General LGBTQIA issues thread

[The Man]

Transgender teen: 'I'm not the Obamacare kid anymore' - CNN.com

I'm having a difficult time thinking of how I could find this to be a more fantastic story, and...nope. I've got nothing. She's just utterly amazing.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

RUSSIA: Newspaper Reports Sweeping Purge And Murders Of Gay Men By Police In Chechnya Republic - Joe.My.God.

Bolding mine:

A spokesman for Chechnya’s leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, denied the report in a statement to Interfax on Saturday, calling the article “absolute lies and disinformation.” “You cannot arrest or repress people who just don’t exist in the republic,” the spokesman, Alvi Karimov, told the news agency. “If such people existed in Chechnya, law enforcement would not have to worry about them, as their own relatives would have sent them to where they could never return,” Mr. Karimov said.

Well then.

[The Man]

A federal court just made a very big decision for gay rights. Seriously, it’s huge. - Vox

This is indeed a huge deal: an appeals court has ruled that existing discrimination statutes already protect against discrimination by sexual orientation and gender identity. To be clear, this only applies to three states, but it's still pretty much unprecedented.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Jamil Smith on Twitter: "By the way, Bannon calling Kushner a "globalist" is reminiscent of when folks call Obama a "Muslim." Just say the word you mean, man."

[erimir]

Hmmm, if you just change the vowel in cuck

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Well I sure put that in the wrong thread.

:welp:

[Corona688]

So @Caitlyn_Jenner , now you know how it feels to be a woman. Old white Republican men can care less what you think

— Linda Russo (@LRusso925) February 25, 2017

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Chechnya Reportedly Sending Gay Men To Concentration Camp

Only source link in there is the Daily Fail, so grain of salt.

[fragment]

Other news sources are reporting this: More than 100 gay men 'sent to prison camps' in Chechnya | The Independent

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Transgender woman denied food at soup kitchen because she was wearing a dress / LGBTQ Nation

Originally Posted by Pharisee Stenberg

(his mission was acting according to the Bible.) “Christianity is dependent on our obedience to God.”

Originally Posted by Mark 2:13-17

13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

[mickthinks]

Originally Posted by Kamilah Hauptmann

Transgender woman denied food at soup kitchen because she was wearing a dress / LGBTQ Nation

That very theme developed here by a holy man I am privileged to have met: BBC Thought for the Day, John Bell

[The Man]

An expert believes that gay porn at Pompeii could change how the world thinks about religion and sex | indy100

A pretty interesting and thought-provoking read.

[Ari]

One of the secrets about Art History is a huge chunk of it is inherently porn history.
It wasn't a coincidence that during the 'dark ages' where showing any sinful person nude was banned paintings of Adam and Eve before the fall sky rocketed.

[JoeP]

"Adam and Eve, before the fall."

[The Man]

Originally Posted by Ari

One of the secrets about Art History is a huge chunk of it is inherently porn history.
It wasn't a coincidence that during the 'dark ages' where showing any sinful person nude was banned paintings of Adam and Eve before the fall sky rocketed.

This is absolutely correct, and it's not merely the Dark Ages where this was the case.

The rest of this might be somewhat off-topic here (maybe it's better suited for Return to Gender), but since the discussion came up here, I'll put it here.

My personal stance is that the dichotomy between porn and art is a false one. Porn is its own art form. People don't want to acknowledge this because they are squeamish about sex, but it's a medium with its own narrative conventions just like television and film, and the same kind of craft goes into producing it as goes into producing works in any other artistic medium. Indeed, it basically is a genre of television or film.

The idea that porn can't be art is rooted in the idea that sexual arousal and sex more generally are somehow intrinsically unworthy of serious artistic consideration. Artistic works are intended to elicit emotional reactions all the time. It's almost impossible to find anyone who'll argue that comedy isn't an art form; it's designed to elicit laughter. Porn is designed to elicit sexual arousal. The implication that sexual arousal is unsuited for artistic purposes carries with it the implication that sexual arousal is a lesser emotional state, and that has some extremely unfortunate consequences.

In most cases, porn is ultimately a depiction of idealised sex; it's designed to build continually in intensity in a manner that doesn't usually happen in real-life sex, and it cuts out all the awkward fumbling that would occur during most of the encounters it depicts. People in porn almost always intrinsically know how to pleasure each other without actually communicating it. The messy parts are generally cut out of the picture; it's designed to be as visually appealing as possible.

And the same kind of craft goes into producing it that would go into making any film or television show. It's usually edited from multiple takes (which is why it's able to build consistently in intensity); choices like what camera angles to use in what order are intrinsically artistic decisions. While the performers are almost always enjoying themselves, they're nonetheless called performers for a reason. It may be a different kind of acting from mainstream film, television, or theatre acting, but there's a lot more to it than merely being comfortable having sex on camera.

And because all of these aspects go into the production of porn, it can be analysed using the same techniques one would use to analyse any other artistic medium. There are some areas where porn overall comes out looking less problematic than other genres of film. Far too many women in other film genres lack sexual agency. This is far less widespread a problem in porn, for presumably obvious reasons (many people find sexually assertive women sexually appealing). But there are other areas where it can be analysed critically (for instance, search terms used to categorise videos often end up suggesting some unpleasant things about the way Americans think about race, gender, and sexuality). Because people aren't willing to take it seriously as an art form, though, this doesn't happen.

Most Americans aren't willing to acknowledge any of this, because we're simultaneously prudes and secret perverts. We have the world's largest porn industry; it's actually more profitable than Hollywood. The overwhelming majority of this country looks at porn at least occasionally, but almost no one actually talks about it. And this has severely unpleasant ramifications. One of the worst consequences is that anyone who has appeared in a porn film can essentially be fired purely on those grounds. Because we don't take porn seriously, this is seldom even discussed in media.

The idea that porn isn't art is based in the idea that sex isn't worthy of serious artistic consideration. But of course, sex is a natural part of most people's lives. Treating porn as anything less than a genre of film like any other carries with it some extremely unhealthy attitudes that very well may cause people serious psychological harm.

Apologise if this isn't fully coherent. I have an assignment due later today, so I'm not even sure why I spent this much time writing this post; I may revise it somewhat after I complete the assignment.

[The Man]

The president* is pretty much just the worst person on the planet.

Disgrace - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Naturally, the generals weren't consulted on this at all.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by The Man

The president* is pretty much just the worst person on the planet.

Disgrace - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Naturally, the generals weren't consulted on this at all.

ashley hufford on Twitter: "@realDonaldTrump also this is clearly a health care distraction so i'm going to call my senators now."

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Also: Executive Order 9981 - Wikipedia

July 26, 1948

Originally Posted by Leigh Grossman

I think that's a Trump's Razor thing. The last thing you'd want if you're trying to pretend this isn't really discrimination is to do it on the day that will cause the greatest amount of attention to the discrimination. I think he saw something on Fox and just tweeted it out without talking to anyone first.

[The Lone Ranger]

As one blogger pointed out, the estimated "additional annual cost" the armed forces have to pay to "accommodate" transgender personnel amounts to -- less than the cost to the taxpayers for just one of Trump's visits to Mar-a-Lago.

[Stephen Maturin]

Originally Posted by The Man

The president* is pretty much just the worst person on the planet.

Disgrace - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Naturally, the generals weren't consulted on this at all.

lol "my Generals"

Trump sounds more like a South American tin pot dictator every goddamn day.

But hey, he's got a point here. The military should spend public funds only for necessary medical treatment, you know, like the $84 million they spend each year on boner pills.

[Vivisectus]

Kinda funny when you translate him directly into German and then imagine the usual hand gestures

Unser Armee muss sich konzentrieren auf den endgültigen und überwältigenden Sieg !

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

We welcome Cdns of all sexual orientations and gender identities. Join us! #DiversityIsOurStrength #ForcesJobs https://t.co/572KahN2Zh pic.twitter.com/9In7HR4Utj

— Canadian Forces (@CanadianForces) July 26, 2017

Giggles under spoiler:

show spoiler

No kidding! Really, thanks! pic.twitter.com/7hYMt6IFjx

— (((BobSmith))) (@BobSmith4152) July 26, 2017

[MonCapitan2002]

Originally Posted by Stephen Maturin

lol "my Generals"

Trump sounds more like a South American tin pot dictator every goddamn day.

But hey, he's got a point here. The military should spend public funds only for necessary medical treatment, you know, like the $84 million they spend each year on boner pills.

Which is total bullshit. Were it up to me those Viagra and Cialis pills would not be funded. Treating erectile dysfunction is not a necessary expense. That money would be better spent helping transgendered soldiers transition to the sex they identify with.

You know something funny. The assholes who don't blink about spending tens of millions of dollars on superfluous erectile dysfunction treatments will probably scream holy hell about providing women with essential birth control medication.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Candidate for top Homeland Security job withdraws over Trump transgender troops ban | TheHill