A posting every day; an interesting idea every three months…
I hope that everyone has been having a good LGBT History Month so far.
Here’s a tale from a medical student learning Science. There may be a correlation between concern regarding COVID-19 and concern regarding gender ID:
There seems to be a correlation among siblings:
We still love Prozac and similar (SSRIs):
Here’s a screen capture in case this is memory-holed:
Giorgia Meloni’s life, in many respects, traces the arc of progress for women in Italian society. Her mother, Anna Paratore, was born in 1952, just 7 years after women in Italy gained the right to vote in national elections.
It has taken a long, long time for the promise of women’s full participation in Italian democracy to be realized. Ms. Meloni moved it a big step closer this week, as she became the first woman nominated for the leadership of Italy by a major party.
Ms. Meloni’s nomination — bringing women, barred first by law and then by custom, to the pinnacle of Italian politics — is to be celebrated as inspiration for young Italians, and as hope for women in nations and cultures that deny them the most basic opportunities. It is further proof that opening doors to women elevates and strengthens a nation.
Ms. Meloni, who grew up in an era of few opportunities for women, revealed strength and tenacity building a career that spanned the world. Her education and work ethic eventually opened many avenues to her, and — despite forays into lucrative pursuits like journalism — she has always returned to a path of service.
Loosely related, “Hillary Clinton Makes History” (NYT, July 29, 2016):
Hillary Clinton’s life, in many respects, traces the arc of progress for women in American society. Her mother, Dorothy Rodham, was born in 1919, a year before the 19th Amendment gave women the vote.
It has taken a long, long time for that amendment’s promise of women’s full participation in American democracy to be realized. Mrs. Clinton moved it a big step closer this week, as she became the first woman nominated for the presidency by a major party.
Mrs. Clinton’s nomination — bringing women, barred first by law and then by custom, to the pinnacle of American politics — is to be celebrated as inspiration for young Americans, and as hope for women in nations and cultures that deny them the most basic opportunities. It is further proof that opening doors to women elevates and strengthens our nation.
Mrs. Clinton, who grew up in an era of few opportunities for women, revealed strength and tenacity building a career that spanned the world. Her education and work ethic eventually opened many avenues to her, and — despite forays into lucrative and sometimes regrettable pursuits like her corporate speechmaking — she has always returned to a path of service.
(Of course, the parallels are not complete because Giorgia Meloni did not obtain her position by having sex with or being married to a former leader of Italy.)
Separately, I wonder if this election proves my Dutch friend correct. On the phenomenon of elites packing a country with low-skill immigrants and then, as predicted by a Harvard analysis, the working class attempting to vote out the elites, “They forgot to take away their right to vote.”
Full post, including commentsThis was supposed to be the big year for Rainbow Flagism in Norway. Tourists are promised Queer Culture Year 2022:
My 2SLGBTQQIA+ celebration experience got off to a reasonable start. Although I did not notice any rainbow flags in the airport, the underground train station carried an “Oslo PRIDE” backlit billboard:
Once above ground, however, I discovered that the entire city has fewer rainbow flags than a typical white heterosexual suburban town in the Northeast USA. Private initiative in the direction of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community is apparently rare. In fact, I never saw a single private home or automobile displaying the rainbow flag. Here are the only businesses that I observed conforming to the U.S. norm (a restaurant, a bar, and a bookstore with a balloon and umbrella):
As in the U.S., the progression from Christianity to Rainbow Flagism is a short and easy journey. At the downtown cathedral:
The city government itself has painted some benches in a rainbow pattern. King Christian IV of Denmark, the founder of modern Oslo, loved music and dance. Here he is with a bench commemorating his love of Broadway shows:
The Munch museum did not have any rainbow flags, but the bookstore featured the standard Holy Trinity of Victimhood:
I’m not sure if this is desecration of the sacred symbol or not:
If the neighbors aren’t displaying the proper flag, one can wear it:
The Oslo City Museum has an exhibit devoted to Queer Culture Year 2022. A school class for 9th and 10th graders was required to create artistic “queer products”:
A “Gay Kid” is defined as “a boy or a girl who will fall in love with a person of the same sex later on in life.” This statement contains quite a bit of heresy against 2SLGBTQQIA+ dogma. There are only two genders for children? Gender ID and sexual orientation are not fluid?
For completeness, from the adult-oriented content of the exhibit:
The Scandinavian Leather Men sign fails to note the CDC’s Scientific monkeypox-at-the-bathhouse advice: “Leather or latex gear also provides a barrier to skin-to-skin contact; just be sure to change or clean clothes/gear between partners and after use.”
Compared to the Scandinavian Leather Men, how much fun can a heterosexual cisgender man have? Here’s Gustav Vigeland’s example of inner peace achieved via fatherhood:
The Nobel Peace Center bookshop offers some Pride-themed material:
The history museum had an outdoor PRIDE exhibit, but it had been taken down and the only remnants were posters and some books:
(I am confused as to why Frida Kahlo, who became famous after marrying an old guy who was already super famous in her chosen field, is a “hero”. Is her method of getting to the top of the art world something that we think the typical young artist can replicate?)
Where Norway seems most deficient is in restroom labeling. The implication, even in buildings that were completed in 2022, the country’s Queer Culture Year, is that there are only two genders. From the Munch museum (opened 2021):
From the National Museum (opened 2022):
I never saw an “all-gender” or “gender-neutral” restroom.
That’s the report from the world of jet lag. I feel that I am almost accustomed to the time zone here and, naturally, it will be time to get on the Norse Atlantic 787 back to FLL tomorrow.
Full post, including commentsWorking through my backlog of summer photos, I stopped off in Denver during Pride Month. In traveling from California to Colorado, both states in which people say that they Follow Science, hardly anyone was wearing a mask:
I stayed in Arvada, which is 90 percent white and 0.9 percent African American according to Wikipedia. Nonetheless, a sign downtown informed me that this was a “Community of Color”
Someone with a commitment to social justice and an air rifle may have developed this sign starting from “Community Banks of Colorado”. Hanging a rainbow flag was popular in a variety of locations around Denver (also the rugged Toyota just for fun!):
Considering that half of the nation says it wants to stop the spread of COVID-19, the airport seemed to be at or beyond its design capacity:
As United Airlines was rapidly consuming Jet A, the company reminded me that we should all travel by sailboat as Greta Thunberg does:
Following a mask-free flight between the Science strongholds of Denver and Atlanta, I learned that some people are concerned enough about aerosol COVID-19 to wear a surgical mask, but not concerned enough to avoid the crowded airport or the Chick fil-A line:
Having the Garmin Pilot app running while on a commercial airliner yields some unsettling messages:
The shop in the Boeing pavilion at EAA AirVenture (“Oshkosh”):
Did the programmers and system engineers who built runaway trim into the 737 MAX identify as 2SLGBTQQIA+? If so, will the family and friends of the 346 people who died in Ethiopia and Indonesia be interested in this fact?
How serious is Boeing about Rainbow Flagism? Boeing did not host any 2SLQGTQQIA+ events at its pavilion. They did not bring any 2SLGBTQQIA+ employees to wear the rainbow shirts and talk about being 2SLGBTQQIA+ at Boeing. They didn’t invite the NGPA to occupy a corner of their pavilion in show center and, consequently, this group had a booth tucked away in a side hangar:
(I’m a supporter of NGPA! It is a refreshing change to hear a message about gay people from actual gay people and, as it happens, “[the] mission has been simple: to build, support, and unite the LGBTQ aviation community worldwide”. In other words, the NGPA is about the success of gay pilots, not about their victimization.)
Should a company get virtue points simply for printing the corporate logo in a rainbow scheme? If so, wouldn’t that make Justin Trudeau a heroic advocate for people of color because he was brave enough to wear Blackface and Brownface?
Separately, at the same shop, one learns the gender ID of those who assemble aircraft:
Related:
On the front door of a restaurant in Indianapolis:
(Rainbow flag over “This is a Sacred Space.”)
I get pushback from teens when I casually refer to Rainbow Flagism as a religion. But if it is not a religion, how does the rainbow flag make a space sacred?
For reference, from Wikipedia:
Religion is usually defined as a social-cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, transcendental, and spiritual elements; however, there is no scholarly consensus over what precisely constitutes a religion.
Related:
Full post, including commentsFrom state-sponsored media… “Community unites after an LGBTQ+ senior housing project in Boston was defaced” (NPR, July 14, 2022):
The road to building The Pryde, a Boston housing development aimed at LGBTQ+ seniors, has been surprisingly smooth. That’s what made last weekend’s homophobic vandalism all the more shocking.
Among the slurs and death threats covering the perimeter of the construction site, which takes up nearly an entire city block of the Hyde Park neighborhood, were messages saying, “We will burn this,” “die slow,” and “die by fire.”
Meanwhile, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu also responded on Twitter, writing, “Hate & acts of vandalism will not be tolerated at the Pryde — or anywhere in Boston.”
“This affordable, LGBTQ+ senior housing development has been led by local residents, boosted by neighborhood voices & fueled by united support. We will move even faster to get it done,” Wu said.
Intolerance will not be tolerated by the tolerant!
From the developers:
Pennrose, in partnership with LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc., has been selected by the City of Boston to develop 74 new apartments for seniors 62 and older in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston. Construction has begun on the 120 year old former William Barton Rogers School that will undergo a historic rehabilitation. Rent-restricted studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments will be available to households and individuals at various income tiers (30%, 50%, 60%, 80% and 100% of Area Median Income). Several apartments will be set aside for homeless individuals. A housing lottery will be conducted, and 70% of the apartments will carry a City of Boston resident preference during the initial lease up of the community.
So many questions! First, why aren’t all of the apartments set aside for those who are currently homeless? (who has a greater need for a home than a homeless individual?) Massachusetts needs to catch up to California with its 160,000+ unhoused residents? Second, if Maskachusetts is Tolerance Central, why do members of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community have to live apart from those who do not identify as 2SLGBTQQIA+? Would it be okay to build rent-restricted housing for Black people? For Asian American and Pacific Islander people? If discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is forbidden under Massachusetts law, how can this new government-sponsored development discriminate against cisgender heterosexuals who want to live rent-free?
Related:
The density of front lawn signs in our corner of Florida has been less than 1/100th of what it was in Maskachusetts. In fact, it seemed fair to say that an N95 mask is far more popular in Florida than expressing one’s political and social justice beliefs via lawn signs or bumper stickers.
It turns out, however, that our neighbors do celebrate Pride Month in June and signs have appeared on 1 out of 20 front lawns and house facades. Here’s one neighbor, for example:
For the other houses that we regularly pass by, however, the pride signs have all been related to a child graduating from middle school, high school, or college. Examples:
(We were fortunate to meet Ellie, a hard-working young lady who has completed Jupiter High School (run by Palm Beach County) and will soon be a student at Florida State. She did not say anything about identifying as 2SLGBTQQIA+)
Here is a house where Henry and Sean are celebrated for finishing an arts magnet middle school and being admitted to the arts magnet high school, funded by a former MIT board member.
Speaking of Pride, “Miami teen accepted into all 8 Ivy League universities” (Good Morning America):
First-generation Nigerian American Ashley Adirika became one of few prospective students to be accepted into all eight Ivy League universities.
“The tears just started to come out. Like they started to flow out,” she said of her reaction to finding out. “My siblings and I were just really excited, like screaming, jumping around. It was crazy,” she said.
From being a teacher to sitting in the Oval Office, Adirika’s dreams have changed over time, but now she is focused on empowering young women of marginalized identities with her organization, Our Story, Our Worth, which she started as a high school sophomore.
She said she looks forward to learning more about herself, her place in the world and how to “maximize the impact” she has in empowering communities when she starts at Harvard University in the fall.
The recent Miami Beach Senior High School graduate and student government president also credits her time on speech and debate teams with building the confidence to make her voice heard.
She did not attend one of the killer magnet schools in the Miami area, but just a regular neighborhood high school, thus proving American Pravda correct once again: “Surprise: Florida and Texas Excel in Math and Reading Scores” (NYT, 2015).
Readers: What are you doing to complete your celebration of Pride Month?
Full post, including commentsAttending mass gatherings is the best way to avoid viral infection, according to Science. See “Pride parades should go on despite monkeypox concerns: WHO” (The Hill, May 30):
A World Health Organization (WHO) adviser said on Monday that people should not change their plans to attend pride parades next month amid the increased circulation of monkeypox.
“It’s important that people who want to go out and celebrate gay pride, LGBTQ+ pride, to continue to go and plan to do so,” said Andy Seale, a strategies adviser in the WHO Department of Global HIV, Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections Programmes.
WHO experts have pointed to sex at two recent raves in Europe as the leading theory for the spread of the virus, which is endemic in areas of Africa. The agency has said several cases have been reported among men who have sex with men, but cautioned it may be a reflection of “positive health seeking behavior” in that demographic, given that the cases were identified at sexual health clinics.
Seale said at Monday’s public briefing that the organization has linked cases to a number of “social events” in European countries.
Monkeypox and variant SARS-CoV-2 will presumably be celebrating at today’s NYC Pride March. From Wikipedia:
New York City Pride March is an event celebrating the LGBTQ community; it is one of the largest annual Pride marches in the world, attracting tens of thousands of participants and millions of sidewalk spectators each June.
Readers: Who is going to a Pride event today? Below, Science explains why Pride events are typically in March rather than June here in Florida:
Related:
To celebrate Pride Month, Uber uses a rainbow icon to show the driver’s vehicle. Here’s an example where Uber’s white saviors suggest that “Mohamed” is a follower of Rainbow Flagism:
The good news is that, after a ride in the back of a Tesla 3, the Prius seemed luxurious!
Of course it is brave of Uber to celebrate everything 2SLGBTQQIA+ in the U.S., where the repercussions could be severe, but do the rainbow cars appear for Uber users in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Bahrain, Pakistan, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates?
Full post, including comments