#promotional wristbands

[misterradio]

Question for Animal Jammers who take commissions for items:

I like the idea of trading art for items i want, but really not many people who are interested in my art have the specific things i want. (plus i hate to give people a giant list of random stuff...) is there sort of a standard thing (or things) that people trade original art for? what about copies of art?

i take commissions for USD as well, is there any way to figure out some sort of equivalent in AJ items or currency? (im not a member, so i cant sell things for diamonds, but im still curious what people will sell art for. im assuming people arent selling anything for a 1:1 USD conversion since the economies are so different.)

just wondering what kind of experiences other commission artists have on this game. (if you see this post and don't know me, my art blog is @wormthing !)

another question along the same vein: when people buddy you to keep tabs with you on a commission, and you finish their commission, do you unbuddy them?

[pecanwriter]

Big Boy Mode: Activated

Themes: rapid weight gain, humiliation kink, technology-induced weight gain (so like, magic weight gain but for sci fi nerds I guess)

Words: 2947

Part: 1/?

"Hello, sir, would you like to hear about our newest product, the most revolutionary nanotechnology to date?"

Elliott really wasn't one to ever let some marketing lackey torment him with semi-logical babble about something he didn't even want to buy. But he was a technology whore, and just the mere mention of nanotechnology had him nearly salivating at the mouth.

He smiled at the promoter, stepping closer and trying to look at all the flashing screens at once. 

"Introducing SimNano or Simulator Nano. This revolutionary technology is the newest hit in terms of body augmentation and we're making record sales all around the globe."

The promoter pulled something from his pad to one of the screens. 

"The way this works, we inject nanobots into your body and connect their signature to your personalised control panel as well as a wristband, the wristband sold separately." 

He watched as on the screen a scrawny shirtless man selected a holographic projection of his body and added 50% more muscle to the model. He clicked "Active Mode" at the bottom of the screen and for a moment his entire body rippled in an unfamiliar way until he stood there completely buffed out, Captain America style.

Elliott blinked. He looked from the freshly buffed-out man to the promoter.

"How does that work?"

"The nanobots we inject into the client's system are capable of replication and imitation of any human tissue. However, they are only capable of growing, not shrinking, it's not a diet pill as many would hope so." The promoter laughed at his own poor joke.

Elliot chuckled obligingly but the phrase "they are only capable of growing" was bouncing around in his head trying to make him hard. 

"Is there a limit to what they can imitate? For example, if someone was missing a leg…?" He chose his words carefully, hoping the man would fall for his set-up and tell him exactly what he wanted.

The man's gaze flickered down to Elliot's leg and although Elliot had no such thing, he let the man assume he had a prosthetic. It was an unassuming lie, didn't hurt anyone, it was just better than even a sliver of the truth.

"Oh, they're absolutely capable of replicating a leg. As I said, they can imitate any human tissue, muscles, nerves, fat, even bones…"

When he said the f-word Elliot's cock jerked awake and he had to cover his crotch with the shopping bag he was holding.

"And are the changes permanent…?"

"No, that's not how it works, It's imitating and replicating the tissue in Active Mode, but as soon as it's Deactivated everything goes back to normal."

Elliot's cock was throbbing as he fought to maintain perfectly normal eye contact with the promoter.

"And while it's active, does it feel real or is it like a hologram or a model or…"

"Oh no, It feels absolutely real, that's why we are the leading company in…"

He prattled on but Elliot didn't listen, all he could think of was the phrase "it's only capable of growing" as his cock throbbed.

"How much is it?"

It was bloody expensive, as it turned out. Elliott put a sizable dent in the savings he was putting away to get a mortgage on a single-bedroom flat. But somehow, all he felt was excitement, there was no shame or regret to be found anywhere.

After he made his purchases he had to go to their branch store and get injected with nanobots. The syringe wasn't that big and he wondered if it would be enough firepower for what he had in mind. They scanned his body thoroughly to put the model into his pad and wristband and connect the nanobots to it. As a trial, the shopping clerk showed him how to give himself impressive biceps and everyone present at the shop oohed and awed at the result. 

The promoter was right, it felt absolutely real. The rippling Sensation Elliott saw in the video felt only like a slight cold tingling under his skin and then within seconds the impressive biceps appeared.

He deactivated his SimNano, thanked the clerk and left, struggling to walk straight with his dick pressing hard against his trousers.

When he came home he almost immediately tore off his shirt. He brought out the control panel on the band with shaking hands and clicked on the scrawny little model of himself. He moved his finger around, highlighting his midriff and ass. He clicked "expand" and then in the tissue subcategory he clicked "fat" instead of the pre-selected "muscle". You could put the desired amounts in body percentages or in units of measurement. He clicked on lbs, the most precise one, and tapped in 20(9kg). Then after a moment's hesitation, he erased it and clicked 40lb(18kg) instead.

With shaking fingers he clicked "Active Mode" and his skin began to tingle with the cold sensation. Seconds later Elliott was staring down at a round, fat gut and he could feel his boxers strain mercilessly against his expanded ass. 

He put the pad away gently and grabbed the ball of flab at his front. He was never this fat in his life, but it felt real enough, from what he could guess. He lifted the stomach and let it drop, watching it jiggle and wobble. A moan escaped him. He couldn't believe this was happening. 

Before even getting a look in the mirror Elliott fell to the couch, frantically gnawing his flesh with one hand and stroking his cock with the other. He never came this hard in his entire life. 

He finally managed to pull himself up into standing, revelling in how his gut was suddenly in the way and looked in the mirror. 

He laughed, the effect was ridiculous. Although his belly and ass looked fantastic and absolutely realistic, it looked ludicrous on his scrawny body which remained unchanged.

Elliott deactivated the band and reset the model. After a moment’s hesitation, he selected his entire body “Increase by 100% body mass” and selected “fat” in the tissue category. He considered carefully and finally decided to increase his ass and gut separately on top of increasing the fat equally around his entire body. 

Elliott’s finger hovered over the band, but before clicking the Activate button he checked the measurement box again and changed 100% to 200lb. Again, before clicking it, he wavered and finally ended up changing it to 300lb(136kg) with sweaty fingers. Adding 300lb to his meagre 132lb(60kg) would put him at a glorious 432lb(195kg), a fulfilment of a fantasy Elliott had since before he was even consciously aware of it. 

Eliott pressed the Activate button.

He was still standing in front of the mirror and he let out a gasp as the nanobots went to work, making his entire body shiver with the unfamiliar coldness, the feeling much more overwhelming with tasking them to simulate 300lb instead of a measly 40 he attempted at first. 

Elliott watched with intense, nearly blinding fascination as his body rippled slightly and moments later exploded into folds and bulges and rolls, becoming an unrecognisable mountain of flesh. He stared at the enormous gut, too heavy to be completely round as it hung in front of him almost like a massive, engorged flesh apron. His face was unrecognisable, swallowed by an enormous double chin and chubby cheeks, melting into the fat around his neck seamlessly. The man in the mirror couldn’t be him, could he? It was too good to be real… The fat man lifted his arm as Elliott lifted his, only his arm never had an enormous wing of fat hanging off it and jiggling as he moved. When Elliott moved his normal arm it didn’t send his entire massive body into wobbles, but the man in the mirror sure wobbled like an impressive jello dessert. 

Elliott grabbed his gut, an enormous, almost all-encompassing mound of flesh hanging in front of him. He grabbed it, lifted it as much as he could and dropped it. The way the flesh shook and jiggled forced a moan out of him. Already half-hard again, he inched closer to the mirror. Elliott could barely move under the unknown sensation of this immense bulk and he almost stumbled into his mirror, nearly crushing it. Just the half step made his heart race with excursion and his lungs begged for air. 

This SimNano thing was worth every penny, in fact, Elliott thought they were losing money. It was too good to be real. 

He turned off Active Mode, in a few seconds staring back at this familiar skinny self with an impressive hard-on. 

Staring intently, eager to catch every little detail, he pressed Activate again. 

Watching his body explode with fat, filling out with blubber in mere seconds and leaving him unrecognisable was so impossibly erotic that he climaxed just from turning the SimNano off and on again, watching himself gain hundreds of pounds in seconds. 

After he managed to somehow climax three times within the span of an hour he decided it was enough for one day, he was starting to feel light-headed. 

He tapped Deactivate. 

Nothing happened. 

He tapped it again. Still, nothing.

He stared at the band, but it appeared to be frozen. Frantically, he started waddling unsteadily to his backpack where the main SimNano pad was. Walking across the room to his bag while suddenly 300lb heavier was incredibly difficult and equally, if not more, arousing. His giant thighs were rubbing against each other, he could feel he was hitting his enormous apron of a gut with each clumsy step… The enormous behind he’d given himself jiggled with every step and so did his soft, blubbery tits. 

When he finally made it to his back and retrieved his pad Elliott was nearly ready to collapse with how out of breath he was. 

The pad was as frozen as the band was. 

“Fuck.” He whispered, looking into the mirror across the room. He was enormous, there was no way he could leave the house like this and he had a night shift at the bar today. 

It was 5 p.m., and he had work at 8, so technically, he still had time. He could just… Indulge for a while while waiting for the SimNano to unfreeze. 

Elliott laboriously waddled to the bedroom. He had a few pieces of massive clothing he sometimes wore while stuffing it with pillows and pretending he was huge. He pulled on a pair of tracksuit trousers. They could barely encompass his enormous ass. Even the biggest of his secret fetish shirts was snug on him now and his monstrous gut was happily hanging out at the bottom. 

The flat needed tidying up and he also had to cook to have something to eat after his shift when he would undoubtedly be too tired to do anything. 

He began busying himself around the house, every little chore making him hornier than the last one. Everything was a thrill, trying to wipe dust off the higher shelves and feeling how his enormous gut was hanging further and further out of his shirt, trying to wash dishes and finding that he could barely reach into the sink with the enormous mound of blubber in the front of him. When he went to clean the plastic shower door, something that he meant to do all week, he nearly got stuck in the narrow space and instead of trying to find the best angle to free himself he rubbed against the shower wall, making himself cum just with the friction against his fat body. He would’ve jerked himself off if the was any hope of reaching his penis under all that flesh, which there absolutely wasn’t.

With all the chores completed and with food prepped for later, Elliott went to check on the pad. It was still frozen. It was 7.20 pm.

He called in sick and trying not to freak out about it just yet he repositioned the mirror closer to the couch where he planted his enormous ass and began rubbing his flesh. 

There was no need to freak out, he was sure the NanoSim would reset overnight. 

*

Elliott woke up still on the couch and still as enormous as when he drifted off, exhausted by the almost constant sexual tension of the previous day. 

He tapped the band. Frozen. The pad proved to be in a similar state. 

Elliott tried calling the NanoSim Technical Support but they told him that there was nothing they could do remotely because there were health hazards involved, so he would have to come to one of their stores to get it reset. 

Which meant… Going outside as a 432lb man. 

Elliott ate his modest breakfast of a skinny man and wondered how it would look to an outsider, a guy who was nearly half-tone of blubber eating a modest portion of oatmeal. 

Before leaving the house he pulled on a beanie and didn’t shave his unimpressive stubble. There was no way anyone would recognise him, but he still didn’t want to risk it. 

His heart was pounding so hard that it was all he could hear as Elliott stepped out into the hallway. 

Usually, Elliott just took the stairs from the second floor he lived on, but there was no way he was going to take the stairs today, he could barely move with all that unfamiliar weight on him, his waddle almost a caricature of itself. 

There was a lady in the lift and when the doors opened she frantically looked between Elliott and the lift control panel informing all the passengers that the weight limit was 500lb. She was slim, but there was no way she was less than 100lb. 

“You go on” Elliott smiled at her and she pressed the button to close the door almost frantically. 

He wasn’t sure if he actually WAS 432lb or if the nanobots just made it appear so to him, but he wasn’t going to risk it. 

There was an Uber waiting for him, but Elliott had to cancel the ride when it turned out that he couldn’t fit in the car. 

With his dick painfully hard and trapped between mounds of flesh he selected a different ride, making sure it was big enough to accommodate for a massive hog like him. He barely fit and his gut filled his lap completely. The driver was visibly disgusted and Elliott’s already painfully hard dick throbbed under his apron belly. 

Waddling and puffing his way through the shopping centre to the SimNano store was the most humiliating and gratifying experience of his life. Everyone, without exception, stared at the giant man barely waddling his way through the halls, his too-small shirt riding up his enormous gut and his face flushed with the effort of putting all that blubber into motion. 

When he finally made it to the store he was heaving, his breath rasping and his entire body sticky with sweat. 

The only person in the store was the clerk, a teak-skinned man with a mop of black curls and bright, quick eyes. He was very much Elliott’s type and the fact that he had to talk to a handsome guy while his enormous gut hung out of his shirt and he was so out of breath was arousing beyond all reason. 

“Hello, I’m Omar, how can I help you?” 

“Hi, I… uff.. Sorry… I have a problem with my SimNano, the program froze last night and it’s still frozen.” He handed the man his pad, still trying to catch his breath. 

“Let’s see here…” Omar took his pad from him and when he saw the program the SimNano was frozen on he slowly looked back up at Elliott, his lips stretching into a mischievous grin. Elliott felt like his entire face was on fire. Somehow it didn’t dawn on him that the clerk would see the program he was running. If he could, he’d bolt it out of the store in embarrassment, but he couldn’t, not when he was this massive. 

“Let me just do some troubleshooting here.” Omar said, his smirk still on his face as he plugged the device into a PC and started clicking. 

“Alright,” he said a few minutes later. “It looks like I got it, but let me just check…” 

“What…”

Elliott watched with growing terror as Omar proceeded to add another 50lb(22kg) to his program and activating it. Elliott staggered back, feeling his gut hanging marginally lower, the waistband of his tracksuit digging just that much deeper into his blubber. 

“Just to double check, better to be sure.” Omar said, adding another 50 on top of that. 

Elliott had to grab onto the counter as the enormous weight started to threaten to topple him to the ground. He was heaving just from the sheer effort of standing up.

Omar’s cheeky grin was turning downright mischievous. 

“I think it’s working now.” the clerk said, bringing the program down to its original +300lb setting. 

“T-thank you…” Elliott panted, taking his pad back and thanking all the Gods that his gut hid his erection. 

As he was waddling back to the entrance Omar’s voice stopped him in his tracks.

“Ey, fat boy.” 

That nickname alone nearly made Elliott give an ungainly moan, right there in the middle of the shopping centre.

“Y-yes?” “Give me your number, I write NanoSim codes in my spare time and big improvement to the overall experience. I mean…. Huge improvements.” 

Omar’s grin was pure evil and Elliott was sure his own was no better as he gave the handsome man his number.

This was going to be fun. 

PART 2

[hearvex]

george tiktok as a promotion, fridge tiktok hinting at george-locking-food-away-from-him, blue marker on the board, blue paranoid wristband, love was scary and the song that comes right after is: i wanna put you in the spotlight, turn off the cameras now you're all mine

[misterspectacular]

Official Megamind Merchandise, Part 1

---

People wanted to see a list of official Mega-Merch, so I figured I'd share what I've got! Sadly Tumblr only allows 30 images per post so I'm going to have to break it up until multiple posts. I'm going to reblog this post with the continuation.

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Megamind (movie) - This comes with the Blu-Ray, Behind the Scenes and Button of Doom

Megamind Wii Game - Mega Team Unite

Megamind PS3 game - Ultimate Showdown

Megamind tote bag - movie promotion collectible

Megamind door hangers (they were being sold in a theater in Brussels)

Megamind Halloween bag

Megamind balloon

Megamind LED lights

Megamind cap - promotional item

Megamind McDonald's display

Megamind licensed screen print poster - limited edition (Mad Duck Posters)

Megamind lobby cards (French - I got these rather than the American ones because there are only 4 American Lobby cards and none of them feature Roxanne)

Megamind Movie Mylar

Megamind Checkers Game (Hardee's Toys)

Megamind wristband (Hardee's Toys)

Megamind Hero Meter (Hardee's Toys)

Megamind Hardee's Food/Toy bag

Megamind magazine ad

Megamind Intel pin

Roxanne McDonald's Toy (available only in Australia)

Megamind miniature standee (thanks Sepphy)

Megamind Light-Up Brainbot (UK McDonald's Toy)

Megamind - The Novel

Megamind MadLibs

Megamind French Novel

Megamind promotional tattoos

Megamind promotional stickers

Megamind 3D movie guide

(I'll reblog with part 2)

[bitchinbarzal]

NHL TEAMS WITH DESIGNATED DRIVER PROGRAMS 💙

taken from starryote on twitter

Anaheim Ducks (Honda Center)

Sign Up @ Guest Services in Section 214

Incentive: Entry to a raffle for a $200 gift card to the Ducks Team Store

Discount Codes for Lyft Rides on Holidays (Fourth of July, Labor Day Weekend, Halloween, Thanksgiving Eve, and New Years)

Carolina Hurricanes (PNC Arena)

Sign Up @ The Good Sport Designated Driver Station is located at Section 127, Across from the Guest Services

Incentive: Unknown

Flames (Scotiabank Saddledome) -

Sign Up @ The Budweiser Good Sport Booth

Incentive: A free coupon for a soft drink and will be entered into a draw to win a Good Sport gift package.

LA Kings (STAPLES Center)

Sign Up @ Their Website: cryptoarena.com/arena-info/res…

Incentive: Receive a coupon for one complimentary non-alcoholic beverage (redeemable at select concession stands) & entered into drawings for future games tickets w/ a grand prize of a suite seat

Edmonton Oilers (Rogers Place)

Sign Up @ Guest Services in Section 121, Section 129 or Section 230.

Incentive: Unknown

Canucks (Rogers Arena)

Sign Up @ Guest Services in Sections 104, 114, or 310

Registration is open until the end of first period every game.

Restrictions: Must be 19+ w/ valid drivers license & will be given designated wristbands.

Incentive: Coupon for free drink

Blackhawks (United Center)

Sign Up @ Gates 2 or 6 Guest Relations Booth

Restrictions: Must be 21+

Incentive: A coupon for one free regular size fountain soda

Colorado Avalanche (Pepsi Center)

Sign Up @ The Kiosk in Section 132 near the First Aid Station.

Restrictions: Must be 21+

Incentive: Unknown

Dallas Stars (American Airlines Center)

Sign Up @ Guest Relations

Incentive: Promotional Giveaway Items

Detroit Red Wings (Little Caesars Arena)

Sign Up @ The District Detroit App

Restrictions: Must be 21+

Incentive: Unique Bar Code for free Soda

Panthers (Amerant Bank Arena)

Sign Up @ Guest Relations

Incentive: Free Bottled Water or Soft Drink + Entered to Win Promotional Giveaway Items Monthly & Annually

Ottawa Senators (Canadian Tire Center)

Sign Up @ Guest Services Booth Behind Section 201 in Main Concourse

Incentive: Unknown

Lightning (Amalie Arena)

Sign Up @ Amalie Arena App

Incentive: Free Non-Alcoholic Beverage

Toronto MapleLeafs (Scotiabank Arena)

Sign Up @ Fan Services at Gate 1 or Section 301

Restriction: Must be 19+

Incentive: Free Coors Edge & Entered into a drawing to win a prize at end of the season.

NJ Devils (Prudential Center)

Sign Up @ Outside of Club Lounge East near Section 17.

Incentive: Free Drink Coupon & Entered into a raffle for a prize pack

Pittsburgh Penguins (PPG Paints Arena)

Sign Up @ The Designated Drivers Booth

Incentive: Free Drink Coupon

Washington Capitals (Capital One Arena)

Sign Up @ Responsibility Has Its Rewards booth at Section 108

Incentive: Entered for promotional give–a–ways and prizes.

Seattle Kraken (Climate Arena)

Sign Up @ Guest Services

Incentives: A free public transit ticket for safe transportation home at all publicly ticketed home games

Has a program, but no info:

- San Jose Sharks (SAP Center)

- Golden Knights (T-Mobile Arena)

- Minnesota Wild (Xcel Energy Center)

- Nashville Predators (Bridgestone Arena)

- St Louis Blues (Enterprise Center)

- Winnipeg Jets (Bell MTS Center)

- Boston Bruins (TD Garden)

- Buffalo Sabres (Keybank Center)

- Columbus Blue Jackets (Nationwide Arena)

- New York Rangers (Madison Square)

- Philadelphia Flyers (Wells Fargo Center)

Doesn’t have a dedicated program:

- Montreal Canadiens (Bell Centre)

- New York Islanders (UBS Arena)

[lean-mean-demon-genevieve]

A jumble of thoughts for whatever it’s worth:

Since wifey talked to some people on stage at ACL, she got herself an Artist wristband. And probably a pair. I have a theory that this was the game-changer (pun intended) for Jared that resulted in Jared saying “fuck that con” and living it up beyond VIP instead. An Artist pass has to come with even more clearance and freebies.

The guy below also had an artist pass and got himself a selfie with Jared as well. His other pics have him on the wings of the stage looking out at the crowd. I would almost bet money that we see a post from Gen Brag-alecki this week from the same angle.

Before someone bullies this young lady into deleting this pic, let’s also note that apparently it was a family affair. And now this is what The League of Jared Defenders will use to infinity and beyond to excuse him cancelling his obligation:

(I decided to do her a solid and block out her IG handle. I’ll let people do their own work of finding the post if they take issue with her posting a pic of the favorite child.)

I was also reminded that the male half of the couple behind the project that Gen was promoting is a friend of Jensen’s.

Somebody (or several) in that Spn crew is likely a private investor for this docuseries that will be airing on Texas PBS.

I’m not sure who was doing who a favor in this circle jerk of wealthy connections and vanity projects, but one thing is certain: Gen RARELY if ever gets an opportunity that can’t be traced back to knowing the right people…not her own résumé or charisma. *snorts*

Idk if these dots connect, but there’s my brain dump! 💜

[vipernoir]

Here's some random headcannons I've thought about Luka for a while

♡ He's not that well liked in his own class and only gets along with a select few at school, and the people he gets along with are the sorts friends you have at school but you don't hang out outside of school if that makes sense?

♡ He's a bisexual king cough cough lukadrien

♡ Also I remember reading a fanfic in a different fandom where they found out their crush was their dad fuck I truly hope Luka didn't have a thing for Jagged yikes

♡ He and Juleka just hang out, paint each others toe nails, dye each others hair, Juleka just uses Luka as a lab rat doing his hair, makeup, maybe even drawing sharpie tattoos on him, but Luka just likes seeing her doing something creative and encouraging her so is more than happy to be said lab rat

♡ Luka respects everybody's music taste, and truly tries to understand every kind of music someone creates/likes even if he isn't partial to it

♡ Anarka raised her twins on the classics; Nirvana, the sex pistols, the cure, the who, Metallica, motley crüe

♡ Both Ju and Luka went through that BVB emo phase, I'm talking full on Andy Sixx makeup, unironically rarw xDing, wearing the billion band wristbands Luka totally still wears some of his

♡ Anarka raised both the twins to live your own life, love who you love, play what's in your heart

♡ Luka has a lot of strong opinions on certain things, and whilst he will always respect and validate someone's different opinion as much as be can he always sticks to his own morals

♡ Luka occasionally does graffiti to promote these morals

♡ He's ran from the cops before for getting caught spray painting ACAB under a bridge

♡ His forgiving nature means he automatically trusts everyone and wants to give them a fair chance, so all of the built up frustration and sadness from being neglected by his own father all of those years is buried under a layer of fake happiness, he hides how he truly feels to give his dad a chance but a strong part of him wants to not forgive him as easy but it just isn't Luka's nature

♡ He's fascinated with bugs, he used to collect them as a child and study them, draw them, watch them, eat them

♡ He has a small following on YouTube for posting covers of popular songs, he isn't that big as he isn't regular with uploading as he just does it when he feels like it

♡ Luka's music taste varies it can go from political pop punk like Mindless Self Indulgence, to more hard-core sounding music like Rob Zombie or Slipknot, only to switch to sadboy sound cloud like lil peep, to then soft pop punk like Paramore, then one minute he's sat listening to old Disney playlists, his music taste is so versatile

♡ Luka definitely obsessed with the camp rock movies as a kid, like him and Ju would sing and dance out all the songs together, always on repeat

♡ I like to think Luka is vegetarian just because either he felt kinda bad eating meat, or Mylenne converted him somewhere down the line

♡ Luka always keeps a spare pair of headphones, a spare guitar pic, and a notebook and pen for lyrics, with him at all times

♡ After his break-up with Mari he started writing sad, heartbreak songs, he wasn't trying to be that cringey but it's all that would come out.

♡ He refuses to play them though, because they're that sad that probably even Chloe would shed a tear hearing them, and he would never want Mari to feel guilty for hurting him in such a bad way

It's 3 am now so ima stop but I have so many Luka crack hc's it's crazy so ill post some more later

[laguera25]

what happened in Prague, the Luis thing? And who is the dude anyway? Wth with holding spots lmao. If I were there and someone tried to make me lose my own spot over that f*** that tbh.

According to an alleged witness in Prague, Luis was allegedly given 25-30 of the wristbands for FZ early entrance and got to cut in front of people who had been waiting all day.

Now, his story is that he and the others were actually going to stay overnight the night before to ensure those spots, but were told they could not camp overnight, perhaps by Livenation or venue staff; it's not clear. However, according to Luis, he was told that he could write a list of those who were with him, and their spots would be held. So, he did, and his group went to a hotel.

The next morning, people had already lined up for FZ entry and had been given numbers for their place in line. According to witnesses, Luis and his group cut the line, claiming they had an agreement from the previous night. Claiming a mistake had been made, the line was renumbered, and Luis and his group bumped those who had been waiting.

The Prague situation is much murkier, but a purported witness claims that Luis said he was holding ten spots for others in the front row. Frankly, I'm not sure how that would work, but in any case, Luis later posted his prime front row spot to IG.

He also posted video of himself running to prove he was "just like other fans" and not getting special perks. Which, fine, but it sure looks like reputational damage control from a guy who got busted abusing an inside connection. How else do you get twenty-five to thirty FZ wristbands out of an allotment of sixty?

Additionally, another fan claims that he has done this multiple times before and they saw him and his group at the barrier before anyone else was even allowed to enter the FZ at another show on a previous tour. Which, if true, speaks to an inside connection with someone either in band management or the promoter's organization. I can't blame anyone for having connections, or even trading on them, but if you're going to do that, it might get noticed, and you might get called out.

He did, and he was, and rather than be quiet and enjoy his perk, he's wasting energy on damage control.

FZ is a thing I will never need to worry about, but it does suck for the fans who stood in line all day just to get bumped by some connected cool kid.

For the record, I don't think he needs to be run out of fandom on a rail. I think he got caught working the system and is trying to skirt the fannish fallout, which, so far, is being grumped at online. And that is where it should stay.

[niki-phoria]

pairing: chishiya x male!reader genre: fluff ?? word count: 3.2k

a/n: i wanna keep writing for chishiya (and aib as a whole) but i have NO ideas so requests are always welcome please

warnings: s2 spoilers (kinda), reader gets shot, canon-typical violence, chishiya is a little ooc, blood, mentions of stitches, bad summaries of the scenes i'm referencing, might edit and repost later idk, cussing

“can you see anything?” arisu’s voice is staticy through the radio. you pull your hood further over your face, hiding your body behind the tree. 

“no, nothing yet,” usagi replies. “i’ll try to go over and talk to them like i’m joining the game.” 

“wait,” you squint a little, trying to see the people better. “there’s something on their wrists.” 

“he’s right,” arisu sighs, leaning a little closer. “they have the same wristbands as those people from tag.” 

“shit, they’re leaving.” you rush to follow after them, chasing after their car. you’re sure they can see you but you don’t really care. you’d never catch up anyways. 

after a few minutes, they pull off the road and drive into a building. you pant, leaning against a railing. the night air feels good against your skin. on the front of the building you can see one word written in red graffiti- beach. 

“l/n,” arisu sighs, jogging over to you. usagi is quick to follow, leaning against the railing with you. 

“beach?” she reads. 

“it looks like we found it.” the beach’s lights are the only thing you can see for miles, golden hue illuminating the entire building. 

“how do they have electricity?” usagi wonders aloud. your response is cut off when you feel a tight grip around your neck, choking you. you cough, trying to fight back, but your vision goes blurry and eventually the world goes black. 

you wake up sitting on a wooden chair. you’re surrounded by people staring you down. you anxiously shift, noting the lack of restraints around your wrists or ankles. why didn’t they tie you up? “welcome to the beach!” a man yells. he raises his hands up, twirling around the room. he’s shirtless, just like all of the other men in the room. 

the man- hatter- opens the sliding doors, revealing a map of every playing card in a deck. most of them are crossed off with black x’s. “the way to win the games is to get every card,” he says, leaning down next to you. you try not to flinch at the alcohol on his breath. “once we win one of each card, we’ll be able to send one person back to the normal world.

“we have two rules. first, everyone wears swimsuits everywhere. you can’t hide a weapon in a swimsuit,” hatter says, dancing around the room.

“and second?” arisu asks. 

“second… the beach kills all traitors. we stand as a united front. if anyone dares to go against that, the beach will show no mercy.” you stiffen at his words. he drops the theatrics for a moment, turning back to face you. “you won a seven of hearts,” he smirks, tapping the card against his hand. “we didn’t have that one. we will consider promoting you. until then, enjoy the beach.” 

silently, a woman comes to stand before you. “follow me,” she says. she’s silent as she leads you into a different room, giving you new clothes to change into and the same wristband you saw on people earlier. you put it onto your wrist, tugging at the string so it’s pulled taut. you awkwardly pull your jacket back over your shoulders, shifting uncomfortably in your swim trunks. 

the music is loud, shaking the ground as you make your way further into the beach. you can see usagi standing across the room, quickly putting her jacket back on. the crowd goes silent when hatter and the same people from before step out onto a balcony. “the beach stands untied! we will send someone out of here!” he yells. “follow your numbers to your games! let’s go!” 

“we’re in different games,” usagi murmurs. arisu leans over to look at yours. you have the same one. 

arisu turns back to usagi. “be careful, okay?” 

she nods. “you too. both of you.” 

you give her one last reassuring nod before following arisu through the crowd to where ann is already waiting for you. “we’re testing both of you,” she says, leading you down a staircase to the game’s entrance. the same white table is sitting in the corridor with four phones. it feels heavier in your hand than the others. “they’re waterproof?” you mumble. you share a puzzled look with arisu before continuing to follow ann into the game. 

you stand in an empty dark room with a few inches of water at the bottom. it reaches about halfway up your shins. there are wires hanging from the ceiling. every now and then sparks fly from them. there’s a separate room attached to the main one with a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. a sliding door that reads “open/close” is next to it. on the wall next to you, three switches have been ingrained into the cement, reading “A,” “B,” and “C.” 

ann stands across from you in the center of the room, arms crossed over her chest. in the corner, a woman you recognize from the beach, kuina, stands next to the man arisu saved during tag. another woman stands on the opposite side of the room. 

you shift uncomfortably in the cold water. “difficulty: four of diamonds,” your phone chimes. “rules: there is one switch that connects to the light bulb. with the door closed, players may flip any switch. when the door is opened, players may only flip one switch once. the door will not close if there are people in both rooms or if a switch is flipped. game clear: if players can answer which switch turns on the light. game over: if water level rises and the surface touches the wires. game start.” 

“wires?” kuina asks. the other woman reaches out to touch one, yelping and then falling to the ground. dead. you flinch a little as she falls, turning away from her body and focusing on the switches.

“why don’t we just flip one now? and then if it doesn’t turn on, we have a 50/50 shot,” the man says. 

“66%,” ann corrects. you can feel her staring at you as you glance between the light and the switches. “l/n, what should we do?” 

“why are you asking him?” the man protests. “it should be a unanimous decision!” 

“we’re testing them,” ann answers nonchalantly. your mind races as water continues to fill the room. a million possibilities fill your head. you look over at the light again. 

“it’s a regular light bulb?” you ask. kuina leans into the room, looking up at it. 

“it looks like it,” she shrugs. 

“close the door,” you instruct. the man rushes to help as they slide the door so it’s shut. you bite your lip, pushing the “A” switch so it turns on. 

“what now?” the man asks. 

“we wait,” arisu says, joining you by the switches. “we let the water fill up a little more and then we test another switch. if it doesn’t turn on, then we check the bulb to see if it’s hot.” 

“and if it is, then it’s the first switch,” kuina  nods. “makes sense.” 

the water filling the room is agonizingly slow and incredibly fast. it feels suffocating as it soaks your shirt, filling up to submerge your chest and shoulders. “open the door!” arisu yells after you turn the switch off. you push down on the “B” switch. the light doesn’t turn on. “kuina, check the bulb!” 

she makes her way into the room, reaching up to touch the light. she flinches, pulling her hand away. 

“it’s hot!” you wait for her to make her way back into the main room before pushing down on the “C” switch. after a few seconds, the water stops. 

“game cleared,” your phone chimes. “congratulations.” you sigh, shoving it back into your pocket. ann smirks, satisfied as you make your way out of the room and back to the beach. 

"i'm not sure about this," you whisper to usagi.

"it'll be okay," she replies. "arisu just needs to find the safe."

you swallow your nervousness, retreating back down the hallway to your place to keep watch. 

it's silent for a few minutes until two men walk over to you, grabbing your arms. "hey! what are you doing?" you fail to fight against them as they drag you into aguni's room where the cards are kept. arisu is kneeling on the ground next to a locked safe hidden inside of a closet. usagi stands next to you, also held back by two men. chishiya nonchalantly pulls the radio out of his pocket, holding it up. kuina stands next to him with a worried expression. "arisu!" usagi yells.

"and him?" niragi gestures to you. 

"l/n wasn't a part of this," chishiya barely glances at you before looking back to arisu. "you can let him go."

you stumble a little when the men push you down. one of them kicks you away, blocking your view of arisu. "leave," he orders. with one last nervous glance towards your friends, you scramble to your feet and rush out of the hotel.

you follow along with the crowd as they gather around in the center of the hotel’s lobby, anxiously awaiting more instructions from the announcer. a table with stacks of phones sits in the center with the same sign that always accompanies them- ‘01 per person.’ you follow along with the group, grabbing one of the phones and registering into the game. you shift onto your toes to see over the people in front of you. a girl lays on the ground with a knife sticking out of her chest. 

another girl gasps, running towards her body. “momoka,” she pleads, shaking her. “momoka!” 

“momoka has been murdered,” the announcer speaks. “a ‘witch’ stabbed her in the chest with a knife. the witch who took her life is hiding among the members of the beach. witch is only a title, the murderer can be a man or woman. goal: find momoka’s killer and burn their body along with their wretched soul in the fire of judgment. game over: the witch survives for 120 minutes.” 

you can hear anxious murmurs from the people among you. you need to get away from them, out of the crowd. you slip away, running through the hallways of the hotel. 

gunshots ring out from all around you. you need to find arisu. the walls are covered in blood as you pass them, bodies almost everywhere you look. you bite back the nausea from the sight and smell, trying to find anywhere safe. anywhere to hide. 

“l/n!” someone yells. you trip over your own feet, turning to look back. usagi runs over to you, followed by the man from tag and the girl who ran to momoka’s body. you let usagi help you up, ignoring the sting of rug burn on your knees. “are you alright?” 

“yeah,” you sigh. “what’s going on?” 

“they’re killing everyone to try to find the witch,” the man sighs, taking off his hat and running a hand through his sweaty hair. 

“where’s arisu? we need to find him.” 

“i don’t know,” usagi sighs. “we need to keep moving,” she grabs onto your arm, leading you away from the approaching gunshots. you desperately pull on different doors, hoping to find one that leads back to arisu. 

“this is it?” usagi asks, looking back down at asahi's phone. 

“it looks like it,” arisu sighs, putting it back into his pocket. “here,” he tosses you a flashlight before you make your way through the station.

you pull your jacket further around your body, as you search. it fills you with an odd sense of nostalgia to walk through an area that should be so familiar. you pause when you find an opened door. the same door that asahi and momoka had shown in the video. hesitantly, you walk forwards and pull the door open. arisu and usagi follow behind you. inside, people in business suits lay sprawled across different tables and in chairs. the blood looks fresh, like they haven’t been dead for very long. 

“i’m surprised it took you so long to find this,” chishiya says, stepping into the light. "it's good to see you, l/n."

"how long have you known about this?" arisu asks.

chishiya holds up a piece of paper- a circle with seemingly random lines going through it. "it took some time, but i finally figured out that this is a map to the shibuya station." as soon as he finishes speaking, the monitors light up all around you. they shine a blinding white before mira's face appears. 

"congratulations, you have beaten all of the numbered card games. now, you will move onto the face cards," she says. chishiya and kuina walk over to stand next to you. when you glance at chishiya, he simply shrugs. "we look forward to seeing you soon!"

"there are more games?" kuina asks.

"she said we were moving onto the face cards. maybe if we win every game corresponding to each card in a deck we'll be able to return back to our world," arisu says. 

"hopefully," usagi nods. you follow behind chishiya out of the station, sitting beside kuina on the ground. 

"i wonder when the games will start," you say. "they usually take place at night."

"they've always given us some sort of instructions. i'm sure we'll hear something soon," usagi reassures. you hum, stretching.

the silence is interrupted when a group of cars pull up. you scramble to your feet with kuina, watching as people from the beach begin to step out.

"what's going on?" a woman yells. you aren't given time to respond before something hits her. you stand in shock, staring at the now dead body falling to the ground. another shot rings out, sending another person down- a woman this time. you’ve just barely caught your breath when someone yells out “run!” 

you’re quick to follow, turning on your heel and beginning to leave. gunshots continue to ring out behind you, almost drowned out by the screams of their victims. you follow usagi behind the wall of a building, hesitantly peeking over the edge. in the sky, an airship flies though, carrying a giant king of spades flag. in the distance you can see even more of them, carrying the other face cards. 

“shit,” you whisper. 

“we need to move!” arisu yells. more bodies fall to the ground as you run, desperately trying to keep pace with the others. 

“let’s split up!” chishiya shouts, ducking behind a car. you hide behind the wall of a building, hiding in the shadows as you watch more people run by. you can see arisu nod a little, rushing to a wounded man on the ground. 

you yelp as you suddenly feel a sharp pain in your leg, harshly hitting the asphalt ground. scrambling to your feet, you push yourself behind a wall, hiding away in the shadows. your leg burns when you try to put pressure on it, pain stinging throughout your body. hesitantly, you reach a hand down to touch it. blood gushes from the wound, dripping down your leg. 

with a hiss, you push yourself off the wall, following after the hoards of people running from the gunshots. you make it a little farther down the street when someone grabs your wrist, pulling you down and pushing you against a car. “dumbass,” chishiya curses. “you got yourself shot.” 

you hope your adrenaline is covering how flustered you are, biting back a bitter laugh. “sorry. i didn’t really expect to almost die today.” 

“come on,” he says, wrapping his arm around your waist. “can you walk?” you hiss when you put your foot on the ground but nod. 

“it hurts, but i can move.” chishiya sighs, shifting your body weight onto him. you can hear a car approaching before suddenly screeching to a stop. you look out from the side, seeing tatta and ann. 

“get in!” she yells. chishiya helps you to your feet as arisu, usagi, and kuina pile into the backseat of the car. you limp a little closer before something hits the ground, rolling out from underneath the car. chishiya starts pulling you back, grip tightening around your waist. 

“go!” he yells, pushing you back behind the car for shelter. usagi slams the car door shut as tatta begins driving. 

“you should run,” you say, moving so you’re not leaning on chishiya. “i can handle myself.” 

he doesn’t move, shaking his head. “no. i’m not leaving you now.” you sigh, letting him wrap his arm back around your waist and helping you run behind a building. “i need to find something to stop the bleeding.” 

“chishiya!” you hiss, pulling your jacket off, pressing it against your leg. the sound of gunshots gradually fades until you’re left in complete silence. 

with the king of spades gone, you start to feel the adrenaline wearing off. your hands shake as you press down even harder on your leg. you aren’t sure how long you’ve been sitting there when chishiya returns, replacing your hands with his. your chest heaves as you watch him check the wound over. “it’s pretty bad. you’re gonna need stitches.” 

“just make it quick.”

he nods, slowly beginning to treat the wound. you bite back a scream before the pain becomes unbearable and the world goes black.

the ground is hard underneath you when you wake up. your leg aches as you shift, forcing yourself to sit up. “welcome back,” chishiya says. 

you groan, leaning back against the wall. it's dark outside now. a fire burns in front of you. you shift to move closer to it, desperate for the warmth. “how long was i out for?” 

“not long. you passed out from the adrenaline and shock.” 

you hum. it's silent for a few minutes. the only noise is the cracking of the flames. you move back to lean against the wall, sitting next to chishiya. you're so close that your hands are just barely touching. “why did you save me?” 

he looks over at you. "because i don't want you dead."

"are you saying you care about me?" you tease.

chishiya turns his attention back to the fire. "i do." you freeze for a second, surprised by his answer. he glances back up at you. "did you think i didn't?"

"honestly? i didn't think you would go out of your way to save me." you pull your good leg up to rest your chin against your knee. "so why did you?"

"because i have feelings for you." chishiya is uncharacteristically quiet when he says it, still staring straight ahead at the flames.

"i have feelings for you too," you whisper. he looks over at you, almost surprised. chishiya reaches over to grab your hand, intertwining your fingers together. you move even closer, laying your head against his shoulder. "will you be mine?"

chishiya smiles a little, pressing down to press a kiss against your forehead. "i already am."

[wristbandsblog]

Are you wondering, how Tyvek wristbands vary from paper ones?

We'll forgive you if your wristbands weren't made with the same meticulous attention to detail as ours were. A one-time-use band that can be discarded after a single use is the common mental image of a wristband for an event. Hence, you probably haven't given much thought to the differences between paper wristbands and Tyvek ones. Have you seen a change? Can you tell the difference between the two, or are they the same? This piece examines the key differences and similarities between paper and Tyvek wristbands.

Do paper wristbands function the same as Tyvek ones?

Well, yes, paper wristbands can be exchanged for Tyvek ones. Nonetheless, Tyvek should not be mistaken for paper. In spite of its natural-looking appearance, Tyvek is actually a synthetic material made from strands of high-density polyethylene. That is to say, it is recyclable plastic. They are popularly referred to as "paper wristbands" due to their papery appearance and feel.

Paper wristbands are convenient since they may be customized and worn for a short period of time without causing discomfort. They're used everywhere from water parks and theme parks to hotels and resorts because of how quickly and cheaply they can verify a guest's identity.

Could you tell me if we could get paper wristbands? The material Tyvek is used to produce paper wristbands.

Wristbands are a prominent point of criticism in user reviews, with many users noting that they are discolored and waxy. Because we were really skeptical, we decided to go out and get a pack to try for ourselves. What first stood out to us was the way it felt. There is a risk of abrasion from the edges. The ill-fitting nature of this material may become unpleasant after prolonged use. You may think of it as wrapping your wrist in scotch tape. To test the band's durability, we snipped a small hole in it with scissors. With a simple wave of my palm, the band snapped in two and fell off my wrist. But, you shouldn't wear these wristbands when engaging in physical activity where they could sustain even minor harm.

I'm not sure what kind of material to use; could you please advise?

No joke; you can't skimp on quality. The appearance of cheapness and fragility in the wristbands you present to your guests will have a significant impact on their initial impression of your event or business. Tyvek paper wristbands are the best option for this reason. These wristbands are made of durable Tyvek and can be worn indoors or out for an extended period of time. It is comfortable to wrap the elastic bands around one's wrist. Even better, they may be tailored to your individual needs.

Wristbandseurope.com is your one-stop shop for premium paper and Tyvek wristbands. Organizations that distribute promotional wristbands are among their clientele. Its custom-printed wristbands are used by many different sectors across Europe. Nightclubs, festivals, organizations, and hotels may all find what they need at www.wristbandseurope.com, which offers customizable vinyl, fabric, Tyvek, and silicone wristbands.

[sunkissedlouis]

What happened now with the show in Jakarta that everyone is so upset? I don't understand

hey anon, there’s been a change in the queueing system for fitf jakarta that the promoter posted earlier.

before it was qn based on the ticket time purchase.

now, when you get to the venue and exchange the tickets for the wristbands, you will also get the qn. it starts at 9am on show day.

there has also been drama on twt that i did not keep up with when the first qn system was announced. people who will not attend are complaining about the queueing system and how unfair it is. when it’s the norm in shows in indonesia and even other asian countries (for a more organized qn). see lt id’s tweet here.

[caralara]

has something happened, Cara? did i miss something? sofia stunt as in sofia the scandinavian girl everybody forgot about? is she back? what has asia to do with that stunt? totally agree that louis' career would only benefit if there were some women in his team but i'm really confused about what exactly you're talking about now. have a lovely weekend!

Hi!

Oh my comment was set off by the AFHF announcement, and the subsequent detective rabbithole everyone went down trying to figure out where it will be this year, and loads of people saying Mexico bc of the cacti in the picture plus that Mexican promoter account tweeting and deleting AFHF recently. I got riled up about how badly they failed last year for AFHF, how we could tell right from when they announced it (quite late) to then being there and seeing how they only sold 2/3 of tickets and not even everyone showed up. They had to cut back massively on staff (one of the reasons why entry was handled so badly and why they didn’t have enough staff to hand out the wristbands), and how they absolutely need to have a (financial) success with this year‘s AFHF in order to not have the whole festival get jeopardised and maybe cancelled. And that led to me talking about the root problem of the team being just men, and then listing examples of their recent fuck ups that very likely wouldn’t have happened that way if they had a woman on their team they‘d listen to once in a while, like for example the Sofia stunt. I guarantee you that no man on that team even thought about the fact that in 2023, with a majorly queer, feminist female fanbase that huge age gap could be problematic for Louis‘ image with his fans, because men in general don’t think about much younger women being with older men as problematic at all. They dropped her like hot iron *after* the backlash from all sides. Then they didn’t handle communication well when they cancelled Asia at all. Like. At all.

For AFHF, I understand that Mexican fans are super passionate but I already gotten many messages by latam fans saying even though living in Mexico City they wouldn’t be able to afford it. I don’t think it’ll be in Mexico, they really need to be in the black numbers for this year‘s AFHF, so they need it to be accessible to fans with strong financial powers. Europe has the majority of louis‘ fandom with strong financial power, and logistically it would be crazy to fly back and forth about 16-18 hours between European festivals for AFHF, if he could do it in Europe again.

If he keeps it in a similar time frame (august) as the past (although he’s already had the first announcement two months earlier than usually), there’s only the last July or last August weekend (going into September) available.

A friend actually sent me the Ponte de Segura bridge that looks a lot like the viaduct used in the picture, and it’s right at the border of Portugal to Spain. End of July he’s got two festivals in Portugal and Spain, and he could easily oversee the set up during the week between those two.

There’s also huge festival grounds 20 minutes from that bridge, that usually hosts the BOOM festival, but only every other year - meaning that July weekend is free for 2024 and the infrastructure for the festival has been well established (since 1997) with shuttles, vendors, camp sites, stage infrastructures… it looks really great.

The thing that still got me entertaining Mexico as a possibility is the cacti that have been edited in, that mostly only grow in South America, and the Mexican promoter.

Anyways, tell me louis wouldn’t go for this?? The shore, the lake, the rocks, the surroundings, the heat??

Anyways the real clowning begins if you imagine louis launches AFHF to be TWO days by having Niall headline the first day… that would certainly draw the necessary crowds and they’re already doing a bit of the festival run together this summer 🤡🤪

[dailyanarchistposts]

Chapter Five. Persecution

JOE:…Does it make any difference? That I might be one thing deep within, no matter how wrong or ugly that thing is, so long as I have fought, with everything I have, to kill it. What do you want from me? What do you want from me, Harper? More than that? For God’s sake, there’s nothing left, I’m a shell. There’s nothing left to kill. As long as my behavior is what I know it has to be. Decent. Correct. That alone in the eyes of God. —Tony Kushner, Angels in America[105]

Flakes of snow fall gently over the ponds, statues and lawns sloping down from the gold-domed Massachusetts State House. A cluster of several dozen young men and women walk along the edge of the Boston Common on Tremont Street. They chant, “Hate is curable and preventable!” “Jesus, cleanse this temple!” and “Conversion Therapy kills gay teens!” It is 7:30 in the morning. Many in the group carry rainbow-colored posters that say, “We’re God’s Children Too” and “God Loves Gays.” Some peel away from the procession to dart into a Dunkin’ Donuts. They emerge a few minutes later cradling a cup of coffee or hot chocolate.

When they reach the Tremont Temple Church, they form a half-circle outside the front doors. Boston police are standing out front to block people without registration papers from entering the building. The protesters have converged on the church to demonstrate against a Love Won Out conference, sponsored by Dobson’s Focus on the Family, being held inside. Love Won Out officials, already nervous, have ordered lunch from Subway for the nearly 800 people attending their conference so no one will have to leave the church. Love Won Out volunteers meet everyone coming through the front doors.

“Are you registered?” a woman asks new arrivals politely.

If so, people are directed upstairs, where their bags are searched for tape recorders and cameras. Wrists are stamped and wrapped in bright orange-red bands. Only those wearing wristbands are allowed to file into the sanctuary. The church has long, dark, wooden pews. It is surrounded on three sides by a balcony and has towering stained-glass windows depicting biblical scenes.

The crowd takes several minutes to move through the swinging doors and settle into the pews. There are mothers and nervous teenage sons. Husbands and wives, their heads bent over the conference forms, circle on printed schedules the breakout sessions they plan to attend. Single men and women sit alone, thumbing through the conference notes. In a small media section at the back of the sanctuary, only a couple of seats are occupied. The event does not welcome the “secular” media, which it accuses of promoting an anti-Christian agenda. Love Won Out volunteers walk up and down the aisles looking for potential infiltrators or anyone holding a tape recorder or a camera. Those who attempt to tape or photograph the conference will be ejected.

Love Won Out was founded, its brochure says, to help families, men and women, and especially those plagued by what the movement calls “same-sex attraction,” recover traditional male and female roles. The organization, led by many who identify themselves as “ex-gays,” brands homosexuality as a disease and condemns it as a threat to the family, the health of the nation and Christianity. The movement’s professed goal is to “cure” those who have “same-sex attraction.” But it has also declared war against gays and lesbians who are unrepentant, those they brand as “militant” and who actively promote “the gay agenda.” Although they speak the language of compassion toward those willing to be healed, they also say there should be no tolerance or acceptance of gays and lesbians who refuse to seek help. And America will soon pay a price, they warn, for permitting gays and lesbians to live openly in defiance of God.

The legalization of gay marriage in Massachusetts has helped mobilize the Christian Right, including many in the state who see the move as morally polluting their schools and communities. Christian activists in Massachusetts are frequent guests at Christian conferences, where they speak of their persecution by “homosexual radicals.” This cultivated sense of persecution—cultivated by those doing the persecuting—allows the Christian Right to promote bigotry and attack any outcry as part of the war against the Christian faith. A group trying to curtail the civil rights of gays and lesbians portrays itself, in this rhetorical twist, as victims of an effort to curtail the civil rights of Christians. One of the most vocal is Tom Crouse, a pastor in Holland, Massachusetts, who hosts a show titled Engaging Your World broadcast on local Christian radio station WVNE-AM 760 in Worcester. He features antigay guests and has held a “Mr. Hetero” contest in Wooster. The contest included “ex-gays.” Crouse says the contest was a way of promoting “God’s design” in response to a “Mr. Gay 2005” competition held in San Diego. He refuses to use the word “gay” on his talk show, saying he uses the word only “in its proper context, which means ‘happy.’”

“People will call in to my show and say, ‘You’re gay,’ to me on the air, and I’ll say, ‘I’m gay, you’re gay.’” He lashes out at “homosexual activists” who he says “are well financed, well organized, and small in numbers.

“They’re rabid and they’re active, and they have no problem telling you they’re going to kill you,” he has said, “no problem telling you they’re going to burn you to death, no problem telling you anything, all in the name of tolerance.

“If you listen to how Jesus is proclaimed today, you’d think Jesus is some tie-dye-shirt-wearing, pot-smoking hippie. That’s not who Jesus is. You know, Jesus was a man who spoke the truth. He said, ‘You’re of your father, the devil.’ He walked away from those who could have stoned him and killed him. Jesus said, ‘I am God, you are not. I am the living truth and the life. No one knows what God knows but me’—I say Jesus was the most intolerant person in the world. Jesus would not be accepted in many churches today.”

Mike Haley, director of gender issues at Focus on the Family, and himself an “ex-gay,” walks up and stands behind the pulpit in the Boston church. His collared shirt is pressed and tucked into his khaki pants. His sandy blond hair is combed neatly to the side. He welcomes the crowd to the first Love Won Out conference in Boston, the organization’s 36th event since its founding in1998. Trinity Temple, he reminds those in the sanctuary, has hosted every president since John F. Kennedy and now, Love Won Out. He raises his fist in the air as the crowd claps and says, “Amen.” The successful staging of the event in Massachusetts, where same-sex marriages were first legalized, is, he assures the crowd, a victory for Christians.

Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, a clinical psychologist, is president of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, an organization known as NARTH. He says he has treated more than 1,000 men who came to him with “unwanted homosexuality.” He has written three books on the subject, including his most recent, A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality, co-authored with his wife, Linda Ames Nicolosi.

Nicolosi says that all men are “born to be heterosexual.” He calls heterosexual orientation that which corresponds to man’s “true nature.” Homosexuality, he says, “is a masculine inferiority.” He speaks of “the gender identity phase” when the boy begins to realize that the world is divided into male and female. Children who cannot disconnect from their mothers and identify with their fathers, he explains, become homosexuals. He says the male child is biologically “trying to fulfill his natural masculine strivings. He is wired to be masculine. His body is designed for a woman.” The job of the child is “to dis-identify with the mother and bond with the father.”

The boy, he says, “begins to realize that he’s like this father image that he never really paid attention to before. He becomes interested in the father. And if he reaches out to the father, and if the mother supports him in making this transition, and if the father is welcoming and encouraging, the boy will make the transition. He’ll bond emotionally with his father, make that male identification, and that becomes the foundation of his sexual preference, what he finds sexually attractive.”

But if the father is distant, detached, unavailable, in short a “negative figure in the boy’s eye,” the boy will reach out to the father and be hurt.

“He will be made to feel ashamed of his masculine ambition,” Nicolosi says. “The father’s nonresponsiveness will make him feel bad about that effort, and he will basically shut down. And he will be shamed for his masculine strivings, and basically what he says is, ‘If you make me unimportant, I make you unimportant. If you’re not interested in me, I’m not interested in you.’ And you know, if you know any homosexual men, they do not have a good relationship with their fathers. Their fathers are just not that important in their lives, period.”

Nicolosi warns against fathers who are “weak and unmasculine, and perhaps beaten down by the mother.” He says that boys need a “strong, masculine father who is worthy of imitation, of modeling, worthy of disconnecting from the mother.” He also cautions against an “overemotionally involved mother” who is a “dominant, strong personality.”

He argues that mothers who do not cede authority to the father, who do not represent to the boy that dad is the leader of the family, contribute to their child’s homosexuality. In proper development, he says, the nurturing of women becomes less important as the boy grows older. The rougher play of the father is required if the boy is to develop into a man.

“You know, the young father tossing the son up in the air and catching him,” Nicolosi says. “And, you know, the father is laughing and the kid is petrified, you know? And the mother is watching this ritual and she has no idea, she’s getting a heart attack watching this. But as the father is tossing the kid up and down, because the father is laughing, the son starts laughing. And a very important lesson has just been taught, one that men teach boys: danger can be fun. Even if the father drops the kid and cracks his head a little bit, at least he will be straight. A small price to pay, I tell ya.”

And when males are brought up by masculine fathers, when they become fully developed men, they are, he says, “a little dull, you know what I mean? We don’t see colors as vividly. Have you noticed? We don’t seem to remember show tunes, I don’t know why. Anyway, more importantly than ‘Danger can be fun,’ the boy is caught by the father, ‘And I can trust dad.’ And men with a homosexual problem do not trust other men.”

Those who fail to achieve their masculinity, however, become mama’s boys. They seek to please the mother. They are the kind of boys, he says, who leave for school with their hair in place and wearing neat, clean clothes and come home from school in the same, perfect condition.

“And you can see how in adulthood, the gay man desires to break that good little boy mold,” Nicolosi says. “He is angry and wants to rebel. He’s aggressive. He’s shocking. He’s offensive. He’s provocative because he wants to break out of that good little boy mold that he was in. While all the other boys were being bad, he was sitting with mommy in the kitchen; now he wants to be bad. Have you ever seen a gay pride parade? That’s exactly right. If you walk into a gay bar, it looks like a bunch of men who want to be bad little boys. You walk into a straight bar, and all these straight guys are sitting there, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’ because they got it out of their system a long time ago. They’re exhausted. Their wives exhausted them.”

He throws out that gay men gravitate toward theater to “escape into fantasy” because “fantasy is a big part of the gay identity.”

A woman in a pew leans toward her husband and whispers that this is a description of their son.

The cure for what he terms the “male gender deficit,” for those who suffer from “same-sex attraction,” is “reparative therapy.” It can come about through a close connection with a strong, heterosexual man who is comfortable in his male role. When homosexuals “make an emotional connection with a straight man, their homosexuality disappears,” he says. They no longer have trouble being assertive, and these “heterosexual men with a homosexual problem” are cured.

It is left to Mike Haley, who identifies himself as an ex-gay, to back up Nicolosi’s assertions with personal testimony. He tells the group that his father was cold and distant, refusing to initiate him into the world of men, and taunted him because of his lack of athletic ability as “Michelle” or “my third daughter.” He describes his close relationship as an 11-year-old boy with a man who eventually began to have sex with him.

Eventually Haley went to see a counselor who told him he was born gay. He frequented the gay bars and discos at Laguna Beach in California, not far from his home. He felt, he says, as if he had “come home.” His lifestyle, however, conflicted with the views of his church. And his pastor, when he confessed, told him he had to reform. The conflict between his desires and what he thought was right in the eyes of God began to haunt him.

“So what do you think I did as a 17-year-old junior in high school that didn’t want to be gay?” Haley says. “I read my Bible and I read my Bible and I read my Bible and I prayed and I prayed and I prayed. I remember kneeling next to my bed and saying, ‘Lord, I’m not going to stop praying until I feel different,’ only to fall asleep, waking up to feel just the same as I had when I had started to pray.”

He finally turned his back on the church. He tells the group that at this juncture he believed Christianity was “a lie” and “hated Christians.”

“I wanted to be moral within my homosexuality,” he says. “I wanted to have that long-term monogamous relationship. But when I didn’t find it in this city, I’d move to the next.” He lived, he says, on the “gay treadmill.”

“It’s not a whole lot different than the treadmill that I see some heterosexual women buy in to,” Haley says. “When they believe they have to be a certain size, look a certain way, dress a certain way, to be acceptable to the heterosexual male population. Well, you take that same phenomenon and put it into the gay community, and it seems overexaggerated. To be the accepted commodity, you need to look a certain way, act a certain way, drive a certain car, talk a certain way. So I was working out three to four hours a day, I was doing injectable steroids. I was bulimic because I wanted to eat, but I didn’t want to gain weight because I had to have that perfect physique because that physique was what defined my value and my worth during my time and involvement in the gay community.”

He says he became a gay activist in Dallas. He marched in Gay Pride parades.

And then one night Haley picked up a man at a gay gym, but as they progressed the man stopped and told Haley he could not have sex. Haley recalls him saying: “I’m sorry that I’ve led you on, but I’m a Christian, and I’m trying to walk away from this.”

The two men spoke most of the night. Haley was introduced through the man to a counselor named Jeff Conrad, who promised to help cure him of his homosexuality. Haley started what he says was “a godly, Christian mentoring relationship.”

“He sent me birthday cards: ‘I don’t even know if you’re getting this card, but I want to let you know that I love you, that God loves you, that change is possible,’” Haley says. “I’d write him back the nastiest, ugly letters about his faith, about his God: ‘Leave me alone, I was born this way.’ He’d write me back: ‘Mike, I want you to go to the library. I want you to find me a study that will prove to me that you were born gay. And if you can do that, then I will change the way that I believe.’”

Haley says he left his “homosexual lifestyle” in December 1989 after his sessions with Conrad. He omits the details of his “cure.” He got married. He returned to the church and became a youth pastor. He started working for Dobson.

Dobson’s attacks on gays are relentless and brutal. He likens the proponents of gay marriage to the Nazis.[106] He warns in his book Marriage Under Fire that sanctioning gay marriage is the first salvo by the gay movement to destroy the American family. “This is an issue America has got to wake up to,” Dobson writes. “The homosexual agenda is a beast. It wants our kids….”[107] And he goes on to ask, “How about group marriage? Or marriage between daddies and little girls? How about marriage between a man and his donkey?[108]

“Moms and dads, are you listening? This movement is THE greatest threat to your children,” Dobson warns. “It is of particular danger to your wide-eyed boys, who have no idea what demoralization is planned for them.”[109]

This conference is one of many Dobson and his associates mount throughout the country every year. Bill Maier, vice president and psychologist in residence for Focus on the Family, rises to speak. He attacks the legalization of gay marriage in Massachusetts, which he calls “the most radical social experiment ever proposed in our country that’s redefining the institution of marriage.” He defines the ruling as one made by “four rogue judges on the Supreme Judicial Court who basically forced their will on the people and the legislature of Massachusetts.” The ruling, he says, is “a radical redefinition of the human family.” At issue is “whether men and women are unique and different and whether the two genders complete each other in their differences. It’s about whether mother and father are both essential in the process of healthy child development, and it’s about whether there are compelling societal reasons to define marriage as one thing and not define it as something else.

“When we follow God’s blueprint for how we’re supposed to live, things usually work out the way they’re supposed to,” Maier says. “But when we defy God, when we live in ways that are contrary to God’s design for us, we often reap a harvest of pain and suffering in our lives.” He warns that “if we redefine marriage in one way, there is no logical reason for us to not redefine it in other ways,” leading to the legalization of “polygamy or group marriage.” This opens up the possibility, he says, of fathers marrying their daughters. “They say, ‘Well, if marriage can be redefined to include two men or two women, what’s to stop us from redefining it to allow marriage between a man and four women, or a group of six or seven adults and their various children?’”

The danger of same-sex marriage is that it “will also teach our children that the words ‘male’ and ‘female’ and ‘mother’ and ‘father’ are simply meaningless social constructs.”

Melissa Fryrear, who says she used to be a lesbian, blames abusive parental relationships for “same-sex attraction.”

“For those who have been abused by a male, oftentimes that tremendous rage, that hurt, can go underground, if you will, and it can begin to emerge later in life, perhaps in rejecting your female identity or the fact that you look like a woman,” she says. “When I lived homosexually, I was very butch and very mannish. I still have some work to do”—a comment that elicits laughter—“but I’ve covered some bases, too. I looked mannish and I looked masculine because it was a liability to be a woman. Because it meant that I could be hurt, it meant that I could be victimized, and it was my suit of armor to keep me safe. So [it was a] rejection of that female identity. It can be a fleeing from men.”

Many in the church take notes in the space provided in their conference booklets. Many cry softly when speakers mention giving up their lives to God and being cured of “same-sex attraction.” And periodically, especially during the testimonies, there are shouts of “amen.”

The speakers accuse gays of controlling television, radio and Hollywood. The gay movement, they say, is more politically active and powerful than other movements. Gays are attacked as diseased and part of the criminal class. But the bedrock of the attack is that homosexuality is against God’s ordained natural order, that what gay men and women do is perverted and pathological. They are not only a threat to children, but a threat to Christians. Gays, those at tonight’s conference are told, hate them and want to destroy them.

“Religion is treated as irrelevant or downright evil,” Robert H. Knight writes in The Homosexual Agenda in Schools, distributed by Dobson’s Family Research Council. “Homosexual books, magazines and newspapers are filled with bitter and often obscene denunciations of religion in general and Christianity in particular. One activist calls for the outlawing of churches that disapprove of homosexual conduct. Another carefully outlines an advertising campaign that equates Christian clergy with Nazis and Klansmen. Homosexual stage performers dress up in clerical garb and commit obscene acts. A gay-rights cartoonist depicts Christ having anal intercourse with His cross. These are not isolated examples from an otherwise gentle and loving literature. The attitude pervades the homosexual movement.”[110]

Gays and lesbians within the church, seeking desperately to deny their sexuality and remain in the Christian collective, suffer severe depression and blows to their self-esteem. The U.S. Surgeon General’s office has published data indicating those who are young and gay are two to three times more likely to commit suicide.[111] Those who are able to conform, no matter what the personal cost, will find acceptance. Those who remain militant, who stand up for another way of being, are condemned. The tactics that will finally disenfranchise them and their supporters from a future Christian America are left unmentioned, but the rhetoric makes it plain that there will not be a place for them. And these preachers warn that if America does not act soon to repress the lifestyles of gays and lesbians, God will punish the nation.

When Pat Robertson was asked by Jerry Falwell if God had allowed the attacks on September 11, both the question and its answer stoked this fear of divine wrath and apocalyptic judgment:

I believe that the protection, the covering of God that has been on this great land of ours for so many years, had lifted on September 11, and allowed this thing to happen. God apparently had good reasons for exposing the U.S.A. to such destruction, given the many sins that Americans have committed ever since the Roe versus Wade court case and the Supreme Court’s decision to keep God out of the schools. In fact, American infidelity goes back to the 1920s and 1930s, to situational ethics and notions of cultural relativity, along with a flirtation with communism at the highest levels of government. The point is not just that Americans have been bad and forfeited their entitlements. It is that unless they reform themselves in a hurry, something far worse may happen to them.[112]

Should another catastrophic attack occur, what will prevent these preachers from calling for the punishment, detention and quarantining of gays and lesbians—as well as abortionists, Muslims and other nonbelievers—to safeguard the nation? What will stanch the hate crimes and physical attacks against those deemed immoral by fearful and angry Christians, those condemned by these preachers as responsible for the nation’s abandonment by God? How will the nation function rationally if homeland security depends on an elusive piety as interpreted by the Christian Right? And most ominously, the fringe groups of the Christian Right believe they have been mandated by God to carry out Christian terrorism, annointed to murder doctors who perform abortions and godless Muslims in Iraq. In a time of anxiety and chaos, of overwhelming fear and uncertainty, how many more will be prodded by this talk of divine vengeance to join the ranks of these Christian extremists?

The drive to ban same-sex marriages in the 2004 election was just one step in a campaign to strip gays and lesbians of civil rights. A 1996 federal law already defines marriage as a union occurring between a man and a woman. Currently 19 states have written prohibitions on same-sex marriage into their state constitutions. As of this writing the latest were passed in Kansas and Texas in 2005; 13 states adopted constitutional bans on gay marriage in 2004, while four had previous bans. At least seven states will hold statewide votes on same-sex marriage bans in2006.[113] These referendums fan the fires of fear and hatred. Bans have to be passed, believers are told, so “activist judges” will not overturn the laws forbidding same-sex marriages. The Christian Right, with its constant need for scapegoats and satanic enemies to be defeated, use the state referendums to mobilize and energize followers, even as the most pressing social ills of the country are ignored.

Any relationships outside the rigid, traditional model of male and female threaten the hierarchical male power structure vital to the movement. Women who do not depend on men for their identity and their sexuality, who live outside a male power relationship, challenge the cult of masculinity, as do men who find tenderness and love with men as equals. The lifestyle of gays and lesbians is intolerable to the Christian Right because their existence is a threat to the movement’s chain of command, one its leaders insist was ordained by God.

The Reverend Dr. Mel White, who produced films and worked with most of the prominent leaders within the Christian Right, came out as a gay man in 1993 in his installation as dean at the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches Cathedral of Hope church in Dallas. Like many gay men in the church, he struggled until late in life with his homosexuality, condemning himself for feelings and inclinations he could not control.

“Conservative Christians shaped the very core of my faith and passed on to me my love for Jesus, the Bible, and the church,” White wrote in his autobiography, Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America. “But all through those wonderful days of childhood and early adolescence, a heavy layer of clouds floated between me and the heavens. In spite of their many gifts to me, those same conservative Christians remained silent about the secret longings of my heart. And though I was surrounded by their loving presence, that same silence left me feeling increasingly isolated and lonely. In the days of my gay childhood, there was no one who even tried to help clear up my growing confusion, guilt, and fear.”[114]

White’s grandmother was a tent revival preacher, traveling around the country on trains to preach and set up storefront churches. When White was 12 years old, she told him that she had given up sex with her husband to “work for the Kingdom.” “Jesus is coming soon,” she told White. “Don’t be distracted by anything.”[115]

White was a model Christian youth. He worked to save the souls of his friends and classmates. He was the student body president at his high school.

“In those early years, I thought for certain that my secret longings were a sign that my Creator had abandoned me,” White wrote.[116]

White would lie awake, “begging God to heal me, to take away the feelings I could not understand, to make me like the rest of them once and for all. It was a prayer I had prayed hundreds of times before. I prayed it in my junior high gym when we showered together and I was terrified by my involuntary physical response to the other naked boys. I prayed it at the beach when I lay with my fellow surfers in the sand and was aroused by their bodies. I prayed it when I was alone in my room at night, cutting out ads from bodybuilding magazines and hiding them under my bed.”[117]

In high school, White began to date Lyla Lee Loehr, whom he had known since seventh grade. White took Loehr, for their first date, to a Youth for Christ rally. He knew he could never bring her home to his parents—she wasn’t saved. But after a few weeks of spending time together at White’s church, she accepted Christ into her life.

White struggled to conform to a “heterosexual lifestyle.” His new girlfriend was the ticket out of sin.

“By then I had memorized the Old Testament lines from Leviticus that say a man who sleeps with another man is an abomination and should be killed,” he wrote. “Although I thought that God still loved me, I wasn’t certain how far God’s love would go if I ever ‘gave in’ to my ‘evil passions.’”[118]

White married Loehr and raised two children. He had a successful career in the church. He watched passively, however, as colleagues in the church struggled with homosexuality, suffered mental breakdowns or committed suicide. One such troubled man cut off his testicles.

When White’s younger brother was struck and killed by a car while riding his bicycle, White wondered if this was a message from God.

“There were desperate, irrational times when I thought maybe God was punishing me for my homosexual thoughts by letting my brother die,” he wrote.[119]

White, like many in the church, saw a series of Christian psychologists and psychiatrists. The first told him he needed to tell his wife. He did. Lyla agreed to help. White wanted to keep his family and career. He wanted to conquer his homosexuality.

“For the next years, I read and memorized biblical texts on faith. I fasted and prayed for healing. I believed that God had ‘healed me’ or was ‘in the process of healing me.’ But over the long haul, my sexual orientation didn’t change. My natural attraction to other men never lessened. After months of trying, my psychiatrist implied that I wasn’t really cooperating with the Spirit of God. After that, my guilt and fear just escalated.”[120]

In 1977, White began his first relationship with another homosexual man. The relationship lasted for a year, but the secrecy caused emotional strain. At the same time, he began ghostwriting for Francis Schaeffer, Jerry Falwell, D. James Kennedy, Pat Robertson and other Christian Right leaders.

“I wasn’t wise enough to anticipate where all this talk of ‘cleansing the nation’ might lead. I didn’t foresee that one day those same religious media personalities and the political groups they would organize could become a dangerous threat to me, to my gay brothers and lesbian sisters, and to all persons who might disagree with their political, religious and social agenda for our country.”[121]

He contemplated suicide while scuba diving in Hawaii and later atop a bridge. He saw more Christian counselors, and in despair slashed his wrists with a coat hanger as his wife screamed at him to stop. It was the end of their marriage. White met his partner, Gary Nixon, who sang in the church choir. He walked away from one world and into another. It became his mission to document the hate talk of his former employers and organize gay and lesbian Christians to denounce the bigotry of the Christian Right.

“This is a black and white world,” White says. “It is between good and evil. It is not a natural political conflict where people of good will can disagree, and they’re playing the political game beautifully. They pretend that it’s a political game, whereas in fact it’s a fight between God and Satan. They don’t ever say that. So they have taken the political process, and used it fairly against us. They’ve won the Congress and the presidency, and they’re about to win the courts because of their Congress and the president. They’ve won state houses across the country and precincts everywhere by the political process. So they have done what we didn’t do. They have a system to throw democracy out the window.

“They want to end homosexuality in America,” he says, “…one step at a time, first the federal marriage amendment, and then comes no adoption, no service in the military, the reinstatement of the sodomy laws and driving us back into our closets, or worse. They do not want to compromise, but they begin with compromise after compromise after compromise.”

The advance, White says, is demoralizing the gay community, which he warns “is losing the will to fight.

“It’s safer back in the closet anyway, and since we can pass, or the gay leaders can pass, the ones who wear suits and have good jobs and have plenty of money, they will go underground,” he says. “It is the gay people out there in the hinterlands who have no options. They are being rejected by their families, discarded by their parents, kicked out of their jobs, harassed, outed and killed. The gay leaders don’t have a clue about this suffering.

“There are no fountains or cafeterias or bus stations we can integrate,” White says. “There are no symbols that we can attack. Marriage, the one great act of defiance, in San Francisco and Massachusetts showed to the country gay couples lined up to get married. This is something they didn’t like. The faces looked normal. They had children. These pictures were killing the caricatures. That, for me, is one of the great things we’ve done, just go to get married no matter what.

“What frightens me most are gay people who don’t understand what’s happening and who are unwilling to take a stand,” he says. “Once they take away our rights they’re going to start wanting to register us because we’re the ones who have the most sexually transmitted diseases. They’re going to say, ‘We want to register you so we can give you special medical attention.’ Quarantine comes next, along with taking away our children, the children we’ve adopted. They will take away the partnership rights the corporations put in place, because they can put pressure on the corporations. My bleakest description is that we’ll not only be driven back into our closets, but we’ll have to leave the country. Right now, we have to leave the state of Virginia, because of the law that says we can’t have any agreements, or any contracts, or any powers of attorney that represent marriage. So every gay person who has a business here lives in fear.”

The attack against gays and lesbians seeks to paint homosexual behavior as a form of barbarity, one step above bestiality. Gays and lesbians, like other enemies of Christ, are not fully human; they are “unnatural.” And in this assault there is often lurid fascination with the grittier details of homosexual encounters. Peter LaBarbera is the executive director of the Illinois Family Institute, based in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, and a speaker who uses this rhetoric to depict gays as depraved. He denies the possibility of loving, committed relationships between gays and lesbians. He brands the lifestyle as one of “extreme promiscuity,” saying that “when homosexuals call it monogamy, it’s not real monogamy.” And sexual relations itself between gays and lesbians is, he insists, “gross, unnatural and dangerous behavior.”

He warns about what he calls “the totalitarian impulse of a gay man.” He viciously attacks National Gay and Lesbian Task Force director Matt Foreman, who has criticized ex-gay therapies and the role some members of the clergy play in pushing gay men to these ex-gay groups.

LaBarbera calls on the crowd to “stop backing up in the face of homosexual cultural aggression.” It is time to fight, he insists. And then he hints ominously at what he would like to see happen, how he would like to see Christians battle in ways, perhaps outside the law, that are no longer “nice,” how he would like to take this war to the streets.

“We need a good cop, bad cop strategy….” he says. “We’ve been too nice. We need to have some people go over and do the tough things, like the other side does.”

[tamapalace]

Tamagotchi Booth at San Diego Comic-Con 2023

image source: marketinggenome on Instagram

San Diego Comic-Con 2023 is part of the World Tamagotchi Tour that Bandai is on following the global release of the Tamagotchi Uni. This is also the first event to kickoff the World Tamagotchi Tour in North America. Bandai Namco US did NOT disappoint, as the Tamagotchi booth was gorgeous!

image source: ABC 10News San Diego

First, per usual the booth was built by Marketing Genome, a display manufacture who has made Bandai’s booths for several years and really do an awesome job!

image source: Coffretchi on Twitter

The first thing you see is a large Tamagotchi Original, like you did last year, with a screen inside playing the promotional video of the Tamagotchi Original. This year the shell is Mametchi Spaceship, if you like it enough then you could buy it! The Tamagotchi Original is mounted on a large box, and the front of the box’s design is actually on the back of the display.

As you move to the left you’ll see the theme this year is all about space, Mimitchi is shown in an out of space background where the line is formed for visitors to make purchases. The iconic Tamagotchi UFO is featured at the top and center of the Tamagotchi booth, remember when it dropped off those Tamagotchi’s in the Tamagotchi Uni teaser videos?

Then you’ve got the Tamagotchi Uni photo op, which is a large Tamagotchi Uni in pink with a cutout screen surrounded by statues of both Mametchi and Kuchipatchi, and there’s even a cute backdrop too!

image source: anzfalcon on Instagram

Behind the Photo Booth is the Tamagotchi Original wall which features a picture from the latest photoshoot and these circular frames which each hold a Tamagotchi Uni inside, the frames are in blue, pink, and green, and honestly are really stylish.

After the Tamagotchi Original section, you’ve got the collaboration section which is also on the walls. Bandai pretty much brought every collaboration including Star Wars R2-D2, Grogu, Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaiden, Toy Story, Spy x Family, Harry Potter, Jurassic World, and TinyTAN.

image source: anzfalcon on Instagram

On the opposite side of the Tamagotchi Original and Tamagotchi collaboration wall is a display of the new Tamagotchi Uni which is in a showcase with lights on it. Both Purple and Pink shells are displayed, along both wristbands and lanyards which were available for purchase. The Tamagotchi Uni showcase is displayed on a white podium surrounded by a Tamaverse backdrop.

Visitors spent time waiting in line for the shop which as art the booth were they could purchase so many exclusive items, including the convention exclusive Tamagotchi Original shells, and the new Tamagotchi Uni, along with Tamagotchi Uni accessories that have yet to be released!

image source: marketinggenome on Instagram

Tamagotchi Uni buyers were also given one Tama Sticker with a 16-digit download code! The three Tama Stickers are UFO Hat, Tama Tour Flag, and Tama Tour Rainbow.

image source: anzfalcon on Instagram

All purchases were accommodated by a World Tamagotchi Tour reusable bag, and a World Tamagotchi Tour pin! How cute is that?

image source: Coffretchi on Twitter

To everyone’s surprise, Mametchi made several surprise appearances! The fans went wild, and Mametchi was available to take pictures with, dance with, and even just admire. Mametchi was such a hit that several appearances were made throughout each day of the convention.

[maximumwobblerbanditdonut]

Sam’s team is confused, but one thing is clear. With Sam's promotional plan, he will guide and achieve the desired engagement with fans (two bottles). It is not mandatory, but we know how his fans want to impress him, buying his alcohol for $209.98, which will translate into increased profits for his company.

How many people does he expect to serve in 2 hours? with this mess forcing people to queue up for a wristband. It’s not a good look.🥴

gin+whisky = $209.98 + tax =

Now we see who came up with the 2 bottles idea… Sassenachspirits (Alex, who else)

@imahalfemptykindofgirl If NYC’s taxes is 8.875%, which means at least paying a total ≤ $229 💸 £180 excessively high prices, to stand in a queue all morning to see Sam 25 seconds for a photo with fans who have never-drinking, this is not having fun.

$99.99 $51.99

If You buy a Macallan - 12 Year Sherry Oak Cask Highland Single Malt Scotch - $99.99 + The Botanist - Islay Dry Gin (1L) $51.99 = $ 151.98 + tax = total ≤ $166 or £130 is still cheaper than two Sassenach’s boozes in the same store and delivery 🚚 home.