Throughout June, the USMC takes #Pride in recognizing and honoring the contributions of our LGBTQ service members. We remain committed to fostering an environment free from discrimination, and defend the values of treating all equally, with dignity and respect.#PrideMonth#USMCpic.twitter.com/MOyvFmyJiB
In September 1772, John Wilkes joined other important City figures in criticizing the King’s commutation of capital punishment for Captain Robert Jones, who had been sentenced to hang for sodomizing a thirteen-year-old boy (although surprisingly the victim’s age did not seem to have played a part in Jones’ conviction). Friends of Jones – a fireworks expert who had also popularized the sport of figure skating – produced female prostitutes who attested to his bisexuality, as though that would alleviate the seriousness of the crime. Jones (who was in fact an artillery lieutenant) was due to hang until, on the day of the execution, George commuted his sentence to life imprisonment, and then a month later allowed him to go into lifelong exile in the South of France.
Nor was it the only time that George defied the vicious prejudices of the day against homosexuality and bisexuality. In June 1766, as a favour to his theatre-loving brother Prince Edward, the King signed a document making the Little Theatre in Haymarket into the Theatre Royal, which stated that it was ‘Our will and pleasure’ that Samuel Foote, the flamboyant impresario, should have ‘a company of comedians’ act there every summer, and authorized him to charge the sums necessary to offset ‘the great expense of scenes, music and new decorations’.
A footnote showing how much we’ve been enriched by the work of Gender Studies faculty:
These labels of sexual identity were not recognized in the eighteenth century, when people thought and spoke in terms of actual sexual practices, such as sodomy, onanism and so on.
Imagine if elementary school kids, instead of being taught 2SLGBTQQIA+ vocabulary, received an education regarding “actual sexual practices”!
When I was back in high school — a Catholic girls’ school in Cincinnati at the beginning of the sexual revolution — our religion class covered the abortion issue in approximately 45 seconds.
“Abortion is murder,” said the priest who was giving the lesson, before moving on to more controversial topics, like necking and heavy petting.
On Wednesday the Senate failed to pass a Democratic bill supporting women’s right to choose in anticipation of a Supreme Court decision going in the other direction.
The many, many activists who have focused their political careers on constraining women’s sexual activity aren’t going to just declare victory and go home.
All this is basically about punishing women who want to have sex for pleasure.
No mention of pregnant men and their right to choose.
Two fathers and the baby girl they never expected.
As traditional notions of gender shift and blur, parents and children like these are redefining the concept of family.
Paetyn’s father Tanner, 25, is a trans man: He was born female but began transitioning to male in his teens, and takes the male hormone testosterone.
“I was born a man in a female body,” he said.
His partner and Paetyn’s biological father is David, 35, a gay man.
Their daughter, they agree, is the best thing that ever happened to them. “She’ll grow up in a very diverse home,” David said. “We surround her with people who are different.”
The first time that they saw the fetal heartbeat on ultrasound, they wept.
“Yeah, I’m a pregnant man,” he told friends and acquaintances. “What? I’m pregnant. I’m still a man. You have questions? Come talk to me. You have a problem with it? Don’t be in my life.”
The journalist and editors regard them as legitimate fathers (i.e., men):
As fathers to be, they got some of their most enthusiastic congratulations from the drag world — the regulars at the club where both men perform, dancing and lip-syncing, Tanner as a drag king and David as a sassy, 6-foot-tall drag queen in a tight skirt and size 12-wide high heels.
Apropos the current debate:
And, David said: “I hope she’s a lesbian. Then we won’t have boys coming to the house and we won’t have to worry about her getting pregnant.”
My wife’s stepfather began raping her when she was 11 years old. The abuse went on for years, and as Debbie got older, she was constantly terrified that she was pregnant. She had no one to talk to and nowhere to turn.
Her stepfather often threatened to kill her younger brother and her mother if Debbie told anyone, so when the fear of pregnancy became too consuming, she told her mother she was assaulted at school. Her mother took Debbie to a doctor, who said that because of her scar tissue, she was sexually active and must have a boyfriend. It was the early 1970s.
A pregnancy would have, in Debbie’s words, ruined her life. Today, she is 60 years old. She is still dealing with the repercussions of that trauma. It is unfathomable to consider how a forced pregnancy would have further altered the trajectory of her life.
This story is supposed to make readers see how misguided conservatives who oppose abortion are, but couldn’t the article support those who advocate for conservative sexual values? Stepfathers did not exist in significant quantities until the 1970s no-fault (“unilateral”) divorce revolution. The author’s wife was unlikely to have been abused by a stepfather in the (mythical?) white picket fence era to which Republicans yearn to return because there were hardly any divorces that left moms free to bring an unrelated adult male into a girl’s household.
Circling back to the first topic, pregnant men only recently won their own emoji but now the mainstream media pretends that they don’t exist?
Apple is set to release 37 new emojis, including two that are pregnancy-related. One features a pregnant man and the other features a pregnant person, both created to recognize that not all people who get pregnant are women—some are trans men and non-binary folk.
Others have viewed the new emoji as an important step for trans folks who have been hoping to see themselves represented. “We’ve been crying out for a pregnant man emoji for years so thank you for finally listening!” wrote another Twitter user.
I haven’t had the opportunity to use the emoji to celebrate a male-identifying friend’s pregnancy. This is not because men can’t be pregnant people, of course, but because most of my friends are older than is conventional for becoming a pregnant person.
The emoji, however, turns out to be the perfect response when middle-aged male-identifying friends send food pictures. Two friends recently sent me pictures from a dim sum house, for example. Both guys were sporting their “Lockdown 15” look, so the pregnant man emoji response made sense. One good thing about the Signal messaging app (so thoroughly encrypted that even President Harris won’t be able to incarcerate you for thoughtcrime) is that it allows you to react to a message with any emoji, not just the small handful that Facebook offers. So you don’t even have to respond with this emoji, but can simply use it as a reaction.
And then the emoji’s value was turbocharged last night due to the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion. When people on Facebook or Twitter write about how they believe the decision would affect women, one can respond with “Why is this about “women”? 🫃” (the emoji does not render on my Windows 10 desktop machine; Microsoft is denying Science?)
LGBTQ+ parents and pediatric psychologists say the law stigmatizes being gay or transgender and could harm the mental health of LGBTQ+ youth.
Stella, 10, attends a private school in Atlanta, Georgia, and explains to friends that she has four moms. Two of them are the lesbian couple that adopted her. The other two are her birth parents, one of whom recently came out as a transgender woman.
“I’m so grateful that [Stella] is somewhere that sees” the family “as what it is: her moms just love her”, said Kelsey Hanley, Stella’s birth mother, who lives in Kissimmee, Florida.
But Hanley, 30, worries that children who have multiple moms or dads or are LGBTQ+ themselves won’t get the same acceptance in Florida.
That’s because the state recently approved legislation that bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity from kindergarten through third grade and prohibits such lessons for older students unless they are “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate”.
(It is unclear how this anecdote relates to Hate in Florida because a 10-year-old with four moms, six moms, or any other quantity of moms would be in 5th grade and the new Florida law prohibits instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity only in grades K-3. Also, young Hanley’s four moms have sent her to a private school and the new law does not apply to private schools.)
What I find fascinating about this story is that, in the context of children’s mental health, it shows mentally healthy children outdoors in the baking Florida sun in rated-low-risk-by-the-CDC Hillsborough County… wearing masks:
Note the range of styles from covering face to under-nose to chin diaper and that none are N95 masks that could provide some protection against the unmasked. How can we be sure that these children are mentally healthy? The new law hasn’t taken effect yet, so these masked-outdoors children are among those whose mental health has presumably been maximized by unfettered public school sexual orientation and gender identity instruction starting in kindergarten.
One reason that Hillsborough County is “low risk” is that the CDC completely changed its standards in March 2022 (NPR: “Critics of CDC’s new approach say the agency seems to have moved the goalposts to justify the political imperative to let people get back to their normal lives.”)
Today is the last day of Women’s History Month (does that mean that the other 11 months of the year should be devoted to learning about the historical achievements of people who identify as genders other than “female”?).
Here’s are some photos from Disney Springs:
The “Celebrate Her Story” banners were placed at 30-foot intervals throughout the outdoor shopping mall.
Inside an art store, a person who had a “brief” career in animation, but who nonetheless qualifies for “legend” status:
(I asked a 35-year animation professional if he had heard of Retta Scott, pointing out that she was a “legend” while he was not. He was dimly aware of Mx. Scott, but did not know of any of her legendary achievements.)
Banners remind us that Johanna Pemberton, a pharmacist who identified as “female”, invented Coca Cola:
In other Disney Springs news, House of Blues stays true to its Maskachusetts roots and California headquarters by demanding that Floridians turn over medical records:
Even if you don’t wait in line for an hour to get into the LEGO store, there are LEGO sculptures to see:
The volcano in the background belongs to the Rainforest Cafe, which shows its commitment to the environment by flaring off enough natural gas, every 30 minutes, to power half of Germany:
(apologies for the vertical video, but the primary goal was phone re-play for the kids)
We enjoyed the Cirque du Soleil show (they went bankrupt during coronapanic, but emerged after the shareholders were wiped out in favor of the secured creditors):
Readers: What stories can you share about Women’s History Month now that it is almost over?
Tip for getting food in Disney Springs: the lines are epic almost anywhere near the center of the mall, but the restaurants and counter-serve places on the far west end, near the Cirque du Soleil theater, were comparatively quiet. Another fun to do is book a ride on an Amphicar, wander around for an hour or two, and then come back to take the $125 trip around the lake. Disney owns eight of these German marvels, four that can be scavenged for parts and four in operation.
Disney has pledged to help repeal Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which was signed into law on Monday by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
The Walt Disney Company issued a statement shortly after the bill was signed on Monday that said, “Florida’s HB 1557, also known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law.”
“Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that,” the spokesperson said.
“We are dedicated to standing up for the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ members of the Disney family, as well as the LGBTQ+ community in Florida and across the country,” the spokesperson added.
The bill is set to go into effect on July 1 and will prohibit primary school teachers from classroom instruction related to sexual orientation and gender identity, while educators of all grade levels will be prohibited from instruction on those topics that is not “age appropriate or developmentally appropriate” for their students.
Note that public elementary schools are not prohibited from providing classroom instruction related to sexual orientation and gender identity. The prohibition is only for kindergarten through third grade. Starting in 4th grade, a student could receive 2 hours per day of instruction on these topics, which would prepare him/her/zir/them to “earn salaries ranging from $329,000 to $430,000” as a diversity, equity, and inclusion administrator in a state university (source: the dreaded Fox News, which seems to have pulled public salary data) and, perhaps, even more at an elite private college.
The question for today is why Disney can’t act directly, rather than trying to overturn the law passed by the Florida Legislature? Disney has announced an official corporate policy in favor of sexual orientation and gender identity instruction for K-3 children. Millions of K-3-age children visit Disney World every year. Many of them are from Florida and thus, due to this new law, are at risk of being denied “classroom instruction related to sexual orientation and gender identity”. Why can’t Disney step in to fill the gap? In the photo below, a (masked outdoors) Disney employee (maybe in California?) holds a sign reading “Help us teach our children kindness and inclusion”. But, with a captive audience of millions, Disney shouldn’t need any help to teach whatever it wants to teach.
How about a dark ride along the lines of It’s a Small World? Children of all ages, including K-3, could travel in a vehicle shaped like a Mazda Miata and learn about myriad options for sexual orientation and gender identity. By including video screens, the ride could be kept continuously updated with the latest Science and, e.g., newly developed gender IDs.
You might say that sexual orientation and gender identity isn’t as much fun as some other topics, but if Disney isn’t passionate enough about 2SLGBTQQIA+ to offer this to the children who are already on site, can we accept their passion for 2SLGBTQQIA+ in the public schools as sincere?
Readers: What should the scenes of the sexual orientation and gender identity dark ride include? I can start with the cisgender heterosexual section. A “man” and a “woman” (Kentaji will bring in a biologist to assist with these terms) are alternately bored to death by each other’s company and annoyed to death by their biological children. A banner overhead reads “Marriage means that we solve problems together… problems that we wouldn’t have if we had stayed single.” The second scene is family court where the plaintiff asks for “permanent alimony” under Florida family law. The third scene is a pickleball court in The Villages where the now-leathery heteros congregate in single-gender groups while their adult children are ignoring them from 1,000 miles away.
A separate idea: Because Americans don’t have to work anymore, every Disney World ride requires waiting in line for 1-3 hours, even on weekdays. K-3-targeted sexual orientation and gender identity instruction could be provided to those waiting in line, a literal captive audience.
Potentially inspiring, scenes of African and Mexican life from It’s a Small World (September 2021):
“I got a ‘dress code’ violation at Disney World over my revealing top” (New York Post), in which K-3-age children were protected from seeing some portions of a 23-year-old’s body. Disney prohibits “clothing which, by nature, exposes excessive portions of the skin that may be viewed as inappropriate for a family environment.”
LGBT rights in Saudi Arabia (Wikipedia): “Both male and female same-sex sexual activity is illegal. LGBT rights are not recognized by the government of Saudi Arabia. … Homosexuality and being transgender are widely seen as immoral and indecent activities, and the law punishes acts of homosexuality or cross-dressing with capital punishment, fines, public whipping, beatings, vigilante attacks, vigilante executions, torture, chemical castrations, imprisonment up to life and deportation.” (Disney Plus operates cheerfully in Saudi Arabia and Disney has not suggested any changes to these laws and customs.)
Note that SeaWorld has a 2SLGBTQQIA+ section in the gift shop, but no rides specifically on the topic of 2SLGBTQQIA+. From earlier this month:
Based on the photos, it doesn’t look like this is yet another private-label Dorco (the Korean experts behind the marketeers at Dollar Shave Club).
The commercial is fun and the product description includes “It identifies as the best shave kit ever assembled and its preferred pronouns are Buy/Now.” However, I’m not convinced it is worth $60 (8 blades, handle, and some shaving cream in a “socialism-resistant bag”). The comparable Dorco product has a trimmer on the back, a “3D Motion” handle, and is available on Amazon for $23 (then every time you stop at CVS for a COVID-19 vaccine booster pick up some Edge, which is no doubt superior to Jeremy’s cream). Dorco hasn’t taken any position on American politics as far as I know. If you’re in Maskachusetts and need to disguise the fact that you’re not using Gillette anymore, put all of the above in this zippered pouch:
Update: for those who wondered about where razors are made, I did some exhaustive Scientific research (i.e., drove to CVS). I found Gillette products made in China (the latest and greatest “GilletteLabs” razor) and Germany (the core Fusion5 cartridges).
I haven’t been following the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson (CNN) closely, but it seems that nobody could apply for the job unless he/she/ze/they identified as a “Black woman”. From state-sponsored NPR:
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity. And that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court. It’s long overdue in my view.
A person who switches racial identity from white to Black may be condemned (see Nkechi Amare Diallo, formerly “Rachel Dolezal”), but we celebrate those who change gender identity from “man” to “woman” (see Rachel Levine, for example).
If a Black judge who previously identified as a “man” had, after Dr. Biden’s husband announced his hiring policy, said “I identify as a woman and am proud to be a member of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community”, would that judge then have become eligible for the Supreme Court position?
William Thomas, for example, who was nominated by President Obama (see “Rubio Withdraws Support for Gay Black Judge’s Nomination to the Federal Bench” (NYT)) and who continues to serve as a judge in a Florida state court. Judge Thomas was already identified by the newspaper of record as “Black” and, under our prevailing theories of gender, only Judge Thomas can pick his/her/zir/their gender ID. What would have stopped Judge Thomas from being considered for the Supreme Court job as a “Black woman”?
How is Women’s History Month going for you? Here’s what happens when you type “women’s history month” into an incognito browser (i.e., not affected by your previous search history):
Note that Black History Month and National Hispanic Heritage Month are related events, as far as Google is concerned. I’m not sure what corner of Google’s algorithms decided that “Oh Bondage! Up Yours!” was a good theme song for the month.
Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard But I think “oh bondage, up yours!” One-two-three-four! Bind me, tie me, chain me to the wall I wanna be a slave to you all
Here’s another choice from Google for “Women’s History Month” music, “Girls Need Love”:
I just need some dick I just need some love Tired of fucking with these lame n****s Baby, I just need a thug Won’t you be my plug, ayy
Do the above lyrics fall into the “resilient”, “brilliant”, or “boundless” category? (from the preceding image)
The first page returned by Google includes a link to a Presidential proclamation. Dr. Biden’s spouse notes that “LGBTQI+ women and girls are leading the fight for justice, opportunity, and equality — especially for the transgender community.” (contrast to the use of “2SLGBTTQIA+” by Justin Trudeau) Yet Mx. Biden never defines what he/she/ze/they means by “women” or “girl.” Maybe that is a job for a new committee?
I established the first White House Gender Policy Council to advance gender equity across the Federal Government and released the first-ever national gender strategy to support the full participation of all people — including women and girls — in the United States and around the world.
Readers: What have you done so far to observe Women’s History Month 2022?
In our family, we showed the kids Welcome to Earth, Descent into Darkness, in which Will Smith goes down in a research submarine with Diva Amon, who apparently identifies as a “woman of color” (26:40):
A big part of my work is trying to change that. I’ve been on like 16 expeditions now and there is hardly ever anyone who looks like me. Whether it’s a woman, a person of color, or a person from a developing country. And I want that to change. That’s a big part of why I do what I do.
Dr. Amon provides a technical explanation of the sub at 25:00 in which she explains that there is “horrible creaking” that is “unnerving.”
A person who doesn’t look anything like Diva Amon makes an unfortunate appearance at 3:09. It seems that the technical aspects of the dive and the submersible and, therefore, the safety of Will Smith and Diva Amon, are entrusted to someone who could appear in Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male Power.
The Nadir submersible is an off-the-shelf product described in “Blue Planet gives super-rich their new toys – submersibles” (Guardian), a Triton 3300/3. The engineers who designed it are not credited in the show, but searching for the sub’s name eventually leads to the Triton Team page and the engineering team that made the machine possible:
Plus two engineers on the top management roster:
In addition to being an inspiring story for Women’s History Month, by not mentioning any of the engineers who made the dive possible, the show serves as a great lesson for anyone considering making the mistake of majoring in engineering!
