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It would be nice to think that in 2017 a site called Women Who Draw wouldn’t be necessary, that equality between genders would be so ingrained by now that the idea of taking a stand to protect it would seem archaic. But it’s not. “There was one prominent magazine that uses illustration on its cover and throughout its interior,” says professional illustrator, SVA lecturer, and Women Who Draw co-founder Julia Rothman. “One day I was in the bathroom and looked at my stack of magazines and couldn’t find one issue with a cover by a woman—not a single one. I researched a year’s worth of 2015 issues, and out of 55, only four covers were illustrated by women. I called up Wendy [MacNaughton, Women Who Draw co-founder] and we decided something had to be done.” At first the pair had plans to call out the reputable, illustration-heavy publication, but decided that criticism without action would be futile, so Women Who Draw was born. The website is a beautifully designed directory of female illustrators (it’s trans-inclusive, so it features transgender and non-binary folks, too) organized by location, religion, ethnicity, and orientation. All sound a bit too personal to be sharing on a public platform? Not a problem, these classifications are optional. What’s essential is that you’re a practicing illustrator with a functioning website, and that you’ve drawn a picture of a woman to serve as your profile picture. Currently Rothman is steering clear of a curatorial filter, so nobody’s work will be rejected on the grounds of personal taste. “We decided to create something that would help art directors, designers, and editors gain greater access to women, women of color, and other groups of minority women so they could never say ‘I’d hire them if only I could find them.’” “We need women’s voices in media and public as loudly as possible, as often as possible.” Of course the illustration profession is indicative of wider cultural problem—that the gender pay gap still yawns at an average of 20% in the U.S.—but illustration is a field that Rothman and MacNaughton know intimately and are well positioned to address. “Most of us hire from our own little bubbles of who we know,” says Rothman, “and that is often pretty monocultural. When I see juries for competitions, speakers at conferences, and cover jobs all going to men, it definitely begs some questions. I teach at SVA and I have two male and 18 female students. Talented women are graduating from top art schools and are ready to hire. So the numbers don’t add up.” When it comes to Women Who Draw, though, the numbers are looking good, albeit to the detriment of a working website. “We didn’t anticipate the response,” says Rothman. “In the first 24 hours we received 1,200 submissions, and within three days we got six million clicks. The site crashed. We had to switch servers.” Which meant a couple of soft launches in mid-December and early January, but now things are in full flow. These early teething problems weren’t totally fruitless, leading Rothman and MacNaughton to rethink the structure of the site. “It was important to us that the women illustrations randomize so there is no order to them, and it’s pretty hard to do with thousands of images with each refresh. Instead we’ve set it up to randomize once daily. So now each new day, there’s a different order to the women. With designer Jenny Volvovski’s help we’ve created a pretty robust platform and we’re solidly moving forward. Knock on wood.” With 1,762 illustrators featured (another 997 are still waiting to be approved), and tens of thousands of hits each day, Women Who Draw is capitalizing on some serious momentum. Featured artists have already been commissioned by the New York Times, The Globe, and TED, and Rothman has personally won clients who found her through WWD—they hadn’t realized she was one of the founders. This past Thursday they launched their first event at the Society of Illustrators in New York; a Pecha Kucha-style series of talks inviting 10 women to present 20 slides for 20 seconds each on the theme of survival. They’ve also started running featured profiles online, inviting esteemed luminaries of the illustration world to select, and discuss some of the most reputable members—up first is the New York Times’ Alexandra Zsigmond selecting a series of conceptual masters. All this activity has an increased sense of urgency at a time when women’s reproductive rights are being brought back into the political limelight, and Rothman doesn’t seem confident that the new administration will do much for her gender’s state in the world. “The fact that we have to call out women art shows as a ‘women’s art show,’ or that museums make a big fuss when they have an African American artist says a lot about where we are at around this… we shouldn’t have to be doing any of this at this point. But here we are. And now with Trump in office, it feels like maybe we’ve even moved backwards.” So is the necessity of Women Who Draw a frustration for her? “It’s frustrating, but I’m glad we’ve done it. And we’re having a lot of fun.”

my dash did a thing SEE CHRIS AT SAN DIEGO COMICON! My good friend and official Frog artist Chris Gugliotti will have a booth at San Diego Comicon. You can find him in the Artist’s Alley, Table BB-12. He will have loads of his original artwork PLUS an exclusive Corg Life print signed by yours truly. Please visit him and check out his amazing work. Be sure to use the secret password for a surprise. "NIBBLES SENT ME." Not all women are the owners of a uterus, and not all owners of a uterus are women. A transgender man—that is, a man who was assigned female at birth—may very well have a uterus, may become pregnant, and may very well need the same access to reproductive health options as your average cisgender woman. The same can be said for non-binary individuals who were assigned female at birth. As people who don’t identify as a woman or a man (though they may identify themselves as both, neither, or a combination of the two), some may feel that this language erases their identity or leaves them out. Yes, these people may have a uterus—but it’s not a “lady part.” While there’s little doubt that women make up the largest segment of uterus-owning individuals, this name further ostracizes oft-overlooked members of society like trans men and non-binary individuals who were assigned female at birth. To exclude them in this, an organization aimed at educating the public on the issue of reproductive health, would seem to negate the organization’s stated goals by erasing identities and perpetuating the already stressful and exclusionary culture these individuals are forced to inhabit. everyone you love will eventually disappoint you "recent adoption of twerking" white women need to just shut the fuck up forever. everyone you love will eventually disappoint you. I find it funny how they only attacked Beyonce and Rihanna (black women), but didn’t attack any white women like Katy Perry or Lady Gaga. I don’t even know who these bitches are and I plan on keeping it that way. It’s so frustrating when white women talk about black female sexuality in famous black artists because our history of sexuality and liberation from patriarchy is SO FUCKING DIFFERENT from white women’s. I don’t want to put all black people under an umbrella, but black people who were enslaved from the South and West parts of Africa didn’t all come from backwards-ass woman-hating patriarchal societies. Our earliest forms of music and dance include sex because NOT EVERYONE FUCKED UP SEX, WHITE PEOPLE. As it turns out tons of people have lived for millennia without equating sex to evil. Like hello?! Our female artists were out here killin the music game throughout the whole history of African American music. All of the genres which we invented have prominent figures both male and female, before white woman singers were even taken seriously. AND WE’VE BEEN SINGING ABOUT SEX AND SELF EMPOWERMENT SINCE THE HISTORY OF AF AM MUSIC. So back the fuck up white women. Stop talking about our artists. They are from a different culture than you that is struggling between being shaped simultaneously by your sexist culture and our music tradition. When Beyoncé sings about sex and self empowerment, it is not faux. She is LITERALLY following female African American musical tradition, which you don’t know about because nobody ever compelled you to care about black people. You are BEING RACIST when you assume all women experience what you experience. And if you’re a white woman in the music industry you should be doubly ashamed of yourself. Is your music history whitewashed or what? How I Met My Consolation Prize How We Destroyed 9 Seasons Worth of Character Development How Your Mom is Basically Another Girl That I Banged How I Got Over Robin — Oh, Just Kidding How to Portray Women as Interchangeable Plot Devices How Your Dad is the Worst How to Make Your Main Character Insufferable How I Maintained Nice Guy (TM) Whining for Nearly a Decade So for the last four months or so, I have taken part in the body positivity movement on Instagram, including posting photos of myself in my bikini and underwear/bra. Keep in mind that none of my photos have ever been sexually explicit or suggestive and that I have always been fully covered. As far as nudity goes, I show no more skin than a thin woman in a bikini. Below is a photo I uploaded last night, with the caption “I love my belly. ♥” At approximately 2:05 am, I received an email from Instagram stating that a photo had been removed from my account for “violating the community guidelines.” I went to my page to find the above photo missing from my account. Angry and determined to make a point, I went to the tags on Instagram to find photos of women dressed in as much clothes as I was. I found entire pages dedicated to sharing women in sexually explicit and suggestive poses in half the clothes I am wearing in the above photo. I also found men, completely naked with the photo cropped to just miss their dick being in the photo. I reported these photos for nearly half an hour. At exactly 3:58 am, I was logged off of my Instagram account while using it and then told that my account had been disabled for violating the community guidelines. My entire account containing over 560 followers and over 500 personal photos and memories of my self love journey were removed without warning. I went to sleep crying, disgusted and angry that Instagram would do this. When I woke up, I found that every pornographic image I had reported was not only still there, but so was the pages offering to send people nudes in direct messages. That is the moment that I became enraged and determined to fight this. This is not the first time that Instagram has practiced size discrimination. Meghan Tonjes went through a very similar situation and her story went viral. I am asking you to make this go viral as well, because THIS is not okay. By removing my photos and the photos of women of size and not the others, Instagram is effectively telling women that our fat bodies are more offensive to the eyes of children and their viewers than thin women half naked and blatant pornography. They are silencing us and telling us that our bodies are to be censored while the rest of the world can practice “cocks in socks” and post Victoria’s Secret Models. I will not be silenced. After years of struggling with my body through depression, anxiety and self harm, I WILL NOT let a website tell me that my body is censor worthy simply because it is a fat body with cellulite and rolls. END SIZE DISCRIMINATION ON INSTAGRAM. Christian Bale is going to play Moses and where oh where are all the white people who are always so angry about race bending and historical accuracy??? Where are you??? Why are you not outraged??? I thought movies had to be historically accurate and races should never change from the source material??? Sgt. Thomas McVicar of the Jersey City Police Department shot 22 year old Kwadir Felton, leaving him blind, after Kwadir pulled a gun on him, he claims. Kwadir Felton denied the accusation, stating that he doesn’t even carry guns. "I don’t understand!" Felton yelled at a police officer before his mother was removed from the courtroom. "You didn’t have to shoot me in the head for no reason! You trying to charge me with something I didn’t do!" Sign the Change.org petition and get this story out there. SIGN THE PETITION. Still at least 1,000 signatures needed. This post has 140k notes, yet the change.org petition only has 44k. Sign the damn petition! This broke my fucking heart. hey this needs about 16k more signatures Jessica Williams and Travon (one of the staff writers) do it again! This is why white women can’t be in the natural hair movement Remember that time Daleks and Cybermen had sass-off? THIS IS LITERALLY MY FAVE SCENE FROM DOCTOR WHO EVER I AM NOT EVEN JOKING I AM SO GLAD SOMEONE MADE A POST OF IT I THINK ABOUT THIS MORE OFTEN THAN IS NORMAL UGH IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY No one sasses better than the Daleks and Cybermen. No one.

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Legal responsibility insurance handles the fix of damage done to house belonging to a third man or woman. The car insurance policy plan you may have ordered will not go over the damages to the automobile. There could be unique bare minimum prerequisites from the point out you reside in for legal responsibility insurance. It’s important you validate your insurance policy policy prior to buying it. Also, you’ll need assets insurance policy to safeguard your monetary protection. It will help you avoid remaining still left with substantial insurance expenses if you cause an accident. Coverage guidelines really should contain some sort of coverage for residence harm in order to pay for damages a result of a collision. This protection handles you for that damages that you choose to trigger to another person’s automobile, which incorporates repairs. It also pays with the elimination of any debris after a collision. Three figures make up the assets coverage. 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Besides lessen premiums drivers may also be capable of take defensive driving courses. These lessons final for 3 hrs and cover driver behavior and traffic rules. They also instruct defensive driving procedures which can dramatically reduce the price of insurance policies. You may also be able to improve your driving record. The study course could decreased your vehicle insurance estimate. If you’re not guaranteed about the precise coverage you would like, you may consult the Coverage Information Institute. Despite the fact that gasoline price ranges vary In line with state, the cost of an insurance policies estimate for the motor vehicle in other states might be increased or reduced than yours. There are several things that may be The explanation for this. This consists of the percentage of motorists who’re uninsured and point out-distinct insurance plan rules along with the amount of theft. Moreover, the frequency of poor climate can improve the price of coverage in several states. 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Trigger Warning: This post mentions castration and talks about self-medication. Cradled in my hand are two little pills which represent a very desired, but equally uncertain future. They are the first step on a journey. They will be recognisable to many transgender people, at least those of the M2F variety. But these pills are also controversial. They are Spironolactone and Finasteride. Both of them are androgen suppressors…they prevent testosterone from binding to the receptors it needs, and thereby deny its effects. They do not affect the levels, just the action. You might have heard of Finasteride as a treatment or preventative for male pattern baldness—a lucky side effect for a treatment whose origins was to prevent prostate cancer. It may or may not work. But as an androgen suppressor, it surely does. I bought these pills on the black market over a year ago. I have been carrying them in my bag wherever I go, ever since. I was going to start a course of Hormone Therapy the day I first met ex-Mistress, and for some reason that day, put this course I was already on, on hold. I forget at times that I had already decided to come out before meeting her…I think what I found with her was more courage. But I hesitated and hesitated because I was afraid of two things: hormones after a while create irreversible body changes that are noticeable, and what about my libido? It may seem strange to you who have read previously that I hardly ever have orgasms. I don’t masturbate…at least not in the sense that I play with my whatsit. Never have, never will. I also haven’t had sex with my wife for 15 years. You would be forgiven for thinking that I have a low libido. But I don’t. I think I have a very high libido. Off the charts. I am totally and utterly sexual. I don’t want you to think that I am always thinking about sex, or always have a hard-on…but in a way, I am very, very often aroused. Its different than what I think about male arousal though…in my case, arousal is born from emotion. It is impossible to know the lived physical experience of another human, let alone a class of humans. By the body I was born with, you would think I would know what it is like to be a man. But in so many ways, I don’t. At least not physically. When I am aroused, and I mean really, really aroused, so hard I think the skin on my cxxxk will rip, the idea of conquest is the last thing on mind. I believe that most men want to fxxk when they are in such a state. Me? I am paralysed. My skin is alive to touch. I just want to melt into somebody, to touch them and be touched by them everywhere at once. Not once in my life, not once, have I ever leaned in for a kiss, taken a kiss. Never. Not without asking, or just saying how badly I wish to kiss. Recently, I experienced this. Her lips so close to mine the air was crackling between them. My mind was shrieking, “oh my Gxd, is she going to kiss me? And I was doing somersaults around the room, hooting like Daffy Duck, stars and purple explosions were going off in my mind, in my whole body. And yet, I was beyond still, not daring to move, not even to breathe, wanting to stay this way, as if in stasis, my new equilibrium. So, I get aroused, especially at night or in the morning. I wake up in the middle of the night with a powerful arousal, and while it is felt most prominently in my loins, the truth is that I can take that feeling and spread out, and I do, and I can feel it washing over me, suffusing every part of me, my skin especially, and it feels so incredibly good and erotic. I love this feeling. It is so powerful that it can paralyse me in a state of desire and arousal for hours on end. Like permanent edging. I have been afraid that I would lose this and that it would never come back. I have the good fortune of being a member of a number of transgender support groups, and we can talk about scary stuff like this…what happens with desire when you start taking hormones. What I have been told by so many trans women is that desire and libido on estrogen is very much there, very powerful, better even, but that it is different. I can embrace that, especially since I have never enjoyed coitus—its just too much…[part of me is sorry for that, mainly for my partners, because on some level, I think that most women really want a good, hard you-know-what every now and again. While I have done that, it isn’t usually in me—though it has been with a very small number of women who have engaged with me in a more aggressive way—and when it was intensely emotional at the same time]. I don’t know what the percentages are, but the numbers are huge. I might even guess that a majority of transgender people self-medicate at some point on their journey. Why? - Doctors are expensive. - Not everyone has health insurance - Not every health insurer covers HRT for trans people (finasteride is used to treat old men with prostate problems, but getting it as a transgender person is often quite tough—another example of medical gatekeeping) - There is no consensus within the medical community about what the correct and best protocol is for a trans person to follow - Gatekeeping is rampant: when people make it humiliating to ask for help, or who impose certain conditions… For these and other reasons, often personal, people choose to take matters into their own hands. What is very clear, however, for almost every trans person? You need to become super informed, prepared, able to became your own advocate, and absolutely your own physician. What other “condition” could be so complicated to get treated for? Can you imagine how disempowering and degrading it is to go through this? I recently applied to start HRT on the NHS, the British Health Service. Nothing doing. Even going private. Nothing doing. There is a four-and-a-half year waiting list. There are 165,000 people in front of me in the queue. Yes, there are that many of us who are that desperate and disoriented about our own bodies and gender to take this step. And you know what? Just to get on the list you need to get a letter from your GP (call that your family doctor) who in effect gives you permission to seek gender reassignment. And do you think that your GP knows much about this? Probably you will be the first, because your GP is determined by where you live. So you go to your local doctor. How many of them judge you, or put obstacles in your way? What else? Well, once you get your first appointment, you have to demonstrate commitment to a full transition. Full transition. What does that do to people like me. Non-binary? What about people who consider themselves women, and might resemble one in every single way, and that is that last step of cutting off the whatsit…take Eva Robbins for example, an Italian transgender movie star. She is a beautiful woman. She also happens to have kept her anatomy intact. She would be denied care in the British system. I am not here to rag on the NHS, because I sure wouldn’t trade it for the US system, I just point it out as an example of two things—that a government has the audacity to say what we do with our bodies, and might presume to know better than us…and that the binary is alive and well—that people like me, the in-between, have no place in most societies. What’s My Goal I am not a man. I love saying that. I say it over and over. They are strange words to feel in my mouth. If you are a man, I dare you to try. It will feel weird. Say it out loud. I’ve been saying it for years, and it feels something good. I don’t want to be seen as a man either. I don’t like the way that women look at me when they see me as a man. If it is with desire, it scares me, as it puts a burden of expectation on me that makes me uncomfortable…and if it is with fear, my soul shrivels. If I could identify one thing that makes me want to disappear, it is a woman who reacts to me as if to say that I might be a predator. Do I want to be a woman? I can’t be. At least not in the way that I would want to be. Not anymore. Was I non-binary from the outset? I don’t know. I knew I wasn’t comfortable being male; I knew that I wished to be female…all from such an early age that there was never any conscious happiness of being a boy. It was wrong from the outset. But my deepest fantasy in this regard was to be able to be able to change sex at the press of a button. That I could go back and forth. I guess those are non-binary fantasies. I can remember dreaming of those with an intensity that only children feel for things they want–like for Christmas presents—only this wish has never faded, only grown stronger. In fantasy stories, with the magic wand, the wish granting that all children dream of, my fairy godmother always turned me into a girl. Today, what I have come to terms with is to be somewhere in the middle; visibly a little bit of both. I’d be dead if I wasn’t born with a body that was already predisposed to this. I feel so deeply for my sisters and brothers whose gender identity is so utterly different from the body type they have been given…oh, the pain. Such courage. But being non-binary is not about having no libido. At least, I hope not. But androgen-blockers do exactly that. I am surprised that this would be “acceptable” to men who are given these drugs to deal with their prostates. Death or manhood. The game is quite different for me, but because it is death and manhood, so there are only positives—except the side effects. It is a bit hard to describe just how quickly they work. Literally, within about two hours I felt completely dead between my legs. No stirrings. No nothing. And my libido? Completely gone. It was so dramatic and complete that I thought I should try to make something happen down there. I thought about every erotic thing that has ever excited me. Nothing. It was kind of weird, almost as if it wasn’t there anymore. I don’t want to suggest that I haven’t read up on the topic. I have. Extensively. For years. But this was beyond what you can read. You have to feel it, or not, in this case. And I was puzzled, perhaps alarmed. I love my libido. I don’t want to lose it. I love being aroused. I am told that on estrogen, it will come roaring back in new and beautiful ways…but having no feeling at all is kind of scary. I googled to find out. If I were to imagine what it is like, it is the same as castration. Indeed, it is effectively the same thing as a chemical castration. No big deal, right? After all, that is what I am after. But at what cost? I read up more. I found my way to a superlative article in Slate.com that talked about the politics of androgen blockers, and it really spoke to me [if this issue is of real interest to you, it is a must read]. The argument ran that trans healthcare is born of a binary world by binary people who think that every transwoman wants to go all the way, that castration is effectively exactly what we are looking for. Never mind the concept of non-binary, which may wish to medicate to some in-between stasis point that leaves a mixed libido. Both finasteride and spironolactone have plenty of other heavy side effects: liver damage, mental fog, depression. I can’t afford to have mental fog…not at least for the kind of work I do. I also picked a hell of a time to take a drug that depresses one, right during a divorce, which can’t be positive even in the best of times. Total stress. Simultaneous to these I have been taking a cocktail of natural plant phytoestrogens—one of which has the side effect of bringing on lactation. I would love that. But what I do feel is an itching in my breast area, a sensitivity, and my nipples going bananas…sticking right out when I go for a run. There are times when my skin is so sensitive that my shirt stimulates them erect. I have lost my fear of breasts. I don’t want them, but am prepared to accept them as a consequence of being more female. The other thing that was happening? I was crying all the time. Feeling really emotional. And it was happening at random times, from random thoughts. I felt out of control. And then I started forgetting things. All of this over a period of ten days…plus feeling like I had pain in my kidneys. It was too much. I freaked. I was just really, really scared. I dropped the Spiro. I went to one of my trans support groups. They’d all been through it before. “Get used to it,” said one. “I cried for two years,” said another. “Puberty’s a bitch,” said another. “Why don’t you just get an orchiectomy [remove the balls]?” was one helpful suggestion. Only in a trans support group would this be such a natural question. I will, of that I am sure. One day. I know a domme who publicly fantasised about castrating her husband, preserving his testicles in resin, and wearing them as earrings. I could be down with that. [The irony? Her husband, uber straight, uber body building, has just come out as trans. And what happened? She kicked him out. I feel for you my trans sister!] The other irony? The idea of getting castrated actually appeals to me. This is an area of NSFW that I have written erotica about which would most certainly get me in trouble with the Thought Police. I don’t even sell that stuff on Amazon–world’s largest purveyor of literate smut. Nope. Literotica only–free. Back to the meds. The good news? Once you start in earnest on “e”, you don’t need Spiro anymore. It has taken 2 weeks for my libido to come back, though I am still taking finasteride, which seems to affect me less. I am not depressed, not forgetful, and my happy self has returned. Libido is reduced in the sense that I don’t have the same frequency of arousal, but it is still there. Another noted side effect of Spiro which I don’t see anywhere else? Stiffness of the lower back, and. pain in the kidneys. This stuff is serious! I can’t wait to stop it, but it is an effective way to drive down Testosterone levels and make the body ready to receive “e”. Of course, I shouldn’t really care about the physical-sexual effect, as it delivers results quickly…but I did. It was too much, too fast. The Concept of Diet I have been learning a new meaning of the word diet from shamanic circles I am moving in. This is a kind equilibrium state that you get in your body when you cut it down to eating only what you need, typically well, healthy ingredients, and your body gets into a kind of zen place. Then, when you take something, or eat something, and do it regularly, it is known as “to diet” a particular substance, herb, ingredient. It works. This is what I am doing with finasteride. This is what I am doing with phytoestrogens. It seems to be working. Even my brother-in-law commented on my hair. Depression as a side effect of a little pill is most definitely not desirable. After all, life is plenty challenging…and given my life circumstances right now with divorce, untangling everything, my main therapist thinks that depression is a real risk (even if I have never been prone to such things)…and what I think about is how people with whom you had a bond…people you thought you could count on…people you. thought you knew, or at least hoped you knew…friends, lovers. My favourite therapist says to me, “there is only one person in this room who loves you unconditionally,” and she waits a long time for me to figure it out, because I’m like that, I need it totally clear, and then says, “you.” But I never wanted to be alone. But nothing drives it home more than losing people you thought you could count on. And my wife appears to have been married to someone else for all these years. I wonder what he’s like. I haven’t the faintest idea. Good riddance. Sharing the burden I need to tell more people about what I am going through. I can’t confide in just one friend. Thank goodness I have more than one therapist…sometimes you need to talk to more than one, and I sure hate to be boring and dwell on things, or keep coming back to the same issue, so the faster I can get it out of my system, the better…they don’t need to know that I had to talk about something four times before I was able to move on. Amiright?! And thank goodness too for sex workers. My need for physical intimacy and touch is going through the roof, and I can’t cuddle that much with my friends before they think something’s up…so thank goodness for the beautiful feeling of touch that comes in the orbit of a sex worker, be she a tantric therapist, a dominatrix, a good old-fashioned escort, or whatever. It’s enough that they are interesting, and I think in all likelihood most of them are. I don’t see it as good fortune that the SW’s I have had the pleasure of meeting have been fascinating and wonderfully deep and enriching people to be around…I suspect that most of them are like that, if you feel like listening and they feel like talking. I’m scared. When it really gets down to it, that is exactly what I am. Scared. This is my jourey. Both good and bad.

I don’t just write fantasy novels about magic, I also study and practice various kinds of practical and devotional magic. Sometimes I blog about this. However I’m solitary, eclectic, and I don’t adhere to any particular “school.” I do describe myself as “witchy” but I’m not part of a coven. I also describe myself as “Lokean” (oath-sworn to Loki) and though I’m a member of The Troth, I don’t identify as a Heathen. It’s probably not surprising that what I learn and do in my own life has a lot of influence on what I write and include in the books. I also feel that the writing process is an act of magic itself. I wrote a blog in December 2017 about Western Magic Influences and updated it somewhat in April 2020. But there’s a lot that I haven’t included or acknowledged yet. I’m now in the middle of the first draft of the fourth book (The Perilous Past) and find that the Hermits (human students of the Elves) are learning more sophisticated and diverse magic “systems” than I’d originally envisioned, including elements drawn from Westernized variations of some Eastern traditions (e.g., Neo-tantra) as well as the fictitious Elven magic of J.R.R. Tolkien. Basically, the magic “systems” in these books are a blend of Elven ceremonial magic and Earth-based chaos magic, folk magic, Eastern energetic practices, Western-style sex magic, and the cultivation of ally and devotional relationships with the “other than human” people, both seen and unseen. Preternatural and Magical Stuff In The Guild of Ornamental Hermits books you will find time travel and time warps (bubbles out of normal Time/Space); interdimensional beings (Vesta the giant salamander, Elsewherians, Wethrini, and the Elves of course); interdimensional materialization of objects (Septimus Sitwell is a master); shapeshifting (Elves and the Norse deities excel); cosmic devotional practices; supernatural parasites; a magic book; local wights and deities; animism; ancestral relationships; and more. However it’s not quite “anything goes.” There is magical mentorship (Elves to humans), plus there are protocols, permissions, and care taken to understand the spiritual/energetic impacts of certain kinds of magics and magical traditions in different places and times. This is especially important with regard to their impact on the Mortal Coil (aka Earth, Midgard) and spiritual beings in various localities. The first two books, The Dire Deeds and The Witching Work, are based on the premise that winery heiress Ginger Croom’s attempts to reestablish a 17th century English/Elvish mystery school in Hawai’i was a big mistake–no permission was ever asked or granted by the local powers, including deities–and that this tradition is particularly wrong and destabilizing for a chain of volcanic islands. (This is a metaphor for missionary colonization, if anyone’s interested.) Elf Ceremonial Magic ala J.R.R. Tolkien and The Untamed As an homage, I use the Elf deities and Quenya language that Tolkien developed. The Valar and Maiar deities are from his Silmarillion. The deities are often mentioned (in exclamations such as “Varda’s Stars!” and “Tulkas’ Toenails!”) though only Nienna, Lady of Mercy, actually appears in the books as a character. This is because she is channeled by Babe Bump. I have come to envision Elf ceremonial magic as complex weavings of sound (chants and instrumental music), choreographed dance and movement, and directed energy. (Back in 2016, I originally imagined quasi-Wiccan types of ceremony.) By the end of 2019, just as I was becoming convinced that Elven magic had to be very embodied, steeped in dance and spiritually energetic movements (human examples include Tai Chi, Qigong, Hula, and Anthroposophical Eurythmy), I discovered the Chinese xianxia fantasy series, The Untamed (2019), based on the novel Mo Dao Zu Shi (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation). The Untamed totally captivated me. In this series, magic was based on cultivated practices and performed with dramatic movements, swiftly flashing sigils, animated paper servitors, and powerful sound waves from Lan Zhan’s magical seven-stringed guqin. This was close to what I had imagined for my own Elves. (FYI, enjoy the fandom at https://modao-zushi.fandom.com/). I also realized how much the movie version of the Elves in The Lord of the Rings owed to xianxia movies. For starters, compare the costuming and hair styles! A Little More About My Elves My original conception of the Elves was part Tolkien and part Emma Bull (War for the Oaks, Finder). I’ve taken Bull’s Elf/Human culture clashes a step further. The Elves in my books are deeply fascinated by human cultures, subcultures, and artifacts (when you’re immortal, how else are you going to amuse yourself?). In fact, three of the Elves mentoring the Hermits of Hermitville are academic specialists in “Human Studies.” Therefore it shouldn’t be surprising that the systems of magic they share with the human Hermits blends Elven and human magic traditions. Here are some of the specific elements. A Magic Book For the human “Hermits,” The Book of Moons is their first encounter with a form of magic. Ginger Croom, Hermitville’s founder, has entrusted shy Oyster Olson with her copy of this strange text, shortly before her death. As he shares it with Babe Bump, the two of them begin to suspect a connection between Ginger’s funky “Hermitville” (a farm and arts collective in Hawai’i) and the mysterious Guild of Ornamental Hermits, created by twelve families in 17th century England. The book can become longer or shorter, changing its number of pages. It can also hide things, such as Ginger’s will. Another copy of the book appears later and is swiftly sent to The Realm (Alfheim) for safe keeping. Spontaneous and Cultivated Spiritual Energy: Kundalini and Glamour Triggered by a mention of the “Secret Salamander” (Vesta) in The Book of Moons, Babe Bump experiences a series of spontaneous kundalini explosions. Like a warped fairy godmother, I’ve given this character something I actually experienced myself. Later Babe is able to hold hands with Oyster and their friend, Tomma Bedlam, and share this rush of energy. Glysandra Shaki Om, one of the Hermits, teaches Western neo-tantra and comments on Babe’s condition shortly after her first experience. We also discover that Vesta can trigger these energy explosions in humans, though Babe is particularly vulnerable. Elven “glamour”–a powerful, glowing charisma–is also a form of cultivated spiritual energy. The Elves increase and lower their personal glamour, depending on circumstances. It’s mostly an Elven ability but by the third book Oyster Olson also begins to manipulate his own glamour. Therefore the cultivation of spiritual energy in a physical body is definitely a part of the hybrid magic system used by the Guild of Ornamental Hermits. Such energy powers spellwork as well as individual transformation. As mentioned earlier, skillful use of sound, music, and movement are also ways to increase spiritual energy. (Let’s not forget breathwork!) Plus, an act of sex magic to boost energy for a magic ritual takes place in the second book. After her first kundalini experience, Babe Bump begins to experience spontaneous trance and begins channeling. She finds this extremely disconcerting and must learn how to manage. She most often channels Nienna (the Elf goddess) and Vesta, a (Roman) goddess of hearth and flame who is related to Zoroaster (Zarathustra), either as a mother or sister (depending on source). Vesta appears in the book as a giant, Kundalini-triggering salamander who enjoys human architecture (a lot!). In the book Vesta is also presented as “a cousin” to the Hawaiian Mo’o (water lizard spirits). In these books, the Elves do not seem to function as mediums. It may be a magical talent or tendency of human beings. It is worth noting that in Hawai’i, there is a tradition of mediumship, which usually involves one person serving as a haka (“perch” for the spirits) and another as a kahu (caretaker) (Pukui, M.K., Haertig, E.W., & Lee, C.A., Nana I Ke Kumu—Look to the Source, Vol. 1, Hui Hanai, 1972, p. 46). I am also influenced by what little I know of the Norse tradition of obtaining prophesies and divinations from an entranced Völva (witch), which was part of the magic/sorcery tradition called seidr. The Norse goddess, Freya, was known as a practitioner and teacher of this magic. The Poetic Edda contains two poems of prophecies , Volupsa (Prophecy of Ragnarok) and Volupsa en skamma (The Short Prophecy of Ragnarok) (Crawford, J. translation, Hackett Publishing Company, 2015). Scrying is the primary form of divination used by the humans and Elves. Norse runes are also mentioned (below). I am not very experienced with runes. I personally prefer to use tarot and pendulums, but these do not really appear in the books. Meditation and Trance Focused inner attention is foundational to most forms of magic. Some form of meditation is therefore “a given.” As a professional hypnotist and hypnosis instructor (among other things) I enjoy finding commonalities between self-hypnosis, guided imagery, and some types of magical workings. In the book, Babe Bump is trained in hypnosis though she mostly uses it for stage performances. The elemental “faery cities” of Finias (fire), Murias (water), Gorias (air), and Falias (earth) are derived from Irish faery traditions and I first found mention of them on the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids. These cities are important as they not only inform much of the magic of the books, but Elven genders are also based on the elements and these cities (among other things). The twelve Hermits of Hermitville also work in the elemental city groups based on their astrological signs. During part of their training, each Hermit tries to get a glimpse of each of these cities and their inhabitants. And they were encouraged (via meditation and self-trance) to contact spirits that reside in these cities. When the Norse god, Loki Laufeyjarson, arrived in the third book (The Queerest Quest) (in the guise of Lucky LaFey, “a handsome drifter,” several Norse references came along with him. However, rune work is the only Northern-derived skill or tradition that the Hermits use (so far). (FYI, Tolkien’s writing was influenced by Northern traditions and he created a set of runes.) The persecution of European witches forms the background of the fourth book as the reason for the creation of the original Guild of Ornamental Hermits. Some forms of folk or kitchen magic, as well as other forms of contemporary American witchery, may be found throughout the books. As mentioned in a previous blog post, Ariel Gatoga’s Witches Primer was super helpful as I began writing in 2016. Hypersigils and Other Forms of Chaos Magic These days I’m particularly influenced by Aidan Wachter’s two books, Six Ways: Approaches and Entries for Practical Magic and Weaving Fate: Hypersigils, Changing the Past, & Telling True Lies. I am currently exploring methods described in Weaving Fate, particularly the hypersigil journaling. I’m including this form hypersigil work in my fourth book, as something that the Hermits must begin to learn and use. Magic Ingredients and Tools The Hermits are given special substances from The Realm, as well as tools to use. However, the Elves insist that tools aren’t really essential, though they are fun to use. Ginger Croom secretly researched and recruited her residents of Hermitville and made sure that twelve astrological sun signs were represented. Otherwise, Earth-based astrology doesn’t play much of a role in the books. However star positions are one of several factors that determine an Elf gender (there are 29 in all). The Guild of Ornamental Hermits was originally formed by the Elves and twelve human families in England. The themes of complicated family and ancestral ties are fundamental to the books. I won’t say too much about this as I don’t want to give any spoilers. In Hawai’i, among the Hawaiian neighbors of Hermitville, there are also some heavy duty ancestral themes, as well as ancestral relationships with the ‘aina (land). A kapu (sacred) child may be one of the reasons that the Elves have been called in to do damage control at Hermitville after Ginger Croom’s death. The Elves even assist in creating an ancestral healing ritual to rid Hawai’i Island of foreign ghosts who are ancestors of four of the Hermits. This is one of the ways that “the Powers” (deities) of Hawai’i ask the Hermits and Elves to “clean up their mess.” Personally, I’m heavily influenced by Daniel Foor’s Ancestral Medicine work and his courses in animism. (The influences of ancestors and ghosts is also one of the things I notice and resonate with in The Untamed.) “Other Than Human” Relationships–Seen and Unseen Of course my human Hermits form close relationships with their Elven mentors (sometimes jokingly called “Elven Overlords”). The Elves are very tangible and “human” (though their actual appearances are quite different). The Elves have previous associations with the “Twelve Family” ancestors and this determines which Hermit they work with. Other examples: Tomma Bedlam becomes keeper of the “Wubbies,” magic peach children of great power. Ze loves them dearly. Babe has close associations with Nienna, the Elven goddess, and Vesta, the giant salamander. Breadcrumb (an Elf) bonds with a portion of the “membrane” left behind when Vesta “mates” with Ginger Croom’s cottage. The Elves also encourage the humans to be aware of and conversant with local deities, land wights, and the spirits of objects. The sacred “Powers” of Hawai’i are not opponents, but they are insistent about the necessity to undo the harms caused by Ginger Croom’s spiritual colonialism and land purchases. The Elves and Hermits do their best to comply. The Powers never interact directly with the Hermits. Instead the Elves serve as intermediaries, as they are experienced with protocols. As mentioned above, ancestors are among the unseen communities that the Hermits begin to know and cultivate. The Elsewherian foe known as The Lawyer™ has a devotional relationship to the cosmic goddess, Mal-i-Bu Bar-Bee (who is not an Elsewherian). This is an example of relationships between two “other than human” characters. The selfish Anna Phylaxia (human), who has hired The Lawyer™ to help turn Hermitville into a posh “eco-resort,” has no idea that her lawyer is a preternatural being so this is an example of an inadvertant “other than human” relationship. The humans and Elves face some dangerous preternatural foes, including the Elsewherians and the Wethrini. But their combat is seldom designed to inflict physical harm. Battles are often contests of wits and reality performances which seek to overwhelm the opponent’s sense of reality or banish them to other dimensions. The theatrical and musical talents of the Hermits are often put to good use in these battles. Wards and protection rituals are also essential. This covers almost all of the types of magic and magic traditions found in the four books so far. I can’t promise though that other things might not make their way into the fourth book, which is still in progress. Look to FuturesPastEditions for ebook publication of the first books in early 2021. Coming soon! A twice-annual magazine devoted to the Guild of Ornamental Hermits fantasy novels. Readers will be able to find character bios, submit cosplay photos of themselves as characters, publish fan art, and more! The first issue will be available on MagCloud.com. in February, 2021. Deadline for submissions, Jan. 15th. Cosplay and Fan Art Challenges for the first book, The Dire Deeds of the Guild of Ornamental Hermits: Elf – You’re an Elf named Breadcrumb and you really like clowns. Your toes sound like bells. Hermit – How would you look and dress if you lived on a post-hippie, post-punk “farm and arts collective” in the jungles of Hawai’i, and you were just getting involved with magic for the first time? Elf – How do you look and what do you wear when you don’t have to take on a human-like appearance? (Elves in the Realm are multi-gendered and very colorful). Supernatural Villains – How would you look and dress if you were an Corporate Elsewherian or an uncouth Wethrini? Cosmic Goddess Mal-I-Bu Bar-Bee – The cosmic soccer mom with massive power to rend the cosmos with just the tip of her well-manicured fingernail. What does she look like and wear? Fan Art Challenge – How would you imagine the two Elves, Artanáro Alma (“Nar”) and Fantur Nen (“Nen”) if they were played by Xiao Zhan (as Fantur Nen) and Wang Yibo (as Artanáro Alma) in a movie of The Dire Deeds of the Ornamental Hermits? Hint: Nar and Nen are “Human Studies” experts who have done a lot of field work in Asia over the millennia. Fan Art Challenge – Tomma Bedlam is an outrageous, redheaded, gender non-binary person who lives in Hermitville. Ze is a performer, a collector of Barbie Dolls, and is a big fan of Tulkas the Laughing Warrior, an Elven deity from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Silmarillion. How does Tomma look and dress on the farm? Hint: Tomma is really good with a machete. If you would like to submit a cosplay photo or fan art, please email firstname.lastname@example.org for instructions. All contributors will get a free PDF copy of the magazine. Update: Met the NaNoWriMo 2020 Challenge! Good news! Tomorrow, November 14th, I will sign a contract with Digital Parchment Services to publish the first four books in my Guild of Ornamental Hermits fantasy series with the Futures-Past Editions imprint. I am choosing tomorrow to sign because it is an auspicious day for me with a New Moon in Scorpio and some good Saturn and Neptune energy. It’s also just about the middle of NaNoWriMo 2020 – National Novel Writing Month – which begins each year on my birthday, Nov. 1st. I began this fantasy during NaNoWriMo 2016, just as a certain catastrophic election took place in the U.S. That same month I put together a 50 page “resistance handbook” while also banging out 50,000 words of the first draft of The Dire Deeds of the Guild of Ornamental Hermits. The book is set in a communal farm near Pahoa, Hawai’i Island. There are Elves, supernatural and human bad guys, and a number of human characters, “the Hermits of Hermitville,” that I have come to adore. Eventually the book ended up weighing in at over 250,000 words and I worked hard to par it down to about 179,000–still a lot! My publisher, Jean-Marie Stine, suggested I take the manuscript and turn it into two books: The Dire Deeds of the (etc.) and The Witching Work of the (etc.). The third book, which takes place in California and Oregon, is called The Queerest Quest of the (etc.). (You have probably figured out I like alliteration in my titles.) For NaNoWriMo 2020, I began working on the fourth book, The Perilous Past of the Guild of Ornamental Hermits. As of tonight, Nov. 13th, I am over 23,000 words so far. Tomorrow I plan to leap over the 25,000 word mark. The Perilous Past weaves together an important love story that triggered the founding of Hermitville; the contemporary struggles of the Hermits to adjust to their new home in Oregon; and the 17th century origin of the Elf/human mystery school known as The Guild of Ornamental Hermits. This was the heydey of the English witch persecutions, so there’s that. I am, once again, completely in love with the characters who’ve been with me in the first three books. I also have some new adversaries and more about the Guild founders collectively known as “Twelve Families.” I’m excited by the prospect of completing the fourth book in record time and I am hoping to see all four published in 2021. These are LGBTQIA++ fantasies and offering these books to readers feels so right after the hell of the last administration. It’s a time for joy (as well as hard work), so maybe these books can provide that as we make a better world for us all. May we all be safe, healthy, and prevail in this very difficult time! Today I am sharing two illustrations I commissioned from my youngest son, Paul F.S. Bauer, as illustrations for The Dire Deeds of the Guild of Ornamental Hermits. There is a scene in the book where the Elves teach rune casting and I wanted the results illustrated. Paul added the additional design elements, based on his own inspiration, and I think they are perfectly appropriate for an otherworldly divination. And his hand-stippling is truly amazing! I hope these beautiful illustrations will be published soon, along with the rest of the book! This one features a reversed Berkana, as this is how it showed up in a rune casting during the novel. Please do not share these images without permission or credit. Thank you. I am back firmly in fantasy novelist mode! This past weekend I put some character and plot development changes in place and continued the final edit on Dire Deeds. I updated my lists of Elven (ala Tolkien) names and words; plus revised the list of 29 genders of the Elf world; and sorted and organized several files of character “faces” (a form of fantasy “casting” that helps my writing process). This is a series about “mid-life magic”–most of the human characters are in their forties or older and most are encountering magic for the first time. The first book, The Dire Deeds of the Guild of Ornamental Hermits, is set in a fictitious “Hermitville Farm and Arts Collective” in the Puna district of Hawai’i Island, during a “not too distant future” when the U.S. occupation has ended and the government of the Hawaiian Kingdom is rapidly reorganizing. Unfortunately, the Hermits of “Hermitville” realize their own occupation has had unintended mystical and spiritual consequences, causing the Elves of the Realm to return and revive the Guild. The second, The Witching Work of the Guild of Ornamental Hermits, is set in Lake County, CA. The Norse god, Loki Laufeyjarson, took over this plot with his search for his final missing child. But an evil Lake County cult leader teams up with a villain from the first book, to dump yet more challenges onto the newly reformed Guild (consisting of the “Hermits” and their teachers and guides, the Elves). The third in the Series, The Perilous Past of the Guild of Ornamental Hermits, will blend a contemporary plot with the origin story of the Guild, created during the times of witch persecution in Europe. I began writing The Dire Deeds in 2016, during my time in Pahoa. I was very lonely so I began creating characters I wish I knew and a community life I wish I had. And I was homesick for the SF Bay Area. So naturally, these books contain a majority of LBGTQIA+ and BIPOC characters–all of whom get to do magic and have adventures. This is a coming out post. Even as a child I never liked my first name, preferring often to simply use the letter “A.” I used to think it was because “Amy” seemed too wimpy and I also resented being named after a character in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (yes, my parents did that). I began to feel better about the name just last year, after I discovered that Amy is also the name of a gender-fluid Goetic demon. (I mean, you can never call a demon “wimpy,” can you?) As a little kid, I was never an Amy in my imagination. I was Captain Nemo (20 Leagues Under the Sea), or Dr. Doolittle, or Sir Lancelot. I was also, often, a “Pirate Queen.” You see a pattern starting to emerge, right? In my teens and early twenties, I went along with “being a girl” because I didn’t know there was an option. But I felt uncomfortable, never quite right. I’m artistic, intellectual–never athletic–so “tomboy” wouldn’t fit. I wanted love, so I became “a girlfriend” for a series of boyfriends, later “a wife” and “a mother.” I was and am other things too, but the stakes for success or failure in the gender roles were always the highest, the most precarious. As uncomfortable as I was in them–though I tried my best–I didn’t want to be “a man” or “a boyfriend” or “a husband” either. The concepts of gender neutrality, gender plurality, and gender non-binary, didn’t show up on my radar until I was in the middle of menopause. Yes, there was the old idea of “androgyny” in the 1960’s, and I was often attracted to androgynous people, but that didn’t seem like something I’d be able to do myself. Anyway, there’s a long story behind all this and I’m not up to telling all of it now. It’s just that I only recently realized that the gift of being unpartnered for the last three years has given me the opportunity to discover an essential core truth. The truth is this: I have seldom felt like “a woman” (pregnancy and lactation the closest thing to experiencing that), though I’ve had to live as one. But I don’t feel like anything super nameable either. I feel like…a creature…forced to wear an ill-fitting garment that hides zir true beauty. (And is the “garment” only made of ill-fitting concepts or is “the ill fit” more physical? Too soon to tell.) And so today I’ve claimed the pronouns of ze/zir, at last. I may not be able to do much about the ill-fitting garment, especially since the physical aspects are aging, but I can at least claim the right pronouns for myself. On a literary note: Some readers of earlier chapters of The Dire Deeds have suggested to me that Babe Bump is my alter-ego. But though I’ve given Babe a number of characteristics and background details of my own, she’s not my alter-ego. My alter ego is Tomma Bedlam, if anyone is. That is all. And why I’ve created a new social media group as a place for queer, trans, non-binary and pretty much everyone else who is “othered” and tormented by the soul-sucking, climate-changing, greed-slurping dementors of the world we live in today… Since 2016, when I started writing The Dire Deeds of the Guild of Ornamental Hermits, I knew that my characters would create a safe, vibrant place for people to learn and enjoy a new kind of magic–something that today I am calling MagicQ. In my second book (close to completion), my characters–including trans guy Oyster Olson, intersex woman Babe Bump, and non-binary Tomma Bedlam–are actively engaged in creating a new Hermitville Center for Arts and Magic as a place of refuge, inclusion, and empowerment for LGBTQIA+ people, and anyone facing violence and discrimination as a result of personal bigotry and systemic injustice. Two days ago I learned about J.K. Rowling’s most recent transphobic statement on Twitter, in support of a woman who holds hateful beliefs about trans and otherwise gender diverse people, and who believes it is fine to discriminate against them. While I never thought of Rowling as someone who had great politics (I mean, she poured money into preventing Scottish independence, for gods sake…), I was startled and dismayed by her most recent public statement. I hadn’t been following Rowling’s transphobe trajectory but others have, as early as 2018 or before. My kids (now adults) grew up on the Potter books–along with other, better works of childhood fiction. One of my kids is trans–and I will never forget how dismayed he was when he found out he was not going to Hogwartz when he turned eleven. However, he’s since claimed his place in the worlds of magic and witchery, and has even created a church for LGBTQIA+ people. To work for social change and justice is a magical, transformational act. This is the real thing, not make-believe. Inspired by both my own kid’s action and the mission of my own characters, I’ve created The Guild of Ornamental Hermits group on Facebook, as a home for magicQ and its practitioners and allies. Since I am also a practicing witch, as well as a writer/blogger and sexologist dedicated to gender equality, as well as a mother–I can do no less and I also pledge to do more! So, I say to J.K. (who also writes under a male name–go figure!!!) that in my world of magic and literature, she has now become “she who must not be named.” If she ever repudiates her current stance, and educates herself, and humbly serves as a fitting ally to LGBTQIA+ and other marginalized people, perhaps I’ll reconsider giving her a place on my bookshelf again. But til then I’m boycotting. I won’t be giving her books to any more young people. #IStandWithTrans and I always have. I did it. The first draft of The Witching Work of the Guild of Ornamental Hermits is now complete. This month, during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), The Witching Work of the Guild of Ornamental Hermits has gained 34,548 words so far, bringing the total word count for the first draft up past 80,000. I just paused at the end of Chapter 25, to do a little updating on this website. I have slightly over 15,000 words to write to meet the NaNoWriMo challenge of 50,000 words in one month. I’m mindful that I need to wrap up this draft soon, before ending up with an unwieldy word count that no one agent will want to touch. Honestly, though, it’s too much fun to stop writing, so my plan is to wrap up the end and then get started on the first few pages of the third book, if I have to. Then, I’ll rewrite this first draft so that I get a polished second. The Hermits and the Elves are tangling with yet another supernatural bad guy as they attempt to come to terms with a new setting for their adventures. And the changes are not over yet!

Triss Finley Smythe is an Air Engineering Technician with the Royal Navy who came out as non-binary in the past year and is keen to promote using language differently to help people feel more included. “Gender-neutral language ... works for all parties rather than just focusing on the men. It also includes women, it includes trans and non-binary individuals.” As part of LGBTQ+ history month, BFBS the forces station is exploring the military as an equal opportunity employer, and asking “what does that mean for serving personnel and the way they choose to live their lives?” Royal Navy sailor Triss spoke to BFBS broadcaster Amy Casey about what it felt like to come out as non-binary - a term used to describe a gender that is neither male nor female - while working in a historically ‘male’ environment. Terms like ‘lads’ for groups of sailors, whether they be men, women, trans or non-binary, can exclude people and possibly lead to reduced motivation and, in turn, a less effective ship's company. Triss said: “A great example as well is ‘the lads’, get the lads to do this get the lads to that. “All you really have to say is can you get some ABs together to do this job. “It’s not a massive change but it is enough. They are thinking about me. I am still seen rather than just being seen as, in my case, a male. “They’re looking at me and going ‘well, they may not identify as that so let’s include them a bit more' and I’m more likely to go yep, no worries, let’s go because we’re all there as a team rather than 'the boys’ kind of thing.” After four years of service with the Senior Service Triss, who uses they as a gender-neutral pronoun, is currently with 825 Squadron at RNAS Yeovilton. They say coming out as non-binary was an eye-opening experience and overall, very positive. They said: “Don’t get me wrong there was a lot of, OK what is that? “It is a relatively new thing so to then say ‘that binary thing you know, you’ve grown up with, I’m not part of that rule’ - everyone’s kind of like ‘that’s new’. “However, they were all very understanding and went right, what does it mean, tell us about it and what can we do to help you?” One piece of advice the sailor would give to anyone considering embracing non-binary terms for their gender is to make sure they know themselves first before coming out. They said: "Before I did anything I was like, I have to be secure in myself because there will be questions and there’s nothing wrong with that but I need to be confident in answering them to change anything.” LISTEN: Triss explains to Amy how the military has reacted to them coming out as non-binary and the measures the Senior Service have taken to learn more and support them After having honest conversations with their chain of command and explaining “here’s how I feel and here’s what we could do to alleviate those feelings or improve them”, Triss felt as though the Royal Navy was willing to compromise to help them feel more comfortable. However, they realised they also had to understand there was a limit to what could be done. They said: “I joined the Navy to be in the Navy and as much as I’d love certain things to happen to make me feel comfortable, I still recognise that regardless of who you are in terms of gender identity, religion, sex, there will always be things which will make you feel uncomfortable. “It’s one of those of, I’ll take what I can but I’m not going to ask for everything because it’s just not going to happen and you have to be realistic.” Triss feels that society as a whole could help to break down barriers when it comes to understanding what non-binary is, by being willing to sit down and have a conversation and listen, saying: “If you have a question, ask it and be ready to actually take it on board and be willing to listen and work and change your perspective occasionally. “What we really want is just that understanding.” The armed forces have used terms like seaman and airman for generations so to move away from that language is going to take a shift in understanding from society as a whole. Triss said: “The Navy could say ‘right, here are the terms we’re using'. Unless society changes with it the Navy risks being heavily criticized for doing it. “In the Navy, we’re not men and women we are just sailors and I don’t quite think if we went for that mindset now that society would really appreciate or accept it.” The Royal Navy has taken positive steps to help make Triss feel included which, in turn, has encouraged the sailor to embrace their role within the Navy even more. In September 2020, an RNTM (Royal Navy Temporary Memorandum) was released showing a variety of different ways non-binary or trans personnel can be supported. For Triss, something as simple as assigning a toilet on a shore base to being gender-neutral made them feel "awesome”. They said: “It had a sign on it saying gender-neutral toilet which means I didn’t feel like I was in a male space, therefore I had to be male. “I had my own safe space without coming out and going well, you’re not a man so what are you doing kind of thing? “With this gender-neutral one on my Squadron, it was a very good thing of ‘we see you; we can’t do everything in a day’ but it was a very quick and easy one which made me feel pretty good if I’m honest.”

YFFY (CONNIE FU + JUNGMOK YI) Connie Fu (she/her) is an American-born daughter of Chinese immigrants. She is a transdisciplinary artist working in textiles, performance, and research-based practice to reconfigure traces of her bicultural heritage as living environments. Her work has been exhibited at Maelstrom Collaborative Arts (Cleveland, OH), FiveMyles (Brooklyn, NY), and La MaMa Theatre (New York, NY). She is the Gallery and Community Outreach Director at Praxis Fiber Workshop, an artist-run community fiber studio and educational center located in Cleveland. These days, she is learning how to ferment soy sauce. Jungmok Yi (they/them) is a queer non-binary 1.5 generation Korean-American immigrant and transdisciplinary artist who works with performance, installation, video, writing, and workshops. Born and raised in South Korea, they moved to Southern California when they were 13. Jungmok cultivated their voice as an artist at Pasadena City College and California State University, Long Beach, where they studied ceramics and sculpture. Over the years their work has addressed themes including the duality and contradiction of identities resulting from spending half of their life in Seoul and the other half in the U.S., and from their transition to being a non-binary persyn. They hold an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University in North Philadelphia. Queer Asian collective YFFY (Connie Fu and Jungmok Yi) engage in transdisciplinary practice to create sensory social environments that hold space for interwoven experiences of queerness and time. For if time is nonlinear, going about in nested orbits or numerous simultaneities, then the navigation of time as such is inherently queer. The core of YFFY's projects is to drive recognition that freely navigable time and queer existence in social spaces of the real go hand in hand. The constraining of time into linear chronology allows for debased arguments that embodied queerness is an aberration best stamped from lineage and collective hxstory. By setting flexible physical and social parameters and destabilizing categories of performer/spectator and tradition preserver/tradition maker, YFFY and collaborators practice radical engagement with crystalline moments in time. The moment in question is not one in a series from past to present to future, but rather an instant framed as cyclic and infinite. This method allows for open-ended interaction, discourse, and play to emerge as guiding principles for how we communicate and share space. Fu's Chinese and Yi's Korean ancestry are frequently embedded in project parameters. Traditional customs and rituals influence performances and chosen materials, resulting in contemporary manifestations. In so doing YFFY acknowledges that the so-called past is not recoverable, and yet ancestral lives carry on through the bodies of those who work to reshape the rituals, and ways of living, in their own image. The Portal of Answers Woven screen, video shadow, sound, painted figure, aroma and colors of peaches, painted cloth pillars. The Wise Lump Yellow Lump, yellow skirt, a border, a door to the portal, and the portal.

This is a Ruby on Rails event. The focus will be on developing web apps and programming in Ruby. You can find all the curriculum materials at docs.railsbridge.org. Note: registration closes on February 6th, so RSVP asap!. Are you interested in learning how to create dynamic web applications? Want to get an in-depth introduction to Ruby on Rails? RailsBridge Chicago is here to help you level up! This is a free (and fun!) introduction to Ruby on Rails for women, non-binary people, and their guests. No programming experience is required and any level of skill is welcome, from total newbies to Rubyists who just want to brush up. We will start from scratch and walk you through the steps to set up a fully-functioning online database app by the end of the day, even if right now you couldn’t tell an app from a tea cosy! You’ll be a regular Grace Hopper in no time. The workshop takes place over two days at the Chicago Innovation Exchange . Friday evening you’ll meet your fellow students at installfest, where we’ll help you make sure your computer is set up with all the right tools to jump right in on Saturday morning. Saturday we’ll be coding up a storm from 10am until 5:30pm, after which we will head to an afterparty to celebrate your success! Is Friday mandatory? Yes, yes it is. What if you've totally got everything installed, you promise? Well, think of how easy it will be on you and the lovely volunteers to get you your "all good!" sticker on Friday when they've got time to review your craftsmanship! In all seriousness, Saturday is a big day and we can't take time away from everyone's coding, so if you're not approved by Saturday morning you might not be able to participate in the workshop. This event is open to anyone who identifies as a woman or as non-binary. We ask that others only sign up if they are coming as the “guest” of an attendee in our demographic (we’ll ask you who you’re coming with on the registration form). Guests must also register for the event! We need to have enough pizza to feed you all! Don't forget to follow us on Twitter @RailsBridgeChi for more updates! Questions? Email [email protected] REGISTRATION WILL CLOSE ON FEBRUARY 6

Nov 29, 2001, 8:59 AM Post #2 of 3 If the server is running Linux, it most likely has the same byteorder (little endian). It's not OS specific, it only depends upon the used hardware, and Linux is most often used on Intel (little endian) machines. I believe it has to do with the way you open and transfer files. When dealing with binary files (such as created by pack) be sure to always use binmode before reading/writing the file and be sure to always transfer (ftp) the file in binary mode. The big difference between Windows and Unix (including Linux) is the newline sequence. And if you print a packed string that contains a \n character in non-binary mode under Windows, it will be converted to a \r\n sequence, which is of course wrong for a binary file. Opening that file under Windows reverses that transform, so you end up with the correct data under Windows. But a Linux system will read the raw data, mixing up your binary packed string. I hope this was your problem.

As they approach the final few shows of the Australian, intercontinental and trans-pacific era of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour, your friends in podcasting have really been ramping up with great episodes. And those episodes have led to an overflowing “mailbag”. On this week’s installment, Dean and Phil will finally get to several of these missives, which range in content from corrections about things Dean and Phil have said to questions about the dubbing of movies and TV into different languages, from a question about mysterious sounds to one about the ineffable art of casting the right performers for the right roles. Of course, Dean and Phil will comment upon the latest show biz and media news, including the controversy surrounding Nike, the latest charges leveled against CBS head honcho Les Moonves, and the Academy’s major about-face for this year’s Oscars. All that, plus Dean updates his Down Under Bucket List and he and Phil remember the late, great Burt Reynolds. We were going to say that after a one-week absence (during which they released a spectacular pre-recorded episode with a special guest), your friends in podcasting come out with guns blazing … And then, as they were getting set to record, ANOTHER mass shooting in the USA occurred. Dean and Phil address the event and get into a seriously fascinating conversation about rage and despair and about how people can obtain the tools necessary to explore these bedrock emotions without being taken by them. Then, in the return of “Live Events of the Week”, Tchaikovsky and a non-binary gender identifying performer are celebrated, and Dean discusses his “Down Under Bucket List”, including scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef (a list item he has checked off, thank you very much!). Romantic comedies and diversity both get discussed in the wake of Crazy Rich Asians‘ box office success (and surprisingly decent reviews) and the documentary profile Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda gets recommended. Finally, the Chillpak Morgue is opened for “Celebrity Deaths” where the lives, accomplishments and lasting impacts of a true American hero, a giant of international diplomacy, the Oscar-nominated actress who founded modern improv, the journalist who coined the phrase “champagne wishes and caviar dreams” and the Queen of Soul are all remembered. All that AND Phil finally learns the usage of modern-day pronouns!

“I feel a lot of the time I am very, very serious about my art,” Claud says over Zoom one recent afternoon. “But sometimes, you have to let loose a little bit and just, like, have fun with it.” It brings to mind that one time Claud swayed with a blow-up doll after getting rejected by a crush in the music video for their song “Never Meant To Call.” Or when they fully recreated 500 Days Of Summer’s iconic reality vs expectations scene — with Claud as Joseph Gordon-Levitt — in their “Wish You Were Gay” music video, that yes, also ended with Claud reuniting with the same blow-up doll. Though no inflated plastic people make an appearance on their debut album, Super Monster (yet), Claud's latest sachet of bedroom pop songs sparkle with jokes yet unwritten. To be clear, 21-year-old Chicago native and New York-based musician’s new album is not bitter about love; it’s actually quite the opposite. Over 13 glowing and tender pop songs, Claud — real name Claud Mintz, and who identifies as non-binary — shares their trials and tribulations around that pesky but magical emotion, one they fall into hard, and often. (“I fell in love like a fool overnight,” they state on cheery opener “Overnight,” while on the mid-album “In Or In Between,” they anxiously wonder “is this going bad?”) The songs, which altogether form a tidy bildungsroman of sorts, find their charm in the wide-eyed mix of earnest lyrics, and the un-seriousness of its sound (e.g.: an effervescent pop of a soda can interrupts the melancholy on lovelorn “Pepsi"). And even on “Ana,” where Claud breaks-up with someone so they can go and explore the world, the guitars shimmer and synths ambitiously soar — because painful moments still deserve a memorable, cinematic soundtrack. Super Monster is the endearing introduction to the burgeoning, and bright universe of Claud, the first signee on Phoebe Bridgers’ new label, Saddest Factory, and one of pop’s most promising new acts. Below, speaking from their grandma’s home in California, Claud explains how the album came together, the stories behind some of the record’s most memorable tracks, and why they decided to sign to Saddest Factory. When did this album start forming in your head? It's funny, there was no start date. The album really turned into a collection of songs I've written over the last few years. There was definitely an end date, but I can't really say there was a start date. There were a couple of different milestones in the record process. I spent two months around this time last year writing every single day and trying to collaborate with a bunch of different people and really, really honing in. And then right when the world was starting to shut down a bit, I spent months in Chicago at the house I grew up in rewriting and reworking and starting new songs from scratch. And then that's sort of when I realized, "Hey, I think I have a record here." Was any part of the process daunting to you at all? I didn't want to release a record or even start a record until I felt like I knew what I wanted to say. And in this instance, when I started to look back at all these songs, I was like, "Okay, now I know what I'm trying to communicate and what I'm trying to get across. And I can rewrite these songs and reproduce them to make sure they capture my message in my essence." It was a huge process. This record is talked about as a coming of age album. Do you feel like you've grown up while you were working on this album? Yeah, just naturally, over the last couple of years. I uprooted my life just by turning 18 and moving out. All the events along the way have taught me about different aspects of life and love and relationships. I guess that's naturally what coming of age is. What’s something you learned about yourself while you were working on this record? The main message of the record and the main thing that I wanted to communicate is that even when it doesn't feel like it and even when you don't feel like dating, you still are worthy of love. You deserve to be loved and you're worthy of it. That's something that I definitely came to learn just throughout the last few years. Were there any challenges in either recording the songs or deciding what songs to put on the record? Yeah, definitely. I had a demo playlist of like 50 to 60 songs that I was trying to narrow down and choose from. And it took me a while to really decide which songs would go on the record and which ones I would have to cut. That was the most challenging part for me, I think, was picking the ones that I felt like told the story. A lot of the production is really fun. I was really charmed by the soda can popping sound on “Pepsi.” How did that come about when you guys were producing that track? That one was really fun. My friend Josh had sent me this little beat with the soda can sound, and that's why I decided to call the song "Pepsi." And I added the bubble sound later to add an extra element of soda and pop. We were just really just having fun with it. Trying not to take the production too seriously. On the record you have a couple of songs where the title is someone's name. Was that something you were worried about, including details of your private life in your songs? Actually, yeah. And it's funny because both of those names I changed from the original. Those are names that I made up. For example, like the song “Ana” is actually not about my life at all. I decided I wanted to imagine myself as this married man with a wife, who decides he wants to leave his wife to go do some self exploration and really go find himself. And I thought that was a really interesting concept. And I thought a really beautiful name is Ana. And the song is like a letter from him to Ana being like, if I don't take this chance then I never should have been your man in the first place. Track number 10, “That's Mr. Bitch to You,” that phrase and the way you sing it is great. How did that song came together? This guy had called me a bitch and I was so taken back and really offended, and the first thing that came out of my mouth was, "That's Mr. Bitch to you," and my friend had overheard it and was like, "Holy shit. You have to write that down. That has to be your album title. I can't believe he said that." And I was like, "I can't believe I said that." If a man calls somebody who's just not a man a bitch, I find it to be one of the most misogynistic things ever. And I was really offended. So that song was really easy to write. It's just about rejecting misogyny and our patriarchy. Finally, congrats on being the first signee to Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory record label. How did that deal happen, and how has it been? She heard my music about a year and a half ago and just reached out. It's been awesome. There were a few different reasons [why I signed to it]. I think Phoebe is really brilliant. She really, really knows how to present herself to the world, and I really appreciate that. Especially, I really appreciate her guidance now that I'm presenting myself to the world.

Jaguar: UK radio’s next gen champion Jaguar is the DJ and presenter at the helm of the BBC Introducing Dance show, giving first plays to many up-and-coming producers from around the UK. Here, she tells DJ Mag what new artists need to do to get a play on national radio, and how she wants to use her position to represent and uplift POC, LGBTQIA+, women and non-binary people in the dance music arena “I think 2020 showed us how important radio is. It’s that human connection and companionship,” says Jaguar Bingham, who sounds just as warm and friendly as she does when presenting for the BBC. “We’ve all felt disconnected for nearly 12 months now, and knowing there’s someone out there broadcasting to you, sharing music or knowledge with you, is extremely comforting.” For almost a year now, the effervescent Jaguar has been one of those people beaming musical positivity, escapism and good vibes down the airwaves and into people’s homes. Her BBC Introducing Dance show has a specific focus on new music, and she’s managed to make a real mark in the last 12 months, despite difficult circumstances. “I’ve recorded every show from my bedroom, with my producer down the line on Zoom, with a Radio 1 mic muff I had from my time as an intern when I was 19 back in 2014!” she tells DJ Mag. Although she admits January “really dragged”, Jaguar says knowing she has a platform for emerging artists on national radio has given her real motivation this last year. Musically, she says progressive and emotive stuff from people like Tibasko and Tommy Farrow, atmospheric vibes from TSHA, Kilig and Jasper Tygner, plus breaks and “a solid UKG/hardcore resurgence from people like Bailey Ibbs, Anz and Denham Audio” have all been big in the last 12 months. As we speak, Jaguar is in the middle of packing and unpacking boxes for a move from North to East London. In the meantime, she spent much of 2020 at her girlfriend’s family’s house in Gloucestershire. “I was so grateful to be able to take time out from London and have a more wholesome life in the countryside,” she says. She also spent time back where she grew up, on the tiny island of Alderney in the Channel Islands. With a population of around 2,000 people, it’s famously safe and “has some of the best beaches in the UK”. Her parents moved there when Jaguar was nine months old, and she talks fondly of her childhood years spent exploring the island and visiting the beaches before being sent to boarding school in Hampshire aged 10. By then, she was already interested in music and would download her older brother’s music — Timbaland, Chemical Brothers, Kanye West, but also pop like Destiny’s Child, Gwen Stefani and Black Eyed Peas. Around this time, radio was mainly background music or a fun but “cherished” soundtrack to car trips with her mum. Once at school and trying to bed down at night in lonely dorms, music became a solace and an escape. “I was glued to my iPod and was always the one introducing my mates at school to new artists, making playlists and collecting music. I loved the companionship of radio, like listening to a friend who has all this cool music to share with you. You really feel like you know the hosts of these shows, and they provide so much comfort. I really hope that’s what people get out of my shows, too.” Back home on Alderney between school terms, Jaguar spent much of her teenage years at raves in the old German war bunkers that are dotted around the island. It was here that she heard more electronic sounds and fell in love with loud soundsystems. “I would always be searching on the internet as a teenager,” she says, before revealing that discovering Grimes’ ‘Visions’ album “was kinda a gateway into electronic music”. University then took Jaguar to Leeds, where the city’s bustling underground scene fully subsumed her. It was also in Leeds where she first got properly involved with radio by hosting a show on the local student station before getting an internship at BBC Radio 1 in 2014. She spent two months working on Annie Mac’s show and at 1Xtra, picking up all the skills she would one day need to host her own show. She also threw her own club-nights in Leeds and won two Student Radio Awards in 2016 for her work on the mic. “It was an amazing night and felt like I’d won an Oscar,” she beams. “And the Radio 1 internship was a huge turning-point in my life and made me realise I had to pursue radio and that I wanted to go back to the BBC one day as a presenter.” Jaguar initially did some BBC pilot shows in 2017 and was left “crushed” when they didn’t lead anywhere. Instead, she was mentored by The Blessed Madonna for the Smirnoff Equalising Music campaign which was, “a huge turning-point for me that helped rebuild my confidence”. Despite the experiences and contacts she’d already gained, after moving to London from university she felt “intimidated by everything, like a small fish in a massive pond. So many people will tell you no, or say, you’re not ready, it’s not for me, they’ll tell you to give up. And although it stings, it never made me want to stop.” She spent two and a half years on Reprezent Radio, making a name by championing then-breakout artists like HAAi and DJ Boring, working on her presenting skills, learning how to relax on the mic and honing her own music taste. She also kept DJing around London and worked hard to go from “Jaguar the intern or Jaguar from the office” to Jaguar the presenter. After doing plenty of voiceovers for Radio 1 and 1Xtra, she got the call to cover for Phil Taggart on the Hype Chart show in March 2019, then for Huw Stephens on the Introducing Show. This one allowed her to play more of the dance music she knew and loved, so she naturally sounded more confident on air — and that no doubt played a part in her getting her own gig. It was February 2020 when she got confirmation she would be hosting her own BBC Music Introducing show after five years involved, firstly as a Team Assistant at Introducing in Sheffield, then with the Central Team in London. There are no self-imposed rules, nor BBC guidelines, for the music Jaguar plays on her show. She curates it all herself, she listens to 500-plus tunes each week and her tastes are super-broad, so “even if it’s a track I maybe wouldn’t play in a set, but can see that it’s great and the artist is talented, then I’ll 100% play it!” As such you can expect UKG, disco, d&b, 140, breaks, electro, house or techno in any given week. “I love playing around with my voice, which I’ve been learning to do with voice-overs, so I like to show light and shade in my tone,” Jaguar says. After name checking many women and POC broadcasting heroines like Annie Mac, Clara Amfo, Jasmin Evans and Jamz Supernova, Jaguar says she hopes they “inspire more underrepresented people to want to have careers in radio”. She adds that her own mission is also “to use my position wisely to represent POC, LGBTQIA+, women and non-binary people in the media space, as well as open up the doors of opportunity to emerging artists” as the ongoing mission to diversify dance music continues. “There’s still a huge gap in percentage of men, women, non-binary producers, so I have to use the non-male produced tracks wisely, and spread them out between shows. Hopefully it’s making a difference, and marginalised music can feel that this show is for them, and that their place in society is heard and cherished.” To get music on the show, it must be properly finished to a high standard and “sound fresh, different and diverse”. Jaguar also looks as much as possible to find unsigned artists. “Whatever genre you make, we encourage all artists to make a profile and upload their tunes to the Introducing uploader. I love to educate my audience about dance music’s ethnic and queer roots and try to encourage as many women, non-binary, POC, LGBTQIA+ artists to upload their music as possible,” she says. Wherever you are in the UK, your music will get sent to the local team and, if it’s loved, will get played on the local Introducing show. There are 36 in all around the UK and music can then be forwarded to anyone at the BBC and even on to BBC Introducing festival stages at Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds, SXSW and so on. “All dance music comes to an inbox that I go through every week, and this is where I find tracks to play on the show,” she explains. “I am always sending bits over to Pete Tong, Danny Howard and Annie Mac, who often play these new artists on their shows. It’s an amazing platform that works really well, especially for dance music! So many people get signed after I play them on Radio 1, which is mad and incredible.” So, if you fancy your chances but haven’t made your profile on the BBC Uploader, that is what you need to do. “And,” adds Jaguar, “make sure you fill out all of the questions so we can understand as much about you as artists as possible.” Jaguar reckons the reason new music in particular is of such interest to her is “the buzz” of discovering new artists but also because she takes joy in helping, connecting and platforming people: “I feel like it’s my calling in life.” As a queer mixed-race woman, the importance of her role as a representational voice also cannot be understated. “Going to queer clubs like Dalston Superstore or Wharf Chambers in Leeds helped make me feel connected to dance music’s roots. It helps me accept and discover more about myself and my sexuality. There are some incredibly talented LGBTQIA+ artists that I’m proud to call my friends such as ABSOLUTE., Elkka, Sonikku and Jess Bays and Nimmo and it’s so important to me to support them, and make sure that dance music’s queer roots are elevated, respected and not forgotten. Equality is hugely important to me, and I feel like I can help achieve a more equal world by representing marginalised artists as much as I can.” Away from presenting, Jaguar has also produced and voiced documentaries for radio about LGBTQIA+ safe space clubbing, and written articles about the importance of recognising the Black roots of dance music at things like the MOBO Awards, which traditionally focus on grime, hip-hop and R&B. “I am mixed-race, and countless times I’ve had people assume that I play hip-hop and rap music on my shows and DJ sets,” she says. “People assume I must have grown up in London and talk in a certain way. I’ve been called a ‘coconut’ before, because I grew up in a white area, and for some reason this means that my ‘Blackness’ is diminished. I want to challenge these perceptions of what it means to be Black and mixed-race. I think the world is becoming too divided, and I think that the most progressive way to live is to come together. I feel I represent that, as a mixed-race person, and want to be able to bring people together, from different walks of life, to achieve a utopia.” It is that desire which gave rise to Jaguar’s own UTOPIA party and talks, with artwork based around West African Moon Masks, which Jaguar has been obsessed with since a family holiday to Ghana three years ago to meet some maternal relatives. The community-minded party launched with a sell-out event at Night Tales in September, while UTOPIA Talks was a two-day conference aimed at empowering the next generation of artists, and included industry professionals from the likes of Ministry Of Sound and Bandcamp. “It was cool putting together something so ambitious, and I learnt loads from it,” she says. “I think it’s so important to learn about how the industry works, and we’ve built a cool community around it. Many of the attendees were people who are a part of my WhatsApp group full of artists, creatives and music lovers, so we’ll definitely do another one.” With the promise that a UTOPIA podcast will also soon come, the DJ reveals she is also working on a big project to encourage and introduce more women and non-binary artists in the electronic industry. With Jaguar leading the charge, the next generation is very much in safe hands.

It’s time for visibility beyond gender. enby (plural enbies) - (slang, neologism) A person who is non-binary; that is, a person whose gender identity is not strictly male nor female. The Binary from Birth We are assigned ‘male’ or ‘female’ at birth. “It’s a boy!” “It’s a girl!” We have gender reveal parties before we’re even born, and this is passing on expectation and normative behaviour based on societal and historical factors. But what about those who do not feel like they conform to the gender they were assigned? For example, somebody who is AFAB (Assigned Female At Birth) may be, by standard, expected to wear dresses, to start wearing make up at a certain age, and to act in a ‘ladylike’ way, and, perhaps more traditionally, take on the maternal, stay-at-home role. For people who are AMAB (Assigned Male at Birth), it would be, in Western society especially, expected to dress casually or in suits, be protective of women, exhibit little to no emotion, and to be the money maker. From an early age, our paths are set out for us based on gender; from our hobbies and interests, to our love interests when we hit adolescence. People are taught who to be, and how to look, instead of being given freedom of choice and the chance to experiment to find who they truly are. Those who do that, are mocked, sometimes even by family, for having ‘phases’ (which is a completely valid thing to do at any age!) It has even been seen as something of a mental illness, or a disease. As Saltzburg (2009) stated in her journal on Co-Authoring Gender-Queer Youth Identities: DiscursiveTellings and Retellings, although any variance in gender assignment in the early years of childhood is interpreted as ‘normative developmental exploration’, any action against the binary is regarded in such a way as this: “when signs of gender identity in a child or adolescent seem persistently incongruent with the biologically assigned sex and customary related characteristics and social roles, these differences are viewed as medical pathology” (Saltzburg & Davis, 2009) The study also goes on to talk about ‘inadequate mental health resources’ for trans and non-binary people, partially owing to lack of understanding and involvement by families and their communities. This, on top of gender dysphoria which many non-cisgender folk experience, partnered with the lack of visibility and representation of non-gender conforming individuals in the media and within the general public (official documents, public conveniences, non-inclusive social events, clothes shops, the list really is endless); is it really surprising that two in five young trans people try to take their own life? (Stonewall School Report 2017) I’ve heard a lot of cisnormative things in my time; or, worded more simply; things that reinforce the gender construct as the only way to be, and push anything that is ‘other’ out of existence, out of sight, out of mind. I used to work in a department store in my hometown in the tiny county of Rutland. I didn’t used to be so well-researched and educated on gender stereotypes and expectations, but I still always thought what I experienced was horrific – from the moment I witnessed it. A young child who was male, perhaps two or three, simply wanted a pink ball. We had both blue and pink balls. I watched as his mother took the pink ball from him, and gave him the blue ball. I watched the process of taking and putting back between the two for a good five minutes, until, exasperated, she yelled in his face ‘YOU ARE NOT A GIRL. PINK IS FOR GIRLS. YOU ARE A BOY.’ until tears filled his eyes and they left the shop. Although I’m talking about gendered items and more specifically, colour, here, it goes so much deeper than that. The gendering of certain things, like make up, or liking sport, clothing, or colour, is a way of categorising people and making them ‘fit’. Sure, it might seem like the easy thing to do; but we’re a sea of complexities and individuality; of course there are going to be blurred lines and people are going to like different things and act beyond the gender norms and expectations they were assigned at birth. Now, imagine if this boy did not feel like a boy (even though male-identifying people can like any colour they want) and wanted to try more ‘feminine’ things as he got older. Imagine if he felt like neither gender, or both, or maybe it was always changing. Now, imagine what this person would think about themselves because they were raised to believe there were only two genders. Imagine feeling so wrong, so invisible, like they had to repress and hide who they were for so long, especially to their mother. But what about science? Kids are taught biology in schools; but are they taught that sex and gender are not the same thing? How is it that so many of us are unaware or uneducated on the existence of non-binary people? Much of the argument against their existence is: ‘but it goes against science’. Something that Sam Dylan Finch, advocate and founder of Let’s Queer Things Up, pointed out over social media in 2018 was that social science is something which holds culture, language, human progression and society. He says ‘If you want to talk about the human experience, your understanding is woefully incomplete without social science.’ As a Anthropology graduate, he also goes on to talk about how gender has always been fluid, and that human beings are ‘biopsychosocial creatures’ – so simply speaking, we are not just the genitals we were born with; we are much more than that. Sam also talks about the fact that science should not be used as some sort of cop-out argument or blanket defence for denying the existence of non-binary/trans people. It's not "science" to deny someone the ability to authentically and joyfully exist in this world. It's cruelty. That's something you have to reconcile for yourself — whether or not this is an accurate reflection of the person you want to be in this world.— Sam Dylan Finch 🍓 (@samdylanfinch) December 24, 2018 Another common misconception is that non-binary individuals are a product of modernization; of a younger rebellious generation; of protest and non-conformity. But it is not just a teenage rejection of norms, and to generalize and trivialise in that way can be incredibly harmful. Through this piece, I’ll be looking at the change in the way gender was perceived and expressed over time and through different cultures. But for now, we’ll start with a scholarly look at a study. Sue Rankin and Genny Beemyn conducted this study of gender diverse youth in 2012, and in comparing experiences of trans and gender non-conforming individuals, they uncovered eight ‘milestones’ on their journey to realising and accepting their identity. These were: 1. Feeling gender different from a young age. 2. Seeking to present as a gender different from the one assigned to them at birth. 3. Repressing or hiding their identity in the face of hostility and/or isolation. 4. Initially misidentifying their identity 5. Learning about and meeting other trans people 6. Changing their outward appearance in order to look more like their self-image 7. Establishing new relationships with family, partners, friends and coworkers 8. Developing a sense of wholeness within a gender normative society.S Rankin, G Beemyn, Beyond A Binary: The Lives of Gender-Nonconforming Youth – About Campus, 2012 It also highlighted that some milestones were less or not at all, dependant on factors such as trans individuals having more information and resources than those in previous decades. Many of the respondents, especially those who grew up prior to the 1980s, initially did not understand their experiences or have the appropriate language to describe them, leading many to remain confused or to mischaracterise their identities.S Rankin, G Beemyn, Beyond A Binary: The Lives of Gender-Nonconforming Youth – About Campus, 2012 These milestones, however, are not always exhaustive and many people can realise that they are gender non-conforming much later in life. Number 8 isn’t always attainable for everybody, either, and for people like Kieran, acceptance and belonging is still an ongoing process for them. Kieran has had a lot of experience with dysphoria and not knowing who they are. But now, they are becoming increasingly comfortable with dressing in whatever makes them happy – but ‘coming out’ to anyone other than their close friends is still off the cards for now. Kieran, who is a university student, has a lot to say on the many identities under the non-binary umbrella, misconceptions on appearing stereotypically ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ and how to accept yourself as you are. Listen to what they have to say on the topic in this short podcast. Online vs ‘The Real World’ Some people have more first-hand experience with being out and being expressive. As Ramkin and Beemyn mentioned in their journal, people thirty or forty years ago did not have access or language to describe how they were feeling and identifying. This has now been helped, hugely, by social media groups and websites specifically aimed at creating safe spaces for trans and non-binary individuals to speak out in a non-judgemental atmosphere – which is something Sam Tollins speaks about in my interview with them. However, it must be said that the existence of non-binary people in the world is not limited to websites like Tumblr and places where thousands of members of the community can join together from anywhere in the world; or any other digital medium, for that matter. The safety and comfort sought within these platforms is not reflected enough in real-world events; in the average day-to-day life. Riley Tribble, graduate from DMU in Leicester, says that too much is still separated by gender and there are not enough queer spaces. So, what is progress is being made in giving space and recognition to non-binary individuals? There are now gender-neutral bathrooms in some universities around the country, and ‘Mx’ is now an accepted alternative title for non-binary folk to write on governmental forms. But what about in conversation? What about when people tell others about their identity, and receive puzzled questions and a need for an explanation? We need education. Watch Sam Tollins and Riley Tribble speak about their differing experiences with gender expression, and being non-binary online and in the outside world. Riley speaks about the fact that gender is ‘everywhere’; they are in a constant state of ‘where am I meant to go? How do I fit?’. Excluding these people from your vocabulary, your pronoun use, and official documents is making them feel invisible within society. Looking the part There are many terms which fall under the non-binary umbrella – for example, being genderfluid means that people don’t feel that they have a fixed gender, and their gender expression (how they dress and present themselves) may or may not alter and differ because of this. There are people who don’t identify as non-binary but take part in rejecting traditional gender roles altogether; this could be anything from dressing in an androgynous way, or, playing a sport as a cisgender female. However, it is so important to realise that androgyny and gender expression (through clothing, hobbies, etc) is not always or necessarily the same as being and identifying as non-binary. In other words, how you express your gender how you identify are not the same thing. In some cases, though, people may feel as though they could align their physical characteristics with how they identify in order to feel more like themselves. However, to suggest that to be a valid enby that you have to be androgynous or ‘look’ gender neutral is massively over-generalising and damaging because being non-binary does not have one definitive look. Therefore, assuming somebody has to look a certain way to fall out of cisgender norms is to say that somebody who has more ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ traits (eg. an AMAB who has masculine features, such as a beard) cannot be non-binary. The truth is, you can present in whatever way you feel most comfortable with, and this can often change. Some of the common misconceptions I’ve heard about being non-binary: It’s a trend. It’s a phase. They’re just confused. ‘So, you’re a tomboy?’ (AFAB) ‘So, you’re camp?’ (AMAB) Matthew Hallas, who has used ‘they’ pronouns since last December, has an issue with gendered clothing and expectations. They took part in Gymnastics as an AMAB child, and was the only non-female in the group. “It’s something people thought I just shouldn’t be doing,” they said. Although they also did rugby, football, and other ‘masculine’ sports, people seemed to focus on the ‘feminine’ one. They were stereotyped as a ‘girl’ or as ‘gay’. “Admittedly, they weren’t wrong on that second part, but often it was quite disheartening for me as a young boy for me to hear. “They didn’t know anything about me apart from the fact I did gymnastics.” Matthew also talks about expectations of appearance based on gender. “I find the concept [of gendered clothing] outright ridiculous. The concept that you can’t wear that item of clothing because it isn’t designed for your gender is downright idiotic. “It’s a capitalist idea, more than anything else. “I quite often wear skirts or dresses. I wear fishnet tights because, they are without a doubt one of the most comfortable things in existence for me. “It’s someone’s own choice what they do. I love wearing make up sometimes, but other times I hate it. “Gender itself is something that we can choose. It is a construct. There is a difference between gender and sex itself. And even then, you shouldn’t have to do something based on your sex – that’s not the way the world should work.” Societies, then and now: what’s changing, if anything? Society has changed. We’re changing. The way we think about difference has altered significantly, especially in the last decade or so. But there are still questions we need to ask ourselves, and then wonder: how far do we still have to go to allowing non-binary individuals space to be seen and a voice to be heard? Facebook has allowed the use of multiple genders, identities and pronouns on an individuals ‘about’ section (you can read more about this here) and an increasing number of states in the U.S, most recently New Hampshire, have passed a law creating a gender-neutral option for driver’s licenses. But whilst there are steps in the right direction, I have concluded that this is still not reflected in the hearts and minds of our general society. Listen to Ryan Wilson, Nathan Auger and Aaron Lowney on their individual thoughts, knowledge and experiences that come with identifying as non-binary in today’s society, and a comparison to other times and different cultures. So, what can we do? We must challenge our presumptions when we meet new people. The world is so tied down to ‘she’ and ‘he’ pronouns that our brains are naturally wired to assume somebody who has chest hair and broader shoulders is a man and somebody with breasts and make up is a woman. It is seen as the polite thing to do, but it is, in fact, the result of deep conditioning. It may seem harmless and something people can just brush off and ‘get over it’. However, upon deeper consideration, the repeated misgendering and assumption is paving the way for an unsafe world for trans and non-binary people to live in. Even without realising, even if it’s well-meaning, it is denying their existence. A lot of people unintentionally practice enbyphobia, exorsexism, or cissexism in their lives (don’t worry – I’m guilty of this too. It’s almost unavoidable). There are ways to tackle this in our everyday actions, how we speak to people when we first meet them. The change can begin with the language we use and the questions we ask. Here is a non-exhaustive list of things we could do to include enbys in the world. You don’t need to be non-binary to use and include your pronouns in official documents. Put your pronouns in your professional emails, under your name as your sign off. You could even put it in your social media profile. It’s not a strange thing to do if you identify as male or female – in fact, the act of doing this would normalise a wider use of pronouns and eradicate ignorance and assumptions. Use their chosen name, if they have one that they prefer to use, and don’t ask for their ‘real’ or assigned-at-birth name, or in the case of trans people, don’t use their ‘dead name’. How one person chooses to be named and identified is their choice and something that feels right and true to them. Be pro-active. Ask them how they feel about certain terms of endearment. Ask them non-invasive, respectful questions. Be willing to learn, but educate yourself. Do not expect non-binary folk to tell you everything about being non-binary; it is not their job to teach you. Bethan Lovatt, who is an Ecology and Wildlife Conservation student and Flow artist, has a lot to say about being an ally to non-binary people like themself. Having only begun identifying as non-binary in recent months, they talk about gender expression and the way normative way in which people think, and what society and individuals can do to combat these stereotypes. What’s next for the world beyond binary? This feature has addressed topics of misconception and denial of non-binary existence; it has shared stories of coming out and personal feelings of dysphoria; it has given hope to those still questioning their identity. It will hopefully help those who, prior to this, didn’t understand a world outside of the box of gender. It’s okay to be blissfully unaware. Everyone used to be, including me. What matters is the willingness to educate and the unconditional kindness for each and every identity on Earth. Everybody is unique. ‘You are you, and you are so worthy of love, no matter what your gender is’– Kieran I hope that this brought you some peace and reassurance. I hope that it inspired you to be a more insightful and compassionate human being with regards to identities that do not match your own. Maybe it caused you to question yourself. Although this project is just a small drop in the vast ocean of change, it is also a step forward. Through giving these individuals a voice, it signifies acknowledgement, awareness and a desire to change our minds and our hearts. I am so happy and grateful that you made it to the end of my project and I hope that this can be a conversation starter, an eyebrow raiser, or even just an initial spark in interest that leads to great things. Overall, of course, the whole reason I created this for everybody was to show you that

If you’ve ever listened to Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor’s biweekly podcast “Welcome to Night Vale,” (WTNV) you’re very aware of the impossibly real town of Night Vale, where Cecil Palmer (voiced by Cecil Baldwin) describes a “friendly desert community somewhere in the American Southwest, where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while its citizens pretend to sleep.” WTNV has been an ongoing production since 2012, and last year they released a novel called “Welcome to Night Vale.” Just recently, I got my hands on it, and it was the best book I have ever read, hands-down. It beats Harry Potter, and as a proud Gryffindor, I was shocked. The book starts with the point of view of young Jackie, a nineteen year old who runs the local pawn shop. In the pawn shop, you’ll find everything is priced at $11, and all the people who offer stuff to pawn die temporarily. It’s the way of things. Jackie has been living this life for longer than she remembers. She has been nineteen for longer than anyone can recall, even the City Council, a host of immortal beings who can take on a great many forms. One day, a man in a tan jacket that nobody can remember gives her a slip of paper she can’t remove from her left hand. In that moment, Jackie’s life of routine and repetition spirals into something she’d never imagine, and forces her to face conflicts she’s denied for centuries. Or was it months? Nobody can answer the question for her. Then, the second story is of single mother Diane Crayton. Her fifteen-year-old son, Josh Crayton, can shape shift and is explicitly stated as bisexual in the story. Diane was an interracial teen mom with parents who never married. When Josh starts to look for the father who ran away from the responsibility of family fourteen years ago, she has to come to terms with the fact that her child is growing up, and attempt to navigate the relationship between mother and son (be he a chubby boy with glasses, or a glowing orb, or a boy with a feminine body and a sultry voice). Another variable is thrown in when a coworker Diane had worked with has disappeared with no remains to follow. At the same time, Diane has to try to understand her feelings toward Troy Walsh, the father of her child and a source of pain and suffering that has haunted Diane since she watched him leave her at the young age of 18. This book is the most diverse story I have ever read, and has sweeps and turns that are so shockingly normal in this setting that it gives you whiplash. It rings true to the podcast with its warming strangeness and the hilariously wonderful oddities that make you wish you lived in this strange world of Night Vale. There are definitely parts that are slightly gory, and parts that aren’t for younger audiences (a tree-woman loses a branch and there’s a lot of blood, a woman gets trapped in a time loop and describes her predicament with a heartbreaking tone, and other various excerpts like that), but they are few and far between and also exaggerated to the point that they seem impossible. Nevertheless, this book is so diverse and can be related to the world we live in. For example, there are a multitude of characters who are LGBT+. There are more genderless or non-binary characters than there are cisgender characters, and Cecil is dating another man. Not only that, but they even have asexual and aromantic representation. There are also characters who are genderfluid, as well as unsure about their attraction, identity, or lack thereof. In the town of Night Vale, however, these things aren’t abnormal. There are no “coming out” scenes, because you don’t have to come out. For example, Diane and Josh pretended they were dating someone of the opposite gender to hide interest in finding Josh’s estranged father. Diane even says something so trivial in their world, but so prevalent in ours – “‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t assume gender.’” This book doesn’t just leave it at LGBT+ representation. There’s jabs at the sexism and racism that are common in society. There are pages where it’s describing what it’s like for Diane to grow up with darker skin than her peers, the fact that they labeled her as “different” and how she never saw anyone exactly like her on television that the City Council approved the town to watch. It’s powerful, and Fink and Cranor have absolutely no fear in describing the harsh words, the bullying that all kids are capable of, and the sexism that all girls face. These types of affirmations aren’t often seen in YA novels. On another note, one of the main characters is a single mom. Yeah, there’s a teenager, but it’s not her show to run. Diane Crayton faces so much, and the relationship between her and her son is something rocky. For once, we’re not seeing it from the kid’s point of view, but from the mother’s – we see the constant fear of her child getting hurt, of the pain that harsh words Josh says to her that cut deeper than he realizes, the sheer determination of saving her son and protecting him from the world. I fell in love with a character that was a fully-grown adult with a kid, and I wasn’t bored out of my mind reading about some sort of adult story. No, I read about the texts Diane almost sends to Josh and I feel her pain, I want to tell her he loves her, that their bond is unbreakable. The mother’s point of view is so rare in YA novels, I’ve never read a story from her point of view. The final theme of the story is about putting faith in family and being able to let go of routine if it’ll change your life for the better. It’s 400 pages of laughter, tension, and Cecil Palmer adding in his commentary here and there. This is a story where people are represented, where homophobia and transphobia makes you a bad person and not one of the common people, where dogs are not allowed in the Dog Park, flamingos have six legs and a great many eyes, and time doesn’t quite work how you’d expect. I loved it, and I recommend it to anyone who wants a story you’ve never read before, and will never read a story quite like it.

Basic Witches is at heart a self-help book, but less of the “woo-woo let me teach you my ways” and more of the “here’s some things that might help, also you are the best you you are,” which I have to say is way more refreshing to read. I don’t really have a lot to say about this book other than that I liked it. It’s one that I think you really have to read for yourself to see if it fits you. One thing I really liked was that it didn’t delve too much into “The Divine Feminine” like so many other witch books do; they used “she/her” as the main pronouns, but acknowledged genderqueer and non-binary people. They also mentioned in their section about sex that it’s perfectly OK to not have or want sex, which is a huge A+. I will recommend you at least check it out from your library, or look for it in a bookstore (if y’all still have those; we sadly do not), because the cover is damn pretty. Like damn, damn, dammity, damn, damn pretty. When it catches the light, the gold on it literally glows like fire, and if that’s not the coolest shit then get out of my face. TL;DR: Read if if you want some neat spells or just want to know that you’re not weird for being you, but definitely look at it because, again, damn pretty. I really loved the premise of this one. A murder is committed and the entire house is covered in a thick layer of vacuum dust, rendering DNA sampling nearly impossible. That’s the kind of story I’d come up with, so I was super on board before I even began. The writing is better than average for a male writer, with only two unnecessary, though thankfully brief and not dwelled upon, sex scenes. Our protagonist, Nils Shapiro, has a healthy friendship with his male friends and actually does very well at being not a dick to the women he meets. I may be selling this short like this; I really did enjoy his character, but you know me, master of the hard sell. The book was well plotted and paced. Except for one frankly bizarre subplot about Islamic militants among refugees was, honestly, really fucking odd and out of place and racist. It was legit only used as a plot point for the FBI to come down and stop the investigation for about five chapters before it was resolved anyway. One thing that did make my Southern Californian heart melt was the constant descriptions of what roads led where, and how he got where he was going. I’m not kidding about this. Every single time he got into the car, we got a street-by-street rundown of his route anywhere. This is literally how we talk in SoCal, and I can’t figure out if this is also how they do in Minnesota or if Goldman’s lived out here long enough we’ve corrupted him. Overall, I’d recommend it, bullshit subplot aside. It’s a pretty compelling read, and there are enough twists in it to keep you entertained, but none that really come out of nowhere once they’re explained. Nils is a pretty likable narrator among so very many awful ones. Also, no dead queers, so that’s A+, good job. TL;DR: Good, I’d definitely read the next if there’s a series, but watch out for random subplots. OK, big reviews are done, now what do I do? What else have I read? Whobert Whover, Owl Detective [buy here or here] Writing: Jason Gallaher Illustrations: Jess Pauwels It’s a really cute book, y’all. I love reading children’s books because there’s something refreshing in seeing storytelling done in only a handful of pages. That, and I want to write my own someday, too, so they’re great inspiration. Whobert Whover is swooping over the trees one day when suddenly he spies Perry the Possum lying still on the ground. Lying /very/ still. Whobert is determined to solve the mystery! The illustrations are adorable and the writing is so cute. When accused of soaking Perry in his sickening slime, Freddie the frog points out that he’s not slimy before even answering the charges against him. Whobert is so energetic in his quest to solve the crime that it doesn’t occur to him to let people answer his own questions. I super recommend checking it out if you like quick examples of children’s books or really like cute illustration.

Cara Delevingne, known for her modeling and acting career, also has a few lesser-known facts that make her stand out even more. From her battle with body image and depression as well as her explorations into the world of sex toys and her openness about her pansexuality, here are 10 interesting facts about the multitalented Delevingne. Problems with depression and Body Image Despite her stunning beauty, Cara Delevingne struggled with anxiety and depression over her body in her youth. Her body was constantly ridiculed due to her small chest. She also began menstruating later than her peers, being called “frigid” and “flat”. At the age of 15, depression brought her down and she was forced to quit school. When she spoke to BBC she talked about the time when she admitted, “I hated myself for being depressed, I hated feeling depressed, I hated feelings.” But, Delevingne came from a wealthy family, and everyone believed that she would be happy by default, but they were unable to comprehend her mental state. Homophobic in her Youth Cara Delevingne had a difficult time understanding her sexuality as a child in an environment where it was not discussed. For a time she believed that same-sex marriages to be demeaning and considered herself a homophobe. When she spoke to The Guardian, Delevingne said, “I know I’m the luckiest girl in the world, I understand all this and I wish I could appreciate it. It’s just that there’s something dark inside me that I can’t shake.” Delevingne considers herself pansexual and falls in love with any person, regardless of gender and gender identity. She said that she may also be attracted to transgender or non-binary people. When she spoke to Variety, Delevingne said, “However an individual identifies, whether it’s a ‘they’, a ‘he’ or a ‘she’, I fall in love with the person – and that’s what it’s about. I’m attracted to the person as such.” Marriage and Relationships In 2019, Delevingne got married in Las Vegas to actress Ashley Benson However, they soon broke up. She has also been romantically connected to the actress Michelle Rodriguez and singer Miley Cyrus. Delevingne’s public display of her sexuality has been met with both praise and criticism. Threats emanating from the Film Industry Delevingne was a target of producers Harvey Weinstein, who threatened her career if she did not hide her orientation and find an appropriate male companion for a “cover”. But Delevingne didn’t listen, and she continued to speak out about her sexuality and relationships. Business with a Sex Toy Company Delevingne has a business venture with a toy company for sex and is the one who personally tests the products. She’s candid and open about her work in the industry and believes it is an opportunity to promote sexual wellness and liberation. Secret Vaginal Tunnel Delevingne has a hidden vaginal tunnel inside her home, which was a gift from a friend. The tunnel was designed by an artist, and serves as an emblem for female power and empowerment. Delevingne recently stepped into the realm of NFTs by making a video of herself dancing in the hidden vaginal tunnel of her villa and sold it as a unique digital collectible. This showcases her bold and unflinching attitude, as well as her willingness to experiment with new ideas and push boundaries. Despite criticisms about her acting skills, Delevingne continues to pursue her love of acting and has appeared in a variety of films and TV shows such as “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets,” “Suicide Squad” and “Carnival Row”, it’s clear that Delevingne is not limited by other people’s opinion on her abilities and talents and continues to push herself. Inspiration and Role Model Delevingne’s story has been an inspiration for many. She has been open about her struggles and progress towards self-acceptance. She is an example of how to be self-assured regardless of what others might think or think. She has been vocal about her mental health, body positivity and inclusivity and has used her platform to speak up on behalf of marginalized communities. Her actions show that it’s okay not to have everything figured out and it’s okay to be unique and different. Cara Delevingne began her career as model at the age of 10, when she joined Storm Model Management. She soon became famous and became an one of the top sought-after models in the fashion industry as she walked for the most prestigious designers such as Burberry, Chanel, and Fendi. She’s a model of how you can go from being a model into a brand, and also how to establish an impact in the fashion industry. Delevingne is also known for her charitable efforts, she is a world-wide ambassador for the Women’s Cancer Research Fund and actively supports mental health charities and organizations such as The Samaritans and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. She has also given to groups fighting racism and discrimination. Delevingne has also been a professional musician and she has released numerous songs and music videos and has collaborated with different artist including Pharrell Williams. Social Media Influence Delevingne has a strong presence on social media. She’s well-known for her candid post and relatable material which has helped her to grow a huge fan base and a loyal following of supporters. Model who became actress Delevingne has successfully transitioned from being a model into an actress, and has been praised for her performances in films like “The Face of an Angel” and “Tulip Fever”.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (The News Service of Florida) — Continuing to target treatment for transgender people, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration is requiring state universities to provide information from the past five years about services they have provided to people with gender dysphoria, according to documents released Wednesday. Chris Spencer, director of the governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, sent a memo last week requiring that universities answer a lengthy list of questions about issues including numbers of people who sought “sex-reassignment treatment,” numbers of people prescribed such things as hormones and puberty blockers and numbers of people who underwent surgical treatments such as mastectomies. It also seeks breakdowns of the information by age. Answers are due by Feb. 10. The memo and an accompanying document did not detail what the DeSantis administration will do with the information dating back to Jan. 1, 2018. But the administration has taken a series of steps during the past year to curb treatment for transgender people, including prohibiting Medicaid coverage for such treatments as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and gender-reassignment surgery. DeSantis, who is widely viewed as a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate, also has taken aim at what he has called “trendy ideology” in colleges and universities. As an example, Spencer on Dec. 28 issued a memo that required colleges and universities to provide “a comprehensive list of all staff, programs and campus activities related to diversity, equity and inclusion and critical race theory.” The memo last week said the governor’s office “has learned that several state universities provide services to persons suffering from gender dysphoria.” The federal government defines gender dysphoria as clinically “significant distress that a person may feel when sex or gender assigned at birth is not the same as their identity.” The accompanying document included the list of information sought and was broadly written. It did not appear to be limited to information about services provided to students and university employees. It was not clear whether that could implicate services provided to the general public by university faculty members. The University of Florida’s UF Health, for instance, says on its website that “UF Health is committed to improving the health and well-being of transgender and non-binary individuals in the communities we serve.” “At UF Health, we aim to provide compassionate, evidence-driven care for our patients of the transgender and gender non-binary communities,” the website says. “Our multidisciplinary approach allows our patients to work with a physician to develop a care plan that meets their specific needs. We are committed to providing comprehensive primary care, hormone management, behavioral health, surgical services and more.” Similarly, the University of South Florida’s USF Health says on its website, “We provide specialized services for individuals who are going through the phases of gender affirmation. As an academic medical center, we have a multispecialty approach to providing comprehensive care to the transgender community.” The document that accompanied Spencer’s memo gave an instruction that universities “provide all information or data for all individuals, including those who were under 18 at the time of any encounter or treatment, as the case may be.” The memo also made clear that the universities should not provide information that would identify patients. “Please ensure all responses do not contain personally identifiable information or protected health information and are provided in an aggregated and de-identified format,” the memo said.

Thoth 1.9 is a Macintosh usenet newsreader. Four versions are available. One supports Intel Macs running OS X 10.5, 10.6, and 10.7. A second is for PowerPC Macs running OS X 10.5. Separate versions for Intel and PowerPC Macs running OS X 10.4 are also available. Thoth offers powerful and flexible filtering of usenet posts, including live filtering. Reference-based article threading is available, along with with a handy view of the thread tree in the window of the article you're reading. Multiple news servers can be used at the same time, with multiple connections per news server. Many preferences settings can be specified on a per newsgroup or per newsgroup hierarchy basis, making it easy to have the optimal settings for binary and non-binary newsgroups, newsgroups in different languages, etc. Its built-in decoder for file attachments handles the usual encoding methods including yEnc. Images from binary posts can be viewed inline, in a dedicated image window, or in an image catalog window. Binary posting is supported, as are multiple personalities allowing different email addresses, signatures, etc. to be used in different newsgroups or situations. There is full support for SSL connections to news and SMTP servers, as well as NZB files and header compression. What's new in this version: Version 220.127.116.11 includes some stability improvements and useful additions to the User Guide document.

Pauwke Berkers is the chair of the RASL Research Group, and Assistant Professor of Sociology of Art and Culture in the Department of Arts and Culture Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam. His recent research has led to a publication, made with Julian Schaap, titled Gender Inequality in Metal Music Production. He talks to Content Editor, Amy Pickles about his motivations to develop his research and further the discussion around gender inequality in the music industry. Pauwke Berkers: An article that has inspired me in the direction I want to develop our research is Reducing Gender Biases In Modern Workplaces: A Small Wins Approach to Organizational Change, written by Professor of Sociology and Organizational Behavior at Stanford University, Shelley J. Correll. The arguments Correll makes, that I also want to voice, is that academics often describe problems but know very little about how to solve them. She defines this lack as being caused by academics fear towards researching solutions because they know they can never solve it completely. When I started writing the proposal to develop our research, I realised I’m part of the problem. I’ve also been describing these things again and again, but I know so little about it. So I thought ok, I need to change this, and Correll too states that she is trying to get over this fear and work to make solutions. When examining music we have extensive research about about gender inequality as an outcome of sexism, stereotyping, tokenism, bias – but there is much less research on how to address inequality. Correll gives ways to change an institution to be more inclusive. Some focus on the individual – courses, implicit bias testing – but the issue here is that addressing issues on an individual level leaves the structure intact, and the music industry is very informally organised. Correll’s individual changes will work better within the formal setting of a university, but the music industry really runs through networks, not formal procedure. If that network is already very male dominated its difficult for women to enter. It’s also more difficult to evaluate quality when criteria are not clear. This is often the case in the art world because, what is a good artist? It’s very difficult to say. There is a lot of evidence as to why we perpetuate stereotypes, in the movie industry, where there is a huge risk in whether a movie will be successful. The industry tries to reduce the risk by relying on conventions. An action movie with a female star, is not very conventional, so therefore more of a risk. Amy Pickles: At what point are you able to act on the changes that Correll suggests? PB: The individual strategies that Correll points to, and I described, would need to be used in combination with strategies that tackle the music industry as a whole. We need to make sure we are not trying to fix the individual, or put the responsibility of gender equality success upon women. You need to address everyone involved. For example, a highly skilled, confident women in the music industry may be perceived by men to be aggressive, and they dismiss opportunities to work with them on this sexist basis. AP: What do we need to use in combination with individual changes? PB: I can give you an example. There is an organisation based in the UK called Keychange, an international initiative which transforms the future of music whilst encouraging festivals and music organisations to achieve a 50:50 gender balance by 2022. Although, you can critique this quota as something an organisation will simply carry out in order to tick a box, I think that in different stages, or in different combinations, these things can work. Keychange is working to raise the question of gender equality again, because in the music industry this question was relegated as postmodern nonsense, at least by some people. This quota breaks open the debate. It’s a very crude measure but it keeps you thinking, and now a lot of music festivals have signed the pledge, so things are changing. AP: And people keep talking about it. This feeds into a question I have about a key element of your book, quantitative data. As well as explaining the problem, how can numbers be used to create change? PB: To go back to our motivations in beginning our project, we initially noticed that the idea of metal music studies is becoming more popular, more people are researching metal. Globalisation of metal is one of the main topics people have been writing about but we also found a lot of small scale studies, such as studies on the scene in Toronto or analysis of some festivals. These show gender inequality in the outcome – we did not find very many women in the metal scene, definitely not participating outside the role of vocalist – and we learnt about several mechanisms leading to gender inequality, but generally this inequality is assumed and not proven. We thought, let’s make a small book where we actually get the numbers. How bad is it? AP: So from beginning this unique project, are you now trying to look at the cause? PB: We know a lot about how women are underrepresented in media as musicians, on the radio, in the canon, everywhere. We know a lot about what mechanisms play a role, a major example being tokenism – if you’re part of a minority you become more visible, so you’re often at times evaluated on your appearance and not so much on your abilities. You have this male gaze focused on you, you are not taken seriously. We know what plays a role. We know there are more individual factors – socialisation, identity work, we know differences in interaction play a role, how people deal with gender. The philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler talks about gender performance. In sociology there is a similar theory called Doing Gender by sociologists Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman, it’s quite similar but with the small difference that the sociology approach assumes that there is a normative institutional gender structure to which people respond. The idea that you can do gender in your particular way, but when you do you always keep in mind what the overall societal norms are, and how people will respond. They talk about it in terms of accountability. West and Zimmerman focus more on structure, whereas Butler focuses on agency, and creates more room for non-binary identities. AP: Is that something that you want to incorporate into your research? PB: Yes. Definitely. We talk a little bit in the book about how dominant the male / female binary is. We discuss that we want to look at men, women and beyond, we use this term to account for all other identities. In our research area, this has not been discussed so much, particularly not aspects of intersectionality, which is something else we want to incorporate. Intersectionality is an analytic framework which attempts to identify how interlocking systems of power impact those who are most marginalized in society. Intersectionality considers that the various forms of what it sees as social stratification, such as class, race, sexual orientation, age, disability and gender, do not exist separately from each other but are complexly interwoven. We talk about Violence, an American band that, for recordings, is composed singularly of Olin Caprison. Their first official release was REPTILE/Hand Me Downs from Heaven, a menacing combination of romanticism, juke, death metal, and gothic rock, and GLOSS a transgender punk band from Olympia, their name standing for Girls Living Outside Societies Shit, before returning to a broader sociological perspective. PB: Of course I’m a sociologist so I’m generally an overview kind of guy. That’s typical, and different from other types of critical studies. In sociology it’s much more about looking at music to say something about dynamics in society and the different types of mechanisms at play. We are discussing working with Atria, the Institute on Gender Equality and Women’s History, in the Netherlands. They are working on a project called Work in the Future. So they are working with an organisation called Emancipator, they are moving forward on gender equality justice and objectives. Unequal gender relations are a main cause for many problems in the world. Women have gained in their struggle for empowerment, equality and justice. It’s time for men to act and change in order to become part of the solution. While Emancipator’s focus is in education and the job market, their work is useful to us because, from a sociological perspective, the mechanisms at play here repeat in music. What makes the music industry interesting is that women are very visible. They are role models, in some cases idolized, while under extreme pressure to conform to gender standards by the media and society. You are bombarded by comment and criticism as a female role model, the mechanisms that Work in the Future tackle are much more extreme In music than other forms of work not connected to the entertainment industry. It’s important to work with organisations like Atria because research should have an impact on society. Of course this pushed at the university, but music is fun and involved in the lives of many different types of people. It’s important to me, as an academic, to present what I’ve done outside of the campus, the university setting. Another way to get out of the University has been to work with buma.stemra, the organisation that gives out copyrights in the arts, mostly in music but also film. As an artist you can register your work and then when it gets played on the radio, you earn some money from your copyright. We worked with them before to publish a small report. Through them we interviewed 300 people, almost 75% of women described the music industry as a mans world, which is even higher than I thought it would be. buma.stemra cater for the whole music business. So they want female musicians, female writers, female composers to be represented. That brings in the economic aspect to research in gender equality. Something funny that we found connected to the economy now is that because djing has become so popular in the last decade, there are less guitars being sold. Now guitar makers are focusing on women to buy their products, so suddenly women have to save rock n roll, which I have to say is pretty ironic. AP: Why do you think society listens to statistics? I’m now editing a special issue for the Dutch Journal of Gender Studies, and I did an interview with three women working in the music sector, and they also say sometimes stats are very important because men don’t recognise the female experience as being genuine, but when you can come back to them with stats and numbers then this is something they can’t refute. Different audience’s require a different type of convincing method. But you have to have figures and the story. If it’s a personal story people can dismiss it as being allegorical evidence, but if you have some stats which look a bit more scientific, at least in the past people would believe it. Now I’m not so sure, science has also lost some credibility! Sometimes it helps when a man tells people this, it’s good that they talk about these issues otherwise the pressure sits on the shoulders of the minority groups. AP: This makes me think about the essay On Emotional Labour, Everyone Has To Learn Everything written by Nana Adusei-Poku for the longterm project WdKA Makes a Difference. She writes; “leaving emotional labour to educators of colour is part of the problem of diversity politics, it is carried by systemic racism.” She describes being caught in a “violent cycle of resignation, frustration and precarity.” I think we underestimate how exhausting it is to constantly have to explain your position and be the one to speak out about discrimination. I appreciate that you use your position to do this. Were you researching gender in other areas before this? PB: Yes. My master thesis was about punk and feminism in the 1980’s in the Netherlands. I interviewed 19 women who were involved in punk bands at this time. Some were all women bands, some were mostly male with female leads. I went all over the country to interview them. AP: Have you always been a feminist? PB: Good question! I was always really into Riot Girl stuff, you know like Bikini Kill and everything. I like this combination of aggression and gender questions. People have asked me this question before and I don’t have a specific answer, but unequal representation has always figured in my research. Another article of mine, Rock and roll or rock and fall, compared media coverage of Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty. They both have this extreme rock n roll lifestyle, yet, newspapers evaluate them totally differently. Pete Doherty is seen as a great guy, a real man who takes risks, while Amy Winehouse is presented as insane, hysterical, wasting her voice and her career. We drew on this idea from Raymond Connell about hegemonic masculinity and emphasised femininity. Particularly this idea that journalists are complicit in holding Pete Doherty up as a model rock star, and Amy Winehouse is often talked about in term of concern, so it’s a very patriarchal and paternalistic perspective of a female star. Our findings show how music journalists use relational complicit practices –admiration/justification/negation of male and victimization of female enactment of hegemonic masculinity – to maintain masculine monopoly over the archetypical rock and roll lifestyle. But now I realise this becomes repetitive. We know what’s happening – it’s always the same thing. So I’m trying to make that shift to find solutions. I’m working to extend popular music studies in this department, it’s my goal to extend the discourse in popular music. I am keen to develop work through RASL with Codarts, and trying to get more people interested. I look to the Centre for Contemporary Culture Studies, in Birmingham UK, for inspiration in how to develop strong studies in popular music at university level. People like cultural theorist and feminist Angela McRobbie, and sociologist, cultural theorist and activist Stuart Hall, one of the founding members of the centre in Birmingham, and the concept of British Cultural Studies. Subculture: The Meaning of Style by Dick Hebdige, also informs how and why I want to incorporate unusual cultural references into the curriculum.

“You guys know about vampires? … You know, vampires have no reflections in a mirror? There’s this idea that monsters don’t have reflections in a mirror. And what I’ve always thought isn’t that monsters don’t have reflections in a mirror. It’s that if you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves. And growing up, I felt like a monster in some ways. I didn’t see myself reflected at all. I was like, “Yo, is something wrong with me? That the whole society seems to think that people like me don’t exist?” And part of what inspired me, was this deep desire that before I died, I would make a couple of mirrors. That I would make some mirrors so that kids like me might see themselves reflected back and might not feel so monstrous for it.” As an educator within trans communities I am tasked with holding story. I hold my own stories and do what I can to use the platforms I have access, share and shine light on the stories of others with experiences different than my own. For example, the quote from the beginning of this piece, while written by a brown poet talking about lack of representation, obviously is different from my experience as a white person, but I chose this quote because I feel that it helps communicate an idea that impacts trans people across lines of racial experience. I am working to find ways to bring a complex diversity of trans stories to the awareness of those who are taking my Resilience Building for Trans Folks & Our Allies online course, which is starting on February 2nd. I invite you to read more about my process of putting this all together and to sign up here. I know the ways that I live in a middle place. My gender, ability, class experience, my age and my sexuality all find me in places that are more complicated than a checkbox on a list. They are long stories, with rich juicy details, hard lessons and much gratitude woven throughout. The Mirrors are Beginning to Appear.. Some of the times in my life that I have looked for the mirrors I needed, finding them was tricky. Underground productions, personal blogs and faded old xeroxed zines were gold. I have noticed in the last little while that I don’t have to look as far to see something that comes closer to my experience. Trans people are getting all kinds of attention in the media, our stories are starting to surface, and we are even starting to see stories that involve trans people having character details and stories that extend beyond their transness. Critical dialogue about the role + representation of trans people in media production is the hot topic of the minute. I DJ small parties in the rural community I live in. It’s something I got into doing a couple of years ago and has become a piece of what I contribute to creating the type of community I want to live in. It gives me a special glow to throw artists that are trans, genderqueer and agender into the mix when I am playing parties. Songs that go beyond hinting at queerness, and lay it out on the table. I consider DJing to be a special responsibility that I try to take pretty seriously. I like to think about how the mix of artists I am playing serves to define the moment, the culture, the tone- as well as keep the vibes on point. I am too aware of the ways that the defaults of our toxic culture can unintentionally replicate themselves in our subcultures, scenes, and party spaces. We can participate our own erasure in space and history. This is something that I continue to work on, giving myself the gentleness to have room to learn and grow. You can listen to my sets here. I’ve been starting to see more trans characters coming up in TV and movies, and of course I watched Transparent. I highly recommend watching the docu-segments that Rhys Ernst produced as a part of the project if you haven’t already. One of the things that I am most impressed by with that show, is the amount of trans folks who are getting a big step up in their careers with the opportunities the show has been offering. Trans people are involved at almost every level of production, on and off screen and the work of trans people in film is getting a big boost. I look forward to seeing what sort of stories they are able to get into in season 3- building on a really refreshing shift wherein season 2 offered much more story that while not separate from Maura’s transness, moved beyond her transition. Trans actors are starting to get more gigs, and we are able to see our stories being told in rich and juicy ways. The ways that this has changed within my lifetime is almost immeasurable. Not Quite Right: better than nothing, but not really enough When I was 20 I came across Loren Cameron’s Body Alchemy while perusing the shelves at Venus Envy in Halifax. The internet was not yet a really integrated part of my life yet. I saw someone who was not like me, but was in other ways more like me than I had ever seen before that. I remembered watching Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Bernadette wasn’t really a mirror either, but drag performance was definitely a part of how I related to my gender. Was there a word for someone who had been born in one sex, had a curiosity about living in the other, to then dress back around into a higher femme than the initial starting point? I goldiloxed my way through gender conferences and doctors appointments and social support groups. I tried on many identities along the way. Dyke, Not-woman, genderqueer, butch, transman, fag, genderqueer, trans, non-binary, femme. Sometimes dropping the out-of-fit classifiers and sometimes compounding them into new hybrid combinations of possibility. Sometimes the words and classifiers I’ve used have involved compromise, an erasure of a part of myself, in exchange for clarity from another angle. I learned recently that my mom, who does support with parents of trans kids through PFLAG, has used an image from a poem that I came out with about 10 years ago. It uses the imagery of a train, pulling into a station and says: So now I have finally found the brakes Pulled into a stop that feels right where I can settle in, set up, kick back and relax and I thought I’d tell you cause nobody told me And I thought you might want to know where to find me “I Didn’t Tell You” a poem from my self published chapbook Sharing Stories from 2005 I didn’t know at the time of writing this or performing it at the queer showcase with my mom in the crowd that I wasn’t really going to sit back and find comfort in a singular fixed identity. I knew queerness and gender through an understanding that places our narratives on linear trajectories. Many of the stops that my train has pulled into since are named with words that I couldn’t have even known at the time. When I have been outlining this part of my history for involvement in the BC birth Certificate Challenge, I have been asked about what initiated shifts in my identity. My answer pretty much always comes back to the words. How could I have know that I was a non-binary femme genderqueer before I knew those words? How could I see myself reflected in stories of transition that were hinged on the old standby plot devices and tag-lines? Born in the wrong body. I always knew. I was always like this. I know what I am, I just need my body to match. I hate my body. These are trans stories. They are real stories. And they are not the only stories. Telling Our Own Stories – making room for complexities Many of us who complicate these stories are starting to learn the words to describe our experience. We are utilizing social media to continue an old tradition within our path, the practice of telling our own stories. We are poking holes in the boxes, or just smashing them altogether. Our existence and our increasingly visible presence in the world is changing the game. Some describe it as a tipping point; but I see it as a time when we are beginning to have a larger platform than ever before to play our part in the necessary cultural shift that our world is experiencing. Those I consider elders in struggle within the trans community, including those who are no longer on this plane have busted ass through a world that was horrid to them. I hold gratitude to them when I feel free to wear a mix of clothes, fashioning my gender presentation with the flexibility and fluidity it needs to be it’s whole self. I hold in my blood and bones the recent experiences of my ancestors in path being jailed, beaten, killed for living their truth. I hold an awareness that my safety and freedom exists in a way that it doesn’t for folks with different intersections of oppression. Years of trans representation limited to shock value and being the butt of the joke can have some pretty serious impacts on the ways we have been able to be ourselves. Those who are coming of age now are starting to be able to see themselves, and learn the words to describe themselves, tell their own stories at ages that astound. Parents are given the opportunity of getting on board the train with their gender explorative kids, without necessarily knowing what stops it may pull into or where it could maybe settle. More parents are starting to do that, supporting their kids, giving the the love and space and encouragement to grow into their beautifully complicated genders. I hold so much gratitude to parents like mine who have supported us and continue to support others to do the same. We know the cost of parents’ not supporting their trans kids. The homelessness stats affecting our youth are out of control. Isolation, rejection and abuse are all pieces that play into our high suicide stats too. When parents choose to get on board in practising unconditional love for their kids and learning along the way these numbers go down It’s statistically proven. I want to personally thank all of you who have taken to learning the words. The words to my story, and the words to yours. I want to thank you for engaging in the heart of this human experience thing, trying to find the right tones and nuances to communicate our beautiful intricacies. I’m really excited to be diving more into this and 7 more rich topics of learning and connecting. Resilience Building for Trans Folks and Our Allies is an opportunity to explore our stories, complicate our narratives, deepen our understandings and celebrate our complexities. You can read more about the course here and you can sign up here.

[Image Description: Animated gif of the Greek God Hades, as depicted in Disney’s Hercules turning from blue flame to red then back to blue, putting his fingers to his temples and saying, “Memo to me: Maim you after my meeting.” End description.] For one, yes, many of these triggers are common—that is why the list is called “Common Trigger Warnings”. I commend you on taking a title and turning it into an explanatory statement. Trauma triggers are very real. Being triggered isn’t a sign someone isn’t “grow[ing] up”. You need to do a little research before you declare real problems a matter of of people who need to grow up. Since you obviously didn’t come hear for information as much as you did to be a shit, I won’t be helping you with that. Though you’re welcome to use the Anon option again if you actually want information on triggers. In regard to your “nanny state” comment, no one on this blog has advocated that the government make trigger warnings legally mandatory (whether or not anyone on this believes they should be, no one has advocated). But good going revealing yourself to be the kind of douche bag who uses the word “nanny state”. Thank you for telling us. As soon as I can figure out what’s keeping me from editing the pages and how to fix it, I’ll be sure to correct that. I don’t see how there would be…? Okay, so this clearly needs to be discussed before it is removed from the list. I would like to start out saying I’m really having issues dealing with how this is phrased because there are FAAB trans women & MAAB trans men & not all non-binary people who are FAAB are masculine & not all MAAB non-binary people are feminine. Some of that is coming from this ask specifically & some of it is coming from the way that I have seen people talk about this subject when they bring birth assignment into the equation, but I needed point it out. I do think that you have a point, Anon, but I think you’re a little off in how you present it. Non-cis people (who may or may not ID as trans* because not everyone does) are punished for their femininity and/or masculinity and for their non-cisness, but it has a lot more to do with an intersectionality of sexism and cissexism with gender role norms than a specific axis of masculine privilege. Feel free to elaborate on your point if you disagree. I may elaborate on what I mean here in the near future.

I live and write BDSM. Age 18+. Scarleteen is great for under 18. Wonderful picture, but I left for church pondering inspiration. That's when this started- I won't be sure of any labels until I'm done :D “Revelation isn't sealed.” Birth: “It's a girl!” “Joseph Christopher won't work.” 1st grade: “Joelle is too pretty a name to shorten.” Pregnancy: “I know I'm having a boy.” July 4, age 15: “Mom, I'm questioning my gender.” My age 40: “I'm non-binary, agender.” What does it mean for me in partnered sexuality when most sexual orientations are focused on gender I don't feel? I'm queer, that word that my tongue stumbled over when called on to identify myself. Can I reclaim this wandering into hotness? Would it be as easy as jumping into talk about genitals? My mind cries for newness, something other than penis-in-vagina intercourse. How was I, the Autistic introvert, talked into speed dating? At least, polyamorous people are welcome at this one. “Hello, I'm Joey.” The person stared at me open-mouthed, not introducing themselves. “I'm not usually good at mixers, but I figured two minutes would help me control talking about my special interests. I'm Autistic.” The bell rang; the person on the other side of the table changed. “Hi. I'm Joey.” “Joey?” the person echoed. “Are you a lesbian?” Their nose wrinkled. “Are you a bigot?” I replied. “Of course not,” they protested. “Your body language seems to disagree.” Thankfully, the bell rang and people changed seats again. “Hi, I'm Joey. My pronouns are he, she, or they.” “Hi, Joey. I'm Pair. My pronouns are they, them. Might I ask, you appear flustered. Are you neurodivergent somehow?” My shoulders relaxed. “Yes, I'm Autistic.” Pair nodded. “Dyspraxia and Sensory Integration. Don't like that last word.” “Would you like to skip out to a setting more comfortable for you?” “Yes, please. I'd like that very much.” Pair got up from the table and came around to me; the organizer rushed over, her cheeks flushed redder than her poorly-applied blush. “Joey and I are done here. No need to issue refunds.” “But-but!” the organizer lady puffed. “We're removing an equal number of folx from the gathering.” Pair walked to the place we piled our belongings; I followed just a step behind. They grabbed a denim bag covered in patches like They/Them and No TERFS/SWERFS and Queer. “Where would be somewhere you'd feel comfortable?” “The library, but would you mind switching to writing so I can wear my headphones? They have those noisy lights that send me into sensory overload.” “Me too.” They waited as I grabbed my bag. “You have your headphones with you?” “Definitely. One partner said not to wear them and the other did.” I shrugged. “Not that I need to wear them with either of my partners.” With borrowed netbooks in front of us, we sat side by side in one of the new booths at the library. Pair typed, “This is much better. Mind I ask what's in your headphones? I'm listening to Holly Near.” I typed, “I have the mixture of songs my daughter and I have placed on this MP3 player. Right now, it's Korn, Thoughtless.” I pursed my lips. “I just wrote about 'conversation as sex' for Masturbation Monday.” “And that causes your current expression?” Using my thumb and forefinger like a 'modified C hand' in ASL, I pulled the corners of my mouth up and down as my thoughts tried to catch up to their question. “I wanted something new, something different.” “From what you've done? Or from what others are used to experiencing?” I released my lips to just trace them with my index fingers, as if planning to sign “Talk-with.” Without another comment from me, they typed, “This is our first time together; does that make it different from that other time?” A small smile found its way onto my lips, changing their feel under my fingertips. I sipped from the new bottle that securely held my metal straw in place for me. Yum! Guava, mango, passion fruit juice! I placed my fingers back on the home row and typed. “I think my mind is clasping at minutiae. What I find sexy isn't necessarily what others do.” “May I please touch your hand?” I nodded before typing, “Yes.” Their fingers moved under my palm as their thumb slid up and down the top of my hand. As they continued to touch my right hand, I slowly typed with my left hand, “Good.” My toes curled in my shoes. When they released my hand, I typed, “Very good.” I sipped my juice and pondered our next date. When I sat down to write this, I realized that probably one of the first steps I made in the journey to drop my extremely well built “masks” to make me seem neurotypical was starting the story “Typing My Love.” Really fleshing out Happy, my first self-consciously Autism Spectrum character, I had to question ways in which I was like and not like stereotypes and actual parts of the diagnosis of the Autism Spectrum; after all, I'm not a “perfect stereotype” and I didn't want to make Happy one either. This is harder to write than I expected when I put this as a possible topic to prepare for July; maybe that's a hint about how I'm struggling to go about actually dropping the NT “mask.” Here I am, 40 years old, and I don't have a formal Autism Spectrum diagnosis; I have many other diagnoses that AFAB (assigned female at birth) people often get instead of Autism Spectrum; I've just started to read about Sensory Processing Disorder and finding myself in these books. Between my therapist and I, we're looking for what will help me (she's no more an Autism Spectrum expert than I am, which is most likely why this is working :D ). I think right now, I'm largely going through a lot of “Who am I underneath the masks?” I also think that the nervous breakdown that I started recovering from back in February forced down quite a few masks. One thing I've learned is not to hide my tools. I love the word “tool” when used it this way; it's what my therapist repeatedly has used talking about the wonderful techniques and objects she's taught me or I've found and she's helped me to use even better. It's been a process though, a slow journey of finding what helps and affording to buy it. I already had a bunch of toys, but starting to look for specific things like fidget spinners. I have a multitude of things and now an indoor swing has slowed the progress way down. It's going to take saving up, deep cleaning a room, and probably other things that will mean I continue to sit in the patio swing at Meijer until summer's over. One piece that has particularly caused me consternation is my brain patterns. Let me explain- reading descriptions of people stimming (self-stimulating) brought me the realization that the repetitive movements that are stimming, that are one of the hallmarks of “that person looks Autistic,” I put those in my brain patterns. If my stimming was in my brain patterns, my mother couldn't see to disapprove of how different I am/was. I'm still debating if my way of thinking so many things so continuously is actually a problem; I never have a “calm” mind, like so many yoga things teach, and I go to sleep, even with my “racing thoughts”- I used to think I just always had bipolar racing thoughts, but when I examined my childhood, I had to admit that my thoughts picked up speed before adult bipolar would have been diagnosed. Happy that I mentioned in the first paragraph? Happy is bigender and has noun-self pronouns, joy/joys/joyself. I have worked on bring some random sounds and “words used out of regular context” into joys speech, especially when joy is “making mouth sounds,” rather than using written communication; being able to communicate more efficiently and comfortably in writing is one of the things Happy and I share. I recent story I wrote for the #MasturbationMonday blog hop had me making various vocalizations I do when I'm making mouth noises- like “di di di di di.” Yes, I counted how many “di”s I tend to make when I say that LOL. I just don't know. In a few days from this writing, I will see my med manager. She couldn't see through my masks at all; she thought I appeared calm and collected. I wonder if she didn't realize that I knew a locked psych ward was nearby; my therapist certainly made that connection to my behavior with the med manager. As a final thought, returning to my age, I wonder- what of the neurodivergent person is left under so many years of masks to try to make me seem normal? When I was planning for stuff before Nanowrimo, I noticed that November 1st falls on a Wednesday this year. Ha! So I went into "But I won't have a snippet to share without breaking Nanowrimo rules!" And then I remembered that Happy still hadn't shared pronouns. And this happened (Happy's comments are in italics)... Okay, Happy. Thanks for waiting until I got somewhere I could put my AlphaSmart down. You're white then? Blond and blue eyed? Full of privilege until someone sees my non-normative looks. Well? Well what? You know exactly what this is about! You told me you're non-binary but you're not giving me your pronouns. Or if you could be my Autistic character. You had to be a smartass. Care to answer either question? Not so fast. Yes, I'm non-binary. My hippy parents suggested the name when it felt time to come out as non-binary when I left the commune they're still living on where gender and gender expression didn't matter. I was born with blond hair, but I've had neon blue hair for several years now. I'm tall and I've been told that I'm willowy. I tend to wear robes most often, leftover habit from my childhood. Establishing your non-binary cred? Saying that you have a typical androgynous look, like Ruby Rose? Does ze, hir, hirs suit you? Ugh! Hirs...suit! No, I'm not hairy. Sorry, lame word play. Do you suggest ze and its conjugations because you're most familiar with it and you're offline at the moment? Possibly, although it was mostly my first suggestion. Are you parsing thoughts or do you really dislike ze? Ze is interesting. Might we experiment with my pronouns though? What if I'm not actually settled on a pronoun that feels right? We could do that. I have to wonder though- are you thinking to go on Tumblr pages of pronouns that make even me scratch my head? What did you vent today about "keep it simple"? I know. I know. However I'm also thinking as an author; I know times I've experimented with a neopronoun set, or planned to, that the experiment ended fast. I'm not sure how respectful that is of any non-binary person. And yes, my "is this too special snowflake?" is coming up. You have to admit that you and your fellow partners are all several steps away from the mainstream. Ah, and there you are at considering which one of us is Autistic. All of us fit your precious Vala's "Not a poster child any movement would want." Like could I be Autistic and my pronoun pondering would be like your own gender quandary? Of course you're right. For some reason Ziba keeps coming to mind as the possible Autistic, but then I struggle to figure out the intersections of being Muslim, bisexual, and Autistic. And me wanting to experiment with neopronouns leads you to considering if that reflects poorly on the Autistic community? Think of the Facebook pages you follow though. Do you like what I'm seeing of your first scene? Ha, yeah. Here's hoping by the time this has gone live on your website, you'll have gotten at least that post written. Powered by Linky Tools Click here to enjoy the other #WipItUpWednesday hoppers

Trend-setters: Badgers win big (again and again) in national fashion and design competition Last summer, Griffin Claes walked into the Hermès store in downtown Chicago and immediately felt invisible. The inventory, while exquisite, didn’t speak to him. “It’s a brand my grandmother loves, but it felt stuck in time,” says Claes, a University of Wisconsin–Madison junior from Chicago majoring in textile and fashion design. “They had nothing for my age or aesthetic.” The experience led directly to his entry in a prestigious national competition for college students sponsored by the YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund. Claes created a detailed plan to freshen the Hermès brand. He envisioned a campaign of pop-up shops around the globe featuring limited-edition collections designed by up-and-coming artists embodying each city’s culture. Claes took home one of the scholarship fund’s 2018 awards — and $5,000 in unrestricted cash. For more than a decade, UW–Madison has been preparing students to enter the annual awards, considered the fashion industry’s premier competition for gifted young designers, merchandisers, retailers and business majors. Year after year, Badgers win. And win big. This year alone, three other UW–Madison students — Keira Hockers, Adina Barrientos and Brian Lucksinger — also won $5,000 awards. Lucksinger had won twice before; Hockers once. Since 2007, UW–Madison’s 53 winners have pocketed a cumulative $265,000. About 200 prizes are awarded by the scholarship fund each year, chosen from nearly 600 submissions. Competition is fierce. Badgers go up against 64 other member colleges, including powerhouses such as the Wharton School, Harvard University, the Rhode Island School of Design, and Parsons School of Design, where the TV show “Project Runway” was filmed for many years. “UW–Madison has an incredible track record of success,” says Soyeon Shim, dean of the UW–Madison School of Human Ecology, which houses the Design Studies Department and the Kohl’s Center for Retailing. “Fashion is a global industry of about $1.75 trillion, more than music, books and films combined. In the United States, it provides about 1.8 million jobs. We are laser-focused on graduating students well-prepared to succeed — and lead — in this industry.” Each year, students who enter the competition tackle a retail challenge. For 2018, they were asked to design a hypothetical apparel line and create a “curated in-store experience” that would drive foot traffic to a brick-and-mortar retailer of their choice. Applicants don’t physically produce any garments. Rather, they make their arguments through research, sketches, storyboards and marketing plans. For UW–Madison students, entering is voluntary. Their work — often 100 hours or more per entry — is done outside of class but with weekly guidance and feedback from faculty members. On campus, the effort is facilitated by Assistant Professor Marianne Fairbanks, Associate Lecturer Holly Easland, and Jerry O’Brien and Danielle Croegaert, executive director and assistant director, respectively, of the Kohl’s Center for Retailing. Students fare best in the competition when they pair a personal passion with a creative idea, Fairbanks says. For senior Adina Barrientos, that meant joining two of her loves — outdoor recreation and environmentalism — with a desire to educate the next generation of conscious consumers. Her winning entry, a clothing collection for Patagonia called “Climb On,” encourages children ages 6-12 to explore nature while learning about sustainability and ethical sourcing. Her clothing line would be made from organic fibers and recycled materials. Senior Keira Hockers of Green Bay, Wisconsin, tapped into the non-binary zeitgeist with her entry, envisioning a collection of genderless clothing for Urban Outfitters. The tagline: “For you, me, and everyone in between.” Senior Brian Lucksinger, a marketing and entrepreneurship double-major from Hudson, Wisconsin, won with a plan for Barneys New York. His idea curates and promotes existing inventory in a way that emotionally leverages a customer’s self-expression and identity, such as being vegan or a member of the LGBTQ community. “I think one of the reasons our students do so well in this competition and in the job market is that our program is very forward-focused,” says O’Brien, of the Kohl’s Center for Retailing. “We’re used to thinking about where the industry is headed. We ask the big questions.” The four winning students recently picked up their awards at a glittery New York City gala attended by industry leaders and celebrities. Christian Siriano, a “Project Runway” winner who went on to design gowns for Lady Gaga and Michelle Obama, gave the keynote address. “There were some very big names there,” Barrientos says. “They make you feel like you’re at the top of the design world.” UW–Madison’s Design Studies Department works hard to forge national and international networking connections for its students, Fairbanks says. Participating in the YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund competition is one example. As students prepare their entries, they get periodic feedback from an industry expert. The current industry mentor for UW–Madison is Jeff Manby, executive vice president and general merchandise manager for Kohl’s. “This is the fashion industry putting its support and financial resources into nurturing the next generation of designers,” Fairbanks says. “It serves companies by giving them access to the best and brightest, and it serves our students by giving them exposure to the highest levels of the industry.” Hockers is spending her final undergraduate year at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, an opportunity available to seniors in the program through an application process. As she studies alongside fashion and design students from across the country, Hockers says her experience in the UW–Madison program is serving her well. “UW–Madison is such a large university, but they keep the program small so that you have easy access to everything — sewing machines, looms, studio space,” she says. “It’s a well-rounded, hands-on program, so you learn all aspects of creating a garment.” Learning how to create a conceptual sketch, engineer a pattern, and make a garment allows UW–Madison students to think and communicate about fashion in a deeper way, says Easland, who teaches fashion illustration and apparel design and worked for many years as a designer for Lands’ End and American Girl. “Our students actually create clothing from start to finish,” Easland says. “When you know the process intimately like that, it increases your scope as a designer and helps make you more fearless.” Barrientos, a textile and fashion design major from Bayside, Wisconsin, says she appreciates that faculty members let students dive deep into their interest areas. “We’re not all pushed in the same direction,” she says. “The professors see what intrigues us, then help us pursue it.” Barrientos got a big contest-related surprise following the gala. She was awarded an additional $5,000, for a total of $10,000, for having the highest scoring case study from UW–Madison. The extra $5,000 scholarship was established by the YMA board to honor Peter Sachse, a past president of YMA and a former executive with Macy’s. He is a UW–Madison alumnus, and the award goes only to a UW–Madison student. The New York City trip also proved especially lucrative for Lucksinger. At a separate ceremony, he was awarded $15,000 for finishing second nationally in the Next Generation Scholarship competition sponsored by the National Retail Federation. Lucksinger found himself seated next to the CEO of Macy’s at the federation banquet. Shaquille O’Neal dined at a table nearby. “I’m six feet, four inches, and I’ve never felt short until I stood next to him,” Lucksinger says. “The people I bumped elbows with was absolutely crazy.” Post-graduation this May, Lucksinger will begin work as an assistant buyer for Macy’s in New York City. As he’s mingled with the industry’s biggest names, he’s come to fully appreciate the value of the degree he’s completing, he says. “Google, Facebook, Amazon — they’re all just as interested in hiring us as the more traditional retailers,” he says. UW–Madison students interested in competing in the 2019 YMA Scholarship Fund Awards competition can find more information here.

“People gave me a label I never gave myself and got mad when I didn’t fit into it. My energy has always been extremely fluid between masculine and feminine so that’s why I use ‘queer,’ and also, queer is inclusive to non-binary people. But I still prefer and am totally fine with the pronoun ‘she.’ ”Kehlani Welcome back to yet another Gaydar Feature of the Month! Today we are featuring a bright and talented artiste, Kehlani. Keep in mind that their pronouns are they/them! Born April 24th 1995, they started their career pretty early in life. Early in their life, Kehlani aspired to train as a dancer at the Juilliard School, but they had a knee injury in junior high, which led them to turn their attention towards singing. At the young age of 14, they joined a band called Poplyfe, but left the group to compete in the 6th season of America’s Got Talent, where by the way, they were ranked fourth in the competition! But after facing a few problems with contract agreements, they slumped back to homelessness. They even started selling stolen iPhones and shoplifted to make ends meet, while sleeping on couches and on the streets. Their career started to bounce back when Nick Cannon, the host of America’s Got Talent found their solo track “ANTISUMMERLUV” on Soundcloud, and offered them a place to stay in LA. While in LA, Cannon gave them studio time and it actually kickstarted their album, Cloud 19. A song they released in late 2014, “Till the Morning” was placed by Billboard as one of the “Emerging Picks of the Week” on November 7, 2014. In 2015, Kehlani opened for American rapper G-Eazy on the second leg of his ‘From the Bay to the Universe’ tour. Since then, it only got better for them. Their songs are usually highly influenced by their time growing up in their aunt’s place, as their aunt used to give them a lot of RnB records to listen to. They kept making RnB music, even going as far as collaborating with other people, from Zedd to Ty Dolla $ign, and even Justin Bieber. Kehlani’s music got increasingly influential, and who doesn’t love good RnB tunes, right? Kehlani came out as a lesbian through the song “Honey”, which is absolutely dreamy and romantic. The lyrics “I like my girls like I like my honey, sweet, a little selfish” led fans to make assumptions about Kehlani’s preferences in love. Much to everyone’s surprise, they did eventually clarify through a tweet, “You want to know? You want to know what’s new about me? I finally know I’m a lesbian,” In response to the news, one user cheekily wrote, “I volunteer to be Kehlani’s wife.” While Kehlani has long identified as queer and pansexual, they have also resisted restrictive labels of gender or sexuality. In an interview with DIVA magazine last year, the artist said they found it frustrating that, following the release of “Honey,” fans made assumptions about their orientation. “People gave me a label I never gave myself and got mad when I didn’t fit into it,” they said, adding, “My energy has always been extremely fluid between masculine and feminine so that’s why I use ‘queer,’ and also, queer is inclusive to non-binary people. But I still prefer and am totally fine with the pronoun ‘she.’ ” Kehlani first addressed their sexuality publicly back in 2018, after kissing Demi Lovato on stage during a performance of the song “Lonely.” “I have a lot of privilege,” Kehlani says of the advantages they have as a “cisgender-presenting, straight-presenting” person in a world and industry this is still very heteronormative. The mom and musician adds, “I think a lot of artists who we talk about and say, ‘Oh, they had to come out or they had to do this,’ a lot of them can’t hide it. A lot of it is very [much] in how they present. It’s tougher for them. It’s tougher for trans artists. It’s tougher for Black gay men. It’s tougher for Black masculine gay women.” Kehlani came out on Twitter in 2018, but told the magazine that they never felt the need to do so in their private life. “Beyond even being celebrated, we get so much education from one another,” Kehlani says about the current generation of more open and free musical artists. “There are so many people willing to have conversations where people who don’t understand can potentially understand. So many people are willing to have teachable moments. That’s awesome because a lot of…hurt and anger in the past generations have been rooted in truly not understanding or not having access to educational moments.” Outside of the music industry, the singer says they learned the most from the women in their life, fans and transgender friends who are navigating the gender spectrum daily. And there we have it, brave, talented, beautiful yet astounding Kehlani, if we can take one lesson from this blog today, it’s to never judge or try to stereotype a person, especially putting labels on them that we don’t even know the truth about. Let people enjoy and explore their sexualities and gender identity in their own way. That’s it for this month’s episode of Gaydar! Keep supporting Kehlani and her works!

We will be marching for trans and intersex health care, and will provide gorgeous placards in the trans flag colours, to paint your messages on! All supporters of trans and intersex rights are welcome to join us!! Continue reading Trans and Intersex @ Auckland Pride March Our Diversity T-shirts come in blue, pink, and white, and feature the gorgeous art work and messages of our 2018 diversity poster series. Order here. Continue reading Diversity T-Shirts Many trans people are passionate about equality, which can lead them to join community groups, unions, or protests. This pamphlet gives legal information for trans people interacting with Police and the criminal justice system when protesting. Continue reading Being Trans and Protesting 15% of trans people run away from home or are kicked out because of their gender. Those rejected by whaanau are twice as likely to have experienced homelessness (40%) as those who were not rejected (22%). Continue reading End Transgender Homelessness We’re very pleased to announce that the national guidelines for trans healthcare in Aotearoa have been released, and can be found here. Continue reading Aotearoa Trans Healthcare Guidelines Released As a progressive country, NZ prides itself on being world leaders in human rights – but a small handful of anti-trans extremists, or ‘Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists’ are attacking the human rights of transgender people, with a focus on transgender women. Continue reading Stand up for equality: no anti-trans hate groups in NZ The BDMRRA is due for it’s 2nd reading very soon – the exact date is unknown. At this stage, the public have an opportunity to debate the issues and tell MPs what they think. Please contact your local MPs and talk with them, tell them what you think, give them your personal stories. Continue reading Help Pass the BDMRR Bill for Birth Certificate Changes Today’s announced changes to the process for amending gender markers on birth certifciates are welcomed by takatāpui, trans and non-binary people. “This small but significant change will make it fairer for those in our communities, who do not have the resources to use the existing Family Court process,” said Sally Dellow. Continue reading Birth Certificate changes welcomed by takatāpui, trans and non-binary people This statement was drafted by takatāpui, trans and non-binary people and organisations in Aotearoa New Zealand. It explains why it is so important that the Births, Deaths, Marriages and Relationships Registration Act (BDMRRA) 1995 is amended. Continue reading BDMRRA Birth Certificates – Rainbow Community Statement March 10th 2018, takataapui, transgender, and intersex people and supporters walked, danced, and rode along in the Wellington International Pride Parade with a clear message: transgender health care now! Continue reading Transgender Health Care Now: Wellington Pride Parade

Renewed Heart Ministries is a nonprofit organization working for a world of love and justice. We need your support to offer the kind of resources RHM provides. Helping people find the intersection between their faith, compassion, and justice is work that continues to prove deeply needed. Please consider making a donation to support Renewed Heart Ministries’ work, today. You can donate online by clicking here. Or you can make a donation by mail at: Renewed Heart Ministries PO Box 1211 Lewisburg, WV 24901 And to those of you out there who already are supporting this ministry, we want to say thank you. We could not continue being a voice for change without you. Herb Montgomery | April 9, 2021 “We must be careful not to spiritualize these elements. Is the good news we cherish also good news to the poor? Is the good news we cherish also good news to the incarcerated? Is the good news we cherish also good news to oppressed and marginalized people? Is the ‘Lord’s favor’ we cherish also good news to those longing for their debt to be cancelled? What does concrete good news look like in our social context today?” This week’s reading is from John’s version of the Jesus story: “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.’ Now Thomas (also known as Didymus ), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord!’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.’ A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’ Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’ Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:19-31) There is a lot in this passage that would be tempting to focus on this week. Thomas’ doubt. Jesus having a physical body that can be touched and that feels hunger, post-Easter, despite John’s gospel being associated with early gnosticism (see Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.11.1). But what jumps out at me most this year is this phrase: “‘As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’” This theme of following Jesus’ example repeats with the Johannine community: “Whoever says, ‘I abide in him,’ ought to walk just as he walked.” (1 John 2:6) The Jesus of John’s story doesn’t do things instead of us, as our substitute so we don’t have to do them. This Jesus calls his followers to participate in his actions alongside him. This idea isn’t only in John’s gospel. Consider this passage from Mark: “But Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ They replied, ‘We are able.’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.’” (Mark 10:38) As Marcus Borg and John Crossan write in their book The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Final Days in Jerusalem: “For Mark, it [the story] is about participation with Jesus and not substitution by Jesus. Mark has those followers recognize enough of that challenge that they change the subject and avoid the issue every time.” (Kindle location 1592) Over the last few weeks, we have discussed the harmful teaching that suffering is redemptive. I don’t believe that Jesus invites us into his death but does invite us into following the example of his life, even if unjust oppressive systems threaten us with death for doing so. I understand this is a subtle difference in interpretation but it creates a huge difference in how we response to injustice. Suffering some type of pushback for speaking out against injustice may be part of our story, but not because it is intrinsic to following Jesus. I don’t believe we have to die to reach Jesus’ vision for human society. He showed us a path toward distributively just living, and death only enters the picture when those threatened by a distributively just world choose to threaten death or some other penalty if we keep stirring up trouble and disturbing the unjust status quo. I believe this is a much healthier alternate interpretation to being willing to take up Jesus’ cross and following him. Rather than calling us to be passive in the face of injustice, Jesus calls us to action, even if that action should end up with us being put on a cross. It’s not about choosing to die, but about choosing life, even in the face of death. Jesus didn’t choose the cross. His social opponents choose to answer him with a cross. Jesus chose a life of calling his society to justice, like the Hebrew prophets within his own Jewish tradition, even if they threatened to kill him. So what does it mean to follow Jesus’ life and, in the words of our passage this week, to be “sent” as Jesus was “sent”? I resonate deeply with the characterization we find in Luke’s gospel: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19) So this declaration invites some questions of us: Is the good news we cherish also good news to the poor? Is the good news we cherish also good news to the incarcerated? Is the good news we cherish also good news to oppressed and marginalized people? Is the Lord’s favor we cherish also good news to those longing for their debt to be cancelled? We must be careful not to spiritualize these elements. People didn’t get put on Roman crosses for talking about spiritual transformation. Romans killed people who made claims about concrete changes to the status quo, a status quo that benefitted some in society at the expense of the many. What is does concrete good news look like in our social context today, for those who are materially poor, physically incarcerated, socially and economically oppressed, exploited and marginalized, or so deeply indebted that they feel they will never be free? Firstly, I think of our current criminal justice system and those in various areas of the U.S. having their charges expunged due to the legalization of cannabis. I think of the calls for universal health care, and how so many families have to file for bankruptcy when they become sick, even if they do have health insurance. I think of the calls to forgive student loans that are so inescapable that they even impact seniors in retirement. Our trans and non-binary siblings also come to mind, especially with Thursday, April 1, being International Transgender Visibility Day. I wonder how good news from Christians to this oppressed and marginalized community could be so very different if we would stop to listen to and believe their experiences including harmful experiences from our hands. Secondly, there’s a phrase in this week’s passage that is deeply harmful to our Jewish siblings. In one translation, the passage states, “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews…” I’m thankful that the translators of the NIV altered their translation to say “Jewish leaders,” a change that lends room for distinguishing between classes in the society where this story took place. The gospel writers are clear that Jewish common people loved Jesus (Mark 14:2). But with each successive version of the Jesus story told—first Mark, then Matthew and Luke, and finally John—antisemitic hatred or fear of the Jewish people grows more and more. It’s barely present in Mark, but by the time we get to John, as in our passage this week, it is full-blown. We can do better today. “Fear of the Jews” has a long and violent history in the Christian tradition. We can choose to tell the Jesus story in better, more life-giving, different ways, today. And lastly, I want to draw attention in this passage to the scars of injustice remaining on Jesus’ body. This is not a story that promises all the scars of past injustice will one day disappear. They may not. This story points the way for people to make reparations for past mistakes and make better choices today that move us closer to a more distributively just future, God’s just future. It’s to the work of creating that just future in our present world that we are sent today. As he was sent back then, so are we now. We at RHM are continuing to ask all HeartGroups not to meet together physically at this time. Please stay virtually connected and practice physical distancing. When you do go out, please keep a six-foot distance between you and others, wear a mask, and continue to wash your hands to stop the spread of the virus. This is also a time where we can practice the resource-sharing and mutual aid found in the gospels. Make sure the others in your group have what they need. This is a time to work together and prioritize protecting those most vulnerable among us. 1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s eSight/Podcast episode with your HeartGroup. 2. What are some parallels you notice in Luke 4:18-19 with much needed justice work in our society today? Discuss with your group. 3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone? Thanks for checking in with us, today. Right where you are, keep living in love, choosing compassion, taking action, and working toward justice. I love each of you dearly, I’ll see you next week

On May 3, during the state of the university address, Bill Flanagan, University of Alberta president and vice-chancellor, reflected on the recent past of the university and the plans for the future. The address began with a land acknowledgement and a summary of the past two years highlighting the university’s journey through the COVID-19 pandemic followed. “Every single individual in our community showed exceptional dedication and commitment to one another through a long and challenging time,” Flanagan said. Flanagan reflected on academic restructuring and the struggles over the past two years that arose because of it, such as job loss. “As we’ve restructured, I am proud of the fact that 84 per cent of all new positions at the university have been filled by U of A employees,” Flanagan said. “Our future lies in the remarkable opportunities ahead from the University of Alberta.“ In the address, Alberta’s young population was raised as an advantage for Alberta. This has caused an increase in admissions applications by 25 per cent in the past six years. In addition, the Government of Alberta announced $171 million in support of post-secondary enrolment as part of Budget 2022. As part of this three-year investment from the provincial government, the University of Alberta expects nearly 2,400 additional enrolments and over 135 new faculty and support staff in high-demand areas over this three-year period. Deconsolidation highlighted as a goal for the future A main point of the address focused on the advocacy done for the deconsolidation of financial statements from the accounts of the province. For accounting purposes, the Government of Alberta controls the university under the Canadian Public Sector accounting standards. This means that money spent by the U of A is considered to be money spent by the Government of Alberta. Because the government has committed to reducing expenditures to balance the provincial budget, consolidation with the U of A requires the university to reduce expenditures to prevent the perceived increase in government spending. Last year, the minister of advanced education announced that the U of A would be deconsolidated from the provincial accounts. This deconsolidation is planned for the next fiscal year. Once the university is deconsolidated, the university can begin to spend some of its “carry-forward funds” — which consist of the university’s own revenue from tuition and donations. The university currently has $160 million in carry-forward funds it can spend once deconsolidation is complete. Flanagan concluded the address with a promise that the university will continue to grow, closing with the university’s brand promise to “lead with purpose.” “Moving forward, we make this simple but vital promise. We, the University of Alberta will never be satisfied with the now. We will always be seeking, always be challenging and most of all, always leading with purpose.” Question period brings up community and faculty concerns After the address, audience members were given an opportunity to ask President Flanagan a question. “What do you have to say to the [over] 5,000 support staff?” Pratt asked. “Based on our survey data, [they] are actually experiencing very much increased workloads, increased stress, low morale, mistrust in the restructuring process and actually decreased — not increased, service levels.” Flanagan responded by emphasizing the importance of support staff. “I just want to acknowledge that again, how grateful I am to the support staff in what they’ve done,” he said. “Our growth ambitions cannot succeed unless we have the support staff that we need to achieve our ambitions both for our students and our researchers.” Julie Rak, a faculty of arts professor, asked Flanagan about non-binary washrooms on campus and lack of space to accommodate higher enrolment, as she noted the university has plans to remove the Humanities Centre. “If you want to have 50,000 more students on campus, where are you going to put them when you get rid of the Humanities Centre?” To address this issue, Flanagan noted that the building has suffered from deferred maintenance, which has been an ongoing issue for the university in recent years. “One thing that we have not done [as a] university is invest in a sustainable way in addressing our deferred maintenance challenges,” he said. “This is part of the restructuring and we will be doing [maintenance] going forward and the new budget model will address this and this is top of mind for me.” Philomina Okeke-Ihejirika, an arts professor, said that in a recent staff survey, all Black faculty were categorized in the same ethnic category. Noting that this did not reflect the diverse backgrounds of Black people, Okeke-Ihejirika asked Flanagan about the university’s plans to increase inclusion for their Black community members. “In your vision, where does research and development come into your plan … for African and Caribbean students that are part of your community?” Flanagan responded with the importance of international students and the plans to increase African international student enrolment. “There is huge opportunity for us to increase the numbers of international students coming from Africa to come to the University of Alberta,” he said. In addition to increasing the number of Black students at the university, Flanagan highlighted specific plans to hire more Black staff across all faculties. “I believe we’ve announced that there’s a cohort of 10 Black scholars that we’re going to be … hiring in the next year or two. This is a dedicated cohort hiring that is intended to advance our commitment to diversity and inclusion.” Jessica Vandenberghe, a Dene Tha’ Indigenous woman, Sixties Scoop survivor, child of two residential school survivors, as well as assistant dean of engineering and culture, asked if there are plans for a governance review to address colonialism and systematic behaviours. Flanagan emphasized the commitment to equity, and the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) strategic plan. “I would say you’re right, we’re not where we need to be as an institution in meeting our commitment to equity,” he said. “As you know, we have an EDI strategic plan as well, [a plan] that outlines our commitments very much as a university and sets targets for us to move forward. [We will be] holding to those [plans] and making sure that those plans are visible and meaningful and living.”

(Natural News) An openly gay lawmaker in the California State Senate wants to make drag shows mandatory for all K-12 school children, in response to calls from a state congressman in Texas to ban them. California State Sen. Scott Weiner expressed his intent through a response to Texas State Rep. Bryan Slaton. The lawmaker from the Lone Star State announced his intent to file legislation banning children from “drag shows and other inappropriate displays.” Slaton cited “a disturbing trend in which perverted adults are obsessed with sexualizing young children” as his rationale for the anti-drag show proposal. Retweeting the Texas Republican, he wrote: “This guy just gave me a bill idea: Offering Drag Queen 101 as part of the K-12 curriculum. Attending Drag Queen Story Time will satisfy the requirement.” Pro-life activist Jonathon Von Maren commented on Weiner’s proposal: “A politician who has pushed legislation to assist statutory rapists avoid the sex offender registry list wants to make Drag Queen Story Time mandatory for children. And they say the term ‘groomer’ is a slur?” Von Maren gave two examples of Weiner pushing for laws that enable LGBT grooming in the Golden State. Back in 2019, Wiener introduced Senate Bill (SB) 145 that allows judges “discretion over sex-offender registration in all cases involving voluntary intercourse between teenagers 14 to 17, who cannot legally consent, and adults who are less than ten years older.” California Gov. Gavin Newsom eventually signed SB 145 into law in September 2020. “Wiener worked to decriminalize homosexual intercourse between adults and minors in certain cases, claiming that California’s current laws discriminate against the LGBT community. In short, he worked to help statutory rapists avoid the sex offender registry list,” noted Von Maren. Weiner was also responsible for SB 239, which was introduced in 2017. The bill reduced the crime of knowingly exposing a sexual partner to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), without disclosing the infection, from a felony to a misdemeanor. It also applied to HIV-positive individuals donating to blood banks without disclosing their status. Former Gov. Jerry Brown, Newsom’s predecessor, signed SB 239 into law during the same year. Weiner also introduced bills to codify LGBT fascism Aside from SB 145 and SB 239, Weiner had also introduced bills that enshrined LGBT fascism. Von Maren noted that one such bill mandated jail terms for healthcare workers opting not to use preferred names or pronouns. However, the California Third District Court of Appeals struck down the proposal in June 2021. “Wiener believes that it should not be a crime to have sex with someone without telling [them] that you are HIV-positive, but jail-time is appropriate for those who refuse to refer to a male as a female at his request,” the pro-life activist remarked. More nefarious, however, is SB 132 sponsored by Weiner. Newsom signed the bill, which mandated California to imprison men who identify as women in female prisons, into law in 2020. “The view of the women locked up with these usually violent criminals is of no account to dangerous ideologues like Wiener, of course,” said Von Maren. Feminist group Women’s Liberation Front (WLF) pointed to the dangers that emerged since SB 132 took effect in January 2021. It noted that after the bill was signed, almost 300 requests were lodged by male-to-female (MTF) transgender inmates for transfer to the Central California Women’s Facility. Exactly zero transfer requests were denied, paving the way for hundreds of transgenders to commit sexual crimes inside the prison complex. “In just six months since the enactment of SB 132, the number of incarcerated people self-identifying as trans or non-binary – thus becoming eligible to request a facility transfer – has increased from 1,088 to 1,237. The nearly 300 pending transfers are only the beginning of the invasion of women’s prisons by violent male inmates, including convicted murderers and rapists.” “As more men arrive at the women’s facilities, the crisis will only worsen,” warned the WLF. Watch Owen Shroyer of InfoWars below talking about a drag queen’s performance during a required school event. This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories:

10 Xbox Games With Powerful Female Characters Though there is still much room for improvement, that gaming space is making progress in being inclusive, and the number of woman gamers continues to rise yearly. Here are ten games that start to level up the playing field. While doing your bit to flatten the curve, you might be considering we’re considering some new hobbies. For instance: video games. Here the only concerns are gathering food and treasure, beating monsters, and leveling up? Plus, they require both hands, successfully preventing the urge to take another look at the phone. However, the representation of women protagonists has been largely disproportionate, and not only that, but women have been depicted in demeaning and reductive forms. Even though women make up over forty percent of gamers in the US, according to recent statistics. Here are ten games that start to level up the playing field. Though we still have a way to go. ‘Assassin's Creed: Valhalla’ In Valhalla, players will play the role of a Viking warrior called Eivor, who retains the same name regardless of gender. The Assassin's Creed franchise was established thirteen years ago. However, it wasn’t until 2015 that players could choose between a male or female protagonist in Syndicate. ‘The Sims 4’ The Sims is a timeless classic. You are in control of the environment in this simulation game. Your actions will have reactions. And excitingly, we can expect Sims 5 soon. ‘As Dusk Falls’ This interactive drama relays the story of two families spanning thirty years and how the choices you make can result in significant consequences. Unfortunately, black woman protagonists are a rare sight in video games, and "As Dusk Falls" is one of a few games to feature a Black woman as the protagonist. ‘Forza Horizon 4’ Forza Horizon 4 revolves around a festival involving pivotal women, including festival organizer Keira and professional driver Rebecca, among others. Apart from its inclusion of women, Forza Horizon 4 is one of the highest-rated racing games out ‘Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater’ From having only one woman on the roster in 1999, Tony Hawk Pro-Skater has made progress with the addition of three more women — Aori Nishimura, Lizzie Armanto, and Leticia Bufoni and the inclusion of Leo Baker, the first non-binary skateboarder in the series. ‘The Last Of Us 2’ In a path of vengeance, Ellie must navigate other groups of survivors, zombies, and monsters and demonstrate the kind of powerful character writing the medium can. ‘Watch Dogs: Legion’ Led by hacker group leader Sabine, you'll join forces with an intriguing selection of women, from a rugby player "who completed a marathon with a broken ankle" to a babysitter "banned for life from London Zoo". Sound interesting enough? Get this, the group’s mission is to take back control of a dystopian UK capital. According to Bustle, "Control" is deemed one of the top games of 2019. The story follows Jesse Faden as she embarks on a mission to infiltrate a government agency that kidnapped her brother several years prior. If you're familiar with Halo and you're thinking, "well this doesn't belong on this list", well you may not be wrong. However, while you cant choose your gender as the protagonist, the Halo series is full of highly skilled and powerful female characters. ‘The Outer Worlds’ The Outer Worlds includes strong female leads you can take on your journey, like mercenary Ellie Fenhill or game hunter Nyoka, as you navigate an alternate future where mega-corporations have taken control of a distant solar system.

Music and Lyrics: Andrew Lippa Book: John August Director: Hunter Brown Choreographer: Audrey Eytchison Music Director: Robert Johnson Based on the celebrated novel by Daniel Wallace and the acclaimed film directed by Tim Burton, Big Fish is a story of family and connection spanning decades. Will Bloom is a soon-to-be parent struggling to connect with his own father, Edward. Driven by his looming fatherhood and Edward’s sickness, Will tries harder and harder to get to the truth behind his father’s larger-than-life stories. But as he digs, the line between reality and fantasy blurs in this musical overflowing with heart and humor. Rehearsals will begin on Saturday, September 10. The rehearsal schedule will be provided in advance of the first rehearsal based on performer availability. The production runs November 4 – December 4, 2022, with performances Thursday – Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm. There is no performance on Thanksgiving, November 24. No conflicts with performance dates will be permitted. Please note that performers are asked to also be available December 8-12 should any performances be canceled due to COVID. All performers are guaranteed a $100 honorarium to cover the costs of transportation. Note that this is strictly a non-union production. Auditions will be held Saturday, July 30th from 11am-1pm and Monday, August 1st from 6-9pm. Please prepare a 16-bar cut of a song in a similar style to the show that features your voice and your storytelling skills. The show requires strong storytellers who are also vocalists. If you would like to sing from the show, you may. Stylistically, consider folk music rather than musical theatre. Please provide your own sheet music. An accompanist will be provided. To arrange an audition, please submit this form: https://form.jotform.com/221944641304148. The audition form collects your information — including any known conflicts with the rehearsal dates — and also allows you to select an audition appointment. Callbacks will be held on Saturday, August 6th from 10am-1pm. Auditions and callbacks will be held in person at Coronado Playhouse, 1835 Strand Way, Coronado, CA 92118. If you have any questions not answered in this announcement or are unavailable for auditions but wish to be considered, please email firstname.lastname@example.org. COVID-19 NOTICE: For the protection of our staff and volunteers, all cast and production team members must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or be prepared to demonstrate a viable medical or religious exemption. Additionally, all artists are expected to conduct their own COVID tests and share their results in advance of rehearsals and again in advance of performances. Additional testing may be required should someone become sick during the production. Coronado Playhouse is committed to inclusivity, and encourages ALL members of our community to submit, particularly members of communities who have historically been excluded or underrepresented — including but not limited to artists of color, Native American and Indigenous artists, women, non-binary and gender non-conforming artists, LGBTQ+ artists, and artists with disabilities. (Note that all roles shall be played by adults over 18 unless specified otherwise.) Edward Bloom: A charming and charismatic storyteller. His wild tales drove a wedge between him and his son, but he is determined to rewrite the ending. Nearing the end of his life, he tries to reconnect with his son before it is too late. Character is portrayed through all ages of his life, so an actor capable of creating a strong character is needed. Needs to be a strong mover and singer. Not required, but guitar is a plus. Baritone/Tenor C#3-G4 Will Bloom: Josephine’s husband. Confronted by his own impending fatherhood, Will longs to cut through the stories and see who his father truly is. Whereas Edward’s head is always in the clouds, Will is grounded and pragmatic. He wants to connect with his father before he dies, but he slowly comes to realize that the only way is through his father’s tales. Will must be a strong actor and singer. Character does not dance much, but is on the stage for almost the entire show —stamina is a must. Tenor C#3-G4 Young Will (*young actors age 8-18 will be considered for this role*): The embodiment of Will’s past. Portrays young Will, and eventually Will’s son. No heavy dancing is required, but they will have a lot of movement. Actor may serve as ensemble in other scenes. Tenor Josephine Bloom: News correspondent. Will’s wife, and voice of reason. She tries to act as a bridge between Will and his father. Is often with Will digging through Edward’s stories. Mix/Belt to C#5 Karl the Giant: A tender-hearted giant with a head for business. He is the first friend Edward makes on his journey. Perceived as large and frightening, he really just wants to be understood. Bass A3-D4 Amos Calloway: The scheming and conniving, yet ultimately loveable ringleader of the circus Edward joins. Helps Edward on his quest for love. Might be a werewolf. Baritone C3-F5 Don Price: Edward’s arrogant and foul-tempered rival. He later becomes mayor of Edward’s hometown. Strong comedic skills are a must. Baritone C3-F#4 The Witch: The being that sets Edward’s journey in motion. The witch acts as a spiritual guide to Edward on his quest. High Belt F3-F5 Jenny Hill: Edward’s high school sweetheart, and later an enigmatic woman who holds the key to unlocking his past. Performer must have solid acting range with this character. Mix Belt to E5 Girl in the Water: A mermaid! She appears often throughout Edward’s quest, beckoning him to his final goal. Must be a strong dancer. Mix/Belt to C#5 Zacky Price: Don’s dweeby little brother. Must have strong physical comedy skills. Baritone/Tenor up to F#

WOMEN IN MARTIAL ARTS It’s Not About Self-Defense It’s about discovery. It’s about healing wounds society has set up for us. Experiencing the physical, neurological and emotional benefits that come from being in a practice based in play, mindfulness and active engagement. It’s an opportunity to experience our wholeness. Our fear, strength, energy, focus, joy, brilliance and connection to others. In short, it’s a therapeutic journey into what it means to be human. Spoiler Alert: There’s a lot of joy. SHE HITS LIKE A GIRL Finding Space To Process Anger and Embrace Strength In society women are not given space to be angry. Any emotions expressed threaten to defend an age-old myth that women are unstable, weak or irrational. In reality, women are intuitive, strong, powerful and deeply intelligent. As our society journeys towards embracing this, women need a safe space to process emotions like rage, anger and aggression. Physical resistance training helps to process these emotions and cultivate strength, both internally and externally. It helps you to become aware of what is going on inside of you and to nurture a positive relationship to your feelings. You hit, strike, focus your energy and let it flow through you in a sustained burst. Both relaxed and engaged you become like a brilliant storm lighting up the sky with your punches, kicks and take downs. The thunder of your emotions rumble through you and a shift happens. The heat breaks and everything re-balances as only storms can do. Tearing away the old and clearing space for the new. As you practice, whether its based in grappling like Brazilian Jui Jitsu, striking and hitting like Jeet Kun Do or in internal energy such as qigong like Bagua, the fire that you have is given space to transform into a healthy life-sustaining force. Instead of stifled toxic one where it comes out in passive aggressive or deeply harmful ways to yourself and others you begin to learn how to channel this internal fire into a motivating, purifying, cleansing and inspiring force. As you become stronger a sense of stability and calm begins to grow. An ability to communicate clearer and from a place of relaxed strength starts to exist. And before you know it, like a phoenix, you have transformed through your own healthy expression of fire. So. No. Women in martial arts is not about self-defense. It’s about self-empowerment. FISTS UP, GUARD UP, SPEAK UP The Art of Communication Communication is a complicated subject for women. Learning how to speak up for ourselves is important. Martial Arts studios are a beautiful space to practice this. And this is why… Things happen when you are doing an active partner sport like martial arts. No way around it. We find our edges, what feels good and what doesn’t. It’s our responsibility to know what doesn’t feel good so that we can communicate it with our partner. Keeping anyone in the dark is a disrespect to your partner and puts you both at risk. Effective communication isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity. COMMUNICATION TIPS IN (AND OUT OF) THE STUDIO: Note: While Martial Arts is a fighting sport and a good amount has to do with taking and throwing punches, kicks, and take downs we try to avoid seriously injuring ourselves or others. This communication has to do with making sure you stay safe as you practice rough. 1. As you practice start cultivating your awareness to your emotional and physical boundaries. 2. If something gets close to the edge hit the brakes on a physical movement. In martial arts we do this by tapping. 3. If your partner unintentionally hurts you: Communicate as soon as possible. Be clear about what specifically happened physically and what you need in the future by making a request. This helps your partner know how to work differently and keeps you both safer. Avoid blaming and shaming. No one ever means to hurt anyone else. Adding in emotions that are better processed by you or with the help of a professional is important. Give your partner the ability to practice being a good partner. Chances are they don’t feel great about it. We all unintentionally hurt others. Knowing how to move through tough situations is imperative for emotional growth. Having the opportunity to fix a mistake supports your partner in understanding mistakes are not end games but forgivable and can be a gateway to a sweeter, more compassionate and deeper connection between the two of you. It is empowering to be heard. It is empowering to have your requests honored. It is empowering to be able to move on in a better, more experienced way. Rule of thumb for when you, inevitably hurt someone else: Listen, Apologize, and Shift. Being able to express yourself effectively is empowering. So yeah. Let me say it again. Women in martial arts is NOT about self-defense. It IS, however, about self-empowerment. IT’S NOT A CAT FIGHT Empowered Women Empower Women Look. Whether you get down with evolutionary psychology stating that women are trying to do their womb a favor and get to the top of the crop where men are concerned; OR with feminist psychology which gets into the psychological damage that being valued only for our beauty creates. Women are pitted against each other. It would be nice to believe that we are all beautiful empowered versions of ourselves. The reality is that most of us have areas where we can get initially triggered. Where our animal brain, or our society brain-washed brain has an initial fear response to a particular female interaction. If we do not make an active attempt to A) Admit this B) Understand it and C) Empower ourselves we can hide behind our insecurities, anxieties and victim mindset that either subconsciously or consciously results in hurting other women. Martial Arts can help you take an active role empowering yourself by: 1. Understanding and Cultivating True Power True Power is a deeply rooted sense of self that can not be rocked by external circumstance. It can not be threatened. When you feel threatened learning how to connect to a true sense of power is integral to dissolving that fear. As we grow stronger physically we do so mentally and emotionally. Practicing a sport that allows you to advance in ability and in skill has a naturally positive effect on your self-esteem, sense of self and self-confidence. As your confidence builds so does a sense of compassion. You learn the difference between erratic trigger responding and a relaxed and engaged sense of self. This allows you to be open to the reality that we are never in competition with other people, let alone other women but much more similar in our struggles which allow us to be a better cheerleader for each other in our victories. 2. Connect compassionately to women When women have to actively physically engage with other women there is no space for anything but feeling what your body is doing, your goal, your skill cultivating and keeping your partner safe. As feelings arise, they have space to process and release. Training together you have a common goal: Move through challenges as teammates, even though you are each other’s playground. You want your partner to succeed. You support them, and they support you with the challenges you both face. Confidence begins to grow and the myth of unhealthy competition begins to fade so that all that is left are the players, the tasks, the game and the true camaraderie that only comes from working on difficult tasks together. WE DON’T PLAY WITH DOLLS WE PLAY WITH FALLS Neurological Benefits of Engaging in Physically Active, Iterative Play Martial Arts is body chess. Tactical moves gained through training developed and deployed in an intelligent way to out skill and outplay your partner. It’s a game. There are rules. There is an end goal. And on the way to that goal there are therapeutic side effects such as joy, body awareness, skill acquisition, and healthy physical touch that culminate in heightened cognitive function, greater sense of physical awareness, and higher self-esteem. When we practice fighting we mimic, subconsciously, the act of baby tigers. They gain skill and muscle by play fighting. In our society it is much more typical that young boys play fight and thus learn the skills and unspoken codes of conduct that come with active contact based play. It is important for women to practice this too. Our bodies need to move and work out in a way that our system was naturally designed for. When we play we experience joy which allows dopamine to be released. Dopamine helps us to learn better and increases our ability to focus. Reward centers are triggered in our brain and self-confidence begins to grow. As we continue to engage in iterative physical practice and play our creativity blossoms, executive functions increase, our motivation, memory recall and retention heightens and our over all cognitive function gets an upgrade as things like stress and outmoded thinking patterns begin to melt away. But like I said, it’s a game. And to play the game you need to be able to listen with your whole body. DON’T TOUCH ME BRO A NOTE ABOUT HEALING WOMEN’S RELATIONSHIP TO TOUCH Proprioception is the ability to sense your body, muscles and joints in space and in relationship to other people and things. To listen with your whole body is to be able to listen through the sense of touch as well as your other senses. To feel which direction your partner might go next. This is one of the tools gained from practicing martial arts. But it can be a complicated one for women. Listening with our whole bodies can be tricky, especially since the sense of touch can be incredibly loaded for us. One out of six women have experienced sexual trauma. The touch based boundary crossing that happens in our society and not just between men and women can compound this very real trigger making touch feel incredibly unsafe. Add to it centuries of sexualizing women with men in power based aggressive roles over women and martial arts can feel like a terrifying place…until its not. The gift of martial arts training is that we have an opportunity to: 1. Understand touch in a different way. 2. Take back our power. 3. Allow resistance training to release unprocessed emotions. 4. Work with our energy (Qi) to restore balance and build up Wei Qi which helps us to create a protective covering for ourselves in this world. 5. Re-establish and rehabilitate the relationship we have with men and with touch. How This is Achieved In Martial Arts: Chances are the studio you are in has cultivated a space in which there is deep respect, a focused work ethic and a deep understanding of what it means to listen and practice well within the group. This adds to the ability to have a safe relationship with any practice partner you may be working with. When we feel safe and there is trust the ability to work through things that are triggering or intense can happen. It may be slow. It may come in bursts. But happen it does. Because, when we touch one another, it isn’t to have power over the other person like the distorted power dynamics in society. It is to practice power and skill in a healthy way. It is to practice touch in a healthy non-sexualized way. It is to cultivate what healthy connection is and healthy boundaries are. All things that serve us well in the real world. Therapeutic Benefits of Touch: Grappling sports like Brazilian Jui Jitsu have a lot of deep pressurized touch. Deep pressure in a healthy way actually activates our vagus nerve and has positive cardiovascular effects. There is a reason I joke that Brazilian Jui Jitsu is just fancy hugging- it mimics hugging in a way that is therapeutic even though the game, the intention of the martial art is highly different, the pressurized movement and body contact is deeply therapeutic. Especially for anyone hoping to find a world in which touch can be safe in its active form. Punching and Hitting: When we punch and hit we release qi, aka energy, in a way that is healthy. When we receive a punch or a hit it actually activates our system in a way that lights up our body in a specific way. Engaging in a sport where you know what will happen in regard to getting hit or punched gives you much more control over an otherwise highly violent movement. It can be incredibly empowering to understand and feel this and to know where your edge is and how and when to keep going. IT’S NOT JUST A GAME IT’S A GATEWAY And the gifts of walking through the gateway are: Incredibly deep, trusted relationships to a group of people who feel like family. Meaningful relationships can greatly increase mental health and help with anxiety and depression resulting in a sense of positive stability and tools to deal with hard emotions. Increased Cognitive Function, Executive Brain Function, Memory, Focus and Creativity. Higher Confidence and self-esteem. Healed relationship to touch. Easier ability to clearly, compassionately and effectively communicate. Healed relationship to other women. Empowered sense of self. Physical, emotional and mental strength. Better Mindfulness and Meditative awareness and function. Physical fitness in a way that our bodies were designed for. And. The. List. Goes. On. So yes. Let me say it just one more time. Women in martial arts is NOT about self-defense. It IS about Self-Empowerment. IF YOU ARE LOCAL TO ITHACA Come practice the grappling art of Brazillian Jui Jitsu with me and check out Ithaca BJJ: https://www.ithacabjjschool.com Matt Lee is an incredible teacher and the community is phenomenal! Matt is brilliant and knows what he is talking about. He encourages a relaxed but focused environment that creates a lot of space for fun and encourages a deep passion for Brazilian Jui Jitsu in a way that is unparalleled to anyone I have seen. He is a brilliant martial artist and the way that he shares his knowledge and gifts are incredible. CHECK IT OUT! Other Forms and Teachers In Ithaca: Internal Martial Arts: No better teacher than Bryan Isacks who has a deep passion and joy for what he teaches. He can be contacted for private Bagua lessons which is an internal martial arts based on qigong and neigong. As a teacher he is deeply compassionate and kind. He sparks excitement for martial arts and encourages curiosity. He is also highly detailed in his approach to sharing knowledge about forms and execution of those forms. Beyond that he is an incredible acupuncturist. Contact Bryan here: http://taohealingarts.org External Striking based Martial Arts: Centerline Martial Arts and Fitness is a great place to train and focus on your strength as you aquire skills through Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kun Do as well as Kuntao Silat and Kickboxing. Lead teacher Collin Lieberman has a wealth of knowledge about physical fitness and is gentle and kind in his approach making it a great and fun place to train! Check out their studio here: https://www.centerlinestrong.com A NOTE ABOUT GENDER: As I do not identify as trans, non-binary or anything other than a Cis, straight women I can not speak accurately to those experiences. What I can say is that anyone in our society who has been targeted, oppressed, marginalized or harmed, my hope is that when those folx step into a studio they get to experience the empowering effects of being heard, processing their fire in ways that empower them and are given safe supportive space to do so. Side Note For Studios: Let’s also make a habit of asking people their pronouns and sharing our own. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Elizabeth Seldin is a trained physical theater artist, dancer, certified yoga teacher, martial artist, and qigong practitioner. She is the Artistic Director, Lead Theater Teacher and Content Creator for Clockmaker Arts; a theatrical training and performance company that focuses on the notion “healthy artists make great art” cultivating safe space, consent based and body awareness practices that support artists. She has received teaching awards and grants for her work in theater and with children. To learn more about Elizabeth please visit Clockmakerarts.com

While in her last year of study at Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm, Lina Forsgren teamed up with her friend Ellen Subraian to form an agency. It’s not an unheard of story; former students with a shared creative sensibility and professional outlook open new businesses together all the time. Yet Forsgren and Subraian also came together out of ideological necessity, rejecting what they perceived as a stifling agency culture and outmoded way of thinking within the industry. “We couldn’t find any companies that presented an alternative to the homogenous, male-dominated design and communication industry,” explains Forsgren. So they founded Feministiska, a cooperative of graphic designers, illustrators, art directors, programmers, project managers, and copywriters based on a set of feminist and intersectional principles that anchors every aspect of the design process. Four years down the line, and the studio has managed to build up a successful practice and impressive case study for “norm-creative” strategies—a radical method of design thinking currently taking contemporary Swedish design education and practices by storm. Popularized by gender theorists Rebecca Vinthagen and Lina Zavalia and their book Normkreativ (2014), norm-creative is a method adapted from feminist and normative critical theory that asks a designer to question discriminatory standards and values. For years, under the name Settings, Vinthagen and Zavalia have been lecturing and giving workshops at schools and businesses on norm-creative strategies, and how they might lead to inclusive workplaces and diversified forms of visual communication. A norm-creative process begins with a “norm-critical” perspective—an interrogation of the potentially harmful and prejudiced effect of each design decision and aesthetic choice. Critical questions within a graphic context include, “Who or what is represented visually and textually, and who or what is left out?” and “What potential for identification is there in this image?” After identifying a norm and questioning what might make it problematic, the process sees designers developing a strategy for readdressing the problematic element or elements. As an example, Forsgren points to an oft-cited yet still pervasive way discrimination is baked into even the most benign areas of design. “Make up and clothing advertisements often talk of the “Nude,‘ presuming a white person’s skin color,” she says. “Just call it beige!” So how does this theory play out in practice? Most recently, Feministiska used norm-creative strategies to design the identity for Fempowerment, an organization that supports women, girls, and non-binary victims of domestic violence, especially those who are new arrivals to Sweden. Feministiska first decided that illustration would play a key role in humanizing the website and other communications; it felt strongly about collaborating with an illustrator who could relate and empathize with those supported by Fempowerment. The designers landed on Vera Panichewskaja, originally from Belarus, whose resulting illustrations are friendly and open, and whose characters are diverse in age, appearance, ethnicity, and ability. In line with norm-creative thinking, the set addresses those less visible in mainstream communications and ensures that marginalized people can identify with the drawings. For the web design, Feministiska chose a block structure for easy navigation. Fempowerment’s help-line number is prioritized in a large font at the top of the page; an alerting pink button floats at the bottom right hand reading “panic exit button,” which will take the visitor to Google’s homepage immediately if their abuser unexpectedly enters the room. Its design is welcoming in its color choice but doesn’t overtly advertising the website’s purpose (a strategy not dissimilar to that used historically by designers of publications for sexual assault victims, as explored by Interference Archive’s Take Back the Fight exhibition last year). Another project in which Feministiska have used norm-creative strategies was in branding and developing the website for The Unstraight Museum. The online platform allows LGBTQI people to share personal stories by linking their memories to images of objects. Clicking on one of the objects on the homepage takes the user to the text of a personal story that accompanies it. But instead of dictating the order of the content—and therefore the experience of reading that content—Feministiska designed the site so that the user can move each object on the screen themselves, placing each into a spatial hierarchy of their choice. Whereas a typical website might have still blocks that dictate a reading, Feministiska’s flexible system encourages a plurality of experiences. The same sense of fluidity and inclusion is emphasized by design choices ranging from the Pride Flag-inspired color palette to the fonts, which are all designed by female type-designers. Feministiska often works primarily with fonts by women, sourcing them using Typequality, the project by Kimberly Ihre that lists women-created typefaces. In its manifesto, Feministiska emphasize that it avoids static designs and embraces movement across all of the identity systems it creates. “An identity should have a strong core but also be able to change and morph to represent and speak to different people,” says Forsgren. “It’s a way of building design that is more open and welcoming.” Organizing a non-hierarchical cooperative company that makes collective decisions requires patience and a committed effort bent on dismantling existing systems, as the Women’s Center for Creative Work’s recently published A Feminist Organization’s Handbook makes especially clear. For Feministiska, logistical hurdles are made simpler by the fact that each member of its cooperative is a specialist in their specific field and so takes responsibility for their particular area of expertise. The ten members collaborate on a freelance basis, making practical decisions together via lengthy discussions over Slack. Separately, individuals also have their own practices and projects; Forsgren is a freelance graphic designer for example, taking on projects like the London-based ethical fashion webstore Birdsong, which boasts an ethos of “no sweatshops, no Photoshop.” While many studios and designers identify as feminist, Feministiska builds its intersectional feminist politics directly into its mission and mode of operation. As with any projects that have a feminist core and an online presence, it’s been met with hateful comments online, but also celebratory praise for its inclusive politics. Client interest has also rapidly grown, though Forsgren points out that one of the most important decisions for the studio is to work with those whose message they can support in good conscience. “Today, compared with when we began, there are more and more agencies working with norm-critical strategies, and with feminism as a foundation,” says Forsgren. “They keep emerging and, at least in Stockholm, the more traditional agencies need to keep up with those values. Ultimately, there are no excuses left. You can always practice feminism and work for equality.”

The Mystic Felines Collection by Machines for Freedom and Dioscvri is a collaborative garment and gear collection featuring a hand-carved block design. The Mystic Felines Collection consists of a long sleeve shirt, a short-sleeve shirt, a cap, water bottle and scarf. Dioscvri is a women-owned and operated art studio dedicated to creating art pieces in a sustainable fashion. The collection is a nod to strong women (cis and trans). And, non-binary and gender non-conforming folks, who forge their own path. Additionally, the print’s artwork features symbols of power, savvy intellect, strength, and agility. The powerful athletes, adventurers, and change-makers who are the Machines For Freedom community link to these concepts. All tees are 100% organic cotton. Manufactured in Los Angeles, California, the collection is available now. It includes the Mystic Felines Tee in short sleeve (MSRP $68) and long sleeve (MSRP $78), Mystic Felines Cycling Cap ($35), Mystic Felines Handkerchief ($30) and the Mystic Felines Bottle Set ($25). The Dioscvri x Machines collab was inspired by the power each and every one of us possesses. Said Jenn Kriske, founder of Machines For Freedom. “Sometimes it shows up loudly and boldly. Other times it manifests with quiet and steady determination. This collaboration with Dioscrvi is the embodiment of the power and strength I see in the Machines community, and to celebrate that collective power.” Well said. With this in mind, the collection shipped to me in a nifty media box too. That was a nice touch.…

This workshop will be run over the course of two evenings: Tuesday, February 13th from 6:00pm - 9:00pm and Thursday, February 15th from 6:00pm - 9:00pm. Who is this for? Our Ladies Learning Code workshops offer female-identified and male-identified, trans, and non-binary adults hands-on, project-based learning experiences that are designed to give beginners the skills and confidence they need to become digital creators. None! This workshop is for absolute beginners!

Kenya is one of 32 countries in Africa that criminalise homosexuality. People who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) are frequently stigmatised, shamed and assaulted. The hashtags calling for action against the murder of queer people – like the most recent #JusticeForSheila – continue to trend on social media. We asked gender studies professor Awino Okech to tell us about the state of homophobic violence against queer Kenyans – and what needs to be done about it. Who is Sheila Lumumba and what is #JusticeForSheila? Sheila Lumumba was a 25-year-old non-binary lesbian (they did not identify as either a woman or a man) who was found dead in Karatina, north of Nairobi, on 17 April 2022. Lumumba was reportedly raped and murdered in the most gruesome manner. #JusticeForSheila is a hashtag that mobilises public engagement on the murder of queer people in Kenya generally and calls for public accountability for Sheila’s murder. This hashtag is part of a history of social media organising in Kenya around the death of women, sex workers and queer people such as #JusticeforSharon, #JusticeforJoash and #Justiceforericachandra. Social media and Twitter in particular have become an important space for pursuing societal accountability in an environment where some lives are deemed disposable and receive limited attention in the justice system. How prevalent are such attacks in Kenya? In a hostile environment for queer people, documentation from civil society organisations only captures part of the story. The Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya reports that “in Kenya, 53% of LGBTQ+ people are physically assaulted – that’s every second person.” Anecdotal evidence from media reports points to a pattern of attacks that range from murder and sexual assault to other forms of physical attacks and threats. In 2021, at least three reports were captured in mainstream media that involved either murder or suspicious deaths. Last year a transgender woman was murdered, and their body dumped on the streets in Nairobi. In the same year, a Ugandan refugee died from burn injuries associated with an attack on a group of queer refugees at Kakuma refugee camp and a peer educator with a queer organisation in Mombasa was found dead in his apartment. In 2020, a queer activist was found dead in her apartment under what were deemed suspicious circumstances. Another key feature of homophobia against queer people in Kenya involves the persistent threat of homelessness if their sexual orientation is “discovered” by family or owners of rental property. It is important, that in reading about queer death and violence we recognise the class disaparities that shape how people experience homophobia and transphobia. Do Kenya’s anti-LGBTI laws enable the attacks? What are described as “anti-homophobic laws” are in fact relics from the colonial era in the Kenyan penal code. Indeed, the 2019 Repeal162 case in Kenya was a direct effort by queer organisations to challenge these provisions in the penal code. Section 162 and 165 of the Kenyan penal code criminalise what is referred to as “carnal knowledge against the order of nature”, which is often assumed to target same sex partners. The penalties range from 14 to 5 years imprisonment respectively. These laws have since independence been used by the government to define African-ness and African culture in heterosexual and patriarchal terms thus justifying and cushioning violence. What social forces drive the attacks? The basis for attacks springs from two things. The first are ideas about how gender is governed in society. This is anchored in patriarchy, a system that distributes power between women and men, girls and boys unequally by privileging men and prescribing accompanying roles, behaviour and expected norms. The second is the assumption that heterosexuality is the only way we can understand or experience sexuality. People who deviate from these societal prescriptions become targets of violence. To understand transphobia and homophobia, we must return to how societies think about (or refuse to think about) gender and sexuality and the structures of power that benefit from this refusal. The logic that informs homophobia and transphobia is the same one that underpins femicide and violence against women. For example, the murder of Sharon Otieno, a young university student, animated conversations about death and violence as justifiable actions against young women who go against the norm by engaging in sexual relationships with older men. The same logic was present in the 2013 case of Rachel Shebesh, a member of parliament, who was slapped in public by the then Nairobi governor for daring to pursue the rights of unpaid city council workers. What can be done about the problem? There are three possible ways to answer this. First, if you believe in the justice system as an effective mechanism to address injustice in societies, then strengthening the response of the legal and policing system to these attacks and deaths is one way to deal with the problem. Two, for those who see legal and policing systems as fundamentally flawed because they punish rather than restore relations, the answer is to build movements that keep targeted communities safe. Third, the long term, often difficult work of conscientising communities remains an important route to societal transformation and informs action one and two above.

JK Rowling refuted allegations that she is transphobic while returning a Ripple of Hope award to the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights organisation. Rowling announced she is giving back the honour after Kerry Kennedy, daughter of the late senator and president of the human rights nonprofit, shared her “profound disappointment” in the author’s remarks on trans rights. Kerry Kennedy released a statement on August 3, eight months after Rowling received the award for her work on behalf of children. She joined previous honourees including Barack Obama, Desmond Tutu and Hillary Clinton. “I have spoken with JK Rowling to express my profound disappointment that she has chosen to use her remarkable gifts to create a narrative that diminishes the identity of trans and non-binary people, undermining the validity and integrity of the entire transgender community,” she wrote, citing Rowling’s tweets and essay on trans lives, as well her liking a tweet “that opposed a bill to ban conversion therapy”. Kennedy rejected what she understands Rowling’s position to be: that sex as assigned at birth “is the primary and determinative factor of one’s gender, regardless of one’s gender identity”. “The science is clear and conclusive: Sex is not binary,” she continued. More from PinkNews “Trans rights are human rights. JK Rowling’s attacks upon the transgender community are inconsistent with the fundamental beliefs and values of RFK Human Rights and represent a repudiation of my father’s vision.”ADVERTISING JK Rowling can’t keep Robert Kennedy award in good conscience. In response, Rowling wrote Thursday (August 27): “The statement incorrectly implied that I was transphobic, and that I am responsible for harm to trans people. “As a longstanding donor to LGBT charities and a supporter of trans people’s right to live free of persecution, I absolutely refute the accusation that I hate trans people or wish them ill, or that standing up for the rights of women is wrong, discriminatory, or incites harm or violence to the trans community.” She continued by repeating her claim that she “feels nothing but sympathy towards those with gender dysphoria”, and her baseless allegation that “an ethical and medical scandal is brewing” regarding gender-affirming therapies. Rowling ended her statement by disagreeing with the Kennedy organisation’s stance on trans rights: that they do not clash with women’s rights. “The thousands of women who’ve got in touch with me disagree, and, like me, believe this clash of rights can only be resolved if more nuance is permitted in the debate.” She concluded: “I am deeply saddened that RFKHR has felt compelled to adopt this stance, but no award or honour, no matter my admiration for the person for whom it was named, means so much to me that I would forfeit the right to follow the dictates of my own conscience.”

"The episode highlights that Interaction, collaboration, and helping every team member reach their potential is what makes agile work" - Terlya Hunt In this episode join Terlya Hunt - Head of People & Culture at Easy Agile and Caitlin Mackie - Marketing Coordinator at Easy Agile, as they chat with Jazmin Chamizo and Rakesh Singh. Jazmin and Rakesh are principal contributors of the recently published report "Reimagining Agility with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion". The report explores the intersection between agile, business agility, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I), as well as the state of inclusivity and equity inside agile organizations. “People are the beating heart of agile. If people are not empowered by inclusive and equitable environments, agile doesn't work. If agile doesn't work, agile organisations can't work." 📌 What led to writing the report 📌 Where the misalignments lie 📌 What we can be doing differently as individuals and business leaders Be sure to subscribe, enjoy the episode 🎧 Listen now on: Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining us for another episode of the Easy Agile podcast. I'm Terlya, People & Culture business partner in Easy Agile. And I'm Caitlin, marketing coordinator at Easy Agile. And we'll be your hosts for this episode. Before we begin, Easy Agile would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land from which we broadcast today, the Wodiwodi people of the Dharawal nation, and pay our respects to the elders past, present and emerging, and extend the same respect to any Aboriginal people listening with us today. Today, we'll be joined by Jazmin Chamizo and Rakesh Singh. Both Jazmin and Rakesh are principal contributors and researchers of Reimagining Agile for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, a report that explores the intersection between Agile business agility and diversity equity and inclusion published in May, 2021. We're really excited to have Jazmin and Rakesh join us today. So let's jump in. So Jazmin and Rakesh, thank you so much for joining us today. We're so excited to be here with you both today, having the conversation. So I suppose today we'll be unpacking and asking you questions in relation to the report, which you were both principal contributors of, Reimagining Agility with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. So for our audience tuning in today who may be unfamiliar the report, Jazmin, could you please give us a summary of what it's all about? Absolutely. And first of all, thank you so much for having us here today and for your interest in our report. Just to give you a little bit of background of our research and how everything started out, the founder and the owner of the Business Agility Institute, Evan Leybourn, he actually attended a talk given by Mark Green. And Mark who used to be, I mean, an Agile coach, he was referring to his not very positive experience with Agile. So this actually grabbed the attention of Evan, who was a big advocate of agility, as all of us are. And they decided to embark upon this adventure and do some research trying to probe on and investigate the potential relationship between diversity, equity and inclusion and Agile. So we had, I mean, a couple of hypothesis at the beginning of the research. And the first of hypothesis was that despite the positive intent of agility and despite the positive mindset and the values of Agile, which we all share, Agile organizations may be at the risk of further excluding marginalized staff and customers. And the second hypothesis that we had was that organizations who actually embed diversity, equity and inclusion directly into their Agile transformation and then strategy may outperform those organizations who don't. So we actually spent more than a year interviewing different participants from many different countries. And we actually ended up seeing that those hypothesis are true. And today, we would like to share with you, I mean, part of this research and also need to encourage you to read the whole report and also contribute to this discussion. Amazing. And Jazmin, you touched on this a little bit in your answer just then, but I guess, Rakesh, could you tell us a bit more about what was the inspiration and catalyst for writing this report? Yeah. So thanks for inviting once again. And it's a great [inaudible 00:03:51] talk about this beautiful project. The BAI was actually into this activity for a long time, and I happened to hear one of the presentation from Evan and this presentation actually got me interested into business agility and associated with DEI. So that was one thing. And second thing when Evan talked about this particular project, invited all of us, I had been with transformation in my job with Siemens for about three decades for a very long time. And we found that there were always some people, whenever you do transformation, they were not interested or they were skeptical. "We are wasting our time." And okay, that was to be expected, but what was surprising that even though Agile came up in a big way and people thought, "Okay. This is a solution to all our miseries," even though there was a focus on culture, culture was still our biggest issue. So it appeared to me that we are not really addressing the problem. And as Jazmin talk about our goal and our hypothesis, and that was attractive to me that maybe this project will help me to understand why some [inaudible 00:05:12] to get the people on board in some of the Agile transformation. Thank you. That was awesome. I think it definitely comes through in the report that this is a topic that's near and dear to all of you. And in the report you mentioned, there's a lack of consensus and some misalignment in defining some of these key terms. So thought to frame the conversation today, Jazmin, could you walk us through some of these key definitions, agility, diversity, equity, and inclusion. That's a great question now, because over the last year, there's been a big boom on different topics related to diversity, equity and inclusion, I mean, especially with the Black Lives Matter movement and many different events that have affected our society in general. And with the rise of social movements, I mean, there's been a lot of talk in the area of diverse, equity and inclusion. And when we talk about agility, equality, equity and inclusion and diversity, I mean, it's very important to have a very clear understanding of what we mean with this terms. Agility is the mindset. I mean, it's really about having the customer, people, at the very center of the organization. So we're talking about agile ways of working. We're talking about more collaborative ways of working. So we can bring the best out of people and then innovate and put products into the market as fast as possible. Now, when we were thinking about agility and this whole idea of putting people at the very core and customer at the very core of organization so we can respond in a very agile and nimble way to the challenges that our society presents at the moment, we found a lot of commonalities and a lot of similarities with diversity, equity and inclusion. However, when we talk about diversity, equity and inclusion, there's some nuances in the concepts that we need to understand. Diversity really refers to the mix. It refers to numbers, to statistics, all the differences that we have. There's a very long list of types of diversity. Diversity of gender, sexual orientation, ways of our thinking, our socioeconomic status, education and you name it, several types of diversity. Now, when we talk about equality, I mean, we're talking about applying the same resources and support structures, I mean, for all. However, equality does not actually imply the element of equity, which is so important when we talk about now creating inclusive environments. With equity, we're talking about the element of fair treatment, we're talking about social justice, we're talking about giving equal access to opportunities for all. So it's pretty much about leveling the filed, so all those voices can be part of the conversation and everybody can contribute to the decision making in organizations and in society. So it's that element of fair treatment, it's that element of social justice that the element of equity has to contribute and that we really need to pay attention to. And inclusion is really about that act of welcoming people in the organization. It's about creating all the conditions so people, everybody, can thrive and everybody can succeed in an organization. So I think it's very important, I mean, to have those definitions very clear to get a better understanding of how they overlap and how there's actually, I mean, a symbiotic relationship between these concepts. Yeah. Great. And I think just building on that, interaction, collaboration and helping every team member reach their potential is what makes Agile work. So your report discusses that there are lots of overlaps in those values with diversity, equity and inclusion. So I think, Rakesh, what are those key overlaps? It seems those qualities and traits go hand in hand. So how do we embrace them? So if you see most of the organization which are big organization and being for about two decades or so, and you compare them with the startup organization, so in the traditional setup, normally people are working in their functional silos, so to say. And so the Agile transformation is taken care by one business function. It could be a quality team. It could be a transmission team. And DEI normally is a domain of an HR or people who enter the organization. And the issue is that sometime these initiatives, they are handled separately and the amount of collaboration that's required does not happen, whereas in a startup company, they don't have these kind of divisions. So looking that as a basis, what we need to look at is that the organization should be sensitize that they work together on some of these projects and look at the underlying what is the commonality, and we can possibly either help each other or complement each other, because one example is, if I can give, it's very easy to justify an Agile transformation relating to a business outcome, okay, but any people related change is a very long-term change. So you cannot relate that to a business outcome in a shorter timeframe. So I call Agile and DEI as symbiotic. An Agile can be helped by a DEI process and DEI itself can be justified by having an Agile project. So they are symbiotic. Now, what is the common thing between the two? So there are four items. I mean, there are many things which are common, but four things which I find are most important. Yeah? The first thing is respect for people, like Jazmin talked about being inclusive. So respect for people, both Agile and DEI, that's a basis for that. And make people feel welcomed. So no matter what diversity they come from, what background they come from, they're feeling welcome. Yeah? The second part is the work environment. So it's a big challenge to create some kind of a psychological safety. And I think people are now organizing, the management is now understanding that they think that they have provided a safe place, but people are still not feeling safe for whatever reason there. That's one thing. The other thing is that whatever policies you write, documentation, policies or announcement, the basic things that people see, is it fair and is it transparent? Yeah? So I used to always see that if there are two people given bonus, if one person get 5% more, no matter how big is the amount, there's always felt that, "I have not got my due." Yeah? So be fair and be transparent. And the last one is that you have to invest in people. The organization need to invest in people. The organization need to invest in enabling them with opportunity to make use of new opportunity, and also grow and through learning. So these are four things that I can see, which actually can help both being an agile, and also having inclusive environment in the company. The report mentions that some of those opportunities to combine agile and diversity equity inclusion are being overlooked. Why do you think this is? So I think that the reason why they're being overlooked is that, it's basically, educating the leaders. So it's just, if I'm in the agile world, I do not really realize that there are certain people related aspect. I think, if I just make an announcement, people will participate. Okay? So that's the understanding. On the other side, we got an input from quite a few responders saying that some of the DEI projects are basically words, are not really sincere about it. It's a waste of time. "I'm being forced to do certain training. I'm forced." So the sincerity part, sometime there's a lacking, so people have to be educated more at a leadership level and on at a employee level. I think a really interesting call out in your research is that many agile processes and rituals are built to suit the majority, which excludes team members with diverse attributes. Jazmin, what are some of those rituals? Yeah, that's a great question. Now, if you think about agile and agile rituals and for example, I mean, daily standups, a lot of those rituals have not actually thought about diversity, or the design for diversity and inclusion. I mean, agile is a very on the spot and is a very, who can talk, type of rituals. But there's a lot of people, I mean, who might need more time to process information before they can provide inputs, so fast. So that requirement of processing information or giving input in a very fast manner, in daily standups, that might be overlooking the fact that a lot of people, with a different type of thought processing styles or preferences may need more time to carry out those processes. So that would be, I mean, number one; the fact that it's very on the spot and sometimes only the loud voices can be heard. So we might be losing a lot of opportunities, trying to get feedback and input from people with different thinking styles. Now, also, if you think about organizations in different countries, where English is not the native language of a lot of people, they may also feel a lot of disadvantage. This happens a lot in multinational organizations, where people whose, you know, first language is English, they feel more confident and they're the ones who practically may monopolize now the conversations. So, for people who's first language is not English, I mean, they might feel at a disadvantage. If you think about older employees who sometimes may not be part of an agile transformation, they might also feel that are not being part of the team and they may not have the sense of belonging, which is so important in an agile transformation and for any organization. Another example, I mean, would be people, who because of their religious belief, I mean, they need maybe to pray five times in a day, and I mean maybe a morning stand up might mean very difficult to adapt to, or even people with disabilities or language differences, they feel a little intimidated by agile. So there's a lot of different examples. And Doug report actually collects several lived experiences, by the respondents that we interview that illustrate how agile has been designed for the majority and for a more dominant type of culture and that highlights the need to redesign many of these rituals and many of these practices. Yeah, I think just building on that in your recommendations, you mentioned consciously recreating and redesigning these agile ways of working. What are some of the ways we can rethink and consciously create these? Mm-hmm (affirmative). Well, the good news is that, during our research, and during our field work and the conversations that we had with some organizations mean there's a lot of companies and organizations that have actively implementing them different types of practices, starting from the way they're managing their meetings, their rituals, their stand ups, giving people an opportunity to communicate in different ways. Maybe giving some room for silence, so people can process their information or providing alternative channels for people to communicate and comment either in writing or maybe the next day. So it doesn't have to be right there on the spot., and they don't feel under that type of pressure. Now, another example would be allowing people, I mean, to also communicate in their native language. I mean, not necessarily using English, I mean, all the time as, I mean, the main language. I think it's also important for people to feel that it can contribute with their own language, and also starting to analyze, I mean, the employee experience. We're talking about maybe using non-binary options in recruitment processes or in payroll. So, I mean, starting to be more inclusive in the different practices and analyzing, I mean, the whole employee journey. I mean, those are some examples that we can start implementing to creating a more inclusive environments. And the one that is the most important for me is encouraging leadership to intentionally design inclusive work environments through the use of, like creating environments that are really where people feel safe, where they have this. Psychologically safe. The whole section on exploring and challenging existing beliefs is so interesting. And I would definitely encourage everyone listening to go and read it. I could ask you so many questions on this section alone, because I think it was full of gold, and honestly, my copy is highlighted and scribbled and I read it and reread it, there was so much to absorb. The first thing that really stood out to me as a HR practitioner in an agile organization was this belief that focusing on one or two areas of diversity first is a good start. And from your research, what you actually found was that survey respondents found this method ineffective and actually harmful for DEI. And in your research, you also reference how important it is to be intentional and deliberate. So I guess, how do we balance this need for focus and creating change with these findings that being too narrow in our focus can actually be harmful? Might throw this one to you, Rakesh. So actually, thanks to the reform data report, very interesting, in fact, we presented to quite a few groups. And one of the thing that I observed when we are talking about some of the beliefs and challenges, there were immediate to response say, "Hey, we do experience in our area." So, what we realized is that this whole aspect, as Jazmin talked about, many dimensions. So if you look at inclusiveness, and diversity and equity across organization, there are many streams, and many triggers. As diversity, we understand, okay, in very limited way, it may be gender, or it may be religion or country, but actually, it's much more in a working environment, there are many dynamics which are [inaudible 00:22:15]. So the challenges, what we saw was that if you pick up a project in a very sincere way and say, "I'll solve one problem, okay?" Let me say I solve problem of a region or language, yeah? Now the issue is that most of the time, we look at the most dominant and identify that problem. So what happens is that you actually create an inequity right there, because there are other people they are suffering. They are, I won't say, "Suffering," but they're influenced by other factors of diversity and they felt, "Okay, nobody's really caring for me." Yeah? So you have to look at in a very holistic picture, and you have to look at in a way that everybody is on board, yeah? So you may not be able to find solution to every specific problem, but getting everybody on board, and let people work in some of the environment or either psychological safety or the policy level, so create an environment where everybody can participate, and issues can be different so they can bring up their own issues, and make sure they feel that they they're cared for. And that's what we actually observed. And the second belief I thought was really interesting to call out was that this belief that we will adapt to somebody's beliefs if they ask. And your research found that not everyone is able to disclose their needs, no matter how safe the working environment, so that by relying on disclosure is the first step in the process,. Organizations will always be a step behind and, and also place the burden of change on marginalized groups. What are some things we can do, Rakesh, to remove this pressure and to be more proactive? So there are a couple of things that we need to look at when we talk to people, actually, they discussed about the problem, and they also recommended what could be right, we are doing it. And we also discussed among ourselves. So one thing which was very clear that there was a little doubt about the sincerity of leadership. And so, we felt that any organization where leader was very proactive, like, for example, what is the basic reason, if I have a problem, if I talk about it, I am always worried what will happen when I disclose it? And is it the right issue to talk about it? So, these are the questions would inhibit a lot of people not to talk about it at all. So, that's where the proactive leadership can help people to overcome their inhibition and talk about it, and unless they discuss about it, you'll never know if there's a problem. So, that's the one thing. So, that's the approach. So there are a couple things that we could also recommend, is proactive leadership to start with, and something which can be done is there are a lot of tools available for the managers, yeah? People leaders, I would call it. Things like coaching, so you have a grow model where you can coach an individual person, even as a manager or as an independent coach, then having a facilitation techniques. When I started my career, they were not a training on facilitation, just going to the room and conduct the meeting. But they're very nice tools, facilitation techniques, which can be brought out to get people to participate, and so things like that can be very useful for being proactive and drawing people out of their inhibition. That definitely is with the leader. That's why we call it servant leadership. It is their job to initiate and take the lead, and get people out of their shell. It ties quite nicely into the next question I had in mind. You both actually today have mentioned a lot of challenging beliefs, and calling things out. We need to build this awareness, and create safe spaces, and create psychological safety in our teams. What are some examples of how we can create safe spaces for these conversations? The examples of someone creating safe places is ... I would say that educating people and the leaders. What I have seen is that if the leadership team recognizes that and educates the managers and other people ... You need to actually train people at different level, and create an environment that everybody's participating in the decision making, and they're free to make choices within, of course, the constraint of the business. The focus, where I would put it, is that there are many educational programs and people would like to educated, because I normally felt that I was never trained for being a good leader. There was never training available. But these days we find that a lot of educational programs highlighting a various issue, like microaggression, unconscious bias, psychological safety. People should understand it. Things like being empathetic. These terminologies are there, but I find that people don't really appreciate it and understand it to the extent that they need to do, even though they are in a leadership position. Thanks for sharing, Rakesh. I really love what you mentioned around proactive leadership, there. Your research found that 47% of respondents believed organizations who achieved this unity of Agile, and diversity, and equity, and inclusion will reap the benefits and exceed competitors. Jazmin, what did these organizations do differently? Yes. That's a great question. Actually this ties very nicely with idea of servant leadership, inclusive leadership, and how leaders have this incredible challenge of creating workspaces that are psychologically safe, as Rakesh just mentioned. This is really everybody's responsibility, but it has a lot to do with a very strong leadership. We found that several other organizations that we interviewed, they had a very strong leadership team, that they were really committed with diversity, equity, and inclusion in their agile transformation, and they were able to put DEI at the very core of the organization. That's number one, having a very strong leadership team that's actually committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and that does not perceive DEI efforts as isolated actions or initiatives. This is something that we're seeing a lot nowadays. As a DEI coach and consultant, sometimes you see, unfortunately, several organizations that only try very isolated and very ... They don't have long-term strategy. What we have seen that actually works is having this committed leadership team that has been able to put DEI at the very core of their strategy. Also a team that has been able to serve as an advocate in diversity, equity, and inclusion, and agility, and they're able to have advocates throughout the organization. It's not just one person's job. This calls for the effort of the whole organization and individuals to commit to DEI and be actively part of the agile transformation. Also, I would say, leaders that embrace mistakes and embrace errors throughout the process. This is something that came up a lot during our conversations with people in different organizations, that in many cultures and in many organizations, mistakes are punished. They're not perceived as a source of opportunity. One of the tips or best practices would be having leaders who are able to show the rest of their organization that mistakes are actually learning opportunities, that you can try things out of the box, and you can be more innovative. That even if you fail, you're not going to be punished, or there won't be any consequences because of that, and, quite on the country, that this is actually a learning opportunity that we can all thrive on. Yeah. I completely agree. What benefits did they see? They definitely saw a greater working environment. This is something that was quoted a lot during our interviews with respondents, that individuals saw that they had the chance to try new and innovative ideas. Definitely greater innovation, more creativity. Business morale actually ultimately went up, because they saw that the organization was actually embracing different perspectives, even if they fail. This definitely called for greater innovation. I would say innovation, more creativity, and a better working environment. Absolutely new products, new ideas. That if you think about the current circumstances with COVID, this is what organizations have to aim at. New products, more innovation to face all the challenges that we have nowadays. Powerful things for the listeners to think about. Here at Easy Agile, our mission is to help teams be agile. Because we believe for too long the focus has been on doing, when the reality is that Agile is a constant journey of becoming. There's a specific part in the report that really stood out to me that I'd like to read. "Agility is a journey with no fixed endpoint. The road towards creating diverse, equitable, and inclusive environments is the same. Agility and DEI can be pursued, but never fully achieved. They are a process of ongoing learning, reflection, and improvement. A team cannot enter the process of improving business agility or DEI with a mindset towards completion, and any model that unites Agile and DEI will ultimately be ineffective if those taking part are not ready to embark on an ongoing quest for self improvement." I absolutely love this quote. Rakesh, let's explore this a little bit further. What more can you tell me about this? Actually there's an interesting thing that I would like to share to start with. We wanted to look for a organization who would help us interview their people and talk to their people. The way organizations responded ... Some responded, "Shall I allow my people to talk to somebody? It could be a problem." But then we got other organizations, they were actually chasing us. "We would like to be part of this, and we would like to get our people interviewed." They were very positive about the whole thing. I happened to talk to the DEI corporate manager, a lady, and the way she was talking was ... She was so much, I would say, passionate about the whole thing, even though at least I felt that they were very high level of awareness of DEI. But the quest for learning and finding out what they could do better was quite astonishing and quite positive. That's where my answer is, is that ... If you look at the current pandemic, and people realized that, "Okay. We have to work from home," initially some people found it great. It's a great thing. Work-life balance. "I can attend my home." But after some time they found it's a problem. There's other problem. The point is that, in any organization, where it's a business or a social life, or people, it just keeps changing. There's no method or policy which is going to be forever valid. There's a continuous learning process that we have to get in. What we need to do is focus on our goal that we want to achieve. Depending on the environment, that's what we call business agility. Now bring it to people as well, because it is a people ... We talk about customer centricity, and all that. But finding it's the people who are going to deliver whatever organization want to. You have to see how their lives are getting impacted. We are discussing about getting people back to office. The problem is that, a city like Bangalore, it's a very costly city and very clouded city. People have gone to their hometown and they can work from there. Now, to bring them back, you have to approve them back again. To cut short the explanation, our life is changing, constantly changing, and technology and everything is putting ... People have to look at methods and approach of how they can be adapting themself on a continuous basis. Learning is a continuous process. In fact, when I got into Agile and people ask me, "How many years of experience you have?" I generally say five years, because anything that I did before five years is actually the wrong practice. You have to be continuously learning, and DEI and Agile is no stranger to this situation. I love that. I think fostering that continuous learning environment is really key. I suppose, on that, a few of the recommendations from the report are centered around getting deeper training and intentional expertise. Jazmin, what further recommendations, or courses, or practitioners are there that people can engage with after this episode? Sure. An important part of our report was a series of recommendations to the entire agile community, and practitioners, to organizations, and agile coaches. You can see that. You could get more specific information in our reports. I would like to encourage all of you to read. Definitely when it comes to agile coaches and consultants, we're encouraging people to learn more about diversity, equity, and inclusion because one of the insights and the learnings we drew from this research is that diversity, equity, and inclusion is not specifically included in the agile world. When we talked to the respondents in many different countries, they did not spontaneously made the connection between agility, Agile, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the more we talk about it, they discovered that, indeed, they were very closely overlapped. There was a symbiotic relationship between them, because you're putting the person and everything that relates to that individual on the very core of the organization, on the transformation. Definitely we do encourage ... Leaders and agile coaches need to start learning more about our DEI, building that proficiency, learning more about unconscious bias and the impact of unconscious bias, and discrimination, and racism that we'll continue to see in organizations. They're more mindful of those voices that are not being heard at the moment in the present conversations. They can learn different techniques or different methods to be more engaging and more inclusive. When it comes to the agile community in general and influencers, it is important to mention that Evan Leybourn, the founder of the Agility Institute, is having at the moment some conversations with important institutions in the agile community, such as the Agile Alliance, because we are looking for ... That's what Gen Z-ers are looking for. There's a big call out there for organizations to embrace this type of transformation, but putting DEI at the very core of the organization. That's what I would like to say. Contribute to the discussion. This is a pilot project. That we are hoping to conduct more research on other DEI areas related to agility. We would like listeners to be part of the conversation, and to contribute with their experience, to improve the state of agility in the current moment. Thank you both so much for joining us today. Thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. I can't wait to see how Agile and diversity, and equity, and inclusion evolves in the future. Thank you. Thank you so much for having us. It's been a pleasure. Thanks a lot to both of you. It was nice to share our experience. Thank you very much.

Identity Nights are student-facilitated conversations for different identity groups within the LGBTQ+ community. If you are interested in joining an Identity Night or learning more, email our Center Director at email@example.com Queer, Trans, Intersex People of Color or QTIPOC is an official FSU Pride affiliate that serves to create a safe and inviting space for queer, trans and intersex people of color in the Tallahassee community. In this safe space, we come together to decolonize our minds, dismantle oppressive systems, support one another and have a good time. Gender Odyssey (G.O.) is an official FSU Pride affiliate that serves as a transgender and non-binary social group. G.O. is intended to create a safe space for trans and non-binary individuals of college age to meet people, have respectful discussions, and enjoy social activities. FSU Pride's Multi+ Identity Night is a bi-weekly meeting (pun intended) for any and all individuals who are attracted to and/or experience more than one gender! This group serves as a means of networking with other multi-identifying individuals, connecting to multi-centric resources on and off FSU's campus, and providing support to those who experience challenges or difficulties related to being a multi-identifying person. For more information, follow @multinightfsu on Instagram or contact firstname.lastname@example.org" FSU Pride's Aro/Ace Identity Night is for any and all individuals wanting to explore and discuss their aromantic/asexual identity and related topics. FSU Pride's DisabiliQT's covers the intersectionality of those who are both LGBTQIA+ and disabled. It is our mission to foster community and create connections with those who experience disabilities and queer/trans identities. Follow us on Facebook at @DisabiliQTsFSU. Out of the House In the Closet (OHIC) FSU Pride's OHIC is an identity night for any students that may or may not be questioning their sexuality and are not out in certain spaces or settings in their lives. Queer Femina Perfecta Queer Femina Perfecta is a night centered around celebrating and building community among between queer womxn and femme individuals.

On Trans Day of Visibility 2021, Luke Pollard MP has released the following statement: Today is the Trans Day of Visibility. Plymouth has a growing trans and non-binary community and I am proud to speak up for trans people in Parliament. As Plymouth’s first out MP I believe I have a special responsibility to provide a platform to amplify the experiences of LGBT people in Plymouth. Trans people remain one of the most discriminated groups in society and despite progress there is an enormous amount of work still needed until trans people can enjoy the same rights and freedom from fear enjoyed by other communities in our city. So today, I wanted to encourage you to do a few things to make Plymouth a safer and more welcoming environment for our city’s trans communities. So here’s five things you can do: - Be an ally. You don’t need to be trans to be supportive of trans rights. You can be an ally, you can create safe and welcoming communities and you can call our hate and discrimination when you see it. I have my pronouns (he/him) on my website and social media bios and encourage others to share their own pronouns to help people feel comfortable – it also shows you are an ally. - Fight for Black, Asian and Ethnic Minorities access to support. People don’t exist in single boxes and that’s the same with trans people too. Just as straight people or gay people or cis-gendered folk aren’t all the same colour, the same height or with the same experiences that’s true of trans communities too. Some trans people face additional discrimination because of their skin colour or background. - Support trans-inclusive education. Age appropriate education on LGBT issues is something that helps our young people understand the rich tapestry and diversity of our society. Helping our young people understand their own feelings, their place in the world and respect and understand others is a vital part of education and that should apply to all aspects of the LGBT community. Trans young people are some of the most likely to try to take their lives. Let’s ensure that our schools are safer places for young LGBT people. - Support better access to healthcare. One of the most common issues raised with me as an MP by trans people is problems accessing healthcare. Long waiting lists for gender clinics, difficulties accessing GP services and refusal of GPs to support trans people are all sadly common problems. Everyone should be able to access healthcare free at the point of need and in 2021 we need all our healthcare practitioners to be trained in trans healthcare and understand how to treat people with respect. There are some amazing healthcare professionals in Plymouth doing this but there are others where more progress is needed. - Support the fight to be protected against conversion therapy. The Government is dragging its feet on its pledge to ban conversion therapy. These are cruel and harmful practices seeking to ‘cure’ LGBT people. There is nothing wrong with being LGBT and there is nothing to cure. I want to see a new law brought forward to ban LGBT conversion therapy. Trans people have been subject to this awful type of abuse and as your MP I want to reassure you that I will vote to ban LGBT conversion therapies. They’re cruel and have no place in the 21st century. I also back the ability of trans people to self ID. Trans people deserve to lead full and free lives in their own gender and identity. But sadly there is too much hate towards trans people and we have a Government still too keen to start a culture war against trans people. I won’t stand for this and will call out hate. The Equality Act, the last piece of legislation passed by the last Labour Government, protected trans people alongside other protected groups. I do not believe there is should be a trade off between one protected group and another. So, today on trans day of visibility please take some steps to make our city and our country a safer and more welcoming place for our trans friends. There is a lot of work still to be done so let’s recommit ourselves to do this. If you have any views of questions please let me know #plymouth. This is an area I know not everyone is familiar with so happy helping answer some questions if that’s useful.

The topic of feminism is one that has taken many forms over the years. Women and men alike are constantly engaging in conversation about the role of women in society and in the art world. However, there are contentions within the art world for many female artists. Curator Ariella Starkman wanted to keep that mind when organising the Bad Girls Club in Toronto. We talked to Starkman about her experience with Bad Girls Club and the challenges involved in striving to create a unifying space. Lola Who: Hi Ariella! Can you tell us about yourself. Ariella: Hi! Im a 23-year-old Capricorn from Toronto, with an affinity for distractions and grapefruit Perrier. I work as an independent curator. People tell me that my life looks really put together on Instagram, which is kind of cool and not at all true. Lola Who: What inspired you to put together Bad Girls Club? Ariella: A couple of things… One was to make an exhibition outside of the white cube of the traditional gallery environment. After studying Art History in Montreal and attending openings back in Toronto, I wanted to create a space to uniquely display works of art in the hopes of bringing together various communities. To challenge, to engage, and to get people talking. Traditional galleries and museums have economic and social limits and I wanted to strive for a space beyond that. A big motivator was to create a platform to actively promote and showcase female-identified artists. The gallery, the art magazine, the art school, the auction house, and the art-history department, which in one part or another make up the art world, have a long way to go before those who identified as female are treated with equal respect as those who identify as male. Artwork by female identified artists are valued at far less than similar artwork by men from the same generation, and galleries are still largely dominated by men. I think that’s crazy? Bad Girls Club also stemmed this hectic breakdown and mild quarter-life crisis. What I was going through was not unique; but no one wanted to talk about it, and worse, friends were sick of hearing about it because they were going through something similar themselves. So, in a way, Bad Girls Club was born out of an active desire to get out of that phase; to investigate how artists I resonate with contended with the various complexities and contentions related to methods of self-love, maintaining independence, and achieving sexual equality within modern relationships. Lola Who: What are some of the challenges you faced as a curator? Ariella: As a curator, you connect cultures, bring elements into proximity with each other, and allow different perspectives to meet. For me, Bad Girls Club was the start of a discussion about the lack of female-identified representation in the art community and about a necessary change in relation to traditional exhibition practices. A discussion is something open-ended, flexible and ongoing. It was not a lecture; it was not a statement, but something that extended beyond the experience of a panel discussion or a three-day exhibit. In the process, I discovered that the conversation could and should have been more inclusive and representative of artists with various backgrounds. Bad Girls Club was by no means representative of all of the lived experiences, histories, and identities of female-identified individuals or feminists, I know I have to push back against my privilege and always do better. After Bad Girls Club, I am reminded me of the importance intersectional feminism and creating spaces that make inclusivity a priority. Im white, upwardly mobile, able-bodied, and cisgendered to which I gain an unquantifiable advantage so I can use my privilege to speak out against the various forms of oppression in the art world. I want to make others who dont see that listen and learn. I want to create spaces to portray unique experiences with vulnerability, honesty, and empathy. OMFG, did I answer the question? All photos by Sydney Allen-Ash Lola Who: Why do you think it is so important to explore feminist discourse, especially in creative industries? Ariella: Not only is it important to engage in feminist discourse in general, but it can act as a vital tool to filter out work and artists who manifest sexist undertones in their practice. Feminist discourse helped me unlearn a lot of the internalized misogyny that I was practicing towards others and towards myself. More than that though, understanding intersectional and transnational feminismwhich insists on a clear examination of the lived experiences that marginalized individuals have to endureis essential to the process of creating anti-oppressive art and achieving equality. For me, and I can’t speak for everyone in the creative industries, issues that affect women, female-identified and non-binary identifying individuals must be considered in order to create valuable and inspiring work. Lola Who: Why the name Bad Girls Club? Ariella: I was thinking of exhibition titles that related to independence, self-love, and sexuality and Bad Girls Club just stuck. To be specific, the name was conceived while hungover driving in a car to Detroit with four of my best friendsin that haze we were babbling on that a “Bad Girl” is someone who doesn’t answer to expectations or stereotypes that a patriarchal society tries to limit and enforce them with. A “Bad Girl” is multi-dimensional; someone who doesnt feel compelled to justify her unique sense of being. Lola Who: What was your aim for the exhibit? Ariella: Bad Girls Club was conceived for femaleidentified artists to represent themselves and their work, by way of exploring themes of sexuality, independence and self-love. It was a necessary space for artists to create their own representation and meaning within the male-dominated art world. Each of the women involved brought their own experiences with regards to female identity. Lola Who: Finally, whats in store for 2016? Are you working on any special projects? Ariella: Im collaborating with Soho House to curate a lecture/discussion/market on self-love. Im so excited for that! Plus, I’m organising another show for the spring. Its going to be in a raw space, way more intimate than the massive factory Bad Girls Club was in. It will have a broader curatorial scope more aligned to Torontos diverse creative community. Still probably only going to work with female-identified artists though. Aside from that, manifesting peace within myself, for real.

Starting on June 26, residents of Washington, D.C. will be able to add “gender-neutral” as a gender identifier on their drivers’ license and state ID. The jurisdiction will join the state of Oregon who previously announced they will also be including the gender-neutral marker on IDs. The option will be available to Oregon drivers and residents in July 2017. We recently spoke with Arli Christian, the State Policy Counsel for the National Center for Transgender Equality about the new policy. Christian works with advocates to modernize name change laws, state ID regulations, and birth certificate licenses. She was a key member of the team who worked closely with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to develop this new policy. “I’m proud to live in D.C. where we have a government that recognizes and respects all identities,” says Christian. Why is this a victory for the LGBTQ and ally communities? The D.C. DMV’s policy is groundbreaking for two reasons. First, it provides a gender-neutral option, an X, to display on a D.C. ID. This is so important for non-binary people, folks who do not identify as male or female, as well as important for anyone who wants additional privacy around their gender. Second, it removes the requirement to have a medical or social services provider sign off on a gender change, because we are the most accurate reporters of our own genders. Do you feel that D.C. will start a domino effect across the country? Washington, D.C. and Oregon are the first two jurisdictions to start issuing gender-neutral markers on state IDs. We hope this will influence other states and start a trend across the country. What would you say to people who don’t understand the concept or think it’s “silly?” Having an ID that accurately reflects who you are is incredibly important to be able to get a job, enroll in school, enter establishments, and otherwise engage in public spaces without unnecessary scrutiny and harassment. A gender-neutral option gives many people the ability to have a more accurate ID to use in their daily lives. What D.C. area resources do people have to change their name and research more about the gender-neutral licenses? We have an FAQ about gender-neutral licenses available on NCTE’s website under resources. Here in D.C. we have a wonderful resource to help folks update their IDs. Whitman-Walker Legal Services runs a free name and gender change clinic once a month to help folks get legal name changes and update the gender markers on their IDs.

Will Evangelical Leaders Succeed in Selling Out the American Church? ( This article is as important today it it was when written in the Summer of last year as we move into the 2020 election cycle -More to come on this important subversive effort from article posted June 2018 ) President Barack Obama & SBC’s ERLC President Russell Moore By Rev Thomas Littleton June 21, 2018 Last April, a group of self-appointed, self-important Evangelicals met at Wheaton College for what some have called a “Trump Bashing” and to determine the future of the Church. The list of attendees was not made available to the Evangelical community, whose future they are deciding, however, one attendee seems to be the designated spokesman. Jim Wallis was in his college days an activist in the radical left Students for a Democratic Society. Wallis later became spiritual adviser to President Obama and served on the Advisory Council to Obama’s Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Wallis’ lifelong political commitments are revelatory. Barack Obama was mentored by none other than William Ayers who was the leader of the 1970’s domestic terrorist Weather Underground, the revolutionary faction of the Students for a Democratic Society, which was discovered to be a Communist front by the FBI. Hillary Clinton, Jim Wallis & Barack Obama Following the Wheaton conference, Wallis wrote a revealing piece, which actually clarifies that the intended “bashing” was not for President Trump but for those Evangelicals who voted for him. Of the three main points discussed at the gathering, all three do mention Trump, but the problem as they see it are the Evangelicals who support or even voted for Trump. This political action, in their view, represented a “collective backsliding” (a term seldom used these days even by Baptists). Evangelicals have embarrassed us, they said, and are too dumb to know it. We owe “people of color” and the international community an apology and must explain ourselves. Because of Trump’s personal character flaws, we are then warned of the danger of “losing an entire generation of young people to the Christian Faith” and they, of course, have the statistics to prove it. In fact, the use of the very word “Evangelical” continues to be called into question as the effort to further stigmatize it ramps up of late. At one time “Evangelical” described Christians who “evangelize” or share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the lost, however, we are now at the point where churches in the US and UK are abandoning evangelism altogether. UK megachurch pastor: “You don’t have to evangelise anyone, just love accept and serve people. I didn’t build my church on evangelism (in fact I banned the word) but on love and service and we flourished.” Jim Wallis: “The question this meeting is asking about the future of evangelicalism has been answered by the voices of color and women in this room (pointing to several of them). They are pointing us to the evangel, the good news Jesus said he would bring to the poor in his opening statement in Luke 4. That’s our future, let’s listen. As one of the white evangelical leaders in the Wheaton meeting had said to me before, ‘American evangelicalism is destroying the evangel.’ It is time for the evangel to turn white evangelicalism in America upside down.” This Evangelical Monster Mash Began Years Ago By 2014, Cultural Marxism was in full swing and, by 2016, was doing the full monty – flaunting its university erudition and cultural relevance in the Southern Baptist Convention and Presbyterian Church in America, both conservative denominations. Ed “numbers cruncher” Stetzer partnered with his “out” LGBTQ activist journalist friend, Jonathan Merritt, (and some companions) to discuss The Future of Evangelicalism on The Gospel Coalition blog. They assured us that, on cultural issues that face the Church – like where we stand on abortion, homosexuality and gay marriage – we were “like unbaked cookies that need to be placed back in the oven for 3-5 more years and then taken out to see where we are.” Well, it has been 3 1/2 to 4 years, so here we are looking at the cookies. Assault on the Southern Baptist Convention Stetzer and Merritt began their long-awaited cookie inspection by attacking one of the main ingredients in the SBC and Evangelicalism – the conservative movement and a leader of the conservative resurgence, Paige Patterson. Merritt called out Patterson on rather flimsy assertions for a MeToo moment, based on twisted narratives of pastoral counseling which Merritt, who is no position to call anyone out, sees as abusive. Stetzer joined the fray on the same day. Anyone who does not see the coordination is simply not looking. Merritt doubled down in The Atlantic, even though airing such grievances, if valid, in the secular press violates the Word of God (1 Cor. 6:1-7). Stetzer clearly received some feedback as he boasted and invited more “Hate Mail” following a shaming session of those in the SBC who dare to not agree with him and his “research.” What Christian leader likes to boast or joke about the amount of hate mail they receive? Perhaps the evil servant of Matt. 24:48-49 and Evangelical leaders who are paid to be nasty and abuse the body of Christ. Of late, Russell Moore has chimed in on the MeToo allegations against the SBC conservatives by promoting his “Gospel Sexuality in a MeToo Culture” meetings at the upcoming conference in Dallas. Notably, young Merritt’s father is among the speakers. So, what is this exhibition really about? Is it about the future of the Church? Well, in many ways, absolutely it is! But is the problem that Christians voted for and support the President? The professional shamers claim we are too political, but the fact is that we are too conservative for THEIR leftist political agenda. It simply cannot be allowed again for the Christian fold, in today’s culture shift, to break ranks with their valued leaders and vote en masse for someone they have not endorsed. In a nutshell, they view the Church as their property and this movement is nothing more than a long, forced march toward the progressive slave labor camps that others have been forced into for decades. Our leaders have also placed a for sale sign on the property THEY DO NOT OWN. Assault AT the Southern Baptist Convention to Hide the LGBT+ Sell Out. Making the Church fully LGBT-compliant appears to be a primary contingency for the sale property to the new progressive ownership and years of subtle efforts have gone into meeting that required “upgrade.” Now it appears the agents of change must finish the project and massive efforts to complete those renovations are underway. In early May, Gay Christian advocate for Tim Keller and Russell Moore and the combined efforts of TGC and ERLC, Sam Allberry, began promoting a radical LGBT+ Christian conference scheduled for July known as Revoice. This radical conference was heralded as the U.S. counterpart to Tim Keller’s upcoming London appearance at Allberry’s “Living Out” ministry to discuss “Identity in Christ” for Homosexuals. Allberry’s social media promo for Revoice boasted that it is “Promoting LGBT+ flourishing in historic Christian tradition.” Revoice openly talks about Queer Christians, LGBT+ Christians, Sexual Minorities in the Church and in ministry; the churches becoming safe spaces for LGBT+ people, building allies for LGBT+ in the Church; and the virtues of Queer Theory, Queer Culture and Queer Literature that the Church has missed when tossing out its vices. Revoice also hails the “Treasures that Queer Theory, Culture and Literature will bring into the New Jerusalem at the end of time.” This radical conference has close ties to both Keller and ERLC’s Russell Moore besides the fact that Sam Allberry is promoting it. Those ties include long time preaching staffer and disciple of Keller, Scott Sauls, who is promoting Revoice as well. The Revoice Conference is being held in a PCA church (Memorial Presbyterian in St Louis) and has nearly a dozen strong ties with PCA’s Covenant Seminary there. The PCA’s June General Assembly saw Revoice become a topic of concern and the issue remains a priority. Dr. & Mrs. Russell Moore at Obama White House Christmas Party in 2016 Equally disturbing are the Southern Baptist ties of Revoice with ERLC head and long time SBTS Dean, Russell Moore. ERLC Fellow, Karen Swallow Prior, promoted Revoice alongside Scott Sauls on the website, and doubled down on her support of the controversial event /movement in a recent interview with Dr. Robert Oscar Lopez. Another person involved as a speaker at Revoice is Brandon Polk, whose Arrowhead Advisors LLC is a consultant with Russell Moore’s ERLC for conferences like the ERLC 2017 “Christ Centered Parenting,” their recent work on prison reform and the racially-charged ERLC/TGC Memphis MLK/50 Conference. Polk is also a friend and huge fan/promoter of Todrick, a judge on the panel for the RuPaul Drag Race Drag Queen program on LOGO TV. Deeper Southern Baptist leadership ties to Revoice exist in the Founder and President of the conference/movement, Nate Collins, who carries two degrees from Dr. Albert Mohler and Russell Moore’s Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where he taught New Testament and online course. Dr. Mohler replied to questions about Nate Collins and ERLC connections to Revoice in an interview for Worldview Weekend which is available at the end this article. You can read more about the Revoice conference, its American Psychological Association DNA and connections to the PCA, SBC, TGC, ERLC, Tim Keller, Russell Moore, Albert Mohler and the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention, J. D. Greear, at these links. My Experience of ABUSE at the Hands of SBC/ERLC Leadership Over Revoice Concerns The ERLC and the Southern Baptist Executive Committee reacted strongly to this journalist when I traveled to the SBC 2018 convention on behalf of Southern Baptist members to report on the convention and feature concerns about Revoice to leaders there. On Tuesday afternoon an ERLC employee, Brent Leatherwood, attempted to physically restrain me from interviewing ERLC head Russell Moore in what Texas law would classify as a Class C Assault. Leatherwood, a former Tennessee Republican Party executive director, was hired by Moore at the ERLC after being exposed for his counter offensives as a “never Trumper” while at the Tennessee State GOP. A quick internet search will provide more than the average person will care to read about Leatherwood’s history at the Tennessee Republican Party. On Wednesday afternoon, June 13, Leatherwood spotted me across the halls of the Exposition building just hours before the ERLC annual report was to be given at the main hall of the SBC Dallas meetings. Within two minutes I found myself face to face with two uniformed Dallas policemen and being removed from the building and the event without covering the main story I had remained for a third day at the Dallas meetings to cover. I was informed by Dallas PD that a complaint had been reported by someone in the event leadership, that I had “Threatened Someone.” Leatherwood met the officers and me as they began the long trek out of the massive Dallas Convention Center before thousands of fellow SBC messengers and attendees. Leatherwood came alongside the officer to my right and taunted me to provoke and escalate the situation he appeared to have set in motion. More details of this ABUSE and the history of dishonesty and false assault threat charges of Russell Moore, dating back to 2000 as a reporter for Baptist Press. Exposure of Revoice has clearly inspired fear and reaction at the top level of the SBC and ERLC. Within 24 hours a totally false version of the above events was published in the Christian Post by a writer who never contacted me for comment. The false version from ERLC Press Secretary, Liz Bristow, was echoed by The Southern Baptist Executive Committee Member, Roger Oldham. You can find the false version of events here. The Backstory: Peddling the Sheep to Obama Early in the Obama administration, a cohort of progressive “thought leaders” took it upon themselves to auction off the Evangelical Sheep farm, and its conservative voting Christian sheep, to the lowest bidder. What we see now is that the listing has turned into a fire sale of whatever vestiges remain of the old conservative Christian right. The auctioneers are selling it cheap and fast, without giving notice to the sheep. To market the Church, these hirelings must persuade the sheep that they go with the property and not to their Shepherd (spoken of in John 10). That is, they belong to the collective “Community.” Though hirelings are not the title holders by any stretch, per John 10:12, gatecrashers like Tim Keller, David Kinnaman of Barna, and a really relevant-looking 40 something with a skateboarder haircut, Gabe Lyons of “Q Commons,” set out to close the deal on the Third Way fire sale to the Obama White House early in his second term. (Reclaiming Hope, p. 186) (“Third Way” is a political strategy to reconcile right-wing and left-wing positions by advocating a synthesis of center-right economic and center-left social policies.) The Evangelical leaders’ desperation liquidation was a miserable failure as discussed in the book Good Faith: Being a Good Christian When Society Thinks Your Irrelevant and Extreme (a self-assertive title no doubt) by Kinnaman and “skater” Lyons. Moving further left by the hour, Tim Keller, who enjoys unchallenged protection in the very conservative Presbyterian Church of America, followed Gabe Lyons and other Obama-friendly pitch men who wrote a letter of intent to the President. This led to a presidential invitation to discuss the terms of the sale. Who Are the Players? Tim Keller appears to be the senior Evangelical statesman in this visitation committee. Keller is little known outside his denomination (PCA) and the slightly broader footprint of his Gospel Coalition organization. He erupted on the Evangelical scene in 2008 with his book The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. Keller had come from an obscure church in Virginia to head the denomination’s flagship church plant, Redeemer City Church in New York City. In 2010, Keller launched his Emergent Missions movement called “MissionSHIFT” in partnership with the likes of Brian McLaren, Alan Hirsh, Dan Kimball and the ever edgy Ed Stetzer of Lifeway Research. This brazen effort, including a not so best-selling book aimed at redirecting the Church, faded with little notice. What was noted by the global audience was his address that same year at the Lausanne Consultation’s South African Congress. Subsequently, Keller has risen to the top of the Evangelical leadership ladder and is said to have filled the shoes and received the mantle of John Stott, the framer of the Lausanne Covenant, as one of the “great Christian intellectuals” of our time. Don’t feel bad if you have taken little notice of Tim Keller. Secular journalists in NYC love him and he does run in all the right circles. Along the way, however, Keller has become wobbly on the issue of homosexuality, significantly since his meeting(s) with Obama. In a 2015 interview at the Veritas Forum he was unable to say in plain speech that homosexuality is a sin. Prior to that, in a 2013 forum with journalists, Keller said “Christians can support gay marriage in the culture, just not in the church.” Besides lacking Biblical support, this position reveals ignorance or disregard of the impact that the legalization of gay marriage would have on religious freedom and the spiritual institution of marriage. Is Keller ignorant of the dissenting opinions of the judges on the Supreme Court who protested the Obergefell decision? Or is he feigning ignorance to bring about social change? Not only is Keller vacillating on sexuality, but also on the authority of Scripture as a speaker and author for Bio-Logos. This postmodern think tank challenges the Bible with the authority of “science,” so we silly little believers can have a place at the table with the real thinkers. David Kinnaman is now president of Barna Group which specializes in number crunching for mega church pastors’ growth strategies. These numbers are also used to remind average Christians through compelling data that they have either missed the latest trend or have no clue how to respond to it. Gabe Lyons is a disciple of John Maxwell, the leadership guru of the corporate and Christian worlds. In addition to Good Faith, Lyons also wrote The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America and unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity…and Why It Matters. To facilitate the “end of Christian America,” Lyons founded “Q Commons” – which according to the promo “works to educate and mobilize Christians to think well and advance good in society.” “Q Commons” is more easily understood as a loosely “Christian” version of TED Talks or a quasi-Christian Dialectic. The New York Times describes “Q” as “Sophisticated and Orthodox representing a new generation of Christians.” Perhaps it is more appropriate to say “Q” is Progressive and unOrthodox, but we will pass on the word games and labeling for now. These men, therefore, are the main players at the center of the “Good Faith Movement.” On to the Oval Office With hat in hand and armed with Barna statistics, these pillaging prophets made their way to the Oval Office to persuade President Obama that a new, more worthy kind of believer now populates the American pews. It is, as the book title asserts, the “Good Faith Christian.” These are those who are concerned about Social Justice and would “vigorously defend the rights of our Muslim neighbors to practice faith beyond the neighborhood mosque and of our gay and lesbian friends to publicly express pride in their identity” (page 105). The offer was placed on the table in exchange for some tokens and trinkets comparable to the $12 in beads to purchase Manhattan Island from the Native Americans. The team of “global thinkers” promised Obama that, if he would toss in a few assurances of exemptions guaranteeing religious freedom, then THEY were positioned to assure delivery of the “Good Faith” voting bloc as a “Third Way” hors d’oeuvre to the most ravenous progressivism our nation had ever seen in Washington, D.C. The impetus of the Oval Office meeting had been President Obama’s sudden (?) change in support of gay marriage. Posturing as agents of “Principled Pluralism,” our self-styled leaders implored the Constitutional Professor / President to offer a classically defined assurance of Religious Freedoms. What he in fact offered was the most limited “in house” protections he had come to be known for, assuring only that Americans will always be free to worship in their houses of worship. The pretense of expecting the President to offer Religious Exemptions, especially on the LGBTQ/ marriage agenda, conceals the fact that the Human Rights Campaign and all “Equality advocates” fight any and all exemptions as “license to discriminate.” Or perhaps our Evangelical hirelings were messaging that Obama could low ball the asking price for the Third Way listing of the Church and acquire it for an even better deal – ZERO assurances. Either way the sale was never completed and the Principled Pluralists returned to the sheepfold hoping to keep the flock from scattering while they plotted a new strategy to make the sale. Meanwhile back on the farm the sheep got restless as the primary season kicked into full swing. The flock had tired of the brown and dried out hay of the stable and began to graze in greener pastures. A field of GOP Presidential hopefuls came into the corral. Could Keller and company yet prove their worth to whoever it was that commissioned and funded them? Could they make good on their promise to deliver us all up as “Good Faith Christians,” fattened for the slaughter by Third Way hirelings to be counted on to abide by the conditions of sale, even though no buyer had yet agreed to the purchase? Suddenly out of nowhere the unthinkable happened, causing total widespread panic. Though a stable remnant of “Good Faith” types remained devoted, like Deadheads at a rainbow gathering in the local national forest, the mass of the sheep herd bolted and voted for Donald J Trump, a brash New Yorker, casino owner and billionaire with a breathtaking beauty for prospective First Lady. The cabal of Evangelical sheep shearers had a collective cardiac arrest. This could not happen, they thought, and now they had to work even harder to liquidate the assets, lower the price and fire sale conservative Evangelical voters lest they act on their traditional values and dare to make “The Donald” President of the United States of America. Loose the Prophets of Shame on Unsuspecting Sheep What happened next is one of the most pathetic displays in modern Christianity. Third Way leaders like Tim Keller and Southern Baptists, Albert Mohler and Russell Moore, joined a host of their trainees in progressive groups like The Gospel Coalition and the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission in a concerted effort to poison the waterholes of the wayward flock and take cattle prods to the sheep. A relentless “Christian” media storm contrived to beat the wayward sheep back into submission continues to this day and has also impacted other elections like the conservative Southern Baptist Roy Moore’s Senate bid in Alabama. The agents marketing the Church to the lowest bidder were pleased as punch with Roy Moore’s defeat which in turn led to the election of a far-left candidate, Doug Jones, as U.S. Senator. The predictable outcome is that Sen. Doug Jones’ ties to the LGBTQ lobby were paraded as a trophy at a recent “big donor” fundraiser for the Human Rights Campaign, at which event it was announced that Senator Jones was a co-sponsor of the radical LGTBQ “Equality Act” in the U.S. Senate. What is Wrong with “Good Faith”? To see what kind of fruit this Third Way-Good Faith movement has produced, let us look at some of the influence stream and contents of the book itself. Among the Acknowledgements on page 264 of those who “helped round out the rough edges and articulate why this book matters for today’s Christians” are some very left leaning and in some cases, radical leftists, posing as Christians. Examples include Preston Sprinkle who is attempting to move the conversation into the creation of safe spaces for LGBTQ in the Church which mirrors fully that of the progressive most hard core “gay faith activist” organizations. To this end, Sprinkle is pushing a Third Way dialog on the Church. Another fruit is former Wheaton Chaplain office counselor, Julie Rodgers, who jumped the shark in her “untidy story over gay marriage” just hours after the announcement of Obergefell in June 2015. Rodgers, a once “celibate Christian Lesbian,” promptly abandoned her celibacy for full on gay affirmation in the Church while no longer advocating celibacy. She admitted that she had “quietly supported same-sex relationships for a while now,” though representing herself as committed to celibacy (all a false argument proliferating the progressive conversation like weeds in an untended garden). Rogers cited her concern for “the gaybees” (young LGBTQ “Christians”) in the pew who would be harmed by the condition of abstaining from gay sex in order to be accepted in the Church. Her untidiness is asked to be excused because Julie can find no way to make the Bible and its orthodox teachings on sexuality fit her newfound “conviction,” but she still expects full acceptance of it by the Church. Julie has clearly helped “round out the rough edges” of the Good Faith book and has maintained the approval of its authors and endorsers, including Tim Keller, throughout her untidy journey. She is presently engaged to be married to Amanda Hite who heads the organization Be The Change and according to Amada’s bio on its website, serves on Leadership Committees for the Human Rights Campaign. Julie is herself a friend, hero and mentor to many of the speakers at the upcoming Revoice Conference, including founder Nate Collins. Likely the MOST telling progressive INSIDER involvement in the Good Faith Acknowledgments is that of Michael Wear, who was Barack Obama’s Faith Outreach team leader. At age 23, the boy wonder of the Obama Faith message came into the White House to help coordinate, with the President, the greatest advancement of LGBTQ and interfaith dialog in history. This was in large part facilitated by the overhaul and funding of the Faith Based Partnerships programs which placed Christian leaders of all stripes in close communion with a flood of tax dollars to work together for the common good. Funding is the FUEL of the Third Way strategy. Wear helped coordinate the Obama Faith-Based Partnership program with public and private funding – whether taxpayer dollars used for activism or the wealth of global giants in the corporate world of foundations sphere, the Evangelical landscape was flooded with cash. Today it is fair to say that Wear now finds a home in the Tim Keller stable, as contributor of the “Good Faith” concept and as an editor and writer at Keller’s organization, The Gospel Coalition, which also promotes Wear’s memoir of his work with Obama, Reclaiming Hope: Lessons Learned in the Obama White House About the Future of Faith in America. Tim Keller played no small role in the production of Good Faith or the Third Way messaging of these visitors to the Obama White House, by offering to sell out the Church at bargain basement prices. According to Gabe Lyons, Keller’s “mentorship over the years has made me (Gabe) smarter, stronger and more confident that, no matter what happens in the broader culture, our faith (the Good Faith brand of faith) will last.” New Age guru, Dallas Willard, is cited often in Good Faith as is James Hunter Davison and his concept of “Faithful Presence” which was born out of his Frankfurt School-inspired Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. Also frequently quoted is Kirsten Powers, a progressive journalist with Friends at FOX News and a convert of Tim Keller who turned to Catholicism. Powers was among the journalists who interviewed Keller in 2013 when he asserted that Christians could support gay marriage in the culture, again advocating an impossible exemption for the Church if gay marriage became law. It does get worse. Good Faith authors sympathetically and inclusively interviewed Gene Robinson (page 168), who was the first openly gay Bishop to be ordained in the Episcopal Church in 2003. This ordination forced MILLIONS of faithful Christians out of their denomination and took the once strong conservative membership from over 5 million to under 1.8 million, and declining by the day. Former Bishop Robinson, who went on to work in leadership roles for the Human Rights Campaign, was invited by the authors to share his emotional “experience” and trials for inclusion for them to determine what makes a “Good Faith Christianity” fit for the auction block of the Third Way. In Chapter 13, titled “The Gay Conversation” (page 170), Good Faith statistics other than Barna’s are presented from a very messy source to support what constitutes Good Faith Christianity. Cited are Gary Gates of the Williams Institute statistics which specialize in “Queering the Census” and tracking LGBTQ / Same-Sex demographics in the U.S. Gates himself is the protégé’ of Marxist Lesbian “urbanologist“ Jane Jacobs’ protégé’ RICHARD FLORIDA, whose ever creepy Gay Indexes and pro homosexual urban theories have found themselves at home with Tim Keller, Q Ideas, the SBCs Albert Mohler and a host of Good Faith (by their definition) Christians. The Human Rights Campaign then uses the wild assertions of Gates/ Williams and Florida to market the Municipal Equality Index to your mayors and city councils and county commissions. Tim Keller and others in his Gospel Coalition have been long time devotees of the Richard Florida “inclusion” ideology with its Cultural Marxist roots in Jane Jacobs, which includes Keller’s Social Gospel project in Orlando with Reformed Theological Seminary that birthed an Urban movement, Seeking the Welfare of the City, around the “Polis Institute.” ‘Good Faith’ Christians must love Florida’s LGBTQ inclusion ideas because Tim Keller’s certainly does. The book’s endorsement and use of Gary Gates’ Williams Institute research is simply further indication of the inclusive approach to the ideology of Good Faith Christianity. In the quote they do admit to the low stats on LGBTQ population – 3 to 4 % – while at the same time asserting that “some Christians and churches have had a cruel homophobic streak.” This is the typical victim narrative for devaluing the Church in the conversation and applying pressure to make amends by becoming Good Faith partners with Keller and Crew. In Chapter 14, “We Cannot Live Without Intimacy,” there is a sympathetic overview of the Bruce / Caitlyn Jenner saga. Good Faith followers are reminded that “Christians must not be hard hearted toward those who seek alternative identities. Their quest is a signpost pointing to deep desire to be truly, profoundly known.” (page 189) So the gender confused person or the cross dresser who wants non-binary access the bathroom of choice in Target or your child’s public school is a victim as well. A person whom Good Faith folk recognize as just wanting their true selves to be seen and known. Never mind their rebellion against God’s design and sovereignty (supposedly a core doctrine of Calvinist Tim Keller). To be truly Good Faith you must look beyond the emasculated Gold Medalist Bruce to see the inner Caitlyn and understand her need. That is the Good Faith Christian and those who buy into all the above make a tidy package for the sheep herd of the Evangelical farm being offered to the lowest progressive bidder and the Democratic Party. Stellar job of hosting this OPEN HOUSE to sell off God’s HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH for the very enemies who want it removed from hindering the progressive agendas of the Left. If that is the call of God in Evangelicalism – if this is what it means to be GOOD in the Faith – then let the rest of us find the exit before the Fire falls! In no way are these Good Faith assertions of Keller, Lyons and Barna compatible with Biblical Christian faith and living in these or any other times. If Kinnaman finds mega church pastors and church retailers like Lifeway interested in statistics and polls then so be it, but neither he nor Lifeway Research nor Pew or any other change agents will change the mind and heart of Jehovah, Who we are reminded in Hebrews 12:29 is a HOLY and consuming FIRE. He does not put a holy finger out to determine the prevailing winds of culture nor is He undecided about the gender He made the victims of the latest Trans-fad. Acquiescence to the tactics of Keller and his Obama-friendly hirelings to sell the Sheep farm is NOT Good Faith. At best it is self-deception and, at worst, self-aggrandizement, arrogance and apostasy. Thanks for Nothing – Reality Check Though Biblically Conservative Evangelicals may have been willing to follow hirelings onto the Progressive plantation, a full-scale awakening now threatens the Cabal. The sting of the cattle prods continues by the increased amperage of the recent Revoice Conference for LGBT+ Flourishing in the Christian Church, Cultural Marxist rhetoric, Critical Race Theory, open borders Immigration advocacy, accusations of White Privilege, canonization of MLK and Malcolm X in our seminaries, Transgender bathroom rights, and even disowning the Evangelical identity, thereby changing the name of the Sheep farm. Hopes are high to finally bank their 30 pieces silver. Wishful Thinking from a Weary Flock In conclusion – the sale is not even pending. The value of the conservative Evangelical has proven steady, is likely appreciating and did help accomplish the impossible, preventing a Hillary Clinton regime. Sorry to disappoint Tim Keller, Albert Mohler, Russell Moore and other desperate Evangelical leaders. Your Third Way fire sale has failed and exposed massive fault lines between the Blue-Collar saints and your Elitist clique. Please, stop pointing fingers and blaming the sheep. Call off the dogs and tell the manure spreaders to cease and desist. Take YOUR “For Sale” signs off the property. It is NOT yours to sell. Don’t bother trying to act as spokesmen for us or for the Good Shepherd; just fulfill your obligations to those who bought you out and do it preferably somewhere else. Leave our institutions and our pulpits and stay out of the voter booth with us and, please, no more convening meetings to decide the future for us or our children. Stop having conferences and talking issues like Racial Reconciliation (something you, in reality, know nothing about…but only the crass language of division) and fake news MeToo feminist-driven revenge masked as the Gospel. Enough with your efforts to talk the Bride of Christ into embracing Homosexuality as “Christian.” No more Revoice Conferences or endless pro LGBT+ “celibate” victims events staged by ERLC/TGC or The Nines. Stop talking in muddled language about things the Word of God says in plain language. And no more dialoging or sleeping with the enemies of God in the name of “principled pluralism” or any other false virtue signaling labels some social sciences think tank has provided for you. Let us be done with you and leave us to follow our Lord, while you follow the destructive path you have chosen. Leaders like Tim Keller and Russell Moore – Stop the madness of your empty rhetoric and false concerns and pseudo intellectualism. The poorly disguised progressive political agenda you serve wrapped in an ever-thinning veneer of false compassion and gospel integrity just does not ring of truth. It no longer passes the smell test but resembles the sour milk of aging men growing bitter at having been exposed as change agents, deceiving the easy mark on the planet – the trusting, loving flock of God. Stop abusing us. Stop using minorities and race and women and gays. Stop diverting the money and resources of the Church to your globalist views of human flourishing and a sustainable world. Stop the fake concerns for us hurting the Gospel. Do Your One “Good Faith” More and Just Cease and Desist Already And finally, though many of you love the sound of your own voices and the “chief seats” in the Temple, please BE QUIET and JUST LEAVE — and let us enjoy the golden silence and be still, knowing that the Lord is God and we are His People and the Sheep of His pasture. (Psalm 100:3) Thomas Littleton Reporting from the SBC Annual Conference to Worldview Weekend

Meet The 3 Remarkable Malaysians Who Were Just Named 'Women Of The Future' Last Thursday, 25 June, three Malaysian women were named 'Women of the Future' in their respective categories at the Women of the Future Awards Southeast Asia Out of 48 finalists, photographer Annice Teo Ann Lyn, research scientist Dr Bee Lynn Chew, and non-governmental organisation (NGO) co-founder Heidy Quah were awarded for their work in the Arts, Sciences, and within local refugee communities. Founded in 2006 by Pinky Lilani, the Women of the Future Awards was established to provide a platform for female talent in the UK. In 2018, the platform expanded to include a Southeast Asian division as part of the Awards' wider goal of building a global, collaborative network of women. Nominations for the awards are open to all women under the age of 35. The nominees are then reviewed by a committee, and later, interviewed by their category judges. This year's judges include DP Architects chief executive officer Angelene Chan, Facebook director Sarita Singh, and former British High Commissioner to Malaysia Vicki Treadell, among others. A total of 11 Malaysian women were shortlisted for the awards across various categories The other Malaysian nominees were: - Arts and Culture: Nicole Lai, Lisa Surihani, and Ernie Zakri - Business: Jess Yap - Media and Communications: Cynthia Ng - Mentor: Dr Nellie Tan Sweet Lian - Science, Technology, and Digital: Wan Yong Ho and Dr Siu Yee New 1. Dr Bee Lynn Chew - Winner of the Science, Technology, and Digital category Dr Chew is a research scientist who predominantly studies Plant Biology at Universiti Sains Malaysia. The research scientist's interest in food crops was first sparked while doing her PhD at the University of Nottingham, UK, where she studied genes linked to flavour in tomatoes. Since then, she has personally worked with farmers and food growers in Malaysia. Learning just how rewarding yet tedious farming can be, Dr Chew has decided to use her research to improve cultivation methods in Malaysia in order to raise crop yields and improve the livelihoods of those working in agriculture. Amid the pandemic, Dr Chew looks to science for the answers to rising food insecurity and unemployment in the country She informed SAYS that her research currently deals with the micropropagation of figs that will eventually lead to the production of high quality plant stocks ready for commercialisation nationwide. The research scientist is also looking at lemons and olives which she aims to introduce to local farmers soon. Dr Chew is actively working to incorporate Internet of Things (IoT) technology, a system built for monitoring crop fields using sensors, in agricultural practices to make them more efficient. She hopes that by doing so, young people will be encouraged to join the agriculture sector, especially when unemployment rates are on the rise. She further described the impact these methods could have on building a more self-sufficient country. "This is important to ensure that the country has enough [food products] without the need to import. It will also enable us to move forward after this pandemic." Dr Chew was over the moon when she was announced the winner of her category, and dedicated the award to her students and loved ones She told SAYS that she was happily surprised by the nomination, recognising that previous winners of the Women of the Future Award had truly left a mark within their respective societies and nations. Dr Chew attributed the award to her students and relatives who have supported her scientific endeavours. "They are the ones who have always motivated me and made me believe I [could] win this," she noted. The research scientist says, "Believe in your dreams. Find what you are passionate about in life and work for it." She continues, "Be kind and compassionate as they will be the keys to your success." 2. Annice Teo Ann Lyn - Winner of the Arts and Culture category Teo is a visual artist, as well as a documentary and sports photographer, who founded her platform 'Anntopia' in 2015. As described on her website, Anntopia is a place for Teo to share her creative pursuits, whether that'd be in wedding, portrait, or sports photography. Teo's journey into photography began while pursuing a degree in architecture. Talking to SAYS, she described how vital her studies had been in igniting and shaping her artistic practice today. As an architecture student, Teo said, "We literally had to be the Chief of Everything, from pitching ideas, to sketching and building conceptual models, software build-ups, and photographing our work." Drawing on her background in figure skating, the accomplished sports photographer developed a passion for capturing moments that would otherwise go unnoticed A former national competitive figure skater herself, Teo was the first and only female photographer based in Malaysia to be accredited for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang. According to New Straits Times, the KL-based photographer hung up her skates at the age of 19, after accumulating a series of injuries that hindered her progress in the field. However, her experience as a sportswoman did not go to waste. After all, it was through the sport that Teo says she found an appreciation for visually documenting what happens behind the scenes. Through her craft, Teo overcomes numerous socio-cultural barriers in order to better understand and connect with those around her In an interview with SAYS, Teo explained that her creative process primarily rests on understanding and learning from others regardless of social status, culture, and race. The Women of the Future Awards judges were particularly taken by Teo's ability to celebrate unsung heroes with her photos during the Movement Control Order (MCO). Adding onto that, she quoted her favourite photographer Platon Antoniou. "I never think about a shoot before I do it. Because there's no formula for people… If I do that, I might miss a gem or a jewel that the person is offering me." Teo further noted how fulfilling it was be able to immortalise an individual's story and become a part of someone else's life through photography. "We [photographers] are present to visually document the most significant events of others' lives, for better or worse, by articulating and transposing fragments of moments into timeless imagery." The well-established photographer continues to support other women and non-binary creatives through Women Photographers Malaysia (WPM), a collective she co-founded during MCO Speaking to SAYS, Teo described her feelings after winning the award. "While I'm incredibly grateful for the recognition, this award will only make me work even harder as I have been recognised and have to live up to the faith put in me to further promote photography, for youth and women, not only in Malaysia, but also in Asia." By using WPM's platform to host workshops, organise monthly meet-ups, and provide a safe space for women and non-binary visual storytellers, Teo hopes to empower budding photographers. Knowing how tough it is to pursue a career in the arts, Teo wants to remind Malaysians that doing something you love will always be worth your while. "Being a creative in Malaysia takes courage and self-conviction to challenge the norm," she told SAYS. Teo ended by saying, "At the end of it all, know that there's no perfect life, but you still put up with it because you're doing it for something you love." 3. Heidy Quah - Winner of the Community Spirit and Public Service category Quah co-founded the non-profit organisation Refuge for the Refugees (RFTR) at just 18 years old, after the refugee school she volunteered at faced the threat of closure. When Chin Children's Education Centre (CCEC), a local refugee school, was told their United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) funding was about to end, Quah and a few other teen volunteer teachers decided to take action. That is how, in 2012, she found herself at the helm of an NGO. Speaking to SAYS, the now 26-year-old co-founder explained that, "The heart [of the organisation] is really to raise awareness regarding the plight of refugees in Malaysia." After eight years, the group helped construct 35 schools, two halfway homes, and a social business school dedicated to supporting the education and livelihoods of refugees in Malaysia. Apart from the organisation, Quah is also a prominent activist and caseworker focusing on human rights issues within the nation Recently, she has advocated against combat baby-selling, helped individuals who have been put in detention centres, and worked alongside other organisations to distribute food to refugee communities. Additionally, she is a firm proponent for greater refugee representation at roundtables and policy discussions. In fact, Quah will be attending a meeting this Thursday, 2 July, with a refugee student turned caseworker to discuss the right of refugee children to basic education. She feels that it is only by consulting refugees and amplifying their voices, that effective change will come. Quah says that this is how a community can be uplifted so that they might understand the weight and power of their own voices. Over the years, Quah has seen a big shift in conversations regarding refugees, but says there is still much left to be done Looking back, the 26-year-old was reminded of how little awareness there was about refugees in Malaysia, with many people believing that they only existed beyond our waters. While Quah recognises how far we've come, she also highlighted, "The tone of the conversation [regarding refugees] right now is really concerning." In order to shift the narrative, Quah brought up the importance of educating ourselves and humanising refugees and migrants. She added, "You don't need to start an organisation, you just have to be human… If we all started talking in a kinder way, we would see a huge change." Despite the reputation they have grown, Quah did not expect to win at the Women of the Future Awards "It is an incredible honour. I really wasn't quite expecting it. The other nominees in my category were extremely outstanding," she told SAYS. The activist recounted the times when people, particularly those older than her, would undermine the work she and RFTR were doing simply because of her age. "We had to fight extra hard to get a space at the table, both as a female and a young person," she said. In an age of instant gratification, the impressive advocate emphasised the importance of consistency and persistence, noting that real change does not happen overnight. One thing Quah has realised after years of doing social work is that, "Your convictions have to be stronger than your emotions. Know your why." In 2017, when she was just 23 years old, Heidy Quah received a Young Leaders Award from Queen Elizabeth II:

#57: Buzz, Your Girlfriend On this episode: After discussing musicals and Morgan’s 7th-grade choir career (not impeded by her back brace), the team does a deep-dive into corporate robot language, per your constant requests for more workplace jargon coverage. And since we can’t get enough of the singular they, we answer a listener email about pairing verbs with the non-binary pronoun. Lastly, we discover “doggo lingo.” (“Discover” = we find out about it because NPR did a story of this years-long trend.) 19 things you need to stop saying (because you sound like a corporate robot), Mashable 10 Words or Phrases Never to Say at Work, Grammarly Dogs Are Doggos: An Internet Language Built Around Love For The Puppers, NPR Check out our new store! Show your word nerd pride and support your favorite podcast. Get all the goods at shop.drunkwordnerds.com.

Killing Gravity by Corey J. White is a science-fiction, space opera novella that is the first book in the Voidwitch Saga series that I snagged at the library recently because it sounded bloody brilliant. I love a good space opera, and when it exceeds expectations, I’m ready to throw a party in its honour. Killing Gravity follows Mariam Xi, who spent her youth in a laboratory where she was raised to be a psychic soldier. After escaping, she spent her life on the run. But when a supposedly dead blast-from-the-past resurfaces, Mariam stops running to get answers that have plagued her for years; answers that will take her down the dark and bloody path of vengeance. This book kicked serious ass. It is marketed for fans of Firefly, but even then I never, in my wildest dreams, hoped it would turn out to be this interesting. The book is just shy of one-hundred-eighty pages and contains within it remarkable world-building, brutal action, diverse characters, and a fiercely fallible protagonist that ticked me off while making me root for her; elements that vast space opera epics and long-volume serials can’t even touch. Check out this opening line, for starters. How can you not want to read something that begins as such? Trying to comprehend a whole star system while my ship bleeds atmosphere? There are worse ways to die.” The reason I probably adored this opening liner is because it reminds me so much of the character Koko Martstellar from Koko Takes a Holiday by Kieran Shea, which is one of my favourite cyberpunk novels out there. Koko was a badass with a vulgar tongue and Mariam is no exception. Both ladies also tend to get themselves involved in some intense, blow-shit-up type of situations, which I will always consume with a fiery hunger. One of the initial qualities that I came to appreciate within the first twenty to fifty pages was the world-building and pacing. While every single ounce of technology may not be explained tooth-and-nail, it is easy to decipher what they are based on how the characters interact with those tools or equipment or weapons. Their surroundings were given great detail and further enhanced by being an interactive part of the scene. Most of the backdrops and atmosphere were integral portions of story progression, used to help the reader understand what was about to happen and/or why. I love it when a narrative does that. It creates a multi-dimensional reading experience that pulls me in. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this in my other reviews, but escapist-level tales are the fucking best. Normally, the expectation is that ambiance and universe building take the forefront with pacing being a sacrificial lamb to it. However, in Killing Gravity, due to the intensity of one thing going horribly wrong after another, I never felt a slack in the progression. It just keeps on sling-shooting me onto the next ride. The level of descriptives work to prevent it from feeling super rushed or underwhelming. They accompany one another in a near-perfect balance, which is rather impressive for a novella that’s also a debut book synchronously. The writing style is the main reason everything works so well together. From the very first page, I was caught in a net where I was rooting for Mariam to survive. There’s a lot of technical talk, but none of it is intellectually over-bearing or excessive. It’s absorbing and very easy to understand and take in. Because of this, I feel Killing Gravity would be a good story for folks who are new to the space opera subgenre of sci-fi, or people who’ve never read science-fiction, but would like to, specifically where space is concerned. White’s depiction of the characters’ thoughts and feelings and senses also make it captivating and contribute to an unputdownable crux. Looking at Squid, I see that the soft, flowing luminescence beneath their skin is bright and pulsing. I look out beyond the cockpit window, and for a split second, I swear I can see shape or texture out in the abyss, but then we’re out of the wormhole and I inhale sharply. The story itself, at it’s very centre, may not be a wholly original premise, yet the special abilities that Mariam has, coupled with the antagonist and some of the atmospheric facets of the universe, breathes some fresh air into the vengeance and the antihero tropes simultaneously. While I can see the inspiration behind the ships, Mariam’s persona and skill-set, and even the battle sequences, it’s not a full rip off other sci-fi works. The action, as aforementioned, is vicious and graphic and unforgiving in its vivid imagery. If you’re someone who doesn’t like supremely detailed visages of blood and gore, then you will want to steer clear of this novella. It’s nearly jam-packed with it. I fucking love that shite. Most of the time, gory parts tend to be gratuitous, or a way to give a story more meat and filler while it lacks in other areas. But in Killer Gravity, the violence is a necessary part in delivering the scope of Mariam’s capabilities, while also illustrating the inhumane predilection of the villains. Other things to note that are pleasant include a ridiculously cute cat creature of sorts, great representation of a non-binary character, one incredible space battle, the emotional frailty of Mariam Xi, and the overall unputdownable essence of the narrative. If there are things that I didn’t care for, or wish were better, it would include Mariam’s interaction with one very specific individual. They sprouted up for a brief moment and then that entire scene just ended way too fucking quickly. It’s the only part of the entire book that I felt was unfairly rushed, probably in an attempt to get shite rolling towards the powerful climax. Either way, I wished it had more attention and form to it than it was given. A second element I wish the first book had was more character building, however. With that said, I understand that this is going to be a series, so it works more as an introduction—showing the main cast players, a basic overview of the overarching conflict, etc.—and, as such, not everything is going to be flawlessly fleshed out. I recognise that and I’m going to keep that in mind when I got into book two. I hope by then, we will start getting more depth, because with a story as wonderful as this, having flat and singularly defined characters will kill it completely. All in all, Killing Gravity is a gratifying space opera novella and a glorious book one to what I hope shall be a splendidly badass science-fiction series. If you’re in the market for brilliant adult sci-fi, please go read Killing Gravity. It’s so bloody worth it.

Greek life at Dartmouth faces new challenges amid pandemic, ongoing controversy This article is featured in the 2020 Freshman special issue. Remote learning is bringing an additional dramatic change for the roughly two-thirds of eligible Dartmouth students who are members of a Greek organization. Despite their long history at the College, Greek organizations are undergoing significant adaptations in response to a remote rush process, increased financial pressure and growing calls for inclusion and diversity. As the system's future remains unclear, it seems likely that Greek life at Dartmouth is facing a turning point in response to ongoing pressures. History of Greek life at Dartmouth Greek life has had a long and complicated relationship with the College. It has survived several abolition efforts, experienced system-wide reforms and yet remains a centerpiece of many students’ Dartmouth experience. It began at Dartmouth in the 1780s in the form of two “literary societies.” These organizations, which brought students together for reading and socialization, were eventually incorporated into the present-day libraries, but two groups split off to found the first fraternities, Psi Upsilon and Kappa Kappa Kappa, in 1842. Greek life at Dartmouth has since expanded to include 26 active chapters today — 13 fraternities, 10 sororities and three gender-neutral houses. Greek life at Dartmouth includes local houses, which govern themselves without affiliating with a nationwide organization, and national houses, which share a set of bylaws with chapters across the country. Recent attempts at Greek life reform have stemmed from the Moving Dartmouth Forward initiative started in 2015 by College President Phil Hanlon. This effort included several significant changes, including a campus-wide hard alcohol ban, the beginning of the residential house system and a four-year sexual assault prevention program. Certain policies that Dartmouth Greek houses follow are intended to make the system more inclusive. Fraternities have long implemented an “open door policy,” meaning that any students can get into a publicly listed party — although invite-only events still exist. The “frat ban,” adopted by the Greek Leadership Council in 2012, prohibits Dartmouth freshmen from participating in Greek events during the first six weeks of their freshman fall term or before Homecoming, whichever comes later. In recent years, two houses have been derecognized after coming under increased scrutiny from the College. Alpha Delta — known for being an inspiration for the 1978 comedy “National Lampoon’s Animal House” — was derecognized in 2015 for branding new members and violating the terms of a previous suspension. Shortly after, Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity was derecognized in 2016 after a series of investigations by the college, a viral Rolling Stone article featuring the fraternity and years of health and safety violations. SAE’s former house is still present and occupied on campus and its members are affiliated under the name “Scarlett Hall.” Greek houses at Dartmouth have undergone several other controversies over the years, including AD and Delta Delta Delta sorority — now known as Chi Delta — hosting a “Bloods and Crips” themed party in 2014 and an annual “Phiesta” event, jointly hosted by Alpha Phi sorority and Phi Delta Alpha fraternity, that was discontinued in 2014. Despite these controversies, Dartmouth’s Greek system has survived several attempts to abolish it, largely due to students’ opposition to the idea. In 1999, then-College President James Wright announced an initiative to end the single-sex Greek system, but after 1,000 students gathered in protest on Wright’s lawn, the initiative was abandoned. Greek Life at Dartmouth has survived several attempts to abolish the system in part because many students find their experience with Greek life to be especially meaningful. Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternity president Dean Anderson ’21 said that he was originally nervous about joining Greek life as an openly gay man. However, he now believes his fraternity helped him to meet “this incredibly diverse, smart and kind group of people” that “have [his] back, no matter what.” “[My] house really allowed me to step into who I am as a person and who I want to be as a person,” Anderson said. Likewise, Epsilon Kappa Theta sorority president Megan Ungerman ’21 described EKT as a “big family” and a place for “people who need a home at Dartmouth.” Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority president Caroline Smith ’21 emphasized the importance of her Greek community during her time away from Dartmouth. “The community of a Greek space has been nice to have during this uncertain time,” Smith wrote in an email statement. Some unaffiliated students, however, note that at times Greek houses can feel more exclusive than welcoming. Emma Kallman ’22, who rushed her sophomore fall but was barred from rushing again for a year after turning down a bid, said that being unaffiliated can be difficult. “It sometimes just seems like there’s this ingroup that you’re not a part of,” Kallman said, “and people have all these stories, and there’s this culture that you just can’t necessarily partake in.” Valerie Truong ’21 said that she has also felt “implicitly excluded” before at Greek houses because it isn’t her idea of an ideal social scene. “It’s not a space for people like me, perhaps,” Truong said. “I don’t say that just because of my physical identities, but … if I don’t like the kind of music they’re playing, or if I don’t like how crowded it is, or if I don’t like the smell in the basement, it’s too late at night — it doesn’t fit with my idea of how I want to spend my time.” Both Kallman and Truong emphasized that students can have active social lives without joining Greek organizations. “I knew that if I wanted to [spend time in Greek spaces] at any time, if I wanted to go to a frat party or anything like that, I could always just tag along with my friends who were affiliated, or even just show up with friends — even if they weren’t affiliated,” Truong said. Greek houses make attempts at inclusivity In response to the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests, many Greek organizations are considering how they fit into a larger dialogue around race. At other colleges across the country, protests have led to calls to reform or abolish Greek life, which is seen by some as perpetuating discriminatory practices and largely white social spaces. Truong, for example, said that she has noticed some houses, though not all, “aren’t very diverse.” “I’ve been in some spaces where it’s like, OK, nobody here looks like me,” Truong, who is Asian American, said, “and it’s a little shocking because it’s very different than when you’re just walking around campus.” At Dartmouth, some Greek houses are attempting to actively engage with racial justice issues. Smith wrote that “as an institution with a discriminatory past, we have to actively and constantly work towards more diversity, equity and inclusion.” According to Smith, Kappa has been working to promote inclusivity by adding a diversity, equity and inclusion vice president position, “discussing anti-racism resources” within the sorority and donating to “70+ community bail funds, mutual aid funds and racial justice organizations in the early summer.” Anderson said that Chi Gam was able to raise “nearly $10,000 for racial justice.” He added that the house held a “mediated discussion” on race this summer and has established an anti-racism book club. Ungerman said that EKT has continued ongoing conversations about race issues within the house but added that being inside the Greek system creates limitations for how much a push for racial justice can achieve. “Of course we’re still in the Greek system, so we’re not independent from how it was made and what it still stands for,” Ungerman said. “We are definitely still cognizant of that.” Theta Delta Chi president Jarett Lewis ’21 said that while the open door policy exists, “that doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone feels comfortable at TDX, and a lot of us have spoken about that and have recognized that and are hoping to make it a better place when we all get back.” According to Lewis, TDX is removing all images from the house that feature the Native American as the former athletic symbol of Dartmouth. He also said that the house has started an internal judicial committee for members and has created a diversity and inclusion position in leadership. More broadly, Lewis noted that TDX had a two-hour call where members discussed “all of [their] traditions and events” to reflect on efforts they could take to increase the house’s inclusivity. However, he added that “as of now it’s kinda of all talk, we haven’t been able to get back and implement [these changes] yet.” Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity and Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority led the “20X Challenge” this summer, which provided 20 days of programming that included educational discussions around diversity and inclusion and fundraising for charitable organizations. All Interfraternity Council and Inter-Sorority Council houses, as well as Scarlett Hall, were involved in the discussions. The challenge ultimately raised $22,000, exceeding its $20,000 goal. No specific changes to the Greek system have been announced as a result of the 20X Challenge. “I think it’s a good thing that these conversations are happening,” Truong said of the 20X Challenge, “but I think they should be happening regardless of national protests.” She added that any organization, Greek or not, should be considering its values and how it can be more inclusive. Several student leaders of the 20X Challenge declined to comment or could not be reached for comment for this story. Smith wrote that Kappa is moving forward from its conversations by analyzing finances, recruitment, events and other parts of the sorority “through a critical lens.” Lewis addressed rush specifically. “We’re hoping to engage a larger group of guys,” he said, adding that while TDX has traditionally been a lacrosse and rugby house, he hopes to “drum up some interest from people [that members] haven’t normally spent time with.” Questions have also been raised about the inclusion of members of the LGBTQ+ community. Ungerman said that “the traditional [Greek house] is largely heteronormative” and added that EKT is especially important within this community due to its “large queer membership.” Sororities in particular faced challenges this spring regarding the inclusion of non-binary potential new members. Last April, concerns were brought up around female-specific language used throughout the rush process. Several debates followed within the ISC and its member houses regarding the place that non-binary students should have within the larger sorority system. While ISC bylaws state that “any Dartmouth undergraduate who identifies as a woman and/or gender non-conforming person may participate in Formal Recruitment,” the ISC decided this spring that this rule did not necessarily mean a house has to be willing to accept non-binary people that participate in recruitment. Following subsequent discussions, all local sororities amended their own bylaws to include language that would allow non-binary members. However, national chapters did not, in part because national bylaws use the word “women” when describing PNMs, implying that non-binary students are not necessarily eligible for national sorority membership. The ISC said in an email about rush this year that non-binary PNMs will only be required to attend events at the four houses that are allowed to extend bids to them, a change from previous years when all PNMs were required to visit all eight houses. Future of Greek life at Dartmouth Fallout from pushes for increased inclusivity, the COVID-19 pandemic and financial struggles all look likely to cause changes in Greek life at Dartmouth in the near future. In terms of finances, some houses are struggling as members are more hesitant to pay traditional house dues for a remote experience. Anderson noted that Chi Gam was able to negotiate for a refund on their property insurance because no one was in the house over the remote terms. He added that they were able to raise money from alumni and have recently grown their membership, which contributed to their financial stability. For the upcoming year, Chi Gam will only charge dues for those living in the house, Anderson said. Local sororities also faced challenges with paying off their insurance premiums. Many of these sororities banded together this spring to negotiate a reduction of insurance payments with the College. Rush will look dramatically different than previous years: All rush events will be entirely remote. According to emails sent to the student body by the IFC and ISC, the fall will see some pre-rush events — a step down from previous years, when the bulk of rush took place during the fall. Sorority rush and the fraternities’ “shake-out” process will take place in the winter. Regarding the shift to a remote community, Ungerman said, “I don’t think Greek life is ever going to be the same as it was before.” Both Smith and Lewis said that their respective houses have managed to stay in touch despite the shift to a remote community. Programming included regular virtual meetings, philanthropy events, quarantine tips and conversations about potential changes for the houses upon return to an in-person format. “We did more than I could have imagined we could under the circumstances,” Smith wrote. Ungerman expressed mixed feelings about the ’24s’ introduction to the Greek system. “The freshmen aren’t going to really be able to see what Dartmouth Greek life is about,” Ungerman said. “But maybe that’s for the better.” Ungerman urged students to consider the recent calls for the abolition of Greek life at other schools, such as the University of Pennsylvania, and their potential implications at Dartmouth. “The ’24s get to make Dartmouth their own, so [they] all can really decide what [they] want,” Ungerman said. Anderson also touched on the uniqueness of Dartmouth Greek life, saying that he “wouldn’t have rushed had [he] not been at Dartmouth.” He praised Dartmouth’s elongated rush process during sophomore year, which allows PNMs to “get a lot more exposure to the real side of a fraternity or sorority” as compared to “expedited” week-long processes during freshman year as is common at other schools — all other members of the Ivy League, for example, allow freshmen to rush. That being said, much of the routine has been disrupted by the remote spring term, where, Anderson noted, many freshmen would have usually gotten the chance to meet upperclassmen. EKT is planning some remote sorority programming for the fall term that will be open to ’24s and the rest of campus, according to Ungerman. However, Ungerman said that rush might be “weird,” but it will be “interesting to see how it all shakes out.” Regarding the direction of his house as a whole, Lewis said that Greek houses need to aim to be more involved in their communities so they can “be a presence on campus and not just a place to drink.” He added that he hopes that Greek houses can come together to have a larger impact as a united system rather than “just staying in their own corners of campus.” Smith described the past few months as a “wake-up call,” writing that “a lot is changing in Greek life at Dartmouth, and a lot for the better.” “People are really going to have to think about what their values are and why they are involved in Greek life,” Ungerman said of potential changes to Greek life. “Are they involved just to party and go out? Because that’s going to look a lot different. Or are they involved in Greek life because that’s where they found a community of people?” Chi Delta sorority president Isabella Frohlich ’21 and ISC president Mahalia Dalmage ’21 declined to comment for this story. The presidents of all other recognized fraternities, sororities and the IFC did not reply to requests for comment. Director of the Office of Greek Life Brian Joyce deferred comment to members of the Greek Leadership Council. Kyle Mullins contributed reporting. Valerie Truong is a former member of The Dartmouth staff. Correction appended (Jan. 31, 2020): A previous version of this article referred to the former site of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity as "Scarlet Hall." The article has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of the house's name, "Scarlett Hall."

that’s what i see when i look too long in the mirror Whose face is this with pink lips and darkened eyes? this face feels wrong like plastic wrap my soul is reckless and freckled it is sun burnt it is the plainest kind of beautiful it is mine but souls don’t have faces I am stuck with this Elliot Anderson is a non-binary queer person, college kid, feminist, future social worker, and occasional writer.

If you are reading this, you have found the guide that I created for guests coming to our wedding! We got married already – but the guide has stayed online for prosperity. For those that will be in Manchester for a few days, here are some other events that are happening in and around the area that might be of interest whilst you are in town: Sounds from the City Manchester is known for having a good music scene. The week of the wedding is relatively quiet, but you could still go to a concert every single night as part of Sounds from the City and see performances from; The National, Kylie Minogue, The Wombats, The Kooks, etc. If you are a record buff / collector, then be sure to visit Piccadilly Records whilst you’re in town, which was ranked #1 in The Independent newspaper’s Top 50 UK Record Shops. Manchester International Festival 2019 Running through most of July, there will be lots of small creative events happening across the city centre. You could see exhibitions and performances from David Lynch, Idris Elba, Skepta, or – if you were there early enough – Janelle Monáe and Yoko Ono. Visit mif.co.uk for the full schedule. Lyme Park & Tatton Park The National Trust are a charity that owns and maintains a whole range of nice parks, castles and country manors around the UK. Two that are just a 30-60 minute drive away from Manchester are Lyme Park and Tatton Park. Check out The National Trust website. Manchester is home to some of the world’s best football clubs, including Manchester United, Manchester City and… Oldham Athletic. If visiting football stadiums is your thing, you can and should do that. Most offer guided tours where you can delve into the history of the club. A permanent fixture in Manchester is The Gay Village, centred around Canal Street. On the website canal-st.co.uk you’ll find a guide to all the bars, restaurants, and events happening in the area. The weekend of the wedding is also Sparkle Weekend – featuring entertainment from trans and non-binary artists and musicians, food market and bar, help and advice from support groups and LGBT+ organisations, and festival DJs playing until 20:30 every evening, when the bars and clubs take over. Comedy, Theatre & Performance Arts The weekend of the wedding could also be your chance to see the musical comedy from the creators of South Park, The Book of Mormon. Again, it seems a quiet week for comedy. No laughs to be had when all the students are out of town. But, there are a few laughter nights happening at The Comedy Store. Museums & galleries With Manchester being home to the industrial revolution, The Science and Industry Museum gives you a look into the industrial past of Manchester, but also has a range of steam engines, heavy machinery, planes, trains and auto-mobiles on display. For budding feminists, there are Tours of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House and The Pankhurst Centre – giving you the chance to visit the homes of two of Manchester’s most famous women, followed by a look around the People’s History Museum. If your thing is war, then the Imperial War Museum North will be worth a trip. Located in the heart of Salford Quays, also home to the BBC and ITV studios – so you might bump into your favourite TV or radio personalities. Food & Drink For Asian food, head to Chinatown. It’s in central Manchester and contains many Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Nepali, Vietnamese, Singaporean and Malaysian restaurants, shops, bakeries and supermarkets. Just a five-minute taxi ride or ten-minute bus from the city centre is Rusholme – an area of Manchester also called The Curry Mile. The clue is in the name, It’s the place to go if you want a curry, with the largest concentration of Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi restaurants in the UK. The Northern Quarter in Manchester is a hub of trendy cafes and bars. If you are coming from Oslo, it’s comparable to Grünerløkka. We’ll be there on Sunday evening as we drink the night away in The Abel Heywood. For specific restaurant recommendations, check out the Foursquare website and app for a good city guide. Hopefully this is enough to keep you entertained in the days before or after the wedding. Feel free to leave a comment below if there’s anything you think I’ve missed off the list. - For flights check out SkyScanner. - For hotels and places to stay check out Booking.com or AirBnB - For public transport in the city, check out CityMapper We’re looking forward to seeing everyone at Chetham’s Library on 14th July. Matt & Ine 💕

As of Tuesday morning October 13th 2020 California has tested 16,191,341 of its 40 million people for the Covid-19 virus, since March 2020. That’s 40.47% of the population. 23,808,659 people still need to be tested in California, that’s 59.52% of the state’s population. 5.24% of the people tested for Covid-19 in California have tested positive. That’s 850,028 people. 94.75% of the people tested for Covid-19 in California have tested negative. That’s 15,341,313 people. California has 16,572 deaths from Covid-19, which is 1.94% of those who have tested positive. California hospitals report 3/10th’s of 1% of the people who have tested positive, are hospitalized, which is 3,070 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the hospitals. 736 of those patients are in ICU. Riverside County stats as of Monday morning October 12th 2020 No County update for Tuesday October 13th 2020 as the County Offices were closed for Columbus Day on October 12th 2020 Riverside County has tested 699,189 people for Covid-19 since March 2020, out of a population of 2.5 million. That’s 27.96% of the County’s population. 1,800,811 people still need to be tested in the county, that’s 72.03% of the county’s population. 8.84% of the people tested for Covid-19 in Riverside County have tested positive. That’s 61,824 people. 91.15% of the people tested for Covid-19 in Riverside County have tested negative. That’s 637,365 people. Of the 61,824 people who have tested positive in Riverside County, 90.62% of them, 56,030, have fully recovered. 7.10% of them, 4,393 are at home recovering. Together, that’s 97.72% of all the positive cases. 2/10th’s of 1%, of the people who have tested positive so far in Riverside County, 145 people, remain hospitalized, and 39 of them are in Intensive Care. 2% of the people who have tested positive so far in Riverside County, 1,256 people, have died from Covid-19. 352 of those deaths have been in the Coachella Valley, which is 28.02% of the County’s total. 317 deaths in cities, 35 deaths in unincorporated areas…9 in Mecca, 1 in Vista Santa Rosa, 3 in Bermuda Dunes, 5 in Garnet, 3 in Desert Palms, 5 in Desert Edge, 5 in Oasis, 1 in Thousand Palms, 2 in Sky Valley and 1 in North Shore. Of the 1,256 people who have died from Covid-19 in Riverside County, 874 of them have been over 64; 320 have been between 45 and 64. 14,996 positive cases have been recorded in the Coachella Valley since March 8th 2020, when the testing and counting began. 93.80% of them, 14,067 people, have recovered. There are 929 active cases in the desert on 10/12/2020. 1,998 cases are in unincorporated areas of the desert since March 2020. (Mecca 461 cases, Thermal 189 cases, Oasis 335 cases, North Shore 143 cases, Bermuda Dunes 139 cases, Thousand Palms 237 cases, Vista Santa Rosa 99 cases, Garnet 231 cases, Desert Palms 45 cases, Desert Edge 70 cases, and Sky Valley 49 cases) 94.24%, or 1,883 people have recovered from Covid-19 in unincorporated areas: Mecca 432, Thermal 178, Oasis 325, North Shore 132, Bermuda Dunes 130, Thousand Palms 227, Vista Santa Rosa 95, Garnet 220, Desert Palms 40, Desert Edge 60, Sky Valley 44 Only 115 active cases of Covid-19 in unincorporated areas as of 10/12/2020. 12,998 Covid-19 cases reported in cities in the desert, since March 2020. 93.73% of those people, 12,184, people have recovered. Only 814 active Covid-19 cases in cities in the Coachella Valley as of 10/12/2020. 1,977 cases in Cathedral City, 32 dead 1,890 people have recovered 2,746 cases in Coachella, 28 dead 2,635 people have recovered 1,157 cases in Desert Hot Springs, 28 dead, 1,089 people recovered 50 in Indian Wells, 3 dead 43 people have recovered 3,794 cases in Indio, 74 dead 3,573 people have recovered 842 cases in La Quinta, 19 dead 776 people have recovered 1,056 cases in Palm Desert, 58 dead 959 people have recovered 1,122 cases in Palm Springs, 51 dead 1,001 people have recovered 254 cases in Rancho Mirage, 24 dead 218 people have recovered 22 cases in Idyllwild/Pine Cove, 1 death; 21 people have recovered 64 cases in Cabazon, 1 dead; 59 people have recovered In Riverside County: There are no deaths from Covid-19 for anyone from newborn to age 17. 7 deaths among people aged 18-24. 55 deaths among people aged 25-44 320 deaths among people aged 45-64 597 deaths among people aged 64-84 277 deaths among people aged 85 and up. 738 deaths are men, 513 are women, and 0 are transgender, non-binary or intersex according to county officials Riverside County has 3,475 cases in nursing homes, with 2,154 cases among patients, and 1,321 cases among staff. The overwhelming majority of nursing home cases, 944 cases, are in the City of Riverside. In Coachella Valley nursing facilities, there have been 192 cases in Palm Desert, 138 in Palm Springs, 77 in Rancho Mirage, 57 in Indio, 53 in La Quinta, All testing is free to the patient being tested. Drive-thru testing is available by appointment only at the Riverside County Fairgrounds in Indio from 9 a-m to 3 p-m Tuesday through Saturday, by appt only. You can also get tested at the Cathedral City Library on Date Palm Drive. Go online to www.rivcoph.org/coronavirus/testing to make an appointment or call 800-945-6171 to make an appointment, and you no longer need to have symptoms to schedule a test. Go online to www.lhi.care/covidtesting or call 888-634-1123 to make an appointment to get tested at the Lozano Community Center in Desert Hot Springs or at Bagdouma Park Community Center on Douma Street in Coachella Or call 760-992-0407 to get tested at the Desert Aids Project in Palm Springs. Or go to www.desertaidsproject.org To get a test through Borrego Health, call 833-624-1097 to make an appointment in Coachella. Or www.borregohealth.org for a complete listing of Borrego Health test sites in the desert. Or contact www.gettested.ruhealth.org for a list of test sites in Riverside County. To get tested at a CVS drug store in the Coachella Valley, make an appt at www.cvs.com/minuteclinic. Testing available at the following CVS Stores in the desert. — 82-270 Highway 111, Indio — 425 S. Sunrise Way, Palm Springs — 84010 Avenue 50, Coachella — 42150 A Jackson St., Indio — 44075 Jefferson St., La Quinta If you have any questions about Covid-19, call Eisenhower Health Covid-19 Hotline at 760-TEST-988. It is staffed by registered nurses 24/7 to answer Covid-19 questions. The Riverside County General Information Covid-19 line is 2-1-1. California information www.covid19.ca.gov Federal information www.cdc.gov Rite Aid is doing Covid-19 testing by appointment for people 18 years of age or older, regardless of whether the person is experiencing symptoms. Results are expected in three to five days. The Coachella Valley locations providing testing starting Thursday July 16th 2020 are: — 12900 Palm Drive, Desert Hot Springs; — 51101 Cesar Chavez St., Coachella; — 47985 Monroe St., Building A, Indio; The sites will utilize self-swab nasal tests overseen by Rite Aid pharmacists, and will operate weekdays from 10 a.m to 8 p.m., and weekends from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Patients must provide government-issued ID, and register online at www.riteaid.com to schedule an appointment. Photo from Alpha Media USA Portland OR

Some traditions are great. Getting flowers on Valentine’s Day or enjoying the first slice of cake on your birthday are always fun. But when it comes to getting intimate, some traditional mindsets might just be holding you back. Thinking outside the box (and old-school binary constructs) is vital in this day and age. However you identify, being informed and open-minded towards sex is not only healthy for your potential partners, but also for you too. What does it mean to identify as non-binary? Growing up, we’re often taught to think of people as either male or female. However, for some people, this just doesn’t represent how they feel and identify. Take for example, someone who has a gender that blends different facets of being a man or a woman. Rather than feeling comfortable being represented by the term male or female, they might identify independently of these terms, or as non-binary. People are diverse and should be able to choose how they want to represent themselves. For that reason, there are quite a few different terms by which people, who do not identify as male or female, can describe themselves. Non-binary is one of the most popular, but there are also people who prefer agender or genderqueer. These terms aren’t interchangeable, instead they all refer to the specific experience of the person using them. What does non-binary mean when it comes to sex? The experiences of people who identify as neither male nor female vary, much like the intimate experiences of anyone else. In fact, this question really suggests people might be overthinking it. What do you do when you are first intimate with any parter? Communicate. No matter who you’re with and how they identify, communication is always key. Everyone likes different things in the bedroom, and one person’s ultimate turn on might be another person’s complete no-go. By being open and direct from the start, celebrating intimacy with a partner is a much smoother journey. My experience with non-binary intimacy “I realized I was genderqueer just after college. While the way I present myself to the outside world has changed, I am still with my girlfriend from my freshman year. It might surprise people but our relationship kind of flourished after I became more open and accepting of my own identity. My girlfriend has been really supportive and, although our sex life changed a bit, we both agree we feel more comfortable and happy with each other than ever before.” “Coming out as non-binary was a huge relief. There are still silly everyday things where I feel the world is still catching up with me though. Dating platforms have only recently become more flexible with how you identify yourself, but that was a big step, for sure. And it makes things clearer with dates from the start. I introduce myself as I am and so far, I’ve only had good experiences.” “I labeled myself as a tomboy when I was younger, but then over time I have read so much about gender identity that it eventually became clear that I just don’t fit either box. I broke up with my boyfriend at the time, but now I am dating and loving it. My number one rule is making sure there is always a dialogue during sex, especially during the first few times I hook up with someone.” Ditch the old-school thinking AND the old-school toys! As mentioned, there is a slight chance of overthinking things when it comes to getting intimate with a non-binary partner, or when you yourself don’t identify as male or female. By simply discussing what you like and being open about what feels good and what doesn’t, it should be relatively smooth sailing in bed. The same is true for toys. Once you know what sensitive spots you’d like to focus on, you can narrow down the options for what toy suits you. For example, wands are a popular choice, because they can be used all over the body and have a variety of intensity levels.

Hays Code and its impact on queer representation in mainstream Hollywood. Did you know that prior to 1930, queer people were present on our big screen? Granted, their representation was usually for comedic purpose and weren’t inclusive of the whole queer, trans and non-binary experience, but it was still there. However, this all changed when the Motion Picture Production Code was sent into motion; this affected the portrayal of queer people in cinema and still affects it today. Cinema is known to depict the mores of any society and this Code made sure that it showed only Christian values and ostracized any marginalized community. What is the Hays Code? The Hays Code is a colloquial name for the Motion Picture Production Code, named after Will H. Hays, the president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. It is a set of rules and guidelines from the early 1930s to the late 1960s that Hollywood movies had to follow to be shown in cinema, and was set to straighten the curve after the decadence of cinema in the 1920s. This Code was supposed to ensure that these Hollywood movies were ‘safe’ and ‘presentable’ for the public at large. This meant that controversial and highly debated topics were banned, and if these were featured in a couple of rare cases, it was not supposed to be in a positive light. This is a couple of the most poignant don’ts and be carefuls that the Code dictated: - Pointed profanities- including God, Lord, Jesus, Christ, Hell, damn and any other vulgar expression - No nude or licentious scenes - Illegal drugs and their trafficking - Reference to sexual perversion (Queerness, bestiality, etc.) - No White slavery, but black slavery was okay - Sexual hygiene and STDs - Scene of Childbirth in fact or silhouette - Children’s sexual organs - Ridicule of clergy - Offense to any nation, race, or creed The Code was very restrictive and gave moviemakers very little leeway in the depiction of any sort of action or marginalized characters. How the Motion Picture Production Code affected queer portrayal? Early depictions of homosexuals were mostly as child molesters, victims of violence (starting the bury your gays trope) and drag queens (for example Divine in John Waters’ movies, especially the famed Pink Flamingo). This is because the Hays Code limited the portrayal and normalization of characters and behaviors that they considered unsavory and morally corrupted. One of these is the depiction of sexual perversion, which covertly or not so covertly meant homosexuality and still has a lasting impact on mainstream Hollywood cinema. The term sexual perversion referred to anything that went ‘against the natural order of gender, sex, and romance. This is hypocritical if you think about it because homosexuality is found in over 450 species of animals, so how can it be unnatural if it’s found in nature? And don’t get me started with the argument that homosexuality is condemned in the Bible because this is also untrue and was a gross mistranslation; you can learn more about this in the 1946 documentary. This specific ban applied to any and all characters that were attracted to the same gender or who differed in their gender identity or presentation. Aftermath of the Hays Code While nudity and violence were integrated into mainstream Cinema after the Code was disbanded, this was not the case with LGBTQIA+ representation; on the contrary, it remained taboo. In the three decades that the Code dictated movie portrayal, villains were coded as queer. They were given more feminine traits, which can be seen in The Maltese Falcon, where Joel Cairo is this over-flamboyant villain who eventually dies in the end to maintain order. Queer coded villains are also plentiful in Disney movies, from my fave like Ursula, whose design was inspired by the drag queen Divine, to Jafar in Aladdin, to Pocahontas’s John Ratcliffe, to Hades, to Tamatoa, I could go on with this list as Disney has a long history of queer coding its villains. This might be one reason why I root for the villains more than the protagonists sometimes; because they are stylish and cunning. For decades after it was disbanded, queer characters would appear in movies, and their sexuality and gender identity would be shrouded in innuendos and visual cues. Even today, more than 40 years after the Hays Code had been removed, you can see a sparse amount of queer movies that have a happy ending; even Oscar-nominated movies like Milk, Brokeback Mountain and others like Pride still maintain the bury your queer trope. We rarely see queer characters live as full-fledged characters with happy life with romantic partners. However, though this Code prevents us from having queer movies with good representation, now filmmakers are more open and are showing a wider range of the queer experience with films like Your Name Engraved Herein, Portrait of a lady on Fire, Love, Simon, Moonlight or even Tangerine. We are moving toward a more inclusive world, which is presented in the movies that we actually see on screen. Cinema is supposed to mirror the human experience in all its glory and diversity and we are only now getting to see this. Instead of being comedic side characters or characters with a sad ending, they are the main characters of their own stories. Sound off in the comment section below if you are like me and are infuriated by the lack of diversity in Hollywood.

I apologize in advance, I think I’m gonna write in English for this one article; I’ve been translating ALL DAY ALL NIGHT lately and this masochist move has affected me a lot, since I can’t even seem to think in French anymore. I’m sorry the blog hasn’t had any recent upload in the past few… weeks, months maybe, I don’t know. I’m not particularly worried about the impatience of a hypothetical fanbase, since no one seems to read this blog (it’s alright, I think I wouldn’t read it either, I merely do it for my own purpose anyway.) Thus, perhaps this article is all about apologizing to myself and making things clear. I tend not to work very well or quickly if I don’t know where exactly I’m heading to, and I found that my goals are kind of messy at the moment! As I said, I’ve been translating like crazy, and fighting a lot of battles at the same time. I first started to translate two different academic essays: one in English, one in German (I figured I should try translating in my third language as well, and though I need a dictionnary next to me all the time, I have to say it is quite fun -and I am quite surprised-). These two essays are called Homosexuality at the online Hogwarts and All of the Greek and Roman Classics; both of them are about fanfictions and pop-culture, and how they are influenced either by current sociopolitical context or ancient references/intertexts. I actually plan on publishing my French translations on edu.com when I’m done, since I have the authorization of the original authors! I also started to translate (with her agreement!) Celine Schillinger’s blog, and I’ll keep you updated about it as I am very excited about how it will turn out! And finally, I plan on doing the NaNoWriMo again this year. You might not know the NaNo: its full name is National Novel Writing Month and the idea, to put it simply, is: you get to write a full 50K-words novel in one month, from November 1rst to 31rst. The thing is, I’m terrible at long stories, I can’t even seem to write novels of more than 5 Word pages; so I won’t be using the NaNo this way. Last year, the alternative I found was the following: ‘if you don’t write 50K words, at least try to translate 50K words.’ I actually translated about 30K, which was quite good knowing 1. I hadn’t planned on doing it and only started a week and a half after the others (on the 9th of November I think) 2. Prépa isn’t the least time-consuming course of study and I had tons of tests to prepare, and still managed to pull out about 2K words per day. And when one of those projects is over, I think I’ll try translating some TedEx talks as well (but this isn’t my concern for now, I have too much on my plate already). So that’s it folks! Two academic essays (20 pages long each…), plus one blog, plus 50K of fictions and fanfictions for the NaNoWriMo. With my family we also plan on going to Turin for the All Saints’ vacation this year, and though I went last year, I feel like it’s been years since the last time I was in Italy and I’m so! happy!! I get to finally see Turin!!! (and its apparently wonderful Cinema Museum. yay. i’m exCiTED). Also, I’m doing just fine in Prépa for now, my grades don’t suffer quite as much as last year, and it’s so cool to see I’m getting somewhere! (I just have to plan my work/nap time more carefully) In short: lots of projects, lots of good news, lots of keeping my head above the water and denying my sleeping cycle. To quote « Hamilton, a American Musical » (which I’ve been listening ad infinitum): Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now. Thank you for reading my rambling, and I’ll see you soon!, Good day, guys, gals and non-binary pals

Victoria was born in the United Kingdom but emigrated to the United States at age 21. She’s bisexual, non-binary (she/her or they/them), happily married, and still shouts in a British accent. She lives with her husband in Pennsylvania where she spends a lot of time playing and talking about video games, especially Japanese role-playing games. Besides the Culture Wars and New World Rising series, she is the author of a variety of LGBTQA titles, including novels The Nero Protocol (m/m), The Forbidden Zone (m/m) and The Best Of Both Worlds (f/f/m), contracted with Less Than Three Press. She loves to write about all colors of the rainbow and celebrate love wherever it may be found. Ideologically, she can be classified as a humanist. She believes in equality for all and the progression of the human race through logic and reason, with the principles of science, not superstition, at the core of that. She believes in a positive future based on hope and generosity, instead of negativity. She is a fierce advocate for the freedom of speech, with a firm belief that censorship, and the support of suppression of information by pressure groups is a violation of the fundamental human right to free expression. She argues that acting with empathy, instead of being obsessed with semantics, is the way to treat all human beings with the dignity they deserve. She has a dark, edgy sense of humor, and tires quickly of people who are easily offended. She is totally obsessed with science fiction, space, and the Big Questions surrounding the human condition. She's convinced of the inherent goodness and intelligence of the human race, and can't be convinced for long that we're not deserving of redemption.

|Attendees of the 2014 SC Pride celebration enjoy the festivities.| In the LGBTQ community, there has been a huge discussion/debate about our Pride celebrations. Some folks think they have become stale and should be more controversial and in-your-face, so to speak. They feel that things are too corporate and too "family-friendly." To me, Pride has nothing to do with being controversial simply for the sake of controversy. We don't need to worry about that because in spite of all we have achieved, the idea of same-gender loving people, transgender people, and folks who generally don't fit the paradigm of traditional roles in gender and sexual orientation ( non-binary folks, asexual folks, and pansexual folks) being open and unashamed about who they are is still a controversial concept to many. In terms of corporate sponsorship of Pride, I see both the good and bad in the idea. But the one issue I simply cannot see both sides of is the complaint that maybe Pride is too "family-friendly." What's wrong with being family-friendly? I understand that some people have a concept of being LGBTQ which puts them as some sort of a rebel against what they call a "heteronormative idea" of society. They frown on the idea of LGBTQ people having what they assume are traditional roles - i.e. a married life with a stereotypical white-picket fence and children with the only thing being different from the man/wife dynamic is that ours doesn't involve a man and a woman. And then don't even get me started with the "gay means sexual rebellion" folks. I will leave that alone for now and tell you what I know. Prides are different all over the country. Our individual Prides should reflect our individual communities, not one idea of a homogenized LGBTQ community and certainly not some false "in-your-face just to be in-your-face" idea. Down here in South Carolina, our Pride is family-friendly because we have a good number of LGBTQ people - couples and single parents -raising children. We are less in-your-face controversial and more of fellowshipping, educating, and meeting new friends. We love our swag which does from corporate booths and the petting zoos, bookmobiles, bouncy castles, and free prizes which come with our family-friendly, child-friendly ambience.

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Hatpins to Hashtags will be in residence at CICCIC in Taunton from 29th October to 11th November, with a whole host of events, workshops and opportunities in which to get involved. (See below details of all events!). Visit the Politics and Protest, Posters from the Women's Liberation Movement exhibition to see inspiring campaigning and celebratory posters from Feminist Archive South's amazing collection, open daily from the 30th October to the 11th November. Join us for the exhibition opening 6.30-9.00 on Tuesday 30th October for drinks, nibbles and discussion. On Tuesday 6th November we will be exploring how feminism has taken on the media - and still is. We will celebrate the success of Just Women Magazine (1987-1997) and consider how to use the media in the current era of the hashtag - speakers and discussion. The Trade Union Unison (regional headquarters in Taunton) will be running a day of talks and workshops, lead by their women's officer on women and work. Saturday 10th November. If you want to take action now, there will be have free Digital Democracy all day workshops for women and non-binary people that will show you how you can host your own website and experiment with ways of working cooperatively and inclusively online. For women and non-binarypeople. Registration essential. Saturday 3rd and Friday 6th of November. Our free Feminist Futures workshops for 16-30 year olds, will explore the collection in more depth and look at some of the many ways Feminism is still working to bring about a more positive world for everyone. Finally: what are your issues? What would you like to tell the world? Come for drop in hands on creative activities: badge, poster, zine and collage making inspired by the poster exhibition. Sunday 4th November 2.00-4.00pm. Children welcome. If you'd like to organise your own event, to link with the Hatpins to Hashtags programme, please do get in touch. We'd be very happy to discuss possibilities and promote your event on our website.

Content note: anti-immigrant, anti-Mexican sentiments, child abuse This list brought back a lot of childhood memories (the tub of butter being something I do now but it bothered me when grandma did it) and things I had forgotten (Panky cookies! Now I must go in search of them!). It was mostly a nice trip down memory lane and reaffirmation of “Yup, I’m so Boricua”. However, two things bothered me. They’re something I’m constantly running across on Puerto Rican pride posts. Estas cosas me tiene’ harta and so here we are: (Image: Picture of a tanned woman, she has long black hair, is wearing hoop earrings. She looks displeased. White texts on the picture reads: How Puerto Ricans look when someone calls them Mexican) This is implying something is wrong with being Mexican. It also speaks to the feelings of superiority that some Puerto Ricans feel towards immigrants. A perfect example is this T-shirt: (image is of a black t-shirt, with the Puerto Rican flag on it. It has white text on it which reads, Relax, gringo, I’m legal) The joke is supposed to be that white people can’t tell Hispanics apart. But it pushes undocumented people under the bus. It’s saying, “hey don’t bother me! I’m one of the “good” ones”. Not to mention that no one is “illegal”. I’m not exactly prideful or boastful of Puerto Rico being a colonia. Do you even know the history between Los United Estates and Puerto Rico? If you did, you wouldn’t think you’re better than undocumented immigrants. Also, someone explain to me why being confused for Mexican would be bad? I mean, Thalia, the food, the novelas, Selena (I know, she was from Texas but she was also Mexican) C’mon. The list is endless for reasons Mexico and its people are wonderful. We’re all in this together. At the end of the day, Gringo isn’t going to care if I have a piece of paper or not. Racism doesn’t work that way. And the second point in that list: (image of a medicine box, it has been digitally manipulated to say Bofeta, coco-taso flavored. Red text above the box reads, Trusted by Puerto Rican mothers, red text below the box, reads all over the world) So, some translation is in order. Bofetada (in the Puerto Rican dialect the ending “da” is dropped) means “slap”. Cocotaso refers to a knock upside the head. Coco meaning coconut but in this instance it refers to the head. Now, la chancla (the house slipper), la escoba (the broom) and la correa (the belt) are often looked back at fondly by Puerto Ricans as tools used by their parents for discipline. See, they were malo (bad) and needed que le rompieran la cara (literally: break their face, loosely; a beating). This glorification of child abuse is not something I can abide in mi cultura. I got la chancla and the belt buckle several times. I was constantly being beaten for being “malcri’a” (malcraida). Malcriada literally means that I was raised badly, but that meaning never seemed to bother the adults in my life who justified their abuse to me. I tried telling them and all it got me was a tapa boca (slap to the mouth). The abuse I suffered as a child is largely responsible for my being in abusive relationships as an adult. I believed I deserved the abuse. It was all I ever knew. I under no circumstances condone child abuse. I don’t care if you say it’s a simple nalgadita (a spanking). I do not care if you claim it’s part of your culture. Machismo and homophobia are part of my culture too and I do not condone those either. I love being Puerto Rican. I was born Stateside but raised in La Isla del Encato. I love las playas y la comida. I love that my hair and facial features easily speak of my African and Indigenous roots. Borinquen will forever be my homeland. I take the coqui’s song and the blue sky in my heart. I teach my daughter about la bomba y plena. Arrastro la letra R. I can talk to you about el campo y los Vejigantes. I am an atheist and I still ask grandma for la bendición. I consider myself Puerto Rican first, American second. Just as I love my culture, I also repudiate it’s sexism, homophobia, it’s anti Blackness which seeks to forget Africa while wanting to eat una sopa de guingombo. Acknowledging the parts of my culture I don’t like makes the love I have for the other parts stronger. I appreciate everything else so much more. I’m proud to be a queer non-binary Boricua. La bomba y plena with it’s clear African influence makes my heart swell with so much joy. I hate the colorism that runs rampant in Puerto Rico and its diaspora. So con más gana’ muevo mis caderas and show off my big curly hair porque esas cosas son tan odiadas. I’m a feminist and Latino Machismo is no match for me. Soy fuerte e independiente. A mi no me ganan. My daughter knows, unlike I did at that age, that she is just as important as the boys. She knows that gender is a spectrum and not a binary. The day when child abuse and bigotry is no longer something celebrated in my culture cannot come fast enough. Yo soy Boricua, pa’ que tú lo sepa. But I’m also a social justice warrior and I will have my culture with justicia y concienca. Header photo taken Sunflower Punk SJW, Puerto Rico 2014- Flamboyan tree

Wednesday, 29 July 2015 Room's Annual CNF, Poetry & Fiction, and Cover Art Contests #seanocarolan.com #writing #contest Each entry must be original, unpublished, not submitted or accepted elsewhere for publication or previously toRoom, and not entered simultaneously in any other contest. Each entry cost $35 CAD to enter, and $7 CAD for each additional entry. For international entrants: $49 USD, and $7 USD. All submissions include a one-year subscription to Room. Additional entries do not include an additional free subscription. (Current subscribers will be given an extension on their subscription.) We only use Submittable, a secure online submissions management tool, to manage our submissions. For more information about using Submittable, please check our Submissions page. Judging will be blind. Please ensure that your name or any personal details are not included in your submission document; this includes the file name. (You will have a chance to include your contact information on the Submittable form). You can only upload one document on Submittable. Cover letters are not necessary, but if you want to send us one, include your cover letter on the Submittable form. Room publishes original work by women, which includes trans*persons, gender-variant and two-spirited women, and women of non-binary sexual orientation. Previously commissioned Room writers and contest judges are barred from participating in subsequent contests atRoom. For fiction and creative non-fiction, one submission includes one short story or essay of up to 3,500 words. We would prefer if you double spaced your prose. One poetry submission includes up to three poems or 150 lines of poetry. One cover art submission includes one artwork and an accompanying 100-word artist statement (please note that judging is blind and your name should not appear on your statement). When submitting multiple poems, please begin your second and third poems on a new page, in the same document. The 2020 Short Fiction/University of Essex Prize awards the winner with £500 and publication at Short Fiction; the runner-up is awarded ... Please read this competition terms and conditions carefully. If you enter this competition, it will be assumed that you have read these rul... As part of the Iron Mountain Literature Festival, Leitrim County Council and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre with the support of the McGahe... Calling all short story writers: Are you a short story writer interested in gaining more exposure and a bigger audience for you...

Today on the site I am so excited to be welcoming A.J. Sass, author of the groundbreaking middle grade contemporary Ana on the Edge, which releases today from Little, Brown Young Readers. Here’s a little more about the book: For fans of George and Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World, a heartfelt coming of age story about a nonbinary character navigating a binary world. Twelve-year-old Ana-Marie Jin, the reigning US Juvenile figure skating champion, is not a frilly dress kind of kid. So, when Ana learns that next season’s program will be princess themed, doubt forms fast. Still, Ana tries to focus on training and putting together a stellar routine worthy of national success. Once Ana meets Hayden, a transgender boy new to the rink, thoughts about the princess program and gender identity begin to take center stage. And when Hayden mistakes Ana for a boy, Ana doesn’t correct him and finds comfort in this boyish identity when he’s around. As their friendship develops, Ana realizes that it’s tricky juggling two different identities on one slippery sheet of ice. And with a major competition approaching, Ana must decide whether telling everyone the truth is worth risking years of hard work and sacrifice. A month after I started hormone replacement therapy, my friends threw me a “T-party” in San Francisco’s Dolores Park. I’d recently come out as trans and chosen a name that has stayed with me to this day: Andrew. And pronouns? He, him, and his, because I’m a guy, obviously. Hold that thought. I remember that afternoon well. It was unusually warm for a July in San Francisco, and the outing felt festive, reminiscent of a Pride Month weekend just a few weeks earlier. I was surrounded by friends who’d supported me as I navigated both my social and medical transition. My world felt full of potential. Finally, I could focus on living my life rather than on coming out to everyone and the emotional labor that entailed. Just the same, I found myself shrugging when a friend jokingly asked if, two injections into my transition, I’d noticed any physical changes yet. “Not yet,” I’d said. Then, a slight hesitation before I admitted, “honestly, I’m not even sure I feel like a man at this point.” “Give it time,” my friends who’d been on testosterone (T) longer encouraged me. “It’ll happen, especially when strangers stop misgendering you.” Their advice was well-meaning and, I suspect, a truth for many folks who’ve pursued this particular avenue of transition. So I waited, and I hoped my feelings would change on a similar trajectory with my body. I can’t remember the first time I heard the word nonbinary. Maybe I read an interview online or it came up in a casual conversation. What I do remember is the immediate connection I felt to its definition: Nonbinary: not relating to, composed of, or involving just two things. That’s me. I knew instantly. So why did it take me another four years to decide to discontinue T and even longer to publicly announce my identity? Simple: I didn’t want to be a burden. I’d just come out as a trans man to my friends and family, then had to approach my workplace’s HR department to change my name and pronouns. There was a nagging concern that I’d be inconveniencing people after I’d already asked them to use one new name and set of pronouns. And what if I realized that different pronouns worked better for me later on? How many times could I come out to people before they got fed up? By the time I wrote Ana on the Edge, I was more or less comfortable being seen as a man in my public life, even if it didn’t perfectly describe who I am. But, as writing often does when you’re delving into something personal, Ana’s journey to discovering her nonbinary identity brought to the surface feelings and thoughts about my own. I created an ending to Ana’s story that left things open, one that sent readers the message that, “hey, this kid now knows she’s nonbinary, but she doesn’t have everything figured out yet, and that’s okay.” But it wasn’t until relatively late in the drafting process—after I’d revised the story enough to begin querying agents—that I realized the same logic could be applied to myself. It was a revelation that allowed me to critically evaluate how I wanted to be seen as an author who plans to continue exploring queer themes in the kidlit space. In a way, Ana, my fictional ‘enby bean’ ice skater, taught me that not knowing everything about myself all at once is not only acceptable but something to embrace. And the individuals who might not be so enthusiastic about having to learn a new set of pronouns? They’re not people worth being concerned about. My identity—an inherent part of who I am as a living, breathing, feeling human being—is not up for debate no matter how often it happens to evolve, nor is it an inconvenience. Near the end of Ana’s story, she reflects on the decision not to change her pronouns yet: “Uncertainty feels like less of a burden and more of an opportunity.” I’ve held that line close to me on the lead-up to publication. Because some people know who they are when they’re young, and that’s entirely valid. But for a long time, the only trans narratives I could find in the media exclusively reflected the experience that you either know you’re trans at a young age or else you’re not really trans. People aren’t static. Our tastes, interests, and even appearances change as we learn more about ourselves over time. Why not the understanding of our internal sense of self, as well? Instead of the shame I’m tempted to feel for inconveniencing people when I learn something new about myself, Ana helped me acknowledge that my identity is my own, even at times when I’ve been uncertain about some aspect of it. Maybe you were twelve like Ana when you discovered your identity or well into adulthood like I was. Maybe you’re still trying to figure it out now; that’s also perfectly fine. The wonderful thing about identity is it has no expiration date. Sit back, enjoy the journey, and celebrate every new discovery. Parties (T, tea, or otherwise) are also highly recommended. A. J. Sass is a writer, editor, and occasional mentor. A long-time figure skater, he has passed his U.S. Figure Skating Senior Moves in the Field and Free Skate tests, medaled twice at the U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships, and currently dabbles in ice dance. When he’s not exploring the world as much as possible, A. J. lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his boyfriend and two cats who act like dogs. Ana on the Edge is his first novel. In the town of Howler’s Hollow, conjuring magic is strictly off-limits. Only nothing makes Delpha McGill’s skin crawl more than rules. So when she finds her family’s secret book of hexes, she’s itching to use it to banish her mama’s money troubles. She just has to keep it quieter than a church mouse — not exactly Delpha’s specialty. Trouble is, Katybird Hearn is hankering to get her hands on the spell book, too. The daughter of a rival witching family, Katy has reasons of her own for wanting to learn forbidden magic, and she’s not going to let an age-old feud or Delpha’s contrary ways stop her. But their quarrel accidentally unleashes a hex so heinous it resurrects a graveyard full of angry Hearn and McGill ancestors bent on total destruction. If Delpha and Katy want to reverse the spell in time to save everyone in the Hollow from rampaging zombies, they’ll need to mend fences and work together. Goldie, Diane, and Cheryl find themselves jetsetting to sunny Los Angeles for a break but are drawn into a deeply personal investigation in this all new original graphic novel. CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME! Thanks to a serendipitous conflagration of events, Goldie, Diane, and Cheryl find themselves jetsetting to sunny Los Angeles! While Cheryl pursues space dreams at JPL and Diane continues her work as a remote scout for a music label, Goldie finds her days lost in the haze of old Hollywood, becoming friendly with a silent film start long past her prime. But when she’s framed for stealing, Goldie must dive back into her secret history in Tinsel Town to get to the bottom of it! In the eerie town of ‘Allows, some people get to be magical sorceresses, while other people have their spirits trapped in the mall for all ghastly eternity. Then there’s twelve-year-old goblin-witch Beetle, who’s caught in between. She’d rather skip being homeschooled completely and spend time with her best friend, Blob Glost. But the mall is getting boring, and B.G. is cursed to haunt it, tethered there by some unseen force. And now Beetle’s old best friend, Kat, is back in town for a sorcery apprenticeship with her Aunt Hollowbone. Kat is everything Beetle wants to be: beautiful, cool, great at magic, and kind of famous online. Beetle’s quickly being left in the dust. But Kat’s mentor has set her own vile scheme in motion. If Blob Ghost doesn’t escape the mall soon, their afterlife might be coming to a very sticky end. Now, Beetle has less than a week to rescue her best ghost, encourage Kat to stand up for herself, and confront the magic she’s been avoiding for far too long. And hopefully ride a broom without crashing. Amateur detective Pepper Blouse has always held true to this rule, even if it meant pushing people away. But when the results of Pepper’s latest case cost her any hope of the girl she likes returning her feelings, she decides that maybe she should lay low for a while. That is, until her Great Aunt Florence passes away under mysterious circumstances. And even though her dad insists there’s nothing to investigate, Pepper can’t just ignore rule fourteen: Trust your gut. But there’s nothing in the rulebook that could’ve prepared her for this. Twelve-year-old Ana-Marie Jin, the reigning US Juvenile figure skating champion, is not a frilly dress kind of kid. So, when Ana learns that next season’s program will be princess themed, doubt forms fast. Still, Ana tries to focus on training and putting together a stellar routine worthy of national success. Once Ana meets Hayden, a transgender boy new to the rink, thoughts about the princess program and gender identity begin to take center stage. And when Hayden mistakes Ana for a boy, Ana doesn’t correct him and finds comfort in this boyish identity when he’s around. As their friendship develops, Ana realizes that it’s tricky juggling two different identities on one slippery sheet of ice. And with a major competition approaching, Ana must decide whether telling everyone the truth is worth risking years of hard work and sacrifice. Essie is a thirteen-year-old girl feeling glum about starting a new school after her professor dad takes a temporary teaching position in a different town. She has 110 days here and can’t wait for them to end. Then she meets Ollie: delicate, blue eyes, short hair, easy smile. At first, Essie thinks she has a typical crush on a beautiful boy. But as her crush blossoms, she soon realizes that Ollie is not a boy or a girl, but gender non-binary. Meanwhile, Ollie is experiencing a crush of their own . . . on Essie. As Ollie struggles to balance their passion for queer advocacy with their other interests, they slowly find themselves falling for a girl whose stay is about to come to an end. Can the two unwind their merry-go-round of feelings before it’s too late? Today on the site, we’re excited to welcome Celine Frohn, editor of Unspeakable: A Queer Gothic Anthology, out now from Nyx Publishing! This speculative collection features a wide range of identities, including gay, lesbian, bi/pan, trans and non-binary, poly, and asexual characters. Check it out here and then learn a little more about the stories that make it up! Unspeakable contains eighteen Gothic tales with uncanny twists and characters that creep under your skin. Its stories feature sapphic ghosts, terrifying creatures of the sea, and haunted houses concealing their own secrets. Whether you’re looking for your non-binary knight in shining armour or a poly family to murder with, Unspeakable showcases the best contemporary Gothic queer short fiction. Even dark tales deserve their time in the sun. The anthology contains stories by Claire Hamilton Russell, Ally Kölzow, C. L., Lindsay King-Miller, Avery Kit Malone, Katalina Watt, Jude Reid, S.T. Gibson, Jenna MacDonald, Eliza Temple, Katie Young, Sam Hirst, Ryann Fletcher, Heather Valentine, Jen Glifort, E. Saxey, Anna Moon, and Mason Hawthorne. The haunted house as a metaphor is something that fascinates me. In “Leadbitter House”, the house is a proxy for the protagonist’s body, the struggles he faces throughout the story reflect a number of struggles that are common to transgender experiences. Elijah is confronted over and over by people who believe that his house must be arranged or decorated or treated in the way that they expect it to be, rather than how Elijah needs it to be, or who express outright disgust at it. The use of body horror elements in this story is another part of the gender narrative that I explore through my work. Often, it isn’t until other people read my writing and say “wow that’s body horror!” that I realise what effect the scenes I develop might have for someone who is not in my head. I try to make the ostensibly gory, horrific elements more about connection and exploration of the body, about intimacy and anxiety connected to bodily experience, in a way that uses the uncanny to interrogate that which is often assumed to be familiar and ‘normal’. But besides all that, sometimes organ removal is fun! “Laguna and the Engkanto” by Katalina Watt My story ‘Laguna and the Engkanto’ takes place on a fictional island called Avelina and is inspired by Filipino folklore, specifically the engkanto: a mythical spirit of the environment. The engkanto in my story is genderless and similar to a siren or mermaid, acting as a catalyst for and symbol of sexual awakening. Laguna begins the story with a fear of the sea, and as she becomes more in tune with herself and her body, this transforms into a longing for it. I wanted to explore the idea of queerness within the prism of a society which is highly spiritual in both the religious and folkloric sense. The characters are living under the shadow of colonialism which has brought, among other things, these new religious ideologies. Within this society and particularly for a young woman, the engkanto represents both sexual agency but also transgressive pleasure, and I wanted to play with the concept of queerness as it relates to these intersections within a culture. “Brideprice” by S.T. Gibson “Brideprice” is my love letter to the vampire novels and action fantasy movies like Van Helsing that got me through my teens. When I was first coming to terms with my own bisexuality, my desires felt monstrous, so stories of ravenous supernatural creatures pining away after maidens soothed me. I was enamored by the capricious, sensual, mysterious brides of D, who struck me as the perfect mix of maiden and monster, seducer and seducee. I wrote “Brideprice” to give them their own narrative voices, and to play up the queerness inherent in the source text. This undying family is re-imagined as a polyamorous unit of cis and trans men and women who simultaneously desire one another and compete with one another for power. The Dracula myth is generally told from his perspective, or the perspective of his victims, but not the brides. “Brideprice” is my attempt to give agency back to the brides. This is why Dracula rarely speaks in the story and only exists filtered through the brides’ memories: he’s just the catalyst for their leap into immortality. Whether they’re trying to escape violence, bigotry, or poverty, he’s their dark door into a new world, but they’re the ones seizing agency and making that final choice. “Homesick” by Sam Hirst Writing has always been a means of exploring and expressing myself from those early days of pre-teen poetry with its paeans to blonde beauties right through the angsty self-repressing tragedies of my teens littered with sapphic ladies dying to save their beloved. Emerging from years of denial about who I was and ignorance about the words that existed to describe myself – asexual, sapphic, queer… I turned to writing to work out my confusions before I even knew what they were. And that’s where ‘Homesick’ comes from. It mixes the Gothic elements I’ve always loved – ghosts – and one of the intriguing riddles associated with – how the afterlife actually works – with an exploration of queer identity that I’ve often felt didn’t fit in any of the existing categories. Ghosts allow you to move away from the physical. Sexual attraction disappears from the world of my story, the way it is absent from my own life. Exploring life after death allowed me to imagine a world lived within sight of your past but not bound or determined by it. My ghosts are homesick because they haven’t found a home yet and my story is about them finding their way there – to the place and the people they belong with. In writing this story, I followed Marion and Sanan through a Gothic world that they made beautiful. It’s a story of hope in the end and I hope people read it that way. “Lady of Letters; or, the Twenty-First Century Homunculus” by Heather Valentine Lady of Letters came from an idea I’d been toying around with for a while about fake profiles and alternate accounts in the mid-2000s era of early social media. I’d played a few games that were either set in that era or touched on the ideas I was interested in – Cibele takes place in a fake MMORPG, and spoke to my experiences of playing Phantasy Star Universe while having arguments with my soon-to-be-ex high school boyfriend in the private chat; and Simulacra takes the idea of the sentient profile in a far more cosmic horror direction. Seeing the call for stories for Unspeakable, I realised that the key to exploring these ideas on the page was the Gothic. Taking the genre’s sometimes-features of narratives framed through letters and recordings; the all-encompassing emotions its heightened settings allow its protagonists to have without that teenage shame of feeling too much; the idea of a ghostly romance, but making the spectre a digital one. I think the way that classic Gothic writing explores and remembers is past is something we can use to explore our own much more recent history, as people and as communities. “Hearteater” by Eliza Temple Hearteater is a story about a woman who lives alone in a decaying manor house named Scarlet Hall. One dark and stormy night, a stranger named Kat turns up at the house looking for shelter. Lady Scarlet invites her inside, and they grow close, despite each insisting on their own monstrosity. My initial idea for Hearteater was to explore how Gothic preoccupations with virginity would work when applied to queer sex, but literally none of that made it into the final draft because I got preoccupied by my own issues. Both Lady Scarlet and Kat refer to themselves as monsters throughout the text; they literally are, in the sense of being supernatural and nonhuman, but they also live in a heteronormative society which could consider them monstrous for not being attracted to men. When Kat comes to Scarlet Hall, both women find community in each other—not only are they both lesbians, but their respective supernatural powers complement each other. I wrote Hearteater at a time when I didn’t really have any friends who were also gay women, so the heart of the story is the joy and comfort that comes from finding someone like you, when before you were all alone. “Taylor Hall” by Jen Glifort I’ve always loved haunted houses—the dilapidated buildings, the secret passages, the unpredictability of a house’s temperament. But what if the house was benevolent, rather than threatening? I wanted to explore what it would be like to live in a haunted house that was devoted to its owner and wanted to help them. I thought Taylor Hall would be the ideal environment for a character like Kit, who struggles with gender identity and all the insecurity that comes with it. I’ve questioned my own gender identity my whole life, and feel like I’ve only recently started coming to terms with that. In my experience, suppressing those feelings can cause them to express themselves in unexpected ways (although they’ve never resulted in my house misbehaving in the middle of the night). I wanted to see how something like having a crush on a new roommate could bring up those emotions for Kit. Setting this story in a haunted house gave me a chance to play with the concept of home. I loved the idea of someone who found a loving, nurturing home that caters to their needs while still trying to find a home in themselves. “The Dream Eater” by Anna Moon What if an asexual person is faced with a succubus or incubus? That was my initial inspiration for “The Dream Eater”, where the ace protagonist, Dan, comes across a genderless entity that drains people’s life force. I wanted to write a story where asexuality and queerness allows the main character to relate to the supernatural in a different (and positive) way, and at the same time show an ace person in a happy relationship with an allosexual person (his girlfriend, Elise). The Gothic, and a threatening presence that looms in the space between dream and reality, seemed like the perfect lens through which to explore sexuality, identity, and what it means to be human. “The Ruin” by E. Saxey “The Ruin” is a romance, with two guys falling in love through their shared interests: ruined buildings, end-of-the-world fiction, incredibly old poetry. These are also a few of my favourite things. I wanted to explore, through a love story, a nagging doubt I have: are these hobbies actually unsavoury? Is Ruinenlust – so fundamental to the Gothic – also fundamentally dodgy? I can tell myself that I’m interested in how people used to live, or how they’d survive in an apocalypse, but I spend a lot of time (imaginatively) in dark crumbling places. Maybe it’s the continuity of the human experience that delights me, but I suspect it’s the continuity of me, posing solo against the background of all these wonderful ruins. So while I’m fond of both the characters in “The Ruin”, their relationship isn’t ideal. While the narrator’s interest in the end of the world is purely imaginative, his partner may have a more hands-on approach. Or is that just paranoia? Pet is here to hunt a monster. Are you brave enough to look? There are no more monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. With doting parents and a best friend named Redemption, Jam has grown up with this lesson all her life. But when she meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colours and claws, who emerges from one of her mother’s paintings and a drop of Jam’s blood, she must reconsider what she’s been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster, and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption’s house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend, but also to uncover the truth, and the answer to the question-How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist? ERIC: There was the day we were born. There was the minute Morgan and I decided we were best friends for life. The years where we stuck by each other’s side―as Morgan’s mom died, as he moved across town, as I joined the football team, as my parents started fighting. But sometimes I worry that Morgan and I won’t be best friends forever. That there’ll be a day, a minute, a second, where it all falls apart and there’s no turning back the clock. MORGAN: I know that every birthday should feel like a new beginning, but I’m trapped in this mixed-up body, in this wrong life, in Nowheresville, Tennessee, on repeat. With a dad who cares about his football team more than me, a mom I miss more than anything, and a best friend who can never know my biggest secret. Maybe one day I’ll be ready to become the person I am inside. To become her. To tell the world. To tell Eric. But when? Six years of birthdays reveal Eric and Morgan’s destiny as they come together, drift apart, fall in love, and discover who they’re meant to be―and if they’re meant to be together. From the award-winning author of If I Was Your Girl, Meredith Russo, comes a heart-wrenching and universal story of identity, first love, and fate. When Aidan was born, everyone thought he was a girl. His parents gave him a pretty name, his room looked like a girl’s room, and he wore clothes that other girls liked wearing. After he realized he was a trans boy, Aidan and his parents fixed the parts of his life that didn’t fit anymore, and he settled happily into his new life. Then Mom and Dad announce that they’re going to have another baby, and Aidan wants to do everything he can to make things right for his new sibling from the beginning–from choosing the perfect name to creating a beautiful room to picking out the cutest onesie. But what does “making things right” actually mean? And what happens if he messes up? With a little help, Aidan comes to understand that mistakes can be fixed with honesty and communication, and that he already knows the most important thing about being a big brother: how to love with his whole self. When Aidan Became a Brother is a heartwarming book that will resonate with transgender children, reassure any child concerned about becoming an older sibling, and celebrate the many transitions a family can experience. In this extraordinary debut novel by the author of the Lambda Literary Award-winning story collection A Safe Girl to Love, Wendy Reimer is a thirty-year-old trans woman who comes across evidence that her late grandfather—a devout Mennonite farmer—might have been transgender himself. At first she dismisses this revelation, having other problems at hand, but as she and her friends struggle to cope with the challenges of their increasingly volatile lives—from alcoholism, to sex work, to suicide—Wendy is drawn to the lost pieces of her grandfather’s life, becoming determined to unravel the mystery of his truth. Alternately warm-hearted and dark-spirited, desperate and mirthful, Little Fish explores the winter of discontent in the life of one transgender woman as her past and future become irrevocably entwined. On her way home from a gay wedding, Sybil’s eponymous protagonist is ambushed, beaten, and left for dead on the train tracks. Days later, Sybil awakens in a hospital and finds her skull has been reconstructed, but it quickly becomes clear that her version of “normal” and “reality” may have been permanently altered. When she falls in love with a very beautiful, but very married, actress, Sybil does what comes naturally: she presents the object of her affection with a homemade explosive device, and then abruptly leaves town. I’ve Got A Time Bomb chronicles her surrealistic journey living among the loners, losers, and leave-behinds in the dark corners of Amerika. Trina Goldberg-Oneka is a fifty-year-old trans woman whose life is irreversibly altered in the wake of a gentle—but nonetheless world-changing—invasion by an alien entity called The Seep. Through The Seep, everything is connected. Capitalism falls, hierarchies and barriers are broken down; if something can be imagined, it is possible. Trina and her wife, Deeba, live blissfully under The Seep’s utopian influence—until Deeba begins to imagine what it might be like to be reborn as a baby, which will give her the chance at an even better life. Using Seeptech to make this dream a reality, Deeba moves on to a new existence, leaving Trina devastated. Heartbroken and deep into an alcoholic binge, Trina follows a lost boy she encounters, embarking on an unexpected quest. In her attempt to save him from The Seep, she will confront not only one of its most avid devotees, but the terrifying void that Deeba has left behind. A strange new elegy of love and loss, The Seep explores grief, alienation, and the ache of moving on. Teodora di Sangro is used to hiding her magical ability to transform enemies into music boxes and mirrors. Nobody knows she’s a strega—and she aims to keep it that way. The she meets Cielo—and everything changes. A strega who can switch outward form as effortlessly as turning a page in a book, Cielo shows Teodora what her life could be like if she masters the power she’s been keeping secret. And not a moment too soon: the ruler of Vinalia has poisoned the patriarchs of the country’s five controlling families, including Teodora’s father, and demands that each family send a son to the palace. If she wants to save her family, Teodora must travel to the capital—not disguised as a boy, but transformed into one. But the road to the capital, and to bridling her powers, is full of enemies and complications, including the one she least expects: falling in love. In this queer polyamorous m/f romance novella, two metamours realize they have crushes on each other while planning their shared partner’s birthday party together. Ernest, a Jewish autistic demiromantic queer fat trans man submissive, and Nora, a Jewish disabled queer fat femme cis woman switch, have to contend with an age gap, a desire not to mess up their lovely polyamorous dynamic as metamours, the fact that Ernest has never been attracted to a cis person before, and the reality that they are romantically attracted to each other, all while planning their dominant’s birthday party and trying to do a really good job. When Max starts school, the teacher hesitates to call out the name on the attendance sheet. Something doesn’t seem to fit. Max lets her know the name he wants to be called by–a boy’s name. This begins Max’s journey as he makes new friends and reveals his feelings about his identity to his parents. Jason is sure his sister, Becca, was murdered, but he’s the only one who thinks so. After finding a photograph Becca kept hidden, he decides to infiltrate a boxing gym to prove that she didn’t die accidentally. As a transgender kid, Jason’s been fighting for as long as he can remember, and those skills are going to come in handy as he investigates. Quickly invited into the inner circle, Jason must balance newfound friendships with the burning hate that drives him. Jason soon feels torn between two worlds, determined to discover what happened to his sister but struggling with the fact that this is the first time he’s ever felt like he belonged somewhere. When Jackson Bird was twenty-five, he came out as transgender to his friends, family, and anyone in the world with an internet connection. Assigned female at birth and having been raised a girl, he often wondered if he should have been born a boy. Jackson didn’t share this thought with anyone because he didn’t think he could share it with anyone. Growing up in Texas in the 1990s, he had no transgender role models. He barely remembers meeting anyone who was openly gay, let alone being taught that transgender people existed outside of punchlines. Today, Jackson is a writer, YouTuber, and LGBTQ+ advocate living openly and happily as a transgender man. So how did he get here? In this remarkable, educational, and uplifting memoir, Jackson chronicles the ups and downs of growing up gender confused. Illuminated by journal entries spanning childhood to adolescence to today, he candidly recalls the challenges he faced while trying to sort out his gender and sexuality, and worrying about how to interact with the world. With warmth and wit, Jackson also recounts how he navigated the many obstacles and quirks of his transition––like figuring out how to have a chest binder delivered to his NYU dorm room and having an emotional breakdown at a Harry Potter fan convention. From his first shot of testosterone to his eventual top surgery, Jackson lets you in on every part of his journey—taking the time to explain trans terminology and little-known facts about gender and identity along the way. Through his captivating prose, Bird not only sheds light on the many facets of a transgender life, but also demonstrates the power and beauty in being yourself, even when you’re not sure who “yourself” is. If Jane Austen and Sholem Aleichem (Fiddler on the Roof) schemed in an elevator, this just might be their pitch. Ari is Elizabeth and Itche is Jane–and this Jewish, queer, New York City retelling of Pride and Prejudice is for everyone. Ari Wexler, a trans guy in his late 20s, is barely scraping by. His family life is a mess, he feels like a failure when it comes to love, and his job at a music library is on the rocks. His relationship with Itche Mattes, his doting best friend, helps him get through the days. Then a famous actress comes to town and sweeps Itche off his feet, leaving her dreadful sidekick to step on Ari’s toes. As Ari’s despair grows, a fascinating music project falls into his lap, and he s faced with a choice: to remain within his comfort zone, however small and stifling, or to take a risk that could bring meaning and joy to his life. Dedicated to trans women everywhere, this inspirational collection of letters written by successful trans women shares the lessons they learnt on their journeys to womanhood, celebrating their achievements and empowering the next generation to become who they truly are. Written by politicians, scientists, models, athletes, authors, actors, and activists from around the world, these letters capture the diversity of the trans experience and offer advice from make-up and dating through to fighting dysphoria and transphobia. By turns honest and heartfelt, funny and furious or beautiful and brave, these letters send a clear message of hope to their sisters: each of these women have gone through the struggles of transition and emerged the other side as accomplished, confident women; and if we made it sister, so can you! After an assault, bigender seventeen-year-old Aleks/Alexis is looking for a fresh start―so they voluntarily move in with their uncle, a Catholic priest. In their new bedroom, Aleks/Alexis discovers they can overhear parishioners in the church confessional. Moved by the struggles of these “sinners,” Aleks/Alexis decides to anonymously help them, finding solace in their secret identity: a guardian angel instead of a victim. But then Aleks/Alexis overhears a confession of another priest admitting to sexually abusing a parishioner. As they try to uncover the priest’s identity before he hurts anyone again, Aleks/Alexis is also forced to confront their own abuser and come to terms with their past trauma. Felix Love has never been in love—and, yes, he’s painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it’s like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What’s worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he’s one marginalization too many—Black, queer, and transgender—to ever get his own happily-ever-after. When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages—after publicly posting Felix’s deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned—Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn’t count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi–love triangle…. But as he navigates his complicated feelings, Felix begins a journey of questioning and self-discovery that helps redefine his most important relationship: how he feels about himself. Felix Ever After is an honest and layered story about identity, falling in love, and recognizing the love you deserve. Five years after a suspicious fire killed his ornithologist mother, a closeted Syrian American trans boy sheds his birth name and searches for a new one. He has been unable to paint since his mother’s ghost has begun to visit him each evening. As his grandmother’s sole caretaker, he spends his days cooped up in their apartment, avoiding his neighborhood masjid, his estranged sister, and even his best friend (who also happens to be his longtime crush). The only time he feels truly free is when he slips out at night to paint murals on buildings in the once-thriving Manhattan neighborhood known as Little Syria. One night, he enters the abandoned community house and finds the tattered journal of a Syrian American artist named Laila Z, who dedicated her career to painting the birds of North America. She famously and mysteriously disappeared more than sixty years before, but her journal contains proof that both his mother and Laila Z encountered the same rare bird before their deaths. In fact, Laila Z’s past is intimately tied to his mother’s—and his grandmother’s—in ways he never could have expected. Even more surprising, Laila Z’s story reveals the histories of queer and transgender people within his own community that he never knew. Realizing that he isn’t and has never been alone, he has the courage to officially claim a new name: Nadir, an Arabic name meaning rare. As unprecedented numbers of birds are mysteriously drawn to the New York City skies, Nadir enlists the help of his family and friends to unravel what happened to Laila Z and the rare bird his mother died trying to save. Following his mother’s ghost, he uncovers the silences kept in the name of survival by his own community, his own family, and within himself, and discovers the family that was there all along. Pony just wants to fly under the radar during senior year. Tired from all the attention he got at his old school after coming out as transgender, he’s looking for a fresh start at Hillcrest High. But it’s hard to live your best life when the threat of exposure lurks down every hallway and in every bathroom. Georgia is beginning to think there’s more to life than cheerleading. She plans on keeping a low profile until graduation…which is why she promised herself that dating was officially a no-go this year. Then, on the very first day of school, the new guy and the cheerleader lock eyes. How is Pony supposed to stay stealth when he wants to get close to a girl like Georgia? How is Georgia supposed to keep her promise when sparks start flying with a boy like Pony? Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can’t get rid of him. When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free. However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school’s resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He’s determined to find out what happened and tie up some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave. Two transgender elders must learn to weave from Death in order to defeat an evil ruler—a tyrant who murders rebellious women and hoards their bones and souls—in the first novella set in R. B. Lemberg’s award-winning queer fantasy Birdverse universe Wind: To match one’s body with one’s heart Sand: To take the bearer where they wish Song: In praise of the goddess Bird Bone: To move unheard in the night The Surun’ nomads do not speak of the master weaver, Benesret, who creates the cloth of bone for assassins in the Great Burri Desert. But aged Uiziya must find her aunt in order to learn the final weave, although the price for knowledge may be far too dear to pay. Among the Khana in the springflower city of Iyar, women travel in caravans to trade, while men remain in the inner quarter, as scholars. A nameless man struggles to embody Khana masculinity, after many years of performing the life of a woman, trader, wife, and grandmother. As his past catches up, the man must choose between the life he dreamed of and Uiziya – while Uiziya must discover how to challenge the evil Ruler of Iyar, and to weave from deaths that matter. For five friends, it was supposed to be one last getaway before they went their separate ways—a time to say goodbye to each other, and to the game they’ve been playing for the past 3 years. But they all have their own demons to deal with and they’re all hiding secrets. Finn hasn’t been able to trust anyone since he was attacked a few months ago. Popular girl Liva saw it happen and did nothing to stop it. Maddy was in an accident that destroyed her sports career. Carter is drowning under the weight of his family’s expectations. Ever wants to keep the game going for as long as they can, at all costs. And things take a deadly twist when the game turns against them. Three different worlds. Three different Quinns. Who decides which one is real? The first Brume is a waking nightmare, overrun by literal monsters and cutthroat survivors. For Quinn, who is openly genderqueer, the only bright side is their friendship with Lia—and the hope that there might still be a safe place to live beyond the fog. The second Brume is a prison with no bars. Forced by her conservative parents to “sort out” their sexuality at Camp Redemption, Quinn must also, secretly, figure out why presenting as female has never felt quite right. The third Brume is a war zone. For Quinn, who presents as male, leading the Resistance against an authoritarian government is hard, since even the Resistance might not accept them if they knew Quinn’s truth. As Quinn starts to realize that they might be one person alternating among these three worlds and identities, they wonder: Which world is the real one? Or do they all contain some deeper truth? What would the future look like if we weren’t so hung up on putting people into boxes and instead empowered each other to reach for the stars? Take a ride with us as we explore a future where trans and nonbinary people are the heroes. In worlds where bicycle rides bring luck, a minotaur needs a bicycle, and werewolves stalk the post-apocalyptic landscape, nobody has time to question gender. Whatever your identity, you’ll enjoy these stories that are both thought-provoking and fun adventures. Featuring brand-new stories from Hugo, Nebula, and Lambda Literary Award-winning author Charlie Jane Anders, Ava Kelly, Juliet Kemp, Rafi Kleiman, Tucker Lieberman, Nathan Alling Long, Ether Nepenthes, and Nebula-nominated M. Darusha Wehm. Also featuring debut stories from Diana Lane and Marcus Woodman. Today on the site, we’re happy to welcome back Sara Codair to reveal the cover for their upcoming new adult contemporary fantasy, Life Minus Me, releasing from NineStar Press on December 23rd, 2019! Here’s a little more about the book: Mel is half-angel, but despite her ability to heal and read minds, she feels powerless to help anyone. When a prophecy shows a local pet supply store owner driving their car off a bridge, Mel sets out to stop it. Baily, owner of Barks and Bits, is barely holding it together. Things keep going wrong, and their depression spirals out of control. Just as they start wondering if they’d be better off dead, a new friend provides a glimmer of hope. But is that enough to keep living? Mel never thought saving Baily would be easy, but she can’t figure out when, where, or why Baily’s suicide will happen. As her confidence fades away, she wonders how she can help anyone when she needs so much help herself. And here’s the lovely, wintry cover, designed by Natasha Snow! Sara Codair is the author of over fifty short stories, which are packed with action, adventure, magic, and the bizarre. They partially owe their success to their faithful feline writing partner, Goose the Meowditor-In-Chief, who likes to “edit” their work by deleting entire pages. Sara’s debut novel, Power Surge, was published by NineStar Press and the sequel will be out sometime in 2020. Find Sara online at saracodair.com or @shatteredsmooth. You may have already heard me hype Candice Montgomery a million times, but honestly, it’ll never be enough. Their voice in YA is like nothing else out there, and if you haven’t yet read their work, I hope this’ll convince you to dive in! (If not, just read the acknowledgements of By Any Means Necessary, which just released on October 8 and is basically a master class in voice all on its own.) Especially if you’ve been looking for more queer and/or nonbinary Black voices and/or Muslim voices, have I got some wonderful news for you. So please welcome the utterly fabulous Candice Montgomery! New book! New book! It’s well documented that I’m obsessed with Torrey and By Any Means Necessary, but could you please share a little about your sophomore novel and how it came to be for those who didn’t get an early read? HAAA! It is absolutely well documented that you run my literary (and personal) life better than I do. So, By Any Means Necessary is a story about a newly minted college freshman. He’s hyped and ready to take on his new town up in San Francisco, and nervousness—though present!—takes a backseat. That is, until he gets news that the apiary he owns back home, by way of his late uncle, is being seized. So he’s torn between taking on this new thing that’s only about Torrey himself (and also maybe a little about a certain dancer boy named Gabriel) and going home to a place that’s chewed him up raw, all to save his uncle’s legacy. The idea for BAMN came to me when a friend and I were on the phone talking about gentrification and how it was affecting us directly, as individuals. And then, common to our conversational flow, we segued into talking about weird hobbies for main characters. She talked about her characters operating a vineyard and I suddenly had the idea for a character to run a bee farm where his struggle (getting stung constantly) and his desire to be free (flying away from the hive he knows) would mirror his hobby. In Torrey’s case, his passion. Queerness (and specifically queer characters of color) also feature in your debut Home and Away, which has a kickass female football-playing protag and a wonderful male love interest who happens to be bi. What would you say draws Tasia and Kai together, and in your mind, where are they now? I think Taze and Kai are opposite sides of the same very big coin. And that’s what works for them. Kai brings out Tasia’s looser side and she not only lets Kai just be who he is, but she actively enjoys it. It’s basically just two teens who don’t feel they fit in finding out that they actually DO. With each other. In my mind, Taze and Kai are still very much together but also attending separate colleges about an hour from one another. Taze is playing ball for Cal and studying Pan African Studies and Kai is over at the San Francisco Art Institute taking the art world by storm. And making Taze laugh while he does it. For readers looking for even more of your published work, you’ve got a fabulous story in Habibi, the all-Muslim anthology edited by Hadeel Al-Massari and Nyala Ali, starring a Muslim girl who’s managing both depression and her feelings for her best friend, a trans guy named Aaron. What made this the story you wanted to tell in this collection in particular? Oof! Thank you! I love that story and that anthology so much. Don’t forget about that one by the way. It’s got big plans for the future. But my story in Habibi is called “Love God Herself.” And it’s a story I wanted to tell because a muslimah (now) friend of mine tweeted on a trending about wanting to see hijabis who are questioning their faith, who are bucking back against traditional Islamic partnerships, who are depressed and not instantly healed, all—MASHALLAH!!! I reached out to her. Asked her if she’d write it. And then she turned around and asked ME if I would. And speaking of anthologies, we’ll get even more Cam goodness in 2020 when you feature in the upcoming all-queer anthology Out Now: Queer We Go Again!, the contemporary followup to All Out, once again edited by Saundra Mitchell. What can you tell us about your story for that collection? My story for Out Now was honestly one of the most difficult things I’ve ever written. I’m so in love with it. I struggled for months with it and then one night it all just poured out of me, start to finish. I didn’t even read it through before I sent it off to Saundra; I was already so past deadline. Twice. And from there, I didn’t get asked to make any structural changes to the story, either. Just a few grammatical things. It’s a raw story and probably the best thing I’ll ever write. It’s about a skateboarding enby who has a crush on a girl whom they think will NEVER notice them. Maybe she will, maybe she won’t. But the main character will take you all the way through it. Cam Anthology Goodness of 2020 Part II has you breaking into MG in Once Upon an Eid! What was it like to write for a younger audience, and is it something you could see yourself doing in longer form? First—CAM ANTHOLOGY GOODNESS OF 2020! YESSSS. ONCE has been such a fun process. It was just happy-making anytime I worked on it. This was my first time writing ANYTHING MG. And immediately after my story was submitted, I started drafting an MG novel of my own. It’s on hold for a moment, but I’m 12K words deep and still sooo excited about it. You’re such a great advocate for more midlist authors and especially for other queer/trans Black authors, and QTAoC in general. What books and authors would you love to see get more attention, and what queer books have meant a lot to you as a both an author and a reader? Oooh! I love this question. There are a few key QTAoC that I’d undoubtedly return to religiously, one of whom being Rivers Solomon (they), author of An Unkindness of Ghosts. It is the queer Afro-futurist fic of my marshmallow heart. And I wish I’d written it myself. Also entirely jealous of this human’s 12-ton talent: Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi (they). I should say that these are some pretty heavy novels, though. But I think anybody who reads them will be made better for them. My heart needed ’em. And if we’re talking books that formed me as both an author and a reader—it’s not fiction, it’s a memoir. But my favorite book in the world, the reason I was able to tell my family I’m queer, the path through which I found my label as a Pansexual person—it’s Paul Monette’s Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir. Yes, it’s a memoir. Yes, it’s horrifically heartbreaking. Yes, it ends in a way that will ruin your entire week (lololo). But also… it’s romantic in ways I’ve never seen expressed on the page before. What’s your first memory of LGBTQIAP+ representation in the media, for better or for worse? Glee. It was, unfortunately, when Glee introduced Kurt and… the kid with the chin and the hair? Blaine? My mom and my little sister and I would watch it together every week and I remember sitting in strained, awkward silence with them, while such an explicit and open GAY display moved across the television. We never talked about it. I just wanted it to be over, not for my discomfort, but for theirs. My mom and sister’s. I wanted to tone down my relationship to queerness in order to make others more comfortable. And as far as I knew, out of the 3 of us, I was the only one who connected to it. (spoiler: my little sister is out and openly panromantic polyamorous). As someone contributing to a couple of great collections next year, what would be a dream project for you specifically to helm? I absolutely have an answer to this… but that’s all I can say for now. Stay tuned! 😉 What can you share about what you’re working on right now? Right now, I’m pulling my own teeth out trying to draft a new YA romance about two Black teens who explore their ancestry through Hoodoo and Voodoo. It’s difficult. And it’s unlike anything I’ve written before. Candice “Cam” Montgomery is an LA transplant now living in the woods of Seattle, where they write Young Adult novels. Their debut novel, featured on the 2018 Kirkus Best list, HOME AND AWAY can be found online and in stores now, and their sophomore novel, BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY was released earlier this October. By day, Cam writes about Black teens across all their intersections. By night, they bartend at a tiny place nestled inside one of Washington’s greenest trees. They’re an avid Studio Ghibli fan and will make you watch at least one episode of Sailor Moon and listen to one Beyoncé record before they’ll call you “friend.” Today on the site I’m excited to welcome Nino Cipri, author of the brand-new Homesick, which just released from Dzanc Books on Tuesday! It’s a short story collection that spans speculative, sci-fi, fantasy, and horror, with all sorts of queer/trans rep, including queer, bisexual, lesbian, gay, transfeminine, transmasculine, nonbinary, and bigender. Here’s the official blurb: Dark, irreverent, and truly innovative, the nine speculative stories in Homesick meditate on the theme of home and our estrangement from it, and what happens when the familiar suddenly shifts into the uncanny. In stories that foreground queer relationships and transgender or nonbinary characters, Cipri delivers the origin story for a superhero team comprised of murdered girls; a housecleaner discovering an impossible ocean in her least-favorite clients’ house; a man haunted by keys that appear suddenly in his throat; and a team of scientists and activists discovering the remains of a long-extinct species of intelligent weasels. Nino Cipri’s debut collection announces the arrival of a brilliant and wonderfully unpredictable writer with a gift for turning the short story on its ear. We’re celebrating the release with an excerpt from the novella “Before We Disperse Like Star Stuff,” which you can learn more about here: Three years ago, Damian Flores, Min-Ji Hong, and Ray Walker made the discovery of a lifetime: the fossilized remains of a long-dead species of intelligent weasels, who had a developed language and writing system. Their find helped redefine ideas of sentience and saved parts of Pine Ridge from natural gas extraction. Three years later, however, Damian can’t shake the suspicion that he’s a sellout, Min can’t find a post-doc fellowship despite co-discovering a non-human language, and Ray is languishing in boredom in a small Kansas college town. When an opportunity to film a documentary about their discovery arises, the three former friends must reckon with secrets, drunken apologies, baby otters, and the bullshit colonial underpinnings of archeology. (Rep notes for anyone curious: Damian is Latinx, transmasculine, and queer. Min is a transwoman and Korean-American. Ray Walker is Lakota and bisexual. ) And here’s the excerpt! Ray’s flat Midwest accent always made Damian think of hollow logs rolling down a hill. It was unmistakable and weirdly attractive. “I was hoping to talk to you,” Damian answered. Ray had grown his hair out and wore it tied back in a messy bun, wavy tendrils escaping in the wind. Damian instinctively wanted to tuck them back behind Ray’s ears. “Hell of a drive from New York City, just for a conversation,” Ray said. “Why didn’t you call?” “You changed your number.” Ray rolled his eyes. “Min still has my number. You could have gotten it from her.” He hadn’t even thought of that. Why were Min and Ray still talking to each other and not to him? He was the connection between them, the common denominator. He’d assumed that they’d all lost touch at the same time, after he’d announced his book deal and they looked at him with betrayal instead of excitement. “I’ve got a proposition for you,” he said to Ray. “I figured you’d be less likely to turn me down in person.” Ray huffed—not quite a scoff, but too annoyed to be a laugh. “Good to know you’re still a manipulative shit.” “I guess I deserve that,” Damian said quietly. He absolutely deserved that. Even now, he was calculating how much hurt to allow into his voice and vigorously hating himself for it. He wanted to be a good person, but he wanted to do good work more. This documentary was good—ergo: all was fair. “Come on,” Ray said. “Step into my office.” His office was, of course, his truck, and if the sight of it had been a punch to the gut, stepping into it was like getting reverse-suplexed into the past. Same threadbare fabric on the seats. Same clatter of coffee cups rolling around the footwell. Same dusty dashboard, with the word BUTTS etched into the leather near the passenger window—a gift from one of Ray’s nephews. Ray had attempted to turn it into the word BURTS, supposedly in honor of Reynolds and Kwouk, but with meager success. It was horrible. Damian only liked the past when it was a minimum of six hundred years old. “The good old Buttsmobile,” he said. “It’s the Burtsmobile, damn it,” Ray muttered. “What’s your proposition?” “The Smithsonian wants to make a documentary about ossicarminis.” “Adapt your book, you mean?” “Not just the book,” Damian said. “They optioned it as an actual documentary about ossicarminis, finding and identifying them, the whole thing with NEOCO.” He wasn’t going to go into the Space Weasels. He could only have one crisis of conscience at a time. “And what happened after? Our falling out? Or only the part of the story that makes you look good?” Ray asked. He’d always been blunt. Damian used to like that about him. “Is that what you call it?” Damian asked, honestly interested. “A falling out?” Ray shrugged. “That’s what other people call it when they’re trying to ask me what happened.” “Falling out,” Damian said again, testing the words. Like it was natural law, rather than two stubborn assholes roleplaying an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. “I told them I wouldn’t do it without you and Min,” Damian said. It wasn’t quite a lie; assuring Annika that Ray and Min would definitely sign onto the project was basically the same thing. “The two of you are the story. More than me. I just got lucky by falling in a cave.” “Ossicarminis is the story,” Ray said. “I—I don’t—” Damian waited him out, toying with the iron pendant his mother had made him in a smithing class. “I don’t want to rehash the whole thing, man,” Ray said eventually. A nice blush was spreading across his cheek. “Not what happened between us. That stays off camera and in the past.” “I am one hundred percent okay with that,” Damian said, and knew it was a lie as soon as he said it. He had fallen into a fast, consumptive love with this nerdy asshole and his terrible khakis, his probably lethal caffeine habit, and his utter disinterest in being tactful. Their so-called falling out hadn’t changed that. He had planned on avoiding Ray forever, but he’d come around to the idea that this could be his second chance. That’s why he’d actually driven to this godforsaken prairie infested with Elvis-themed restaurants. They’d wanted the same thing, after all: to spread the word about ossicarminis, to make people understand the gravity of this discovery. They had disagreed loudly and angrily on how to do that, and Ray had dumped him. And then he’d grown out his hair, which just seemed unfair. “You grew out your hair,” Damian said, like the lovesick dumbass he was. Ray ran a self-conscious hand over it. “I told myself I would when I got tenure. When they couldn’t fire me for looking ‘unprofessional.’” The word dripped with sarcasm. “Not sure if that meant too gay or too Indian. The chair never specified. Both, probably.” The familiarity was a physical ache; Damian thought of the feeling of taking off his binder after a day of wear, stretching his shoulders back after hunching them for hours. It was unfair, it was exquisite, and it felt like pressing hard on a bruise that he’d successfully ignored for the past year and a half. “So?” he asked. “Documentary?” Nino Cipri is a queer and trans/nonbinary writer, editor, and educator. They are a graduate of the 2014 Clarion Writers’ Workshop, and earned their MFA in fiction from the University of Kansas in 2019. Their fiction collection Homesick won the Dzanc Short Story Collection award, and their novella Finna–about queer heartbreak, low-wage work, and wormholes–will be published by Tor.com in 2020. A multidisciplinary artist, Nino has also written plays, screenplays, and radio features; performed as a dancer, actor, and puppeteer; and worked as a stagehand, bookseller, bike mechanic, and labor organizer. One time, an angry person on the internet called Nino a verbal terrorist, which was pretty funny. In celebration of National Poetry Day, check out these Poetry titles that discuss queerness, sexuality, identity, and more. This year’s theme is “Truth,” and given how much of queerness is grappling with that concept, whether for yourself or making other people understand yours or both, you can’t really go wrong here. (For a longer but less detailed list, check out our Poetry page.) In her powerful debut collection of poetry, Arielle Twist unravels the complexities of human relationships after death and metamorphosis. In these spare yet powerful poems, she explores, with both rage and tenderness, the parameters of grief, trauma, displacement, and identity. Weaving together a past made murky by uncertainty and a present which exists in multitudes, Arielle Twist poetically navigates through what it means to be an Indigenous trans woman, discovering the possibilities of a hopeful future and a transcendent, beautiful path to regaining softness. Non-binary poet Cyrus Parker returns with an all-new collection of poetry and prose dedicated to those struggling to find their own identity in a world that often forces one into the confines of what’s considered “socially acceptable.” Divided into three parts and illustrated by Parker, masqueradegrapples with topics such as the never-ending search for acceptance, gender identity, relationships, and the struggle to recognize your own face after hiding behind another for so long. In her third collection of poetry, Holy Wild, Gwen Benaway explores the complexities of being an Indigenous trans women in expansive lyric poems. She holds up the Indigenous trans body as a site of struggle, liberation, and beauty. A confessional poet, Benaway narrates her sexual and romantic intimacies with partners as well as her work to navigate the daily burden of transphobia and violence. She examines the intersections of Indigenous and trans experience through autobiographical poems and continues to speak to the legacy of abuse, violence, and colonial erasure that defines Canada. Her sparse lines, interwoven with English and Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe), illustrate the wonder and power of Indigenous trans womanhood in motion. Holy Wild is not an easy book, as Benaway refuses to give any simple answers, but it is a profoundly vibrant and beautiful work filled with a transcendent grace. Ocean Vuong’s first full-length collection aims straight for the perennial “big”—and very human—subjects of romance, family, memory, grief, war, and melancholia. None of these he allows to overwhelm his spirit or his poems, which demonstrate, through breath and cadence and unrepentant enthrallment, that a gentle palm on a chest can calm the fiercest hungers. Feed is the fourth book in the Teebs tetralogy. It’s an epistolary recipe for the main character, a poem of nourishment, and a jaunty walk through New York’s High Line park, with the lines, stanzas, paragraphs, dialogue, and registers approximating the park’s cultivated gardens of wildness. Among its questions, Feed asks what’s the difference between being alone and being lonely? Can you ever really be friends with an ex? How do you make perfect mac & cheese? Feed is an ode of reconciliation to the wild inconsistencies of a northeast spring, a frustrating season of back-and-forth, of thaw and blizzard, but with a faith that even amidst the mess, it knows where it’s going. I am so thrilled to have Katherine Locke on the site today, not only as one of my best friends and not only as one of my favorite authors, but as one of the editors of It’s a Whole Spiel, an anthology in which I happen to be a contributor and which releases on the 17th from Knopf! Here’s where I’ll mention that you can see us both at Books of Wonder in NYC on September 17th and Children’s Book World in Haverford on September 19th! And now, on to get to better know Katherine Locke! (Which, by the way, you can also do as a Patron at the $10+ level, as they’ve also done an interview there!) Of course, I have a little more insight into this one than usual being that I’m a contributor to this all-#ownvoices Jewish anthology you coedited with Laura Silverman, but for those a little less in the know, can you share a little bit about the process of editing it, and about the queer stories in it? Yes! Spiel is Laura Silverman’s brain child. She called me in February 2017 and wanted me to co-edit this anthology with her. I was fresh off finishing my story for Unbroken (edited by Marieke Nijkamp) which had been a tough story for me to write (personally, but also from a craft perspective, I hadn’t written short stories since college and hadn’t read much either, to be honest.) But I said yes right away. We worked really collaboratively on putting together the author list, the proposal, and then the editing of the anthology. It’s been a really interesting experience. There are four explicitly queer stories in it, all by out queer authors–Alex London wrote about a gay boy at summer camp who falls in love with a fellow camp counselor, while also trying to make sense of a crisis aboard the space station, one of his favorite nerdy topics. David Levithan wrote a really moving story about a Jewish boy’s coming of age, falling in love, and how that weaves through being Jewish too. It has lines that brought tears to my eyes and lines that made me sigh. It’s lovely. Hannah Moskowitz’s short story is about a Jewish girl who is dating a more observant Jewish girl, and grappling with her eating disorder on Yom Kippur. Hannah writes with this beautiful sparse language that really guts you, and this story really showcases that. I love that it’s the story of two girls dating and religious observance all tangled up together (with a good serving of self-acceptance and taking the first steps toward recovery mindset as well.) And my story is also queer! Your own story has some A+ queer content, including a non-binary sibling who undergoes a religious coming-of-age ceremony. It’s a great example of how queerness and religion intersect, and I’d love for you to talk a little about that! Yes! Davey, the younger sibling to my narrator Gabe, is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. I used B’nai Mitzvah for the name of their coming of age ceremony (for non-Jewish readers, Bar and Bat Mitzvah are gendered (as is Hebrew) after consulting with a rabbi and parents of nonbinary kids. I really loved writing Davey and writing Gabe’s interactions with Davey. Gabe’s fiercely protective of his sibling (a theme that comes up a LOT in my work). Gabe identifies as cishet, but there’s another character, Yael, who is the moderator of the fandom website Gabe haunts, who is also nonbinary and uses they/them but online only. That’s all I can say without spoilers! Of course, this isn’t your first queer work (or even your first Jewish queer work); your most recently published novel, The Spy With the Red Balloon, is a dual-POV set during WWII and told from the perspectives of two Jewish siblings, one of whom is a bi girl and one of whom is a demi boy in a relationship with another boy. How do you go about writing historical with identities that didn’t have the terminology we have now, and in what ways does their queerness impact the story you’ve told? I struggle a lot with terminology in historical fiction. A lot of it, including phrases which marginalized people used to self-identify, would be considered slurs and harmful now. And sometimes, people just didn’t have the language we have now. I try to describe how they feel instead, being as precise as possible. I was more vague with Wolf (my demisexual MC in Spy) at first and my editor asked me to be MORE explicit. I balked at first, mostly because I think it’s hard to describe demisexuality on the page (I am demisexual and I wrote Wolf’s ID largely from my experience). But I’m glad I did because that’s been something readers really connected with. But Wolf uses the word ‘queer’ because that’s the word that came up frequently in my research that I could be comfortable with, versus other words I wasn’t comfortable putting on the page. Ilse doesn’t have the word “bisexual” but says she likes some girls the way she likes some boys. Spy was the first time I’d written queer main characters. I really loved writing those queer relationships that felt bold and brave and hopeful in that book because a lot of that book is grim and dark. When I think about the book, I think about those quiet, gentle moments between those characters–Ilse and Polly’s first kiss, Wolf asking Max if he volunteered to be a pilot because Wolf was on the mission, Ilse teasing Wolf and Max, the last scene that I can’t talk about because spoilers. Those relationships got me through the dark parts of writing the book. And they were often the first scenes to come to me. Writing SPY was a really hard process and I wrote it in a pretty chaotic fashion. But Ilse and Polly’s first kiss has been there from the first draft, written exactly as it is now. Those are the lights in the dark. (Tl;dr: writing the queer relationships in SPY gave me the same joy writing fanfic does.) Like our most recently featured author, you’ve got a short story in the upcoming Out Now, edited by Saundra Mitchell. What can you tell us about it? Ahhh! I can tell you…that technically it lives in the same universe as my short story in It’s A Whole Spiel! There’s an overlapping coffee shop, because queer coffee shop AUs are the best? The Out Now story is called ‘Seditious Teapots’ because the main character, Rory, collects teapots. They don’t drink tea. They just like teapots. (Their mom does not get it.) I’m not sure everyone realizes this, but back when YA Pride had a book club, you were its spectacular moderator! Any advice for someone seeking to do a queer book club, and any recommendations that sparked particularly interesting conversation? Yes! I did that for many years, actually. I would use this lovely website, LGBTQReads as a great resource, if I was running a book club now. And I would talk and communicate with the group members! Some people really don’t want to read any stories in which queer characters come up against tragedy or hate, and that’s totally fair! Some people aren’t into coming out stories. That’s also okay. It’s good to know what your group’s hard limits are. Book recommendations: all of Ashley Herring Blake‘s books sparked great conversation, as did A Line In The Dark by Malinda Lo. I think that one makes a particularly good book club book because it gets that true crime x lgbtqreads crossover. Plus that cover literally sends shivers down my spine. Your books require a lot of research, and your writing schedule requires a lot of discipline. What are your favorite resources for looking up historical details, and your favorite resources and tricks for staying on track? I wish I had all the discipline my writing schedule requires! I do a lot of reading for my books. I think the book I’m researching now is going to end up being about 22 books in total. And then there’s the movies, tv shows, articles online, and interviews. I borrow books from the library when I think I can read it, get the general gist and won’t need to touch it again. I buy them when I think I’ll need to reference them again and again. I have a pretty good memory so for the most part, I highlight and bookmark. I only write down the timeline of the events because I do not have the brain for dates/years/times/etc (a problem for my previous two YA novels which were time travel books…) I have a rule that I read 3 sources before I begin, and the rest I read as I go along. Otherwise, I’ll drown in the research and never surface to write the book. So I usually try to read an overview of the time or event, a personal memoir or biography, and then something broader about that time period in the world OR the time period right before the time period I’m writing about (history builds on what came before it. You can’t write historical fiction and only read about that ONE time period.) I flag things in manuscripts as I first-draft so that I don’t slow myself down. Part of my problem is my brain gets distracted very easily (ADHD, and also, our brains are being rewired by our technology to have shortened attention spans). So if I open up a tab to look up a street name, I’ll end up with ten tabs open, buying a rug, researching swimsuits, and in a twitter argument. It’s best if I just put [STREET NAME] in my document, and fill it in later in revisions. Everything can be fixed in revisions. EVERYTHING. What’s the first LGBTQIAP+ representation you recall in media, for better or for worse? I think Jack? From Will & Grace. I can’t think of one earlier. I certainly didn’t read one in books until college, I think. Or one that I recognized. I suppose in retrospect there’s a lot of queer coding that I did not catch. Naturally, you’re one of my favorite people to talk upcoming books with, so I have to ask: what are you really excited about this fall and in 2020? OKAY. I’m excited for everyone to read The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern (which has a gay protagonist!) because it is simply stupendous. I’m also excited to read Gideon The Ninth which I’ve heard great things about. I have not read, but am absolutely dying to read, King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender. Kace is one of my favorite kidlit writers (they also have an adult novel called Queen of the Conquered coming out this fall I think that I want to dive into!) and King looks lush and magical and heartfelt. I am also DYING-ACTUALLY DYING to get my hands on Julian Winters’ next book How To Be Remy Cameron! I loved his debut, Running With Lions, so much and I just want to shove his books into everyone’s hands. And I’m excited to read By Any Means Necessary because bees! (BEES!) Also: Crier’s War. That’s on my list. (I’m just scrolling through pre-orders right now.) Jackpot by Nic Stone because the voice in Dear Martin blew me away and I just want to get sucked in like that again. OH and The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd Jones because I try to read one creepy book each year even though I don’t do creepy well, and this is my pick this year. But I’m in it to win it because I’ve been promised an undead goat. [Blogger’s Note for readers: Those last three are not queer books, AFAIK, though both authors do have other queer work! I forgot to specify the queer part in my question.] Also I hear there’s a really amazing Edgar Allen Poe anthology that’s coming out? His Hideous Heart! That’s the one. So I guess I’m going to get creeped out TWICE this fall. *shivers* *buys more blankets and hot chocolate to make up for it* What’s up next for you? *nervous laugh* UHHHHH. It’s A Whole Spiel is out on September 17th, and Out Now is out in May 2020. I am breaking out in my picture book debut in spring 2021 (!!!). And right now, I’m hard at work on another novel! It’s adult, historical fantasy (similar vein as the Balloonmakers books but with a weirder magic system), and I love it very, very much. It’s so weird. It’s so historical. That’s my favorite. Katherine Locke lives and writes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with their feline overlords and their addiction to chai lattes. They are the author of The Girl with the Red Balloon, a 2018 Sydney Taylor Honor Book and 2018 Carolyn W. Field Honor Book, as well as The Spy with the Red Balloon. They are the co-editor and contributor to It’s A Whole Spiel: Love, Latkes and Other Jewish Stories, and a contributor to Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens. They not-so-secretly believe most stories are fairytales in disguise. They can be found online at KatherineLockeBooks.com and @bibliogato on Twitter and Instagram. Keep faith, in the broad sense of the word. It doesn’t have to be a religion, unless you want it to be. It doesn’t have to speak about the universe, unless you want it to. It doesn’t have to be about anyone but yourself. Keep faith, in other planets and other houses; be it in the face of danger, grief, or while you spread your arms and laugh. Keep faith the same way you keep hope, bright and shiny, ever present. Keep faith in all your queer, beautiful self. Because you deserve it. This is an anthology of 14 short stories, by 14 queer authors, where faith and queerness intersect. Incidental, purposeful, we-exist-and-that’s-why queerness. And faith meaning whatever you want it to mean. In “And I Entreated,” nonbinary trans kid Gil is preparing for their bar mitzvah on a cramped space station, while their mom Shoshana has turned into a houseplant. “And I Entreated” is a fun story, but it also tackles some serious issues, like how trans people can have different feelings about misgendering, how traditional Jewish observance interacts with nonbinary gender, and whether to keep the term “bar mitzvah” – which is gendered in itself. I have been writing a lot of stories that are about Jewishness and growing up, in one way or another; and also incorporating trans and/or intersex aspects. And I confess I always wanted to write a story from the perspective of a houseplant! So this time I put the two together. While I was working on “And I Entreated,” our kid was also preparing for his bar mitzvah. Our household is very different – we are two trans parents, for instance –, but some aspects of Jewish family life are similar regardless. Including the endless practicing of the Torah reading: like Gil’s mom, I also know our kid’s Torah portion backwards, forwards, upside down… His bar mitzvah went great, and I have no doubt that Gil’s will too. With this story, I’d like to offer a bit of warmth and belonging to everyone around the world, regardless of religious affiliation. “Bigger Than Us” by Megan Manzano “Bigger Than Us” is about two teenaged girls, Jude and Mari, who have to face a reality they had been ignoring since they were children—Jude could be a Mage. In the country of Aurora, Mages are reincarnations of Gods and are immediately whisked away by the government to become servants of the people. Jude always believed she was meant for this path, but falling in love with Mari threw a rather large wrench in her future. She has to reconcile being a Mage with her love for Mari and if ultimately, either is worth keeping. While we may not be in a fantasy world like Jude and Mari, it was important to show not every decision is black and white. As a teenager, and especially getting older, we tend to question systems in place and the responsibilities they’ve placed on our shoulders. My hugest motivator for “Bigger Than Us” was teasing out these nuances and making the reader ask what happens when your faith in something is shaken, especially by someone you love. “Droplets Of Starlight” by Vanshika Prusty “Droplets of Starlight” is a short story about Payal, a girl who is head over heels, struggling with her heart and her society. We follow her, an almost eighteen-year-old girl who is bisexual, and who struggles with understanding how she fits into her Indian society because of her sexuality. Set in New Delhi during the monsoon, “Droplets of Starlight” will take you on a quiet journey of struggle, acceptance and love all under thunderous clouds and starry night skies. “Godzilla” by Kate Brauning I love this story because I love Halloween– I never got to trick-or-treat as a child (though I go every year with my nieces and nephews now!), so it was fun for me to write that into reality. I pretty quickly knew I wanted to write Emily’s story because while in some countries progress toward safety and acceptance has been made for queer kids, even in those places, adolescents find themselves dealing with really complex and difficult situations, often from lacking the relationship modeling cis-gendered, straight people their age often have. Churches meaning to be accepting and welcoming too so often hold their LGBTQ members up like mascots or poster children of their own progressiveness, and the spotlight is a hard place to be as you learn who you are and how to love. An anthology like this full of hard and transformative and hopeful moments about this intersection between faith and queerness is priceless, and I’m so honored to have been able to celebrate that through Emily. “Golden Hue” by Mayara Barros My story is about finding hope in the unknown and what happens when you die. It’s set in a fantasy world, where people have powers, but technology has also developed to about our current era. Even with all that, there are still mysteries that neither science nor magic can solve. I lost my grandmother last year and it still hurts some times. She never knew about by queerness, so I guess I wrote this story to tell myself she still loves me wherever she is. “How Not To Die (Again)” by Gabriela Martins Do you ever just have a crush on someone and deny it so hard that you totally die? Because Margô can’t take all the dying anymore. Every single time she denies her feelings for Josie, the universe flips her off by killing her in a yet more ridiculous way. I wrote this short story because I think we all deserve some sapphic joy, especially romcom style. Especially ridiculous. Especially Brazilian. Especially trans. Anyway, there’s a lot we deserve! Faith in this story comes very much in the form of having faith in yourself. … because, don’t you doubt it. If you keep self-sabotaging (YOU. You know I’m talking about you!), the universe will find a way to teach you a lesson. “Life Is A Story Of Change” by Elly Ha Even when she didn’t know the terminology as a young teen, she knew she was ace and aro. Knowing she’ll always be ace, she never expected to doubt herself. Especially not when she gets to college and starts to fall in love with her best friend of almost a decade. What changed? Are her anti-depressants clearing her head so that she can focus on her own long-lost feelings? Is she simply maturing? Are her Korean parents right, and she’s finally found The One? The scarier question continues to gnaw at her: is she still ace if she feels attracted to him this way? “Life is a Story of Change” is a semi-autobiographical story at the intersection of mental illness, sexuality, and personal faith. I wrote it from my personal experience with self-doubt in questioning my sexuality once I fell in love with who I can only describe as my ride-or-die partner. Despite that I am happily in love, I also endure occasional existential crises, always asking myself, “What am I, if not ace and aro?” For others who end up questioning their hearts, I hope that this story serves as a reminder that you are valid no matter where you land on the a-spectrum. You can be a little ace or entirely ace, or, like me, you can just be sure that you’re not not ace. “Nothing Left Standing” by C. T. Callahan “Nothing Left Standing” is the story of a queer teen, who—facing abuse and bigoted parents at home—decides to run away with his boyfriend for a chance to find his happily ever after. It’s a story about coming from trauma and pain and learning to put your faith in someone else. And essentially, it’s about that struggle of wanting to be optimistic and proactive, and the fear that that’s naive and you’re just going to get hurt again. I have a very complicated relationship with religion and capital “F” Faith, so when I was asked to write a story about holding on to faith, I was instantly reminded of my life in high school. I went to a Catholic high school, and while my friends were all praying to God, I was constantly putting my faith in other things—music, people, fiction, etc. In the long run, it’s probably easier to have faith in religion because you aren’t looking at a flawed person who’s guaranteed to mess up, but I’d been so betrayed by it that my last resort was putting faith in people with the constant fear that it was only a matter of time before they let me down. And so I wrote this story to explore that fear, the feeling of sitting on a ledge and knowing it’s only a matter of time before you fall, but doing it anyway because that’s what faith is about, and when your life refuses to give you something to have faith in, sometimes you just have to make your own. “On The Other Side” by Shenwei Chang “On the Other Side” is a story that draws on my own experiences with Buddhism, which my mom’s side of the family practices. It’s not a very commonly portrayed religion, so I wanted to shine a little light on it. My story doesn’t dig super deep into the belief system, but it does touch on a some of the rituals (disclaimer: Buddhism is an extremely diverse religion/spiritual tradition, so I’m limited to portraying the ones I know). I also wanted to depict the experience of having an ambivalent relationship with faith and religion that I haven’t seen very often when it comes to fiction. This story is dedicated those of us who are half-familiar and half-ignorant when it comes to our parents’ faiths, who have some exposure but not enough to feel entirely comfortable in a religious setting, who are receptive to immersing ourselves more in it but don’t know how or where to start. This story is also dedicated to all the queer people who wanted to come out to one or both of their parents but didn’t get the chance to because their parent(s) passed away before they could. It’s hard to cope with not knowing how your parent(s) would have reacted and not being able to share something so intimate and important with them. I want those people to know they’re not alone. “Read The Room” by Sofia Soter “Read the Room” features many of my favorite things: clueless teens, rituals, queerness and polyam crushes. It’s a short and sweet story, centered around Jo, a girl whose experiences with love and spirituality mirror my own in many ways; there’s specificity to her world and life that I sometimes shy away from writing, worrying about how (un)relatable it might be, but I hope it resonates with readers who are—like me, like Jo—looking for connection with others and themselves. “Ten Steps To Becoming A Successful Blogger” by Julia Rios I’ve been thinking about influencers a lot lately. It’s fascinating to me how and why certain people become cultural touchpoints, and what that means, both for them, and for their followers. In times of difficulty, we can look for messages all around us, and I wanted to think explicitly about the messages I give and the ones I listen to. It’s easy to dismiss Instagrammers and YouTubers as shallow and frivolous, but I think they can be doing good and important work, and I wanted to explore why and how that might happen for queer people who feel isolated in their daily lives. Also, I just really love the idea of a Bigfoot makeover. Glam Bigfoot! “The Language Of Magic” by Adiba Jaigirdar “The Language Of Magic” is the story of Asha, a Bangladeshi teen in Ireland, who wakes up in the early morning of the new year to a hint of magic in the air. The magic presents her with a vision of her grandmother back in Bangladesh. Motivated by her vision, Asha decides she has to find a way to travel back to Bangladesh, even though she knows it’s almost impossible. But maybe with the help of a stranger, the impossible can be possible. I was motivated to write “The Language Of Magic” because when I was a kid and living in Saudi Arabia as an immigrant, my maternal grandfather (my nanabhai) suddenly passed away. My Mom was distraught and it was my first major experience with death. But we couldn’t go back to Bangladesh. We couldn’t attend the funeral. We couldn’t comfort my grandmother or the rest of our family. We were mourning but there was so much distance, and that distance created a strange boundary and a sort of emptiness to my sadness. After that experience, I moved to Ireland for good and over time I lost more members of my family. Every time I experienced the same lack of closure, the same kind of distance and emptiness. Unfortunately, this is simply a part of being an immigrant. I wanted to imagine a world where this wasn’t a part of being an immigrant. Where the universe, or magic, wanted to help us out and give us the closure that we need. “The Messenger” by Mary Fan “The Messenger” tells the story of a woman who transferred her consciousness into a probe in order to explore the multiverse. After years of dimension-hopping alone, she accidentally crash-lands near a pre-industrial civilization and is mistaken for a miracle — a prophesized messenger from the Infinite Spirit. At first, she goes along with it. But when she falls in love with a local girl, she realizes she can no longer keep up the charade. I grew up atheist—not in a “God is dead” kind of way, but in that religion just wasn’t a thing in our household (probably a byproduct of my parents’ upbringing during the Chinese Cultural Revolution). Yet the studies of religion and faith always fascinated me. I spent years in church choirs both for the music and because I found the rituals fascinating (and was fortunate enough to have very accepting local churches that didn’t care whether their choristers were also worshipers). With “The Messenger,” I wanted to explore the question of just what faith is. And to depict a world where two women can fall in love, and it’s not a big deal. “Whatever She Wants” by Kess Costales “Whatever She Wants” is a queer fake-dating story about a Filipino teen named Theodora who is asexual and biromantic with a Catholic upbringing. She believes in God as a creator who loves and accepts all people, including those who are queer. The story shows her journey of discovering her sexuality along with her classmates. The story shows her journey toward self-acceptance as she discovers romantic love for her best friend, Magnolia, and for a boy named Alastor. After she and her best friend break up with their boyfriends, they agree to pretend to date each other to make their exes jealous. But the entire, Theodora hides that she’s in love with her. Spoiler: there’s a happy ending to it as they come out to each other and realize that they stopped pretending somewhere along the way. When Gabhi approached me with this opportunity, I quickly realized the only thing I could write was something personal and similar to my own journey (except being in love with my best friend). I grew up Catholic like Theodora, attending Catholic schools and going to Mass on Sundays. And like Theodora, as I started understanding myself and my sexuality, I realized I couldn’t believe in a God who wouldn’t love all people, especially if He supposedly created us in His image. So I wrote about my doubts and emotions through Theodora and hoped to share a story that resonates with someone else. Plus, it’s always nice to have a chance to write something sweet and fluffy when life is dark and difficult.

Finding solutions in the ongoing discussion about trans and non-binary gendered housing on university campuses is a sensitive process. Many state universities require students to spend at least one year living on campus. This ensures those universities have to make housing inclusive enough to accommodate different genders, religions, sexual orientations or disabilities. Youngstown State University — a commuter school — isn’t necessarily beholden to the same requirements that schools with mandatory residence policies are, but that doesn’t mean efforts to make campus housing more inclusive should be viewed as less critical. As reported in today’s piece, “Transcending Gendered Housing,” Eddie Howard, associate vice president in the division of student affairs, Danielle Meyers and Carol Seawood — the director of Housing and Residence Life and the property manager of the University Courtyards, respectively — will be meeting to address housing issues, including inclusivity. The meeting — and any forward thinking action borne from it — comes at a pivotal time in YSU’s history as a commuter campus. Since the beginning of President Jim Tressel’s administration, there has been a push to not only increase enrollment numbers, but increase the number of students living on campus. The new Honors College encourages participating students to live on campus to enhance their involvement with school events. International and out-of-state students — another demographic marked for increase by the new administration — also tend to live on campus. To prepare for this increase in campus living, two new housing structures — University Edge on 5th Avenue and The Enclave on Wick Avenue — have been cleared for construction. As YSU physically builds and prepares for an influx of on-campus residents, policies emphasizing liberty and inclusivity must also be built and prepared. There’s a few quick fixes YSU can begin working on to help improve conditions for transgendered or non-binary students hoping to live on campus. Providing students with housing applications that include a space to self-identify and a specific service for matching LGBT students with LGBT friendly roommates are some options. Better still, change the policy to assume that students in 2016 will be accepting of their LGBT classmates, and instead provide an “opt-out” selection for those who — for whatever reason — cannot tolerate an LGBT roommate. Gender-inclusive shower and bathroom options should also be included in the construction of the new housing units. It’s understandable why the dorms and Courtyard apartments would be hesitant to tear up their existing buildings to add in a third set of bathrooms. That defense runs dry, though, when talking about brand new construction. Hopefully the contracting companies responsible for building the new apartments have been instructed to build transgender and non-binary students into their plans. We hope that YSU’s plans to increase enrollment through out-of-state and international student recruitment is successful, but we also hope that those students will find YSU a university ready to accept them as they come and willing to work to find them appropriate housing. The editorial board that writes editorials consists of the editor-in-chief, the managing editor, the copy editor, and the news editor. These opinion pieces are written separately from news articles. They draw on the opinions of the entire writing staff and do not reflect the opinions of any individual staff member. The Jambar’s business manager and non-writing staff do not contribute to editorials, and the adviser does not have final approval.

The case for including pronouns of authors in publications This is a slightly edited version of a talk I gave as a panelist at the 2021 Gender Summit (GS20 Latin America) [Plenary 7: Widening access to science knowledge and research publications, As part of the 2021 Gender Summit (GS20 Latin America) virtual event, Brasilia, Brazil. Other Panelists: Holly Falk-Krzesinski, Elsevier; Luisa Massarani, Scidev.net; Germana Barata, UNICAMP; Organisers: Alice Abreu, Dante Cid, Katemari Rosa] Routinely, when I go outside, people stare at this body as something that does not fit. Some are confused; shifting between “Mr.” and “Ms.”, “sir” and “ma’am”, “he”, “she” … and in the worst instance: “friends” have called me “it” reducing my being to an object. I use they/them and he/his pronouns. If you were talking about this essay, you might say, “Did you read that medium post by Ayush? Their essay is about including author pronouns in publications.” I prefer they/them/theirs as pronouns to refer to me because I do not fit neatly into either of the box labeled female or male. Pronouns, for me, are a language device to explore, experience, as well as contest settled meanings of gender; but also of reifying them in some ways. We live in this tension. In this essay, I want to focus on a specific aspect of publications that disproportionately impacts transgender, non-binary, genderqueer, and gender-nonconforming scholars/authors. I want to make the case that when we are publishing articles in journals or book chapters (in English), we should publish authors’ pronouns alongside their names. (I would argue that this could be extended also to the instances where names of people are mentioned in popular English-language magazines and articles (but curious to hear how folks in journalism are thinking about this)). When discussing other scholars’ work, in writing and in conversations (in courses, at conferences, or informal spaces), we often refer to them, not just by their names but also by their pronouns. Just like you cannot look at someone’s face and say what pronouns they use, you cannot look at the name of someone and infer what pronouns they use. Think of a name such as Sam, Robin, Alex, Gale — all US/European names that are used by both male and female scholars. How do you know if a “Sam” should be respectfully & appropriately referred to using “he” or “she” or they” or “ze”? Say, I am writing to a colleague: “Hey, Alex has been a prolific scholar on XYZ topic. You should read [her work? his work? her papers? his papers? their papers?]” What should I be saying? But — that’s a small fraction of names right? What about a name like Patrick? The assumption is that someone named Patrick should always be referred to be “he”. And that is where we start seeing how this practice erases and makes invisible gender non-conforming folks who might be in places where these assumptions fail. The gendering of names is also cultural. How can someone who is not from the part of the world where I was named really tell for sure whether Ayush should be referred to as she or he? Some of these cultural assumptions can break even from region to region within a single country. In other words, guessing which pronouns to use to refer to someone based on their names is fraught with danger. Names and pronouns are both indexical, cannot be inferred, don’t fit into neat patterns, and yet our publication practices continue to force us to try to “guess” the pronouns of the authors. It would be ridiculous to ask me to guess the name of the authors of a particular piece. It is equally ridiculous to ask me to guess the pronouns of the authors of a particular piece. And yet, the practice continues. Most of these issues are easily resolved if author pronouns are included in the papers. Then we do not have to make these assumptions. This is not just an issue of comfort, but one of equity: The assumption still for many people is to default to “he” for scholars. The “woke” ones would default to “she” if they don’t know. But almost everyone just erases non-binary and gender non-confirming scholars. Just like I do not want someone to assume my name, I don’t want someone to assume the pronouns to refer to me. Most likely, when they assume, they will erase my non-binary self. (The patriarchy erases contributions of cis-women with gender neutral names too! But right now I want to centre non-binary perspectives.) This is not just about making space for non binary folks, not just about representation, but also about rendering a tear in the assumed ideologies. The declaration of pronouns fractures (in one tiny way) the assumed alignment between assumed sex, gender and sexuality; making space, albeit a small gap, for the glorious messiness of sex, gender, and sexuality outside that heterosexist cis-sexist patriarchal hegemony. This is not universally easy. - Some non-binary folks can feel discomfort in having to share their pronouns. I empathise with this. I think the period of contending with pronouns (and gender) is long and complicated for those exploring gender beyond that assigned at birth. I have faced it myself. A form would ask me for my gender. And it has been uncomfortable at times. But so is the rest of the world that keeps reminding me that there is no place for bodies like me in it. That world is violent. It is violent when someone just assumes that the only options are she or he, female or male. Or forms that only offer me the choice of “Other” or “Do not wish to specify” — literally forcing me to other myself or act as if I am shamed of my self. For some, the moments of being asked about their pronouns can also be complicated. And so, keeping the issue optional is one way to approach this. Creating possibilities, not control. Creating options, not chains. - There is the argument that pronouns is becoming a band-aid to avoid actually having a deeper conversation about gender (see this essay by Jen Manion, for example; and a response to that essay by Dean Spade). I agree that we need deeper conversations. I agree that we should not stop at pronouns. I disagree that we should not include pronouns specification as one small affirmative measure for non binary and gender nonconforming folks. (It will also have cascading benefits for folks who want to use the binary pronouns she or he.) The bottom line is this: if we are using a language that has gendered pronouns, then communication in it either requires us to know what pronouns to use for a person. To not say is it to effectively say, “guess it” and when we make these guesses, the status quo always wins! But we can do this sensitively, without ignoring the struggles of those who are questioning and exploring. What are some ways to include pronouns You can print them in parenthesis besides names With a comma after the authors’ email Below the affiliations, they would look fine! You can include them as a footnote Or maybe as an endnote And if you want to go really long, you can include them in the bios The point I am trying to make is that if you are open to this, finding a space to include author pronouns, is not a difficult task. They are after all tiny little words, hardly taking up real estate on the page. But publishing these 1–2 syllables is made out to be difficult by journal leadership. And that’s the next point I want to make. Challenges: Tactics used by editors to maintain status quo! - Defer: “We are considering it” — Such deferment often allows the editors to not say a “no” while doing nothing about the issue raised. - The editors of a prominent journal in education research told me: “the practice is not prominent enough yet, and not understood enough outside North America, to implement it in the very short term.” — Well then do some work in making it understood! Is it easy to understand each journal’s specifics of page limits, formatting and referencing requirements, bibliographic formats, page charges, open and closed access policies, copyright issues? But for those logistics, so much effort is spent on design of journal pages, instructions, and communication with authors. However, the editors quail at the thought of mentioning pronouns? - Issue of privacy: “we cannot store gender information”. Queer people have fought and are fighting continuously for visibility, to be seen and heard. Not all queer people, not at all moments in their life. But there isn’t any argument that we collectively want to be made invisible. And journals are happy to collect so much information. Gender information is collected by a zillion systems. But for some reason, adding the option of — not the requirement of — author’s pronouns becomes an issue of privacy? All these excuses from editors need to be recognised for what they are: the transphobic discomfort of folks. Oftentimes, these “concerns” centre the discomfort of cis-people at being reminded that gender non-conforming and non-binary people exist, that gender non-conforming and non-binary scholars exist! Two success stories: - In the Physical Review journals — my co-authors and I decided we want our pronouns to be included. It was a special issue. When the proofs came, no pronouns were included. We requested again. They said, we will include them later. The first author enacted what I would call courageous ally ship to non-binary folks: She said, not one step further, until you include the pronouns in the proof. The journal wanted to include emails of all authors. So we had an argument: people cannot communicate without pronoun information, so that should be included with the emails. Because it was a special issue, the production got held up. We learned we have some leverage and we were going to use it! There were also other allies in our scholarly community who wrote on social media and to the journal editors in support of this policy. The journal editor finally made policy changes. But the story of this struggle was not included in the editorial in which the chief editor took all the credit for the policy change, while reproducing the logics that we had presented. - I am currently serving on the editorial board for the International Journal of Engineering, Social Justice, and Peace. When I brought up the issue of including author pronouns it was an easy to get a quick consensus from the editorial team. But the issue of privacy came up in storing this information as a field in the form that the authors fill out. Gender was deemed “too sensitive.” To get around, We have encouraged authors to include pronouns in bios and with affiliations. It is a smaller journal, with a simpler production process, and a less complicated hierarchy (as compared to major publication houses) and that has really helped us make this change. There is a lot more that needs to be done in supporting gender non-conforming and non-binary scholars — supporting them emotionally, intellectually, financially, and support the diverse ways in which they want to pursue scholarship instead of shoehorning them into prior meanings and formats of scholarship. Including the option of author pronouns in publications is a small thing we can do right away. Pronouns can change over time. Names can change over time. The conventions around pronouns do not translate easily across, different languages, different regions, different times …But we/you are smart folks! Figure this out and make the change!

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“Previously published by The Lawyer’s Daily, a division of LexisNexis Canada”. A panel on transgender people and prisons took place during Halifax Pride, intended to help lawyers better serve trans clients remanded or sentenced to provincial custody in Nova Scotia and promote understanding of some issues trans people face in the prison system. The panel focused on the implementation in 2017 of a Nova Scotia Correctional Services policy, which provides that trans and gender-variant people are to be placed in a women’s or men’s unit according to their gender identity or where they feel safest, regardless of their anatomy or the sex designation on their ID. The policy was developed in accordance with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression. It changed Correctional Services’ previous practice of incarcerating trans people on the basis of genitalia. The panel featured Nova Scotia Correctional Services’ manager of policy and program services, Jill McCarthy, and director John Scoville. Taylor, a young trans woman, spoke about her experience of incarceration in a Nova Scotia provincial prison, and Emma Halpern, executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia, spoke about what the organization learned through supporting Taylor. Jack Townsend, civil litigation lawyer with the Nova Scotia Department of Justice, moderated the panel. McCarthy drafted the policy but explained that it was developed collaboratively. Dalhousie Legal Aid Service and the provincial Human Rights Commission reviewed drafts. Five months after it was implemented, the policy was revised, based in part on feedback from incarcerated trans and gender-variant people. The policy is detailed. It provides, among other things, that self-identification is the sole measure of a trans person’s gender identity. Self-identified names are to be used, except in rare circumstances when legal names are required. Prior to all searches, the policy states that trans and gender-variant people will be asked to identify whether they would prefer to be searched by a man or woman correctional officer, or to have a split search. McCarthy and Scoville said training is necessary to educate staff regarding the policy, human rights considerations and respectful workplace conduct. Taylor also noted a need to educate incarcerated cisgender people (people whose gender identity aligns with their sex assigned at birth). McCarthy agreed, but expressed concern that an educational session could unintentionally out a trans person housed in the unit and put them at risk of violence. Though trans and gender-variant people are not to be held in segregation, or “administrative close confinement,” solely on the basis of gender identity or expression under the policy, they may be confined “for their own protection.” Trans and gender-variant people are also sometimes held in segregation pending a decision about where to place them. In her tips for lawyers representing trans and gender-variant clients facing prison, Halpern recommended lawyers ask the sentencing judge to include in their order that the client not be held in segregation “for their own protection,” and order which prison the client be sent to. To further help ensure clients are placed in a unit that aligns with their gender, Halpern recommended lawyers assist clients in having their ID changed to reflect this. The Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia has a clinic to assist incarcerated people in changing the sex designation on their ID and covers the cost. Trans and gender-variant people may also face heightened gender dysphoria in prison. The policy states that trans and gender-variant people will be provided with underwear and clothing based on self-identified needs. But many trans people also need items such as gaffs, binders, packers and breast inserts to affirm their identity. These items are not provided by Correctional Services, though the policy states that people “may request or require prosthetic devices to express their gender and reduce distress, anxiety and/or depression,” and that, upon completion of a search, will be allowed to retain these items unless there are “safety reasons” that cannot be resolved. Trans women and trans feminine people may also experience increased dysphoria and distress due to sporadic access to razors to manage facial hair growth. Halpern said the Elizabeth Fry Society has advocated for daily access to razors for trans women, and has provided gaffs, binders, packers and breast inserts with the support of the Youth Project, a local, non-profit organization. Halpern said that for non-binary clients (people who do not identify as either men or women), the prison system is especially difficult to navigate, as it adheres firmly to the gender binary. McCarthy explained that, given the choice of two binary options, some non-binary people (as well as some trans men) have asked to be placed in a women’s unit for safety reasons. Scoville noted that the computer program into which information about incarcerated people is entered has only “male” and “female” options. He said he has been considering how to create processes that are inclusive of non-binary people within a binary system. Though Halpern said the provincial policy is a step toward improving the treatment of trans and gender-variant people in Nova Scotian provincial prisons, she called for greater change. “Prison is not the place for most people,” she explained. “But it has become a catch-all for our social problems.” Particularly for someone like Taylor, whose conviction arose in the context of homelessness and addictions, Halpern said what is needed is not a more trans-friendly prison, but safe housing, social programming and counselling for addictions and trauma. Jaime Burnet is an associate lawyer with Pink Larkin in Halifax, primarily practising union-side labour law and human rights law. She organized the Trans People and Prisons panel as the chair of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Community (SOGIC) section of the Canadian Bar Association — Nova Scotia. She does pro bono legal work for Women’s Wellness Within, a non-profit organization that provides support to criminalized women and trans people who are pregnant or parenting young children in Nova Scotia.

You’re never too old, too big, too small, too anything to give it a go! Once the derby bug takes over, you’ll wonder what you ever did without it!! – #4, Betty Believe It Wakey Wheeled Cats is dedicated to building an enjoyable, empowering and democratic league. We have grown towards bouting in both intra and interleague bouts and hope to build on these successes, with an aim of becoming one of the top-rated teams in the country. We also hope to gain enough members that we can have a number of teams competing within the league. We consider Wakey Wheeled Cats to be a diverse, social and happy team. We are open to anyone who wants to join no matter what race, nationality, or sexual orientation and we have no upper age limit (although you must be over 18 to join). Many of our members have never skated before, and the whole team is involved in training basic skills and upwards. The best thing about being a Cat is the absolutely awesome community we have built – I’ve made some solid gold wizard friends through the team. – #2407, Right Hook Brook Wakey Wheeled Cats is a women’s* team; we follow The Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) Statement about Gender. Anyone over the age of 18 can also join as a referee (on skates) or a non-skating official (NSO). Together, we are a group of people with a common goal: to bring the sport of roller derby to the Wakefield area and to promote roller derby within the UK as a whole. I’ve found a team and a sport where there is a place for everyone regardless of size, shape and lifestyle. Everyone is accepted for who they are, and their unique talents. It’s given me a confidence I never knew I had, and the best friends I’ve ever known. – #1M BC, Whack Elle Welch Coral (C-Sick) is happy to help with any questions about recruitment or joining the team. Email her directly at WWCrecruitment@hotmail.co.uk. As a quad-skate league, we adhere to the rules and guidelines given by the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) and each skater within the league will be required to become flat-track assessed and certified. * Our definition of women includes transgender women and non-binary genders. Recruitment Open Days We are recruiting now! Our next open dates are coming up in January 2019: Tuesday 22nd January 2019 – 6-8pm Saturday 26th January 2019 – 11am-1pm Tuesday 29th January 2019 – 6-8pm **Update** a new recruitment day has been added and the start day for the new intake has been changed. Saturday 2nd February2019 – 11am-1pm New intake begins from Tuesday 5th February 2019 at 6-8pm. Contact us through our Facebook open days event or email WWCrecruitment@hotmail.co.uk if you would like to come along! Roller Derby is a fast-paced, full contact sport so during training you can expect to practice fall techniques and strength training so that you don’t injure yourself or each other, as well as endurance training and drills to improve your skating techniques. All skate and fitness levels are welcome as full training will be given to get you bout ready. Beginners train in separate sessions to the main team so they can focus on basic skate skills. We have beginner’s packs for all new starters and are happy to answer any questions you may have, you can send us an email, speak to us on Facebook or grab us in person, we don’t bite! You can come and see what we get up to by attending one of our training sessions which are held on the following days at Lightwaves Leisure Centre; just contact us first! Monday evenings: Roller Derby Training (cats) 20.00-22.00 Lightwaves Leisure Centre Tuesday evenings: Beginner Training (kittens) 18.00-20.00 Lightwaves Leisure Centre Saturday mornings: Roller Derby (cats) and NSO Training 10.00-12.00 Lightwaves Leisure Centre Saturday afternoons: Beginner Training (kittens) 12.00-13.00 Lightwaves Leisure Centre Roller Derby Kit There are tons of online shops you can purchase your gear from, with more and more derby specific ones popping up all the time. We’re more than happy to point you in the right direction but remember that everyone is different and if you’re able to, it’s a great idea to try on various bits of kit before you buy. Good advice about protection and skates can be found at www.skates.co.uk and Double Threat Skates. Both are run by skaters, can supply everything you need, and are happy to talk to you about the best options available to you. Your basic kit which you will need when you start: We use quad roller skates, and you can start with beginner skates, such as Riedell R3s and SureGrip GT50s. Eventually, you may want to progress to skates that have been made to measure. - To skate derby you need to have some ankle movement and flexibility, so ankle cut quads or trainer-style skates are ideal - Tall, plastic skates are not suitable for roller derby - Suitable starter skates can be obtained at Division 24 or from plenty of retailers online Wrist guards, knee pads and elbow pads are essential roller derby equipment and you will not be able to join in practice unless you have appropriate safety gear. Here are some tips for your starter pads. - Look for aggressive skate pads, with thick pads and good decent straps / leg sleeve - Anarchy and TSG are well-priced starter brands available in most skate shops (such as Division 24). You will need to upgrade eventually to pads that offer more protection and last longer, such as 187’s, Smiths Scabs, or TSG - Wrist guards need full palm to wrist protection - Some girls recommend wearing knee gaskets under your skate pads, for extra protection. You will need a well-fitting skate helmet before you will be able to join. Follow manufacturers guidelines on how best to size your helmet. Riding helmets are not ideal for roller derby. - Ensure the helmet has a chin strap and good lower protection for the back of the head - Helmets will cost around £15-£35. S1, TSG, Nutcase and Protec are some of the brands which derby skaters use. These can be bought at most sports and martial arts shops. Boil and bite ones are fine to start with. These mould to your own mouth shape. However, some skaters visit a dentist to have one specially fit for better protection. These ones will come at a cost, though! Sisu is one popular brand that we use and are available from plenty of stockists online. Tailbone / Hip Protection – Optional These are shorts with additional padding and are optional, but if you feel like you might want more protection, they’re a great option. Some bicycle shops stock them, or you can try online roller derby stores. - Various short styles are available. You may want the shorter hotpants to wear under your uniform, or longer bicycle shorts to cover your thighs more - McDavids, Azzpadz and Crashpads are some brands that roller derby girls use Chest Protection – Optional Not required as a starter, but something to consider when you get involved in contact practice and bouting. These are generally bras with added shell protection in the cups. Turtleshell is one brand that girls use. We recommend that you research sports insurance for roller derby, as we do not provide cover as a league. The league cannot be held responsible for any injuries you may incur. Email WWCrecruitment@hotmail.co.uk or fill out this form.

1) Essay – We Have Always Fought 2) Fan podcast – Imaginary Worlds Heroines 3) Fan podcast – Breaking the Glass Slipper The Bechdel-Wallace Test 5) Fan podcast – Breaking The Glass Slipper Women’s Jobs in Fantasy This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity. If you would prefer the original, unedited version, please let me know! Welcome to Marginally Fannish, a show where we aim an intersectional lens at some of our favourite media and their fandoms. My name is Parinita Shetty and you’re listening to the eleventh episode of Marginally Fannish. In this episode, I talk to T. G. Shepherd also known as Lisa about the representation of women warriors in media and history. There are perceived gender roles and gender disparities in different styles of martial arts with some being considered too brutal for women. People’s gender also impacts their experiences in the environment they’re training to fight in. Comics have a long history of representing women warriors who have been aspirational role models for countless young people and adults. However, the overall representations of female fighters in media involve tired tropes rather than realistic, fully-fleshed out characters. This reflects the erasure of women warriors in real-world history which overlooks how women from different parts of the world overcame social, cultural and legal barriers to fight. Fortunately, there are a growing number of representations of women warriors with different skills, bodies and abilities working together. Magic or advanced technology in science fiction and fantasy worlds limits the role gender plays among good fighters. Mainstream comics are becoming increasingly diverse and often act as people’s first encounters with different lives. Fanfiction has tremendous transformative potential in questioning the norm and exploring alternate possibilities, though even there, gender dynamics play a role in the kind of stories which are taken seriously. The internet and more diverse academic researchers play a huge role in bringing traditionally marginalised stories about women leaders and fighters to light. However, there needs to be more intersectional representations of fighters in science fiction and fantasy to include different ages, races, abilities, religions, sexual and gender identities. Find our conversation about all this and more in today’s episode. Parinita: I’m so happy to welcome T. G. Shepherd otherwise known as Lisa to today’s episode. T. G. Shepherd is a Canadian writer and martial artist living on the West Coast. She has been training in martial arts since the age of seventeen but was born wishing warrior was still a job description. Her first novel As A God is available to buy on Kindle. But she also publishes a blog on www.tgshepherd.com. It’s called 30 Seconds of Wick which breaks down fight scenes in movies thirty seconds at a time, beginning with John Wick, hence the name. And she can be located on Twitter at @tgshepherdvan where she yells about comic books, fighting and dogs a lot. Amazing. The topic we’re going to explore today is a little different from what I’m used to. We’re going to be looking at how women warriors are portrayed in science fiction and fantasy. I’m a life-long book nerd who has no experience with fighting. And as a pacifist, I don’t think I ever want to experience fighting, unless the specific circumstances involve punching fascists in which case I could be convinced maybe. Parinita: Though I need to wear boxing gloves or something because I need to preserve my hands for holding books and turning pages and maintain my book nerd cred. Lisa is one of the few people who’s both bookish and loves to fight. So could you tell us your own experiences with being a woman fighter, Lisa? Lisa: Yeah, I started training when I was seventeen in traditional martial arts – taekwondo in particular. And gradually over the years I started to branch out into other things. I branched out into Olympic sword fighting where I took up saber fencing. Which at the time women weren’t allowed to compete in the Olympics in. That’s since changed. It was considered the more brutal art and women wouldn’t want to do it. But obviously we did. And then I took up archery. And then gradually in my 20s, I wound up taking up with a very street-based martial art based on Bruce Lee’s training methods called JKD [Jeet Kune Do]. And the basic principle with JKD concepts is you need to do what works. There are no rules. In the sense that I don’t call my teacher by a formal title, we don’t bow in and out of the mats, we don’t have any sort of formal forms or anything. I call my teacher by his first name [laughs]. There’s no real rank like we don’t wear anything to indicate rank at all. Lisa: You fight who you can fight, you beat who you can beat. And the school that I’m in is very much dedicated to understanding that you’re doing this to survive. If you’re going to use this, you’re doing it to survive a fight, not to win a sporting match. But the reason I train where I train is that when I asked him what his first response to being attacked in the street was, he said, “Run away.” Lisa: I’ve trained in places that were super macho where I felt very concerned for my personal safety. Because if I acted less skilled than I was, I was going to get beaten up for being a weakling. If I acted more skilled than I was and actually wound up beating somebody, then they were gonna retaliate in a method that was improper. The school that I’m in, I’ve never had any concerns for it. He treats everyone the same way. You’re expected to live up to one standard and he doesn’t put up with any kind of crap like that. Also the school trends a bit older because the arts that we learn, you need to be able to think about things more. I’m a stick fighter, that’s my primary art. We call it Kali. It’s the Westernised form of Filipino stick fighting. It would be called Arnis or Eskrima in the traditional arts. The reason I like stick fighting is that it’s an art where the harder you try to do something, the worse you’re going to be at it. Parinita: [laughs] Okay. So have you had more experiences where your gender has affected the fighting environment that you’re in? Lisa: Yeah it’s funny. I have to walk a very fine line with particularly new people in the gym. I’m the senior student, I’ve been with my instructor for about twenty years. Lisa: I’m the senior student but there’s no way to tell looking at me that I am. I’m not a particularly imposing individual. I’m a middle-aged white woman. [laughs] So coming in particularly with new guys you have to be very careful around them because I’ve actually had a couple leave after I won a fight. Parinita: Oh wow. Lisa: Yeah. And I don’t want to cost my instructor students. Parinita: [laughs] Right. Lisa: So yeah you tend to have to be very careful of their egos. [laughs] Parinita: Wow that’s a problem – I mean now that obviously you’re saying it, it makes perfect sense – but I don’t think it’s something I would have thought would have been a problem faced by women fighters. From your blog, I read a few of your blog posts, and you write a lot about how much comics meant to you not only now but also growing up as a teenager, and your deep emotional relationship especially with Mockingbird. Lisa: Yeah well, when I took up with my current instructor – and as he specialises in a lot of things which includes stick fighting – I realised about then that I’d been trying to turn myself into Mockingbird most of my life. Lisa: And hadn’t really realised that. I took up science and biology because I wanted to be her. And I took up stick fighting because I wanted to be her. Now it turns out I’m actually quite suited to stick fighting so that’s okay; it’s one of my favourite things in the world. Mockingbird was one of the first characters I saw in any media who I genuinely felt was an aspirational figure in the sense that that is somebody that I could actually aspire to be. Not simply to admire. Lisa: And one thing I loved about her is she was always unapologetic about being the smartest person in the room or one of the smartest people in the room. She was unapologetic about it but not arrogant. She wasn’t like Tony Stark or something. She wasn’t, “Oh I’m the smartest person in the room all the time.” She was just quietly doing her thing in the corner. One of the first times we meet her in her modern form of Mockingbird, ’cause she existed in a couple of different forms before that in a Hawkeye mini-series that was published in 1982. And towards the end of the mini-series, the bad guy pits Hawkeye and Mockingbird against each other and even the bad guy says, “Well, she’s going to win the fight. She’s a much better fighter than you are.” Lisa: And Hawkeye agrees basically. “Oh yeah, no if this was a fair fight, she’s going to kick my ass.” Lisa: And basically she realises ’cause she’s smart that the only person who has a chance to get them out of the whole situation is Hawkeye. So she throws a suicide play. She sacrifices herself so that he’s the one who can get out. Lisa: Because she realises that the particular combination of circumstances means that he’s the one who can save them. So even then she’s his partner. And I used the word macho earlier. One of the reasons why I love Hawkeye and Mockingbird as a pairing is that Hawkeye is not a macho guy, he’s a masculine guy. And the way I’ve always described the difference is that macho guys are terrified that they aren’t men and masculine guys know that they are. Lisa: A masculine guy knows he’s a man, a macho guy’s terrified that he’s not. Parinita: Yeah, so the insecurities especially like the ones that you saw in real life. Lisa: Yeah exactly. And then you see it in real life. I have a bunch of stories about teenage boys in particular, you have to be very careful with their egos. But I’m really well known in my gym for being … I got called a robot because I don’t seem to feel pain. Lisa: And I’m like well no, I’m just not going to show pain to you guys ’cause what would be the point, right? [laughs] Whereas when I’m fighting my instructor, I will show emotion because there’s no critique in it when he and I are fighting. Lisa: He has no critique of my emotional state. But if you show emotion in front of a lot of dudes when you’re fighting, they attribute it to you being a woman. Parinita: So I find your connection with comics really fascinating because for me that’s not something I really had when I was a kid. I only discovered comics quite recently and fell in love with them. But for the longest time I was really intimidated by them because I didn’t know where to start. Lisa: Yeah. And you got a hundred years of history. [laughs] Parinita: Exactly. And I think that’s a problem a lot of people face. The history itself can act as this barrier for new people to enter. Which is why I love the more diverse kind of stories that there are now. I know diversity is a word that’s been appropriated by a lot of companies and by a lot of brands to sell their brands. But I don’t think I would have fallen in love with comics had it not been for Ms. Marvel, Squirrel Girl, the Lumberjanes. Lisa: Oh yeah. Parinita: I don’t know that I would have picked up Superman or Batman – I’m not really very interested in those stories. Lisa: Yeah, I don’t really have much of a connection to the straight white male characters except for a few like Hawkeye, Captain America i.e. Steve Rogers. Again in Mockingbird was the first time I saw a character who was flawed and human but incredibly aspirational. Trauma came later in her history, but when she started, she was a hero because she chose it. She wasn’t a hero ’cause she was sexually assaulted, or a hero because her parents abandoned her. She was a hero because she looked at the world and went, no I want to be that. And that was something that women just weren’t allowed. And that’s one of the reasons why the character resonated with me because it was the choice to be, “I am going to turn myself into somebody who can stand next to a god on a battlefield and not be a liability.” It was a wonderful thing. In comics, I identified more with the people of colour – with T’Challa, with Storm, with Falcon, with Luke Cage. And those were some of the first and most positive experiences I’ve ever had of black characters as well. Lisa: So for me, comic books were this window into a diversity and a richness of the universe that I didn’t see in my everyday life. But also it gave me the chance to go hey look there’s someone who looks like you who you could actually be … and she’s a hero. And that was one of the first times that I was faced with the idea that maybe you can be a hero. Maybe there’s more. Or maybe your path is not to be a mother and a housewife. Because I was born in the 70s and gender roles were still very specific even then in the middle of all this sexual revolution. And one thing I always loved about Mockingbird is that her stats – like they have these lists of stats for all the characters – are ridiculous. In Marvel she’s 5’9” and a 130 pounds? No, she’s not. [laughs] ’Cause she would be the size of a stick. Lisa: But she was never drawn that way. Lisa: She was always drawn as a big, strong, substantial woman. Very sexual, very sexy. But not stick or reed thin. She looked like someone who could stand and train with Captain America. Parinita: Right. So the role that comics played for you, for me it was children’s books in general and Harry Potter specifically when I was growing up. Parinita: But I still connected with them deeply; though of course I do accept Hermione as canonically black now. But as someone who wasn’t really surrounded by people who seem to love books as much as I did, those were the characters that I most connected with. But now especially in comics where the diversity isn’t imagined. It’s visible. You don’t have to read yourself into it, you know? Parinita: At least for the more diverse comics now. Like Squirrel Girl. I know she’s white but she’s not stick thin, and she’s fun and she’s irreverent and she looks like me. Not in terms of race but in terms of the body. Parinita: Of course, I am a complete wimp, and she’s really strong. Parinita: I’m not like her in that way. Lisa: I also identify with those characters. I’m a reader; I read constantly. It’s one of the reasons why I got into comic books because I was running out of things to read. My mother would dump me at the library for six hours. I read constantly and I identified with the bookish girls too, with the smart ones. Which is why Mockingbird appealed to me because she’s brilliant, she’s a genius. And she’s also a fighter. And that aspect is not something that I ever saw much because when you get into the fighting women thing, you get into these very binary discussions. And it’s such a complex and subtle thing. You get into the binary discussions of male versus female traits and heteronormative versus queer and it’s all like – I could never really find a place to stand on any of those because they’re very complex. And when I was young, I didn’t have the ability to articulate that complexity. Parinita: Yeah. So you’ve mentioned that apart from writing your own original fiction, you also write a bunch of fanfic and read a bunch of fanfic – enough to fill several books, your writing. [laughs] Lisa: Yes. [laughs] Parinita: And I don’t read much fanfic now though I’d love some recommendations. But do you think fanfic can also play a role in questioning these normativities? Either your own fic or even the ones that you read? Lisa: Oh deeply. One of the reasons why I started the Mockingverse – so I’m on the big platform AO3 – Archive Of Our Own as Ms Mockingbird. My entire work there is Avengers-centric. And it’s based on the idea of – I inserted Mockingbird into the MCU as a specific character. I like them. Some of them are really good. As I’ve said, one of my great desires is to be accused of plaigiarising my own fanfic someday. Lisa: [laughs] I started really getting into it about five-six years ago when it was more reliably available on a couple of different sites. And one of the reasons why I love fanfic and why I got into it and why I started to read it considerably more is that it is transformative fandom at its best. It is taking that which exists as a base and not rejecting it. Saying okay this has value, this has power as a modern myth – as something that’s important in society. And going, “But where are the cracks? What is missing?” So fanfic questions normality by saying, “Well yeah here’s all the things that you could read into that. And we only got one path. But we need to see where all these other paths are.” Obviously a lot of fanfic started from Star Trek and started from the idea of people making queer relationships among Star Trek characters, in particular Spock and Kirk from the original series. And it’s always been overwhelmingly queer and overwhelmingly female. And that’s not obviously true about everything and it’s changed a lot now. But it’s one of the reasons why I feel there’s been – and I use this word deliberately – despised. Because it was very queer and very female and that was not within the heteronormative white male sexuality, white male hegemony of culture that was allowed to exist. Parinita: No, absolutely. And it’s not just then. Even now. I think fanfic has achieved more of a mainstream following, relatively – only if you compare it to how it used to be. I used to read a lot of fanfic when I was a teenager but it was quite niche. Now I think more people know it, but there is still this suspicion of what fanfic actually is. It’s not all sex you know. Parinita: I mean there is sex and that’s also great because that’s also a way of expressing your stories and your interests. But it’s not just that. For example, even in my regular reading, I’m not a person who reads a lot of romance and relationshippy things. That’s not my kind of reading. So if I started reading fanfic, I know that there is a lot for me out there that doesn’t deal with ships and that doesn’t deal with slash. Parinita: We’ve talked about this in a previous podcast episode about how the majority of fanfic writers are women, and that does play a role in how it is seen by everybody else. Lisa: Yeah. And the joke is that when a woman writes an homage to a character, it’s called fanfic. And when a man writes it, it’s called pastiche or homage. Parinita: [laughs] Yeah. Lisa: It’s given some fancy title. “Oh I wrote this response to Shakespeare.” You wrote Shakespeare fanfic dude! Parinita: Yeah absolutely. Also that does have an effect on the money that people make as well. Men would be much more likely to make money. Like Sherlock, the BBC adaptation, that’s fanfic. Lisa: Yeah totally. Parinita: But it got a lot of money and he got a huge platform. Whereas with a woman, even if her fanfic would have been much better than that, she wouldn’t have made as much money or got a similar platform. I mean I love BBC Sherlock. Lisa: Me too. Oh no it’s fanfic. The new She-Ra cartoon which is a beautiful story about love and joy and friendship and the power of courage and honour and loyalty. But it’s been called fanfic because there’s queer relationships in it. It’s not fanfic! It’s an adaptation. [laughs] You know if a dude did it, you’d call it an adaptation. Parinita: Yeah absolutely. Lisa: Fanfic is despised for all the wrong reasons. A lot of fanfic is terrible. There are millions and millions of words of fanfic out there and a lot of it is just awful. And a lot of it is problematic as hell. There’s a lot of consent issues. But some of it is some of the most beautiful writing I’ve ever read in my entire life. Some of it is absolutely brilliant. And it’s an avenue for those who have felt silenced to speak their truth. Parinita: Yeah, absolutely. Just turning back to representations of female fighters in canon, especially in science fiction and fantasy media, there are a lot of tropes and stereotypes which are over-represented whether it comes to heroes or villains. Are there any specifically that you’re really tired of? Lisa: Yeah. As I say, there’s this holy trinity of tropes for female fighters which is the cold, ice maiden often usually represented as being kind of like the Brienne of Tarth trope. Although she’s much less of a trope than many others. There’s the willowy femme fatale who kills by stealth and that’s sort of what the Black Widow character can be. Lisa: And I’m using these as references; I’m not saying they specifically are. And then there’s the man but without the male genitalia character. And those seem to be the three that you get all the time. You don’t get a lot of fully-realised women that I would recognise like I have fought that person or I know that person. A lot of my female friends are women warriors. And one of the issues I have with the portrayal of Wonder Woman is that they always talk about oh she’s a warrior for love. And that’s great and I’m really glad that exists but that’s not a very realistic archetype for somebody who’s taken up warrior as a job description. Lisa: You can be a good person, you can be a moral person, you can be a kind person – you can be all of those things. But this “I’m now going to stop in the middle of a fight and coo over a baby” thing is a way for a dude writer to make a character who is very strong more palatable to weak men. Parinita: Yeah because this is something that we’d spoken about when we were planning our episode – about Wonder Woman. I was telling you I really liked Wonder Woman, the movie, because for me it was the first time that I’d seen something like that. Parinita: Where a woman, especially the scenes on the island in the beginning of the movie. Lisa: Yeah the Amazons are great. Parinita: Yeah the Amazons. That made me cry. Lisa: Me too! Parinita: Just because of the way that it centered her and women in the story. But then you were saying that apart from the director, the production is mostly male-dominated. Lisa: Almost the entire creative team were men. The writer was a man, the producers were men. A lot of that movie is extremely male-gazey in the sense that it again centers the man’s perspective of what the Amazons are. And as I said, it makes her very non-threatening to dudes. I love that Wonder Woman exists because I love that women got that experience. Because I know so many women who came out of that feeling empowered for the first time by a movie. Lisa: And that’s freaking awesome, I love that. I did not see myself as a fighting woman anywhere on that movie except on Themyscira. That’s where I saw myself. And then once they left the island, I just saw someone who was being led around the nose by the guys. Wonder Woman did it first, Black Panther did it right. Because the women in Black Panther were fully-realised human beings who were warriors in very different ways. Parinita: Oh they were so brilliant. Parinita: I loved them. Lisa: You got Okoye who’s unequivocally the person who’s in charge, who’s the general. You got Shuri who’s the devil-may-care spunky one. You got the spy character, you’ve got the queen mother. You’ve got all these really diverse female characters who were all treated as specific individuals with specific needs and wants and desires and personality traits that included being warriors but were not about being warriors. Parinita: So in one of the podcast episodes we listened to, the Imaginary Worlds Heroines one, they spoke about another trope that they’ve come across which is essentially where the woman warrior, the strong female fighter, she’s the exception. Parinita: So she’s counter to the norm where she’s not like the other girls. She’s the only woman in a very male-dominated field. And last weekend, after our meeting, I watched Rogue One. And I loved Rogue One just because to me, as someone who’s discovered Star Wars as an adult quite recently – or not discovered I guess, I knew about it. You can’t be on the internet without knowing Star Wars. Lisa: [laughs] Yeah. Parinita: I knew everything about it. I knew all the spoilers and everything. But I went back to it just because I thought it’s such a huge part of fandom that I should be aware of the story and everything. So I watched the first six – the original and the prequels. But Rogue One is the first time I think I got really and properly invested in the story and bawled at the end. The way that it impacted me emotionally and the way that I cared about the characters, I really liked the movie. But Jyn who was the woman character – the female fighter – I – I don’t know what her job was. Was she a pilot? I don’t remember. My memory is terrible. Lisa: Yeah. It’s not really other than someone’s daughter. Her existence in the movie is because she’s someone’s daughter. Parinita: Oh, that’s right. Lisa: Yeah, she exists in the movie as a reflection of a man. Parinita: And also, I feel like in terms of personality as well that everyone else there, all the men seem to have other things going on and seem to be more fleshed out. Whereas she was more like … she’s only there to be this badass fighter. And then what? There were no other women. I think there was one woman – a pilot. There’s just room for one. Lisa: Yeah. There are a couple of women. There’s some women in the council scene. And someone joked that, “I think we just saw more black women in Star Wars than we’ve ever seen in any other movie.” Lisa: And they were all in the background of that scene. Lisa: And yeah, it was true. Right until The Last Jedi, it was the most diverse movie. I like it too. I walked out of that movie going that was a proper Star Wars film. Because it was very much a feel of a space Western. But yeah, it’s like she’s the exception. That’s one of the other tropes that gets mixed in with all the others is that the woman warrior is a freak, an exception. She’s not like anybody else, she’s the lone figure. Someone joked that it was like well what do we have in the Avengers? We got the archer and the soldier and the scientist and the god and the girl one. [laughs] Parinita: [laughs] Yeah essentially. Just you saying that, it makes me think of something like She-Ra for example where it’s not just one fighter. She-Ra is the best fighter I think amongst all of them. But when they’re fighting, usually they’re much better as a team. A team of the girls or Bow and it’s done in way where they are leaning on each other and where the group is centered over the individual. And because most of the characters are women, it almost seems to be pushing back against that trope a little bit. Lisa: Yeah. There’s a diversity not simply in the races and the body types and the sexualities but also in the way that each one of them contributes to the revolution. This is not really spoilers, but at one point, someone asks Adora for emotional advice. Her response is, “Well I’m really more of the punch out your feelings types.” Parinita: [laughs] Yeah. Lisa: And I’m like yay that I identify with! [laughs] Parinita: [laughs] Yeah, absolutely. You’re so right that there’s room for all these different kinds of characters and all these different kinds of fighters as well. Lisa: Which men are allowed. Lisa: The male characters are allowed to have the rogue character, the sneaky character, the scientist character, the smart character, the tank character, the kind of calm, cool leader. But the women get the one. So she’s either this one or this one or this one. We can’t possibly have more than one of those. Parinita: That’s why what I really love about She-Ra is that being a woman in that world is a default. Because I think most of the people that we see are women. Lisa: Oh yeah. Parinita: There’s one non-binary character and there are I think a handful of men. Parinita: Hordak, yeah. So it’s not only like queerness is the default but also just being female is the default. Parinita: Which just brings up so many different ways of storytelling. Lisa: Oh Bow’s dads! Bow’s dads. Parinita: Oh yeah Bow’s dads as well. Lisa: I thought it was really interesting that the vast majority of the online outrage about that show was centered on the fact that the female characters now all looked like actual living beings as opposed to dolls. But nobody seemed to really be freaked out that they made Bow black. Parinita: Oh! I don’t have any experience with the original She-Ra so I didn’t know he was not black. Lisa: Yeah in the original She-Ra he’s a white guy. And in the original She-Ra, every single character, all of the women characters looked exactly the same. Lisa: They just have different colour schemes and different gimmicks because they’re not designed as humans, they’re designed as toys to sell toys to girls, right? Lisa: And so there’s this huge outrage, there’s still grown adult men angry at a children’s cartoon because they don’t feel that the female characters are sufficiently sexual. Parinita: And even though they’re what … like fourteen? Thirteen? I don’t know – they’re – they’re teenagers. [laughs] All of them. Lisa: Yeah. Teenagers. Some of them are seemingly a bit older but barely legal. Parinita: Yeah. Like you were saying with Wonder Woman, maybe it wasn’t perfect, but for a lot of people that was their first feeling of being empowered. And I know that the original She-Ra was that for a lot of kids and adult women at that time. But now I’m so glad that this She-Ra is so much more diverse. Parinita: And so much more explicitly feminist and queer than I think the original She-Ra could be possibly given the industry and the world at that time. Lisa: [laughs] Swift Wind is basically an angry socialist. Parinita: [laughs] You’re right! I love Swift Wind! Lisa: Yeah he basically is just yelling about horse rights. And I love that as soon as he got to speak he was like a complete jerk. And I love it. I love the fact that you made the horse an angry socialist basically. Parinita: [laughs] Yeah. So based on popular SFF [science fiction and fantasy] out there, or even in your favourite stories, what do you think makes for a really bad fight scene? Because I know you’ve analysed a lot of comics and movies and TV shows and novels. Or what makes for a good fight scene even, based on what you’ve seen. Lisa: It’s funny I actually do panels at conventions about this. Lisa: I started a panel at our local convention called How To Write A Fight Scene If You Don’t Know How To Fight. Lisa: I feel like the worst kinds of fight scenes are the ones where the author is obsessed with letting you know how much they know about fighting. Lisa: But the problem also is that usually it’s someone who doesn’t actually know how to fight. But they’ve watched a movie or they’ve watched an online video or they’ve read a book or something. “Oh I took strip mall karate fifteen years ago so I know how to punch.” Any fight scene where I’m confused about the physics in the room – like physically how could you possibly have done that thing that you just described? – is the kind of fight scene I’m talking about. Because at that point I’m no longer reading a book, I’m getting out a piece of paper and trying to chart where everybody is in the room. Like okay how could you possibly have done that? And I don’t mean confusing because fights are often extremely confusing. Lisa: A proper fight is very quick, it is very chaotic, luck factors into it a lot more than people like to think. [laughs] I’ve been in the middle of fighting in my gym in the safest environment you can possibly think, and my foot slips and I lose the fight because there’s sweat on the ground. Parinita: Oh yeah you wouldn’t think about these things unless of course you were a fighter yourself. Lisa: Yeah. A good fight scene can have multiple different points. And as I’ve joked, in movies, never let reality get in the way of a good fight scene. Lisa: Because there’s times when you’re just like this is ridiculous but whatever. It looks beautiful. So leave it. Right? Lisa: Most superhero fights are like, “This is ludicrous but it looks beautiful.” Which is why the ones that are extremely centered in reality impact people so much. Because of the recognition that oh this would work in real life. You could actually have these powers and make them work in real life. And without having to do like six-foot kick flips. [laughs] A fight scene should either move forward character, move forward plot, or both. Or be extremely beautiful. Or have a specific impact on a specific point of that character’s needs. And so I like fight scenes that are very visceral where you can smell and taste it ’cause when I fight, I’m tasting sweat. I’m occasionally tasting blood. I know what it feels like when you scrape a piece of fabric across somebody’s face. I know what it feels like to have that scraped across my face. I know what it feels like to have a deep cut and not know until the fight is over. I do a wrestling art called jujutsu and you wear a white gi in that. You can wear coloured gis, but I often wear a white gi. And I’ve looked down at myself after a fight and literally the front of that gi is red because I’ve cut my lip and not realised it. Parinita: So you know how in some fight scenes you see that even when a person is what the audience would think would be grievously injured, they’re still up and fighting? Parinita: Would that be realistic then? Because of the adrenaline or whatever? Lisa: Okay yeah, humans are a lot harder to kill than people think. Lisa: They’re a lot easier to injure and a lot harder to kill. So John Wick is dead like halfway through the first fight scene in the first movie. Lisa: John Wick is dead. But John Wick’s not human, he’s a superhero. I’ve actually seen a theory – I can’t get into it here because it’s long– but someone’s theory is that the entire John Wick universe is based on the faerie universe. That they’re all fae. Lisa: And it’s a beautiful tongue-in-cheek breakdown of why certain things never seem to hurt them. [laughs] Parinita: [laughs] Amazing. Lisa: So when you got superheroes fighting, it’s fine. I’m going to accept that you can suck up that damage because you’re a superhero, whatever. John Wick is not an action movie series. It’s a series of horror movies. Where John Wick is the unstoppable killer but he just happens to be the guy you’re rooting for. Parinita: [laughs] Because they killed his dog. Parinita: That’s the movie, right? I haven’t watched it. Lisa: Yeah, exactly. So the John Wick movies are horror movies where the unstoppable bad guy is the guy you’re rooting for. Lisa: You’re rooting for Jason, you’re rooting for Mike Myers. Parinita: I mean I would root for anybody who’s defending the dogs. Lisa: It’s a brilliant conceit. Lisa: Because see the instant they kill his dog, anything he does to them is now okay. As soon as they kill his dog, he has now free rein to do anything he likes to any of these people. Parinita: That’s true. Lisa: Right? So superhero movies are different, it’s fine. I can accept the amount of damage – though I do like the fact that in particularly the MCU, the Marvel movies, the superheroes get progressively more tired and more sloppy as battles go on. Like by the end of the first battle in The Avengers, Captain America is wrecked. Lisa: [laughs] Like he can barely stand. But he’s getting up and fighting. Thor is wrecked. These people are not well by the end of that first movie. Just to quickly go back to just the intersection of really great fighting and something that’s very particularly cinematic is there’s a fight in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – I think Season 4 – Season 5 – where Quake faces off against the big bad guy which was played by Brett Dalton where he turns into an alien villain. And there’s a fight between the two of them that utilises their specific superpowers as they fight. That is one of the best fights I’ve ever seen. Because she has shockwave abilities so she’s using the shockwaves to dodge punches. It’s one of the best fights I’ve ever seen that utilises the intersection between superpowers in real life and actual fighting. Because both of those actors and their stunt doubles are very good. They’ve put in the work. They’re very good fighters and they do very good work. But it was one of the best choreographed fight scenes I’d ever seen. Same way in my blog, I have a description of the Daredevil Season 3 episode which is an intersection of superpowers and physical fighting. It’s one between him and Bullseye in the office where they actually paid attention to what his superpowers were and how it would be affected by his environment. Parinita: Daredevil is blind right? Lisa: He’s blind but he has super senses. So smell, touch, taste, balance – which is important. Lisa: I want people to read the blog posts on my 30 Seconds of Wick blog but there’s the intersection of when you’re fighting in a specific environment and these are your specific skillsets, this is what might happen. And I have nothing but respect for that because it shows a deep, honest and abiding love and respect for the medium but also for the character. And that’s to me a great fight scene, particularly in a visual medium, to show respect for the abilities of the characters. Atomic Blonde just to give another visual reference. So Atomic Blonde was the Charlize Theron movie set in the 60s I believe or 70s, maybe 80s. It’s set in the past in Berlin and she’s the super spy. And there’s an absolutely brilliantly brutal five-ten-minute-long fight at the end. Where she’s just going up and down stairs and hurting this non-combatant in front of her and she’s fighting multiple guys and they’re using their environment and all that. And it was choreographed by Sam Hargrave and his brother who were Captain America’s stunt doubles. I avoid a lot of behind-the-scenes talk about fight scenes until I’ve actually seen the scenes. But one thing they talked about is they wanted to choreograph her as not only becoming progressively more tired and beaten up but having to hit a guy three times for every one punch that he threw. I looked at that and went okay that’s someone who understands. I’m a big, strong woman but I am not physically as strong as a dude my size. I have skill behind me and I have intelligence and I’m very strong so I’m probably stronger than most guys my size ’cause I’ve worked at it and most people don’t, right? But they said, “Yeah, we wanted to show that she had to hit three or four times to have the same impact that one hit that these guys – these big, very big men would have.” And that’s realistic. That’s actually respectful of the character, that’s respectful of the environment, it’s intelligent, it means she has to fight smart. Strongest is not important; stronger is not important. Strong enough is what matters. Parinita: And that’s such a good point because like you said that perhaps you would be able to defeat a person – a guy who’s not trained, who’s not fighting, who’s the same size as you. But somebody who has the same amount of training, at that point, it is about just I don’t want to say innate strength, I don’t know if that’s true or not. But male strength versus female strength. Lisa: Well, yeah. There’s a line in Italian sword fighting which is, “Never underestimate the strength or malice of your opponent.” Because in a fight it is the stronger or more malicious fighter who will win. Parinita: Oh no. [laughs] That’s a bit alarming. Lisa: I may not be the strongest person of the room but I guarantee I’ll beat you on malice buddy. [laughs] Parinita: [laughs] So until you highlighted this theme of women warriors, I hadn’t really consciously even thought about it. Now that I think back on it, I’m enjoying a lot of media that does have women fighters. But it’s not something I thought about while reading or watching these stories. But while planning our episode, I started thinking about these different kinds of fighters in my favourite SFF and how the fighting scene differs based on either the physical skill of the person or the magical prowess or just the technological access that the woman has. And this includes women fighters of different bodies and abilities as well. Parinita: So some of my favourite women fighters in comics and graphic novels have been Ms. Marvel, and Squirrel Girl. And I don’t know if you’re familiar with The Dragon Prince at all, it’s a Netflix TV show, it’s by the same people who’ve made Avatar: The Last Airbender. Which again, even in that, there’s a different kind of fighting, it’s something called bending. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that. Lisa: I am familiar with Avatar. Dragon Prince I haven’t watched. But I’m familiar with a lot of the Avatar stuff because it is brought up as being a very diverse and interesting method of doing combat in animation. And I do respect it. Parinita: Yeah. And their gender doesn’t seem to play any role in what you’re good at or what you’re bad at. Lisa: It’s force multiplication. Magic is a form of force multiplication in the same way that a gun or a sword or a stick or an arrow is. When you take the purest level of base physical strength out of something, by allowing a character to have the ability to multiply their force, you remove the gender issue. Or you limit the gender issue. A lot of what I do – the way that we train, because my school, as I said, is very street oriented – it’s very based on reality. After six months, after you have mastered the basics, you are no longer training to fight a random drunk jerk on the street. You’re now training to fight someone who knows how to fight. Lisa: Because you’re training to be able to be smarter and use force multiplication. And as I said, the steps are always run away. If you can’t run away, pick up a weapon. If you can’t pick up a weapon, hit first, hit hard and then run away. [laughs] So it’s like magic and all of these things is often force multiplication. It’s one of the reasons why I think, no matter what the gender is, a lot of magic users are often portrayed as being scrawny or small or weedy. Because they need that force multiplication. And in a non-ballistic society, where you don’t have guns, that’s magic. Parinita: Apart from Mockingbird, do you have any other favourite female fighters that you’ve come across recently? Lisa: Well not recently but obviously I do love Xena very much. Parinita: Oh yeah. Lisa: She’s a favourite of mine. In media, I love the way Peggy Carter has always been portrayed. Because she’s both been portrayed as very physical and very intelligent about it. I loved the way that Captain Marvel was portrayed in the movie. Parinita: Yeah, me too. Lisa: I particularly loved the fact – spoilers – but I loved the fact that she basically drives off an alien fleet by flexing. Lisa: Because that was smart. She demonstrated, “I am very powerful. Are you going to come at me? Okay, good. We’re fine. I’m not going to come after you.” [laughs] It was a demonstration of, “I have this power. Do you want me to use it? Because if you do, I’m not going to stop. Okay, good, fine.” Bernard Cornwell’s the Sharpe series had the problem with the character that she’s very much the exception girl. But they portrayed the Spanish Resistance during the Peninsular war as having a lot of women. And having a lot of women who rode to battle with swords and guns and fought and were great shots and stuff like that. So there’s a female character there. She does get fridged. Spoiler alert for a series that’s been out for forty years – thirty years. [laughs] In fiction, Lois McMaster Bujold writes a lot of great characters and a lot of great women warriors of different kinds. Not necessarily women who can fight but women who understand what they can do to stop a fight or help. Warrior as a mindset is obviously ungendered and it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to be able to fight. You can be a warrior and have no fighting skills. Because you never got trained with them. Women have always fought. I linked you to the Kameron Hurley text We Have Always Fought. Women have always fought. But it’s always been a struggle to even get the training to be able to effectively do that at all. Because we were outlawed and excommunicated and executed and imprisoned and tortured. And we had to go underground, we had to pretend to be men, and we couldn’t even get the training. Legally women weren’t even allowed to touch weapons in many societies. Parinita: And that has such an impact, right, on the sort of stories that we’re even telling now. If that history even though it exists but it’s completely been erased – well, not completely, I know a lot of people do know about this history. But in terms of mainstream imaginations, the history of women fighters isn’t really very well-known. Which is why you get all these tropes and stereotypes. And the fact that you have to say woman warrior. You can’t say warrior and imagine a woman as much as you would imagine a man. Lisa: Yeah. It’s like the recent discovery – the recent final proof that those people buried with warrior and general grave goods in Viking graves were women. Well, the chronicles of the time always said that those were women. But the male historians who wrote about them were like, “Oh it’s an allegory!” [laughs] “They can’t possibly have women fighters.” Parinita: [laughs] Yeah. And in one of the Breaking The Glass Slipper episodes, they spoke about the history of female pirates as fighters as well as samurai fighters in Japan where there were some women there as well. But when we talk about this or even when we represent it in media, in cartoons or whatever, you don’t really represent women as fighting. Or if you do, they would be very much the exception to the norm. Lisa: Yes and usually it would be the noblewomen, which would be in many cases a little bit more historically accurate because in many cases it would be the noblewomen who would have the social, political and financial cred to be able to demand to do this unorthodox thing. You wouldn’t train women to fight. We get into this whole problem with the gender binary and all that and what people’s roles in societies are. Which is that women are supposed to bleed in child-bed and men bled on the battlefield. It’s the line a lot of men’s rights guys use. That’s again reducing women down to biological determinism and saying, well you have one purpose, you’re not allowed to do anything else. But what if I don’t want children? Lisa: Which in modern society is more common. What if I can’t have children? What if my children die? Like Boudica being the great example. She was not allowed to be a mythic warrior figure until her children were dead. That’s your only purpose – first, you’re a mother. And of course, in the end, she gets punished by dying. Women warriors in fictional history had two paths. You could eventually give up everything – give up your abilities to marry a dude and become a mother like you’re “supposed” to. Or you could be punished for it like Joan of Arc. In a lot of Western Christian allegory, you could take up arms but only if you then became a priestess afterwards. Or became a mother or died. Parinita: Yeah suitably punished. You could do it for god and then you could go away. [laughs] Lisa: But even then, you had to be sacrificed at the end. You couldn’t actually continue with agency. You were not allowed to have agency. You could do a specific thing for a specific reason. But as long as your agency to continue to be somebody who was not what society wanted to be was relinquished. Or you were punished for not relinquishing it. Those were really the only paths that you could have. Parinita: So I know a couple of the people on the Breaking The Glass Slipper episode as well as the We Have Always Fought article, said that this history isn’t known so we don’t feel as well educated about this. Parinita: For example, in Indian history, we do have Rani Lakshmibai who was one of the first resistance fighters in the revolt against the British Empire way back in 1857 in India. And of course, it was all defeated because then there was another hundred years of that. But she is very much a part of our history. And we have some other women’s tales. But they are still the exceptions. They are glorified because they’re so rare. We’re lucky that even those few exist – so we have that capacity to imagine them. But it’s not like, “Oh yeah they could do it just as well as men could do it.” Lisa: We get the problem with if it’s commonplace, people don’t write about it because this is society – this is the way it’s always been and so why would we mention this? And those coming in from the outside either don’t see it or deliberately erase it because, “Oh that’s weird. Women don’t fight so let’s just pretend that we don’t see those women in armour over there.” Or it’s the extreme outliers that you see like oh there’s this woman who did this, this woman who did this. But it’s always like oh yeah, she was the queen and she died at the end or she defended the castle because her husband wasn’t there. But never really acknowledging that they were doing the same roles that a man would do but they were doing it for motherly reasons or whatever. It’s actually funny – Rani Lakshmi – is that the name of the – Parinita: Yeah. Rani Lakshmibai. Lisa: She shows up as a character in the Civilization video game. You can recruit her as a general. I love that. [laughs] Parinita: So something I told you while we were prepping for this, is the Rejected Princesses blog. Lisa: Yeah great book, yeah. Parinita: Yeah a lot of his stories are also available online. But the book Rejected Princesses as well as Tough Mothers is just fantastic. Because first of all, even though he is a straight white dude living in the US, he takes a more international view. Parinita: So he’s trying to include more voices and histories in his books. It is more international and it’s also centered on women. And like you were saying earlier, it’s different kinds of fighting. So there are some who go out into the battlefield. But then there were others who because of historical, social, political circumstances, they have to be strategists rather than you know actual physical warriors which was also really important. Lisa: Yeah you had to wield the power that you were allowed to wield. Like Melisende of Jerusalem, one of the queens of Jerusalem who was queen in her own right, who was her father’s heir had to marry a warrior because she was legally not allowed to lead men into battle even though she had the ability. But she is acknowledged in all of history as being this incredibly powerful female queen who defended Jerusalem and defended her lover and her sisters and everything. And probably killed multiple people by her own hand. But no one’s ever heard of her. Parinita: The internet has played a huge role to be able to have those voices that were silenced earlier for a lot of different reasons. Now there is more room for these voices to not only say these things that were erased in history, but also there’s an audience that listens to and then shares these stories. And makes that a part of like the stories that everyone has access to. Lisa: And the people doing the research into the history have changed. It’s not all just straight white dudes, right? Parinita: Um hmm. Lisa: So if I was going to go back to school and take up military history, I would not be looking at the history of straight white dudes in battle. I’d be looking for the outliers because I’m interested in that. I’m not interested in talking about straight white dudes in battle. I’m interested in looking for, “Oh were there women? Was this a thing? How much of it was class?” Lisa: How much of the women warriors got to be that way because they had the financial, social status to be able to be an outlier? To be a freak? Lisa: And how much of it is simply the fact that you just didn’t talk about the everyday lives of people. So you didn’t talk about the ones who were there. Kara Cooney, who is an Egyptologist, just wrote a great book When Women Ruled The World. It’s about female pharaohs who were leaders and most of them weren’t ever qualified to lead men into battle. So they had to wield military power at a distance – at a remove. But they were genuine rulers. And that’s a kind of war. Lisa: To rule a nation like Egypt is a kind of warfare. Parinita: No, I remember there was one female pharaoh. I don’t remember the name. It’s a story I came across in a museum exhibit. And I loved it so much – I mean not what happened. But essentially what happened was like she was this excellent ruler – she was this great pharaoh But then the person who came after her hated that she was this powerful, popular ruler. And hated that she was a woman. So he went and erased her out of all the tablets and all the art. Lisa: That’s Hatshepsut. Parinita: Oh yeah. Lisa: And the interesting thing is that may not actually be fully true. Parinita: Oh really? Lisa: Yeah Kara Cooney has done an entire book just about Hatshepsut. And she’s done one about all the female pharaohs – there were five or six very prominent female pharaohs that we don’t know about. She was only one of them. And there’s some evidence that maybe he wasn’t the one who did that. Parinita: Ohhh okay. Lisa: It might have been a later pharaoh. In Egyptian history, there’s the pharaoh Akhenaten, the heretic, the one who took them from the polytheistic deities to a monotheistic deity – the sun god. Lisa: And he was the one who was married to Nefertiti, famously the most beautiful woman who ever lived. And suddenly Nefertiti disappears from the records. But all of a sudden, as soon as she disappears from the records, this male “co-king” shows up. Lisa: And there’s a lot of evidence now that that was actually Nefertiti renamed. Because Akhenaten was losing his ability to rule. And they needed a continuance. Somebody who could continue the administration of the empire and rebuild the temple system back up. But they didn’t just want to overthrow the dynasty. So it’s really interesting new history that’s being seen. Parinita: That’s exactly what I love. How much ever true or not it was, new details will come out and you can’t erase this out of history. That even now the stories that we don’t yet know about – and obviously there’ll be countless that have completely been lost to history. Parinita: Just because we don’t have any documentation. But because of the kind of researchers that there are now and the kind of stories that they’re looking for and are interested in, you do have these stories that were erased coming back to light. And even the debates and the nuances and the complexities that are being explored. But yeah, I love that. I think they’re doing a lot of that in religious history as well. Where we have a very specific idea of what happened in religion. I know more because of the podcasts that we listened to which was looking at Christianity and the role that women played in early Christian history. Parinita: Like not in the bible but – Lisa: As scholars and keepers of knowledge. Parinita: Yeah. And artists and nuns and whatever whose stories have been completely erased as well. But in the patriarchal society of the time, they were still finding a way to not just get married and have children and die. Lisa: And in many cases that was the only other option. You went into holy orders. And that was the only way you could get an education in many cases. Parinita: Yeah exactly. I like what somebody on the podcast called as “alternate patriarchies”. Parinita: She said that it gives her hope that these ideas are not set in stone. That there were women who were finding workarounds around these established ideas. And now that we have different established – well similar established ideas but in a different format – there will still be another way to live and thrive as a woman. Lisa: Yeah one of the interesting things is I look back once in a while and try and find records as to any statistical differences between women who lead in combat and men who lead in combat. And you can’t find any records because no one ever kept them. Parinita: Ah of course. Lisa: And it’s only until recently that we have women who are combat leaders. And the general emotion I’ve seen is that – and forgive me for being a little bit crude here – but most women war leaders are less likely to get their men killed because they want to prove how big their dicks are. And that’s a very dismissive and reductive way to look at it. I mean that in specific because women are not as bound by the patriarchy and these patriarchal assumptions of power and glory and status, they’re more able to look at something rationally and unemotionally. Like the people who think oh women are very emotional, have you seen a guy whose favourite sports team is losing? Then tell me they’re not emotional. Parinita: Can you see Donald Trump? Lisa: Oh go look at any dude who is panicking because you asked him to wear a mask so that people don’t die. Like come on! And people talk about, “Oh testosterone gives you strength, it gives you aggression.” And I’m like okay yeah you’re right. But aggression is also a learned trait. Okay aggression does come from hormones. But aggression is also a learned trait. You can learn to be aggressive. You can teach yourself to be aggressive. And my aggression as somebody who does not have the same base testosterone, it is better than hormonal aggression. Because my aggression is not mindless. Lisa: When I move forward in combat, and again in my gym, I was always renowned as the person who would move into bigger guys. Because my skill was not to snipe at somebody from a distance, it was to get in and hit hard in specific places. My aggression is chosen, my aggression is calm. Aggression does not mean raving madness or anger. Aggression is simply where I am moving into a situation where a bad thing can happen because I am in control of that situation. So my aggression as a woman fighter, as somebody who is capable of going, “Okay I’m not just angry that you made me look bad because now my manhood is in danger” is superior. Because it is not bound by my emotional state. Parinita: I absolutely agree. While we’re talking about women warriors, I do think there needs to be more of perhaps an intersectional analysis in terms of inclusion and representation. So not just cis, white able-bodied women but fighters of diverse ages, races, abilities, religions, sexual and gender identities. There are now more women fighters being represented in media. More than there used to be, still not enough. Parinita: But I think with these other intersectional identities, there’s so much fewer representations of that. Lisa: Yeah. And there are a lot of issues with the representation of race and warrior women. There are a lot of issues there that need to be dealt with in an intersectional manner. And aggression in warrior women and sexuality. One of the reasons why I maintain some of the secondary characteristics of overt femininity like long hair is that when I did have short hair, I was assumed to be of a certain sexuality. Which is fabulous because all sexualities are wonderful. As long as consent is involved, great. But I’m not. Lisa: And that is something that’s very difficult. It’s one of the reasons why I don’t date because I tend to attract either people who want to dominate me or want to be dominated and I’m not interested in either one of those. I’m not interested in beating you up, I’m not interested in seeing if you can beat me up. I’m interested in us sparring together and then going out hanging out and watching a movie. My gender and my sexuality and my being a warrior are all entwined but they’re not dependent on each other, if that makes any sense. Lisa: But there’s huge issues with race around this because of the way that black women and black women warriors are often portrayed. Which is one of the reasons why I loved Black Panther. Because it completely subverted that. Often people who are not white are either portrayed as sneaky or underhanded. Or you get the very flowery beautiful choreography of the Asian martial arts. But it’s seen as being very cold and clinical even though it’s beautiful. and there’s a specific kind of fighting woman there who’s very sad and destined to die. Parinita: Basically exoticised. Lisa: Yeah, the Orientalist colonial bullshit that you get. And then women of darker skin colours like Latinx women and black women, East Asian women are very often seen as brutish and oh there’s a hulking brute. With this issue, you get so many intersectional problems. You get the intersection of sexuality and gender and race and class and culture – it’s this huge stew. And as someone who is a writer who writes about warrior women, I have to pick out the things that I feel I haven’t not simply the ability but the right to talk about. And I want to see more people who are not using my voice to write about this Lisa: Because there are certain things where I don’t have the right to talk about race in this relationship except in very basic terms. I want more people talking about it because I’m a middle-class white woman, it’s not my place. So we need more voices and more diverse voices. And race is a huge problem in this area. The vast majority of the women you see are thin, middle-class white women. [laughs] Lisa: One of my problems with the way that we don’t value physical strength in women is that we specifically don’t value it in our actors. And 99% of all the women you see on the screen as “warriors” are 100 pound thin models. Lisa: It’s not realistic, I’m sorry. It just isn’t. Parinita: So in one of the episodes, the Breaking the Glass Slipper Fight Scenes With Women Warriors one, the guest Juliet McKenna was talking about how in SFF the availability of materials that are around the fighters influenced the fighting styles. Parinita: So depending on which country or culture you’re in, you had things such as steel for armour. But then that got me thinking in terms of intersectionality – how materials that exist not just in historical and medieval stories but also in fantasy and science fiction, how science or magic can be used to allow women of different abilities to fight. So looking at accessibility needs and using that. In The Dragon Prince, the fighter, the commander Amaya, she’s deaf. So she uses sign language – ASL to communicate. But she is a fantastic fighter. And in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Toph she’s blind but she’s the best Earthbender there is in that kingdom. I think this is so important especially in stories where you are able to control these things and write these things. Or even like grandmothers or women who are menstruating or women who have a baby and have to figure out how to fight with a baby on their back just in terms of the skills, weapons, clothes, whatever you need. Lisa: Yeah. One of the reasons why I train in the Filipino based martial art that I train in is that one of the greatest warriors in this art in my lineage is a 90-year-old woman. Guys that I know – who literally have murdered people with their bare hands when they were being attacked by someone with lethal intent – describe fighting this woman as fighting smoke. Lisa: She wasn’t faster or stronger, she was just never there when you hit her. Parinita: [laughs] I love it. Lisa: She knew what he was going to do before he did it. So that’s malice and intelligence. That’s experience coupled with skill. Parinita: Yeah absolutely. Lisa: And she was a 90-year-old woman, she was barely mobile in many ways. But she was never there when he hit her. Because she just knew how to move. Parinita: See you don’t imagine a 90-year-old woman when you say warrior, right? Parinita: These people exist in real life and they definitely should exist in media especially in science fiction and fantasy. Lisa: I deliberately crippled the lead character of my second novel. I deliberately took away her ability to use one of her arms. Lisa: Because I wanted to show how she would adapt in a world. She essentially does parkour as part of her combat. And if she no longer has use of one arm, how crippled is she? What has to change, what can she do, what can’t she do. And also it’s a society that uses sign language as a primary communication because anyone below noble status has to cover their face. So to emphasise words, you can’t use facial expressions, you have to use hands. Parinita: Oh that’s really interesting. And also how then if she has acquired this disability, how that affects her fighting as well. Parinita: If you’re used to one and have to then get used to another, that’s also a really interesting. Lisa: And the need to conceal it so because she can’t appear weak. Lisa: And a whole bunch of other things. I am more interested in the limitations and how to work around them. It’s one of the reasons why I find the deity level characters in a lot of books and media to be boring. Because if you have that power, why isn’t the end of every fight, “And then I punched him into the moon.” Parinita: [laughs] Yeah. Lisa: You know? And I don’t care. You’re boring. You have no limitations on you? Who cares? “Oh this guy is going to commit genocide. Oh I have to talk to him first.” He’s going to commit genocide! Kill him. Parinita: But this is one of the many reasons I love Squirrel Girl. Because canonically, she is supposed to be an amazing fighter. I think she could punch people to the moon [laughs] if I’m not wrong. Parinita: I mean she’s just really strong. But because of the kind of person that she is, she really wants to befriend people and always wants to give people the benefit of doubt and tries to get them to change their mind. And if they don’t, then she goes and punches them to the moon or whatever the equivalent is. Lisa: And that’s a great character. That’s just a person that’s a well-rounded character who happens to be a woman who happens to be a fighter. Lisa: You can’t just give people one trait, you have to give them more traits, right? Parinita: Absolutely. And she’s also sort of living up to your trainer’s thing in a way where she doesn’t run away but she does the verbal equivalent. Parinita: She does fight. First, she tries to do another thing and then if she’s left with no other option, she fights. Lisa: Yeah. One of the characters I’ve always loved for many, many years has been Steve Rogers – Captain America. Parinita: Uh huh. Lisa: And one of the reasons I love him is the very first comic I ever read with him in it was an Avengers comic where they’re fighting essentially a goddess. And he ends the fight by realising that she’s in mourning for her dead husband. And all he does is walk up to her. He offers her no violence and says I’m so sorry for your loss. Lisa: And he essentially ends the fight simply by expressing love and compassion for a being in pain. And I’m like that’s a hero. [laughs] Parinita: Yeah absolutely. I agree. Lisa: A lot of the characters that I’m going to name, that I could name are characters that are in visual media like you know Buffy, most of the MCU women and stuff like that. But there’s a lot of science fiction and fantasy out there that deals with these subjects very well. So I would just suggest to read very widely. But just in a comment about things that matter and how important representation is, do you know the movie Logan? The last Wolverine movie? Lisa: So X-23 Laura Kinney that character, I scared the people that I was in the theatre with when I saw that movie ’cause at the final fight when she charges into battle to fight next to her father, I was doubled over weeping. And people were asking me afterwards why was I crying so hard. I said because if I’d seen that movie when I was twelve, literally it would have changed my life. Because that was the first time I’d ever seen a female character, a young girl who was not sweet, who was not nice, who was a vicious, brutal warrior. But who was not immoral or feral or an animalistic character other than in her ability to fight. Who actually had purpose and meaning. If I had seen that at twelve, I would have been a different human being. And that’s why representation matters. It’s because I want every single person to look out at this world that we see and look at fiction and see themselves in some way. And I write and I create and I support creators who speak in diverse voices because I want to be able to see the woman warrior that I want to be, that I never saw as a child. Parinita: That’s amazing. That totally sums up why representation and diverse representation is so important. And I’m glad you’re creating your own pockets of diversity in your own stories. I’m so happy about that. Thank you so much for coming onto this podcast and chatting with me about your experiences. I learned so much. I always say this to participants and it’s always true. [laughs] It’s become my stock line. But I appreciate it very much. Thank you so much Lisa. Lisa: Thank you for having me. I’m incredibly honoured and it’s a great podcast. I’ve listened to all your back issues and they’re wonderful. So please if you need anything else from me, I’m always available to you. Parinita: Thank you! You’ve been listening to our episode on representations of women fighters in media and history. I’m currently reading two brilliantly fun anthologies which feature female warriors in mainstream comics – Marvel: Powers of a Girl and DC: Women of Action. Who are some of your favourite women and nonbinary fighters in media? As always, I’m always looking to expand my list. Thanks so much Lisa for such a fun and illuminating conversation! And thank you Jack for fighting the editing monster so I don’t have to. You can now listen to Marginally Fannish on Spotify, Apple, Google, or SoundCloud. I’d love to hear from you and talk to you – so any feedback, comments or critiques are very welcome! Get in touch with me on social media, leave a comment on my blog, or email me at email@example.com. If you’d like to follow the podcast or the PhD project, visit my website marginallyfannish.org where you’ll find both the podcast episodes and the blog. You can also receive updates on Facebook or Instagram at Marginally Fannish or on Twitter where I’m @MarginalFannish. If you enjoyed the podcast, please share it with anyone you think will enjoy it too. Thanks for listening! Tune in again next time for all things fannish and intersectional!

It’s been another bustling, busy month, but I made good on my promise and read more comics in July! I’m still more behind on my reading than I’d like to be, but it feels good to get back into some kind of routine (even if I have been doing all my work from our new couch instead of at my desk…). At the top of the month, I started recording a four-part series with the wonderful gentlemen of the Manga Machinations podcast, a retrospective of Akiko Higashimura’s EISNER-AWARD WINNING Tokyo Tarareba Girls. Long-time readers and folks who follow me on Twitter will know that this is one of my absolute favorite modern series. I wrote about my feelings on the first volume ages ago, and those feelings have multiplied and intensified with each passing volume. By the time this post goes up, we’ll be three-quarters of the way through the retrospective. I hope that those of you who have had a chance to read the series will listen to our discussion of it and give us some feedback on your feelings about Higashimura’s love letter to 30-something women and the problems they face. It’s thrilling that I was able to talk about this series in the midst of its Eisner victory. Deb Aoki asked for some of my thoughts on the win and its potential affect on sales for her Answerman column over on Anime News Network, as well. I can’t reiterate enough how every manga fan should follow Deb on Twitter if they want all the latest news from cons and publishers. She’s a force of nature with her Tweeting skills! I’ve also continued my work for The Comics Beat with reviews for Beastars volume 1, Junji Ito’s Smashed anthology, and the first two volumes of Satoko and Nada. Writing long-form manga reviews is my favorite job right now, hands down. It’s nice to be able to take the skills I utilized recommending manga to customers through working at Comicopia and translate that into recommending manga to readers all over the world. Since leaving the shop, I had been feeling a little isolated from the comics community, but writing for The Beat has helped me reaffirm my place within it and remind me that the work I do is worthwhile and (hopefully) helpful to readers. So a lot is happening for me these days, and I’m hoping to have even more good news for you next month. But for now, it’s time to talk about what you all came to read — my favorite comics that I read in July. Some of these will likely be given the full Comics Beat review treatment in the near future, but I wanted to write about them a bit in a space where I can let my personal bias really shine through. :3 Popocomi, by various — published by Eriko Obayashi of Books and Gallery POPOTAME I bought this wonderful anthology at TCAF and finally, finally sat down to read it. Organized by the Japanese comic shop POPOTAME, this collection features works by “underground” Japanese mangaka — something readers in the West rarely get to see. This collection runs the gamut from more straightforward short narratives to surreal or nonsensical offerings. It certainly won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I was really impressed with the variety and the skill on display. I was especially fond of Ikumi Nakada‘s melancholy “In a Worm-Eaten Town” and Maiko Dake‘s bubbly “FROM the BOOK SHOP.” They’re very different little glimpses into the lives of a couple of young women, but they both struck me with their ability to convey tone and emotion through the expressiveness (or lack thereof) of their characters. This collection was created in collaboration with TCAF and translated by the incomparable Jocelyne Allen, who has translated scores of my favorite books, provided interpretations for Junji Ito during TCAF, and who is a lot of fun to hang out with. The book was enthusiastically sold to me by one of the artists (whose name I unfortunately didn’t catch!), and came with a sweet little map of bookshops in Ikebukuro-Mejiro. The whole experience of buying and reading this book was unique, and it reminded me of the importance of connecting bookshops and artists with their products — something I believe in very strongly. Support your local bookstores! Support your local artists! Remember that a lot of love and care goes into putting together the works you love. Waves, by Ingrid Chabbert & Carole Maurel — published by BOOM! Studios I’m going to be completely honest — I sobbed through this book. The protagonist is pregnant, and the reader is made to believe this is not her first pregnancy, but that her other attempts thus far have failed. She and her wife are deeply invested in having a child, but because the protagonist’s condition is so tenuous, she is made to stay in the hospital. Unfortunately, things take a turn for the worst and the couple loses their precious son — stillborn. God, I’m starting to tear up just typing this! But the story is not just about losing the baby. It is about how that loss is used to help the protagonist push forward and find hope in a new career of writing books for children. This is an autobiographical comic with gorgeous illustrations by Carole Maurel that utilize color to great success. It’s definitely not a light read, but it is short and extremely affecting. I thought it was brilliant, even if I had to read a lot of it through blurred vision. Our Dreams At Dusk, by Yuhki Kamatani — published by Seven Seas Entertainment I have been SO excited for this release for so long, and I finally got my hands on a copy through the library. It is a little different from what I anticipated, but I’m not at all disappointed in it; rather, I think it’s great, and I can’t wait to check out the next volume which just recently came out. Protagonist Tasuku Kaname is struggling at school. Not with bad grades, but with being the new kid and being singled out for being gay. Of course, he didn’t tell anyone that he was gay, and he vehemently denies it, but the teasing comes anyway, to the point where Tasuku’s conflicting feelings nearly lead him to make a fatal decision. Luckily, he is distracted by a woman he sees in the distance who appears to be jumping to her death as well, and when he runs to see what became of her, he is confronted with her, whole and hale, and referred to by everyone in the drop-in center he found her in as “Someone-san.” Through this strange encounter, Tasuku meets others who are queer, and he is able to begin confronting his own fears about his sexuality and what it means for his life and his relationships. I find it deeply gratifying to have a fictional LGBTQ+ manga written by a non-binary creator and depicting a supportive queer network. A lot of the genuine queer works we’ve seen coming Stateside are autobiographical, and while their messages are so important, it is nice to see the field open up to fiction that isn’t relegated to BL or yuri — both of which are great in their own way, but which seldom reflect lived experiences or common concerns, especially amongst queer youth. Kamatani is know for their other manga series, Nabari no Ou, and I’m hoping that the name recognition might help get this manga into the hands of those who need it most — though my guess is that it’s already doing quite well based on the force of its subject matter alone. The importance of the story and characters aside, Kamatani’s artwork is gorgeous — fluid and expressive, with a boldness that I wasn’t expecting based on the dreamy cover designs. Blank Canvas, by Akiko Higashimura — published by Seven Seas Entertainment This month I finished reading Tokyo Tarareba Girls and then immediately delved straight into Higashimura’s autobiographical work Blank Canvas, where she details her teenage experience of attending art classes outside of school to help boost her portfolio for college, and her relationship with an old, ornery art teacher who helped her improve immensely. I love Higashimura’s no-holds-barred, unflattering depiction of herself at that age: cocky, under-motivated, and underneath everything, deeply uncertain. This helps to shed new light on Higashimura’s many successes as a mangaka, reminding readers that while there might be something about her that is innately talented, it took years and years of work and drilling to become the master she is today. I could have used this manga as a self-assured teen, if only to light a fire under my butt to work harder at my dreams and to seek out the guidance I didn’t really think I needed. I’m still a little too cocksure sometimes, so it’s amazing to see someone I respect as much as Higashimura humble herself for her audience in this way. I’m not sure I’d have the same confidence if I were her, but she has absolutely, 100% earned it. And besides, she seems like the kind of teen it would have been fun to be friends with. Classmates, by Asumiko Nakamura — published by Seven Seas Entertainment There was a time, not too long ago, where I was very skeptical of Seven Seas’s output. They published a lot of works that were not for me in the extreme, with plenty of fanservice and an uncomfortable blurry line between what constituted age-appropriate content and what did not. And yet here I am today, promoting three of their recent manga with nothing but my highest accolades. At some point around the time they published My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness, Seven Seas took a deep dive into queer stories and have really set the standard for what types of manga readers are really scrambling for. Among those is one of my all-time favorite manga, Classmates. DMP had already owned this license, for digital distribution only, so I had read it a couple years back. I was struck then by a few things: the genuine sweetness of the story itself, and Asumiko Nakamura’s bizarre, stretchy, almost uncomfortable art style (which I adore). In my twenty-ish years of manga reading, I’ve read a lot of BL. A vast majority of it has been purely horny trash, stuff I didn’t particularly even like but felt compelled to read just to see if I could find the hidden gems. And the hidden gems are there, but you have to wade through scores of tropes: near-rape or rape scenes, coercion, incest, abuse, student-teacher relationships…basically, the tawdry, the inappropriate, and the obscene. But sometimes a manga like Classmates comes along — a sweet story about two teenage boys who fall in love and stumble through a predictable teenage relationship without too much meddling from the outside. And it’s a happy manga, one that brightens your day with its effortless charm and its delightfully wacky artwork. Nakamura’s long-limbed, long-lashed, almost alien-looking characters seem suited to eroguro works or philosophical stories — and she’s done things like that, too (I’m thinking specifically of Utsubora) — but somehow her distinct flair makes the characters’ expressions of amorousness, embarrassment, and teenage hilarity all the more effective. I’m so glad that this series has gotten the print treatment, and I hope that it draws in many, many new readers! Phew! A really long one this month to make up for June’s scarcity. It’s nice to be back on a roll with reading — let’s hope I can keep it up for a while. Until next month, I wish you all happy reading!

Donald Trump Jr. has a new book out called Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us. The world’s most disappointing son manicured his beard and took a photo. He also had a ghost writer string together a slew of his thoughts on things. Like his father, Trump Jr. is unable to reflect upon anything without determining that the world is out to get him and that he and his clan of rich corrupt friends are being persecuted. Business Insider says Trump Jr. proclaims that a “victimhood complex has taken root in the American left”—in a memoir that spends most of its time having the “author” claim to be the victim of the American left. Most of this crybaby whining from Junior mirrors what we have come to expect from any conservative pundit or politician. It’s “political correctness,” it’s non-binary gender roles, it’s everybody else that’s ruining America and not the people that have controlled and been scamming Americans for the past five decades. However, as with most of these kinds of conservative victim-porn tomes, there are moments that stand out for their egomania. One such moment is when Junior, evoking what I imagine he believes to be a reflective tone, talks about visiting Arlington National Cemetery a day before Donald Trump’s inauguration. “I rarely get emotional, if ever. I guess you’d call me hyper-rational, stoic. Yet as we drove past the rows of white grave markers, in the gravity of the moment, I had a deep sense of the importance of the presidency and a love of our country … In that moment, I also thought of all the attacks we’d already suffered as a family, and about all the sacrifices we’d have to make to help my father succeed — voluntarily giving up a huge chunk of our business and all international deals to avoid the appearance that we were ‘profiting off of the office.'” Forget the fact that Ivanka and Junior and the whole Trump operation have indeed benefited more than ever before from their namesake’s corrupt regime: The breathtaking narcissism involved in comparing the “sacrifices” made by American war veterans and their families to a mob of untalented, barely coherent spoiled brats is truly vulgar. Maybe Junior was thinking about “sacrificing” $2 million in a settlement over he and his family’s fake charity?

When news reports came out on Aug. 26 about yet another incident of sexist harassment outside the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities Catherine McKenna’s office, I felt a familiar sinking feeling in my stomach. Since I began engaging with politics in my early teen years, my awareness of gendered attacks has taken an increasingly sinister toll on my desire to pursue a career in politics. Though I know the very point of identity-based harassment is to discourage marginalized groups from pursuing politics, it is difficult not to internalize the message that you do not belong when stories of such behaviour are plastered all over every newspaper. Although there are valid critiques to be made of every politician, the line between expressing different political opinions and ad hominem attacks based on the person’s gender, race, or sexuality is often crossed, particularly as politics grow increasingly polarized. Women are three times more likely than men to be attacked online for their politics, in part due to the legal and social impunity that social media provides. While women and non-binary people in politics are less likely to be attacked physically than men in the same positions, verbal attacks are common and tend to employ gendered language. When I read articles about such attacks, like a man scrawling the word “cunt” on McKenna’s office last October, or Ted Yoho calling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a “fucking bitch,” I am reminded that it was not that long ago that women were excluded from politics. Perpetrators of verbal violence, intentionally or not, reinforce the conception that women do not belong in positions of power. Women of colour and 2SLGBTQIA+ women often face hatred and vitriol far more intense than white women. These attacks are not unique to Canada: One only has to look across the border, at politicians such as Rashida Talib, Ilhan Omar, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to see the frequency and force behind such attacks. Racialized politicians in Canada are similarly no stranger to race-based violence. Former Attorney-General Jody Wilson-Raybould was targeted with Indigenous stereotypes meant to disparage her work ethic after she resigned during the SNC-Lavalin scandal. Politics tend to reward stereotypically masculine behaviours, such as aggressiveness, reason, and strength. When women attempt to conform to these standards, they are in violation of perceived feminine norms, and are more likely to be ridiculed by the public. On the other hand, when women are perceived as too feminine, this still inhibits their electoral success and opens them up to other lines of attack. When it comes to the way women present themselves to the public, we can’t win. Yet, our speaking styles, clothing, and mannerisms are still constantly dissected. To young women and non-binary studying political science, like myself, the routine harassment of politicians due to their gender sends a stark message: We are not welcome in politics. Attacks based on race, gender, and sexuality are something that no one should have to bear, and their consequences are grave. Fewer women in politics, in many cases, contributes to a lack of important policies, such as access to safe abortion, childcare, and parental leave. Criticizing politicians is fine, and an integral part of our democracy. But when civil disagreements devolve into identity-based abuse, we are actively eroding the civic ethics that are necessary for effective political discourse. While gendered comments are often seen as part of the job, especially since social media has enabled harassment of all sorts, there are no excuses for inappropriate behaviour. As the next generation of politicians, leaders, and activists, we need to take a stand against identity-based attacks and focus on what matters: The issues affecting human lives.

I remember waking up in the morning playing with my brothers and sisters. It was a very sunny day, the breeze touched my skin with ease. I clearly remember the front door of the house wide open. We were all wearing dresses. I was very young at the time. I think it was before I even started pre-school. I was so happy and alive. My sisters and I played with dolls, whilst my boring brothers played with their guns. When we were in the rural areas we all use to wash in the same bath tub. I used to wash with my sisters because I felt more comfortable in their space, maybe this was the reason we were so close. However, when we were washing I noticed I had a different feature compared to theirs. I had something long in between my thighs, they had nothing. I never questioned this. I just longed to feel and look like them. Whenever we went to church they would wear beautiful, long white Cinderella dresses. Cinderella is an animation character that perpetuated the highest level of beauty. It was my dream to look exactly like her.I had to wear long black pants and looked like my father. I hated this. I hated looking like my father and having to separate and suffocate my long legs into these pants. I wanted to look like my sisters. So before we would go to church I would ask them to let me wear their Cinderella dresses. They always allowed me to. I felt beautiful. I felt perfect. I looked like them, only better. I always hated the moment when I had to take off the dress and go back to my soldier gear, I called it. I attended a Catholic church which believed in the separation of sexes in church ‘male and female’ and therefore separated the two in its seating arrangements. As we entered the church together as a family, my sisters would turn left to their aisle. Separated and going further away from them, I would have to sit with my father and brother. I had to sit with my brothers. I hated it so much! I never understood why they did this. I remember when church ended, all the children would run to play outside, but as usual I would go and play with other girls and we would play uqhaphu. I loved playing this game. Other boys in church would call me imoeffie, or istabane. Neither of which I understood. Well, that is, until I started grade one. I attended a co-ed school, Crewe Primary School located in East London. The boys would wear shorts, a shirt and long socks. The girls wore beautiful trimmed blue tunics, and blue socks. I wanted to wear that. It was in grade one that I truly understood my state of deviancy. Girls were called amantobazana, and boys amakhwenkhwe. I remember, I would pray and say, “God if you are really alive, if you really love me. Can you please make me intobazana. I want to have long hair, breasts and my sister’s private part (I called it). Ndicela ukuvuka ngomso kusasa ndifana naye. Ndicela ukuvuka ndiyintombi”. When I saw the sun, I would run to the mirror that separated the single bed that I slept in with my sister and check myself in mirror. As I looked at myself in the mirror I would feel my chest searching for breasts. I would then further go down to investigate my private part, only to be disappointed. I knew I was a girl, and I was daddy’s girl. Even though he just saw inkwenkwe yakhe. I have not told my father about this. I did not tell him that he has a little girl, but his little girl is trapped in this little boy’s body. I was never close to him, because I think he knew I was different, and I was embarrassed about it. I struggled at school academically, maybe because my main concern was trying to get in touch with who I identified as. I am a girl. I am one, but I just did not understand why my body does not represent that. At this time, I was so alone. Coming from a black Xhosa family my father was never the type to ask, “how are you doing?”. I guess he never had the time, because he had to work. I remember him saying,”I wake up to provide for you.” That was the only thing he was worried about, and I completely understand; money was and still is an issue. I remember one day: I had made up my mind. I came home from school, I immediately took a bath before my siblings came home from school. As I completed drying myself, I looked at myself in the mirror, covered what was between my thighs. Not good enough I probably thought. I then reached out for my pencil case, pulled out a sharp pair of scissors, I pressed the scissor blades hard enough to leave a mark, I could not do it, it was too sore. I felt like a coward, still feel like one, but I could not bare the pain. This thing caused and continues to cause me a lot of pain, it is a reminder of this foreign body that I hate so much. Once, my father was called to school. I knew I was not doing well. I remember one time my father was teaching me phonics, and I could not understand them, so he would hit me. Asking me again, “Ndoda ngubani eligama?” Holding back the tears and the incorrect answer. He would slaps me across the face. Why was he angry? whenever I got an answer wrong, he would slap me across my face. I needed someone to help me. I needed him, anyone to tell me I am not insane. Instead I was diagnosed with a learning disability. I guess that method never worked out, because I repeated grade one in 2004. I was never told from a young age I have rights, more importantly the right to safety. I have never felt safe. I do not know what that feels like. I only know what safety is in theory. I fear the patriarchal, heteronormative and transphobic male residence that I am currently living in. I fear taking a shower in this residence. I fear wearing a dress, and going to PnP at night. I fear being mis-gendered during the day. When I hear the word Human Rights I think about the right to education, sanitation, the right to proper health care and safety. I was shocked to hear that you have the right to safety in South Africa, because I have never experienced this right. When you go to most public hospitals in South Africa and you get medical assistance, you are recognised and assisted. I cannot go to a public hospital and ask for a ‘Sexual reassignment surgery’. They will probably look at me, and tell me not to waste their time. Should this not be a human right? These rights are there, however the implementation and the strict policing of these rights are not there. I therefore do not think Trans Rights are part of Human Rights. I will not celebrate this day, because it is not a day that recognises trans bodies. I am Trans therefore I am not recognised in this space/country. We speak of Human Rights Day to be a day celebrating people’s rights. Especially rights of black people who fought in our history. In school the only black history I was taught was mostly about civil rights in America and the Holocaust in Germany. Only when I was doing my last year in High school was I taught about Black South African history. This was also mostly about the ANC and the PAC. They spoke about the uMkonto weSizwe, uBiko, Mandela, Sobukwe, uHani and the long walk to freedom, but they did not teach me about my history. The black queer leaders who were part of the ANC like uSimon Nkoli. I learnt about Simon Nkoli this year, my second year in University. The history that I have been provided with at school is incompleted. They have erased us. They have erased black queer bodies in our history. Today I am thinking about the small trans children who I know are probably going through what I went through, but do not know what to say or do. Today is Human Rights Day in South Africa. I am thinking about trans and queer bodies in this country. Where is our representation as trans people? Instead we have people like Chimamanda Adichie who abuse the power they have and feel they have the right to represent people like me. You do not know me. I was never a man. I have always been a woman. Please stop misrepresenting me to the world. I am a woman. I am a trans woman. I am a human. Where are my rights? What is Human Rights day in South Africa? Am I part of these Human Rights? I would like to wish all Trans, non-binary and non-conforming bodies a future Human Rights Day. Yes, it isn’t today, but I promise you it is coming. By Phumelele Nkomozake A south African Transwoman read and follow her blog: https://mytransevolution.wordpress.com/ Edited by: Lucky Brian Dlamini, Chili Kier & Thabo Gaobuse Photographer: Chili Kier

A video of police officers holding a uniformed Black US Army soldier at gunpoint and pepper spraying him during a traffic stop in Windsor, Virginia is a troubling reminder that sometimes not even a military uniform is protection enough for Black Americans against threats of police brutality, veterans of color told Insider. “Once you put on the uniform, it doesn’t erase the fact that you are a Black person in America,” Richard Brookshire, a former Army medic who co-founded and serves as the executive director of the Black Veterans Project, told Insider. In video footage from the incident released late last week, two police officers can be seen shouting at Nazario with their guns drawn, pepper-spraying him, and physically striking him repeatedly as they force him to the ground. At one point during the traffic stop, as the police officers yell for him to get out of the car, Nazario told them he was “honestly afraid” to get out, to which one officer responded: “Yeah, you should be.” Mark Herring, Virginia’s attorney general, said on Twitter that “the video doesn’t show anything to justify how Lt. Nazario was treated,” adding in another tweet that Nazario showed “incredible composure.” Nazario was not charged with any criminal wrongdoing or traffic violation, his attorney told NBC News. He says that the police violated his clients constitutional rights. Nazario’s attorney writes in the lawsuit that the video footage is “consistent with a disgusting nationwide trend of law enforcement officers, who, believing they can operate with complete impunity, engage in unprofessional, discourteous, racially biased, dangerous, and sometimes deadly abuses of authority,” adding that Nazario, while in uniform, was a victim of this trend. “One of the things that probably stuck out the most to me was the fear in Lt. Nazario’s face and actions and voice because he’s realizing right from the get-go that even though he’s in uniform and he’s an active-duty service member, he is still at risk of suffering the same fate that many Black people have suffered at the hands of the police,” Jeremy Butler, a Navy veteran and CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told Insider. “He might have expected it if he were in civilian clothes, but the fact that’s he’s in uniform and this is the way he’s being treated by the police, it almost does not compute.” “We have been consistently told this message of how much the country salutes our services and appreciates our sacrifice,” Butler said, but “what you see in this instance is that is not always the case.” In the video footage of the traffic stop, Nazario can be heard multiple times saying “I’m serving my country and this is how I’m treated” with a tone of what sounds like disbelief. The Black Veterans Project said on Twitter that such developments, while upsetting, are neither shocking nor surprising given the police violence that many Black service members and veterans have faced throughout US history. “Wearing the uniform doesn’t protect Black people from racism,” Brookshire said, explaining that “this idea that black folks are somehow cloaked or protected because they are in uniform, because they serve in the military, or that somehow their skin color is not an issue once they join this institution is a farce and a misreading of history.” Naveed Shah, another veteran of color and a staff member at Common Defense, argued on Twitter that what happened to Nazario is “another example of why we demand that #BlackLivesMatter.” The country has been forced to look more closely at issues of racial injustice and police brutality since the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died last May after a police officer knelt on his neck for more than 9 minutes. His death sparked nationwide Black Lives Matter protests. The murder trial for one of the officers involved is ongoing. But even as the US takes a closer look at problems that have long affected the country, there continues to be alarming incidents of police violence involving Black Americans. “Even though I do feel generally overall that we are making progress,” Butler said, “there are still too frequent reminders that we have a very, very long way to go.” The governor of Virginia called the incident involving Nazario “disturbing,” writing in a statement that “we must keep working to ensure that Virginians are safe during interactions with police, the enforcement of laws is fair and equitable, and people are held accountable.” The sergeant major offered an assurance that Nazario “is receiving the support from his leadership he needs during this time.” The incident is said to have given the soldier nightmares, The Washington Post reported. Nazario’s attorney said Saturday that his client is seeking at least $1 million in damages to send a clear message “to officers that this type of behavior will not be tolerated.” Rachel Johnson: My name is Rachel Johnson. I am a celebrity wardrobe stylist and the CEO and president of the Thomas Faison Agency. Narrator: Throughout her career, Rachel Johnson has turned all-star athletes into fashion superstars. She’s styled household names like LeBron James, Victor Cruz, Cam Newton, and Amar’e Stoudemire, and she’s widely credited with making over the NBA. Cam Newton: Watching basketball games, you get a different idea when you start seeing just as many cameras covering the postgame as the walk-up as vice versa for any other sport, too. Narrator: But before she connected the fashion world with the sports world, Johnson pursued a degree in education. Johnson: I was two years into getting my degree to teach high school English when I met a gentleman named Groovy Lou who worked for P. Diddy, and he told me that there were black women who were responsible for creating images for celebrities. So, as soon as Groovy told me that this could be a viable career path for me, I knew that that’s what I wanted to do. Narrator: After college, she worked for Essence Magazine then moved into styling musicians and eventually met Jalen Rose. Johnson: So Jalen was my first entry into the athlete world, and it was a beautiful way to enter the business because I was able to understand the mentality of an athlete. So the very next athlete I started working with was LeBron James, and I met him through Jay-Z, and working with LeBron is what really helped to completely change the way that the NBA dresses. I knew that in order for LeBron to be respected from a style standpoint, that he needed to be wearing recognizable, historic brands. Coming from a fashion standpoint where they just didn’t understand men of this stature, they didn’t understand necessarily the athletic world, I had to bring these two worlds together in a way that both of them could understand each other’s language. So my goal was to bring him to these fashion houses and have looks created for him so that when he had press opportunities and opportunities to be in front of the camera, he was wearing what any other well-dressed actor would be wearing. Narrator: James became a global superstar. His exposure and Johnson’s influence eventually permeated throughout the rest of the NBA, but Johnson’s work didn’t stop there. Johnson: I had been going to Europe. I had been going to Paris and Milan to attend fashion shows, and when I was there, I realized there was a huge gap. There was a huge opportunity there for my clients, for athletes, for black men in particular to attend these shows because there was absolutely no diversity present at all. Victor was my first client who was brave enough to attack the European market. Narrator: And Johnson and Cruz succeeded. Cruz became the face of Givenchy’s fall and winter 2015 campaign. Johnson: On a day-to-day basis, my goals are to help build relationships with my clients and fashion brands, and once I figure out where it is that they want to be placed and how they want to be perceived by the public, that gives me the insight that I need to understand what brands I should connect them with, which events they should be attending, and then obviously what they’re wearing. Victor Cruz: I call her my fairy fashion godmother because whenever I have a question or a debate about what I want to wear, how I want to wear it, I’ll ask her. Narrator: Her work continues to break down barriers and spread throughout popular culture. Newton: For so long, the football player stigma has been this big, strong, masculine guy who may not have any style. All he just wants to do is just hit somebody, but now it’s just a different demographic of how people approach athleticism in different ways. Johnson: So these last 10 years of focusing on athletes and really bringing the two worlds of fashion and athletes together has been to heighten the awareness of fashion designers and brands, to help them be more inclusive and create sizes that are available for everyone. Cruz: DeAndre Hopkins, obviously, Odell Beckham Jr., you’ve got different guys that probably wouldn’t get the notoriety for their fashion five to six, seven years ago, and now they’re getting those accolades. They’re getting that attention, and they’re getting the respect that they deserve, but it’s definitely evolved even from the time that I met Rachel all the way to now. Johnson: There are men who may have not necessarily felt comfortable wearing what’s coming down the runway if they see a waif-y model wearing it, but a regular 9-to-5 businessman can look at what a LeBron James or Russell Westbrook or Victor Cruz is wearing and say, ‘You know what? Maybe I can do that, too because he’s more like me.’ And so, all of these stereotypes, I think from a fashion perspective, were broken down for men, and it just opened things up to make everything about men’s fashion become more accessible. They’ve made it OK to try things that you’ve never tried before, and that’s a very cool thing. EDITOR’S NOTE: This video was originally published in March 2019. As the spike of police brutality targeted at Black people became a constant headline in 2020, the world began to listen to concerns of structural racism and bias, especially in professional settings. Many industries started to examine their racist pasts. Journalism in particular began to reckon with the lack of diversity in newsrooms, and the racist rhetoric it used in coverage of diverse communities. These “reckonings” felt like an empty PR attempt, since the same behaviors are still present at many publications in 2021 Despite these “attempts,” we’re left with a lingering question of how can journalism actively change to be as diverse as the communities it reports on. One way is to hire diverse candidates with intersecting identities, such as Black queer journalists who navigate the industry with the added stress of implicit bias rooted in racism and queerphobia. I spoke with three Black queer journalists about the lessons they’ve learned navigating the journalism job market. Cerise Castle (she/her) is a Black lesbian multimedia journalist who’s produced and hosted segments for VICE News Tonight, Los Angeles NPR affiliate KCRW, and Wondery. Tre’vell Anderson (they/them) is a Black queer, non-binary person of trans experience, the president of the National Association of Black Journalists of Los Angeles, co-chair of NABJ’s LGBTQ Task Force, and editor-at-large at Xtra Magazine. Femi Redwood (she/her) is a Black lesbian TV news anchor who most recently reported for VICE News on intersectional issues including race, gender, and LGBTQ identities. She’s a board member of NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists and a co-chair NABJ’s LGBTQ Task Force. Here’s what they had to say, including advice they have for young Black queer journalists trying to break into the industry and advice for publications to better recruit and retain these diverse journalists. What was one lesson you learned as a Black, queer journalist? Cerise Castle: The hardest lesson I think is the fastest one you learn: that your voice and ideas will probably always be counted last. I think that’s a valuable lesson because I think it’s helpful to go in knowing the reality of most newsrooms and how most outlets work. Unfortunately, I think it’s a reality that you have to accept most of the time. Tre’vell Anderson: A lesson that I’ve learned as a Black, queer journalist is that, just because my editor doesn’t understand the importance of a particular story, doesn’t mean that story shouldn’t be told. As Black, queer, trans folks, as folks from a marginalized, less represented community in newsrooms, often the stories that we want to tell about our communities don’t hold that same weight. Or don’t seem as necessary or worthy to our editors, who are white folk more often than not. Femi Redwood: Pay attention to the media group because it may have more control in how the station or the publication handles things than the individual entity you will work for. If it’s a problematic station group, you don’t want to work there. What advice do you have for young Black, queer journalists trying to break into the industry? Castle: I would say not to change yourself for the industry. I had a college professor who told me that to be on camera, I had to have shoulder-length hair and couldn’t wear it naturally. I couldn’t have piercings or do my makeup a certain way. And all of that, just … It isn’t true. Granted, there will be some news directors that will force you into that box, but you can always be yourself. The first on-camera job that I got picked me because they liked my curly hair and liked that I bleached it. They liked that I had facial piercings. They liked that I didn’t look just like every other reporter from central casting. Playing into your identity can help you out in many situations, to get that job, and to get the story too. Anderson: My advice to Black queer journalists, emerging and coming into the industry and those that are fairly established, is to remain undaunted as we navigate these spaces. Follow your heart, follow your gut, follow your intense desire to tell your community’s stories, even when the broader media ecosystem, or your editor, or whomever tells you that those stories don’t have any worth. It’s important to build an identity outside of the news organizations that we might work for and beyond the work we do because being a journalist is a thankless job in many ways. Still, it’s a very necessary job at the same time. Redwood: My one piece of advice to queer Black journalists is to go into every situation as if you were a straight white man. It’s been my recent guiding principle. Often we are told we need to accept anything, accept any pay, and accept any position. We are told that unless we check off certain boxes – years of experience, education, awards, etc. – we don’t deserve more. Nah. Be like straight white men. They are socialized to expect what they believe they deserve. Young queer Black journos need to do that as well. We often see straight white men “fail up” while we tell ourselves, ‘we aren’t ready for a new position, we don’t deserve a raise, or haven’t earned a promotion.’ You deserve that job even if you only worked on your college paper; you deserve that pay even if you didn’t go to what’s considered a top j-school, you deserve that promotion even if you haven’t earned any awards, because why not you. What can publications do to better recruit and retain Black, queer journalists? Castle: Pay them. That’s all, that’s my answer. Pay them what they’re worth, more than they’re worth. Anderson: What these people need to do to recruit more Black queer journalists is the same thing they need to do to recruit more Black journalists, right? They have to get out of their own way and get out of our way. Many folks hiring and recruiting reporters aren’t doing intentional outreach to groups of color, to 1) Let us know the available opportunities, and 2) Give us the same kind of level playing field that our white counterparts have. It also requires you to not only augment and change your recruiting habits, but you also need to change your retention practices because once you hire a Black person, you need to make sure that the work environment is one they will want to stay at your company. That might mean that some people on the team need to leave because they’re toxic, or they’re white supremacists, or they’re racist, or they’re homophobic, or transphobic. Redwood: It’s all a big circle. And all of these things work hand in hand. To recruit Black queer journalists, you have to create a place they want to work. Because if the environment is homophobic or full of racist microaggressions, then Black folks aren’t going to want to work there. The next thing is to create paid internships. Expecting journalists to work for free, it’s a form of gatekeeping that unfortunately prevents many Black and brown and queer journalists from getting in. Because statistically speaking, we don’t have the same wealth as white counterparts. Last week, a 52-year-old Asian American woman was assaulted and shoved to the ground outside a New York City bakery. She hit her head on the concrete sidewalk and had to receive several stitches, AP reported. It’s the latest in a string of anti-Asian attacks since the start of the pandemic, which many said has been fueled by former President Trump’s use of the phrases “the China virus” and “the Kung flu” when referring to the novel coronavirus. Between March 19, 2020 and December 31, 2020, the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, an Asian advocacy group, received over 2,800 firsthand accounts of anti-Asian hate from 47 states and the District of Columbia. The accounts include stories ranging from people having racial slurs directed at them to people getting punched or slashed in the face. Earlier this month, a suspect was arrested and charged for assaulting three elderly victims in the Chinatown area of Oakland, California. In San Francisco, an 84-year-old man from Thailand died after being knocked to the ground. “Watching videos of the attacks was horrifying. I felt the mix of deep anger and sadness that only a sense of powerlessness can bring,” DEI consultant Richard Leong, who is Asian American, told Insider. Like Leong, many Asian people in the US are likely upset, sad, and fearful. Creating a safe work environment is so important during these difficult times. Check in and ask how you can be of support Managers need to show empathy and create an environment where their direct reports feel safe to express their feelings, Kailei Carr, CEO of The Asbury Group, a leadership DEI consultancy, told Insider. “Sincerely asking how Asian employees are doing and if there is anything they need in one-on-one sessions is a good start,” Carr said. Don’t demand a response, she added, but express that you’re happy to connect them with mental health and other resources. Managers should also be prepared to offer their employees flexibility in their work schedule or workload, and to connect them with resources that might be helpful, like an employee resource group that focus on employees of color, Leong said. “This could look like reprioritizing deliverables and meetings to give space, offering connections to leaders and communities that might be helpful – especially if the manager does not identify as Asian – or simply offering a kind and supportive space to listen,” the DEI consultant added. Send out a statement condemning the attacks and offering resources If your leadership team hasn’t already done so, consider working with HR and your employee resource groups (ERGs) focused on Asian employees and employees of color to send out a statement condemning the attacks. For example, Paul Knopp, CEO and chairman of KPMG recently released a statement on LinkedIn, reading in part: “KPMG does not tolerate discrimination, harassment or racism; and condemns all forms of violence and xenophobia-all acts of hatred and bigotry are wrong.” Netflix’s vice president of inclusion strategy Vernā Myers also shared a message on LinkedIn. “The violence against our Asian brothers & sisters is unacceptable and I am committed to standing against xenophobia & hate everywhere,” her statement reads. Carr added that the statement your company puts out could share lists of organizations that are supporting victims or raising awareness, as well as a list of mental health resources for employees impacted. Support your Asian colleagues beyond this moment of crisis Managers can use their positions of power to talk with those higher up about how to use this moment to usher in real change, he said. “Asian employees often do not have adequate visibility and support, it’s critical for managers to look beyond the current moment and think about systems and structures to support Asian employees,” Leong said. According Leong, managers can start conversations with leadership on key questions like “Do Asian employees feel seen and represented in the company’s leadership?” and “Are their stories told as part of the company narrative?” This way, businesses can take this dark moment and turn it into a call to action for positive change. Since the killing of George Floyd, many Americans continue to talk about how they can be an ally for Black people. And this Black History Month is an important time to continue that work. In this era, it’s not enough for allies to say they’re “not racist,” activists and leading scholars are saying. Instead, they have to actively adopt anti-racism, which is the set of beliefs and actions that oppose racism and promote the inclusion and equality of Black and brown people in society. One important way to learn about anti-racism is by reading. As Vulture aptly puts it, “The how could this happen meets the I told you so. They rendezvous at the anti-racist reading list.” So which books should you read? Business Insider reached out to Black professors and scholars at institutions across the country to find out which books they recommend. We also included some popular books on anti-racism Americans are digitally reading at their libraries right now. This updated article was originally published in June 2020. “So You Want to Talk About Race” by Ijeoma Oluo In this bestseller, Seattle-based writer Ijeoma Oluo prompts people of all races to start having honest conversations about race, giving readers handy phrases and questions to start unpacking racism within their own social networks. She tackles subjects ranging from intersectionality to microaggressions, or subtly racist remarks or actions. Thomonique Moore, a 2016 graduate of Howard University, founder of online book club Books&Shit, which explores titles by authors of color, and an incoming master’s candidate at Columbia University’s Teacher’s College, recommends everyone pick of this title. “This is a good book to help white people and non-black people of color answer often spoken and unspoken questions about race and racism,” Moore told Business Insider. “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In The Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander In “The New Jim Crow,” legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that “we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.” Jim Crow laws were state and local laws created in the late 1800s and early 1900s that enforced racial segregation and encouraged the disenfranchisement of black people in the US. “Michelle Alexander breaks down the historic ‘war on crime’ and how the explosive increase in the number US citizens incarcerated, namely black men, is just another trickier, evolved, version of slavery, and Jim Crow,” Moore said. “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism” by Robin DiAngelo In this best-selling book, academic, lecturer, and author Robin Diangelo explores the defense mechanisms white people commonly employ when challenged on their assumptions about race. These counterproductive reactions, Diangelo explains, prevent white people from having much needed conversations to usher in progress. “White Fragility is a mirror and self-reflection guide, so to speak, for white people who are ready to face their privileges and finally have the tough and necessary conversations,” Moore said. “Two Faced Racism: Whites in the Backstage and Frontstage” by Leslie Picca and Joe Feagin “Two-Faced Racism,” published in 2007, features more than 600 journal entries of racial events kept by white college students at 28 colleges in the US. It exposes how closely held racist beliefs are still very much a part of American culture. Fleming assigns this book to students taking her “Racism and Ethnic Relations” course at Stony Brook University. “Picca and Feagin analyze data from journal entries provided by white college students which reveals how racism works behind closed doors as well as in public and semi-public spaces,” Fleming said. “How to Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy and the Racial Divide” by Crystal Fleming In addition to recommending other authors, Fleming suggest a book she wrote on the topic of racism, which serves as a primer on the topics of racial oppression and white supremacy. “I wrote the book to help people understand the historical roots of white supremacy and to be able to draw connections between past and present racism. The last chapter includes 10 concrete steps that everyone can take to help dismantle systemic racism,” she told Business Insider. “The Ethnic Project: Transforming Racial Fiction into Ethnic Factions” by Vilna Bashi Treitler “The Ethnic Project” was written by Vilna Bashi Treitler, a sociology professor in the department of black students at the University of California at Santa Barbara. In this historical narrative work, Treitler examines the ethnic history of the US from the arrival of the English in North America to the present day. She shows how each group of immigrants from Irish to Chinese people negotiated their place in the pecking order of ethnic groups within in the country. “‘The Ethnic Project’ is incredibly useful for understanding the racial hierarchy in the United States,” Fleming said. “Racist America: Roots, Current Realities, and Future Reparations” by Joe Feagin Feagin incorporates more than 200 recent research studies and reports in his book, which illustrates the origins of racism in the US, and how it still pervades white culture today. Augustine Kposowa, professor and chair of the department of sociology at the University of California, Riverside, cites this book as an important read for anyone looking to be anti-racist. “Joe Feagin reveals just how racist whites are,” Kposowa said. “Feagin is white and he is privy to secret conversations that whites have in white networks that blacks can never join. In his book, he mentions stories, and what white people say in private, at dinner tables, in their circles about black people, leaving no stone untouched.” “White Rage; the Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide” by Carol Anderson “White Rage” explores how each time blacks in America have made progress, there has been strong white backlash. “The book is a critical reflection of why racism persists in the United States, including things that enrage white people about racial issues. In the book, it is evident that no matter what happens in America, including the most open outrages like police killings of blacks, whites never seem interested,” Kposowa said. This book, written by distinguished Afro-American sociologist and former long term chairman of the Department of Sociology at Hunter College Alphonso Pinkney, explores several facets of different black experiences in the US, including homicide as a public health problem and the prevalence of police brutality. “Pinkney’s book is a comprehensive account of black life in America, and covers why in almost every sphere, blacks are forced to stay behind,” Kposowa said. “Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present” by Harriet Washington Maryann Erigha, assistant sociology professor at the Institute for African American Studies at the University of Georgia recommends this book written by Harriet Washington, which won the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. “Washington’s book provides a full context and comprehensive understanding of the history and present of medical experimentation and the mistreatment of Blacks in the medical industrial complex. She covers a wide range of areas, from academic pseudoscience to the medical atrocities committed by the government and armed forces, prisons, and private institutions,” she said. “My book highlights the ubiquity and implications of underlying beliefs about race and value, inferiority/superiority, profit/loss, desirability/undesirability, that are pervasive among whites in Hollywood and that influence their decision-making about what movies get made, for how much, and under what conditions,” she told Business Insider. In the “code of the street,” Yale professor Elijah Anderson, presents an explanation for high rates of violence among black teens in the US. Anderson explains how living in impoverished areas without access to economic opportunities, being separated from mainstream society, as well as persistent discrimination was linked with anti-social attitudes and and violent behavior in black teens. Mansa Bilal Mark King, associate professor of sociology at Morehouse College, told Business Insider it’s one of the most important books non-black people can read. “This is one of the best books for helping non-black people begin to understand that the adoption of a street persona is often a matter of everyday safety for black people who are not actually committed to a street ethos,” he said. Author Frantz Fanon was a distinguished psychiatrist from Martinique who took part in the Algerian Nationalist Movement, a movement that fought for the rights French colonizers to be extended to native Algerians. In “The Wretched of the Earth,” Fanon captures the psychology of the colonized and their path to liberation. “This book can be hard for most non-black Americans to read, and it can be even more difficult for them to see how it relates to African Americans, particularly those of us whose families survived American slavery and Jim and Jane Crow apartheid. That is exactly why people need to read it,” King said. “The Mis-Education of the Negro” by Carter Woodson Carter Godwin Woodson was an American historian, author, journalist, and one of the first scholars to study the history of the African diaspora. In this book, he argues that black people were being indoctrinated, rather than educated, in American schools, and that black Americans needed to educate themselves on the history of race and racism. “This book is almost a century old, and the fact that its basic critique remains a valid one should help readers to understand a key source of black American anger,” King said. “For many Black Americans, not getting a helpful education on Africa and her American Diaspora is part of the reason for educational disengagement.” “UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. I by Joseph Ki-Zerbo and Vol. II” by G. Mokhtar The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has put together comprehensive titles on the history of Africa and its people that are useful for any American of any color to read. These works “help the reader overcome the poor historical education that most Americans get when it comes to Africa,” King said. “Black Wealth/White Wealth” by Melvin Oliver and Thomas Shapiro In “Black Wealth/White Wealth,” sociological researchers Oliver and Shapiro capture just how large the wealth gap is between black and white Americans. “This book helps people of all races begin to understand that it was white America that systematically chooses for us to have almost all black, low-income, ‘ghetto areas.’ Equally important, this imposed reality means that black children are born at a disadvantage, in the vast majority of cases, through no fault of their own,” King said. “me and white supremacy,” by Layla Saad This was the most popular anti-racism book checked out digitally from the end of May through June, according to Overdrive. In this hit title, Saad brings her unique perspective as an East African, Arab, British, Black, Muslim woman — who’s also a speaker and writer — to the forefront. Her book came after the hashtag she started #MeandWhiteSupremacy, where people shared their own experiences with racism, went viral. Saad’s book lists the common reasons why white people aren’t actively anti-racist, and includes concrete steps on how to be a better ally. “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You,” by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi “Stamped,” a young adult nonfiction book, is another popular title among readers, according to Overdrive. In this book, Reynolds, renowned young-adult author, reimagines Kendi’s bestseller for a younger audience. The book explores how the history of racism is inextricably linked to the creation of the US. In “Just Mercy,” Stevenson tells his incredible story of creating the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice to help those most desperate and in need, like the wrongly condemned. One of his first clients was Walter McMillian, a young man sentenced to death for a murder he said he didn’t commit. The story of Stevenson’s fight for justice was turned into a major motion film. In McMillan Cottom’s eyes, the personal is political, and she doesn’t shy away from talking about all of it. In eight treatises on beauty, media, money, race, and abuse, McMillan Cottom explores the ways American culture treats Black women. Roxanne Gay, writer, professor and author of the best-selling essay collection Bad Feminist calls this book “brilliant.” Black History Month is an important time to educate yourself on the Black experience in America. The Black Lives Matter movement is raising awareness around several serious topics: police reform, over-incarceration, inequality in education, racism in the workplace, discrimination in the health system, to name a few. But that’s only part of the story. “The other part about Black Lives Matter that I think people miss is Black joy and Black liberation,” Genisha Metcalf, a 35-year-old mother of two and Black Lives Matter activist told Insider in August. Book review website Goodreads recently compiled a list of 96 books on Black joy, which includes titles in fantasy, romance, science fiction, and essay collections. Here are nine memoirs by Black authors that highlight other sides of the Black experience. This article was originally published in August 2020. “It’s About Damn Time,” by Arlan Hamilton Arlan Hamilton, the founder of Backstage Capital and one of the few queer Black women in venture capital, shares her story about how she went from living on food stamps to breaking into the boy’s club of Silicon Valley. Hamilton’s story challenges the conventional narrative of what it takes to become successful. American TV producer and screenwriter Shonda Rhimes is the force behind top hits like “Scandal” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” In this bestseller, she shares her story of a one-year experiment when she said “Yes” to new opportunities and challenges. Her story is a call for people to get outside their comfort zone and try new things. In “The Light of the World,” Pulitzer prize finalist and poet Elizabeth Alexander recounts the sudden death of her husband and her journey from grief to hope. Former First Lady Michelle Obama called the book “magnificent.” “Perhaps tragedies are only tragedies in the presence of loss, which confers meaning to loss,” Alexander writes. Keah Brown, who has cerebral palsy, recounts her journey from self-hate to self-love in “The Pretty One.” Brown explains how she went from wanting to be “normal,” to accepting herself, and then celebrating her difference in creating the viral hashtag #DisabledAndCute. In “Dressed in Dreams,” Tashina Ford uses pieces of fashion to tell her coming-of-age story as a Black woman. Ford, a history professor at The City University of New York, explains how the personal is political with each fashion story: from how wearing the wrong color can lead to gang violence to the appropriation of Black culture in today’s society. Elaine Welteroth, editor in chief of Teen Vogue, tells her story of climbing the ranks in the world of media and fashion, sharing the valuable life lessons about race and gender she learned along the way. Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai says the book “is a guide for young people who want to find their voice, a crash course for those who want to challenge the status quo, and an adventure story for all of us.” “Mind and Matter,” by John Urschel and Louisa Thomas In this bestselling book, John Urschel tells his incredible story of how he pursued and obtained his PhD in mathematics at MIT while he was an offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens. His story talks about the importance of ignoring self-limiting doubt. Former NFL Seahawks star Curt Warner and his wife, Ana, took a step back from the public in the 1990s. Their two youngest sons, twins Austin and Christian, had been diagnosed with autism, which they decided to keep secret for years. In this memoir, the couple talks about going from self-isolation and fear to a place of peace and advocacy. In 2006, model and DJ Beverly Bond founded “Black Girls Rock!” an awards show that celebrates Black women in entertainment, entrepreneurship, and more. In this book, Bond recounts starting the awards show and presents a collection of essays from a mix of powerful Black women, including actress Kerry Washington, filmmaker Ava DuVernay, and tennis champion Serena Williams.

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Welcome to the Tabula Rasa 2020s! - Print This Page - Send to a Friend - Comments (0) - Share on Facebook - Share on Twitter - Change Font Size Out with this old, incredibly tired and shop-worn year that looks like bad orange pancake applied with a Mr. Clean eraser on a wig stand with a whip-and-chill swirl where the hair should be. Out with that image and all it stands for. In with the new decade! The Tabula Rasa 2020s are upon us, and oh are we here for them. We want LGBTQ everything, please. Starting with our TV, since nothing says exhausting like mid-week holidays. Thank goodness for eight days of Hanukkah and 12 days of Christmas so we have time to settle into the New Year and new decade. Back in November, GLAAD published their annual 40-page "Where Are We on TV" report about how many LGBTQ characters there are on the tube. Not enough. Two things popped for us: GLAAD cited a study that suggests 20% of Americans are LGBTQ (so ready for that to be true, since about 85% of our friends are LGBTQ) and that networks and streaming services should be proffering 20% LGBTQ characters by their next report. Sounds like such a good way to open the Tabula Rasa 20s. But then as we sat down to write this column, what do we see but the hashtag #CanceloNetflix on Twitter. Por què, por favor? The straights are upset again because they saw something a little gay on TV. So tiresome. Imagine if we got upset and demanded a boycott every time we had another heterosexual coupling thrown in our faces? A Brazilian comedy troupe, Porta dos Fundos, is a YouTube video channel where the five principles — Fabio Porchat, Antonio Pedro Tabet, Gregorio Duvivier, João Vicente de Castro and Ian SBF — have been uploading their irreverent political comedy since 2012. On YouTube they became the first Brazilian comedy group to reach 10 million viewers. In 2014 they signed with Fox, then for Christmas they debuted their 46-minute feature film "The First Temptation of Christ" on Netflix. Just a little "boy goes to spend 40 days in the desert contemplating the fate of the world and comes home to his parents with his new boyfriend" rom-com. The part that upset people was that the boy was Jesus Christ, the boyfriend's name was Orlando (Bloom, Jones or the Virginia Woolf lesbian character in the eponymous novel?), and the suggestion was that the two were an item. Conservative heterosexual outrage ensued. Inexplicably. We say inexplicably because for two millennia Jesus has been portrayed as a low-key bisexual, moving seamlessly between St. John and Mary Magdalene as his two favorite people. "Jesus Christ Superstar" created a furor with Jesus' relationship with Magdalene back in 1971 when the musical debuted. Christ's sexuality has always been a bit of a down-low situation — no overt sexuality portrayed in the Gospels. Yet the relationships were also pretty distinct in those same gospels: "The disciple whom Jesus loved" and the retired sex worker Magdalene, whom he protected and hung out with when no other women were around. If you spent nine years in Catholic school and countless hours in Sunday school and catechism class, then took classes in liberation theology in college like we did, you would fully believe Jesus was at least bi, if not outright gay. But once Christians south of the border heard about "The First Temptation of Christ," they tried to pull a One Million Moms boycott for Christmas. The hardliners went further and firebombed the offices of Porta dos Fundos on Christmas Eve. Because nothing says you "love your neighbor as yourself" as Christ commanded like trying to burn people alive at the office on Christmas Eve. Fortunately no one was injured. Earlier in 2019, Rev. Pat Robertson ranted on his popular TV show "The 700 Club" (ironically on our birthday) that Jesus wasn't gay. Robertson said, "I hate to say it, but the homosexual agenda has gotten so pervasive, it is taking the thought processes of colleges, universities, all the way up and down the line, the bathrooms, and all the transgender, and so forth." ("And so forth" is covering a lot of territory there.) The homosexual agenda, Robertson argued, "is a lie from the devil. Jesus Christ, you know, was the perfect man. He obviously wasn't engaged with any relationship with any fellow man. And there's no support for that in the Bible whatsoever. Nothing in history. Nothing whatsoever. But it is a fiction that is created by the tiny minority who are in that L, G, B — all those numbers." Wait till Robertson hears about the gay Jesus of Netflix. We would love it if folks who call themselves Christians could be more, well, Christ-like in the New Year. As we start that new decade there are lots of things we want to see on the tube. More gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, trans, gender-nonconforming and non-binary folks, to start. We need LGBTQ-NB-GNC characters in every age group and of every race and ethnicity and economic/class strata. We need to get those folks behind the camera as well, so we can get that representation happening. We need those people and that diversity in the writers' rooms and in the directors' chairs. The results don't all have to be perfect shows, but they do have to exist. That whole spectrum of diversity is on display in "The L Word: Generation Q," which was on our Best of 2019 list. "Gen Q" debuted on Showtime Dec. 8, just in time to take the old decade out with a bang and be ready to ring in the new with the proverbial ball-drop. "Gen Q" is our fave new show for 2020 because it is hip to the new decade and to who lesbians and lesbian community are. Fluidity is portrayed in all its messy accuracy. There are the married and monogamous lesbians, and there are those women you find absolutely adorable late at night in that dark make-out corner of the club, but then in the light of day sans buzz you are all what-the-whut. We also like seeing two generations of trans men doing something other than being the token trans character and standard-bearer for an entire group. They have real lives, just like in real non-TV life. And among the lesbians, there's no fear of the butch, no femmephobia, no conflation of bi and lesbian, or vice versa, like on so many series. What makes "Gen Q" work is that we know these people, they are already in our lives. But equally important, we don't have to wait for them to arrive on screen: "The L Word: Generation Q" is all queer, all the time. More of that, please. Love the sinner More, too, of gay actors in series. One of the best new series is the upcoming Season 3 of "The Sinner." Set your DVR now for this, because it looks to be the best acting of Matt Bomer's long career. While Bomer doesn't play a gay character in the series (or does he?), having out gay actors on screen is also critically important to broadening LGBTQ representation. "The Sinner" is an anthology crime drama based on the novel of the same name by German crime writer Petra Hammesfahr. Detective Harry Ambrose (Bill Pullman) is a deep, dark guy with a sadomasochism fetish that has made for some of the most amazing scenes in this thriller series. Pullman is magnificent as the rumpled, noir-ish and broken Harry. In Season 3 he investigates a fatal car accident in Upstate New York. Jamie (Bomer) was in the car. So was his friend from college, Nick (Chris Messina, "The Mindy Project"). Also starring Jessica Hecht ("Breaking Bad") and Parisa Fitz-Henley ("Jessica Jones," "Luke Cage"). The series begins Feb. 6 on USA. For Trekkies, the universe has much to offer. On Jan. 23, CBS All Access debuts a new "Star Trek" series with Patrick Stewart as the erstwhile (and best) captain, Jean-Luc Picard. In "Star Trek: Picard," the events of the film "Star Trek: Nemesis" are revisited 20 years later. Picard has never fully recovered from the death of Data and the destruction of Romulus. There will be a lot to unpack here. And some of it will be queer. Megan Abbott is a brilliant writer. Her novel "Dare Me" could not be more perfect for adaptation to TV. And with Abbott at the helm for the writing and development, it was bound to be lit. It is. "Dare Me" the series follows the lives of competitive high school cheerleaders in a small Midwestern town. As USA says about the series, which debuted on Dec. 29, "Small town. Big drama. There's something dangerous about the boredom of teenage girls." Oh yes. This is "Pretty Little Liars" on steroids, "13 Reasons Why" without the boys being so omnipresent. Abbott is in palpably 1940s-style noir territory, and she totally loves it there. This is Abbott's home base from her books, and she makes the transition to TV — alas, having to divest of her dynamic interstitial prose and replacing it with atmosphere — seamlessly. These girls far outstrip the boys they cheer, and their competitiveness knows no bounds. They are injured, they are scarred, they are terrorized by the work, the competition, the future. But the now: that is everything. We talk endlessly about the damage to boys in sports, but never (the serial sexual assaults of Dr. Larry Nassar on hundreds of young female gymnasts notwithstanding) about what happens to the girls. "Dare Me" takes us there. Think about the courage it takes to be tossed in the air by a group of girls and hope they catch you so you don't break your back and legs and crush your own skull. Sleek, atmospheric, incredibly dark and smartly acted, this is a series about ambition and sex, gender imbalance and things that happen in small towns that cannot be undone. Mesmerizing. Oh, and deeply, darkly queer. We will watch anything with Alan Cumming, one of our favorite queer actors. We were fortunate enough to see him onstage in "Cabaret," and we can't think of anything in which he is not good, even if what he's in is sketchy. Cumming co-stars in "Briarpatch," a noir series executive produced by Sam Esmail ("Mr. Robot") and starring Rosario Dawson, best-known lately for her starring role as the woman Sen. Cory Booker refers to as "my boo." "Briarpatch" is a dark-but-quirky thriller in the "Better Off Saul"/"Imposters" style. Allegra Dill (Dawson), a private investigator, returns to her border-town Texas home after her sister, a cop, is murdered. The search for her sister's killer turns into an all-consuming battle to take on the wanton corruption in her hometown. This is pulp fiction at its most alluring — stylish yet incredibly creepy. Animals have escaped from the zoo as the series opens, and it is both comical and ghastly. In addition to Dawson and Cumming, "Briarpatch" stars Jay R. Ferguson ("Mad Men," "The Romanoffs"), Brian Geraghty ("Chicago P.D.", "Ray Donovan") and Edi Gathegi ("StartUp"). Shot in the extraordinary light of Albuquerque, New Mexico that mesmerized Georgia O'Keeffe for decades. Premieres Feb. 6 on USA. "Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens" is a new comedy series premiering Jan. 22 on Comedy Central from the award-winning rapper and breakout star of "The Farewell" and "Crazy Rich Asians." In addition to starring in the series, Awkwafina created and wrote the half-hour show, which is inspired by her life growing up in Flushing, Queens. Awkwafina plays Nora, who is being raised by her dad (out gay actor BD Wong) and Grandma (Lori Tan Chinn) alongside her cousin (Bowen Yang, the newest cast member on "SNL" and one of only a handful of out gay cast members), Nora Lin leans on her family as she navigates the vicissitudes of life as a 20something in New York to high and NSFW comedy. "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" is like grown-up "Glee" with a little "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" added. The always delightful Jane Levy ("Suburgatory") stars in this high-concept drama as Zoey Clarke, a whip-smart computer coder forging her way in San Francisco. After an unusual event, Zoey, who always preferred podcasts over pop songs, suddenly starts to hear the innermost wants, thoughts and desires of the people around her — her family, co-workers and complete strangers — through popular songs. At first Zoey questions her own sanity, but after getting some guidance from her musically adept neighbor Mo, and making a breakthrough with her ailing father, Zoey soon realizes this unwanted curse may just be an incredibly wonderful gift as she connects with the world like never before. Zoey's bestie Mo is played by Alex Newell, who played Unique Adams on "Glee." Newell identifies as a cis gender nonconforming gay man, so you know this friendship is going to be gay and lit. The cast includes Lauren Graham ("Gilmore Girls"), Peter Gallagher ("The O.C."), Oscar winner Mary Steenburgen, among others. Premieres Jan. 7 on NBC. So for all that is fresh and new and Tabula Rasa 20s, you really must stay tuned.

Rebecca Black’s debut single “Friday” is a Generation Z cultural touchstone. Since the music video’s September 2011 rerelease on YouTube (after initially being released in February of that same year), it has amassed nearly 150 million views and 3.8 million dislikes. While the song itself is unremarkable, although ironically enjoyable, its pop culture legacy over the past decade can’t be ignored. “Friday” is not the only song of its kind, although it’s easily the most (in)famous. April 2012 saw the release of Jenna Rose’s debut single “My Jeans,” which to date has over 3 million views and 44 thousand dislikes, and Alison Gold’s “Chinese Food” came October 2013. That song has over 19 million views and 270 thousand dislikes. All three songs are memorable for similar reasons. They each have generic, dated production. They each have unfitting, forced rap verses from adult men. And they each have complex, nuanced lyrics that reflect the intricacies of American adolescence. “Kicking in the front seat / Sitting in the back seat / Gotta make my mind up / Which seat can I take?” Most notably, each song has a disproportionate ratio of about 4:1 dislikes to likes. Alison Gold’s “Chinese Food” is a clear exception; the video fully deserves its dislikes, as it features racist imagery and lyrics that stereotype Asians and Asian Americans and cross clear cultural boundaries. The music video should have been deleted altogether, but the then-12-year-old Alison Gold dismissed the allegations of racism as “haters” who “are going to hate.” While “Friday” is just alright and “My Jeans” is infectiously fun to listen to, both songs will be permanently tainted in the collective Gen Z consciousness. But that hasn’t stopped Rebecca Black. The 23-year-old has continued to drop intermittent singles and covers since her iconic debut ten years ago. Most notably, she released her debut EP RE / BL in 2017 and secured a feature on non-binary hyperpop prince Dorian Electra’s 2020 project My Agenda. Now, she’s releasing a hyperpop remix of the song that started it all. With features from Big Freedia, 3OH!3 and Electra, and production from Dylan Brady of 100 gecs, the 2021 remix is a completely experimental reimaging of “Friday.” Rebecca Black’s original vocals are pitched higher and sped up, almost reminiscent of nightcore. My biggest complaint is that each of the artists feels like they should be featured for twice as long. Dorian Electra pops in for a second verse that’s over faster than Rebecca Black can decide where to sit in her friend’s car on the way to school. 3OH!3’s appearance in the first half of the bridge sucks the energy out of the song before reinjecting it intravenously. Big Freedia’s intro to the song gets me immediately hyped, but her second half of the bridge unnecessarily slows the song down just like 3OH!3’s. To think they took out the original bridge for this! I enjoyed the production but was a little disappointed. Among Brady’s long list of production credits, this remix just isn’t up to par. It could have hit harder and been more experimental, à la his work on 100 gecs’s own “money machine” or his remix of Charli XCX’s “Blame It On Your Love” with Lizzo. Is it an amazing remix? No, it’s not. But there wasn’t all that much to work with, considering the mess that is the original “Friday,” so I’ll take what I can get. The remix’s saving grace is its absolutely bonkers music video. It’s a campy, psychedelic, fever-dream parody of the original video. Rebecca Black sports six-inch acrylic nails and a latex leotard while dancing in the backseat with her friends (who have been replaced with rage comic characters) before driving Dorian Electra off the road. 3OH!3 is superimposed over the moon before Big Freedia joins Rebecca and they fly off into the sunset, revealing the word “FRIDAY” spelled out in lights across the continental U.S. The video is an instant sugar rush before you come crashing down when the song ends. The “Friday” remix is weird, unexpected and a perfect 2021 tribute to the original song. It wasn’t what I expected or something I thought I wanted, but it’s exactly what I needed.

@AesAthena totally agreed! that would look really beautiful in the right hands. mild grumbling abt blogging site Show more After all the bs, tumblr is still showing me primarily porn blogs with the suggestion feature. I got nuttin this is unprompted but its a thing i see come up sometimes and was thinking about so hey um, reminder that artists, musicians, game devs, etc etc are allowed to advertise themselves there’s a big difference between a multimillion-dollar corporation, and a person trying to survive capitalism please dont treat both as if they’re the same thing You can be non-binary no matter what your body looks like, no matter what your presentation is, whether or not you still feel some binary alignment (lots of non-binary people still associate with “male” and/or “female” in some way!), whether or not you’ve undergone medical, social, etc transition! And if you’re non-binary you can consider yourself trans! You meet the criteria for what being trans means - your gender identity differs from your birth assignment. I can't wait I finished the garland today! I'm planning on taking pix soon. It's about 6ft long so I have to think how I'd like to do it. Ironically I put away most of the rest of the Christmas decorations today too. I'm looking forward to next year & getting to put up all the new stuff I made. Other planned projects - A Halloween garland!! webcomicker since 2002. On twitter I'm @callanerial Mastodon.ART — Follow friends and discover new ones. Publish anything you want & not just art of all types: links, pictures, text, video. All on a platform that is community-owned and ad-free. Moderators: @Curator @ChrisTalleras @EmergencyBattle @ScribbleAddict @Adamk678

- As Title IX turns 50 this month, research shows that females still don’t receive the same number of athletic opportunities as males. - On June 23, the Biden administration proposed significant changes to Title IX to ensure protections for LGBTQ students and athletes and survivors of sexual assault. - While progress has been made to promote gender parity in sports, more education and training around Title IX is still needed to ensure equal opportunity and access, particularly for those in marginalized communities. IX turned 50 on June 23, 2022, as the Biden administration announced sweeping changes that would offer protections for LGBTQ students and athletes as well as survivors of sexual assault. The federal civil rights law prohibits sex- or gender-based discrimination in any school or education program that receives funding from the U.S. government, including sports. Tennis legend Billie Jean King, who campaigned in the ‘60s and ‘70s for gender parity in sports, was a key player in the passing of Title IX in 1972. An advocate for LGBTQ rights and transgender athletes, King spoke alongside first lady Jill Biden at a 50th-anniversary celebration of Title IX in Washington. Though female athletes receive more athletic opportunities than they did a half-century ago, researchers say that more work still needs to be done. Increased awareness, education, and compliance with Title IX are needed to ensure gender equality in sports, in addition to increased protections for transgender rights. A note about Title IX May 2022 research from the Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF) details the progress that’s been made in high school and collegiate athletics since 1972 and identifies inequities in sports that persist today. Key findings include: - 1 girl for every 3 boys (age 6–12) participates in sports - 40 percent of teen girls are not actively participating in sports - boys get 1.13 million more sports opportunities than girls Surveying more than 2,300 female participants in sports, the WSF found that while female participation is at an all-time high, females still receive fewer opportunities than men did in 1972 (3.4 million compared to 3.6 million). About 4.5 million males participate in high school and collegiate sports today, which is just over a million more participants than females. One possible explanation: Overall compliance with Title IX remains low: - 27 percent of high schools in the United States have a strong record of Title IX compliance. - 83 percent of college coaches never received Title IX training. - 87 percent of NCAA schools offered more opportunities to male athletes. - 51 percent of high school athletic administrators don’t know who their Title IX coordinator is. - 31 percent of female coaches worry about their job security if they were to speak up about Title IX and gender inequities. Karen Issokson-Silver, MPH, vice president of research and education at the Women’s Sports Foundation, explained that WSF examines gaps in access and opportunities for girls and women, particularly those in marginalized communities, including: - People of Color - people with disabilities - LGBTQ and non-binary youth - people from low socioeconomic households “Cultural and gender stereotypes persist in society and they also surface in sport, a microcosm of society,” Issokson-Silver said. “If we acknowledge that cultural and gender stereotypes permeate everything from education to the boardroom, it’s not surprising that we’d still see some of that impacting the way we structure sports opportunities.” There’s a notable lack of visibility for girls and women in sports overall. According to Issokson-Silver, patterns at community, high school, and collegiate levels of sport disproportionately support male athletics (i.e., coaches, sports administrators and directors, donors, etc.), resulting in a lopsided allocation of athletic resources. “Men still dominate the administrative and coaching spaces, so it’s not surprising that boys and men’s sports will continue to be prioritized as long as we have that disproportionate gender equation at all levels of leadership,” she said. There’s also a notable pay gap between male and female athletes. For instance, female coaches report being paid 60 percent less than men, 63 percent of whom have reported sexual discrimination, according to the WSF. The 2021 NCAA External Equity Review showed multiple areas where women in NCAA college athletics continue to receive less money than their male counterparts. For instance, WSF research shows a pay gap that’s more than 5 times greater per player on the U.S. Men’s Soccer Team compared to the U.S. Women’s Team: $1,114,429 for male players who win the World Cup, compared to $200,000 for female players. While the U.S. Soccer Federation agreed to equal pay for men and women in May 2022, the decision was not covered under Title IX and highlights the continued need for equal pay for all athletes. “Women’s sport needs to be valued economically,” said Nancy Lough, PhD, a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and co-director of UNLV Sports Research and Innovation Initiative. “Sport makes a college degree possible for thousands of women each year.” Lennie Waite, PhD, CMPC, a sports psychologist and former track and field Olympian experienced gender inequities as a female collegiate athlete. “The resources given to the men’s football, basketball, and baseball teams far exceeded the resources offered to the women’s track team, which carries the largest number of females in a sport on most university campuses,” she said. Waite explained that inequities in sports tend to become more disproportionate as athletes climb the ranks, resulting in disparate salary ranges and different public perceptions of the jobs of male versus female athletes. In addition to being underpaid, marketing and promotional resources in sports tend to favor male athletes over female ones. Waite added that female sports are underpromoted and under-viewed by the public. “I think the biggest inequity comes in the face of the media,” Waite said. “Athletes like Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka are scrutinized much more than their male counterparts. I think the female athlete has to deal with more emotional demands than their male counterpart because they are defying stereotypes.” The mental health benefits of participating in sports are well documented. A And according to research from 2019, sports teams that include players from diverse backgrounds and experiences may enhance group effectiveness for everyone, regardless of gender. “When individuals have the opportunity to play a sport they benefit physically, socially, and emotionally,” Issokson-Silver said. “Their mental health and well-being improves dramatically and has an impact on their sense of belonging their school performance, and impacts the trajectory of their lives.” Yet being denied athletic opportunities because of gender may be harmful to mental health. Waite recalled that her track and field peers would often say, ‘If I was male, I wouldn’t have this problem,’ with regards to issues ranging from body shaming by the media to financial concerns and lack of support. “Females have to be prepared for more negative media scrutiny (i.e., Biles, Osaka, and Serena Williams) than males,” Waite said. “This means they have to invest more in their mental health and prioritize the development of skills to manage the mental demands of their sport.” Earlier this month, Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, was denied participation in the forthcoming Ivy League Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships. The vote by FINA prohibits transgender women from competition who have not undergone medical treatments to suppress the production of testosterone before early puberty or age 12 (whichever comes later). The decision is one of the strictest restrictions on transgender athletes in international sports. With waves of anti-trans legislation blocking access to gender-affirming healthcare in states like Texas, Florida, and Alabama, transgender athletes face roadblocks from lawmakers when attempting to compete on a sports team that aligns with their true gender identity. Schuyler Bailar, a decorated swimmer and the first transgender athlete to compete in any sport on an NCAA Division 1 men’s team, explained the challenges he faced as an elite-level athlete during his transition. “I was afraid of losing the potential of success from all of the work I had done training as a female,” he said. “Transitioning meant giving up all of that and starting over [but] swimming as male meant being myself, and that came with all sorts of success for me.” Bailar added that being open about his gender identity was important to him because representation of trans athletes is lacking. By going public about his gender identity, he said he inspired hundreds of kids and adults who were able to gain strength and confidence from his visibility. “That’s why I do what I do and why it’s so important for people — especially non-trans, non-queer people, to get educated about trans people,” Bailar said. “We are all just humans trying to live our best versions of ourselves.” On June 23, the Biden administration announced significant changes that would revoke Trump-era rules that discriminated against sexual assault survivors. The proposed rules would also assert protections for LGBTQ students and athletes, particularly those who are transgender. Under the new regulation, Title IX’s language would change from prohibiting discrimination based on “sex” to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” (These changes had already been met with criticism by some conservatives earlier this spring when the Department of Education began rewriting the rules.) Joshua Block, a staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, explained that under the Supreme Court’s decision on Bostock v. Clayton County in 2020, “discrimination on the basis of sex” now includes discrimination on the basis of being transgender or on the basis of sexual orientation. Since the ruling, Block said the courts have been unanimous in agreeing that Title IX protects transgender people and gay people from discrimination. “My understanding and expectation is that the new regulations and the Department of Education will just keep codifying what the courts have been saying,” Block said. “The Biden administration has been saying exactly what courts have been saying, which is that excluding a transgender person from being able to use the restroom consistent with their identity or to be able to be on sports teams consistent with their identity is a form of discrimination against them.” According to Issokson-Silver, girls and women around the country are advocating to ensure they’re included and welcomed in sports. But advocating for equality doesn’t always solve larger, systemic issues. Here are a few ways Title IX compliance can be improved overall: - More representation of female coaches in women’s programs. - Greater protection of women who question discriminatory practices or hostile work environments, including sexual harassment. - Improved funding for women’s sports programs, including compensation for female coaches, marketing budgets, media exposure, facilities, etc. - Increased data collection on women’s sports participation, including race, ethnicity, and other areas associated with discrimination. - Increased data collection on the gender of coaches. “Girls and women love sports,” Issokson-Silver said. “They’re athletic, they’re strong, they like to have fun and they love competition. The 50th anniversary of Title IX marked a watershed moment to acknowledge progress in gender equality in sports and bring awareness to inequities that persist. While strides have been made since 1972 to make sports more equitable, organizations like the WSF work to ensure that women and girls, particularly those from marginalized communities, are afforded the same opportunities as boys and men. “Title IX has gone a long way toward ensuring that more girls and women can participate in sports, but a whole lot more would be participating if they were afforded the same opportunities as boys and men,” Issokson-Silver said. “Yes, it can be frustrating, but more and more, we see that girls and women are not just sitting on the sidelines — they’re advocating for themselves to make sure they’re getting equal treatment.”

By Indigo DaCosta Something that comes up often on social media is whether or not marginalized groups should be expected to educate others on their identities. The consensus seems to be that individuals with these identities should, of course, not be expected or forced to educate others. Essentially what this means is that, for example, as a trans person, I should not be expected to explain to anyone what a transgender identity is or means. In my mind, the basic reason behind that is that we simply can’t do it. Of course, many people (regardless of their identity) can and want to. However, not everyone with a marginalized identity can, and in any case, you can’t expect someone to explain their identity to you just because of their identity itself. For example, when engaging in conversations about gender diversity, especially around freshman orientation, people often cite their hometowns and the lack of sensitivity to diversity there when asking questions such as what it means to be trans. (It is important to note that I am often willing to have these conversations; still, I think it’s a reason people like to try, but perhaps fail, to engage in effective discussions surrounding diversity.) While this is completely valid on its own, it is important to note that even though I am trans, I too come from a hometown that did not respect transgender identities. Even though I have lived it, I don’t fully know how to talk about gender diversity correctly. I too have spent a lot of time in a transphobic space, and I too need to unlearn it. It’s just too much for me to be expected to explain my identity all the time, when in truth I don’t know how to explain it and am struggling to learn myself. However, what I have also noticed is that, at least in my own life, the wisdom of the Internet (so to speak) does not hold true in real life. Our campus claims to be accepting of diverse identities, but even here, I have had to explain myself in countless situations. I don’t mean that I chose to; I mean that I had to. It’s not that the people to whom I had to explain myself weren’t well-meaning, it’s more that “well-meaning” isn’t enough. One question I have started to ask myself is whether or not I should try to assimilate or overturn the system altogether; i.e., is it enough for me to “pass” as my gender, or should I focus on overturning the (oppressive) gender binary altogether? My current (albeit evolving) answer is that my ideal is a delicate balance between the two wherein people of marginalized identities can exist comfortably and we can really examine and overturn the gender binary in the long run. However, in the past, I’ve found myself confined to trying to assimilate as best I could. Whether that sense of confinement should be attributed to my own personal motivations, the influences of my past, or the gender binary in general is hard to say, but it was still there. For example, it was with much excitement that I became a first-year overnight host last year. I thought I could be a resource for trans and non-binary prospective students while also doing something I loved. However, most first-year hosts will house students of the same gender as them, but I wasn’t able to do so because I’m trans and didn’t pass. While passing privilege is a topic too broad to cover here, it’s important to note that had I passed, it’s likely that it would not have been seen as an issue. I didn’t work for that program for very long, largely due to unrelated factors (such as my schedule), but the conversation I’d had to have at the beginning of the year was not an experience I would like to repeat. Even though everyone involved had good intentions, it was uncomfortable. Essentially, that’s because it’s hard for me to talk about my identity. I was asked what my needs were, and I didn’t know how to respond in an effective, clear, demanding way. I didn’t know what my needs were. I came into this space unprepared to adequately articulate my needs, and as a result, more was expected of me than I was capable of giving, at that point. This proved a problem when the program was unable to accommodate my relationship with my identity effectively. That’s why it’s important for these structures to already be in place. I think a lot of people agree that campus, and the world at large, needs to be made more equitable for marginalized identities. But how, specifically? I can’t answer that. I don’t know. I know that it needs to be such that people are institutionally educated about how to accommodate all identities, instead of asking individuals when it applies. But other than that, I don’t know. I am trying to learn more, but I don’t have all that information. I just don’t. And you can’t expect me to just because of my identity. But you know who can? The Internet. A lot of the questions people are asking are so basic that Google can answer your questions. Although institutional change is slow, you can answer many of your own questions on a search engine instead of taking up the time and energy of someone who is tired of hearing it. The information is there.

For women in artificial intelligence research, gender bias is a major barrier to success. Silicon Valley's gender problem isn't just a social justice issue however. Should the top positions in tech continue to go to men only, the tech world could be stifling its own capacity for innovation and threatening the future of AI research. The world's top female researchers are redefining the field and enacting a sea-change in the way the AI industry think about gender. The Tech World's Gender Problem Gender bias in the tech industry dates back to its inception. The historically male-dominated industry has long possessed an almost cult-like meritocracy, where employees are often encouraged to devote their entire lives to the success of the product. This creates an environment where discriminatory practices remain pervasive under the guise of a reward system; employees outside the standard masculine mold are often denied the same pay or promotion pathways as male employees, even when they meet or exceed job expectations. In 2015, tech investor Trae Vassallo and several colleagues co-authored a survey titled “The Elephant in the Valley." The survey investigated the experiences of female leaders and innovators in the tech industry, and the results were bleak; 84 percent of interviewees were told they were “too aggressive," 66 percent experienced exclusionary practices, and a shocking 60 percent experienced sexual harassment. Just 18 percent of undergraduates in computer science in 2011 were women, down from 37 percent in 1985. Gender Bias in Artificial Intelligence Like the rest of the tech industry, AI's gender bias is similarly pervasive. The artificial intelligence sector is expected to grow from $21 billion to $190 billion between 2018 and 2025, and the employment demographic is overwhelmingly male. The field has had a difficult time developing its female workforce, potentially due to the nature of AI research itself. “Research has become very narrowly focused on solving technical problems and not on the big questions," says Marie desJardins, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Maryland. Also, desJardins notes the distance between the work being done in AI and the betterment of society in general. That gap could be turning women away from the field, since women tend to value their work's contribution to their community higher than men. AI's diversity issues affect women as well as other gender minorities like transgender and non-binary individuals, and these diversity issues also continue beyond gender. “Cultural diversity is big too," says Heather Knight, founder of Marilyn Monrobot Labs in New York City. Racial underrepresentation in the tech world compounds issues for women from minority ethnic groups. Gender and racial bias in AI are significant enough to have an effect on the way the algorithms themselves are developed, which could have lasting consequences for society if the problem isn't met head-on. AI Algorithms Reflect Gender Bias If researchers use biased datasets to train AIs, gender bias may become embedded in the technology itself. A study conducted on image-recognition software in 2016 found patterns that reinforced gender stereotypes. When asked to associate images with either men or women, the algorithm consistently linked women to images of kitchens, reflecting or exaggerating the gender biases it perceived. Since the 100,000 images used were collected broadly from the web, biases in media were reflected in the AI's analysis. In a similar case, Microsoft's conversational AI “Tay" took in data from Twitter conversations and began repeating racist and misogynist phrases in less than twenty-four hours. AIs will need to be closely managed to avoid mirroring the gender biases present in today's society. Biases in Technology and Media The link between gender discrimination and artificial intelligence doesn't end in employment statistics. Gender bias is implicit in AI itself. “There's a clear bias in the way women are depicted in science fiction," says Alex Haslam, media relations specialist for HowtoWatch.com. “AIs are overwhelmingly female, and are often depicted as dangerous." Many critics have also found it problematic that almost every digital assistant uses a female name and voice. Siri, Google Assistant, Cortana, and Alexa all reinforce the stereotype of the female administrator. “It's much easier to find a female voice that everyone likes than a male voice that everyone likes," Stanford communications professor Clifford Nass tells CNN. Whether psychological or cultural, the presence of female AIs helps these stereotypes persist. Women Shaping the Future of AI New efforts to close the gender gap in the sciences are charting a new course for those who have often been marginalized in the AI industry. Female professors, researchers, investors, and scientists are tackling gender bias in AI using innovative applications of technology, education, and more than a little common sense. “The field of AI has traditionally been focused on computational intelligence, not on social or emotional intelligence," explains Rana el Kaliouby, co-founder of the AI research firm Affectiva. Kaliouby and other AI experts are looking to develop a social conscience for the AI algorithms of tomorrow, embedding moral and ethical principles into the technology. Other female leaders in the AI field are addressing enrollment issues by designing education programs specifically for young girls. Millions of individuals have enrolled in AI and machine learning courses through programs like Coursera, with disadvantaged or underrepresented groups reporting the most benefit. Addressing Gender Bias Through AI Technology The incredible capacity of artificial intelligence is also addressing gender bias in society directly. A new AI algorithm developed by Google and The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media uses AI to detect male and female faces in popular films. The AI algorithm logs screen-time and speaking time for characters of different genders. In the top films of the past three years, the algorithm found discouraging gaps; female characters received roughly half of the screen and speaking time of male characters. In the future, this data could assist filmmakers in avoiding techniques or casting selections that reinforce biases, encouraging stronger gender diversity in film. The embedded nature of gender bias in today's society makes progress towards equality difficult, but burgeoning fields like artificial intelligence have a higher potential for social progress. Top computer scientists and AI experts have turned their attention to addressing gender bias in AI. If artificial intelligence lives up to its expectations as a game-changing technology, a more socially responsible foundation today could have a big influence on our future. We are living in a time when women are rising to new heights which means they are regularly being confronted with the fear of being "too much". For women in business this is pervasive and costly. A few ways women can be perceived as "too much" are: Speaking up about their successes and achievements. Sharing one too many photos of their cute kids. Telling one too many people about that date night. Looking a little too good in that swimsuit. These can lead to being publicly attacked on social media or privately slandered which in turn leads to women dimming their light and walking on egg shells in hopes of avoiding conflict and judgement. The minute a woman feels it's unsafe to shine she will begin to overthink, worry, and fear how she shows up in the world. Forgetting to announce the book is done and the interview is live. Choosing to focus on what's still on the to-do list rather than what's been checked off. Many female entrepreneurs are subconsciously altering their behavior in an attempt to not attract too much attention to themselves, rather than focusing on allowing authenticity and magnetism to attract their ideal clients and community. Women are afraid of being criticized, ostracized, and abandoned by other women for simply being who they are. This leads to quite the quantum when being who you are is simplest way to accelerate the growth of your business. New research shows men are far more comfortable with self promotion than women are. Researchers found that men rate their own performance 33 percent higher than equally performing women. What we know is that self promotion pays off and this is where women are missing the boat. The world needs more women to step into leadership roles and no longer be intimidated about creating six and seven figure careers. Here are five ways to release the fear of being "too much": 1. Approve of yourself. While it feels good to receive outside validation it will never be enough if you don't first appreciate yourself. The key to having a healthy support system is to make sure you are part of it. Being your biggest critic is what your mother's generation did. It's now time to be your biggest cheerleader. Becoming aware of self talk will reveal what belief is ready to be re-wired. Create a simply mantra that affirms how incredible capable you are. 2. Connect deeply to those you serve. One powerful way to shift out of people pleasing behavior is to get clear on who actually matters to the wellbeing and success of your life and business. Leadership is not about being the most popular, instead it's a decision to be brave for those who can't be. Take a few minutes each day to visualize and meditate on those your business serves and supports. See your future clients moving toward you every time you choose to stand in your power and use your authentic voice. 3. Remember the legacy you wish to leave. Having your life purpose and legacy in writing is one of the most transformational exercises you can do. Reading this often will keep you focused on what matters. Knowing what you wish to leave in the hearts of those you love most is incredibly grounding. You didn't come here to keep your mouth shut, dilute your truth, or dim your light-you came here to make a difference. 4. Forgive those who have been unsupportive in the past. The past has a way of informing the future in a negative way when there is unresolved pain. Take a few minutes to get quiet and ask yourself who you have unforgiveness towards or maybe their name came to mind as you read this article. Listening to a forgiveness meditation or writing a letter to the person you are ready to forgive are both simple and effective ways to process and heal. 5. Be part a community of bright, successful women. Meaningful relationships with others who have similar aspirations is what will keep you out of isolation and playing small. These connections can happen in a networking group, online community or a local Meetup. Thriving in every area of life is depend on you knowing where you belong and being celebrated there. Don't wait to be invited, go actively seek out people and places that support your dreams and desires. 6. Accept you can have it all. Women have been fed a lie for generations that says, you can have love or money. Decide you can have it all and allow it to flow to you. You can have a successful career and an amazing mother. You can balance motherhood and loving marriage. Don't let anyone write the rules for you. This is the time to create the life you desire on your terms. 7. Celebrate everything! The fastest way to leave the haters in the dust is to celebrate everything! At the end of each day lay in bed and recall the best moments. At the end of each week, publicly acknowledge and celebrate what's good in your life. Once a month, have a celebration dinner and share it with those who have helped you in the journey. If there's something good happening, talk about it with everyone who will listen! May you be a woman who chooses to shine so that others may be reminded of all they can be and do.

We are so excited to have so many new guests to ALBTALBS for Pride month this year! Today author Motzie Dapul joins us with a beautiful post discussing two LGBTQ+ stories she has written. I’m a huge fan of romance and of comics, so when the two are combined you can’t pull me away! Please give Motzie a warm welcome! Creating the Content I Want to See in the World It’s a bit odd to be talking about one’s own work when it comes to Pride, but a lot of great LGBTQ+ stories come from authors who, unable to find the kind of content they want to see in the world, create their own. In the case of my own stories and comics, there was a list I found myself ticking off, of stories I’ve never seen in media, even in LGBTQ+ media, that I decided to create for myself. One of these things was the presence of the lesser known queer identities beyond lesbian and gay, which pushed me into writing a story between a pansexual woman and a non-binary person. Another of these things is something that’s becoming more frequently seen in media lately (in the year of our lord “20GayTeen”) is genre fiction with LGBTQ+ characters. Which brings me to two of my works, putting F/F and F/NB fiction front and centre: Gorgeous, from the short story anthology Start Here: Short Stories of First Encounters, and BEHKomiks, a Filipino supernatural, urban-fantasy, action comics series centering on Filipino LGBTQ+ characters and their monstrous romantic partners. Gorgeous follows a pansexual Filipina meeting a non-binary fellow Filipino in New York City, falling in love before finding out their history, putting their budding new relationship at risk. I didn’t dare assume their gender, and in New York you could roll dice every other day on whether somebody was a butch lesbian or a transman. All I knew for sure was that they were handsome, and kept throwing glances at me every so often, their warm smile warding off any bad vibes I might have had from a stranger on a subway train. We got off at the same station, and a few moments of consideration had the passenger approaching me, hands tucked into a stylish jacket’s front pockets. “You’re not from here, are you?” they said, tone friendly but eyes musing. “What gave it away?” I said in return. “Had a hunch. You’ve got the real homeland feel,” they said with a drawl, looking me up and down from my dyed braids to my three layers in what to New Yorkers was ‘brisk’ weather. “Want some company? Or have you got family up here in Little Manila?” “No family,” I replied. “Just wanted something familiar.” They smiled sympathetically. “I could show you around, if you like. Everybody could use a familiar face.” I stopped, brow furrowing as I studied their face. “Um… Do I know you?” They looked startled, but shrugged. “Don’t think so. I’ve been here a couple of years, and if I met you before, I’d remember it.” They opened their hands demonstratively. “Wouldn’t forget somebody as gorgeous as you.” Alright, so I might be cheating putting an F/NB story in a F/F blog entry, but I do enjoy breaking the mold, even within the LGBTQ+ community itself. Even with the growing acceptance of gay people and relationships in media, there are still many people who don’t know all that much about the transgender, queer, and other identities within the spectrum. Gorgeous has a formerly female-identifying character now identifying as non-binary and going by they/them pronouns, and I knew that this would be many readers’ first encounter with non-binary people, and I had to get it right. As someone within the community with friends who identify as trans and non-binary, it was important for me to get it right. Moving on from more realistic stories, here’s a few pages from my ongoing comic series, BEHKomiks. This particular issue, #2, covers the relationship between a manananggal and a human girl. In this story, a young boy fights and kills an ancient evil, only for that ancient evil to return in his twenties and go after his loved ones, including his childhood friend Gina (seen above) and his boyfriend, a Tikbalang named Siglo. The story, in this case, does not focus on the LGBTQ+ romance present within, but the gay relationships are present, they’re prominent, and nearly every character in the comic identifies as part of the LGBTQ+ community, including Gina and her girlfriend, the hundred-plus year old manananggal Maja. This is another form of LGBTQ+ media I want to push forward, along with my own pride for Filipino stories and mythology as a whole: the kind in which it’s not a “gay” story in so much as “gay stories” have formed their own genre, but it is a genre story populated almost entirely by gay characters. As someone who’s loved genre fiction all my life, it’s something I’ve always found important to do, and is becoming more and more prominent in genre fiction as representation becomes more of a staple in the industry. And it’s my hope that this trend continues, so that we’ll come to a time in which fiction with majority or entirely LGBTQ+ casts are common. Author bio: Motzie Dapul is a writer, artist, animator by profession. Indie comics creator, looking to bring LGBTQ+ characters and Filipino culture into mainstream Western media. Writer of the superhero, Filipino political spec-fic novel BAYANI (Amazon, Gumroad), writer/artist of the Filipino urban fantasy LGBTQ+ webcomic BEHKomiks (Tapas.io), editor/contributor to The Pinoy Monster Boyfriend Anthology short comics collection (Gumroad). All listed works written in English. You can also find her on social media: What about the rest of you? What would you like to see more of in regard to LGBTQ+ representation in the types of genres you read?

Followers of the latter approach will love the objects by Madewell. They’re always fast to pick out the necessities for every season, they usually guarantee to incorporate a variety of types and subcultures. As well as, all their merchandise are neatly made and look trendy, even when they aren’t actually made from treasured jewels. Barely bit behind the company, their mission is to get safer products into the fingers of everybody. Their ingredient choice process helps formulate merchandise that work fantastically with out compromising safety. Regarding the personal care business, corporations are allowed to utilize dangerous components and make their very personal judgments about safety. That was really an eye mounted-opening statement for me. I’m certain, like me, you don’t know what you do not know. You trust that we dwell in a rustic that regulates all the things. That is simply not the case. I am unable to let you understand that I’m going to completely cease using merchandise that do not stand for this (in any case not instantly) because which may be a daunting job in and of itself. HOWEVER, I will any additional, be actually acutely conscious to research the totally different substances that are in the magnificence products I exploit. We are Liberty Vogue & Lifestyle Gala’s. In right now’s digital dating world, communicating clearly can sometimes get misplaced in translation. In China, there is a rising improvement of skincare merchandise claiming to be dermatologically examined, rising from three.three% of latest product launches in 2015 to eight.9% in 2017, in keeping with Mintel Worldwide New Merchandise Database (GNPD) ; meanwhile, the ‘for delicate pores and skin’ claim may also be on the rise as a result of it was featured in 12% of latest product launches in 2017, even exceeding related launches in Japan in 2017 (10.four%). A month-to-month provide that allows you a moment to mirror and take inventory of what issues in life is a superb asset for any woman. The stresses of life can begin to take their toll, so any alternative to carve out some time to relax, create, and explore new options may additionally help to convey more stability to your life. A type of acts had girls present on stage. David Yurman is an American jewelry firm primarily based in 1980 by David and Sybil Yurman in New York City. Their designs are recognized for being sculptural and architectural, meant every for everyday wear and for additional formal eveningwear. Essentially the most famous design is the Cable motif, fabricated from wrapped silver, platinum, or gold wire, either left plain or embellished with gem stones. The cable is incorporated into each David Yurman assortment in the kind of bracelets, cuffs, necklaces, watched, and totally different items. David Yurman designs have been worn by many fashionable celebrities, including Tina Fey, Jennifer Garner, Jessica Lange, and Bellamy Youthful. But even when ladies who’ve cosmetic surgical procedure have all of the characteristics of full-blown brokers, the probability remains to be left open that they’re blameable brokers, a chance I took to be a consequence of Davis’s place. That may be so in the event that they knowingly and willingly have been involving themselves in a morally reprehensible observe. Is cosmetic surgical procedure reprehensible? Based on Davis, the ladies who have cosmetic surgery accomplish that so as to not be constantly checked out or made the factor of offensive remarks, whether or not properly meant or not; they often need to feel relaxed of their very personal our bodies. An alternate rationalization may very well be that they need to look extra lovely. Each the irregular and the gorgeous are respectable and it is hardly blameworthy to aim for either. Take a look at our Buddhi Box evaluations to study further. Lifestyle websites try to cover every part for everyone, nevertheless as girls and non-binary of us, we’re multi-layered with distinctive needs and pursuits—and we deserve media that acknowledges our pursuits. This rising demand of cosmetic merchandise has in flip led to the growth of cosmetics market the world over.

Poh is a Chinese Malaysian Australian woman who comes to the practice through multiple experiences and relationships as a narrative therapy practitioner, social worker, co-researcher of trauma/displacement, writer, teacher, film protagonist and creative consultant. Since 2004 Poh has been engaged in therapeutic co-research with people and communities responding to themes of experience such as family and state violence, displacement (from rights, land, home, body, identity, relationships), liminality and reclaiming practices of staying with experience and preference. Creative and therapeutic fields intersected for Poh whilst working with people seeking asylum within a film project with director Gabrielle Brady, Island of the Hungry Ghosts (2018). Poh is currently on the teaching faculty of Dulwich Centre; the teaching faculty & Board of Re-authoring Teaching; honorary clinical fellow of the School of Social Work, University of Melbourne and a member of the International Advisory Committee of the Latin American Journal of Clinical Social Work. Poh is a sessional facilitator for KHM Academy of Media Arts Cologne, Germany; Dokomotive Collective Cologne, Germany; VCA Film and Television, Australia; Attagirl for female and non-binary filmmakers; DocX Archive Lab Duke University, North Carolina and The Flaherty, New York, USA. Narrative therapy is a collection of anti-oppressive, social justice practices. Narrative therapy seeks to invite through collaborative inquiry an understanding of people’s lives which offers multi-storied accounts and often shines light on the alternative, neglected stories that have been overshadowed by one particular dominant story. Through drawing attention to the ways in which we are shaped by our experiences, relationships and wider socio-political discourse we can step into creative possibilities for life and identity. In honouring personal, family and cultural practices and legacies we can find local ways of staying connected to ideas, values, intentions and commitments that sustain us through difficult times. Coloured by images, metaphors, significant figures and embodied experience narrative therapy attends to the multifaceted telling of stories that moves us closer to our preferred way of being in the world.

The Savage X Fenty Vol. 2 show dropped on Friday morning (Oct. 2), exclusively on Amazon Prime, and has been living in our heads rent-free all weekend. This year, Rihanna exceeded expectations with a virtual dive into the sultry, inclusive, and dynamic world that is Savage X. "The emotion makes the story worthwhile." As with its predecessor, Vol. 2 was saturated with mega-stars across entertainment, with a particular focus on people of the LGBTQ community. The show centered about ideologies of life, and loosely centered around three pillars: experience, emotions, and storytelling. Unlike the show last year, there were documentary-style elements introduced, such as intimate interviews with models and behind-the-scenes of the team's creative process. The way Rihanna is able to mix sustainable and sensational is peerless. The bar is continuously pushed by her and the phenomenal creative team behind her. By curating a space that is primarily founded on inclusivity, she's built one of the most groundbreaking creative teams in the fashion industry. The breadth of women in the show is unmatched and has never been witnessed at a fashion show, much less a lingerie fashion show. Savage X Fenty is creating a lane for not only themselves but everyone who doesn't fit that preconceived standard of beauty. The brand is manifesting a space that literally never existed before. Known for having the most-inclusive size range in lingerie, Savage X Fenty seamlessly produces visually stunning moments that highlight the beauty of diversity in the human form. There were so many experiences in the show, from the garden of melanated women draped in floral shawls, to the den of black leather vixens, to sensual line workers in colorful lingerie at the factory; each scene exuded something different yet still presented a cohesive vibe. It's more than a visually stunning experience, though. Every element of the show was detailed and immaculate. Interspersed between runway shows and musical performances were more in-depth interviews with celebrities like Willow Smith and Miguel, as well as her creative team and even Rihanna herself. The peek behind the curtain of Savage X Fenty revealed more about the inspiration for the brand and its mission, one of the driving forces behind their inclusivity. With the introduction of a men's line, Savage X was able to expand their representation and clientele. The Savage X Fenty brand is focused on showcasing sexuality in different forms, more specifically ones not shown in mainstream media. The current societal conversation around sexuality and what it means is a big portion of this show. By interviewing the models, who range from non-binary to heterosexual, there's a sort of education that's happening between the models and the audience. It's as if they are speaking about what Savage X has given them directly, in regards to how they view their sexuality. "Displaying sexuality has become something that's way deeper than [the] surface for me." By including so many different types of races, nationalities, ethnicities, and sexualities, Savage X Fenty is seemingly issuing a challenge to the rest of the industry. In an age where we expect brands to have morals and ethics, Savage X Fenty is dominating that lane. Are you a member of our insiders squad? Join us in the xoTribe Members Community today! Featured image via Gif

In Mexico City's public transport system, sexual harassment is rampant: A 2014 study of 16 global cities found the city's transport system hosted more verbal and physical harassment than any other city's, while a 2016 national survey found that 90% of women and girls in Mexico who use public transit don't feel safe doing it. Now, UN Women and the Mexican government are trying to fight the problem with a campaign called #NoEsDeHombres (translated as "this isn't manly") that seeks to make men feel objectified, ostensibly so that they suddenly understand what it's like to be harassed and never to do it to another woman again. One of the campaign's stunts: installing cameras in subway stations that zoom in on men's butts and display them in real time on public screens in the stations, as this video from Mic shows. "In order to generate change, you need to create empathy," Yeliz Osman, a program coordinator with the Mexican UN Women office, told the New York Times of the reasoning behind the campaign. "The idea is that men can get a sense of what it is all like. By creating empathy, we hope that this might change their behavior." It's a splashy concept, but its effectiveness remains to be seen. This empathy-based approach is analogous with other attempts to make men "feel" what women feel and thus believe the severity of what women go through, from a bracelet designed to help fathers-to-be "feel pregnant" to a "menstrual simulator" meant to induce period-like cramps. And sometimes well-intentioned pro-woman campaigns encourage men to empathize with women by giving them a front-row view of the struggles that women they already care about — their family members, friends, and partners — face, for example by showing them footage of their girlfriends getting catcalled. But relying on men's empathy to effect change is another way of centering their feelings when what most women want isn't pity or even empathy, but respect. Most cis men will never truly "get a sense of what it is all like" to experience gender-based violence, including sexual harassment. (It is important to note that transgender men experience disproportionate levels of violence and harassment.) They may be humiliated or annoyed by campaigns like #NoEsDeHombres, but they likely won't fear for their physical safety or lives the way countless women and non-binary and gender-nonconforming folks do when they leave the house. (As Margaret Atwood observed, men fear being laughed at; women fear being killed.) More to the point, though, men don't have to feel what we feel — and we don't have to be their sisters, daughters, or wives — for them to respect our personhood. If a man doesn't already see women as people, it seems unlikely that public embarrassment will reform him. And at the end of the day, I don't care if a dude has felt what it's like to get period cramps or have a stranger ogle his butt. I want him to trust me when I tell him what that's like — then let me take the subway in peace. More on sexism and harassment: - Women Share Stories of Sexual Harassment to Pressure Fox News Advertisers to #DropOReilly - Student’s Online Petition Reversed High School’s Sexist Dress Code - Meghan Markle Just Wrote a Powerful Essay About Period Shame Why Is It So Hard to Say Vagina?:

Talking with Danez Smith is a lot like reading his poems: an engagement with a powerfully complex and circuitous mind that is always recalibrating, revising, attempting to find the most truthful and specific way of describing his thoughts and experiences. There is constant energy of self-reflection, humor, love, conviction, and joy. His first full-length collection, [insert] boy, is proof of Smith’s commitment to examining and unravelling the stories we tell about ourselves and each other, and imagining how we can tell those stories differently. Throughout Smith’s work, there is a consciousness of the manifold ways that stories both shape and are shaped by structures of power, and a belief that telling new stories is essential to imagining a more just and joy-filled world. Smith’s lyric channels an avowedly spiritual impulse and fuses that impulse with an accounting of the speaker’s intersectional identities of race, class, gender, and sexuality, as well as familial, romantic, and friendship-kinship relations. In these poems there is a palpable tension between contrasting life forces—love and fear, life and death, the Apollonian and Dionysian—from which Smith’s lyric emerges and is heightened. Smith’s accomplishments are remarkable for a poet still at the beginning of his career. At 26 years old, he has already received the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, as well as fellowships from the McKnight Foundation, Cave Canem, and VONA. After this interview took place, his collection [insert] boy won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Poetry. In poetry slam he has been a two-time Rust Belt Poetry Slam Champion, a National Underground Poetry Individual Champion, an Individual World Poetry Slam Finalist, and the festival director for the Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam. He is also a founding member of the multiracial, multi-genre Dark Noise Collective. His writing has appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, Beloit Poetry Journal, Kinfolks, and many other publications. He earned a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was a First Wave Urban Arts Scholar. In fall 2015 he began his MFA at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Perhaps more than any other poet of his generation, Smith embodies the coming together of the worlds of literary poetry and spoken word, a convergence whose effects have yet to be fully seen or understood but that surely represents one of the most significant forces in the present and future of US poetry. In this interview, Smith moves from discussing his poetic craft and process to questions of faith, spirituality, politics, race, illness, and community. Smith’s experiences as a Black, queer, HIV-positive man are fundamental to the questions and obsessions of his poems. What emerges over the course of [insert] boy (and also in our conversation) is Smith’s expansive vision as a writer, thinker, and human being. I am moved and inspired by his belief in the power of imagination, storytelling, and poetry. In his words: “To imagine better gods helps us imagine ourselves as better people, and as better communities, and as better societies.” Isaac Ginsberg Miller (IGM): I’d like to start out with the idea of intersectionality in your writing. In an interview with Lambda Literary you mentioned that Chris Walker, one of your professors at UW-Madison, taught you that “we should bring our whole selves to a piece we are creating, to not attempt to segregate any part of our being from another.” You said that, as a result, “When I’m creating, there is no difference between what is spiritual, religious, the sexual, racial, real, fantasy, joyous or tragic.” Your comment reminded me of something the scholar and film critic Sukhdev Sandhu said, writing about John Akomfrah’s The Nine Muses, that it “suggests that stories normally seen through the lens of postcolonialism could just as easily be seen in existential or mythic terms. In doing so, it invites viewers to reflect on the labels by which history—especially diasporic history—is framed and categorized.” Danez Smith (DS): I look at [insert] boy (and even how that title came about) as a miraculous book of little failures. There were a lot of things that I was attempting to do, and this is the best product I could get at the time. I think creating is often about that, the joyous little failures that happen. I still believe that I can’t segregate any part of myself. Something that a lot of folks say when they’re commenting on my poems, they’re like, “I love how your poems take me way up here one second and all of a sudden I’m way down here.” You know, there’s a lot of levels to the things. That comment about the mythic is interesting. I do see the writing of self-narrative as the writing of the myth of the self, these legends that we are making through the living. When I think about myths and legends: they’re cluttered. We look to Greek mythology because there’s so much there to dissect. We can allow the story of Pandora’s Box to be about one thing until it’s not. We still have scholars who are talking about these things. You know, weird shit that Hermes might have done back in the day or whatever the hell. And that goes not just for the Greek but also for African myths. With Chris Walker I did a lot of study of Yoruban culture and the Orishas and stuff like that, why we still look to them. Or even in the biblical sense… why we still study the Bible. You know, this book is cluttered. There are too many ideas going on in here. These poems are also in conversation with all the poems that didn’t make the book, or that will be in the books to come, or the poems that I was too scared to write when I was writing this book. The sectioning is an attempt to best dissect that cluttering so that there can be some idea of a path to go through. It’s sort of my best attempt at having some kind of organizational order in it, but really these poems are just like… whose essay was I just reading? Christopher Soto’s essay “On Duende & Death Culture.” The idea that the poems are that loud shout that you’re making into the darkness. I was trying to make sense of all this chaos that I was attempting to handle in the book. And also in that chaos trying to be strategic about where I let joy come through, because joy is always there, just sometimes it’s louder than other times. IGM: Can you say more about the presence of joy? DS: A lot of these poems deal with trauma or oppression, and I think about oppression as the suppression of joy. When I think about oppressing Black people, systems of racism, at their root, they’re intended to keep people of color from being able to fully experience untinged joy. That’s even a phrase I think I use in the book at one point, when I’m talking about my grandfather: untinged joy. Like, what does joy look like when it’s not because of the absence of something else? Oftentimes when I experience joy, it’s radical, in the sense that it’s joy in spite of something else: joy in spite of the sorrow, in spite of the sadness, the fight, the struggle, whatever. So I think joy is always the underlying thing in these poems. Sometimes joy gets to sing a little bit further through and we understand that, “oh, this is a joyous poem,” it’s anthemic in some ways. But even in the saddest poems I think there’s an underlying idea that the absence of joy is still talking about joy in some type of way. When I talk about trauma, I’m really saying: “Why the fuck won’t you let me have joy? Why won’t you let me be? Let me live.” Which is some colloquial shit that we say as urban and colored folks: “Let me be. Let me be me. I’m grown.” All these sorts of things are attempts at saying: “Let me have joy.” Let me just worry about that. IGM: I’m really struck by the idea of this being a book of little failures, because it certainly doesn’t appear that way to me as a reader. It feels like a very thorough and intentional book in the way that you organized it. DS: When I say “little failures,” it’s not a bad thing in my head. I think of art-making as a process of trial and error, and so even in those failures there’s something to showcase or something to be proud of. Every time we come to the page or to the studio space to do work, we’re trying out an idea, we’re trying to flesh something out. And we fail and we fail and we fail, especially when we have a goal in mind, just to figure out what the thing can be. So even when I say little failures, there’s some good there. Also, I say little failures just because I went into some of these projects with something in mind of exactly what I wanted it to be and it became a complete other beast. Or through the process the poem revealed itself to want to live in a different form. IGM: Can you talk about what you learned from your long poem “Song of the Wreckage” that you’re taking forward into your new book? DS: Yeah, so I think what I was trying to do is evidenced in the last section of “Song of the Wreckage,” where the black boys are turning into gods: Let them cypher until their song is the new sun, give them a joint & let them build a world from smoke. Let them build a black boy’s world. Rhythm to replace time, water free of the blood’s salt, peaches where there was once fire, watch the boy gods care for the dark child they raised from nothingness, how it started black & ends black. I was trying to create this mythical land, which is what I’m working on in this long poem, which is called “summer, somewhere,” an excerpt of which will be published in the January 2016 issue of Poetry. Basically what I realized, and this is referring back to the first question too… In “Song of the Wreckage,” I was trying to make a myth while still holding on too much to the existing world. In this new poem I just start with the mythical. The new poem is an imagined afterlife or paradise for Black men who have been murdered. The difference is that instead of trying to start in the real world and work our way into the myth, I start in the myth. I reference the real world and the poem is trying to comment on race and American racism and colonial Western racism in some real ways. But it just starts within the mythical space, within the magical space. It embraces the magic, which is something I’ve been trying to do in my personal life too, just embrace the mysticism of everything and stop trying to make it fit into a “real world” construct. For that poem, I’m just like “fuckit: let’s start with the crazy shit.” Everything is a Black boy in this world, including that tree. You know, we’re gonna deal with that. In this new poem I can comment on my lived reality but write into the myth, honestly, first, before I try to do too much about the other world, the real world. IGM: I want to ask about the role of spirituality in your work. [insert] boy seems to be a profoundly spiritual book, so many of your poems speak of a relationship to God or the divine. I’m thinking in particular of the poem “Genesissy,” which begins where the Bible’s seven days of creation leave off. The God of this poem seems very much to be a Black queer God. The poem is dedicated to the death of two Black trans women, Dwayne “Gully Queen” Jones and Islan Nettles. The poem’s final lines question how God can allow evil to exist, in this case in the murder of these two women: “the aunt’s disgusted head shake / begat the world that killed / the not a boy-child / & stole her favorite dress / right off her cold shimmering body / & that can’t come from God right?” Can you talk about these poems’ relationship to spirituality? DS: Well, for one, I do believe that there is a Black queer God, because we are created in God’s image, so that means that somewhere in the sky God is a Black faggot with a whole bunch of tattoos. And is also all the other things that we are, right? God has to look a mess. [laughing] God looks a mess! It’s sort of the same thing that we were talking about earlier: the poems’ relationship to spirituality is through my relationship to spirituality. The speaker is very much me, in many, if not all, of these poems. My first language was a language of spirituality. I was raised in the church. I come from a religious family where my mom and my grandma very much cared about God and didn’t miss a Sunday and were talking about it in the home, so that was my first language. That was the first community that I understood I was a part of, at three and four years old. So that’s engrained in who I am. If you don’t like spirituality then you shouldn’t buy any more of the books that I’m gonna write in my life. Because it’s always there. This next book has a shit-ton of spirituality in it. I have this ever-evolving, long-distance, polyamorous relationship with Jesus. IGM: Could you say a little more about the performance version of “Genesissy?” Because I think in the erasure of the hymn that you sing there’s a point where you say “I battle / God.” It seems that the relationship to God in this book is a fraught one, that there are moments of struggle as well as joy. DS: Yeah, because I think it’s important to recognize that. You know, a relationship with God does not always mean that it’s positive. The book tries not to ignore that, because it has to be a fraught relationship with God. For me, when I’m talking about a Christian God, our critiques of God have to be critiques of the Church. Because if I am to believe that God is who he is and that the church is a representation of God then I have to critique God’s people and what they’re doing and how they are carrying out his name. Especially in relationship to queerness and colonialism and all these things that are done in the name of Christ the Lord. In America, One Nation under a Christian God that murders Black people senselessly and incarcerates them in incredibly mind-shattering numbers. I have to critique God for that. I’m not interested in an inactive God, so I demand a lot out of him and I demand better of him, and by extension his people and his worshippers and his followers and institutions that are built upon his name. IGM: I find it fascinating how you’re describing this polyamorous relationship with God and the multiple facets of God. That’s also a central aspect of this book, that God appears in so many different forms. For example, in “Healing: Attempt #2,” it says, “I pray to each God I know.” Could you talk more about the unity and multiplicity of God? DS: I think that in terms of God as a concept, there’s a reason that we’ve created Gods throughout our time. As humans it feels almost instinctual and in our DNA to worship something. This idea of God has manifested itself so many times across so many cultures. There’s reasons why there are different myths that look the same in a lot of different cultures. Sometimes I think we have a common thing. Maybe it’s just because we have a limited number of things to make gods out of. In terms of my God, most likely when I’m talking about God, I’m talking about a Judeo-Christian God. But also I recognize the multiplicity of that comes from recognizing the power of all these other gods that have existed, or that exist. And I think part of my personal faith is accepting that any of those might be right, because I mean, my family worships a book that some dude sat in a room and edited. And I’m supposed to accept that. And that’s cool. You know, I love the Bible. I love Jesus, that’s my homie. But I have to believe that if there is some afterlife or some greater power, then that power would allow many different paths to come to it. If Jesus is the only door, then I’m not necessarily sure I want to go through. But the many gods of how we connect as people, I think I accept a lot of those. I don’t know, is that Unitarian? Is that what those people do? Maybe I’m Unitarian [laughing]. IGM: In “Poems In Which One Black Man Holds Another,” you have the line “I believe God wasn’t real until we made him so.” It sounds like part of your poetic project is about that—the idea of creating God and creating a relationship to God. DS: I believe in God, but God only has as much power as we give Him. I’ve been having a lot of conversations with friends and family about atheism. That’s the exact opposite of what I believe. I believe in too many gods. There’s another kind of power in us not being able to wrap our heads around, “How can anyone not believe in God?” But it’s what you have the power to do, to deny that. To imagine better gods helps us imagine ourselves as better people, and as better communities, and as better societies. We have to imagine a greater thing that we worship. [To himself] That’s radical. That’s radical, Danez. [laughing] That’s a thought. I’m gonna marinate on that. IGM: I want to ask about the relationship between the political and the aesthetic. I read a quote by you that said: “Poetry can and has been used to fight, celebrate, heal, to love, to bury, to resurrect, start wars, end wars, keep the fires burning.” Do you believe that poetry has a responsibility to be political? What do you say to those who consider art and politics to be incommensurable? DS: I think poetry is inherently political. Even the most apolitical poem. There’s a politics behind being apolitical. We can’t run from the politics. It’s that same phrase, “the personal is political, the political is personal.” That has to be true. I think there’s a responsibility for us to talk about injustices and to not shut up about those things but I also think it’s important for art to imagine the next step, the better, the possibility of the tomorrow of it all, as well. And also to warn of the possible destruction of it all. Especially in my work, something’s always burning down and something’s always growing from the dust. That’s important, for us to both dismantle and reconstruct in poetry. I think that’s an enormous responsibility. I think poets from marginalized backgrounds feel that the most. I’ve had a lot of conversations… I’ve heard it all: people wanting to be more political, people wanting to be less political, people wanting to be able to be political without being pigeon-holed into being “political poets.” I often see that in the ways that my work is talked about too: “Danez Smith talks about Black death.” And I’m like yeah, that’s a topic, but that’s not it. What is actually a poem about joy or some more complex feeling just becomes the poem about the dead Black boy. Long story short, to anyone who finds poetry and politics to be incommensurable I say: “Shut the fuck up.” Stop being dumb and let people do the work that is necessary. Thanks for being over there, I will see you never [laughing]. Good luck writing your super boring shit and adding nothing to this world besides crap. IGM: I’m curious how you’ve negotiated writing about family. That has been a recurring topic of conversation with many writers that I know, asking each other: “How do you do that? What does that look like?” Would you be willing to share your experience? DS: Yeah. Never show them your poems. That’s my suggestion. Never, ever show them your poems. I don’t know, my family has been interesting. It’s weird, because I love my family. When I write about them I try to balance the moments of joy outnumbering the terrible shit. Alright, “Let’s write so much about how much we love them and then let these five lines be complicated. Let these five lines hit at something else.” Especially with my grandfather in the book. At my book release my grandma and my aunt had a pretty strong reaction to me writing about our father, husband, grandfather in a way that wasn’t blindly praising him. He was a good dude. He was also a man of the 1960s in a lot of ways, and a man who learned some really terrible, poisonous, violent, patriarchal ways to be a man in an age when it was super easy to learn that and where there weren’t a lot of counter-narratives about being better to women and to society. I can’t ignore that. That’s a manhood that a lot of families know. That’s a patriarch that a lot of families know and still love, but it’s harder for folks to see themselves in that light. I think my grandma especially, which I feel bad about, just because I’m pretty sure she doesn’t want to relive her trauma. And so me writing about it is super weird and probably fucked up, but it also felt important for me to write about it personally, because the violence in your family is your violence and is your lived experience. And so, for selfish reasons, I put that work out there and wrote those poems. But my family is super complicated in other ways. I have family members who’d rather that I don’t talk about being queer out loud or about being HIV-positive out loud, but I do. So I think there comes a certain point where you just have to chuck the deuce to your family’s concerns about the work. And that line is always murky. It just comes down to: “When and when not?” And I think it has to be a personal judgment call. Later on I’m not sure I always make the best choices, but in the moment they feel like the right thing to do, and maybe that’s important. IGM: In writing about your grandfather, it seems like there’s a theme of the speaker caring for the body of a man who hates the speaker’s relation to other men’s bodies. DS: I think it’s me talking to myself. My grandfather never knew I was queer before he passed away. He might have had his ideas, but I never actively came out the closet to him. We didn’t talk about it, we just talked about women. And yeah, I knew he was super homophobic so I kinda already knew what he might have said about it. It was even a thing of my mom saying, “Don’t tell grandpa. Please don’t do it.” The little family secrets that we all still have… That I write about, and then just keep people away from the books (and off the internet). So that was a lot of me reconciling with myself, I think, and talking about his body but also talking about his misogyny and homophobia and stuff like that. But also to engage his body in ways that felt real. Not erotic, but sensual. How we engage with the bodies of our ancestors, especially in sickness. Like there’s the poem “Shit,” where I’m cleaning my grandfather in his last couple days and those moments feel real, negotiating the male body in those ways. Especially negotiating his body in ways that he never would have negotiated it until he had no other choice but to let another man touch him there. IGM: Thinking about the ways that an illness or medical condition can affect personal identity, have you felt since learning that you are HIV-positive that there are changes in how you act in the world? DS: I think so. Mortality used to be something that I could talk about very loosely, but now it has very real implications for me. And also the way I live my life, sort of a caution and a fearlessness that I’ve gained with it. Caution in terms of wanting to live longer and wanting to take care of myself but also a fearlessness in being like, “All right, this is a thing that is typically seen as a marked death so now I want to live my life forward.” If I now know that a thing that can possibly kill me is within me then let me go ahead and just live the way that I’m trying to fucking live and not be scared of shit. Let me just do it. Because I might not be able to do it. So yeah, it’s made me more alive, in a lot of ways. IGM: How has that affected your writing? DS: Well it’s definitely a topic in the writing. I think maybe the range of joy and sorrow has gotten that much wider. Now it’s some real sorrow but also some pretty unbridled joy that’s coming through in the writing and also in my life. More intense sorrow because I think being able to touch death a little easier makes that sorrow a little deeper, and being able to touch death a little easier makes the moments when you’re not touching death that much more joy-filled. And even now, finding joy in mortality, which is a newer conversation in the last couple weeks that I’ve been having with myself: “Where is the beauty in passing on?” IGM: Can you speak about the role of community in your writing practice? In particular, your involvement in the Dark Noise Collective, and how that has affected your work. DS: Community has always been a part of my work. Especially coming into poetry as a youth through spoken word, and things like Brave New Voices. Even before that my first love in terms of art-making was theater, and so -from the beginning- art has always been about collaboration for me, and has not been possible outside of community. I mourn for poets who are coming from the opposite end where they write in seclusion for so many years and then come into a writing community. I’ve never not had a writing community. I’ve never not had an art-making community. And so art equals collaboration for me, at all times. I’m collaborating with something, either my nostalgia for other people, my lived experiences with other people, or the actual art-making process with other people. With Dark Noise, it’s powerful to have this active community, an intentional community. To have those folks who are still at the emerging stage of writing with each other is very powerful. Folks do a lot of stuff in different genres, but we all come back to poetry. It’s great having a crew to experience the murk of this emerging stuff with, that also care about the world in similar ways that I do. It’s beautiful and necessary. I’m grateful for it. I’m also part of this group called Sad Boy Supper Club, which is me, Sam Sax, Hieu Nguyen, and Cam Awkward-Rich. Which is kind of accidental, we’re just some friends that became a slam team and had a name and it was like, “OK, cool. IGM: How do you see the internet affecting your poetry? Since your poems exist over multiple social media platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, how do you feel about that relationship? Is it an entirely positive one or are there downsides to it as well? DS: I don’t know. Sometimes it’s weird. Especially for more personal work. To just be like, “Look how many retweets my trauma has. Look how many people have watched me cry on YouTube.” I think that can get weird, but it also comes with just being an artist. You have to be okay with putting it out there and with it staying out there. I think it’s a little bit easier nowadays to be reminded that people are engaging with the work. Before the age of Twitter, you would just write your book and I guess people had to write you letters, if they were so inclined, so that you would know that they read it. I can search my name on Twitter and see how many people have said something about me, which is weird. It can be interesting and it can also be detrimental because I think there have been times when I’ve been like, “Okay Danez, you need to stop looking at what people are saying on this YouTube video.” Just calm down. Calm down. Especially during times of flare-ups, especially with Black Lives Matter, that whole movement (I hate the fact that we have to call Black Lives Matter a movement, because we should just always matter). The last couple months it’s been interesting to see how my work has been there for people, how certain poems get shared a lot. I don’t know what I necessarily feel about that. It’s nice to know that the work is able to be there for people when they need it and that it does have an effect on folks. IGM: So speaking of having an effect on folks, I’d like to ask you about the influence of Jericho Brown. You posted on Facebook recently about how your copy of Jericho’s book Please finally gave out after what, like six years? DS: Yeah, I put that book through a lot. I think Jericho was the first person I read that talked about Black queer masculinity in a way that I felt seen in the work. In some powerful ways. Even with James Baldwin… Baldwin was talking about Black male queerness, but it was often in relation to white men. And Langston talked about it in some really masked ways. So I found Jericho before I found, like, Essex Hemphill. But when I found Please I was just like, “This is my life! On the page. What do I do with this?” You know, I loved a lot of other folks but I had never read a Black queer male author who I felt like was talking to me. I felt like that’s what some Black women feel when they read Toni Morrison. I love Toni Morrison, but when you hear some people’s reaction to like a Sula or The Bluest Eye, and like, “That was me on the page,” I had never been able to have that moment. I’d been able to have something close to that moment by recognizing certain people half-way, like some Black male characters, but they weren’t really queer in that way, and then [claps his hands]: there were Jericho’s poems! It opened so much. It was like reading my own diary. The New Testament is still like that. I don’t know where my work would be without Jericho Brown and what he’s done. We got lunch yesterday. He was like, “What are you doing? Come to lunch with me.” And I was like, “You’re Jericho Brown!” IGM: How do you feel that the field of poetry is shifting? Particularly around who is writing and receiving recognition in terms of race, class, gender, and sexuality. How do you see it shifting and how do you want to see it shift? DS: It’s shifting a lot. It’s not a good-old-boys club anymore. It’s not just white males being rewarded for being white males and writing about, you know, pastures. I think we see that with a lot of the book award nominations and wins and even a lot of these fellowships. They’re going to a more diverse group of poets. There’s more of a presence of Black authors, of Asian authors. I think we still have a long way to go in terms of visibility for Latino/a poets, indigenous poets and Trans poets, particularly Trans female poets and non-binary poets. They’re out there but I think we finally just have to embrace them more as readers and as fellow writers. We have to make sure that they’re there as we start to hold positions of power. I think the writers of poetry are incredibly diverse right now and that’s beautiful. I think also of the people behind the scenes: the editors, the foundation heads, the readers, the judges. I would like to see the publishing industry now become more diverse, as the people who are publishing become increasingly diverse. It’s ridiculous how behind-the-scenes at those presses it’s still, what, some ridiculous figure, 89 percent white in the mainstream publishing industry. Saeed Jones just wrote a really good essay on this that was on BuzzFeed recently, “Self-Portrait Of The Artist As Ungrateful Black Writer.” There’s been, of course, tons of other things written about this. That’s the reason something like the VIDA count has to happen. As the writers of poetry become more diverse, the infrastructure around that also needs to become more diverse.

Sidonia no Kishi is a show with a big cast, as you might expect from a military style mecha show. Not only that; but uniforms and quick introductions can sometimes make it tough to keep track of everyone. Hopefully, I can help you by telling you a little bit about the primary cast. I’ll do my best to steer clear of spoilers here, but you should probably watch the first couple of episodes before you read further. Nagate Tanikaze – The Outsider Nagate Tanikaze is the protagonist of Sidonia no Kishi. He’s also our everyman character. Since he’s an outsider to the world of Sidonia (more on that in a bit), he’s a great anchor to help us understand the world as he does. When we first meet Tanikaze, we discover that he has been raised in the lower levels of Sidonia by his grandfather. He has had no social interactions outside of this, and is largely ignorant of the world of Sidonia apart from what he has been told. Tanikaze’s life with his grandfather is lived in small subterranean quarters with sparse furnishings. The only exception to this Spartan lifestyle is the Garde pilot simulator that Tanikaze trains with. We learn that Tanikaze’s grandfather has been training him since a very young age to pilot a Garde using this machine. Tanikaze’s grandfather tells him that he will need these skills to protect the people of Sidonia, a people he has never met. Our first introduction to Tanikaze involves his excursion into Sidonia proper to steal a bag of rice. We learn through quiet exposition that Tanikaze’s grandfather has died. Tanikaze has been forbidden to go as far into Sidonia as he needs to, but hunger drives him. It is clear that his grandfather has long been a provider for the both of them, and Tanikaze has no choice but to disobey his grandfather’s wishes. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), Tanikaze’s plan does not go well, and he finds himself injured and recovering in a hospital room. Tanikaze awakens in a strange place surrounded by strange people; he is scared and uncertain. Tanikaze’s story is characterized by this very sense of exclusion. He doesn’t understand the society of Sidonia, and he doesn’t have experience with people. It’s clear that he means well, and that he wants to be accepted, but he fails socially on a regular basis. Unlike a lot of other “clueless” anime leads, Tanikaze has a good reason for his lack of social skills. Despite this, Tanikaze does his best to fit in. He is constantly apologizing and trying to make amends for his mistakes. Early on, it’s clear he hopes to use his piloting skill to help him break the ice with the other recruits. Unfortunately, he discovers that the simulator he’s become so familiar with is based on an outdated Garde model, and it appears his skills do not transfer. Tanikaze is, at his core, a kind person who wants to help others. He has been raised with a desire to protect the people of Sidonia from well before he even met them. He works hard to become a part of the society, though he is still an outsider because of his biology and his history. Tanikaze will always agree to help others, despite the circumstances. He may be a bit naïve, but it’s his desire to help and protect others that define him and his actions. Shizuka Hoshijiro – The Kind One Hoshijiro is one of the first people Tanikaze meets once he finds himself in Sidonia. In fact, Hoshijiro accompanies Tanikaze when he is questioned by police after escaping the hospital. She becomes an important fallback for Tanikaze in a world where he knows very little. Hoshijiro is soft-spoken and kind. She refuses to join in when the other cadets make fun of Tanikaze. Despite her mild manners, Hoshijiro is a capable Garde pilot. In fact, she is ranked second amongst the cadets in combat simulations. Hoshijiro is not brash or overconfident, instead working to be a peacemaker amongst the other recruits. She is quite serious, despite her age, and a valuable ally. Izana Shinatose – The Jealous One Izana Shinatose is another recruit Garde pilot in the same group as Tanikaze. Izana is a non-binary third gender. What this means is that Izana is neither strictly male nor female, but has the ability to choose either when a suitable mate is found. This leads to some confusion initially from Tanikaze, but he does not let it hinder his friendship with Izana. Izana is one of the first people to really befriend Tanikaze. Izana is kind, accepting, and patient with Tanikaze in a way that few others are. Not only that, Izana works to help Tanikaze understand and explore the world of Sidonia. It is shown that Izana is not particularly skilled as a Garde pilot. Izana lacks confidence in this realm, and is sometimes seen to hesitate in crucial moments. Izana is certainly not the most confident of the recruits. That said, Izana is loyal, kind, and caring. Izana is a valuable friend to Tanikaze. It is also shown that Izana tends to get jealous when Tanikaze spends time alone with others. Yuhata Midorikawa – The Investigator Yuhata is also a recruit Garde pilot. She is the younger sister of another pilot, Izumo Midorikawa, and plays the younger sister role frequently. Yuhata is immediately interested in Tanikaze after an encounter with a large Gauna. Yuhata is forward and unabashedly curious about Tanikaze, bordering on obsessive. She has a scientific mindset and is profoundly curious about many things. She is also a capable strategist, and very intelligent. Norio Kunato – The Rival Kunato is the top of the class of recruits and the best pilot amongst them (at least as far as simulations go). Kunato is the heir to Kunato Developments, who are responsible for developing the Gardes that currently keep Sidonia safe. He is immediately suspicious of Tanikaze, and doesn’t like the attention that the new pilot receives. Kobayashi – The Enigma Kobayashi is the captain of the Sidonia and answers only to the Immortal Council. Little is known about Kobayashi, and she is generally calm, quiet, and decisive. Kobayashi vouches for Tanikaze early on. She takes guardianship of him and asks him to assist in the defense of Sidonia. So those are the key players on Sidonia. There are many more people throughout the series, but hopefully this primer has gotten you familiar with the most important of the cast so you can keep up with the action.

As the recent covers of fashion publications get more & more glamorous, readers are also served plentiful substance concerning diversity & culture-conscious topics since the language of fashion encompasses all identities. This is why Vogue‘s August 2022 issue, featuring Golden Globe-winner, Emma Corrin (they/them), is such a milestone for LGBTQ+ visibility & an opportunity to explore the fluidity of fashion. Emma is the first openly non-binary cover star for the magazine, embracing both fashion & body hair their way—unapologetically! Spector not only writes about Emma’s rise to fame as Princess Diana on Netflix’s The Crown, but also their upcoming projects, including My Policeman, alongside Harry Styles, & an adaptation of Lady Chatterly’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence, as well as Emma’s social media presence supporting & raising awareness for the trans community. Emma states, “In my mind, gender just isn’t something that feels fixed…and I don’t know if it ever will be; there might always be some fluidity there for me…If you have a platform and you’re able to use it, that’s obviously so important—and I met some incredible people through it.” Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence can’t go a day without being photographed, and it makes sense, especially after catching this behind-the-scenes look during her recent photo shoot for In Style‘s December 2013 cover. Of course, we get to see the tall, leggy blonde with her longer, fuller hair, while still loving all the recent shots for her press tour of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. The Dior spokesmodel wows inside the magazine’s pages, decked out in luxe winter whites by designers like Alexander McQueen, Valentino, Proenza Schouler, Marc Jacobs, Céline, & naturally Dior Haute Couture. The ravishing images come courtesy of photographer Michelangelo Di Battista, who captures Hollywood’s it-girl alongside an article which features her chatting about being a high school cheerleader, being a sex symbol, her choice of not going to college, & her biggest spending splurge- so far! Summer style seems to be in full throttle & the latest red carpet looks are nothing short of fabulous. Some of my favorite looks include Jennifer Lopez‘s sequin Tom Ford gown that she wore while attending the amfAR Inspiration Gala, Amy Adams in a lace Dolce & Gabbana dress with sorbet pointy toe shoes, & Uma Thurman‘s striking magenta Versace corseted gown with Chopard jewelry. For those of you who didn’t know.. The CDFA Fashion Awards are like the Oscars in the world of fashion design. This week, the festivities took place, honoring the best in fashion with a stunning red carpet, which included lots of sheer panels, cut-outs, ankle-strap sandals, & bare backs. Winners of the night included Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez for Proenza Schouler as Womenswear Designer of the Year, Thom Browne for Menswear Designer of the Year, & Phillip Lim for 3.1 Phillip Lim for Accessories Designer of the Year. We all heard about the fabulous designer collection that came to Target, wrought with items for the household & whole family from Jason Wu, Marchesa, Diane von Furstenberg, Prabal Gurung, & more, courtesy of a collaboration with the ever so luxurious Neiman Marcus. However, aren’t we lucky that all of these glamorous items are up to 70% off on the Target website & in stores? I’ve been doing a lot of clicking around & have found that there are plenty of sizes available for the apparel, so it’s time to break out those gift cards & shop now! To shop more from this collection, head over to this link! Which pieces are you coveting? Did you buy anything from the holiday collection when it first debuted? Do you prefer to buy these pieces online or in stores? Happy Styling! As if Long Island hasn’t been riddled enough with weather, it’s snowing now & I bundled up in my favorite sweater to brave the day. This was my inspiration when I clicked through some of my top go-to websites to find must-have sweaters for the fall-winter season- no matter where you live. Because sweaters are bulkier, often requiring special care, & available in an array of materials, I don’t necessarily admonish anyone who is looking for an investment piece to add to their cold weather wardrobe. However, let’s take a look at some stylish celebrities who have been spotted in recent months donning some fashionable sweaters. Actress Rose Byrne accents her textured black sweater with a ruffled skirt & leopard belt at the debut short film for Target, Falling For You. Country crooner Taylor Swift looks all sorts of ladylike with maroon sweater by French Connection, paired with polka dot jeans by AG Adriano Goldschmied, Charlotte Olympia flats, & a tasteful string of pearls. Jessica Alba plays with menswear in her Alice + Olivia sweater to contrast her printed pants & bold cap toe pumps. Former Heroes star Ali Larter mixes sophistication with urban chic in a shawl collar sweater with olive cargo pants, ankle booties, & a Coach bag. You can count on American IdolCarrie Underwood to bring the glitz to an appearance at The Late Show with David Letterman, wearing a sequin sweater, skinny jeans, & strappy wedges. Model / actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley goes all-black in a fringed black sweater & liquid leather leggings when arriving at the Sao Paulo Fashion Week celebration. Lastly, designer Nicole Richie goes casual in a zebra print Proenza Schouler sweater with skinny black jeans & suede pumps. For under $50, you can find heart details, metallic threading, animal-inspiration, feminine accents, & some sparkle when it comes to wearing a sweater. Of course, there’s the classic cable knit or argyle that you can wear to the office, but there are lots of ways to look ladylike & modern without having to sacrifice style when it comes to chunky knitwear. I love the fun & flirty colors in the colored animal pattern sweater ($27.80) from Forever 21 is a cool way to accent a pencil skirt with a metallic collar necklace, or to wear during the day with skinny jeans & knee boots. If you’re headed on a double date or want to stay warm when going out at night, check out Express‘ metallic wedge sweater ($19.99), which would look hot with leather shorts & tights or colored jeans. I’ve surprised myself lately by finding an interest in stripes (I’m not typically a stripey), but I love the color contrast & splash of sparkle in the Varick Street sequin stripe v-neck sweater ($46.95) from New York & Company, which is available in a whole range of colors if you’re not into the yellow-gray combo. As seen on many Style Darlings like Alexa Chung & Rihanna, wearing novelty pieces is a big trend, & this includes LC by Lauren Conrad‘s lurex heart sweater ($34.99) from Kohl’s, which is also sold in black & white, as well as tan & black. Pair this fun top with wide leg jeans & a scarf, or polish the look with textured a-line skirt & pointed toe heels. Lastly, @Venus you can find knit sweater with bow ($22.00) in light brown which can be easily played up with a fancy lace pencil skirt or some leather leggings. I was so excited in August to share one of my newest categories, Fabulous in 4 Ways, especially since the debut post was dedicated to my good friend Laurie, as inspired by her fabulous lace-up knee boots from Victoria’s Secret! Now, I’m talking about faux leather & pencil skirts, but before we dive into the outfits, I turned to some of my favorite celebrities to get some inspiration in how I would style such a classy & modern take on the figure flattering piece. Kate Bosworth rocks a Proenza Schouler leather-trimmed pencil skirt at the brand’s New York boutique opening with a relaxed white blouse & strappy sandals. The First Lady, Michelle Obama, wore a high-waist pencil skirt in navy with a cropped cardigan & purple top, while visiting a Wisconsin school. Mad Men bombshell Christina Hendricks mixes her old school glamour with a Dolce & Gabbana blouse, red clutch, & classic black pencil skirt. Total Recall star Kate Beckinsale plays with colorblocking with a chic H&M tank, Diane von Furstenberg turquoise skirt, & spiked neutral pumps. Rashida Jones is polished & professional with a touch of menswear while making an appearance on Good Morning America, wearing a printed button down shirt & white pencil skirt. Aussie starlet Cate Blanchett showed her support for Givenchy in a head-to-toe look with Roger Vivier heels. I’ve been on the prowl for great fall finds & one trend that keeps stopping me in my tracks is leather & it’s just not going away. Why should it? The luxe, lush material adds an edge to a feminine blouse, contradicts a flirty skirt, makes you look like a rock star, or just helps any Style Darling stand out a little bit more. Take it from some of our favorite celebrities, including Jessica Chastain, Kate Bosworth, Lucy Hale, Nicole Richie, Sophia Bush, Maria Sharapova, & Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. However, when it comes to affordable fashion, it’s not always easy to find leather when you’re shopping on a budget. Enter: faux leather. You can’t forget that faux leather isn’t harmful to animals & is always less expensive. It’s so easy to find faux leather separates, jackets, & dresses these days & I couldn’t decide on just a handful of items, so brace yourself… there’s a lot to look at! I should disclaim that I do not condone wearing any of these items with other faux leather pieces. You can take that risk if you’d like, but to avoid looking like a biker chick or appearing as though in costume, I’d recommend allowing for one item to be the standout & then mix with other fabrics to create a multi-dimensional & textured look. First, the zipped faux leather denim skirt ($19.80) comes from Forever 21 & is available in plus sizes 12-20. Underneath, you’ll find the essential faux leather shorts ($15.80), which are perfect for fall with tights & ankle booties. Pair either of these bottoms with a fabulous blouse, studded tee, or menswear-inspired button-down. The a-line skirt ($39.00) from Joe Fresh is cute for bringing to life the looks worn by Selena Gomez & Nicole Richie at the top of this post. Also, add just a hint of leather with the zip back pencil skirt with (minus the) leather ($59.90) from Express. We all know that leggings are all the rage right now, so to find the perfect pair for this edition of Basics for a Bargain, I turned to H&M for their leggings ($24.95) in black, which are also available in white, if you dare! Break these bad boys out with a chunky oversized knit & your fiercest pointed toe pumps, or help a graphic tee look less casual & top it off with a satin blazer. Which leather pieces are your favorite? Which celeb looks the best in leather? Are you a fan of real leather or would you rather wear faux leather? How would you style your leather look? Happy Styling! My dear friend Laurie, who I’ve dedicated a past blog to, has inspired this post with a question about the myth that turtlenecks = frompy. However, here is the evidence that they’re not! Of course I’m not a turtleneck-donning Style Darling myself, or anything with collars for that matter, but I can say that looking at the celebs below, there’s no way turtlenecks can be so wrong when they look so right- especially on my dear Laurie who always looks fashionable in a turtleneck. Over the last few years, we’ve seen turtlenecks come back in style, in the most classic way, just like a good pair of trousers, dark denim jeans, a pencil skirt, & a button-down shirt. Jennifer Connelly layers her turtleneck with a blazer & pleated Balenciaga mini skirt & opaque tights. Supermodel Claudia Schiffer makes a spring-like tunic fall-ready with a turtleneck, leggings, & heavy cardigan. Kristin Chenoweth looks super cozy in a furry sweater jacket, skinny jeans, & knee boots with her classic gray turtleneck underneath. Reese Witherspoon multi-tasks in a black mock turtleneck, aviators, straight leg jeans, & embellished flats with a Rebecca Minkoff crossbody bag. Amanda Seyfried covers up in the cold with a black turtleneck under a bright red romper dress for a TV appearance & matching red lips. Keira Knightley looks like a modern-day Audrey Hepburn in a belted pencil dress & turtleneck ensemble with round toe Sergio Rossi pumps. Disney darling Selena Gomez downplays her printed pants with a short-sleeved turtleneck & layered chains from LOFT. And now the basic we’ve all been waiting for…. here are some turtlenecks, in stores now! @Old Navy, the ‘tropical storm’ turtleneck ($17.94) is available in five other colors & can be mixed & matched up with a skirt suit or puffer vest with white skinny jeans. Each color is available in sizes XS – XXL for Style Darlings of all shapes! Try out some jewel tones & primary colors with the classic turtleneck sweater ($34.93) from The Limited, marked down from $49.90. Take a skinny belt, like shown on the model, & add some modern edge to the underestimated basic piece that would look contemporary with classic stud earrings & bangles. Style&co created this gray & black colorblock turtleneck ($21.98), available @Macy’s, also in black & red. It’s prefect for a pair of leather shorts & hoop earrings. Add some straight leg cigarette pants & platform boots to create an mod / equestrian look. If you’re a mock turtleneck kind of gal, check out Target‘s short-sleeve mock in black which can help you recreate Keira’s look, or would be fabulous with a houndstooth pencil skirt for work! Also, this turtleneck reminds me of a Fashion Flashback post featuring Marilyn Monroe with white pants & bouncy blonde curls. For those of you who still need some extra convincing, celebrities like Zoe Saldana, Emma Roberts, Lake Bell, Beyonce, & Cameron Diaz show that covering up in a turtleneck dress can be just as sexy & polished like a cocktail dress on the red carpet. Check out a previous Basics for a Bargain post, featuring sweater dresses to see stars like Heather Graham, Eva Mendes, & Nicole Richie sporting fall-ready turtleneck style sweater dresses without any worry about if it’s a do or don’t. Turtlenecks have come a long way. Stay away from anything too festive, adorned with holiday-themes, & you won’t look like a fuddy-duddy. Look for a turtleneck in a strong solid color, or in a modern print. Remember: Since turtlenecks are a must-have basic, you’re setting up the foundation to a really fashionable ensemble that could be accented with with long necklaces, a vest, belted bootcut jeans, a leather corset, mini skirt, or figure-flattering pencil skirt. Do you have any style myths that you just can’t figure out? I’d be happy to show off how some celebrity-inspiration can translate into an affordable look. Do you have any turtleneck stories? Laurie, I hope this blog does the trick! Happy Styling! Tis the season for film festivals, which means that not only are we celebrating the latest slew of must-see major & independent films, but the stars are supporting their work with some fabulous fashions! At various events for the 2011 Toronto Film Festival, we saw many stylish cocktail & formal looks from some of our favorite Style Darlings! Kate Mara looked radiant in a black overlay Christian Dior dress with nude pumps & a messy side braid. This season’s it-girl Jessica Chastain accented her porcelain skin with a gold dress by Derek Lam & ankle-strap sandals by Tory Burch. Marisa Tomei wore a geometric print dress by Proenza Schouler & carried a Stark clutch. My favorite part of this look is the halfway-to-the-knee strappy sandals. Evan Rachel Wood continued her androgynous menswear streak in a pinstripe suit by Dolce & Gabbana. We all know how super hot True Blood is this summer, but take a look at the show’s star, Academy Award winner, Anna Paquin. During a recent appearance at the L.A. Shorts Fest, the actress kept it simple in black & white. She plays up her basic white tee with a Hervé Léger pencil skirt, cinching in her tiny waist. Take a look at her layered statement necklace, something that you can achieve by wearing two of your favorite chunky necklaces & wear them at the same time. Also, a simple black bangle keeps it simple since she’s wearing towering leopard print platforms.

Capitalism & Patriarchy: The Cost of Being A Woman - The Pink Tax Written by: Aishwarya Murthy Edited by: Abigail Goh Illustrations by: Sneha Grace The cost of being a woman is expensive. In our current system, society appears to have no qualms in accepting women’s earnings but does very little if not anything at all, to protect them from inequitable pricing policies that diminish their contributions. This insidious exploitation is most commonly referred to as ‘The Pink Tax’. This is essentially a system of gender-based discriminatory pricing strategies that are imposed upon goods and services marketed towards women by manufacturers and businesses. While the Pink Tax itself is not a “real” tax, it does not make its financial impact on women and female consumers any less real. The patriarchal and outdated concepts of gender norms and gender identities imposed and solidified by the capitalistic and exploitative nature of certain industries often oversimplify women and female consumer’s preferences by equating them to specific and obsolete stereotypes. For example, rebranding items on the assumption that women prefer products and packaging using bright “feminine” colours such as pink or purple and sweet-smelling scents for personal care products. This gendered marketing strategy allows for businesses to overcharge women for the same products that men use, that have the same essential function but have superficial design changes. This marketing strategy is used throughout a woman’s lifespan. It affects women in all age brackets, from babies and children’s toys and books to women’s personal care items and clothing as adults to senior healthcare products. According to a 2015 study of gender-based pricing in New York City, it was found that women’s products cost 7% more than similar products for men, including 13% more for personal care products, 8% more for adult clothing, and 8% more for senior/home health care products. The degree of markups of price discrepancies for consumer goods between genders varies at different stages, the least being in babies and children’s products and the most in adult personal care products such as shampoos, razors, lotion body wash etc. However, if we were to aggregate this additional markup throughout the course of a female consumer’s lifetime, it would have an enormous financial impact. The beauty industry alone is worth $512 billion USD globally, with its marketing strategy aggressively targeting women and trying to convince them they need a myriad of products to be deemed beautiful and successful. The Pink Tax costs from products promoted by the beauty industry are also compounded by the Grooming Gap —which is the extra amount of time and money women workers must spend conforming to normative beauty standards in order to appear attractive and professional. The promotion of some of these products such as skin-lightening creams, weight-loss pills and anti-ageing products to name a few are problematic and can create an unhealthy fixation on our appearance by exploiting (or even creating) insecurities, which can lead to physical and psychological health issues. Periods are not a ‘Luxury’ Furthermore, the ‘Tampon Tax’ which falls under ‘The Pink Tax’ is a common term used to describe the pricing of feminine hygiene products such as tampons and pads. They are subject to a Sales Tax/Goods and Services Tax (GST) or Value-Added Tax (VAT) as they are considered to be a “luxury” goods in many countries. This tax is controversial because it is not given tax exemption status from the VAT, unlike many other essential products considered a necessity. This is grossly unfair and discriminatory against women and people who menstruate as feminine hygiene is biological and not a choice; therefore these products should not be considered a “luxury good” as it is a necessity. These additional taxes on essential feminine hygiene products further entrench women in period poverty, leaving them torn between choosing other essential items for survival such as food, and in many cases preventing women from attending school or work or feeling comfortable participating in society. Activists have since started multiple campaigns using the hashtags #TamponTax, #AxTheTax and #FreePeriods on social media platforms such as Twitter to encourage state policies to eliminate the tax on feminine hygiene products and provide subsidies for menstrual products to low-income families. Since 2004, a number of countries including Kenya, India, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Nigeria, Lebanon, Australia, Uganda, Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, Rwanda and Germany have eliminated or reduced sales taxes on menstrual products after global and domestic awareness campaigns and protest movements. Most recently, in November 2020 Scotland became the world’s first country to introduce the Period Products (Free Provision) Bill, making period products free and accessible in public facilities nationwide to “anyone who needs them” by creating a legal obligation for the government to provide it for them. This happened after years of campaigning for gender equality and dignity issues that affect everyone who menstruates and after a successful pilot program launched in 2017 by the Scottish Government that gave women and girls in low-income households in Aberdeen free sanitary products for six months. The Bill itself was introduced in April 2019 by Scottish parliament member Monica Lennon in, who has been campaigning to end period poverty since 2016. It was then unanimously approved by all Scottish Parliament members, and the law came into full effect on January 12th 2021. The Pink Service Charge we never asked for In addition to facing price discrimination in the purchase of goods, women also face the 'Pink Tax' in the service industry. Whether it be in hair styling where women end up paying more for haircuts than men or even when it comes to dry cleaning, where women are charged more to clean their clothing. There has long since been an underlying assumption that these discrepancies in pricing demonstrate the differences in the intricacies and details of the clothing, or greater difficulty in styling women's hair, or the additional scents used in hygiene products. Instead of basing the prices on the hairstylist’s skillset or the quality of work offered, the prices are still primarily determined based on antiquated notions that women have long hair and men have short hair, so women’s colouring and styling takes more time and effort. These stereotypes fail to consider that these binary gender-specific notions of hairstyling are outdated and non-inclusive and that salons should instead adopt gender-neutral pricing so that men, women, trans, non-binary and other gender identities alike should be charged equally for equivalent services. Moreover, women are also financially discriminated against in terms of banking whereby they often receive lower credit scores, on average, nine points lower than men’s, even though they typically carry less debt. Additionally, there are potential gender biases against women in getting credit card approvals, even when they have high credit scores due to biases in the algorithms that determine potential credit card owner’s creditworthiness. It is also important to keep in mind that women face financial discrimination on various levels, the Pink Tax is distributed throughout multiple facets of their lives and combined with the wage gap. Given that in the US, women on average make 79 cents for every dollar a man makes, and that’s just for white women. Women of colour face even more barriers and make on average, roughly 74 cents for every dollar a man makes. The gender wage gap, coupled with the compounded financial cost of the pink tax accumulated throughout a lifetime leaves women at a serious financial disadvantage. Unfortunately, the Pink Tax also extends to healthcare and unfairly impacts women who are disabled as well in terms of insurance costs. One instance of this is that insurance companies typically charge women higher prices for disability insurance, health insurance, long-term care insurance and many other types of insurance. This is due to the assumption that women tend to live longer, are more likely to be injured, are more likely to be caretakers, and incur additional costs with reproductive health care. Moreover, depending on the type of insurance/provider, many of the costs incurred with reproductive healthcare expenses such as pregnancy costs and using assisted reproductive technology may not be covered in their health insurance plan and can leave women paying these costs out of pocket. Furthermore, it is important to acknowledge how the Pink Tax also disadvantages intersecting identities such as those who identify as LGBTQ+ who are also disenfranchised by the binary notions and stereotypes associated with binary gender norms and gender identities and are often left out of the conversation. Additionally, many countries still lack the necessary legal protections to combat and correct income inequities that exist on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, contributing to a higher rate of poverty found in LGBTQ+ families/households. “In democracies, an equal division of power between women and men would reduce the annual penalty on female consumers by an average of $324 million per country and $15 billion across countries.” That’s on average, $1,300 a year and approximately $135,100 in an entire lifetime per woman. Without protective measures implemented, women are incurring high financial and social costs by missing out on opportunities to invest in themselves, their businesses, accumulate wealth and participate more robustly in the economy. In a society that already expects so much more from women for them to be able to even get their foot in the door and be recognised for their skills, talents and abilities, let alone survive within this capitalist system, it’s completely unjust that there have to be extra added opportunity costs in so many dimensions—making it increasingly difficult to achieve financial and economic equity. In the current system, women’s economic empowerment is an essential part of achieving gender equality and realising women's rights. Empowerment comes in all shapes and forms, but as suggested by the UN Women, we can begin with ensuring “women’s ability to participate equally in existing markets, having access to and control over productive resources, access to decent work, control over their own time, lives and bodies; and increased voice, agency and meaningful economic decision-making at all levels from the household to international institutions.” We can achieve this by using our collective voices to call out discrimination, make more ethical and informed consumer decisions and reevaluate our own notions of gender norms in order to to eliminate the Pink Tax where we can and alleviate the existential cost of being a woman in this world. Yet this also shines an essential light on the need for representation of more women in different sectors in the hopes that they can advocate for more fair and equitable policies, legislation and business practices.

I’ve been AFK for a while but meet the reason why: Tate. She’s a full Labrador with a cheeky sense of humour and a love of socks. I’ve had her nearly a month now and she’s settling beautifully. Her favourite things include cats (she, D and Ceri are bonding on a cellular level), her ragger and working. She’s a very particular, chatty dog and loves attention. We’ve been having some issues with separation anxiety so, yesterday, I got her a bed for my room and a terry cloth whale. It worked like a charm. She’s comfy, content and sleeping right through the night where previously she’s been waking up from nightmares. Work-wise, she really enjoys it. We’ve been doing new routes locally and Tate isn’t a people dog, so she’s focusing on her work. For a dog, she’s actually quite introverted unless it’s someone in my circle of friends and guide dogs. Even better, she’s essentially a clone of my beloved Bramble, except she’s mine and just as affectionate. We qualified last week, which is a great feeling. I think we’re going to have a great partnership but, for now, Tate is settling in. More photos will follow, I promise. Tate has an account on Dokonoko as well as my Instagram feed. When you’re randomly stalking your BFF’s Facebook feed for golden retriever and German Shepherd puppies and you come across a familiar face. Unis’ been rehomed now but I knew it was her before I read the caption. So it’s time for an update, it’s been a couple of weeks and I currently have a D on my foot, which means I’m stuck. Send help and chocolate! But, seriously, spring is … erm … springing. We have blossom and my windows are open/the Sonos are on half-pelt. Life’s okay. My foot is going to sleep. Crap. But, yeah, I survived London and Easter. S’all good. My mood has been relatively stable which is nice, though my anxiety remains through the roof. Not so good but it’s a work in progress. Shall we do this through the medium of bullet points, just for brevity? London was awesome. I really enjoyed it. I’m still paying it off but it was worth it. Hidden Figures is even more awesome in the cinema. Bonus for having an actual American with me who can explain the whole political mess around it and the Space Race. Also, it makes me want to go back to my Space Race on an alien planet novella. I am writing. My current focus is still on the Atridia books, specifically on a short story I’m calling “Bindings, Seen and Not” about a neutral gender bookbinder living in a city under state-sanctioned non-binary gender oppression. The Handmaid’s Tale was amazing … and severely triggering. I want to watch the rest of it (I think there are like ten episodes). I’m not sure I’ll be able to though, it’s horrifically foretelling but incredibly relevant. I know a lot of people are noping out purely because of anxiety issues with the content. In election news, I’m noping out. Due to a bureaucratic cock-up relating to the Great Name Change, I’ve been kicked off the electoral roll and won’t be back on it time for the local election. I’m very angry about this but also glad I caught it as I do want to vote in the general election next month. I just don’t want to have to listen to the election kerfuffle until then. Aside: I know it’s a cock-up because they have ZERO records of me under Old Name either and I’ve lived here for a decade and voted, both in person and postal. They also have no problems sending me Council Tax bills in my new name. It’s a work in progress but I don’t expect it to be resolved in time to vote locally (I have re-registered to vote and intend to give someone at Electoral a serious talking to about the legalities of this, I’m registered as a head of household and am not dependent of anyone else so there’s no reason for me to have been removed). There’s no ETA on the guide dog front either. Sigh. The cats are picking up the slack though. Bramble and Gismo hugs are also helping. I got an update on Uni’s progress and she’s doing so well. She’s happy and has a beach. That’s all I can ask for. My mood has been yoyoing but nothing too hard-core though I managed to really trigger myself last weekend. It was unpleasant. Oh and I’ve been obsessing again, mainly on buying things, Field Notes and food. Oh and Midori, of course. But I’m starting to argue out reasons why I should wait (example: my phone is due an upgrade but, instead, I’m going to go sim-only for a few months/til the end of the year as it’s cheaper). Money-wise, I sat down and worked out my income and did a spreadsheet. I’ve worked out a rough, date by date, payment plan and should be debt free just after my birthday. I even budgeted in a new Limitless card and my rent. 2018 should start out with a nice, clean, slate. If I can restrain myself and focus on the Big Picture. At some point, I’m going to write that book on bipolar or, at least, how to manage things like money while dealing with the mood swings. I’ve decided to teach myself bookbinding (I started learning it a couple of years ago), thanks to the help of YouTube. Actually, I’ve been a lot more crafty of late; mostly laminating stuff and experimenting with little things like making postcard-sized pictures for my fridge (mostly of upcoming movie posters and inspirational quotes) or laminating stuff for friends. I am now the proud owner of an awl, a craft knife, cutting map, guillotine and haven’t yet done myself any serious damage. Go me. My task for this week is to learn to saddle stitch and learn how to bind my own notebooks for my wallet (there’s more variety in terms of paper and cover colour). Plus it keeps my brain quiet which is the biggest thing. I cancelled my gym membership. The pressure of attendance (I’m not an evening person, especially not when I ‘have’ to do something I don’t want to do) and my continuing plantar fasciitis had been driving me nuts. Said PF was getting better, then I went to London. Sigh. On the upside, I’m not missing the place and much prefer walking around Eaton Park with my guide dog owner friends and their hounds. I’m eating better food. Simple meals which are easy to cook and fast (or involve the minimum amount of prep). This week it’s garlic and bacon pasta with chorizo and lots of herbs. Healthy and tasty. My faux Midori wallet is working beautifully, as is the free diary I got from JP Books (though it runs out in September and I kinda want a dated one. Dates are hard.). I’ve been playing with the inserts and now have a zipper pouch, a kraft folder and a notebook inside each other on the first string and my diary and expenses ledger held together with a band on the second. It works perfectly. Oh, I added a Neo Queen Serenity tiara charm onto the string and it sits beautifully on my yen coin. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 is freaking awesome. End of. I didn’t look at my watch once AND I’m going back tomorrow. I’m looking forward to so much TV and so many movies. I have tickets to Alien: Covenant and Wonder Woman already. I’m actually going to the cinema physically and ordering in bulb because the Odeon site only lets me book two performances ahead online (in person I can book loads). It’s annoying and cramping my social life. Doctor Who is actually kinda good this season. American Gods starts tomorrow. YAY!!!! I’m managed to keep on top of household stuff, though I’m yet to put my washing away. Small steps, Asha, small steps. I’m back in therapy and it’s helping. Reddit is helping more in terms of a support group which is just odd but so welcome. Ditto my very closest chosen family. Ramen is still awesome. I finally got my hands on a Lindt 1kg Gold Bunny in the post-Easter sales and I don’t regret it. Not for one second. 😀 This week has been all about getting me back, officially, on the list for New Dog. This would probably been a tad easier had I not had surgery the proceeding week but when is my life that simple? This blonde 40kg battering ram is my friend Paul’s dog, Gismo (he isn’t too be fed after midnight and for the love of all the gods do not get him wet). Gissy loves leaves, he also really likes me and could probably knock me over if he tried. However he is the perfect example of the colour dog I want. This is important because when I met my GDMI earlier this week, I had my list to hand. The thing you need to understand is there’s a process in all this, a reason for the madness. There is paperwork to be filled in and boxes to be ticked off. A came prepared with the standard paperwork which interested me as it’s been at least eight years (I had to wait 18 months for Uni) since I last did this. The form covered everything from my home environment (including things like the fact I live alone and have cats) to suitable spending areas (Uni’s pen is still there) to the important bit: What kind of dog did I need. A and I had a very frank conversation about my matching with it essentially boiling down to extrovert dog plus introvert human equals ‘never again’. We have those a lot though this is the first time we’ve openly admitted to each other that Uni, while awesome, was never a good match for me. A’s been my GDMI for almost as long as I had Uni, taking over from his similarly named arsehole of a predecessor who, thank the gods, no longer works for the organisation. I fired his predecessor but it did mean that while I qualified, I had to learn the ‘advanced’ stuff on my own or with the help of Mhairi and Paul. Before we got to the ‘choose your dog’ adventure though, there was a little practical stuff to do. To be fair, it was quick and I explained I was in a post-surgery place of pain, also it was cold and drizzling. Basically, GDMI’s pretend to be a dog, giving you a harness to hold and seeing how you move and respond. The thing is anyone who’s had a dog will tell you it feels all wrong; the level of the harness, the weight, the gait, the pacing. It’s not meant to emulate being a dog, just make sure you can move with the ‘dog’ and to assess pacing (mine is normally slow but due to my wound I wasn’t quite hobbling but still much, much slower than usual). Most people hate this bit because it’s embarrassing; you would through a crowded place with a human, harness and potential-GDO and have to use commands and reprimand the ‘dog’. But, this time, I didn’t care. This was a momentary thing, done thankfully in a quiet corner but it’s one of those things you do in order to get back on the list. Mainly I was just cold and wanted to get back inside. A is well aware I do not do winter, indeed one of my specific requests was not to do Class during the winter period. I hate ice, snow and sleet and my SAD is my worse enemy. Having a harness in my hand again, though, was weird. I’ve just gotten used to my cane again. It feels wrong but when you walk with your potential match, well it just feels like flying. There’s a freedom and it’s natural, like two pieces of a puzzle slotting together. I still remember how magical my first walk with Uni felt (character-wise we were a bad match but she and I always worked brilliantly together). I made clear my desire for a ‘calmer’ dog which instantly excludeds Shepherds, retrievers and labradoddles (they’re weird, end of). I wanted something a bit more like Bramble, Mhairi’s dog, a labrador who is Uni-sized and calm (the cat thing is key as I’m not having the guide dog versus cat discussion; Isis and Ceri are fine but Dion would lose). At ther same time I won’t say no to a darker dog, my preference is simply for a lighter coloured one as, due to my specific brand of visual impairment, dark is hard to see. One other disturbing thing I did learn about however (to the disgust of myself and every GDO who’s heard about it) was that someone (ansd I know precisely whom) sent a poison pen email anonymously to Guide Dogs giving them a list of ‘reasons’ why I shouldn’t be allowed another dog. The disciplinary proccess for GDO’s works a lot like employment; you get unofficial warnings, official warnings and the last resort ‘stop fucking up’ written warnings. Taking a dog from their human is a last resort and is only ever done for the welfare of the dog. Sometimes it’s a temporary thing (in cases of, for example, over-feeding) but other times there are other reasons. If the dog is young (around 2), they might be able to be re-matched but any older than that and it’s a flunk and the dog is retired. This is general, by the way, it’s a lot more complicated and situation specific as well. The sheer fact I heard about it at this juncture shows how seriously the Mobility Team were taking it. Anonymous stuff is seldom given credence and every guide dog owner breaks ‘rules’, or rather we bend them as far as we know we can go. There are no perfect GDOs and there are some situations (my personal favourite is the four pram plus guide dog plus trolley on the bus situation which was the fault of the bus driver and forced me to put Uni onto the seats because that was the only room for her). Anonymous listed stuff, I never saw the email but it was enough for identification. Fortunately, because I’d been very open with my GDMI, they were already aware one person now no longer in my life took Uni’s retirement very badly. This is purely because of timing and the fact it happened so fast. The irony is, had they bothered to actually identify themselves rather than using a burner email, then it might have been taken more seriously. Some of that stuff is true but all of it was minor; I’m known for bending rules but I know how far I can go. And yes, I fed my dog, but we all do that. Big deal. My friends, even the non-guide dog owning ones, were all outraged when I told them. It’s the equivalent of trying to take away a person’s wheelchair or ringing up the DWP and dobbing in a disabled person because you saw them doing something stereotypes say they shouldn’t.echnically, a disability hate crime. Technically what this person did is a disability hate crime. Yep and actually I don’t think that one note occurred to the writer. That they were not only being malicious but also committing a crime. I confronted the person, I don’t expect anything to come of it nor do I care. I’m on the list and that’s all that matters. The one thing we have been trying to do in the mean time is remind the cats (specifically D) is that the lack of a dog in the house is a temporary thing. Isis and Ceri are fine, the former ignore everyone bar me and the latter just loved Uni so I’m hoping New Dog will find a similar place in Ceri’s heart. This comes from a cat who, for the last six years, has met us when we come home at the end of the day. Ceri has little fear of dogs but she’s also smart, she knows just how far away to sit in case an unknown dog tries to go for her. Plus, despite being rotund, she’s also fast and good at running under cars. Isis … well, she’s just a ninja and a fan of high places and dark corners. D on the other hand, well he’s confrontational. This is why we’ve been using Gismo toi put him in his place. Gissy is basically a wuss but he’s also a typical male dog (aka not a genius). If the cats sit still then he ignores them entirely.Him and D have had a couple of showdowns, all carefully choreographed with the right amount of enthusiasm and hissing. Oddly, even when he has an out in the form of a cat flat, D would still rather wait for a human to open the door. Maybe he’s not as smart as I’ve been giving him credit. The upside of all of this is the sheer amount of cat love I’ve been getting. Ceri and Isis were pre-Uni. D came about six months after Uni and so the two grew up together.I know Ceri and Isis will basically chill, acknowledge New Dog, and get on with business. D has one choice and I get to be the one who acts as New Dog’s protector. I’m assuming eventually equilibrium will be reached and all will be well because that’s the only option. Dogs and cats can live together and quiet happily too. It’s all about time. I’m hoping the London list is short (rumour has it that it’s one of the shortest in the country). I should find out in a week or so but I’m going to assume it’s six months. If it’s shorter then it’s a bonus. Generally speaking, though, rematches are a higher priority than first timers and I’ve tried hard to keep my wants and needs down to a minimum because, as previously discussed, the rule of thumb is the more things you ask for in a dog, the longer it takes to match you. So, for now, with all the medical forms done and the paperwork filed, all I can do it wait and watch lots of movies and survive the winter. Part of dealing with losing Uni is trying to focus on the future. Because if I don’t I’ll just cry again and that’ll get none of us anywhere. Plus the future sustains me. Also, right now, I have one of these and Ceri is shit at guiding me anywhere: The point is somewhere, out there, is Replacement Guide Dog and I’m going to meet her one day soon. That instantly makes it real; she’ll be going through her final training, waiting for me. I have a 50p piece I’ll carry with me almost as a talisman until the day we qualify, at which point the money is handed over to constitute a legal contract between myself and Guide Dogs (I liken it to a ten-year hire purchase agreement). This time around things are a little different and faster. I’ve already had one dog which means several things: The wait should be shorter. I spent nearly two years waiting for Uni, having to fight for her. I’m hoping to be matched with her replacement in under six months. I have a much better idea of what kind of dog I need, as well as the one I want. The differences between those two things are a key factor. I actually have some idea of what I’m getting myself into. This blog series isn’t just about charting the process, it’s about education. As a result, if you see bolded text it means a term I’m going to use frequently, we have jargon just like anyone else. Most people have no clue how this works, much less what goes into the period between training and qualification. At the same time, personally, I’m in a much better position than I was when I got Uni. First off I know a lot more Guide Dog Owners (GDO’s) than I did when I first got Uni. This is important because it means I have a safety network of people I can go to if I’m worried or need advice (it’s easier to get ahold of a close GDO friend, for example, when you need a quick query answering). There’s also the social aspect of other dogs; freerunning (letting the dog run off lead and be normal for half an hour) is an important part of their social lives but also us as owners and nothing is more fun than going up to somewhere like Eaton Park with another GDO and watching your hounds do what amounts of ballet while running. The other thing is, for me, certain dogs (primarily Bramble) help my mental state. Bramble has this thing where she looks at you with Unconditional Love, it can’t be recorded or photographed, it can only be felt. This is because she’s not my dog and is actually quite important. Guide Dogs love their owners but it’s a private kind of adoration, other dogs are required for the oxytocin hit I need to keep functioning. I actually, unexpectedly ran into Bramble yesterday and it really did lift my spirit. Right now, officially. I’m not on the Guide Dog list. I’m not even an entity. I’m just a blind person with a Sightsaber and lots of friends with dogs. There are assessments scheduled and paperwork to be filled in. Then I get officially placed on the list, the important thing is to now think about what I want and need in a dog so that, when asked, I can give a succinct answer. The unofficial theory is that every extra you add on to the sentence: ‘I’d like a guide dog please’ means an extra month to wait so I’m trying to keep it brief. So what do I need? A short-haired, white/gold bitch, Labrador/mix who is good with cats and escalator trained (aka able to work the Tube legally). This is important as I never liked how much hair Uni had and neither did she; she was phobic about being brushed and so I had to personally fork out extra money to get her turned into a labrador three times a year. She was happier, I was happier. I’ve also realised, though I knew this when I applied for Uni that black doesn’t work for me. I simply can’t see dark colours well so I basically want a blonde version of Bramble, that means I’ll actually be able to see her on free runs. I want a bitch mainly because they’re easier to control and generally calmer, more submissive (and therefore should be happier around the cats). I’m resolute on the gender and refuse to move. At all. Escalator trained is the complicated one. I travel a lot (compared to most GDOs) and while I’m no longer working I do go to London a lot. I like to visit shops, exhibitions and do stuff, especially as London is also a terminus if you want to travel elsewhere (like Bath, for example). Taking a guide dog on the Tube is a pain in the arse. It’s been easier this last six months with TfL’s journey planner and the buses (which Shannon knows in her sleep) but there are still times and places when I need to use the Tube. With Uni I was limited to stations that had stairs/lifts where as most have some form of escalator. And Uni hated escalators. Like HATED them. She’d do that thing where a cat affixes its paws to the floor and cannot be moved by any force known to nature … then she’d shit herself in terror. The one thing I want is a dog with a multi-syllable name. My autism means I’m bad with tones (much of the communication between GDO and dog is tone via voice and I suck at it). I’ve improved thanks to Mhairi’s instruction over the last year but having a dog with a name that can be shortened makes my life easier. Uni and I also had our shorthand, oh and the blackmail involved in ‘do this thing for me and I will give you a milk bone’. I don’t get to name the dog, though there is apparently a rarely invoked option to changed it for something which sounds the same (So ‘Sandy’ instead of ‘Andy’). Initially I hated Unis because it was weird and no one knew how to spell it. She was Uni most of the time, Un when I was in a good mood and Un-lamb when I really needed a hug). She was only ever Unis when she was in the shit big time. The good thing is my Guide Dog Mobility Instructor (aka a GDMI) is super supportive and knows my quirks, how my depression/bipolar and autism affect me, as well as my well documented hatred of navigating London. It’s one of the rare instances when I can do it far more easily with my cane than a dog. But I do actually prefer a dog. Now, officially, Guide Dogs only escalator train dogs who will work/live within London (which I and others call so many kinds of stupid you can hear it ringing across the nation). I know some GDOs who’ve taught their dogs but it’s still technically Not the Done Thing. I mean, I checked and my local shopping mall has like three escalators … it’s not as is London is the only place which has them. However there are escalators and then there are the Bastard 92ft Tube Escalators. I’m too old to climb them anymore so a fully-trained dog is essential. The plan is, I’m going to do my training (called Class) in London and I’m going to take my time on it (last time I qualified in twelve days; the ‘norm’ is three weeks). Class was, for me, horrible and stressful, plus I never got to do the advanced stuff. I also did it from home so had to worry about extra stuff like keeping the house afloat, washing and feeding myself. I might have legally qualified but I missed out on a lot of stuff from how to work a dog at night to certain kinds of transport. London offers a dozen different ways to get around and I had to teach myself how to do a lot of them (the riverboat was fun; the London Eye was not). I might have legally qualified but I missed out on a lot of stuff from how to work a dog at night to certain kinds of transport. London offers a dozen different ways to get around and I had to teach myself how to do a lot of them (the riverboat was fun; the London Eye was not). It’s got plenty of places for me to learn new skills and should also force me to get my head around the buses. Doing Class somewhere else will relieve a lot of the burdens (as well as allowing me to stay in a hotel in a city with coffee shops on every corner and takeout on speed dial). I’m pretty sure, with a minder, the cats can survive the three weeks without me. Class is also the one time I can legitimately call in favours with friends and ask them to feed/water the Menagerie. All three can, technically, survive feral but I’d prefer they’re reminded where their bread is buttered. Especially if I come home with a new member of the family at the end of it. I’m mildly worried about it but worse-case, there are people in my life who will help me out on this one thing, especially as it’s not a daily thing. But that can sort itself out later. For now, it’s the initial stuff and paperwork. In my head, I’m looking at Winter solo and hoping due to the lists/priority status, to be qualified by May at the latest. It’s a ballpark but I’d rather have it, a goal, in mind than sit here panicking because I’m about to go through my most hated part of the year without a dog and just my own wits to sustain me.

PRIDE month schedule for Gender Minorities Aotearoa events With just 5 minutes, you can be part of making a massive difference for the legal protection of some very marginalised people, who often don't get listened to. The timeframe is tight, so we have developed this easy to understand information and 3 point submission guideline, so you can have your voice heard. All about the BDMRR Bill and changing gender markers on birth certificates Vinegar Hill rainbow camp was beautiful! We sold hot dogs, vegetarian nachos, ice blocks, and soft drinks, and we raised $409 15% of trans people run away from home or are kicked out because of their gender. Those rejected by whaanau are twice as likely to have experienced homelessness (40%) as those who were not rejected (22%). Gender Minorities Aotearoa and InsideOUT are hosting a $5 fill a bag sale at Aunty Dana's Op Shop, to raise funds for a minivan to Hui Takataapui! Facial hair removal is one of the most urgent, safety enhancing, mental health improving, and empowering medical treatments for many trans women and non-binary people. YES surgeries are happening. The High Cost Treatment Pool is operating, and trans women are being sent to Manakau based surgeon Dr Rita Yang, after 6 months of hair removal treatment in the genital area, as per Rita's preferred method. The BDMRRA is due for it's 2nd reading very soon - the exact date is unknown. At this stage, the public have an opportunity to debate the issues and tell MPs what they think. Please contact your local MPs and talk with them, tell them what you think, give them your personal stories. GMA's diversity posters go up around Wellington - soon to go up all over NZ

Since J.K. Rowling published “Reasons for Speaking out on Sex and Gender Issues” to JKRowling.com, Harry Potter fans, Wizarding World film stars and LGBTQ+ organizations have been speaking out against Rowling’s statement. Fans of Rowling’s work are questioning how to move forward, whilst LGBTQ+ organizations are publishing responses aiming to combat misinformation within the author’s essay. The situation originated when Rowling tweeted in December 2019 defending Maya Forstater, whose contract was not renewed after a judge ruled that her tweets about transgender people were not classed as protected speech. More recently, following a mistype on social media in response to a child’s drawing, Rowling commented on an article via Twitter, taking issue with the piece using the language “people who menstruate” in its title instead of just “women”. She then proceeded to share her opinions on sex, gender identity and transgender people in a thread, After backlash to these tweets, claiming her views to be narrow-minded, Rowling published a more detailed statement via her website, which she shared on her Twitter with two words: “TERF wars.” The author detailed five reasons she is “deeply concerned” by “trans activism,” disclosed for the first time that she was a victim of domestic abuse and sexual assault, and explained her position on transgender people and her defence of same-sex spaces. Throughout the statement, she explains that her experience of abuse is heavily connected to her opinions on transgender people and rights, as well as her perceptions of “transgender activists,” and this is echoed in a recent feature on The Times, defending Rowling’s freedom of speech. Rowling herself says in her statement: "I'm mentioning these things now not in an attempt to garner sympathy, but out of solidarity with the huge numbers of women who have histories like mine, who've been slurred as bigots for having concerns around single-sex spaces." After The Sun published an interview with her ex-husband on their front page, headlined “I slapped JK and I’m not sorry,” many who disagreed with her views on transgender rights and gender identity also spoke out against The Sun’s “abhorrent” mistreatment of Rowling’s disclosure of her experience of abuse in an open letter signed by over 60 transgender and non-binary activists: “We stand alongside JK Rowling in this cruel and malicious reporting, which sends a dangerous message to all survivors that their stories are only valid when corroborated by their abusers. It sends a message to all survivors of domestic and sexual violence that they will not be believed, and it is dangerous.” In response to her arguments about transgender people, many have taken to social media and features to debunk and dispute information and arguments presented in Rowling’s essay. One such person is Andrew Carter, CEO and Co-Founder at Podium, a user-moderated social network aiming to prevent the spread of misinformation and perpetuation of abuse online: Whilst some have defended Rowling’s right to an opinion, others, including Forbes.com Diversity & Inclusion Contributor Dawn Ennis, have illustrated the dangers of opinions and misinformation within her statements. Aiming to combat this misinformation, Mermaids, a leading LGBTQ+ charity in the U.K. supporting transgender and gender-diverse young people and their families, published an open letter to Rowling. In this letter, they offered their solidarity to the children’s author in light of her disclosure of her abuse, and went on to counter points made in her essay, explaining the reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004, and sharing various studies and statistics to support the notion that Rowling’s statement was dangerous and spreading misinformation about transgender people. They finish their statement by calling on Rowling to meet with young transgender people: “For our part, all we are asking is that you meet with transgender young people and listen to them with an open mind and an open heart. Don’t speak about trans children, unless you’ve listened to them first.” Daniel Radcliffe, star of the Harry Potter film franchise, published a piece via The Trevor Project, an organisation protecting transgender youth, where he criticized Rowling’s comments and apologized to affected fans of the series, saying: “If you found anything in these stories that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life—then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred.” Eddie Redmayne, star of the Fantastic Beasts franchise, who played transgender woman Lili Elbe in biographical romance movie The Danish Girl, also published a statement condemning Rowling’s views. Other stars involved in Wizarding World who have spoken out include Harry Potter’s Bonnie Wright, Evanna Lynch, Chris Rankin, Katie Leung and Scarlett Hefner-nee-Byrne, U.S. Harry Potter editor Arthur Levine, Fantastic Beasts star Dan Fogler, and various Harry Potter and the Cursed Child cast members including Noma Dumezweni (the West End and Broadway’s original Hermione Granger) and Jonno Roberts (Broadway’s Year 2 Draco Malfoy). Universal Studios theme parks and Warner Bros. also released statements on their commitment to diversity and inclusion following Rowling’s essay. Employees working on Rowling’s The Ickabog at Hachette (due for publication in November) reportedly refused to work on the book following her the publication of her essay on transgender people. However, Hachette released a statement declaring that “Freedom of speech is the cornerstone of publishing,” and saying that in line with this, although employees at Hachette are not made to work on content they find upsetting for personal reasons, they cannot refuse to work on a book because they disagree with “an author’s views outside their writing.” A number of writers under agency The Blair Partnership, which also represents J.K. Rowling, announced their resignation on June 22 in a public statement, saying: “After J. K. Rowling’s — who is also signed to the agency — public comments on transgender issues, we reached out to the agency with an invitation to reaffirm their stance to transgender rights and equality. After our talks with them, we felt that they were unable to commit to any action that we thought was appropriate and meaningful. Freedom of speech can only be upheld if the structural inequalities that hinder equal opportunities for underrepresented groups are challenged and changed.” The implications of Rowling’s statements and backlash on the future success of the Wizarding World franchise have also been questioned. Scott Mendelson, Forbes.com Hollywood & Entertainment Contributor, questions the future of the Fantastic Beasts film franchise, whilst Dani Di Placido, Forbes.com Arts Senior Contributor, says Rowling is “destroying” her legacy. Various transgender Potter fan community members have also spoken out regarding Rowling’s comments. Jackson Bird, transgender activist, author and long-time Harry Potter fan, originally published a New York Times Bird shared his disappointment more recently: “For her to decide to use her incredible platform to be very critical and hateful towards a particular group of people, it just seems an irresponsible use of the platform by one of the most influential people in the world” In this Variety piece, and another recent New York Times piece, various individuals who have taken an active role in the Harry Potter fan community shared their changing views of Rowling after her comments on transgender people. Many voiced their thoughts on moving forward in the fandom without needing to acknowledge the author of the stories they had been celebrating for over twenty years. Where some fans are choosing simply to walk away from the books, the world, the fandom and its creator altogether, others are choosing to reshape the fandom into a space for fans to express themselves safely. Renae McBrian, a volunteer at MuggleNet, said on moving forward without Rowling: “We created the fandom, and we created the magic and community in that fandom. That is ours to keep.” Fan creators who have been putting in the work since day one to provide spaces for marginalized fans (e.g. Black Girls Create, The Gayly Prophet and House of Black Podcast) are well versed in expressing their love of the series whilst also being critical of its messages and creator. Proma Khosla, an Entertainment Journalist and self-described ardent Harry Potter fan, recommended these and other fan creators in a list on Mashable: “Harry Potter has been around long enough that its influence spreads far beyond a certain writer. Songs have been written, merch designed, organizations launched, and discussions furthered far beyonds the limits of what Rowling could ever have imagined. Those of us who read Harry Potter as children are writers, artists, and activists now, equipped to enjoy the wizarding world without her.” Kacen Callender, an award-winning transgender author, shared an op-ed for them, opening up about how the Harry Potter series saved their life in the past. They also questioned the insensitive and dangerous timing of Rowling’s publishing her essay, and shared that they are worried for “young trans and non binary readers who have been betrayed by Rowling”, given the power of books and Rowling’s influence as a children’s author. Daya Aliya Levinson, a transgender Harry Potter fan, similarly shared her experiences in an open letter to J.K. Rowling published on HuffPost. Levinson shared her struggles with depression and suicidal thoughts before the age of ten, and her discovery of the Harry Potter series. After making it clear that transgender people face a huge amount of discrimination, that “recognizing trans women’s validity doesn’t take anything from you,” and emphasizing that backlash to Rowling’s comments are not down to her “standing up for women,” Levinson closes with a message of hope for future conversations: “Daring to dream of a better world is something you taught all of us. Please don’t take away that gift by tainting it with transphobia. I pray this is not an end but, instead, the beginning of a journey toward understanding.” Charlotte Clymer, LGBTQ+ activist, military veteran and former press secretary at the Human Rights Campaign, originally wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post back in December 2019 after Rowling’s defence of Maya Forstater. In a new piece for USA Today, Clymer shared her experience as a transgender woman, and explains why Rowling’s claim to “know and love” transgender people is difficult to accept: “So when J.K. Rowling says she knows and loves trans people, I don't buy it. I don't think she really knows any trans people, not even on the basis of casual friendship, let alone the kind of meaningful connection to get a glimpse into our daily lives. “Because if she did know trans people on the kind of level that would grant understanding, she would understand that we spend so much of our lives trying to avoid compromising our safety and dignity simply for the act of existing outside our front doors.” Grace Robertson, a transgender woman, wrote for Vanity Fair on the origins of J.K. Rowling’s “feminist” transphobia, and concluded that diversity, in media, politics and beyond, is the answer to healing spaces damaged by transphobia, racism and similar prejudices: “The more perspectives you invite in, the more dominant ideas can be challenged and perspectives changed. The feminist voices encouraged and amplified in Britain, and the voices Rowling seems to listen to, come from all too narrow a segment of society. The effects are there for all to see.” Just this week, Republican Senator James Lankford blocked Senate consideration of the Equality Act, an LGBTQ+ civil rights bill, by quoting Rowling’s essay. During Pride month. Amidst Black Lives Matter protests expanding to include conversations about the rights of Black transgender people, demanding an end to the murders of Black transgender folk such as Tony McDade, Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells, Selena Reyes-Hernandez, Riah Milton and Nina Pop. On June 19, GLAAD released the documentary Disclosure via Netflix, looking at representation of transgender people in media, and questioning sources of information on transgender people: “According to a study from GLAAD, over 80% of Americans don't personally know someone who's transgender. That means most people learn about trans people from the ways they're depicted in movies and TV.” The timing of Rowling’s statement seems purposeful. An intelligent, well-read and tuned-in author like J.K. Rowling (who has been far more active on social media in the past few months than ever before), should be well aware that June is LGBTQ+ Pride month, that we are in the middle of a pandemic, and that this is a crucial time to be listening to and amplifying the Black Lives Matter movement. The release of Rowling’s statement fractured discourse at an important time for the Harry Potter fan community as a whole to be reflecting on how to be more inclusive. Backlash in the fandom and from those involved in the Wizarding World franchise reflect the importance of fans’ personal connections to the books, as Daniel Radcliffe so beautifully said in his statement. The statements given by fans and Harry Potter stars reflect views that Rowling’s tweets and statement go against the themes of love, acceptance and equality within Harry Potter, as well as importance lessons on speaking out against marginalization and oppression. “There will be a time when we must choose between what is easy and what is right,” Dumbledore told students in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Though Harry Potter fans have spent two decades admiring Rowling and cherishing her creations and taking one of the biggest fan franchises to new limits, Rowling’s recent actions are where the line is drawn for many.

To give a feel for the sheer size, I went through the dealer’s room three, maybe four, times, and still didn’t see it all. I visited the art show and only managed half. Same with the retrospective presentation. My program schedule (the online one through Grenadine) has 32 items selected not because I attended 32, but because I wanted to. I gave up marking them after a while. A friend reminded me of something I’d figured out before, and it made me feel better about all I was missing. He said he’d been told what makes cons great isn’t the programming as much as talking with a ton of people who are interested in the same things you are. It’s hard for folks like me to give up on the learning, though. Before you get the wrong idea, I love the programming. I like to hear new perspectives on things I know, learn new things, and even have topics I thought I understood validated. It’s more a matter of priorities, and the friends you make in fandom tend to be long-term ones. I met several people who had been going to World Cons for decades, exploring the world one con at a time. These are people with normal lives, jobs, families, and all the things that surround us. Once a year, they go to a new city to learn and expand their horizons, and yet do so from a place of familiar comfort. I collected tips about places I might never see, but the possibility was there. Sometimes you can even expand your horizons right at home. I now know I love Malaysian curries as much as Thai and Indian. Sure, I could have discovered that anytime, but it took a group of friends, busy restaurants, and one recommendation to make it happen. I’d say the willingness to try, but I’m always willing to check out new cuisines…especially ones with curry. If you’ve been reading my con reports, you’d know programming will always deserve a mention. I grew up surrounded by interesting people having interesting discussions. That’s hard to find outside of a university campus, a diplomatic/ex-pat community, or oddly, a bus station because such open discussions aren’t acceptable in all circumstances, but cons thrive on exploring ideas. WorldCon 76 was the first time in a long while I’ve gone to a con without being on a lot of programming (though I was on one panel). Except for that one responsibility, my time was my own. So we get back to the items on my schedule. The sign of a solid bit of programming is my desire to attend more than one item every hour out of the day. There were panels on different cultures, mythologies, writing techniques, societal structures, perception, exploring the constructs in specific books, music, and more. While Grover (my Life Glider) allowed me the mobility to enjoy the con, I cannot stand still in him for long, so some panels were too full for me to go in. This is both a sad thing and wonderful. So many people came to the event and were interested in panels that asked you to think and explore perspectives different from your own, whether from another socioeconomic group, philosophy, race, or ethnicity. I’ve always been of the opinion that what’s important is thinking, whatever positions you take after doing so. You can disagree with me and we’ll have a wonderful time exploring the ways in which we approach things, but to do that, we both have to be willing and able to think. Blind acceptance, whether of science, religion, or any other element, means giving up the right to truly understand what you are putting your support behind. I’m still not over the cold, which seems to be making me wax philosophical, but I stand behind what I said. Sure, like anyone, I’ll get frustrated at times when people have a position I can’t get behind, but most of the time I’m more interested in why they are behind it. Assumptions lead to trouble while understanding can open a path to acceptance in myself as much as others. But enough about what I wasn’t able to do. I did attend a bunch of interesting panels between exploring, talking to people, and going out to eat with friends. However, I failed to make any notes (okay, one obscure one I don’t understand) after the first day, so this is a recreation of the panels as best as I can recall. It would have been wonderful if the setup existed to podcast the panels so people could “go to them” later (even post-con) and/or if the overcrowded rooms had a spillover space with a YouTube link like the Hugos. I know the technical issues would be great, but it’s something to consider for later years. The big romance cons sold a DVD of all the panels for those who couldn’t attend in person or who wanted to review the writing workshops, so it is possible. Anyway, the first panel I attended discussed ordinary people as lead characters instead of chosen ones. The panelists were Cecilia Tan, Nick Mamatas, Christine Taylor-Butler, Rosemary Smith, and Sheila Finch. It was interesting on two levels both because I write about ordinary people far more often than those with the leisure to be epic without as much cost and because the panelists looked at how the ordinary people motif was actually common in writing, at least at first. Frodo and Sam came up among others as characters called upon to play a greater role not just despite but because they had no aspirations of greatness. Some neat things to explore there as well as a validation of my current approach. I also saw my first academic paper panel at a con. It’s an interesting concept, and though I prefer the exploration of topics through multiple perspectives in general, I enjoyed listening to a look at Post-monogamy in Robert Heinlein and Spider Robinson. It was fascinating to learn academia is now interested in exploring the socio-cultural aspects of science fiction. Cultural exploration is one of my favorite forms of science fiction. The presentation in this case explored both non-binary family/community groups and sexual desire (or no sexual drive) within those poly structures. What made them work, whether the structures appear in life as well as fiction, and what were some issues with each made up most of the presentation. Allowing for a strong Western cultural focus, the two presenters, BE Allatt and Emily Fleming, brought forth multiple things to consider for each situation. I wish I’d been able to get to the non-academic panel on the same subject to compare and contrast the presentation styles, but I didn’t manage it. Sunday turned out to be my heaviest panel day, odd because it was also the day of my panel on Body Language. Yvette Keller, Fred Wiehe, Scott Sigler, Howard Tayler, and I had a lively discussion exploring the different ways we approached body language in our various types of work. There was a lot I wanted to get to, but with only 50-minute panels, I believe we did a decent job in offering some techniques. Those attending our panel seemed to think so, and the room was quite full. I left with the grand plan to turn my panel preparation notes into a couple of exercises on my blog, and that’s still the plan, but everything got pushed out a week or two. Coincidentally, the room had good mojo in that I was interested in the next two panels there, which is how I ended up going to so many on Sunday. The first was Black Panther, Luke Cage, and #OwnVoices Creators with Sumiko Saulson, Leslie Light, Steve Barnes, and T.L. Alexandria Volk. While I loved Black Panther for all that made it a rich tapestry of life, I had some issues with the underlying messages between isolation and action. I was interested to hear the thoughts on this topic while I’ve enjoyed both Steve Barnes and Leslie Light’s writing before. Much of what they discussed had already been visible to me (I have a weird angle at culture not apparent in my skin color), but they also spoke of a greater context behind some decisions I was unaware of. This made me reconsider other programs I’d thought had better choices than expected, though in some it’s a matter of every path having a downside thanks to a long history of bias. The final panel of the day was Xenomusicology with howeird, Unwoman, Cliff Winnig, Frank Hayes, and Sheila Finch looking at what music might appeal to aliens, what were differences already present in human music, and whether we’d be able to recognize alien music as such or would they be able to recognize ours. There were more elements touched on including the influence of physiology as well. It was a good, broad-thinking look that combatted statements about music having specific characteristics that are, without fail, described through a narrow cultural viewpoint. I’d planned to go to a bunch of readings, but only managed one. Erin M. Hartshorn read from Troll Tunnels, the third in her Boston Technowitch urban fantasy series. I’m already a fan, but it was fun to see how many people came to the reading who knew nothing about it and left planning to check out the series. Speaking of ordinary people, in so many ways, Pepper is both the epitome and opposite of that. She has abilities unknown to the local witch community and yet at the same time, she holds down a job in a coffee shop while parenting her precious twins as a single mom, albeit with a lot of support from their father’s family. As I said from the start, I met many interesting people. In the registration line, I happened to be next to a steampunk blogger, Stephen Beale of steampunk-explorer.com, whose articles I’ve enjoyed. I met several people involved in Clockwork Alchemy (a Bay Area steampunk con in March) and plan to reach out to programming there since it no longer conflicts with BayCon. Speaking of BayCon, I spent some time at the BayCon fan table visiting with old friends. Most importantly, I had fabulous “hallway” conversations with fellow fans, writers, and creators throughout the convention. It’s the last I’ve been missing for a couple of years, but which having my Life Glider has opened up once again. I still need to find places to sit, but I’m no longer too exhausted to hang out where I’ll trip over people. So, this is my belated con report. Considering I kept such poor notes, I remembered a lot and couldn’t even fit everything in. I didn’t mention the parties because I only managed to attend two (crowded hotel rooms are worse than crowded lecture halls when you can’t stand long on your own), nor did I go into as much detail on the conversations or the amazing artwork and neat things to buy. I have another stack of bookmarks to check out once things calm down (and I’ll post those separately), but here are a couple of notes you might find interesting as well: 1) The Clockwork Alchemy folks told me about Steamy Tech, a company that produces laser-cut wooden gears and also sells maker boxes so you can put together your own constructs. I haven’t looked them up yet, but I will. 2) I don’t remember who told me about File770.com, but for those of you who go to WorldCon every year or are supporting members, the owner of that site attempts to compile the Hugo-nominated works available on the Web early, giving voters the chance to read as much as possible even before the Hugo packets are out. That’s about it for me. How about you? Did you go to WorldCon, and if so, what was your experience like? If you didn’t, does this make you want to? The next one is in Dublin, Ireland. 2020 is, I believe, in New Zealand, and 2021 in Washington, D.C., so a real tour around the world. If WorldCon is too far, there are science fiction, fantasy, steampunk, and horror cons all over the place if you want to look.

Schools across the country should consider making uniforms gender-neutral rather than forcing girls to wear skirts and boys to wear trousers, the Scottish Government has said. Responding to a campaign led by a 15-year-old schoolgirl, a spokesman said ministers agreed that boys and girls “should be treated equally” when it came to the uniforms they wore. “It’s not about dictating the way anyone dresses” The development comes after teenager Jess Insall successfully passed a motion in favour of the move at the Scottish Liberal Democrat conference earlier this year. The schoolgirl argued that allowing children of either gender to choose whether they wanted to wear trousers or skirts was a “sensible” move that should ultimately be rolled out UK-wide. “It isn’t saying that everyone has to wear the same uniform – it’s saying that whatever the uniform is, there can’t be any difference between genders,” she told i. “Instead of saying boys have to wear trousers and girls have to wear skirts, schools can say pupils can choose between skirts or trousers. “It’s not about dictating the way anyone dresses. ‘Gender-neutral’ can be quite an alienating term, but all it really means is not treating people differently because of their gender.” The schoolgirl’s impressive speech at the Lib Dem conference in November led to delegates passing a motion calling for the Scottish Government to take action on the issue. The move was also backed by the party’s UK deputy leader, Jo Swinson, who campaigned for girls to be allowed to wear trousers when she was a student at Douglas Academy in Milngavie. Asked to comment on the campaign, a Scottish Government spokesman said: “Ministers are clear that girls and boys should be treated equally and schools should ensure suitable school clothing is worn.” ‘Happier and more productive’ Ms Insall argued that a nationwide policy would lead to happier pupils who would in turn be more productive – as well as sending a strong international signal on gender equality. “On the practical side, we’ve had really cold weather lately and for girls wearing skirts can be incredibly uncomfortable. I’ve been wearing two pairs of tights every day,” she said. “It also encourages physical activity if girls have more practical options. That’s already a problem – we see lower levels of physical activity in girls than in boys.” She added that it would promote gender equality from an early age and would make it easier for transgender and non-binary pupils to embrace their identities and “take things at their own pace”. Culture of acceptance Ms Insall, from Strathblane in Stirlingshire, has already lobbied her own school’s headteacher to change its uniform policy. Her actions have proved controversial among some of her peers. “I have always been quite outspoken about it. I have experienced people who weren’t too pleased about it. I get people coming up to me and calling me the usual stuff: feminazi, feminism‘s cancer.” But she added: “I think the vast majority of pupils would support this – I’ve found very few girls who are against it.” The idea is also gaining support across the UK. In September Parson Street Primary School in Bristol announced a gender-neutral uniform policy to encourage a “culture of acceptance”.

In May 2019, Pow! launched for its second year, offering London-based LGBTQ+ creatives (aged 18-25) the opportunity to explore the possibilities of live literature, develop their creative practice, and write and perform their own work. This initiative is led by Nick Field in association with Spread the Word and Wotever World, and funded by Arts Council England. Eight applicants were selected to attend a series of free workshops tailored specifically for young LGBTQ+ artists, aimed at developing their voice, their work and practice. They had the opportunity to work closely with Keith Jarrett, Malik Nashad Sharpe and Olivia Klevron, developing new work. We’re pleased to share that Abena-Essah Bediako, Jess Rahman-González, Maddie Haynes, Maya Owen, Oli Issac Smith, Tane Stevens, Tris Hobson and Connor Byrne will be presenting the work they’ve developed through Pow! to a live audience at the special Bar Wotever event, at the iconic LGBTQ+ performance space, the Royal Vauxhall Tavern on Tuesday 24 September at 7pm. Written and devised from the perspectives and experiences of the group, these 10 minute works cover a breadth of fascinating topics. From a journey to gender euphoria and negotiations of body politics, to reclaiming the moon as a radical act and dance as protest, this talented group of emerging artists are drawing on a dazzling range of text and performance to explore what it means to be young and LGBTQ+ in Britain today. Tickets are available on the door. We’d love to see you there! If you work within the creative industry, or work for press and would like more information, please get in touch: email@example.com About the Artists Connor Byrne is a poet and performer from Brighton, now living in London. Their work explores being queer, trans, non binary, and relationships with others and the world. They have performed nationally and internationally, at festivals, competed in slams and self published two pamphlets. Oli Isaac Smith is a non-binary poet and theatre-maker. They co-lead Clumsy Bodies, a trans and disabled-led theatre company, and are an alumni of the Roundhouse Poetry Collective. Abena Essah-Bediako is a singer-songwriter and spoken word artist from North London and a recent graduate from the from the university of Leicester. Abena’s work explores various aspects of identity including memories from childhood, queerness, mental health and the impact that music and culture has had in her life. Since performing spoken word for the first time Unislam 2018, she has gotten the opportunity to perform at the Roundhouse Poetry Slam Finals and has featured her music and poetry in Leicester and London. Maddie Haynes is a performance artist originally from Manchester, UK and The Moon, Space. They’ve recently revisited their lunar roots to create a new piece for Pow! 2019. 69: A Queer Landing tells the moon landing story as you’ve never heard it before; it’s one small step for Maddie, and one sexy lunge for queerkind. You can find details of their upcoming show, a true story about buying a second-hand sex doll from a stranger, on Facebook @grapplingshow. Tris Hobson (They/She) is an actor who having become increasingly dissatisfied with the lack of artistic control an actor has over their work and , and is frankly sick of being asked to play cis men, has branched out into poetry, and live art. Tris’ work merges poet and theatrical storytelling, building on their life experience informed by the lenses of gender and anthropological theories. Jess Rahman-González is an interdisciplinary poet and theatre-maker. They are co-parent of Clumsy Bodies, a trans and disabled-led art collective that wants to smash gender like glass, float in the deluge that arrives after. Jess’ poetry has recently been published in Nascent by Out-Spoken press. They are a member of Soho Writers Lab 19/20 and previously a member of the Roundhouse Poetry Collective and the Writing Room. Tane Stevens is a queer trans poet, designer and musician graduated from Guildhall. He was in 2017’s Roundhouse poetry collective and went on to launch poetry collective ‘None Of The Above’, who debuted two shows across London. He is a Barbican Young Poets alumni and has performed as part of the Roundhouse’s Last Word festival. He is currently working on a debut collection and has a self-published pamphlet out. His writing explores themes of nostalgia, loss and navigating the body. He is brand new to cabaret performance and can’t wait to share new work at the RVT. Maya Owen writes and sings, mostly. Her poems appear in various publications and have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net Anthology. She is on staff at Monstering, a magazine by and for disabled womxn. In this performance she will be exploring strangeness and connection through sound and movement. Published 16 September 2019

Fitted for Work – Charity Partner Click Engage Convert is proud to be partnering with local Melbourne-based charity, Fitted For Work, for the 2019 conference. A portion of the ticket sales from Click Engage Convert will be donated to Fitted For Work, and we will also be accepting clothing donations on the event day which will be passed along to women who need them. The charity helps women experiencing disadvantage to get into work and keep it through several methods, including offering employment services which help women build their skills and develop their confidence in order to achieve meaningful work, workshops, and coaching. They also provide leadership and advocacy so that their clients and thousands of women like them have a voice. They use their knowledge and experience to inform and change government policy and strive to inform perceptions around how women come to be faced with adverse conditions and the impact it has on them, their family and the wider community. This is made possible through philanthropic support, the generous donation of high-quality second-hand clothing and the support of their skilled and caring volunteers. Clients are referred by community partners and are booked into services in Melbourne, VIC and Parramatta, NSW. Fitted for Work welcomes all women (trans and cis), including non-binary and gender non-conforming people and all those who identify as women, who have experienced disadvantage and are seeking employment. Fitted for Work is an innovative organisation and the first of its kind in Australia. Their vision is economic independence and empowerment for women and their mission is to help women experiencing disadvantage to get work, keep work and navigate their world of work. They do this by developing each woman’s confidence and self-esteem as well as her skills and knowledge to obtain work through a suite of tailored pre-and post-employment programs and services that are delivered nationally. Fitted For Work focuses specifically on helping women to gain employment because work provides financial security as well as a sense of social connectedness, dignity and pride. “We believe that when a woman is fitted for work, she is fitted for life.” If you’d like to donate directly to Fitted For Work, visit their website via the below button. Click Engage Convert is proud to be partnering with Fitted For Work to assist them in achieving their goals. As well as contributing a percentage of the ticket sales from Click Engage Convert to Fitted to Work, we will also be taking clothing donations in the lead up to and at the event that will be passed onto women in need. Jim’s Self Storage has kindly donated some boxes that we will be using to collect clothing donations at Click Engage Convert. We will also have boxes at Business Addicts Coworking in Hoppers Crossing in the lead up to the event, so if you can’t make it to Click Engage Convert, you can always pop in before then to drop off your donations. Fitted for work accepts good quality, clean appropriate women’s clothing and accessories. The golden rule is… if you wouldn’t wear it to work today, then their clients wouldn’t wear it either. You can see more details about Fitted for Work and their clothing donation guidelines here. Countdown to Click Engage Convert 2020

Based in the UK, Mae Martin is an award-winning Canadian comedian and writer whose most recent stand-up show Dope focused on addiction and was nominated for the main Edinburgh Comedy Award while earning four and five star national reviews. The show has since been turned in to a stand-up special for Netflix which recorded at Montreal’s Just for Laughs festival and is released on New Years Day 2019 as part of Netflix’s first global stand-up series. Mae is the co-host of BBC Radio 4 podcast Grown-up Land and her second BBC Radio 4 series Mae Martin’s Guide To… was nominated for a BBC Audio Drama Award. Mae is also the new host of Channel 4’s arts strand Random Acts and her first non-fiction book, a guide to sexuality for young adults, will be released in May 2019. Performing comedy since she was aged 13, Mae trained in improvisation and sketch comedy at the Toronto outpost of the internationally acclaimed comedy institution, The Second City. Notable alumni include Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Steve Carrell and Mike Myers. She received her first Canadian Comedy Award nomination at 15, and has since won for her writing on the sketch series The Baroness Von Sketch Show. At 16 she made her Canadian television debut on The Comedy Network’s Cream of Comedy, and was the youngest ever nominee for the Tim Sims Encouragement Fund Award. Since moving to the UK in 2011, Mae has also been awarded Best international Performer at the Brighton Fringe and has been a finalist in The Hackney New Act of the Year Awards, The Musical Comedy Awards and the Amused Moose Laughter Awards. On UK television, Mae has performed on shows such as Sky One’s The Russell Howard Hour, Comedy Central at the Comedy Store, BBC3’s Live At the BBC and sitcom Uncle. It was Mae’s debut British TV appearance as the stand-up guest on BBC3’s Russell Howard’s Good News that first catapulted her into the consciousness of the UK’s online teen community. The clip gathered thousands of views on YouTube, and Mae has emerged as a bright new role model for nervous teens everywhere, gaining a vast and engaged following. Martin uses she and they pronouns, identifies variously as non-binary and a woman, and has spoken at length about the feeling of gender-fluidity. - Queer Beats – April 16, 2021 — April 16, 2021

WTF Bikexplorers Ride Series: Movement to Grow a Community Last month, 100 cyclists from all over the country identifying as women, transgender, femme, and non-binary gathered in Whitefish, MT, for the first WTF Bikexplorers Summit. Leading up to it, they also organized the WTF Ride Series, and we’re happy to share this excellent summary of those rides, featuring photos and route maps. Plus, an introduction to the WTF Bikexplorers Grassroots Ride Program… In August, 100 from all over the country identifying as women, transgender, femme, and non-binary gathered in Whitefish, Montana, for the first ever WTF Bikexplorers Summit. The Summit was organized to support, celebrate, and connect the community of W/T/F/N-B who use their bicycles to explore, and as a collective effort for a movement away from patriarchy and toward a liberatory cycling culture. From the early planning stages of the WTF Bikexplorers Summit, we knew we couldn’t just put on kick-ass summer camp of educational sessions and discussion panels in the woods. We know from our own experience that one of the best ways to learn from one another and grow our community is through riding bicycles and sharing a campfire. After all, it was in that adventurous environment where the fire was lit and the inspiration to create this summit first occurred. To complete this mission, we organized five multi-day rides along challenging routes in Arizona, California, Oregon, Vermont, and Montana. These rides were designed to get the conversation started for the summit, to learn from each other, to support one another, and to connect folks who otherwise would never meet. An amazing thing happened when we did this. An environment was created that facilitated growth, inspiration, support, joy, sustainability, empowerment, and plain old fun. This space – with shared values and frustrations – revealed what I had been missing from bike adventuring, and damn, did it feel good. Each ride in the series was organized and led by the founders of the WTF Bikexplorers Summit and was made possible by Specialized Bicycles. In the words below, we share our individual experiences, the impact of these rides, and our plans for future rides. * You will notice that we mention the indigenous lands and land cessions the routes of the ride series traveled through. Territory acknowledgment was an integral topic at the WTF Bikexplorers Summit. In order to raise awareness of indigenous lands, we must acknowledge the colonization of the lands we now call public in our everyday lives whileof trip planning and bikexploring. To learn what indigenous land you are in visit, https://native-land.ca/. Route Overview: The first ride in the WTF Bikexplorers Ride Series took place in April in the Sky Islands Region of Southern Arizona’s Sonoran Desert. In your mind’s eye, you may imagine a dry, dead, desolate landscape, but the Sky Islands emerge independently within. This ecoregion receives its majestic name for the pine-oak woodland covered mountains encompassed within and isolated by desert and grassland lowlands, creating diverse habitat “islands” within a short distance and change in elevation. This region hosts some of the highest levels of biodiversity in plants and animals in the world. It is rugged, remote, and dry, with drastic changes in temperatures and very little groundwater, all of which must be taken into careful consideration to properly prepare for four days of riding and three nights of camping in this environment. Eight W/T/F/N-B Bikexplorers traveled from California, Colorado, Oregon, New Mexico, Maryland, and Arizona specifically to share a ride with like-minded people. We are artists, doctors, entrepreneurs, electricians, mechanics, and librarians. Our bikexploring experience ranged from seasoned adventurers to complete beginners. This was by no means an easy four-day ride. We combated extreme temperature swings from the low 30s to the mid 90s and ferocious headwinds in a very exposed landscape. None of these elements seemed to faze our group who pedaled, laughed, and supported one another throughout the ride with comfort and ease. The snack breaks were a highlight as everyone had a creative snack they brought to the share with the group. It was also a good time to reflect on the last few miles and touch base on the trek forward. An epic game of Egyptian Ratscrew, a close-knit hacky-sack circle, and numerous desert flower and wildlife sightings were shared experiences that bonded us as an eclectic troupe capable of tackling any mountain in any wind. Throughout the journey, we kept a community notepad to keep track of all the shared recipes, snacks, songs, movies, and ideas. We created a safe environment for riding bikes and to become friends in a beautiful region, rich with history. Stepping back into reality from traversing into the desert was the biggest challenge of all. Route Overview: This three-day ramble through California’s coastal redwood forests connected some of the Bay Area’s most iconic State Parks and recreation areas. The 75-mile loop began and ended in California’s oldest State Park, Big Basin Redwoods. The establishment of Big Basin in 1927 marked the beginning of the preservation and conservation movement in California. From there we climbed Gazos Creek Trail northwest through dense redwood forests toward Butano, where we took a lap through the State Park on gravel fire roads and experienced the scenic views of Monterey Bay from atop the coastal mountains. We continued along scenic byways and rail trails to Portola State Park and began the climb up to Russian Ridge and pedaled along the spine of the skyline to Saratoga Gap before descending back down to Big Basin. This deep forest ramble traversed a variety of surfaces and included roughly 9,000 ft of elevation gain. This was due in part to the relentlessly steep mountains of California’s coastal range, and part to lack of publicly accessible dirt roads connecting these sections. There are a lot of gorgeous dirt roads to explore in this area, but they can be hard to come by (legally). While we kept the daily mileage low, the climbing was not for the faint of heart. From the false summits of “Kitty Litter Mountain” to the slow grind up to skyline, I was humbled and inspired by everyone in our group. From experienced bikepackers to first timers, each one of our fourteen riders made it through with humor, strength, and grace (despite all the mosquitoes). The bikes and riding styles were as varied as the people who rode them. We shared tips, packing tricks, recipes, and countless stories. For some of us this was the first time riding with such a large group and it was heartening to find so many kindred folx. As bikepackers we can be a strange lot. Riding bikes is something we can do alone, together. Except this time we were not alone. Everyone moved at a paced the best fit their needs and we all met up at the end of the day to share a meal and recount our experience of that day’s ride. I moved to Santa Cruz in September 2017 and the California Ride Series gave me a great opportunity to not only explore new trails, but make new friends. Nearly half of our cohort was from the West Coast, with a heavy contingent of Bay Area folx, and I can’t wait to ride with them again. We left the ride all smiles, scheming our next adventures. Route Overview: The High Desert Oregon ride was a 60-mile out and back overnighter on a stunning route that offered sweeping views of High Cascade volcanoes, National Grasslands, and a National Wild and Scenic River. We started our ride in Sisters, Oregon, a charming Old West town at the feet of its namesake mountains. From town, we climbed north through the Deschutes National Forest and out onto rocky, sandy roads cutting across the scrubby desert landscape. Mt. Washington slowly came into view as we rode past the scenic Crooked River National Grassland. A rolling descent led us down through lands scarred by 2003 B&B Complex Fires. Small plants are making their comeback, but there were few trees to block the view of Mt. Jefferson rising in the distance. As we continued down into the canyon of Lake Billy Chinook, we rode past the Oregon Hoodoos. Also known as the Metolius Balancing Rocks, the Hoodoos are are hardened capstones of an ancient lava flow. Some pillars are over 25 feet tall! Lake Billy Chinook is the confluence of three major Oregon rivers: the Crooked, Deschutes, and Metolius. We camped at the far west side of the lake, where the beautiful Metolius River flows into the green waters of Billy Chinook. We had a relaxing morning on day two before heading back from where we came, everyone finding their own comfortable pace for the climb out of the canyon and over the desert landscape. The original route I planned was a loop that included nearly 20 miles of pedaling alongside the dreamy Metolius River. A few weeks before the organized ride, I went out for a solo scout, and it’s a darn good thing I did – a couple of miles of road alongside the river had washed away, necessitating a long, hard hike-a-bike over downed trees and unstable ground. Wanting this ride to be equal parts approachable, challenging, and fun to a wide range of folks, I took what I had learned of the area and landed on the out and back as a perfect plan B. I think out and back routes are often discounted due to a drive to always move “forward,.” but for this experience it was an ideal route. In simplifying the navigation aspect of the ride, we allowed space for other challenges to test us, to build our confidence. I was excited to see only one familiar name in the list of registered riders – bikepacking is a my favorite way to turn strangers into friends. Our group represented a wide range of off-road riding experience, from seasoned, cross country vets to first timers. We mixed together immediately, chatting, sharing snacks, snapping photos, and cheering each other on as we bounced over baby head rocks. The biggest challenge of the ride came on the second day after the 20-mile climb out of the canyon. The group spread out enough to allow for a misunderstanding of who was out ahead and who might still be riding up. We stayed calm and patient, and, luckily, one bar of cell service in the nick of time was able to ensure everyone was safe and accounted for. It was a good reminder of the benefit of the buddy system that we toasted to over margaritas once back in Sisters. Words By Tenzin Namdol, photos by a collective pool of VT riders Route Overview: Don’t be fooled by the name “Vermont’s Cutest Capital Cruise.” With 7,000+ feet of climbing in 81 miles, it’s no walk in the park. Also, don’t be fooled by the general stuffiness and prudish pedigree of New England. Vermont was the first state in the US to legalize civil unions for gay couples and the first to ban slavery a year after the Declaration of Independence was signed. And let’s not forget Senator Bernie Sanders represents this little State. Our group met on the State Capitol lawn and easily rode out of Montpelier on a paved ascent with rewarding views of rolling green mountains. The route continues as a mixture of very nice bucolic gravel double track, wonderfully forested rail trail, and plenty of ponds along the way for cooling off. It meanders between the Putnam and Groton State Forests with a quick dive into Groton for a dip into Kettle Pond. The 18 of us enjoyed delightfully accommodating campsites. The Onion River Campground, with access to the Winooski River, was hosting a Fiddle Festival at the time we were there. Most of us fell asleep to distant and calming sounds of fiddles playing into the night. We received herbal medicine education at the Woodbury Meadows campground, where most of us slept adjacent to a blooming garden. The 18 of us made campfires both nights and talked about hard issues between swigs of communal beers. We laughed heartily as if the strangers we met just hours/days before were old war buddies. This loop around Montpelier has the potential to make the East Coast a bikepacking destination. Though we don’t have the acreage in wide open spaces, we do have endless unpaved backroads nestled around scattered State Forests. As a hard working but slow paced state, Vermont has more dirt roads than paved ones. This route was cobbled together by local cyclist and co-leader of this ride Chloe Wexler. And she assures me that this route is just a toe dip into more super excellent gravel riding throughout the state. Charming wit and generations old farms add to the character and enjoyment of the place. Because this is Vermont, there are plenty of small co-ops on route for restocking food, water, CBD-infused maple syrup sticks, ice cream… you get it, the essentials. My favorite was the Adamant Village Cooperative. Sandwiched between Sodom and Adamant Pond, it also serves as the post office and general store for the tiny town. We learned that this co-op was one of the oldest in the country and it hosts a Blackfly Festival. “Why a Blackfly Festival? After a long, cold winter here in Adamant, we need something to celebrate, and God only knows we have plenty of blackflies,” read a flyer for the festival that just about charmed the socks offa me. Visit Vermont, for crying out loud. Route Overview: The last ride in the WTF Bikexplorers Ride Series took place the week of the WTF Bikexplorers Summit. This was a rough ’n’ tumble tour through the Northern Rockies of Montana. We explored remote gravel roads, swam in high alpine lakes, and treated ourselves to a huckleberry bear claw on three- or four-day loop through Glacier National Park and the Kootenai National Forest. This route started in Depot Park in downtown Whitefish, where the Amtrak train conveniently transported most of our cohort from the PNW. The slow and punchy gravel climb up Red Meadow Pass was a challenge but offered picturesque views of cascading mountains and densely packed alpine trees. Atop the pass was dreamy Red Meadow Lake where we cooled off from the day’s challenging climb and set up camp for the first night. On the second day, the two groups followed the same route, however the four-day riders took a small detour to Bowman Lake in the afternoon. This first part of the route followed the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route and offered a chance encounter to meet Cricket, the owner of the Whitefish Bike Retreat, who was headed southbound from Banff with a friend. Before the groups departed ways, we convened at the magical Polebridge Mercantile with coffee and sweet (or savory) treats. The four-day group headed to Bowman Lake, where another night of swimming awaited. On the third day, from Bowman Lake we rerouted to ride on North Fork Road. Due to bear activity the week prior, the vehicle-free Inner North Fork Road was closed. We rolled with it, blasted some tunes, and pedaled along Fish Creek toward Apgar Lake for the last night of camping. On the last day we cruised through Glacier and exited the park through the west entrance to trek back toward Whitefish. We followed along forest service roads past lakes, rivers, and streams before rolling back into town. *Note this is a variation of BIKEPACKING.com’s Red Meadow Pass Loop with an option to camp at Bowman Lake and revised due to road closures from bear activity on Inner North Fork Road. The Montana ride was the most epic ride of the series, with a total of 32 riders. The stoke was high to be a part of the last WTF ride of the year and the energy was infectious. Since the ride led right to the WTF Bikexplorers Summit, most of us ended up spending an entire week together. A week is a long time to be in the middle of the woods with a bunch of complete strangers (especially with no cell service). We were able to get to know one another in a way that is hard to compare to any other experience – although it is what I imagine summer camp would be for adults. Each day we ended our ride with a beautiful lakeside view where we formed a circle with our drinks in tow and talked about whatever came to mind. Sometimes it was about bikes, and sometimes it wasn’t. Those were my favorite moments. We all came from different parts of the country with different jobs and lives that we put on hold to have moments like these – where sweeping views of hazy mountains in the distance were only backdrops to new friendships and connections formed. These happenstance moments are the reason why I love everything about bikepacking and why WTF Bikexplorers was created. WTF Bikexplorers Grassroots Ride Program Words by Sarah Swallow Due to the popularity of the WTF Bikexplorers Ride Series and the feedback we received to have more rides in more communities, WTF Bikexplorers will be launching a Ride Ambassador program in 2019. The Ride Ambassador Program is an organized ride movement toward connecting the community women, transgender, femme, and non-binary folks who use their bicycles to explorer at a local level. We are seeking the help of motivated WTF bikexplorers, to become Ride Ambassadors by organizing a ride in their community and registering that ride with us so we can spread the word to the world. To learn more about how to become an Ambassador, sign up for the WTF Bikexplorers Newsletter and stay tuned! Great things are coming for the WTF bikexploring community!

Single spaces are intended for the use of one sex or the other. They are often provided to protect everybody’s privacy. It’s a question of dignity Being forced to undress, wash, share sleeping accommodation or have personal care with a person of the opposite sex without your consent is degrading. Shared single sex spaces are often the most practical way to provide lots of people with everyday privacy and dignity. It’s a question of consent In the UK the Equality Act 2010 sets out many everyday situations where it is lawful to provide single sex services. This includes: People using a single sex service have not consented to sharing with members of the opposite sex. Single sex spaces should be simple The law does not require that any particular type of service is always provided on a single sex basis. Mixed sex facilities can be fine too. You shouldn’t need a law degree, or a PhD in gender studies to work out who can use which facilities. Nor should you have to guess. To protect everybody’s privacy and dignity there needs to be clarity. Why has this become so difficult? The rules and expectations about single sex services have become confused. Some people think they are based on ‘gender identity’ Some think they are based on ‘gender expression’ (clothing and appearance) Some think there are no rules at all There is no right to share intimate spaces with members of the opposite sex without their consent Where a service is provided for a single sex, whether for everyday privacy or a situation such as a rape crisis centre or a women’s refuge, there should be no need to negotiate with each individual member of the opposite sex about why it is not open to them. Shared single sex spaces need clear and unambiguous rules Single sex spaces do not suit everyone: Some people do not feel comfortable with their sex. Alternative options, either mixed sex, or not shared with others are often possible: this protects everyone’s privacy and inclusion. Liz Truss, the Minister for Women and Equalities has recently said that protecting single sex spaces will be a key part of the government’s approach on the Gender Recognition Act, with details to be announced in the summer Write to the Minister Write to Liz Truss to say you support the protection of clear and unambiguous single sex spaces House of Commons London SW1A OAA Write to your MP Write to your MP to Explain this is an issue of consent and ask them to write to the minister Tell your friends I’ve written to the Minister for Women and Equalities – single sex spaces are #aquestionofconsentTweet The case of Taylor v Jaguar Land Rover has been trumpeted as a “landmark” employment tribunal decision recognising that people who identify as non-binary or gender-fluid can be covered by the Equality Act protected characteristic of “gender reassignment”. The case concerns Mr/Ms Taylor, a man who began to wear women’s clothing to work in 2017… Last year independent researchers, Kath Murray, Lucy Hunter Blackburn and Lisa McKenzie wrote a paper on policy capture: Losing sight of women’s rights, published in Scotland’s leading journal on current affairs by Edinburgh University Press. It charts how public policy has shifted away from the law to allow people to ‘self identify’ as members of… Numbers of people who fall under different definitions of “trans” are variously expressed as percentages, ratios and absolute numbers – this can make them hard to compare. A small number In the debates leading up to the Gender Recognition Act in 2003 the government estimated that there were around 5,000 transsexual adults in the country…

Whether you are just entering into a music career, or you have been writing and performing for years, having the right team working to promote your brand is essential. It can make the difference between playing in local venues for the door cover, or performing to sold out crowds on a nation wide tour. And in this high tech world of social media, your music has the potential of getting lost in the internet shuffle. Unless you have someone like Ally Norton working with you. Ally Norton is a Publicist for Shore Fire Media, an impeccable multimedia company that works with a diverse set of clients in all aspects of entertainment, both high profile and newcomers. They specialize in PR expertise combined with up to date digital branding knowledge to help their clients “craft story lines that rise above the chatter.” Learn more about Shore Fire Media at shorefire.com We reached out to Norton for this exclusive one on one interview. She shares with us what inspired her to become a publicist, how she empowers others, and what makes Shore Fire Media stand out from other PR companies. WiMN: What attracted you to the multimedia and entertainment industry? AN: Music has always been a part of my life in some way, even before I started thinking seriously about my career. When I was 7, my best friend and I had a band called the Flower Power Girls. We didn’t make it big, so becoming a publicist was the next best thing! In all seriousness, I am most compelled by work that I love, and I love everything involved with being a music publicist. I’m lucky that I found the perfect fit! WiMN: Are you a musician? If so, what do you play? AN: I don’t play any instruments but I am a singer. I’ve been singing in A Cappella groups since I was 14. I would say A Capella is my guilty pleasure but I don’t feel guilty about it at all! WiMN: What is Shore Fire Media doing to reach female artists and musicians? AN: Shore Fire is privileged to represent trailblazing artists like Kesha, St. Vincent, Esperanza Spalding, and Margo Price… as well as legends like Carole King and Judy Collins, to name a few. This year I’ve had the pleasure of representing some really amazing, talented women including: Lee Ann Womack, Overcoats, and Liza Anne. In the past I’ve worked with Nadya of Pussy Riot, Melissa Etheridge, Margaret Glaspy, Joseph, Paula Cole, and many others. I’ve also been lucky to work with many inspiring women behind the scenes, too; from managers to label representatives to agents. “I think it’s so important to support not only women, but also trans and non-binary people. this business can be tough and we need to do everything we can to make sure that all artists, regardless of gender, race or orientation, are judged equally on the merit of their art.” WiMN: What was your career prior to working in this industry? What made you make the switch, and how do you feel your previous experience has helped you with your career in multimedia and entertainment? AN: My first full-time job out of college was at a music publicity firm, so in a way, this has been my entire career, which I am so grateful for. In college, I had a number of different PR internships, music and non-music related. I had a great summer internship at a healthcare PR agency in college where I learned a lot. Even though it was a different field than I ultimately chose, that job helped me hone my PR skills and I wouldn’t be where I am without that experience. Working as a waitress taught me many valuable lessons about working with people in high-pressure situations, and in a way that job really informed how I work as a publicist, too. WiMN: What is your favorite aspect of being the Publicist for Shore Fire Media? AN: Shore Fire is really collaborative and team-oriented, which I love. It’s nice to know my co-workers always have my back – and vice-versa! WiMN: Tell us about one of the most exciting media campaigns you’ve worked on. AN: This is a hard one for me to answer because I’m genuinely invested in all of the projects I work on, so they’re all exciting in different ways. One of the most unique campaigns that I’ve been involved with was Nadya of Pussy Riot’s 2016 xxx EP campaign. Each song on the EP had an accompanying video, and we rolled out the videos and announced and released the EP within a 5-day period. On top of that, this all took place the week before the 2016 election, and like all of Pussy Riot’s art, the music and videos were very politically charged. We had lots of impactful press run over the course of the week and the entire project felt exciting, innovative and meaningful. Nadya is a true artist and to this day I can’t believe I was afforded the opportunity to represent her art! WiMN: What do you think is the biggest key to success in the field of multimedia? AN: Always be honest with yourself. Embrace new challenges with open arms. Support people, art and causes that you believe in. Treat people with respect. Build earnest, meaningful relationships with others in your scene. And get a good night’s sleep whenever possible! WiMN: Have you ever faced adversity in the music industry simply for being a woman? If so, how did you overcome it? AN: As women, we face adversity every single day in this business, in ways we aren’t always conscious of. Having a strong sense of self helps, but sometimes it’s hard to feel strong and empowered in uncomfortable situations. When I’m having a really great day and feeling my most confident, I try and file those memories away to access during times when I’m feeling insecure. When confidence isn’t enough to overcome adversity, it’s important to have a support system of people who can empathize with what you’re going through and lift you up in spite of it. WiMN: What is a little-known fact about you? AN: I used to DJ at my college radio station on the AM dial. One day, I played “Lust For Life” by Girls on my show, forgetting that there’s a very noticeable F-bomb right in the middle of the song. Needless to say my radio career didn’t last long! WiMN: Lastly, do you have advice for young women who might be considering a career in the music and multimedia industry? AN: If this is what you’re called to do, you owe it to yourself to do it. Don’t let doubt or fear get in the way of your potential!

Gender identity is the new black. No other recent movement has spiralled as quickly as that which questions ideas around gender and to the confusion of parents, more and more young people are ‘coming out’ as Gender Fluid, Genderqueer, or any one of the numerous new trans identities. Of course, questioning gender is no bad thing. As socially constructed ‘norms’ imposed upon the sexes, the idea that girls like pink, glitter and fairies while boys like blue, dinosaurs and construction toys, is both regressive and inaccurate. However, as a means of subtle oppression, it has been startlingly successful, to the point where it is widely considered to be innate. Breaking down these ideas is necessary to promote equality and acceptance of those who want to live differently. Boys who want to wear dresses and make up and girls who want to reject femininity really shouldn’t be considered problematic, yet they are. Increasingly rigid ideas about gender roles have contributed hugely to this explosion of alternative gender expression happening now. These new identities are gathered under the umbrella term Transgender. Most people think of transgender as referring to transsexuals, (i.e. people who have chosen to live as the opposite sex). Recently the term has expanded to include genderqueer and non-binary identities. With social media sites such as Tumblr and Reddit rabidly promoting non-binary gender, it is easy to see why these ideas have spread so quickly. For youngsters, frequently searching for something with which to identify, the idea that their internal confusion about gender can be validated, is seductive. Add in social contagion, and the basis for a new youth movement is in place. Gender rebellion is attractive to a new generation of young people, because arguably, they have very little else left to rebel against. You can chart youth culture very clearly from the 1950’s onwards. Since Rock n roll gave way to sixties counter culture, new youth movements have sprung up every decade. Mods, Punks, New Romantics, Goths and Casuals. The Nineties gave us raves and grunge and even the noughties brought doe eyed emos, hiding behind floppy fringes. I was a Goth. My youthful rebellion involved dying my hair a virulent blue black, investing in a pair of crimpers and Doc Martens and a determination to marry Robert Smith of the Cure. I spent hours telling anyone who’d listen, that Thatcher was rubbish. I moaned about the ‘Casuals’ up at our local shopping centre, flocked in their uniform of burgundy Farah trousers and waffle cardigans. This, of course, ignored the fact that my black clothes, eyeliner and furiously backcombed hair was as much of a uniform as theirs. But really, that was the point. I had found my tribe in the same way that they had found theirs. Just like generations of kids before us. It is absolutely vital that teenagers have this opportunity to rebel. It is an important part of their psycho-social development and one that it is necessary to traverse. In order for them to emerge as adults, they need to carve out an identity away from their parents. It has always been a rite of passage to ally yourself to a movement in order to tell the world who you are, and this has mostly taken place via music or politics. However, over the last ten years, this has changed, swept aside by the unstoppable rise of capitalism and neo-liberalism. Young people are far less likely now to rail against politics, as parties become homogenised in their support of market forces. Politicians are no longer in charge; corporations are the new gods. As a result, youth culture as a political force barely seems to exist. Young people are unlikely to push back against the corporations, as they provide them with their smartphones, tablets, gaming apps and social media. Apple and Sony and Samsung produce the technology that they use to communicate. They can’t even turn to music to rebel, because music has been commodified beyond recognition. We are all special The likes of Simon Cowell have taken music, packaged it up and sold it back to kids as an aspirational choice. You too, can become famous in fifteen minutes by selling your souls to SyCo! Appear on the X-Factor or (insert reality TV show of your choice) and achieve your dreams of fame and validation immediately! Young people watch TOWIE, Geordie Shore and Made in Chelsea, watching beautiful young people, not that different from themselves, living a glamorous life, with very little effort. This has happened in line with the neo-liberal assertion that we are all ‘special’. In our consumerist society, we are all ‘worth it’ and our dreams can come true if we make enough effort (and buy enough products). It’s a lie, of course. But teenagers are often too young and inexperienced to realise it. If you have no strong music culture, no modern-day Thatcher to rail against and nothing to fight for, how do you assert your individuality? How do you tell the world that you are different? It’s simple. You go to the only place left. Yourself. You look inwards and turn your psyche into the new canvas for rebellion. It is no coincidence that, at the point where capitalism and neo-liberalism have finally collided, scores of young people have flocked to the new Trans umbrella to find shelter. Brighton and Hove City Council have issued a Trans* Inclusion Toolkit, to its schools. The booklet, produced in conjunction with the Allsorts Youth Project, aims to provide guidance to teachers, who may need to support gender questioning pupils. The booklet defines trans as an ‘umbrella term’ which includes among other definitions, ‘those who have a gender identity which we do not yet have words to describe’. Young people now have an endless canvas to decide who they are on any given day with such an open definition of gender. When I look back at my own teen rebellion, the fights with my parents, my insistence that they were wrong about everything and just didn’t understand, I shudder. I feel for the kids labelling themselves as genderqueer or non-binary, crowding under the trans umbrella. They seem unaware that, truth be told, the majority of people feel exactly the same way. They believe that a brave new path is being set towards understanding and acceptance. Instead, they are reinforcing rather than smashing gender norms. More gender related boxes are being built to sit in, along with more categories of consumer to be targeted. In their attempt to rebel, they are tightening the damaging noose of gender ever more closely around their necks. I love Sherlock Holmes, weight training, horror movies and vintage dresses. I wanted to be James Bond and live in the TARDIS when I was young. Am I gender non-binary too? No. I am simply me. An adult human female with no particular feeling of internal gender; something I share with everyone I have asked. Everything now needs a label, for without one, you, as a consumer, cannot be targeted. This is key to the support the movement garners from advertisers and the media. The Telegraph reported in 2014 that there are now 71 gender options available to Facebook users. A custom button allows users to further define exciting new genders. Facebook has worked with UK groups Press for Change and Gendered Intelligence, to add 21 new identities to the 50 that are already available. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Facebook are using this information to further tailor adverts to individual users. In the midst of all this rather questionable corporate concern, there are a small core of genuine transgender youth suffering hugely with gender dysphoria. They deserve all the support possible as they navigate a path to happiness and self-acceptance. This, however, is made ever more difficult by the expanding web of new gender identities emerging daily. Inventing your own gender as a means of self-validation may be fun, but does no favours to those who are genuinely experiencing the hell of dysphoria. Such distractions ultimately serve no-one. Meanwhile, circle upon circle of confused and disenfranchised young people are looking for a way to fit in. Looking for somewhere to call home. And if you can invent a new gender identity or 71, you can join their tribe.

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Girls rock Iowa City at Englert this weekend The idea of conceiving, performing and publishing a piece of art in one week could intimidate even the most experienced artist. Yet, undaunted, 10 bands made up of kids and teens have done just that, and will shred, sing and drum as they debut their original songs this weekend. On Saturday, June 29, 39 campers between age eight and 14 will rock across the Englert stage starting at 12:30 p.m. for the Girls Rock! Showcase. The performance is free for those 17 and under and $12 per ticket for those older. This sixth year of the showcase, hosted by the local non-profit Girls Rock! Iowa City, is a way to get female, trans and non-binary youth involved in the self-expression evoked through musical performance. "They spend one hour a day in instrument lessons," said Merit Bickner, co-founder of Girls Rock! Iowa City. "(They play) guitar, bass, drums and keyboard, then they spend two hours a day with their band.” This year the 39 campers split off into 10 bands, each with seven days to write, perform and record a new song. Though councilors ultimately end up selecting who will be in which band, they try to make sure the program is as kid-lead as possible. “On Monday, we played a game where we listen to two different kinds of music where we listen to a female, trans or non-binary artist," said Bickner. "Then they go across the room and find people who like the same music.” Campers also participate in activities that aren't related to songwriting. One camper used craft time to create a picture of a "Unicorgi" (a creature containing all the adorableness of a corgi while still radiating the majesty of a unicorn) with the words "Bee yourself" under it. This is the kind of self discovery Bickner loves to see at the camp. She feels it gives girls, trans and non-binary kids and teens the chance to express themselves in a way she said society doesn't always encourage. "It is about music, but really the underlying idea is that we want to make healthy and whole women and trans and non-binary people," Bickner said. "Having them be empowered to share their ideas, taking our sort of internal criticism out of the process… the music serves the purpose of empowerment." Isaac Hamlet covers arts, entertainment and culture at the Press-Citizen. Reach him at email@example.com or (319)-688-4247, follow him on Twitter @IsaacHamlet