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before the works of Shakespeare are banned in US Schools?
Why?
I was up in London earlier today and walked past the reconstruction of the Globe Theatre on the South Bank of the Thames.
That caused me to remember that when his plays were penned, all the female parts were played by men because there were no women allowed.
Therefore, Juliet was a man in drag and 'drag queens' are prohibited in parts of the USA. OK is considering a law that will make it a felony for any child to catch a glimpse of a drag queen. I guess that all TV in OK will have to ban Rue Paul's Drag Show from the airways but that could be problematic.
Just a thought
Samantha
Comments
First They Came for the Drag Queens
I'm not the world's biggest fan of Joe Biden. Biden also is much like Burger King, home of the whopper. He's to blame for a lot of what is wrong with our current state of affairs. If he hadn't stopped the hearing thirty-two years ago when Anita Hill was warning us about Clarence Thomas, we wouldn't have such a cock-eyed SCOTUS.
Yet - even worse than the mess in the Court was the Republican party on display the night of the State of the Union address.
Watching MTG shouting "Liar" at Biden when he clearly was speaking the truth about Rick Scott's position on Medicare and Social Security was appalling.
Like I said, I'm not a big backer of Joe Biden . . . Jill Biden is a different story. Maybe she should run for president. She's nine years younger and every inch a lady. My guess is that she would get every vote that was cast for Joe the last time and more, especially if she was running against DJT.
The Republican party is historically the party of small government. The anti-trans laws they're rushing to pass all over the United States are the very essence of big government -- poking its nose into where it doesn't belong.
We need a responsible Republican party. We need a party that is fiscally responsible to stop the bleeding hearts from spending us into oblivion. The Republicans need to clean up their act. The Dem also need to clean up their act. Gerrymandering has created a system that is a petri dish for lunatics to get elected. . .for both parties.
What we don't need is an 82-year-old man being sworn in as commander-in-chief. Of course, Warren Buffett is 92 and still going strong, bilking the world on a daily basis. And, if Biden ends up running against Trump I'll have to vote for him.
God save the drag queens!
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
First spouses
I should really like it if the primary credential for the first woman to become president isn’t that she was a prior president’s spouse. I like Jill Biden, Michelle Obama and Laura Bush. Each woman is accomplished in her field and — by personality and long exposure to public speaking — very polished. But — apart from being the wives of presidents— no one would consider them as candidates for our highest elected office. I’d rather see a woman who’s been in elected office herself be the one to claim that particular brass ring.
Emma
Oklahoma Born and Raised
Samantha, you know I love you like a sister. Give some of your posts a little serious thought. Do you honestly think Gov Stitt and the LBGT hating warmongers are going to win this one? They might get some small victories. Some states who passed legislation against trans medical support has already been smacked back by the courts. Stitt's exec order, no change in birth certificates is slowly grinding up against court in Tulsa. All this nonsense of the latest round against LBGT is going to plow into the same speed bumps. Can you imagine trying to support this stupidity in court or any where when someone who is innersexed appeals.
I don't have a single piece of Federal or State Id in my purse or billfold with "M" on it. I'd love to get arrested for being a MALE for any perceived wrong. As long as they didn't beat me to death when they arrest me, on the ride to jail, or while I'm in jail, I'm good. There are girls out there who aren't as well covered as myself. If I get "nicked" as you English like to call it, I'm loaded for bear. I have medicals going back to the time God created the world, I'm a female. Stitt can hold onto my Oklahoma birth certificate till the world comes to an end. I don't care. No matter what is on the certificate I'll never need it again. I'm not applying for any more high security jobs. No more contracts where they run my fingerprints and life history through the wash. No more Federal contracts.
I visited with the pioneers in this gender blender via email or mail. I've supported and conversed with the girls all over the world who were or are struggling to find themselves. I've lost more than my fair share and it hurts. I've cried myself to sleep too many times because of those who no longer respond to emails or phone calls. Too many times one of their friends notifies me they checked out. If I end up on the wrong side of the law and it serves a purpose for all the girls who are still struggling to find their life I'll be grateful. Not that I want it too but if it happens.
Too many times I have wrote letters to my State Senators, Congressmen hoping to speak on upcoming bills dealing with GLBT issues and not once have I been accepted. Probably best as I'm not a great open debater. I always think of what I wish I had said days or weeks later.
https://nypost.com/2023/02/07/trans-lives-matter-activists-o...
Hugs Samantha, don't give up on us yet.
Barb
Success isn't always measured in winning but also in the trying even if sometimes we fail.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Not giving up
Barbie,
thanks for another insightful post but my original post goes to demonstrate how far gone from reality some parts of the GOP is today.
Ron 'let's rewrite history... again' DeSantis down in FLA is another example of that. Banning books, making the teaching of real black history a felony are all moves taken from fiction like 1984. That and other books were warnings not instruction manuals.
We all have to keep on our toes and try to stamp out the sort of madness the OK is trying to put into law.
I'm got giving up Barbie.
Samantha
What worries me more . . .
Will Stitt’s stunts hold up in court? Who knows. Our Supreme Court has been captured by a pack of theocrats.
But what troubles me more is that these attacks are being made at all. Because that means that there is an audience for them. Stitt and the rest know they can attack LGTBQ folks, and especially trans people, with impunity, because “their” voters will cheer. They may or may not worry that “their” voters might get themselves so worked up about the supposedly dire threat trans people pose to Western Civilization that they will take “direct action.” But I do. Hate crimes are on the rise all over the country. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
Emma
Hard to Have Political Clout
Actually hard to have any kind of clout, business, political, or personal when one is one percent of the population. The census is over twenty years old and surely wrong. Then it's really frustrating to try and have an intelligent debate with those who seemingly lack intelligence. I'm positive most politicians get their LBGT science straight from the supermarket tabloids and MSM. Not surprising even a lot of doctors and medical personnel do the same. Research done on the trans brain and posted in the medical journals was dismissed as pseudo science by the medical profession for over three years. More research teams followed the same research published their findings and were dismissed as bad research.
Things went from bad to worse when activist trans started demanding special laws. They must hire us, can't fire us, have to rent to us, serve us, can't discriminate against us..., That damn slippery slope with good intentions and results straight out of Hell. What about those individuals who don't like us, don't want to hire us, don't want anything to do with us? What about their rights? The can take their rights and shove them where the sun doesn't shine. We are the smallest minority and our rights supersede everyone else.
I could see the rubber band effect becoming a reality as the trans activist went too far. Push and push back will come. All the laws being passed against transgender anything is the result and the fault of the trans activists. They didn't ask, they demanded, society owed them. I and every transgender who wanted nothing more than to blend into society are paying the price. Fortunately all the anti trans laws can't hurt me or touch me. Monday I received the last piece of Federal Id I needed or wanted. I wish I could say the same for all my sisters in this screwed up life. It's hard to convince them their life is a blessing not a curse the way the political mine field is today. God knows they make it through the hell of public school, they shouldn't have to face it when joining society as a wage earner.
But the pendulum has swung back. Until our politicians understand exactly what transgender is and isn't, we will pay the price. Until the medical field, the public, the politicians understand transgender isn't a black and white issue, we are either male or female. There are thousands of degrees of those in between the two, transgender is going to be a male or female thing to most.
I get more satisfaction talking to my cats and goats. They listen and love me as long as I have treats in my hand. Wish I could handle the closed minds of the human population as easily.
Hugs Emma, take care.
Barb
When we finally know everything we realize we know nothing.
You can't trust a dog to guard your plate. It's like asking a politician for help.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
I Agree with Your Bottomline
At the heart of what you're saying is the fact that we are all products of where we get our information. I totally concur.
But to excuse shoddy political behavior on the basis of polarized opinions is baseless.
Years ago I was a lobbyist. I was heavily involved in state level law making.
I took part in hundreds of hearings. Hearings are supposedly facts finding missions. In the most part they are theatre. Hired mouthpieces, like I was, can take any set of facts and cherry-pick to make a point. In my experience, the real educating of legislators occured in one on one meetings.
Where things fall apart is the amount of money or political power needed to arrange a one on one meeting.
Prior to being a lobbyist I was an "expert." I had the credentials necessary to be called upon to testify in my field. I was sought out by both parties as an information source. To be an expert you have to be as naive as a lab rat. I fit that bill and later was masticated by the political process.
Such is law making.
Unfortunately, in law making nearly everyone involved is trying to make a buck. Lobbyist can demand more money for their services if they're known as successful in getting their opinions into law. Politicians are voted in and out based on their records. The process is much more about gaining wins than creating legislation that advances society.
Is your premise correct that trans activists are to blame for anti-trans laws? There's probably some truth to it. Trans activist need funding. They need to get laws passed to attract donations. Any law will do if it advances their careers.
However, when proposed laws are so odious that anyone with half a brain should walk away from them, all the lobbyist explanations and pandering should be easily set aside.
When you say studies have been discredited, please remember that discrediting a study takes exactly one fool or charlatan with a platform. The tobacco industry "discredited" cancer studies for years. Big oil has "discredited" climate change for decades.
Are trans brains different? Who knows. I know that some of my earliest memories are an all-encompassing yearning to be female. Something drove that. I don't believe it was nurtured. I was born in 1948. There wasn't a lot of trans nurturing happening. Just the opposite. That seemingly points to nature, which in turn would lend credence to a trans brain.
That's apocryphal but is one hell of a lot more valid than suggesting that drag shows are ruining our society.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
MtF and Female Brain
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4987404/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8955456/
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/research-on-the-transgend...
Male, female and transgender brains
“The male and female brain have structural differences,” he says. Men and women tend to have different volumes in certain areas of the brain.
“When we look at the transgender brain, we see that the brain resembles the gender that the person identifies as,” Dr. Altinay says. For example, a person who is born with a penis but ends up identifying as a female often actually has some of the structural characteristics of a “female” brain.
And the brain similarities aren’t only structural.
“We’re also finding some functional similarities between the transgender brain and its identified gender,” Dr. Altinay says.
In studies that use MRIs to take images of the brain as people perform tasks, the brain activity of transgender people tends to look like that of the gender they identify with.
“Research in these areas is extremely limited, and more research needs to be done to find conclusive results,” Dr. Altinay notes. “But we’re already seeing definite trends.”
Though these differences in brain structure and function are important markers for gender determination, it isn’t always as simple as male or female.
Some research shows the brains of transgender people are somewhere in between, sharing characteristics of both male and female brains, Dr. Altinay says.
My apologies to all as my research is NOT organized. What I intended to find was the earliest slicing and dicing of and published scientific papers on the MtF and Female brain. Buried in a stack of papers six or eight reams deep, I stopped digging. It took the medical profession over three years and the repeat of the original research to stop calling it quack science. There is now an easy way to see if one is transgender, provided they are in the top bracket of trans. Keeping in mind there are degrees of trans, an MRI will show if the transgender is operating with a female mind.
Hugs Jill
Barb
Life is meant to be lived, not worn until it's worn out.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
the same applies to Lefties
theilr brains are different from 90% of the population who are right handed.
Many Politicians in the USA have publicly declared that they don't believe in science all while using technology that...[drum roll] originated from scientific research. Numpties.
Samantha
A proud Leftie and deep in the closet MtF transperson.
Meanwhile in the UK. The
Meanwhile in the UK. The church of England, the UK's official state religion is debating changing the pronouns for god to gender-neutral ones. Also up for debate is same-sex marriage.
The pronoun thing is confusing. The Bible warns you should not add or remove from it. So changing pronouns would do that.
How common is asexual reproduction?
Image result for what percentage of life reproduces asexually
A complete lack of sexual reproduction is relatively rare among multicellular organisms, particularly animals. It is not entirely understood why the ability to reproduce sexually is so common among them.
But why would god need to be male, unless there was a female of the same species? Surely god can be anything he wants? Burnng bush etc
The world can be a messed up place, but it is slowly changing. Don't give up hope. What country do you live in Samantha?
Leeanna
At least the CoE are discussing it
There are plenty of openly 'gay clergy' in the Church so we have to hope that in time, they can agree on how to handle the whole LGBT issue with a degree of decorum. Personally, I wish that they'd allow members of the LGBT community to get married in Church.
I'm in the UK (Hampshire) but have traveled extensively in the US since 1975 where I witnessed segregation or the aftermath of it at first hand until 2016. I spent almost 25 years of my working life employed by US companies and have visited 48 of the 50 states. The clown show that is the GQP make for some light relief and diversion from our own Westminster soap opera. Numpties the lot of them.
Samantha
From the UK ...
... the USA appears to becoming almost a theocracy. I've been watching YouTube videos which describe a significant minority of US citizens are young earth creationists. It's amazing that the country has had so much scientific and engineering success since WW2.
We have a state religion headed by the head of state (a hereditary position) which is totally crazy in the 21st C but very few people go to church other than for hatches, matches and dispatches reasons (and even that's getting rarer - I go to a lot of funerals and most are humanist).
I fail to understand why someone's sexuality is any else's business - provided it's not compulsory :) . Though I understand the discomfort of cis gendered women with trans women and female only spaces but the very few trans women I've actually met look and behave no differently than cis gendered and would themselves be under threat if they went to a public gents' toilet. Of course, in practice, no-one would turn a hair if they entered so-called female spaces.
R
PS
Funnily enough, the cover picture on today's edition of the Guardian Saturday magazine is of Munroe Bergdorf. I don't keep up much (or even at all) with popular culture so I'd never heard of this beautiful woman. I'm sure no cisgendered woman would turn a hair if she was in an exclusively female place - though they may cast an envious eye. She is, in fact, a transgender model who, as a schoolboy in Essex UK was an outstanding swimmer. Would JK Rowling ban her from female toilets?
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2023/feb/11/munroe-bergd...
Nazis and Facists
I always wondered how Nazi Germany was able to come into being and I think that I can see it now.
All it took was for someone, it really does not matter who, to get up in front of people and to start telling the majority what they really want to hear and say if they dared. That is how Adolf Hitler managed to get into power in Germany and that is how our former president got himself elected. Now, everyone thinks that it is acceptable to spout their hate and anger in public whenever they want.
There are a lot of people in the world, not just in the US, who do not understand what it means to be a member of the LGBT community or, if you like, on the LGBT spectrum. I think that we are all there somewhere. It's a bit like saying that one light is brighter than another.
I believe that the most important thing to see in what Samantha is trying to say is that things could get a lot worse before they get better. I sit here wishing that there was some way to help others to understand that we are not the perverted monsters they make us out to be.
I think the important thing
(Excuse my spelling, please.)
To remember, is that Stitt, (or Desantis, or Cruz, or whoever) have popular support. By which I mean a sizeable block of voters that support their actions and are willing and able to get out and vote. Here in Oklahoma, as an example, I see Stitt and his cronies as extremely electable. The same in Texas, and Florida, and Utah, etc. There is still plenty of travel left in this pendulam swing to the right.
Historically, the opposition, the left, liberals, what-have-you's, can't and don't stay organized. They come together briefly, such as in the last election, then disintigrate back into squabbling factions. Say what you will, (I like Biden), but there is no rallying figure for the left. Disgusting as they are, the right doesn't lack for central figures for the ignorant masses to gather round.
Remember that song, "United we stand, Divided we fall"? Or more suscinctly, "We must all hang together or we will surely all hang apart". I'm seeing a strong undercurrent here of 'Well, I've got mine . . .". Until we've all got ours, we need to join ranks. Or the new "Trump" may be worse than the old "Trump".
We will get fooled again!
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
The Percentage of Us Who are Transgender
Have read the statistics for more than fifty years about the percentages of those who are transgender. Most of the researchers admit the truth, it's really impossible to know for sure as many never get poled along with those who are, yet they are stealth for various reasons. I can name several good reasons to stay stealth. Loss of family, friends, job, and they tried to man up to be what society expects of them. Many are but then they purge dumping all their female attire thinking they can get past the emotions the feelings. Sadly, it doesn't work for most as we are hard wired in our brain to be female. What is even worse, as much as we don't understand ourselves, science, medicine, politics understands even less. Much has changed in science and medicine over the last half century. They are still missing the elephant in the room. Transgender is no a he or she absolute. Until everyone understands there are degrees of transgender they will never get it right.
What is the percentage of those who are transgender according to the latest greatest estimates?
An estimated 0.6% of adults, about 1.4 million, identify as transgender in the United States. States vary in the percentage of residents who identify as transgender (See Table 1). Hawaii has the highest percentage of adults who identify as transgender, approximately 0.8% of adults, and North Dakota has the lowest percentage, at 0.3%. The District of Columbia is notable for its relatively high percentage of transgender-identified adults (2.8%).6 Twenty states and the District of Columbia are estimated to have a higher percentage of transgender-identified adults than the national average
For such a small minority we sure are raising a big stink among the Medical, Science, Politicians. The perfect foil for any cause because who is going to listen if we complain? Three hundred sixty million people in the USA and one million of them are those kind of people? Their voices and votes don't count.
Hugs People
Barb
Life is meant to be lived, not worn until it's worn out. I know God has a sense of humor. He made me.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl