A story in Harper's Bazaar about celebrities meeting the Queen has a bit of a ruction going on Facebook. I've been around the world a bit and see no harm in respecting the culture of another country. If I went to Saudi Arabia, you can bet I would wear Niqab. If I went to the Jungles of South America, I am not sure I would run around in a few leaves, but not out of disrespect. If I went to Japan, I would try to find out about their usual greeting, and bow and say hai as is proper.

In an act of massive fuckery, North Carolina's legislature convened a special session today and rammed through a law overruling all local non-discrimination ordinances in the state, in order to block a new Charlotte ordinance slated to take effect in April which would allow trandgender individuals to use the correct bathrooms.

For years the media trots out the 2011 Williams Institute figure of “700,000 transgender people in the U.S.” (2011 Williams Institute LGBT Report). They came up with this number based on two primary sources: a survey in Massachusetts, estimated from data collected in 2007 and 2009—and a 2003 study of California smokers.

I've recently been kind of engrossed with the whole idea of gender fluidity and a non binary definition of gender. I guess I've been thinking about these things my whole life, but only recently really started reading and thinking more seriously. The political season has lots of people all fired up and the supreme court case on gay marriage has got issues of "queerness" on peoples minds. I think something that really got me thinking about issues of gender was an argument I got in at work awhile back, this was last year when Caitlyn was in the news everyday.

A bit sort of nebulous, but then so is the question and the concept of identity. One might ask, is the silly answer to a silly question, not sure but as someone who has reinvented their identity at least once, it made some sense. See for yourselves.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/02/why-don...

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-kids-transgender-id...

I was just watching the news and they reported there is a new scam out right now. Here in the States it's tax time. Apparently the scammers are sending out an email that appears to be from officials concerning filing your taxes online. In the email are the usual nasties, malware/viruses, that steal your pertinent information. Please be very careful. Bad guys are out there so what your butts my sisters and brothers. See link below.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/23/pf/taxes/phishing-tax-scams/...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/02/17/tra...

Weeeeeeeeeeeell shit. We all knew someone was going to try it sooner or later. I'm going to be watching the fallout from this fairly closely.

Hospital mistakes

The Stories are Coming True!

http://www.catersnews.com/stories/real-people/transgender-te...

I'm not a great one for reading the newspapers, as I find the constant barrage of negativity and bad news tends to tilt the balance of sanity towards deep depression and paranoia. When you realise that actually the world has a lot more good things happening than bad, but the media don't make any money from them.

Read this Transgender Ballerina

Found it hopeful.

Tanya

"Last year I applied and was selected to be a finalist for the Miss Galaxy Contest, 4-7 February 2016. I was so proud to think that we finally live in a society that accepts transgendered women to this extent. But when I emailed to secure my place I mentioned this and was instantly informed I was no longer eligible to compete. They say they hadn’t spotted that I was transgender -- according to their rules you have to be born female to take part in the pageant."

https://www.change.org/p/miss-galaxy-uk-allow-trans-women-to...

I live about 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Over the weekend we had a bit of snow... the local paper claims 31 inches. Needless to say I was snowed in but fortunately never lost electric power. Physically, it was quite tough on me.

In 2000 I had a total right knee replacement. November 2104 I had a spinal laminectromy, and in December I had a total left knee replacement. Fortunately I have a snowblower but still spent 7 hours digging out. Needless to say my new knee wasn't too happy with me. No damage, just ache & fatigue.

I've run across some articles that may be of interest to everybody. Apparently this last year saw a record number of murders of transgender people.

The Transgender Murder Crisis: Why Were There So Many Killings in 2015?

The BBC TV Series 'Boy meets Girl' is to return for another series
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/entertainment-arts-35350351

Warning.
If you aren't interested in one C Jenner then don't scroll down that page.

One of the best British actors has lost his fight with cancer aged 69. He got a BAFTA for his Sheriff of Nottingham against Kevin Costner's Robin Hood, where acted the American off the screen. Most of you will know him as Professor Snape from the Harry Potter films, where he played a brooding dark character to perfection. My own favourite was Truly, madly Deeply, with Juliet Stevenson, which was where I first saw him and fancied him like mad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truly,_Madly,_Deeply

The powerball jackpot now stands as close enough to one Billion dollars that there almost is no difference.

I have bought my tickets and am sitting waiting for the numbers to be drawn, hoping against hope that one of my tickets will be the ticket that will help me acheive my dream... that being the REAL building of The Home That Love Built, my little universe of stories on the internet.

From the Daily Mirror a story from Italy about a transgender woman who has spent over fifty thousand pounds on plastic surgery and looks rather sad to my thinking, especially the lip implants which look ridiculous and she plans on more! I'll stick to buying books. Amazingly, her wife has stayed with her.

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/transgender-woman-spends...

To you all

Look out for the conclusion of Christmas Catastrophe on the 3rd.

Worth listening to for a broad discussion of the present day realities of transgender life.

To all my readers and everyone else for that matter - from Gabyland.

It's cold and wet here - others have it wetter, I wish them well, not a good day if you live in the Eden valley.

We've had the traditional Christmas tragedies, thankfully with fewer casualties than in recent years - it's almost as though it's dictated that a car/bus/truck will kill/maim innocents as an Xmas gift.

Today for me will be quiet and solitary - lunch will be cooked, radio listened to and then i'll crack on with some writing, the results of which you should see in the next few days.

https://stream.org/high-school-girls-dont-want-transgender-s...

Dad changes moms tattoo.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/tattoo-artist-alters-w...

Was a cute girl in a pink dress, now a cute boy in a blue shirt and shorts...