Gay Ugandan Mleuben Maccarthy Speaks Out In Human Rights Campaign Speech

Many of us are aware of the terrible situation being faced by members of the LGBT community in Uganda, and if you are not aware of it then it’s very important that you try to find out.  The country, under leadership of President Yoweri Museveni, have introduced sweeping medieval laws that make Uganda one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be LGBT.

Despite these massive personal dangers, where imprisonment, physical violence and even death are very real possibilities, there are a number of truly amazing individuals that openly protest these laws.

One of these individuals is Mleuben Maccarthy, whom Planet Transgender has written about in the past.

Despite having already faced violence at the hands of the police and facing possible future dangers Mleuben has chosen to continue to speak out about his countries frankly despicable laws.  Mleuben delivered the following speech at a recent Human Rights Campaign.

Mleuben Maccarthy

‘I grew up in a village setting in Kiruhura district with my family.  My family had a very concrete religious foundation that never tolerated anything against the normal African family setting. My mum(the late Naomi) was a very loving and caring mum who taught us a lot of things as we were growing up. I grew up with a feeling for fellow boys which was contrary to what they expected since all other boys used to play with girls but me I would instead enjoy to be around boys most of the times. This personality/character inside of me grew along with as I developed into a mature man which has failed to go off despite the hate and troubling life I pass through among my friends and family since I later came out to be gay.

‘My house was a very religious one with a good foundation of Christianity in our neighbourhood with loving parents and having a friendly neighbouring environment.

‘My friends were fellow boys and they are the ones I enjoyed playing with up to now when I grew up. I have never enjoyed the company of girls though I respect most of them as my sisters. I enjoyed having fun with men.

‘I was bright during my school years and I used to be in the Christian union since I liked serving God bearing the fact that my family and I grew up was so religious. I am a teacher by profession with a certificate in education. I can all say education did not deny me much though I couldn’t make it up to the university level after branching off to do a certificate in education. Since my passion as a child, I wanted to teach children who didn’t have enough parental support or the needy children and I thank God who has fulfilled my dream since now I fundraise and take care of my orphans in my district with a school. Through my online pool of friends across the world I am able to fundraise and get material support to fund and accelerate their education.

‘I can describe myself as a gay man who likes fellow men.  I am a compassionate person who likes helping the needy children and the elderly. I like dressing like a queer with skinny jeans and designer t-shirts but sometimes I like to be professional as a gentleman.  My favorite music is gospel music and I like to hang out on beaches.  My favorite stars are Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo, Jean Claude Van dame and Bruce Willis and lastly my best authors are Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi Wathiongo, Charles Dickens who wrote Oliver Twist and Joyce Meyer.

‘I first came out in 2004, I received harsh and rude reactions from people which have led me to losing most of my straight friends and some family members plus hate from many people in my area.
I was so terrified when I first heard of the antigay bill because of knowing that any time I will be beheaded since the death penalty scared our Ugandan LGBTI movement and that pushed many members back to the closet though some of us were resilient to lobby with international allies to make this measure is withdrawn from parliament. I didn’t protest but wrote many petitions to our Ugandan and other international leaders.  I believed the death penalty was a serious issue which needed to be fought with a very strong force as it was encroaching on the rights of Ugandan LGBTI people.

‘As a teacher, I run an orphanage school in Kamwenge district.  I am a church minister with affirming Pentecostal churches and I am a passionate LGBTI activist. I like taking care of the needy children or the orphans since it was my dream as a child and I thank God who made my dream come true. I love my job and I thank my international allies in Europe and USA who help me in fundraising and providing scholastic materials as well as school fees for these children.

‘I trust my sister and a few friends. Above all, I used to trust more my mum but she died last year. She will forever remain the greatest mum and may God rest her soul in eternal peace.
Yes I chose to partake in this strategy to tell people about my life knowing that the reactions would be cruel knowing that Uganda is so homophobic.

‘Ever since I came out of the closet, I developed much love to serve fellow community members with all my passion, I decided to dedicate my life to activism which has exposed me to many great friends both locally and globally. I was not forced to come out, I was willing to come out but I was still waiting for that right time. After coming out some of my gay friends and I came up together since we had much love in serving God and to offer spiritual rehabilitation to the stigmatized LGBTI members with our vision to form St. Paul’s Voice Centre (SPAVOC).

‘On a local level, the press or the media in Uganda is biased towards issues and all of the outing especially after signing of the law that were meant to instigate violent attacks on LGBTI individuals. This leaves the community members to live in fear since most of our faces, names and other details were published in the “Hello” and “Red Pepper” tabloids leading to many evictions and families disowning many of LGBT individuals. The majority of the Ugandan media to a greater extent is homophobic with a very small number of sympathizers in the media fraternity.

‘No I don’t have a partner but I have a couple of friends I have protected since the bill was signed. I have helped many to relocate to safe places, get them food, counsel them at church and even helped some to move to European countries like Netherlands for asylum and for their safety.
Since the bill was passed mine and the life of some of my close friends have always lived in fear due to the harsh environment.  We fear being arrested and attacked by the homophobic public members that could lead to murdering individuals because of the hatred of having non-heterosexual orientation. More so the situation has changed a lot and many friends have gone back to the closet due to the rampant media outings which caused problems for many of my fellow members and making them feel like criminals and prisoners in their own homes.

Mleuben Maccarthy

‘Things have changed a lot in relation to my activism since February, there are no safe places to conduct meetings and socialize, no more workshops for learning and education, and there are some diplomatic missions with individuals who are distancing themselves from us by denying some members visas fearing they won’t return back. All I can say life for post February has been very demoralizing for me and my fellow members of the LGBT.

‘As a person, I dream about one day living in a country with total respect, dignity, liberty, equality and freedom to all its citizens despite their religious, cultural and sexual orientation differences that is built on tolerance for those to express their individuality.  I would like to have re-united strong LGBTI movement before the passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in February of 2014.
I dream of having equality, justice, and freedom for a liberated Uganda by embracing rights of all citizens and not discriminating LGBT individuals that is my vision for the future of Uganda.
I dream to have a peaceful, stable, united and strong LGBTI movement in Uganda thus meaning I wish to see LGBTI people happy and free enjoying their country like other citizens.

‘My happiest memory is when I won Makwan award and when I was confirmed as reverend under APCI.

‘My biggest fear is being arrested, sentenced to prison for life or being killed as I have so much to offer in educating individuals regarding LGBT movement that we are not criminals nor do we “recruit” children to become gay.  We are people who wish to live in peace and have the freedom and dignity to be ourselves without being harassed, arrested without cause, and shunned from the public.

‘I would send my message to Pope Francis and Queen of England by making a call to them in advising Uganda to repeal the Anti-Homosexuality Act.’

Despite speaking at such a recognised event as the Human Rights Campaign and being featured in news reports across the world Mleuben Mccarthy is by no means out of danger.  He faces serious harm each and every day simply for being himself.

The laws in Uganda are wrong.  No two ways about it.  We cannot ignore what is going on in Uganda simply because it’s ‘not in our country’.  Fellow human beings are suffering simply for being who they are.  We need you all to please, please share Mleubens story and to raise awareness of this issue.

Amy.

www.twitter.com/Amazing_Amy_W

Fulfiling Your Destiny

I didn’t listen to a lot of the hype in the build up to the release of Destiny.  During its development period it was being teased and talked about as the next big thing, but none of it interested me at all.  You see, even though I enjoyed the Halo games I began to get bored of them towards the end, so another shooter made by Bungie didn’t exactly set my world on fire.

Then the Beta came out on Xbox Live and I thought, what the hell?  It’s free I might as well have a go at it.  I fired it up and chose Hunter as my initial class and began playing.  Next thing I know hours have gone by and I’m at the maximum level the Beta will allow.  Damn, I was hooked.

Destiny is a MMORPG, something that I’ve no experience of playing, so this review will be written more from the point of view of an average console gamer and someone that enjoys both RPG’s and FPS’s (boy that’s a lot of abbreviations).

When the game loads up you get presented with the character creation screen.  You get to pick your class, which consist of Titan, Hunter and Warlock, Destiny’s sci-fi equivalent of the classic Warrior, Rogue and Wizard choice.  You then get to choose your species, Human, Awoken (alien, elf like beings) and Exo (robot people), but the game gives you no explanation as to what each choice is.  Something that continues on throughout the rest of the game.

You see, Destiny clearly has a story and a well-crafted world that the game designers put a lot of time and effort into, but it’s rarely given to the player.  You’re presented with races and technology that’s crazy and magical and exotic but never told anything about them.

I know Destiny is building into a huge world that will keep going for a long time and that Bungie can build on with various DLC, but surely they could give us some information on exactly what’s going on.  Instead we’re sent off on what feels like loosely connected missions to fight races such as ‘The Fallen’, ‘The Hive’ and ‘The Cabal’ all of whom are fighting on behalf of ‘The Darkness’.

The massive Cabal rule the deserts of Mars.

If you’re slightly confused by that sentence and don’t really know what’s going on, then welcome to the world of Destiny.  Even once I’d finished the main story line I was a little confused as to what exactly the story was.

There’s even a point where one of the main NPC’s ‘The Speaker’ tells you that he can tell you the history of the world, the story of the Darkness and the Guardians who fight against it but goes on to explain exactly nothing.  Which is a shame as he was voiced by Bill Nighy and it would have been lovely to hear him narrate some more for us.

Lack of in game information aside let’s talk about the actual gameplay itself.

The game looks stunning.  That’s just a fact.  Every level and location is beautiful and breath taking to play in, with each of the planets having its own unique look to it that makes it instantly recognisable.  Whilst some people have complained that these locations are not massive open worlds, but each planet is vast enough to spend hours on patrol missions, fighting enemies and completing objectives.

Enemies are varied enough to keep things interesting, with four enemy races to go up against, and come complete with an array of abilities and vehicles to make the combat frenetic and varied.  The firefights range from long distance sniper fights, to blade wielding enemies attack you in close, to hordes of machines marching mercilessly towards you like an army.

Both wonders and horrors await on every planet you visit.

Being a MMORPG the combat is all about numbers, how much damage you weapons inflict on the enemy, how high your armour class is and how much experience you receive.  The more experience you gain the higher the characters level grows and the more skills unique to your class you gain.

With the levelling up though comes yet another problem with Destiny not telling you everything as once you reach level 20 you stop gaining experience from defeating enemies and completing objectives.  Instead, as I have learnt from friends and the internet, as the game doesn’t seem to want to tell you, you have to find weapons and equipment with ‘light’ points.  These points act like experience and increase your level past 20, but finding said items is not as easy and common as you would want, potentially halting your characters growth as other players keep on getting stronger around you.

Team up with your friends to take down massive enemies.

Speaking of other players, with Destiny being a MMORPG the game world is populated by other players, whom you can either engage with in PVP multiplayer or team up with in the main game.  Being a somewhat unsociable person I was glad that apart from a handful of Strike missions I was never forced to play alongside anyone else, and was able to walk away from other players and continue on my own path as I wished.  Plus for a game that boasts thousands and thousands of player it’s nice that the game world isn’t swarming with other people.

Because I’m not much of a social player I’ve not engaged in Destiny’s multiplayer arena much, but from what I have experience it’s a well-built PVP mode that’s different enough from the main game to be engaging, plus beneficial as the points you earn build towards items and gear in the main game.

Whilst Destiny may have unset a few people who expected something more than it turned out to be, and are upset with the lack of in game information if you want a well-made shooter that will last you more than a few hours and will keep you hooked for the long run you can do a lot worse.

Amy.
xx

Amy Walker Twitter

A Hope For Trans Women?

News has been breaking today that may be one of major importance to the transgender community.  Today saw the birth of a child that was grown in a transplanted womb.  The 37 year old Swedish woman received the womb from a close family friend last year and today gave birth to her first son.

A pioneering procedure that so far has used donated wombs from living people, some are looking at the possibility of including the womb on donor registration from women who have died.  Despite being able to help thousands of women around the world who don’t have the ability to carry their own child, some are worried that the surgery may be too expensive and potentially dangerous, with no guarantee of a successful pregnancy.

Now, there is no news yet about whether or not this surgery will become something common, or just which women will benefit from it, but I’m sure that every trans women who is reading this now has the same feelings about it that I do.  Hope.  Well, hope mixed with sadness.

I know that I’m never going to be able to have a child, that I can never be a mother to my own flesh and blood.  Yes, there are other options out there available to me, and I’m not saying that I’m not open to them, but the possibility that one day transgender women might be able to carry their own children is phenomenal.

I don’t want to get my hopes up, or any of my readers either, but I hope so much that one day it could happen.

Amy.
xx

Amy Walker Twitter

Amy Walker Facebook

Facebook Apologises to Drag and LGBT Community

If you’ve read my blog before or been listening to the news recently you’ll be aware of the recent problems being faced by the LGBT and Drag community on Facebook.  A controversial real name policy, a policy that has always been in place but rarely enforced in the past, has been used to delete a number of profiles of people that are believed to have been ‘using fake names’.

Facebook have since said that he problem occurred when a single user reported hundreds of accounts belonging to drag queens and transgender people last month.  The company said that it did not realise that these groups were being targeted as they were amongst several thousand fake name reports that are processed every week.

Facebook chief product officer Chris Cox acknowledged that the experience had been "painful" for those involved.

‘I want to apologize to the affected community of drag queens, drag kings, transgender, and extensive community of our friends, neighbours, and members of the LGBT community for the hardship that we've put you through in dealing with your Facebook accounts over the past few weeks,’ he said.

Facebook have expanded upon their real name policy and have changed their stance from people needing to use their legal name to the name that they use most in everyday life.  Meaning that for drag performers, transgender people, actors, writer, victims of abuse or bullying then they can continue to use the names on the accounts that were just a week ago under risk of being deleted.

Drag performer Sister Roma was one of the people that met
with Facebook to protest their policy.

As someone who had their last profile deleted I’m glad that the chance of it happening again has, hopefully, gone.  I’m also glad that other people won’t have to go through it either, whether trans or not.  I’ve been debating about the subject with a few people and it’s been surprising just how many people supported this policy, who wanted people deleted for not using their ‘real’ name.

I’ve seen arguments ranging from ‘lying about your name shows lack of integrity’, to ‘you don’t pay to use Facebook, if they want to delete you they should be able to’ to some extremely transphobic comments that I’m not going to share here.

The bottom line is the policy that they were trying to enforce was wrong.  It was unfair and potentially dangerous to those they were targeting.

I don’t know if Facebook have reversed their decision on this policy because they came to their sense and realised that the policy was unfair or if it’s simply because of the amount of backlash and negative attention they are getting.  I hope it’s the former, but even if it’s not I’m not going to complain because I’m just happy that they have changed their mind.

At least now I and others can continue to use Facebook without the fear of our accounts suddenly being deleted.

Amy.
xx

Amy Walker Facebook

Trans Girl Writer Facebook

'Walking Dead' Star Norman Reedus Reveals That Daryl Dixon Is Gay

Since season four of the hit AMC television show ‘The Walking Dead’ came to an end there has been a great deal of speculation amongst fans as to the possible sexuality of character Daryl Dixon.  A fan favourite created just for the television series Daryl Dixons popularity has gone from strength to strength with each episode.

The idea that Daryl could be gay started way back in season three, during this time Daryl was faced with some pretty open flirting from his best friend Carol that made him squirm more than anything else.  Whilst a lot of people just saw this as friendly banter between friends, and because of that friendship Daryl felt uncomfortable, though some saw a little extra in his reactions.  Then, in season four Beth set her sights on the crossbow toting redneck, with no actual success.

Could this be because Daryl isn’t interested in women?

Is the only reason these two aren't a couple because
Daryl's gay?

Fans also speculated that Daryl being gay could also explain why he’s one of the few main characters to as of yet to have no romantic subplot, only strong female friends.  Along with this there’s also the fact that his big brother Merle has thrown a number of homophobic slurs at him and the history of physical abuse from his father.  Could this once again be explained away by Daryl being homosexual?

When asked about the possibility of Daryl being gay at a convention ‘Walking Dead’ creator Robert Kirkman confirmed that it had been discussed and that he would be more than willing to allow the show runners to take the character in that direction if they wanted.

So, lots of possibility but nothing confirmed right?  Well, that was the case until recently when Daryl Dixon himself, Norman Reedus, addressed fan speculation after the shows co-creator Scott M Gimple announced that a gay character would be joining the show.

Talking to GQ magazine he revealed that he’s always been playing the character as closeted gay since the start of the second season after the idea was pitched to him by the original showrunner Frank Darabont.

He said, ‘I remember talking to Frank Darabont, after the first season – we were at a party in LA.  He said, ‘I’ve got an idea for Daryl. He’s gay. Would you be interested in that?’ I was like, ‘Let me hear you out.’ He said, ‘Well, he’s prison gay. Like, you’ll catch him looking at a member of the same sex, but if you mention it to him, he’ll just stab you and be like, What the fuck? He will never admit it.’ I was like, ‘That’ll blow minds – let’s do that.'

Daryl even spurned Beth's advances.

Reedus added, ‘He’s definitely not a ladies’ man or thinks of himself as having enough confidence to be that type of person. I want to play him searching for confidence, not full of confidence, you know what I mean? I like all the little things that are awkward … I would rather play him like not somebody that’s got cool-guy moves or anything like that.’

So does this mean that Daryl Dixon will soon be joining the ranks of geek tv LGBT characters such as Captain Jack, Xena and Willow?  I for one certainly hope so.  Having Daryl be gay would not only be awesome for the LGBT community but an excellent direction to take the character.

I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens as the show unfolds.

Amy.
xx

Amy Walker Facebook
Trans Girl Writer Facebook

The Facebook Name Debate and Having My Profile Deleted

Facebook is at the centre of a media storm following
its new name change policy.

I have to admit, there are times that I’m a little slow at putting two and two together.  You see a few weeks ago I had to make myself a new Facebook account.  You see, my previous account was shut down because I was apparently not using my real name.  I was a little irked at this to say the least and when I followed instructions to try and get my account back I was asked to prove my identity with photographic ID.

Now, for a lot of people out there this wouldn’t be too much of an issue, but as a transgender person having ID that displays my correct name is something of a problem for me.  Yes, I’ve got ID with my birth name on it, along with a photograph of a version of myself.  But that’s not who I really am, and it’s certainly not who I am on Facebook.  Presented with this problem I sent a message to the company to try and explain my position and asked very nicely for my account to be reactivated, yet heard nothing in response.

Skip to much later on and I’ve created a new account and had to go through trying to find all of my old friends and contacts.  Then I’m reading through various news stories and come across an article about how Facebook is cracking down on stage names being used by the drag community and shutting down their accounts.  I read through the story and thought that, yes, it was a bad situation but one that I was a little removed from.  After all, I’m not a drag artist so it wouldn’t really affect me would it?

But then as time passed and I thought more about it I began to consider exactly what the new name change policy could mean to the LGBT community beyond drag performers.  What would happen if Facebook turned their attention to those trans people who are in the middle of transitioning themselves and cannot comply with their new rules.  Then I suddenly realised that maybe my experience was somehow connected.

Did Facebook shut down my account because I’m transgender?

Facebook chose to shut down my old account due to it not
being under my legal name.

Whilst most of the people that have been targeted by Facebook are in the drag community there are others in the LGBT community and beyond who have fallen victim to their harsh new policy.  Well, I say new policy, the policy has always been there, but it has not always been so harshly enforced until recently.

Facebook has given what I’m sure to them is a perfectly reasonable statement on the situation siting ‘If people want to use an alternative name on Facebook, they have several different options available to them, including providing an alias under their name on their profile, or creating a Page specifically for that alternative persona.  As part of our overall standards, we ask that people who use Facebook provide their real name on their profile.’

All well and good in a lot of situations I suppose, but what about those people like the drag community who feel that if their true identities were made public it could cause them to face serious dangers and possibly even physical harm in their everyday lives.  Or what about the trans community, where people are moving from their given identity to their true one, who have found their real name and want to be known by it but do not yet have any form of ‘official’ ID.

On Wednesday members of the drag community met with Facebook officials in order to discuss the current sate of affairs on the site.  One of the members in attendance, drag performer Sister Roma, reported that Facebook refuses to even acknowledge that there is an issue with the new policy.  According to Roma Facebook even admitted that many of the accounts that were deactivated were targeted due to complaints made by other users.

Drag performer Sister Roma is one of the people meeting
with Facebook to discuss their new policy.

Since the meeting Facebook has agreed to temporarily reinstate hundreds of profiles that were deleted due to complaints from other users, but only for a two week period so that the effected users can choose whether or not they’d like to use their legal names.

‘We’ve decided to temporarily reactivate the profiles of several hundred members of the LGBT community whose profiles were recently deactivated,’ Facebook spokesperson Andrew Souvall said in a recent statement. ‘This will give them a chance to decide how they’d like to represent themselves on Facebook. Over the next two weeks, we hope that they will decide to confirm their real name, change their name to their real name, or convert their profile to a Page.’

When you think about it though is there any point in letting people have their profiles back for such a short period?  Especially as if you want to keep them you’ll have to bow to Facebooks new rules?

I’ve already had one account deleted, possibly from other users complaining about me (yes, I’m looking at all you creepy ‘chasers’ who keep messaging me for sex chats and pics who I tell to fuck off), and could very well have this account suspended too.  The thing is, Amy isn’t a fake name.  It’s me.  I won’t be forced into using a name that isn’t true to who I really am.  Especially by a faceless organisation.

Due to my previous account being deleted, and in a small part to this article I’m sharing where I’m complaining about Facebook I’m kind of expecting that I’ll have my profile deleted again.  The thing is, this new rule is wrong.  Facebook shouldn’t be able to tell you what name you can and cannot use.  Especially when nine times out of ten I go by Amy and not my ‘real’ name.

Hopefully Facebook will reverse its decision soon as I’m sure the LGBT community won’t let the issue go.

Amy.
Xx

Amy Walker Facebook

Trans Girl Writer Facebook

Benedict Cumberbatch Calls for a Female, Then a Gay President

Benedict Cumberbatch, star of the popular BBC television series ‘Sherlock’ as well as recent Hollywood movies such as ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ and ‘The Hobbit’, was recently promoting his new film ‘The Imitation Game’ when he said something that I’m sure will cause something of a stir.  Especially in the United States.

Cumberbatch was talking to interviewers from the Daily Beast about playing Alan Turing, the famous openly gay British code breaker during World War II, when he voiced the opinion that America should set its sights on electing a gay president in the future.

When talking about some of the homophobic and anti-gay views that are expressed in America he replied ‘Yes. Very homophobic. You need to have a female president next, and then after that, a gay president. That’s the full journey from Obama’s legacy onwards.’

‘There’s a great Morrissey lyric that goes, ‘In America, the land of the free, they said / And of opportunity, in a just and truthful way / But where the president is never black, female or gay, and until that day / You’ve got nothing to say to me, to help me believe’.

‘It’s quite an old song from before Obama took office, but you’ve done black, then you need to do female, then the next, gay.’

Cumberbatch has been speaking very openly and candidly on his views on homophobia and the treatment that LGBT victims face, due in part to his portrayal of Alan Turing, a man who helped to decipher coded Nazi messages during World War II but due to his homosexuality was chemically castrated and later committed suicide.

‘The scenes of Turing undergoing the chemical castration are really gut wrenching,’ the Daily Beast commented during the interview. ‘And it’s still going on in North America with the Christian far right,’ Cumberbatch responded.

‘There are courses and doctors and meds handed out to 'cure' people of their homosexuality, and it’s shocking that it still goes on. It’s also shocking that any time there’s any kind of hardship, the minorities are immediately scapegoated—and that includes homosexuals in Russia, the Golden Dawn in Greece. The Golden Dawn came out of a financial crisis and people wanted answers, and the minute you start stirring up nationalistic feelings, minorities are the first people to get it because they’re the easiest to scapegoat. It’s terrifying.’

Whether you agree with Cumberbatch’s views that America should follow Morrissey’s plan exactly to the letter I think that some people will feel the need to very vocally disagree.  America has shown that it’s ready for a black president, but is it too early for them to accept a female or gay leader?

Amy.

xx

Hey, Who Hasn't Done It?

Jennifer Lawrence is one of the celebrities fallen
victim to photo hacking.

Unless you’ve been hiding away from the internet recently you’ll be sure to have heard about the latest celebrity photo hack scandal. 

Leaked nude pictures of celebrities is hardly a new thing, but what puts this latest case into the limelight is the fact that so many were leaked all at once, and that in some of the pictures the celebrities in question were in fact underage. 

Household names such as actresses Jennifer Lawrence and Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Olympic medallist McKeyla Maroney were a few amongst the dozens of people who had private pictures leaked online. 

The internets’ response to this current breach in privacy has been somewhat of a surprise though, with thousands of people and websites publicly condemning the action and standing in support of the victims.

The thing is, whilst the leaking of peoples private pictures is a bad thing, particularly ‘saucy’ nude ones, is it really something that we should care about?

McKeyla Maroney revealed that the stolen photographs of
her were taken when she was underage, leading many
people to condemn it as child pornography.

Not the leaking, the breach of someone’s privacy is definitely something we should be caring about.  No, what I think we shouldn’t care about is that these young women have taken ‘sexy’ pictures of themselves to send to people. 

We’re all human, and most people have a sex drive of some kind.  Most people will want to titillate and be titillated themselves, so is the fact that someone of fame wants to turn someone on with a naked photo a shock?  No.  No it isn’t.  How many of you have done the same thing?

Most people, especially below a certain generation, will have engaged in the sending of dirty pictures, sexting, webcaming or dirty talk online.  It’s part of human nature.  It’s perfectly natural to want to do something like that.  Hell, there are people in the world who are famous for things like that.  I don’t just mean porn starts though, there is a whole group of young women who have become pseudo-celebrities from exposing themselves to the world on Snapchat.

We shouldn’t feel the need to sensationalise something that so many people do, and respect people’s privacy enough not to go looking at photographs of them that have been released without their consent.  There are many naked pictures on the internet that people have allowed to be shown of them, that don’t mind if people sit around in a dark room and touch themselves whilst looking at, so go look at those and leave the victims of photo hacking alone.

Amy.

xx

Amy Walker Facebook

Trans Girl Writer Facebook Page

Guarding the Galaxy

What can I say about ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ that’s not been said in countless other reviews?  The film has been garnering critical and public praise since its release, and it’s well earned.  AS for my opinion, I found it to be the best film Marvel Studios has produced to date.  Better even then Avengers.  Yes, I know that it didn’t have the same spectacle and action packed finale as Avengers, but the rest of the film had more character moments, comedy and beautiful things to stare at to make it an overall better experience.

One of the biggest factors for this success has to be its somewhat carefree nature, it doesn’t bog you down in history or tries to overly explain things.  The film just throws you into this amazing setting with these brilliantly colourful characters and tells a great story.  Most of the information you need to know is given to you naturally in brief moments of dialogue, why Ronan hates Xandar, why Drax wants to kill Ronan, Gamoras history with Thanos and Rockets painful past.  Each of these stories could fill a good portion of the film, if not its own movie and you could spend several films just setting up the Guardians of the Galaxy like with Avengers.

Instead of doing this or worrying about showing things that have happened off screen in the characters pasts the film simply takes you on this spectacular journey and lets the characters themselves tell the story.

And the characters are great too!  Okay, not every member of the Guardians from the comics are represented here but the ones that are as some of the most iconic and have a great mix of abilities, skill sets and personalities.  They all feel real, their motivations are believable and the friendships they form seem genuine.  Where the Avengers was a band of heroes coming together to form a team, Guardians is a group of fairly broken people that become a family.

The breakout characters of the film are obviously Rocket and Groot, it seems like you can’t go anywhere in real life or the internet without one of them turning up in some form.  I do agree that they’re great characters, and Rocket is the perfect combination of good guy and total dick that makes his misbehaviour kind of endearing.

For me though the standout character has to be Thanos.  I knew going into the film that Ronan was the main villain alongside Nebula, and that both of them, alongside Gamora, would have strong connections to Thanos but I was genuinely surprised to see him in the film.  Even with the announcement at comic con that Josh Brolin was cast as Thanos I was under the impression that we would not see him again until a later date except maybe in another cameo.

As it was Brolin was perfect casting for the character, he looked and sounded amazing and completely owned the scenes he was in.  It actually gave me goose bumps when he appeared.  His is the character I’m most looking forward to seeing return.

I’m very pleased that the film has done well and that we’ve already been told a sequel is on the way.  I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Amy.
xx

Cisphobia is Perfectly Natural - Updated

Wait – you’re cisphobic?

You have a problem with guys not having their penis removed?  He’s a dude, you asshole.  God fucked up and made him a dude, but luckily we have the technology to fix that mistake. Why couldn’t he just be transgender? Well, for one, he needs to feel his penis inside someone. No, his finger doesn’t count. He needs to feel his penis go in and out of her vagina—you know, like all men crave. That feeling of fucking a vagina. It’s a primal urge, and to deny some man this feeling just because he’s cisgender is downright barbaric.

Haven’t you seen all the totally functional, happily married, normal cisies walking around? They aren’t all dead, you know. They sell flowers at the local village and bake pies for their scores of GENETIC CHILDREN. They’re heteronormative. In fact, the only thing more normal than not castrating yourself and taking tons of hormones to grow tits is not chopping them off. Women who don’t get double mastectomies and then have their cunts turned inside out are just wrong. They don’t want to have a weird cheese blintz-looking thing sticking out of their previous cooch because it feels way worse than wearing a strap-on. Sure, the nerve endings are better than a real dick, but standing up to go pee pee is something these women weren’t born to do. How dare you have a problem with that?

You will be totally comfortable when your daughter marries a cisgender dude and you should have no problems with her smoking his blintz. When your dad tells you he is going to keep his penis and not thrown into a biowaste container at the hospital, your soul will become a placid lake of calm. “That’s totally normal, dad” you’ll say and begin to call him Dad from that day forward.

When Janet Mock appears on MSNBC and talks about growing up as a black chick, nobody’s going to bat an eye. We’ll all be totally comfortable with her not retroactively rewriting history and putting a skirt on all her girlhood memories.

I kid. I kid. Of course it’s fucking unusual. We’re all cisphobic. We aren’t BLIND. We see there are no old cisies. They die of drug overdoses and suicide way before they’re 40 and nobody notices because nobody knows them. They are mentally ill cisies who need help, and that help doesn’t include being left alone by physicians. These aren’t men trapped in a man’s body. They are nuts trapped in a crazy person’s body. I see them on the streets of New York. They are girls with tits and a sweatshirt. They wear jeans and New Balance. “What’s the matter with simply being a woman who wears makeup?” I think when I see them. You’re a woman. You’re a girly girl at best. Get fucked in the front bum. And guys, if you’re butch, you’re a lad with a lot of testosterone. Put on a belt and fuck your girlfriend. You don’t need to turn your penis inside out. You’re a man. You even know what Turf Builder is.

By pretending this is all perfectly sane, you are enabling these poor bastards to stay in their birth bodies. This insane war on pronouns is about telling people what to do. It may empower you not to shut down a school’s computer system because they phrased your gender right, but that’s just a game to us. To them, it’s everyday life that doesn’t fucks them up. To fight against cisphobia is to justify cisies. To justify cisies is to allow mentally ill people to exist. When your actions are leaving people alone, you’re at war with them.

It’s great for women too. Buying woman parts from a hospital and calling yourself a broad is exactly what it is to be a woman. Womanhood is on a shelf next to wigs and makeup. Similarly, being a dude isn’t that involved. Ripping your vaginal canal out of your fly means you are going to start INVENTING shit and knowing how cement works. Being a man is terrible. So is being a woman. We should revere these creations, and revel in their bastardization. Being cis is a weird quirk that happens at birth. It’s like being an albino. If you’re born that way, should fight it. You need to change who you are. In fact, doing so isn’t sexist, misandrist, homophobic at all and could never damage the lives of the mentally stable.

Well, that was a bit strange wasn’t it?  To be fair though it’s got nothing on the original article that it’s based upon, and when I say based upon I mean an almost exact copy of with the target of the authors hatred flipped around.

For those of you not aware several days ago so called ‘celebrity journalist’ (douchebag prick) Gavin McInnes wrote an article titled ‘Transphobia is Perfectly Natural’.  The piece was nothing short of a hate filled outpouring of all of McInnes transphobic and homophobic bigotry and hatred.

Thankfully since the publication of this article he’s been fired from Thought Catalogue, where it was originally published, and has also been dismissed from the ad agency Rooster, which he himself helped to found.

Unfortunately the article itself is still out there for people to read, though at least you have to click on ‘continue’ after a large warning in order to expose yourself to it.  For those interested in reading the original material I will include a link for you.  Though I dearly urge you to stay away from the comments section.

'Transphobia is Perfectly Natural' Article

Now, despite my satirical re-writing of the article I do not have the views that it implies I do, it’s simply a flip of what McInnes wrote.  I’m not Cisphbic.  I’m not homophobic.  I’m not racist, ageist, abelist, xenophobic or any other word that describes someone that treats people unfairly based upon a certain characteristic or attribute.  I take everyone for who they are and try to treat them all the same.  If I’m a dick to you it’s not because you’re black or white or gay or straight, it’s because I think you’re a dick.
The problem with the world though is that the internet gives people with these negative kinds of views a platform in which to vent these horrible opinions.  Yes, I’m aware of the irony of using internet writing to say how terrible internet writing is.

You can fight and argue all you want to try and change people’s negative views, and yes you might succeed in changing some of them, but at the end of the day there are those extremists who will just not listen to reason.  Those people who are just so full of hate that they will never change.  (Yes, I’m looking at you Westborough Baptist Church!)

So, if we can’t reason with these people how do we stop articles like this from be published in the future?  Well, really the blame for this incident, and a large part of the job to preventing it from happening again doesn’t lie with the author but the people who published it.

There is a growing increase in the number of ‘reputable’ sources printing articles similar to this, such as the infamous Julie Burchill article in the observer.  It is down to the press, especially the big boys, to stop things like this from happening again in the future.  But that doesn’t mean we need to leave it all to them.  Any type of article that contains hate speech HAS to be challenged.  Report it.  Complain about it.  Buy up every copy of the newspaper it in you can find and burn it.  Anything you can do to stop the spread of hatred is your duty to do.

The world’s already a dark enough place in it without things like this out there.  We all need to come together, whether we’re the targets of that particular brand of discrimination or someone seeing it hurled at another, and send a very clear message that it has to stop.

Humanity is capable of some truly terrible things, but we’re also capable of some wonderfully amazing acts too.  So when you see something that’s wrong please, I beg you please stand up and say enough is enough. 

Amy.

xx