and she hated being in love with you.

she hated the way you would ghost her after spending a week at her apartment. she hated the way you would stop responding to her texts after you would leave. she hated the way she would let you back in when you needed her, she hated how much she loved to comfort you. she hated how gentle you were when it was just the two of you, compared to how cruel you got in public.

you can say that we ain't nothin' when you know the truth.

ellie took her hand off the glass and gripped the bar table instead, afraid that if she broke another glass she'd be banned from the bar.

you were like forbidden fruit to her, or maybe that was what she was to you.

she knew you weren't ready to come out of the closet. she understood that. so, why keep on playing this fucking game with her?

why did she even still feed into it?

i guess i'm, the fool.

the closet was made out of glass, really. you would stare at every woman's body that passed you, your eyes would scan up their short dress, she could see the curiosity and desire in your face.

but every single time after you two would hook up, there was always a new excuse.

"i'm not a fucking lesbian, ellie. i just... don't like men sometimes." sometimes?

"they're just stupid thoughts... it's not like i could ever be with a woman." but you had been. you had been with her.

"ok but... do you even count as a woman? you wear boxers, you don't even know the meaning of the term ladylike and... i don't know- look at your fuckin' hair! the closest you'd get is a transwoman." that one had hurt her. she didn't talk to you for a month after you made that comment. and then you appeared in her apartment complex hallway, sobbing hysterically.

and of course, she took you back.

like she always does.

with her arms out like an angel, through the car sun-roof.

she hated playing this fucking game with you. it was killing her.

every single time she'd see you at this bar, she imagined you dragging her onto the dancefloor. she imagined being able to walk out with your hand in her's, waking up to your groggy groans when the sun invaded the sacred space of your shared bedroom, you'd hide your face in her neck, mumbling something about, "shouldn't have drank that much last night."

every single time you pulled this shit on her, it felt like her already shattered heart broke off into impossibly tinier pieces.

"i wish you were a boy." crack.

"it's not easy for me like it is for you, els. i don't know the first thing about being proud of myself." crack.

"this hurts me more than you, baby." shattered. her heart was shattered.

it hurts you more than her?

the fucking audacity.

the nights she spent crying next to your sleeping figure.

the hours she'd spent texting you and checking her phone second after second after goddamn second.

the way she would ignore every single obligation she had to pick you up from whatever shit-hole situation you had found yourself in, immediately and happily dropping anything to make sure you were ok.

and it hurt you more than it hurt her?

you didn't know shit about hurt. about misery. about love.

i don't wanna cut it off!

her friends had told her to cut you off. her therapist said in his own professional shrink way that you would never be good for her. at least not while you weren't even good for yourself.

but she couldn't let you go. it seemed like every reason that she had to leave you, fuelled her determination to stay.

but you don't wanna call it love!

every single time you somehow broke her heart in a new way, she fell harder in love with you.

you just wanna love someone that calls you baby!-

ellie was pulled out of her internal anger when your eyes met hers. although it was only a few seconds ago, it felt like she was staring into your eyes for an eternity.

don't fuckin' wave, ellie. look away- LOOK AWAY. , she thought to herself as she was unable to look away from your beautiful irises.

you had this slight smile on your face, the dancefloor's led lights adding a shimmer to your already twinkling eyes.

it felt like her melancholy thoughts had lifted and increased all at the same time by the sight of you acknowledging her presence.

ellie went against her better judgement, her slender hand flying up to wave at you. her lips quirked upwards gently as she scanned your delighted face.

your light expression quickly turned into one of frustration, suppressing your grin with a tightening of your lips before pulling the nearest man close to you in for an unexpected kiss, opening your eyes once you knew the mystery man's were closed, locking your eyes onto ellie's before closing them once more.

the light had died in ellie's stomach after that. her happy hand that was raised in the air faltered painfully back to her side as she watched the man's hands roam down from your sides... to your waist... to your ass.

you can kiss a hundred boys in bars,

those butterflies that she had just felt in her tummy had died slowly, turning into knots of anguish.

she watched your hands cradle the man's face. those same hands that had counted each and every freckle on her face on a snowy morning that had you both stranded in her apartment.

those same hands that had a death-grip on her back as you sobbed into her shoulder every other weeknight as she tried to muffle her own cries.

those same hands that had shoved her violently as she finally tried to stand her ground one afternoon you showed up knocking on her door. "you know what... fuck you, ellie! i don't know why i keep on doing this shit with you anyways." you said, before storming off. you called her later that night. she answered. "i'm sorry, els. i'm sorry, i'll do better, i'm so sorry-" , "it's ok, baby. it's ok. i know you didn't mean it. you're ok baby, i forgive you."

shoot another shot, try to stop the feeling!

she would've stayed in that seat, stewed in her anger for a bit more before the tears inevitably came falling down if it wasn't for the way the dude's hands creeped under your skin-tight jeans and how you flinched away from his grasp, breaking the kiss immediately with a nervous giggle creeping up.

the guy obviously took it as an invitation to do more, placing his hand back on your waist and agressively pulling you closer.

you can say it's just the way you are,

ellie's head tilted as she watched this go down.

what she wanted to do was launch that creep into the nearest wall and make sure he never tainted your body again. but she didn't want to get up too soon, she wanted to be certain that you needed help, whether you wanted it or not.

your hand stopped him from coming any closer, placing it right before his chest. you said something along the lines of, "don't want to do anything." .

make a new excuse, another stupid reason-

instead of him being a decent human being and leaving you alone, his face quickly turned into one of anger. his jaw jutted out as he tried to pull you in again, leaving you thrashing against his body.

how was no one else seeing this? why was no one else doing anything?!

she didn't even have time to process what she was about to do. her feet were on the ground, marching their way towards you before she could even think about her course of action in a smart way.

"let me go, fuckin' creep!" she heard you shriek as she grew closer to you, attempting to elbow him in the chest.

ellie felt like no matter how fast she was walking, she would never make it to you in time.

he laughed tauntingly as he grinded against. "i'm the creep, bitch?! you kissed me f-"

his last word was stolen from him as ellie forcefully pushed him off you with and landed a blow against his nose.

he groaned in pain, falling to the ground as he cradled his now-broken-nose.

you gasped in shock and horror. "what the fuck, ellie?!" you scolded her. as if you would've been fine on your own.

she ignored your words though, pulling the guy's hand away as she forced another punch to his face.

now people were finally looking.

she didn't stop until she felt your hands on her stomach, pulling her away from the scene.

"she fuckin'... said... no!..." ellie's voice thundered, erratic breaths in between her words before bringing one last painful kick to his face before letting you lead her out of the bar and into the night air.

you didn't stop even after you two were at the entrance door of the establishment, you made sure the two of you were far enough away that ellie wouldn't be caught if the police were called.

she couldn't help but feel those stupid fucking butterflies again as your hand gripped hers and felt a little disappointed when you dropped it, suddenly all too aware that you were still in public.

her green eyes met your own, yours filled with anger and chaos... hers filled with love.

"hey, swan." the auburnette sighed out simply, that stupid love-grin back on her face as she was finally close to you.

your eyebrows furrowed in disbelief as your hands went to massage your temples. you let out a humorless giggle. "you're so... fucking stupid, ellie!" you exclaimed, shoving her chest as if she was in the wrong.

her grin turned into a confused frown as she surrendered her hands in the air, her eyebrows mirroring your own now. "wh-wh....what-"

good luck, babe!

"god, you have this severe goddamn saviour complex or some shit!... i was fine! i was fucking fine on my own before you marched in and assaulted that guy."

well good luck, babe!

you gaslighted beautifully, defending the man you knew nothing about over the woman who was fatally in love with you, she almost believed you.

ellie's frown turned into an angry smile as she brought a hand to gently wipe over the bridge of her nose, a mannerism of her's she had developed whenever she got frustrated with you.

"assau-... ok, sure-... you wanna talk about assault, baby? that fuckin' guy would've assaulted you if i didn't step in. he was assaul-"

you shut your eyes tightly the way you do when you wanted to block something out that ellie was obviously right about. you shook your head stubbornly. "gggoddd ellie- it was my fault! i wanted it and then i didn't. i shouldn't have- i shouldn't have kissed him in the first place. i gave him mixed signals, i-"

you'd have to stop the world just to stop the feeling!-

your eyebrows grew dangerously closer to your face as you cradled your head in your hands.

ellie was quick to walk right back to you, caressing your arms.

"what? baby, no. no, it's not your fault... that- that fuckin' guy... hey... look at me, sweetheart." she cooed lovingly.

good luck, babe!

you slowly brought your hands away from your face, meeting her breathtaking green eyes.

you wanted to fall into her arms, you wanted to thank her for coming to your rescue and kiss her and confess to her how scared you truly were.

but you didn't. you never did.

your slightly calm expression that came over you once you met your secret lover's gaze turned into one of annoyance. ellie was, like always, taken by surprise as you thrashed against her grip, just like the way you did with that monster in the bar.

good luck, babe!

ellie's eyes blurred with tears as she watched your face turn into a grimace.

"fuck you, ellie." you said quietly as you broke free from her hands, storming off into the night. leaving her. like always.

you'd have to stop the world just to stop the feeling.

[fuck-customers]

Had my co worker help with a return and Lynn (frequent customer, talks a LOT and is nice enough but sometimes we just don't have time) misgendered her and then argued with her over her gender and made her cry and then after j left i was like hey Lynn thats not a very nice thing to say. And she's like omg I didn't mean anything by it!! Tell her sorry! And I'm like yeah I could tell you didn't mean it maliciously at all, but its still not nice.

Then I told her I was trans cuz fuck it. And gave her resources. She asked whats in my pants and I said that's also not okay to ask and she's like ohh I see why.

Like genuinely didn't know trans etiquette, had no ill intentions. I gave her resources to learn, and it ended up okay. I could tell she really just didn't know.

And I bought j chocolate. Just cuz I usually pass now doesn't mean I've forgotten how much it hurts. I still have those nightmares. Have to feel my beard is still there to go back to sleep.

Next morning, I wake up to a text in the manager group chat saying she is banned. For this and many reasons, but this transphobia was the last straw.

She's also just generally annoying, talks to everyone, buys 3 things but spends 3 hours here, argues over returns, everything that's just annoying. We are all relieved.

In the year of our tormenter 2023, you should know basic etiquette enough to not argue with someone's gender or ask what's in their pants. Get with the program.

Posted by admin Rodney.

[emerald-chan]

Hey Lynn! I hope you're doing well. I have finished the revised version if the message. As soon as you're done, I'll send it over to Dudley. And I was sure to add the people mentioned that are good members of the solars, and shouldn't be bashed.

✨✨✨✨

Hey guys, Rascal here. This particular message something's been coming for a long time now. I know that when it comes to the affairs of discourse with certain members or addressing behavior or contoversy, usually the co-leaders address and handle it then tell me the results. But this time its a matter that's gotten to a point where I was alerted to intervene myself.

My friend @LynnMagne has alerted me several times that the behavior of certain Solar members has gotten to a point where its no longer civil when it comes to disagreements, or are placing blame on other members for their actions. I've even gotten word that they refuse to listen to reason despite multiple attempts to defuse the situation or explain why their actions/words were wrong. I was also sent evidence of these actions through screenshots of conversations.

This tab only allows up to five images, but I can post the other evidences in the next post if necessary. Other rascals that have supported evidence are Davi Crossover, Dino/Mysticals and will post their responses/evidence and messages on their respective community tabs as well.

You're free to look at the below pictures that were sent as evidence of certain Solars actions. With that being said, we've come to a decided the only action that could fix this:

Banning Solar members who are also Rascals from the group and revoking their staff member status. Its not something I wanted to do, and I really hate losing people in the group, but I made the Rascals group so we could have fun together, not tear anyone apart.

There was an idea to monitor people, but this could require TONS of time and it would interfere with many regular members schedule. Not to mention that both sides would feel a lack of privacy as well. I don't mind when others want to have conversations or even disagreements, but when it escalates to a point they can't listen to reason, then we have to take action.

Last, but not least: I was also shown/told that The Solars often force Davi and Candler to not be friends with certain people due to these accusations. And many of them are incredibly serious, and shouldn't be taken lightly. Just because some rascals are friends with certain people, doesn't mean that they are the labels that have been put upon them.

It should be made clear that they shouldn't force others to end friendships. The accusations made also lead to them making their own reasons to ban people like Lynn, Davi, Dino, and Diego from the Solars. Its especially important to know that everyone-and I mean everyone-has a right to tell us problems regardless of age difference between members. We need to know about these problems and handle them together.

If we do introduce any new members from the Solars or otherwise, we suggest they work on themselves before inducting anymore members into the group. There are a few nice Solars which are Sean, Mandy, Nuke, Sonic Past Cool, Art Dragon, Clover, and Daniela. And I, nor anyone else has a problem with them. They're perfectly fine.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but this is something I've needed to address for a long time. I'm not personally mad at anyone, or holding a grudge. I'm just kind of disappointed in this coming to light. I can even understand if you're mad at me. I just want my friends to be safe as we work on what we love, either together or apart. We'll get back to the fun stuff (outside of new podcasts releasing and my Wish Rewrite videos) soon enough, we just need to get past this first.

Thanks for reading, and I'm sorry it took me a while to finally address this.

Sincerely, Rascal. 🐶

I think the draft looks good, but I realized I forgot to mention Candler as one of the nicer Solars. Overall, it looks good.

[overwhelmedinsomniac]

An Update

It's been four-and-a-half-ish years since I was last active. A lot has happened. The highlights:

I participated in BLM Seattle right after that last post. It was amazing, and it was widely misreported in the news. It has pushed me into politics beyond civic activism.

I have flat-out stopped talking to Lynne. I'm better for it.

Therapy has been revealing. I have dissociative identity disorder alongside the obsessive compulsion, complex post-traumatic stress, and social anxiety. Look how disordered I am. >.> We're working on nailing down attention deficit diagnoses and adjusting to reframing my view of the world through a significant shift in my gender identity. A recent concussion has been a significant setback for me. My brain is a fuzzy mess.

Life is just as hard as it ever was. Covid resulted in homelessness, and recovering from that hasn't gone well. If I can just keep what's in my life right at the moment from devolving into what seem to be the usual patterns in my life, I am on a cusp of getting back to my 2018 efforts to be on my own feet and stable.

I unwittingly traded one Virgo bestie for another. The last one threatened my survival with selfish behavior and got the boot. This one seems to have no such compunctions. I suspect his season in my life is long. I hope so. I genuinely love and appreciate him. If he comes up, we'll call him Mordred.

The holiday nears. I hate it. With it nears the anniversary of the day Nate died. The day We killed him? I understand what happened on 28 Dec 2015 much better now. My therapist thinks he's still floating around up here somewhere and that I'm a dissociation. I hate the idea that I'm not real, but... she might be right. Even as I type that, the rest of Us rail against that statement to the tune of cogito ergo sum. Whatever the case, We're all better off without him, just as he supposed, and I don't want her to resurrect him. That kind of necrotheurgy is a banned practice in most magical cultures for a reason.

I've embraced atheism and absurdism. Those things feel like an ideological home, and they comfort me as beliefs should.

I'm still an insomniac, and I still need a place to speak freely when I'm overwhelmed. I am, by the way, overwhelmed and feeling especially alone in it. I have Mordred, but for the time being, he's one person; no single person can handle me, and I'm trying to find a way to give him a break from me so I don't break him like I seem to do everyone else in my life. Like, no one stays. Shit gets challenging, and when I get overwhelmed by it and need extra help beyond what this culture asserts is a reasonable median, folks bail. I'm 42, and I guess that's just how it is. It hasn't changed in the last four decades, and I've no reason to suspect it's going to change in the next four...

So, We're learning how to be Our own family. What good is there in having DID if I can't be my own friend group and, therefore, never alone?

[stormclouds-chainmail]

[Image description: several Reddit screenshots. Image 1 and 2 described here. Images 3 to 5 have alt text which I've included here too as Tumblr sometimes loses alt text.

Image 1: Reddit user Dependent_Top_4425: Robins see their reflection in your glasses and go into attack mode.

Reddit user RazorFlea: Why the fuck did Batman teach them that

Image 2: Reddit user MyCatCalledLuna on Dec 26, 2023: My favourite Reddit post is someone whose sis-in-law is pregnant with a girl and her brother wants to name her Stephanie which SIL doesn't like (brother will not accept another name). You then find out they have two boys already, Richard and Jason, named by brother. Someone asked if he liked batman and it ended badly for the brother.

Reddit user gibbsith on Dec 27, 2023: @ MyCatCalledLuna i'd never seen that post before so i looked it up and Yes its crazy but my fave comment was on the update post where someone was like "i cant believe someone was a big enough robin stan to fabricate this lie and keep it going!" to which someone rightfully responded "tim drake behavior"

Image 3: an AITA post by u/JustBeingHonest4 titled AITA for telling my SIL that no one in our family is named Stephanie?

Verdict: Not the A-hole

I can't figure out if I did anything wrong, or if so, what, because I honestly have no idea what's going on. Hopefully someone here can give me a clue. Here's the relevant info, as far as I know.

My brother and his wife are expecting their first girl after two boys. I love Ricky and Jace, and so does my SIL, but she has always wanted a girl and is very excited to be having one. She also wants to name the girl Chloe, as she loves that name. My brother hates the name Chloe and really wants to name their daughter Stephanie. They have been arguing about it for a few weeks, since finding out the gender.

I got to my parents house late last night and my SIL was the only person still awake. We talked for a little bit, and she asked me the weirdest question. She asked me if I knew any stories about great aunt Stephanie. I was so confused. I literally said "who?"

SIL clarified that she was talking about our grandmother's older sister that died when grandma was a little girl. Our grandma had two sisters, but their names were Judy and Lynn. There's no one in our family named Stephanie, as far as I know. I told as much to my SIL. She changed the subject after that, and we soon went to bed.

This morning my brother and his wife were both sulking during breakfast. Even the kids could tell. Ricky kept saying "stop being grumpy on Christmas." So it wasn't just my imagination. I got my brother alone and confronted him. He snapped at me for "meddling" and told me to stay out of his marriage.

My brother is pissed at me, and my SIL won't even talk to me. I'm afraid to say anything to my parents and drag them into this, especially since I still don't know what this is. Either my grandmother had a secret sister that I don't know about but my brother does for some reason, or my brother lied to his wife to convince her to name their baby Stephanie. Both options seem equally weird to me. Maybe there's a third possibility I'm not seeing?

Reddit, am I the asshole? If so, please explain to me why. I don't want to be the reason Christmas is ruined.

Update: Most awkward Christmas Eve dinner ever. Gotta keep this short; lots going on. Everyone now knows what my brother was doing with the kids names(except the kids obviously). They are pissed. Weirdly my mom is the most pissed. A Christmas truce is in place for the kids, so no fighting on the holiday. However the baby is definitely going to be named Chloe. My brother very quickly backed down when my mom said some few choice words to him. The topic is completely banned for the rest of festivities, so, for now at least, they've tied a bow on the situation.

Image 4: Christmas morning update: Aside from some glaring over a couple of the boy's stocking stuffers (Robin Funko pops) everything went well with the gift opening (as well as being woken up at 5:30 AM by being jumped on by one's nephews can). I think my brother realizes he crossed a line and has been very attentive to his wife. He mentioned getting Chloe's name embroidered on some stuff when they get home. He even told mom he would do the Christmas breakfast so she could have a break and he gave me an "I'm sorry" grin when I opened his gift. I think everything is going to be fine.

Image 5: Comment from Chandak562: Your brother is a comics fan, right? Is he by any chance a big Batman fan, because I'm seeing a kind of pattern with these names.

Reply from op: Yeah, big time. How did you know?

Reply from FKAlag: Let's just say that if this baby had been a boy he would have suggested Tim.

Reply from op: That was the name he wanted if they were having a boy! How did you know that?!

Reply from FKAlag: These are all the names of former Robins. As in BATMAN & ...

Richard Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown and Damian Wayne.

EDIT: In all fairness, it was u/Chandak562 who figured the Robin connection out.

Reply from op: I am going to confirm this on Wikipedia, but if you're right, and I can't imagine why you would make this up, my brother is about to be in so much trouble.

End description]

i’ve always thought reddit is a hellscape but my friend just sent me this and yk what maybe i’ll give it a chance

[qnewsau]

Tasmanian Labor and Greens LGBTQIA+ election promises

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/tasmanian-labor-and-greens-lgbtqia-election-promises/

Tasmanian Labor and Greens LGBTQIA+ election promises

Equality Tasmania and Working It Out have welcomed the Tasmanian Labor Party and Greens’ commitment to a raft of LGBTIQA+ reforms at the upcoming state election on March 23.

Labor’s Plan for LGBTIQA+ Equality unveiled by equality spokesperson, Ella Haddad includes:   – a Minister for Equality. – an effective ban on conversion practices, working with community on a model. – funding for services, support and advocacy, including almost $100,000 per year for Working It Out and $300,000 for Equality Tasmania. – delivery of an LGBTIQA+ Action Plan. – work towards a dedicated LGBTIQA+ health and mental health service. – new protections against hate crime. – financial redress for those who have historical gay and trans criminal convictions expunged.   The Greens’ policy, unveiled last week by Greens’ leader, Dr Rosalie Woodruff, commits to:   – an effective ban on conversion practices, fully implementing the recommendations of the Tasmania Law Reform Institute. – implement an LGBTIQA+ Inclusion Act, including a LGBTIQA+ Inclusion Commissioner. – deliver a dedicated LGBTIQA+ community mental health service, legal service, healthcare centre and Pride Centre – prohibit medically unnecessary interventions on children with innate variations of sex characteristics. – increase funding for the LGBTIQA+ Community Fund by $250,000 per year. – introduce training for all education staff, health care providers, corrections, Service Tasmania, and police and emergency workers in LGBTIQA+ inclusion. – improve school inclusion by establishing pride groups, developing curriculum materials related to LGBTIQA+ issues, and appointment of LGBTIQA+ inclusion leaders.

“This is the most comprehensive LGBTIQA+ election policy Tasmanian Labor has ever presented because it covers law reform, services, representation and setting long-term goals,” Equality Tasmania spokesperson Rodney Croome said.   “Labor’s plan for an effective ban on conversion practices, better hate crime laws and financial redress for historic convictions are very welcome, as is its commitment to funding Equality Tasmania so we can advocate for LGBTIQA+ people in need”   “Most Tasmanians want our island to be friendly, open, equitable and inclusive, and it’s heartening to see Labor recognise this aspiration and rise to it.”

“We welcome Labor’s plan because it will improve health and welling outcomes for Tasmania’s LGBTIQA+ community,” Working It Out CEO Lynn Jarvis said.   “It also builds on the current Liberal Government’s work to develop an LGBTIQA+ Action Plan and Framework and the current Government’s funding for LGBTIQA+ services and advocacy.”   “Having an Equality Minister will also mean advocacy at the highest level for the needs of the LGBTIQA+ community.”

The current Liberal Tasmanian Government initiated the development of an LGBTIQA+ Action Plan and Framework after it commissioned the largest-ever survey of the state’s LGBTIQA+ community. It has also provided funding for LGBTIQA+ support, training, services, advocacy and policy development.

Last year the Tasmanian Government unveiled a law about conversion practices but that has been criticised as it would allow many conversion practices to continue.  

Equality Tasmania and Working It Out have also welcomed the Greens’ election commitments.

“The health and wellbeing outcomes of LGBTIQA+ Tasmanians are well below the state average so we welcome the Greens’ commitments,” Working It Out CEO Lynn Jarvis said.   “Mental health outcomes are particularly poor due to the legacy of historic discrimination and stigma so we welcome Greens’ support for a dedicated mental health service.”   “It’s also pleasing to see the Greens’ commitment to banning medically-unnecessary interventions on children with innate variations of sex characteristics because these interventions can cause long-lasting physical and mental scars.”

“This is the most comprehensive LGBTIQA+ election policy the Tasmanian Greens have ever presented because it proactively challenges discrimination and fosters inclusion across the law, health care, education, public safety and so many other areas of life,” Equality Tasmania spokesperson Rodney Croome said.   “It’s very welcome to see the Greens’ take such a strong stand against conversion practices because these practices are a form of quackery that cause deep harm and can never be justified.”   “The Greens’ policies will ensure Tasmania continues to lead the nation when it comes to inclusion and equity for LGBTIQA+ people.” 

For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

[coochiequeens]

Ladies we need to start aggressively calling out the lies TRAs use as justification to invade women’s spaces.

Following the banning of an 80-year-old woman from her local YMCA earlier this month for expressing discomfort with a biological male in the women’s restroom overseeing little girls changing out of their swimsuits the toilets, protests have been planned in Port Townsend, Washington against the city’s stance on the matter.

Amy Sousa, the event’s organizer, told The Post Millennial that she’s known Julie Jaman, the women at the center of the YMCA controversy, for about 10 years, and noted that Port Townsend is her hometown.

"So this time it’s personal," she said.

On Wednesday, the Port Townsend Council Culture And Society Committee will consider the language of a transgender proclamation issued by Mayor David J. Faber.

That proclamation will be up for public comment and consideration by the city council on August 15, where Sousa and at least 50 others plan to hold a press conference outside of the city hall in opposition to both the proclamation, as well as the city’s stance on the matter of Jaman being banned from her local YMCA pool.

Jaman, a resident of the city of about 40 years, was banned from the pool after she discovered a biological male by the name of Clementine Adams, a Mountain Valley Pool YMCA staff member, chaperoning a group of girls with a day camp to the bathroom.

Jaman asked Adams, "Do you have a penis?," which eventually devolved into Jaman being banned from the facility for not abiding to YMCA policies.

At the time, a manager at the YMCA told The Post Millennial that Jaman had not been banned for that event alone, but rather for "repeatedly violating the Olympic Peninsula YMCA code of conduct, specifically, using disrespectful words or gestures towards YMCA staff or others; and abusive, harassing and/or obscene language or gestures towards YMCA staff or others."

In the wake of the late July event, Faber issues a proclamation stating the city’s acceptance of transgender individuals, noting rates of suicide, poverty, and and contributions amongst the group of people.

"The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law study found that transgender people 16 and over are four times more likely to be crime victims than cisgender people," the proclamation read.

"The Williams Institute reports that 40 percent of transgender adults have attempted suicide inn their lifetimes and 30 percent of transgender youth have attempted suicide in the last year," it reads. This despite findings that reject and disprove that claim.

"Despite the many obstacles, transgender people have contributed greatly to art, culture, and science, including Lynn Conway who revolutionized microchip design and Wendy Carlos who won three Grammy awards," the proclamation added. Carlos underwent surgery in 1972, after presenting as a woman for 4 years, and composed the music for Tron. Conway worked at IBM in the 1960s and was released from that position due to transitioning.

This proclamation noted that "Washington state law protects the rights of transgender people to be free from discrimination and to enjoy all the privileges and protections granted to all people, including full enjoyment of public accommodations, employment, and participation in all aspects of civil life."

Overall, it states that "the City of Port Townsend values our transgender residents and visitors and urges all residents and visitors to be respectful, welcoming, and kind to everyone regardless of gender identity. I further proclaim that discrimination and prejudice, in any form, especially against transgender people, are unwelcome and have no place in the City of Port Townsend."

Speaking with The Post Millennial, Sousa said that her event will gather on the city hall’s steps shortly before the council considers the proclamation on August 15, where she said the microphone would be open for anyone to speak, and added that Jaman would be speaking at the event as well.

She said that people from all over the Seattle area will be coming to the event, including feminists as well as "women who wouldn't consider themselves feminists and men who don't consider themselves feminists, but who this issue deeply touches."

Sousa said that at the center of this is the issue of discrimination. She noted that the YMCA says they don’t discriminate based on things like age, sex, race, or gender identity, but wants to bring up to the city council that the YMCA is denying provisions and protections based the female sex .

Sousa said that she would be bringing the issue forward to the council as sex-based discrimination, "because if you deny women and girls provisions for our bodies, for our sex, that is a discrimination."

In response to Sousa airing these concerns with the proclamation on Twitter, Faber, who calls himself a social democrat on Twitter, said that "the transphobia have found me. Fuuuuuun."

"The mayor of Port Townsend doesn't seem to think my concerns deserve respectful consideration. I think women/girls deserve the sex based provisions that our foremothers battled for centuries to attain, privacy, safety, & dignity for our BODIES," Sousa wrote in response to Faber’s tweet. "Mayor's response: Zoopity boob."

"So this is a little ridiculous to me that this is how the mayor is choosing to respond to women and girls who have legitimate concerns. So he's, he's not taking these concerns with seriousness and the gravity that I think we are due," Sousa told The Post Millennial, who added that the mayor’s response is "juvenile."

In regards to the proclamation, Sousa said that she "can be respectful, welcoming and kind to anyone no matter what claims they make about themselves and their identity."

"That has no impact on my other claim, which is to have sex based rights and provisions around my body, you know, to have boundaries around my body as a woman and for girls," she added, noting that these two points are not "mutually exclusive."

“Sadly, 2021 has already seen at least 57 transgender or gender non-conforming people fatally shot or killed by other violent means. We say at least because too often these stories go unreported — or misreported. In previous years, the majority of these people were Black and Latinx transgender women.”

Versus

”While in France, the word femicide, or féminicide, is now used as a way of describing the epidemic of women killed by men in intimate settings, the term is barely understood outside of niche circles in the US. This, in spite of the fact that there are 10 times more women killed in this way in this country than in France (1,014 confirmed intimate acquaintance killings of women in the US in 2018 compared to 120 that same year in France). Adjusting for population size, the problem is twice as bad in the US than it is in France.

In Turkey, where so-called “honor killings” are reportedly still practiced, and where the murder of a 27-year-old woman by her ex-boyfriend last summer sparked globally-covered protests, the rate of women killed is also below that of the US. There, 474 women were killed in 2019, compared to 2,991 women in the same year here. Even accounting for the fact that the US is four times larger in population than Turkey, the proportion of femicides here remains distinctly larger.”

and versus this

There were more attacks based on race and sexual attraction then gender identity. And the graph would look different if they counted femicide has a hate crime

[oldsalempost-blog]

The Old Salem Post

Our  Local Tamassee-Salem SC Area News each Monday except holidays          Contact: theoldsalempost@gmail.com                                                    Distributed to local businesses, town hall, library.                                             Volume 7 Issue 5                                                                                                  Week of December 19,  2022                https://www.tumblr.com/settings/blog/oldsalempost-blog                                                         Lynne Martin Publishing

EDITOR:  This will be the closing issue of Old Salem Post for the 2022 year. Our staff will enjoy the next two Mondays for the holidays and will be refreshed to see what 2023 has in store.  The older I get the faster it goes.  And, I have a lot I would like to accomplish in the New Year! Lord Willing!  I hope and pray you and your family have wonderful moments together. Cherish the time!   LRMartin                                                                                  

TOWN OF SALEM: We will close Dec 21, at 12noon until Dec 28, 8am.   *Downtown Market every Sat. 8am-12pm.  Place a memory ornament for your loved ones  on the Town tree all month long.  Next Town Council meeting Jan 17, 2023.                                              

.                                            ASHTON RECALLS        By Ashton Hester                COMMUNITY WELL SERVED RURAL SALEM RESIDENTS - (Last week I posted  a story written by Doris Rogers in 1977 regarding the death of Erby Bennett's mule, which he had owned for 40 years. Following is another story by Doris, in which Mr. Bennett was also involved. It was in the January 12, 1977 issue of the Keowee Courier. Due to its length, I am only posting half of the story this week and will post the second half next week). . .Days were lazy back then, especially summer days. . .Early in the morning on those summer days people of the Fall Creek community above Salem came to the community well to get their water for the day. Water to drink, water to cook with, for washing clothes, cars, for bathing and for watering the animals. . .And as they waited their turn at the windlass, the people dreamed and shared their hopes for the future. . .In 1935 this well was dug by the three Bennett boys, Vondiver, Erby and Oliver, and their friend Tommy Hancock. By hand, with picks, shovels, ropes and buckets, they worked their way down 55 feet to what was and still is the best-tasting water in the area. . .Over the years 15 families have been serviced by the community well--eight families at one time--which still has the original windlass. There in Bennettsville, Route 2, Salem, stands the provider and old friend, which now has a new cement-block box. . .Several times new residents wanted to put pumps into the well to prevent walking and carrying their buckets of water, but the two older Bennett men wouldn't allow it. Their reasoning was that unequal consumption would result in unfair advantages and would eventually leave the well dry. . .TO BE CONCLUDED NEXT WEEK      

JOCASSEE VALLEY BREWING COMPANY,(JVBC)& COFFEE SHOP13412 N Hwy 11 Open WED-BLUE GRASS JAM 6:30pm-9pm –THURS:  OLD TIME JAM.   Fri–8am-9.  Call 864-873-0048    CLOSED  Sat and Sun :  CLOSED CHRISTMAS EVE and CHRISTMAS DAY.  MERRY CHRISTMAS!

ADVENT SEASON: The 4th Advent Candle was lit on Sunday: The candle of Peace for all mankind.   On Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, the white center candle of Christ will be lit to welcome the Christ Child, Emanuel, God with us.  

SHARING:  Recently, I stood on my porch and looked at some maple trees I planted, from one gallon cans.  They are huge now.  Mixed with them now are oaks, pines, cedars and dogwoods.  All of the trees have a foliage that is green, but different shades of green depending on the season. We must take time during our busy lives and enjoy the wonders of Nature, God created.  Let us be thankful during this time as we celebrate the arrival of Jesus Christ,            AMARTIN    

O HOLY NIGHT:   The beloved Christmas song “O Holy Night” was banned from churches in 1847 because the poem was written by an atheist and French poet, Placide Cappeau, and composed by a Jew, Adolphe Adam.  Imagine the feelings you would never have experienced if that song of unity and serenity of Christ’s birth had never been heard.  The story is told in the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, a French soldier started singing “O Holy Night” on Christmas Eve. In the middle of battle, the soldier stood up, unarmed from his trench and faced the Germans as he began singing the hymn. Germans in return sang a carol of their own language. The war ceased for 24 hours, and soldiers from both camps celebrated Christmas before returning to battle.  Since 1933 the cherished hymn has gained wide acceptance.                                    

JOTTINGS BY JEANNIE:  Wreaths Across America; Remember, HONOR, TEACH  After your family has enjoyed opening presents and savoring the holiday meal take a stroll through Salem United Methodist's cemetery. This year we are honoring our veterans by decorating their graves with Maine-grown Balsam Wreaths decorated with red velvet bows. Debbie Kimbrell, Patsy Earnhardt and I have been working on this project since August. As the wreaths are being placed on graves, I have the honor of reading the veterans names, ensuring that their legacy of duty, service, and sacrifice  is never forgotten. You Queens of Isaqueena! You Kings of Keowee! Wishing you JOY at Christmas and Always! MIZ JEANNIE                                                                                     

 EAGLES NEST ART CENTER , 501c3, 4 Eagle Lane, Salem                                                                                                                                                              Christmas Gift Idea:  Name a Seat in the Eagles Nest Auditorium is now open to the general public and community.  Single person, $200, Family or couples, $250.  Contact eaglesnestartcenter@gmail.com or Darlene 864-710-8758.  Let ENAC hang a Memory Ornament for you on the Tree Downtown Salem for $10.    Or, give a donation to honor or in memory of a loved one.                                    STRING LESSONS?: $10 each group class. Contact  eaglesnestartcenter@gmail.com or 864-280-1258.   Give a  Gift of Music!          ENAC REGULAR meeting Monday, January 2, 2023  at 5pm.                              UPCOMING PERFORMANCES IN 2023:                                                              MOUNTAIN FAITH BAND:  ENAC welcomes this family Bluegrass/Gospel band from Sylvia, N.C.  On JAN.14 at 7PM TICKETS $20   Available at the Town of Salem or call 864-280-1258.                                                        

 OCONEE MOUNTAIN OPRY JAN. 21 TICKETS $10.                                                                                                               

WOMEN ENCOURAGING WOMEN: FEB. 21 1PM-4PM  A Love Offering will be taken.  * This is a wonderful event for our local churches to help sponsor. *

ARE YOU IN NEED OF A COAT OR SOCKS?   Call Missy at  864-944-8732        Community Food Bank through local churches. No one should be hungry for food or love:  Contact Teresa and James Barker  at 944-0258                          

GOLDEN CORNER FOOD PANTRY:  Tamassee-Salem mobile food pantry.  Pick up at Salem First Baptist Church second Saturday each month.  10am-12pm .  Anyone on EBT ( food stamps) will automatically apply.  Call for more information  the Golden Corner Food Pantry 864-882-3610.                                        

WEDDINGS AT TAMASSEE:  BRIDE-TO-BE TEA PARTY.  TOUR OUR VENUE OPTIONS.  VISIT WITH WEDDING VENDORS.  REFRESHMENTS PROVIDED.  SUNDAY, JANUARY 8, 2023 3PM-5PM, SOUTH CAROLINA COTTAGE.  COST $10 BRIDE AND 1 GUEST.  REGISTER BY CALLING 864-944-1390                                                                              

Christmas Gift Ideas:  Give your burdens to God.  Then give  lots of Love, Hugs and Smiles so they can be returned anytime!    

                                                                                                                             Check on your neighbor!  Stay warm!         LRM                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

[jooniens]

Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag

Hello and welcome to the blog! This will be both a tag and an introduction to me and my reading style/taste. If I don’t have an answer specific to this year, I will substitute it with a general answer. 

As of June 26th, I have read 18 books this year. According to Goodreads that is still 1 book behind schedule (I’m never good enough for you am I Goodreads?) Despite Goodreads attempting to gaslight me, I am very proud of my reading progress this year and I can’t wait to share it with you! 

BTW: My Goodreads account will be linked at the end of this post. 

Without further ado, let’s get started!

Best book you have read so far in 2022? 

Definitely Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. It was my first Sanderson book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a lot more developed than other fantasy books that I have previously read. 

Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2022?

Well, I have only read one sequel in 2022 (more to come) and that was Well of Ascension, the second book in the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. This book felt mostly like filler but the last 100-150 pages were a whirlwind that I thoroughly enjoyed. 

New release you haven’t read yet, but want to?

There are two that come to mind, one being Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao. I’ve been anxiously waiting for this release and when it was finally released I couldn’t find it ANYWHERE! Now I can find it but other books just catch my interest first.

Most anticipated release for the second half of 2022?

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I have absolutely loved everything I have read by Reid, she is such a talented author and I can’t wait to read another one of her books. I’m not the biggest fan of the cover (and honestly if the UK version is better I may just wait for it) but I’m nevertheless excited. 

Biggest Disappointment?

A full review for this is going to be on my Goodreads (It does contain spoilers so beware) but my biggest disappointment was All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. For being a Pulitzer Prize winner, I had high expectations for this book that it did not meet, again my full review is on Goodreads. 

Biggest Surprise?

My biggest surprise this year was American Panda by Gloria Chao. It wasn’t the best thing I have ever read by any means but it was pleasantly surprising and a comforting read. 

New Favorite Author?

Brandon Sanderson by far. Ever since I have finished Mistborn I have wanted to start the Stormlight Archive. 

Newest Fictional Crush? 

KELSIER FROM MISTBORN!!!! I love that man with my entire heart. 

Newest Favorite Character?

Kelsier(Mistborn), Vin(Mistborn), Gansey(The Raven Cycle), Darius (Darius the Great Is Not Okay).

Book That Made You Cry?

Ladies, Gentlemen, Theydies, and anyone else, take another shot for Mistborn by Branson Sanderson.

Book that made you happy?

Dumplin’, American Panda, Darius the Great Is Not Okay, and Scythe (My only re-read this year). 

Favorite Book to Movie Adaptation you have seen so far this year? 

I’m bending the rules on this and I’m just going to say which adaptation I am most excited about which is The Summer I Turned Pretty Amazon Prime original series. The book is not a literary work of genius but it was a comforting read and I hope the show will provide that same level of comfort. 

Favorite Review you have written this year?

I’m new to the review game but the only review I have written this year that was in-depth was for All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. My tone was critical in it and possibly a bit rude but I was really upset after I had finished it. I might need to go review that soon....

Most beautiful book you bought this year?

I was on a book-buying ban for most of the year but I have to say it is a tie between Spin The Dawn by Elizabeth Lim and The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Honorable mention goes to (you guessed it) Mistborn and Well of Ascension. The artist did such an amazing job on those covers. 

What books do you really need to read by the end of the year? 

I have so many that I want to read this year. Up on the list is Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson, The Unhoneymooners, The Poppy War and These Violent Delights. 

This concludes the tag! I want to thank you so much for reading and I hope you stick around for the next half of the year!

Much Love, 

June <3 

GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/87465579-emma 

[new2677867things]

Adam Hochschild Says Books Can Change the World. He Has Proof.

(When you need something great to read, ask a bard.  As The New York Times Book Review found recently, this certainly holds true with regard to Adam Hochschild, the author of wonderful nonfiction works including King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa (1998, 2006), a history of the brutal conquest of the Congo by Belgian King Leopold II, and Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves (2005) about the antislavery movement in the British Empire.)

Adam Hochschild Says Books Can Change the World. He Has Proof.

The historian, whose new book is the Rose Pastor Stokes biography “Rebel Cinderella,” treasures his first-edition copy of “The Jungle,” by Upton Sinclair: “This one gave us our pure food and drug laws.”

The New York Times Book Review

March 12, 2020

  BOOK REVIEW:  What’s the last great book you read?

HOCHSCHILD:  Joseph Roth’s “The Radetzky March,” for the second time. Such a multilayered portrait of the vast, creaky, fragile Austro-Hungarian Empire on the eve of collapse. All those ethnic and class tensions simmering under the surface while shiny-booted hussars parade through sunlit streets.

BOOK REVIEW:  Are there any classics that you only recently read for the first time?

HOCHSCHILD:  Kafka’s “The Trial.” He fully foresaw Stalin’s show trials 20 years before they happened. Somehow he sensed the potential for such madness in the war-crazed Europe of 1914 and 1915 — and in the life of his tyrannical, guilt-inducing father.

BOOK REVIEW:   What’s your favorite book no one else has heard of?

HOCHSCHILD:  “The Gypsies,” by Jan Yoors. As a 12-year-old boy in Europe in the early 1930s, he ran away with a band of Gypsies, lived with them on and off for 10 years, and, decades later, wrote this luminous memoir.

BOOK REVIEW:   What book should everybody read before the age of 21?

“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” for its sense of justice as something deeper than the law. Although Huck believes he’ll be doomed to hell for doing so, he still decides to help Jim, Miss Watson’s lawful property, escape from slavery. I tear up when reading that part aloud to my grandchildren.

HOCHSCHILD:  Whom do you consider the best writers (novelists, essayists, biographers, journalists, poets) working today?

Ben Fountain’s novel, “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” dazzled me with its evocation of the madness of the Iraq war, all seen through the prism of the halftime show at a Dallas Cowboys game. I’ll read anything he writes. One of the few nonfiction writers I’d say that about is Katherine Boo.

BOOK REVIEW:  Which books by contemporary historians — both academic and amateur — do you most admire?

HOCHSCHILD:  Two historians in the academy who write splendidly are Jill Lepore and Simon Schama. But since I never went to graduate school, I also appreciate others who practice history without a license. Richard M. Watt, author of an excellent book on the French Army mutinies of World War I, was a construction company executive. The peerless Barbara Tuchman had no advanced degree or university post. And the former book and newspaper editor Claire Tomalin is the finest historical and literary biographer alive.

BOOK REVIEW:   What do you read when you’re working on a book? And what kind of reading do you avoid while writing?

HOCHSCHILD:  Since I mostly write history, I have to wade through a lot of raw material. Currently that includes informers’ reports to the Bureau of Investigation (predecessor of the F.B.I.) during the Red Scare of 1917-20. I also have to read a lot of scholarly monographs. Since the prose of neither undercover agents nor academics has much sparkle or suspense, when I’ve finished work for the day I’m hungry for something that picks me up and carries me along, like one of Ben Macintyre’s real-life World War II or Cold War spy tales.

BOOK REVIEW:   What’s the most interesting thing you learned from a book recently?

HOCHSCHILD:  In the harsh crackdown on dissent kicked off by American entry into World War I, some 75 newspapers and magazines had entire issues banned or were shut down completely. And this sweeping censorship continued for more than two years after the war ended. Imagine which later president would relish just such powers.

BOOK REVIEW:   Which genres do you especially enjoy reading? And which do you avoid?

HOCHSCHILD:  I admire novelists who can build a whole world and keep me in it for several books. My favorites: Paul Scott’s magnificent Raj Quartet on the last days of British India; Pat Barker’s trilogy on World War I; Doris Lessing’s Martha Quest quintet. Elena Ferrante’s four Neapolitan novels may also rank with these; I need to let them sit a little more since finishing them to be sure.

A superb nonfiction trilogy is Patrick Leigh Fermor’s stunning account of walking from Holland to Istanbul in 1933. A zestful 18-year-old’s experience told, thanks in part to his lifelong writing block, with the dazzling style of a far older man. The last volume was still unfinished when he died in his 90s.

BOOK REVIEW:   How do you organize your books?

HOCHSCHILD:  Fiction, nonfiction and then sections for the various subjects I’ve written about. Plus a vast “To Read” set of shelves where some volumes, alas, have sat waiting for decades.

BOOK REVIEW:   What book might people be surprised to find on your shelves?

HOCHSCHILD:  I was an antiwar activist in the 1960s, and have written, in parts of two books, about the brave pacifists of 1914-18. But my shelves hold many volumes of military history, and of Patrick O’Brian’s Napoleonic War maritime novels. And every single volume of stories by John Updike. I have mixed feelings about his novels, but he was our finest writer of short stories since Hemingway. I can easily forgive him for being a Vietnam War hawk.

BOOK REVIEW:   What’s the best book you’ve ever received as a gift?

HOCHSCHILD:  A first edition of Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle.” Who says books can’t change the world? This one gave us our pure food and drug laws.

BOOK REVIEW:   Who is your favorite fictional hero or heroine? Your favorite antihero or villain?

I’ll let others pick the good folks; I enjoy villains more. Take, for instance, Robert Moses of “The Power Broker,” the devastating biography by Robert Caro. Perhaps you have to be a native New Yorker like me to read all 1,344 pages of this searing demolition job on the man who laced a great city with ugly expressways and had nothing but contempt for people too poor to own a car. But the book is an extraordinary achievement that should shame the hundreds of reporters and editorial writers who naïvely glorified Moses over the decades.

BOOK REVIEW:   What kind of reader were you as a child? Which childhood books and authors stick with you most?

My favorites were the “Freddy the Pig” series of Walter R. Brooks. Heroic detective, pilot, poet, magician and victor over all bullies and humbugs, animal or human, Freddy remains a model to us all. And in his First Animal Republic it was one animal, one vote — a great improvement over our Electoral College.

BOOK REVIEW:   How have your reading tastes changed over time?

Not enough, perhaps. Although I have moved on from Freddy the Pig.

BOOK REVIEW:   What book would you recommend for America’s current political moment?

Trollope’s “The Way We Live Now,” the story of a financial con man who goes into politics.

BOOK REVIEW:   You’re organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?

HOCHSCHILD:  E.L. Doctorow, a friend and mentor whose encouragement early in my writing life meant more than he could have imagined. George Orwell, to make sense of an era that seems to be following the script of “1984.” And Ryszard Kapuscinski, who specialized in writing about demagogues even before we had a world awash in them.

BOOK REVIEW:   Whom would you want to write your life story?

HOCHSCHILD:  I already wrote much of it in “Half the Way Home: A Memoir of Father and Son.”

= = = = = 

  Check out this episode!

[what-if-rpg]

Hey there, everyone! I hate to make posts like these, mostly because it means something bad happened. And it did. Last night, when I was already going to bed, I heard about everything that happened to Melissa, and the first thing I did was message our lovely Ryder RPer and tell them if they had heard and that it was better for us to ban Blake Jenner. I really hope that we see justice coming from all this because Melissa deserves that. I hope that somehow, something can be done because Melissa deserves that. She deserves to be heard. With that said, I stand with Melissa. Blake Jenner is now banned from What If. But please, don’t send any hate to our Ryder Lynn rper, they are trying to work out what to do with Ryder, and already thinking about a new FC. For now, they are on hiatus, to think about everything and soon, Ryder will be back, and better than ever.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#5yrsago The invasion boards that set out to ruin lives

Internet harassment doesn’t just stay on the internet any more. Banned from 4chan, the 'net's worst trolls are making life hell for "social justice warriors."

Last Friday, January 9, at 11:50 PM, someone tried to “swat” Seattle web developer Israel “Izzy” Galvez—a false anonymous tip phoned into the police, in the hopes that they would raid his home. Galvez’s crime was to have criticized GamerGate, the loose reactionary movement of hardcore gamers. The anonymous tipster’s effort was thwarted, however, as Galvez had already warned the local police. He had seen the users coordinating their efforts on /baphomet/.

/baphomet/, operated by Benjamin “Benjikins” Biddix, is a board on Fredrick “Hotwheels” Brennan’s anonymous imageboard site 8chan, also occasionally known as Infinitechan. 8chan, one of many imitators of flagship English-language imageboard 4chan, emerged from obscurity when it became one of GamerGate's main discussion hubs. Its /baphomet/ board has organized at least three swattings in two weeks, targeting not only Galvez but also the former home of Grace Lynn, a game developer and outspoken critic of GamerGate, and Ashley Lynch, a film and television editor who merely happened to be following critics of GamerGate on Twitter.

Raiders often gloat about trying to drive their targets to suicide with harassment. 

/baphomet/ is an invasion board, in a tradition originating on—but now banned from—4chan’s infamous /b/ “Random” board. It shares the origins and some of the tactics of Anonymous “operations” like Project Chanology, but not their taste for activism.

Instead, their users scorn such “moralfags” and prefer to harass “lolcows”, people who react vocally to harassment. The goal is to antagonize their targets into responding. That response, be it retreat, fear, or defiance, “generates lulz”, feeding into the raiders’ mean-spirited sense of humor. These tactics have been refined and collected over the past decade in various anonymously-authored and self-published guides imitative of the original Anarchist Cookbook. Many of the tactics are out of date, fanciful, or obvious jokes. Skim off the dross, however, and these guides describe how to collect and exploit “doxx”, or personal information, on targets.

“Ruin life tactics are essential to know in order to push any unstable target to things which makes the attacker(s) piss themselves with glee.”

Doxxing (also described as digging, to distinguish the process of collecting information from the act of posting it publicly) involves tracking all of the footprints people leave behind on the internet. Master hackers these are not: the key tools are Google and enough free time to scour public records. Doxxers will search name/address/phone number databases, social media accounts, forum posts, web registrar information and whois searches, archives of old websites, and anything else that may contain public traces they can put together.

If your real name is available online, if you reused any account names on different services, if you reused an email address on multiple sites, if your IP address was ever publicly exposed, or even if you used the same avatar image or photograph on multiple sites, it may be possible to piece together enough to reveal further details such as home addresses, phone numbers, re-used passwords and other critical personal information.

If you know in advance that you might be targeted, there are measures you can take to improve your anonymity, but oftentimes there’s nothing at all that can be done, especially if you conduct your business on the internet.

Raiders often use this as justification for their activities: if you didn't want your entire life collated and archived, why did you post any of that online in the first place? It’s a disingenuous argument, however, because they aren't concerned about accuracy. If your doxx happens to have inaccurate information, who cares? False claims can prompt a correction that reveals more clues to add to the doxx, or just a entertainingly outraged response from a target.

/baphomet/ users post the doxx of a journalist covering the recent swatting of GamerGate critics. The redacted information in the second post is the journalist’s address; the third post is a picture of the home at that address.

Once the documents are found, it’s archived on sites that won’t respond to takedown requests from victims. It isn’t illegal, in most places, to post individuals' personal and public information online—after all, that's where it came from. Usually, this is on pastebin-style sites (although pastebin.com itself removes personally-identifying information on request) or automated archives of anonymous imageboards.

Read the rest...

https://boingboing.net/2015/01/19/invasion-boards-set-out-to-rui.html

[castleportrpg]

Welcome to the first ROUNDUP of the new year. CASTLEPORT has seen a lot of shake-ups, break-ups, and bust-ups so we’ll jump right into things. 

The extra chatter around town is at an all time high, with reporters filtering in, wanting to get the scoop on the mysterious disappearance of RACHEL BERRY and her untimely and tragic death. The KNIGHTS GAZETTE, seemingly a day late and a dollar short on their exclusives continued to offer no insight into the investigation’s progress, outside of the rental car that Rachel was discovered in was rented under the name of BRODY WESTON, with no other concrete leads. The emergence of CPORTEA, stirs up a deluge of feelings. The podcast and self-proclaimed ‘unbiased’ news source is a contrast from the old guard of the Gazette, offering gossip about the case and Castleport citizens.

BREAKING NEWS: Rental car connected to Brody Weston

CPORTEA: Unfiltered and Unbiased

HALLOWEEN saw plenty of tricks and treats with a massive brawl at THE MAGGIE. involving multiple people and left MASON MCCARTHY with a black eye. Packed with partygoers, the fight only heightened the weird atmosphere at the bar, mostly due to the ban on gossip related to the Berry case, instituted by SAM EVANS. There was plenty of fodder for the tea blog, including a tense public encounter between BREE BROWN and RYDER LYNN, newly returned when a trade sends him from sunny Los Angeles back to the east coast, this time playing for the Giants. Words were exchanged and the two parted ways, though neither leaving alone. Ryder going off with SANTANA LOPEZ and a drunk Bree being escorted home by Sam. Bree, fresh off a divorce, finds common ground with Sam and the two have a drunk sleepover. 

HALLOWEEN BREAKDOWN

After months away, QUINN FABRAY returns to Castleport, sporting pink hair and a chip on her shoulder. Together with Sam’s sister STACY EVANS, the two devise a plan of action, with Quinn driving JAMES EVANS to ROCK HARBOR RECOVERY, a rehab facility outside of town. She pays for his treatment with a credit card in her father’s name, prompting RUSSELL FABRAY to blackmail his youngest daughter into leaving her job at THE MAGGIE and her apartment in order to move in with him and work at The Gazette. It also causes a massive fight between Quinn and Sam once he learns of his father’s whereabouts and Quinn pulling the strings. 

ROSALIE LOPEZ is dismissed as lead investigator on Rachel’s case, breaking news that’s scooped by CPORTEA. Her replacement is none other than FINN HUDSON, an appointment that many view as a poor substitute, a sentiment stoked by the postings of Castleport’s infamous anonymous blogger, putting Santana in an awkward spot as she continues her romantic entanglements with the upstart Detective Hudson. Thanksgiving in Castleport is a somber affair, with many people spending time with their loved ones (or in some cases, no time at all), while reflecting on the first holiday since the death of Rachel. It also sees the return of another familiar face: MERCEDES JONES, who after spending a length of time back in New York (with Quinn, no less) reappears in town. 

CPORTEA: SHERIFF LOPEZ SACKED

TASK 11: THANKS AND BLESSINGS

Despite the chaos brewing with the media curiosity and potential bad press coverage--or perhaps because of--the winter holiday season seems more festive than ever. TINA COHEN-CHANG, still reeling from the loss of her father,  JI-HUN COHEN-CHANG, carries on managing THE DOUBLE C DINER in his very noticeable absence and finding support through her relationship with HUNTER CLARINGTON, still secretly dealing with his own issues with alcohol.  

Mason, still grappling with Rachel’s death and the feelings surrounding it, decides to step back from director of the CASTLEPORT HIGH SCHOOL winter production. Seeing an opportunity for supposed goodwill to honor Rachel’s legacy (and to boost public profiles), a raffle is held for the production, with the proceeds going to the drama club. 

EVENT: LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

In the spirit of the season, the TWELVE DAYS OF TEA segment delivers presents in the form of hot off the press gossip, including a heated exchange involving Mason, Santana, and Finn while backstage at THE RIALTO during the Little Shop opening night. Mason has very openly disapproved of Finn taking over the investigation, finding him unfit for the job, and made his feelings known. 

CPORTEA: BACKSTAGE BRAWL 

Other gossip-worthy gems include WILLIAM SCHUESTER and his alleged romantic connection with Rachel, MIKE CHANG SR. and his hard feelings against being passed up as lead investigator over Finn, despite his years of experience and knowledge, and a summer fight between Bree and Santana that got loud and physical. 

TWELVE DAYS OF TEA 

In the new year, the investigation into Rachel’s death seems just as stalled as the look into her disappearance last year. With Finn at the helm, he’s tasked with going through Sheriff Lopez’s notes and collection of evidence, and re-interviewing everyone connected with the case, including at times, his friends. The topic of Rachel’s journal resurfaces once again, the item being a key clue in trying to understand what exactly happened and offering insight into her mind as well as her interactions with other people, including Santana and especially Ryder. Ryder, who for the most part has been trying to adjust to a new city and new team while dealing with the shocking news of his father MAYOR LYNN’S infidelity. 

Their beef is nothing new, but the tension between Santana and Hunter reached an explosive level when, after an argument involving Santana telling Hunter and Tina exactly what she thinks of their relationship, Hunter shows his hand and video evidence of Santana breaking into CLARINGTON PROPERTIES. The video, months old, is enough for Santana to be arrested and CPORTEA gleefully pounces on the news. The arrest has a ripple effect on the group, prompting Tina to angrily end her relationship with Hunter and leaving Santana--having been questioned by Finn and another officer--looking like a person of interest in the Rachel case. 

CPORTEA: SANTANA LOPEZ ARRESTED

The case of Rachel Berry, long a topic of gossip and speculation in Castleport and the surrounding towns gets broader attention, with an investigative eye turned towards the tourist town with a darker secret. REAL CASE FILES and their reporters are keeping a close watch on the going ons of Castleport and offering insight and questions into a case that continues to baffle the local authority. Their recent reveal of DNA evidence found at the scene that was kept from the public turns a spotlight onto CASTLEPORT PD and their handling of the case so far, with CPORTEA weighing in on a possible conspiracy. 

BREAKING NEWS: DNA COVERUP

CPORTEA REACTION

WHEW. There’s plenty happening around Castleport this go-round. And we’re so happy at the plotwork and great character interactions that have taken place over the past few months. Our first Q&A TUESDAY of the year was a chance for reflection and taking a look at character growth in the form of a FILL IN THE BLANK meme. There’s no specific due date for this, but as it’s a fun and easy way to chart your character’s development, we’d love for everyone to complete it when they can.

Q&A TUESDAY: QUESTIONS FOR THE DECADE

[siverwrites]

Trick or Treat Letter

Ao3 - Siver

Dear Creator

Thank you for taking this on! Here there are some general prompt details if you want them and if you already have some idea of your own, awesome. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

All requests are for fic or art.

Art: Interactions of some sort: emoting at each other, talking, sharing some activity, taking a walk, hugs are always welcome, soft things, whatever suits the pair/group

Likes: fluff, hurt/comfort, comfort, missing scenes, friendships, long-term friendships, close relationships of any sort whether romantic or platonic, familial bonds, found family, sickfic, fandom crossovers or fusions, angst with a happy or at least bittersweet end, bonding, cuddling/hugs/holding, banter, mutual care and support, emotional bonding, loyalty, pre-canon, post-canon, reuniting, slice of life, supernatural stuff, mystery, adventure, worldbuilding, creepy or unsettling atmospheres

DNW: NSFW, non-con, dub-con, underage relationships, unrequested ships, infidelity, explicit gore

Any combination of tags within each fandom is cool. Heck, any crossover/fusion between any of these fandoms is welcome too, go nuts.

For treats you can’t go wrong with fluff! Friendship, familial bonds, found family, romance for the few ships listed here.

On the trick end I like it atmospheric. Unsettling atmospheres. Unresolved mystery. Making use of the stranger environments the game may already provide. The surreal. The strange. The supernatural.

Ghost Trick                   

Cabanela (Ghost Trick)

Sissel (Ghost Trick)

Jowd (Ghost Trick)

Alma (Ghost Trick)

Kamila (Ghost Trick)

Missile (Ghost Trick)

Pigeon Man (Ghost Trick)

Lovey-Dove (Ghost Trick)

Mino (Ghost Trick)

Lynne (Ghost Trick)

Amelie (Ghost Trick)

Ships I’m good with: Alma/Jowd/Cabanela, Alma/Jowd, Cabanela/Jowd (where the focus is there but without infidelity to Alma), Alma/Cabanela (with assumption of Jowd’s involvement, again just the focus landing there)

I love this game, its characters and pretty much everything about it, so whatever you want to do will be great I am sure. New timeline mysteries and missing memories are always welcome where it makes sense. Alternate timelines and what-ifs are cool to explore. Fluff, comfort, family found or otherwise and friendships are always a go. Spooky ghost shenanigans, mysteries in the night. Any combination of these characters is more than welcome too!

Any combination of Jowd/Cabanela/Alma or Jowd & Cabanela & Alma is always welcome.

Always down for various combinations of Pigeon Man with Cabanela, Jowd and/or Kamila. Or PM with someone less expected like Alma! Or Sissel! Or Missile!

Animal shenanigans and fluff is great.

Final Fantasy VI

Edgar Roni Figaro (FF6) 

Cyan Garamonde (FF6) 

Relm Arrowny (FF6) 

Sabin Rene Figaro (FF6) 

Terra Branford (FF6) 

Gogo (FF6) 

Mog (FF6) 

Strago Magus (FF6) 

Celes Chere (FF6)

Phantom Train

No ships here please.

Any gen combination of characters is welcome here. Always down for some found family opportunities. All that travelling time is ripe for more interaction or character exploration in either world of balance or ruin, but particularly interested in world of ruin moments. Also interested in what they might be doing after the world is saved too.

Anything with the Phantom Train is ripe for the trick side of things either during the Phantom Train stuff in-game, or maybe they somehow run into it again in the Word of Ruin...

Pyre

Jodariel (Pyre) 

Ti'Zo (Pyre) 

Sir Gilman (Pyre) 

Big Bertrude (Pyre) 

Volfred Sandalwood (Pyre) 

Tariq | The Lone Minstrel (Pyre) 

Celeste | The Gate Guardian (Pyre)

Ships I’m good with: Volfred/Tariq (and Oralech involvement is good too)

Found family joys. Daily activities while they travel? Post Peaceful revolution activities? Any combo here is great. I’m good with Volfred/Tariq or Volfred & Tariq. Volfred and Bertrude friendship gives me life. Snakes doing snake things. Imps doing imp things. More adorable moments with Ti’zo and Volfred. Heralds doing herald things.

Chrono Trigger

Nu (Chrono Trigger) 

Lucca Ashtear (Chrono Trigger) 

Belthasar (Chrono Trigger) 

Robo (Chrono Trigger) 

Maou | Magus (Chrono Trigger) 

Sara | Schala (Chrono Trigger)

No ships here.

Lucca: Lucca’s just cool. Anything with Lucca: tinkering, planning, another hobby she might have? Lucca and Robo doing stuff together.

For Magus and/or Schala I’d be interested in anything Zeal related.

Nu: The world begins and ends with Nu. I honestly don’t even know. Just Nu. Whatever Nu may inspire I’m interested in seeing.

Belthasar: End of Time stuff? Or before he was sent there. Early days there?

The Last Guardian

The Boy (The Last Guardian) 

Trico (The Last Guardian)

Give me all the cat-dog-bird fluff/shenanigans/playfulness/warmth/coziness. Anything while they’re together. Barrel feeding, snuggle time, riding, flying. Sweet or silly (Trico has his moments for sure) or something else. I adore Trico. I adore the boy and Trico’s companionship.

Alternatively something in the future. The boy grown up reuniting with Trico. A flight with Trico. A temporary willing return to the nest. Meeting Trico babies!

英雄伝説 VII | The Legend of Heroes VII (Video Games)

Randy Orlando (LoH VII)

Alex Dudley (LoH VII) 

Zeit (LoH VII) 

Campanella (LoF VII) 

Tio Plato (LoH VII) 

Sergei Lou (LoH VII) 

Lloyd Bannings (LoH VII) 

Elie MacDowell (LoH VII) 

KeA (LoH VII) 

No ships here please.

Bonding and found family is the name of the game here! Tio and Zeit spending time together. Lloyd and Randy having bro time or Lloyd trying to remind Randy that he does indeed belong with SSS. KeA and “Uncle” Sergei time! What might they do together, or what does KeA get Sergei to do with her? Lloyd and KeA spending time together, Lloyd spoiling KeA, KeA being a comfort to Lloyd. KeA turning on the charm on Dudley. Dudley and Sergei interaction. Any combination of any of the SSS related characters is great if you want a bigger SSS gathering. I love them all.

As for Campanella have fun. Go for the strange or unsettling. Ouroboros activity or out for a wander doing his own thing. Whatever it is Campanella does...

Traills in the Sky

Renne Hayworth (Sora no Kiseki)

Julia Schwarz (Sora no Kiseki)

Olivier Lenheim | Olivert Reise Arnor (Sora no Kiseki)

Kloe Rinz | Klaudia von Auslese (Sora no Kiseki) 

Cassius Bright (Sora no Kiseki) 

Tita Russell (Sora no Kiseki) 

Ries Argent (Sora no Kiseki) 

Joshua Bright (Sora no Kiseki) 

Mueller Vander (Sora no Kiseki) 

Kevin Graham (Sora no Kiseki) 

Estelle Bright (Sora no Kiseki) 

Ships I’m good with: Kevin/Ries, Olivier/Mueller, light Estelle/Joshua

Ries &/ Kevin: Anything in 3rd or after, pre-Ao no Kiseki, or after Ao no Kiseki. Give them some much needed soft times. Or could expand on a moment in Gehenna if you want to do something creepier, or really anything in Phantasma in particular or another Gralsritter mission.

Any combination of the Brights and those they adopt: Really feeling the family/found family vibes strongly with any combination of the Brights and Renne. Please give Renne some warmth, peace and happiness, or at least 2 out of 3. Father daughter bonding time with Estelle. Father/Grand(?)father new bonding time with Renne.

Tita & Renne: Girl time! Bonding time! Give these girls some joy. Send them plushy shopping or engineering nerding. Spooky story telling.

Olivier & Cassius: I’m just really interested to see more interaction between these two whether while they’re still planning or something before Olivier goes back to Erebonia after Sky SC. Cassius can’t help himself when it comes to giving advice…

Always welcome close friendship moments between Julia and Kloe.

Friendship between Mueller and Julia is cool.

I’m great with Olivier/Muller or Olivier & Mueller stuff.

Trails of Cold Steel

Olivier Lenheim | Olivert Reise Arnor (Sen no Kiseki) 

Mueller Vander (Sen no Kiseki) 

Laura S. Arseid (Sen no Kiseki) 

Fie Claussell (Sen no Kiseki) 

Emma Millstein (Sen no Kiseki) 

Alfin Reise Arnor (Sen no Kiseki)

Celine (Sen no Kiseki)

Ships I’m good with: Olivier/Mueller

Always great with anything either Olivier/Mueller or Olivier & Mueller. Alfin and Olivier are fun siblings with or without the beleaguered Mueller. Alternatively in CSII on the Courageous, Olivier is only a call away; some quiet talk between Alfin and Olivier would be good, share some worries and comfort.

School times are fun for those who are applicable. I’d also be interested in seeing something with Emma and Laura while they’re in Legram during the month between CS I and II. Further exploration of Lohengrin Castle?

Or with Fie while she’s with Machias and Elliot. Emma and Fie or Fie and Laura or all three is great too.

Unexpected combos are more than welcome to if you can make it work. Olivier and/or Mueller coming across Celine on one of his trips to Thors? Celine and Fie times? Alfin and anyone else here? Etc.

Dragon Quest XI

Seña | Serena (Dragon Quest XI) 

Sylvia | Sylvando (Dragon Quest XI) 

Graig | Hendrik (Dragon Quest XI)

No ships here please

Adventure! Exploration! Missing scenes are always great. All those campfires are ripe for interactions or singular character activity or introspection. Other characters are welcome to make appearances if desired.Interested in any gen combo of these three, but in particular Sylvando and Hendrik, or Sylvando and Serena.

[bountyofbeads]

Germany's third gender law is celebrated as a revolution. But some say it's just the first step

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/29/health/third-gender-law-germany-grm-intl/index.html

Germany's third gender law is celebrated as a revolution. But some say it's just the first step

By Nadine Schmidt and Kara Fox, CNN | Dec 29, 2018 | Posted December 29, 2018 |

Berlin (CNN) - By the time Lynn D. turned 2, he had already undergone seven surgeries. His childhood memories -- in the German states of Bavaria and Hesse -- were shaped by monthly visits to the doctor, where he says up to 50 researchers would observe examinations of his naked body.

When he reached puberty, Lynn was given growth blockers and high doses of hormones; as a teenager, he started self-harming, developed post-traumatic stress disorder and became suicidal.

Lynn, 34 -- who has asked CNN to identify him by his preferred name -- was born with both male and female sex organs. His doctors and parents decided shortly after he was born that his sex would be female, so his penis and testicles were surgically removed. His ovaries were also removed.

Doctors had told Lynn's parents the surgeries were preventative, citing concerns that he could develop cancer, but Lynn says there was no medical reason for him to be operated on and that the surgeries were carried out with a "dubious motivation."

"The doctors advised my parents not to tell me about my sex and simply raise me as a girl," Lynn told CNN. "And of course, it didn't work -- because I'm not a girl."

Lynn is intersex, an umbrella term used to describe a variety of conditions in which a person is born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that does not fit into binary definitions of female or male.

"I was labeled a girl; I wanted to be a girl and fit in -- but it did not work. I got along better with boys so I thought, 'I'm a boy'. But then I realized that I'm not a boy either ... boys also started to marginalize me. I did not have a good connection with my body and nobody helped me to establish a good connection with my body," Lynn said.

Lynn only learned that he was intersex during a therapy session at the age of 20. It was a revelation for Lynn, who had struggled to fit in with his peers for so many years.

While it helped him to move forward with his relationship with his own body, Lynn says it damaged his relationship with his parents.

"My body was changed so much to fit in -- whether it happened consciously or unconsciously. The whole experience broke my relationship with my parents. We still have not gotten over this yet," Lynn said.

When he first learned he was intersex, Lynn said, "it felt like as if someone said I am an alien, you are from someplace else. You are a mutant."

"It took me a while to come to terms with my diagnosis and for me to (come to) grips with it. But then I understood -- everything made sense to me. I no longer felt restless. Suddenly I understood who I was."

More than a decade later, Lynn said he has evolved into an "enormously happy" person, someone who is in a loving relationship with a woman, and who is fulfilled by a career in engineering and gigging in a punk band.

While Lynn said he accepts being called "him" for now, he wishes that there was a specific German pronoun to describe intersex people, and hopes that society will one day understand what it means to live outside of binary definitions of sex and gender -- and to accept intersex people for who they are.

A change to the German constitution could be the first step toward that recognition.

On January 1, Germany will become the first country in the European Union to offer a "third gender" option on birth certificates.

Intersex people -- and parents of intersex babies -- will be able to register as "divers," or miscellaneous, on birth certificates, instead of having to choose between male or female.

The law, passed in Germany's Bundestag earlier this month, was hailed as a "small revolution" by some intersex activists. It came after a 2017 constitutional court ruled in favor of an intersex person's right to change their birth certificate from female to "divers."

The court ruled that Vanja -- an intersex person who goes by a one-name pseudonym and uses the gender-neutral pronouns "they" and "them" -- had their "right to positive gender recognition" violated and found that the current law was unconstitutional.

Vanja, whose case was supported by advocacy group, "Dritte Option" or, the Third Option, told CNN that having to decide between being a woman or a man on official documents left them feeling "left out and overlooked."

While Vanja's official identification documents said they were female, this led to "a lot of irritations with people" because they presented -- or physically appeared in society -- as male.

Vanja initially considered changing their documents to male, but eventually decided that decision would devalue their identity, which is intersex.

"I thought to myself, if I am going at lengths to change something within the red tape system in Germany, I want to have something that suits me," they said.

Vanja plans to celebrate the new law by changing their birth certificate category to "divers" in the new year, calling it both a personal and a practical step.

"I asked myself so many times what it means to be intersex; I often was upset when I had to decide which box to tick -- male or female. I felt (like I was) being pushed into the corner, that I had to adjust non-voluntarily. I think it will give me a new feeling of peace," Vanja said, adding that they hope other countries in Europe will follow suit.

But, like many in the intersex community, Vanja believes the law is just a stepping stone.

"Societal acceptance cannot be mandated by a court ruling, but it is a step in the right direction," Vanja said.

Lynn agrees. While he also plans to register as intersex -- and to officially change his name to Lynn -- he said there are still many steps that need to be taken for intersex people to be "fully integrated into society."

Still, he is hopeful the new law will help to bring attention to the medical treatment of intersex people and open conversations for change.

'RITUALIZED , SEXUALIZED VIOLENCE '

Infants born with visible variations in their sexual characteristics, like Lynn, often undergo painful and irreversible surgery to give them the appearance of a conventional male or female gender, according to an Amnesty International report published last year.

The surgeries stem from a theory popularized in the United States in the 1960s by the psychologist John Money, who believed that an intersex person's make-up was a product of abnormal processes. Money believed that intersex people ought to become either male or female and as a result, were in need of medical treatment.

Although that theory is no longer widely accepted in the medical community, its "echoes can still be found within the medical establishment today," according to the Amnesty report, citing interviews with medical professionals across Denmark, Germany and the UK.

Those surgeries stripped Lynn of his bodily autonomy and left him with painful scars.

"When they (doctors and parents) talked about my body, I had to go out and leave the room. In hindsight, it was a practice I would now compare with a ritualized, sexualized violence. It was massively traumatizing," Lynn says of his childhood visits to the doctor.

A group of United Nations and international human rights experts called for "an urgent end to human rights violations against intersex children and adults" in 2016, calling on governments to ban harmful medical practices and protect intersex people from discrimination.

Between 0.5% and 1.7% of the global population are born with intersex traits, and are at risk of human rights violations that include surgery, discrimination and torture, according to the UN.

In July, a group of European medical experts published a set of new guidelines that urge doctors to defer medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex children until they are old enough to consent. The European consensus said: "For sensitive and/or irreversible procedures, such as genital surgery, we advise that the intervention be postponed until the individual is old enough to be actively involved in the decision whenever possible."

Grietje Baars, a senior lecturer at The City Law School in London, told CNN that while the new law demonstrates a "greater recognition of life beyond the binary," the "third gender" option doesn't go far enough to fully recognize gender diversity.

Under the new law, people wanting to change their birth certificate to read "divers" will only be able to do so with a medical certificate to prove it.

Baars -- who also goes by the gender-neutral pronouns, "they" and "them" -- says that requirement could subject intersex people, who often have a history of "traumatic medical interference with their genitalia" to additional trauma. Plus, Baars says, the medical requirement reinforces an antiquated definition of gender based solely on biology.

"You can not simply decide gender by looking at people's genitalia," they said, adding that it might be time to remove gender from official documents altogether. While Baars understands that this might sound radical, they argue that "abolishing gender registration does not mean abolishing gender as such."

"It's like abolishing registering your religion or race on your ID or documents -- it does not mean you can no longer be Catholic or black ... those things are not the same. I am just saying that it is no business of the state to register and categorize people in that manner," they said.

CHALLENGING SOCIAL NORMS

Although German law has allowed parents to leave the gender box blank on birth certificates since 2013 -- and this will still be an option under the new legislation -- some experts say parents will still be inclined to choose a more traditional approach, noting that in the two years after the blank box option came into effect, only 12 children were registered without a sex marker in the birth registry.

Anike Krämer, a Ph.D. candidate in gender studies at Germany's Ruhr-University Bochum, told CNN that she believes that parents of intersex children will have "difficulties" with the choices presented with the new law.