Jacqueline Wilson Voices Opinion On Trans Children Bordering On Transphobia

Beloved children's author Jacqueline Wilson has broached the topic of transgender children during a recent interview with The Daily Telegraph. During the interview Wilson said that transgender children receiving treatment makes her 'very worried'.

'Some people, right from the time that they are toddlers, are aware that something is wrong and they wish that they could be the other sex.' She told the Telegraph. 'But I'm also aware that some children feel strongly for a while and then they change their minds. I think it's a decision that has to be left a while until you are utterly mature and utterly certain you know all the actual consequences.'

Having already spoken about the supposed dangers of children de-transitioning, something that rarely happens with trans people but if often used as a scare tactic against allowing people to transition Wilson then proceeded to spread misinformation used by transphobes. She went on to say that she was concerned about the long term effects of 'drugs, hormones, or whatever' being used on children. Something that is not actually done.

'And the whole idea of having major surgery... if you're a young child is not a question of just having bits of you lopped off,' she continued. 'It's really serious, difficult surgery which can have pretty devastating consequences, I would imagine.'

Children in the UK do not have gender reassignment surgery, and it is illegal to do so. Children in the UK also do not undergo hormone treatment, and only receive puberty blockers after thorough assessments with multiple doctors and have no irreversible or dangerous effects.

Wilson also said that she would not include a transgender character in any of her books, stating 'I wouldn't want people to think I jumped on the bandwagon just because it's current and in the news'.

Whether or not Wilson is actually a transphobe or simply misinformed, her statements are extremely damaging and full of false information.

'If only everybody could be and act exactly the way they want to but not actually try to change themselves physically, I think that would be easier.' She added. 'We still have a strange way of putting girls and boys into different slots... I wish we could come to a stage when anybody who fancied could wear a dress and do so-called 'girly' things or anyone who wanted could wear jeans and tinker with car engines.'


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15-Year-Old Child Takes His Own Life Following Homophobic Bullying

Nigel Shelby, a 15-year-old student from Huntsville High School in Huntsville, Alabama, has taken his own life following a series of homophobic bullying from fellow students.

Alabama's local Rocket City Pride group released a statement over the weekend announcing the loss of Nigel.

'We are heartbroken over the death of Nigel Shelby, a 15 year old Freschman at Huntsville High School. Nigel took his life because he was bullied for being gay.' The Statment read. 'There are no words that can be said to make sense of this devastating news.'

The group also set up a GoFundMe page in order to assist Nigel's family at this difficult time. The page has a target of $10,000, but at this time has already exceeded this goal and has raised more then $14,000.

Nigel's GoFundMe

Caila Malone, a drag queen and member of Rocket City Pride said, 'I remember being called terrible words even when I was in elementary school before I knew what they meant. These bullies have to be held accountable, and until our state legislation shows that they have to do that they're able to run a muck and do whatever they want. It's shaken all of us so we just have to bring our LGBTQ community in Huntsville together and let all of these kids know, that they are not alone.'

Studies by the Centre for Social Equity say that 74% of youth claim that they do not feel safe in school.

'We are saddened to learn this morning of the death of Nigel Shelby, one of our 9th grade students.' Said Aaron King, Nigel's school principal. 'Our thoughts and prayers are with the family during this difficult time. Many students have been affected by this news. Teachers and specially trained counselors have talked with students about Nigel and their feelings. Please be sensitive to any changes in your child’s behavior. Over the next few days, encourage your child to express his or her feelings and listen attentively.'

The statement also went on to provide advice to parents on helping their children grieve, and the different reactions their children may have to the news.

One of Nigel's fellow classmates, Nadia M. Richardson, has started a mental health awareness campaign called No More Martyrs.

'I am still processing this loss, we have so much to understand and so much work to do. Racism, sexism, homophobia, classism; all of this plays a part.' She said in a statement. 'Bullying is a byproduct of a world ill-equipped to include that which is deemed different. As a result, psychologically damaging othering occurs and leaves many isolated, self-loathing, and depressed. Don't shy away from the necessary conversations around this. The cost is too high.'

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Charlize Theron Reveals Her Eldest Child Is Transgender

Actress Charlize Theron has revealed that Jackson, her eldest child, identifies as female, and that she will allow her to live and be raised in her correct gender. The news came following an interview with The Daily Mail, who directly asked her about Jackson's gender following paparazzi taking several photographs and videos of her presenting female over the years.

'Yes, I thought she was a boy too. Until she looked at me when she was three years old and said 'I am not a boy!'' Theron told the paper. 'So there you go! I have two beautiful daughters who, just like any parent, I want to protect and I want to see thrive.

'They were born who they are and exactly where in the world both of them get to find themselves as they grow up, and who they want to be, is not for me to decide. My job as a parent is to celebrate them and to love them and to make sure that they have everything they need in order to be what they want to be. And I will do everything in my power for my kids to have that right and to be protected within that.'

She went on to explain that her inspiration for how to act as a parent came from her mother, who protected her from her alcoholic and violent father during her youth.


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Gay Journalist Lyra McKee Killed In Northern Ireland Riots

Lyra McKee, an acclaimed journalist from Belfast who recently signed a two book deal with publishers Faber & Faber, was shot and killed during a riot in Derry, Northern Ireland on April 18th.

Lyra first came to public prominence in 2014 when she published a blog titled 'Letter to my 14-year-old self', in which she spoke about the challenges that she faced growing up gay in Ireland. The post became so popular that it was made into a short film.

She continued to work as a journalist, producing articles in publications such as Private Eye, Buzzfeed, and The Belfast Telegraph. One of her most famous articles, titled 'Suicide of the Ceasefire Babies' was published in a number of noteworthy publications, including The Atlantic, and The Independent.

Covering The Troubles and their consequences in great detail, Lyra was in Derry to report on the riots that had broken out when she was shot and killed.

'Lyra McKee was murdered during orchestrated violence in Creggan last night.' Mark Hamilton, Assistant Chief Constable for District Policing, said the morning after the event. 'A single gunman fired shots in a residential area of the city and as a result wounded Ms McKee. Officers quickly administered first aid before transporting her in the back of a landrover to hospital.

'Tragically, she died from her injuries. At this stage we believe her murder was carried out by a violent dissident republican. Our thoughts are very much with the family and friends of Ms McKee, who was a journalist in Belfast.'

Two men, aged 18 and 19, were arrested in connection with the murder under the Terrorism Act, and are being held by detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland's major investigation team. They have been taken to a police station in Belfast for questioning.

Detective Superintendant Jason Murphy warned the public that 'What we are seeing is a new brand of terrorist coming through the ranks and that for me is a very worrying situation.

'We identified a palpable change in community sentiment, particularly the community sentiment towards policing. I think yesterday we realised that a vast majority of communities across Northern Ireland support police and support policing and they support the peace process. What we saw yesterday was a visible demonstration of that within the Creggan community, a community that has been very frightened for a long time and for a large part is being held to ransom by terrorist organisations that claim to represent them.'

Thousands gathered in the Fanad Drive area of Creggan on April 19th to hold a vigil for Lyra. Her partner, Sara Canning spoke about Lyra, and her role as both an activist and advocate.

'Our hopes and dreams, her amazing potential was snuffed out by a single barbaric act. This cannot stand. Lyra's death must not be in vain because her life was a shining light in everyone else's life. Her legacy will live on in the light that she's left behind.'


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Dragon Ball's Vic Mignogna Sues Funimation and Colleagues For Defamation Following Sexual Harassment Claims

Voice actor Vic Mignognia, best known for his role as Broly in the Dragonball series, has filed a lawsuit against Funimation and several of his colleagues for a million dollars following accusations of sexual misconduct.

In January this year, following the release of the new Dragon Ball movie Dragon Ball Super: Broly, a number of accusations emerged from fellow voice actors of misconduct, including sexual harassment, that Mignognia had engaged in on several occassions. Due to public outcry, and internal investigations by both Rooster Teeth and Funimation Mignognia was removed from a number of projects.

Despite these claims he has been vocal about his innocence, denying that he ever engaged in any such activity. He has been supported online by a contingent of loyal fans, who have gone out of their way to attack Funimation, as well as voice actors such as Monica Rial, Ronald Toye, and Jamie Marchi, all of whom voiced allegations against Mignognina, and are named in his lawsuit.

In the lawsuit, Mignognia claims that these actors 'directly interfered' in his business affairs, and claims that all the statements made against him have been false.

'The repeated attention that Monica, Jamie, and even Funimation's agents, employees or business partners, gave Hanleia's and Marzgul's accusations caused their twitter to 'go viral',' his lawsuit stated.

The news of this lawsuit is sure to stir further drama online in the Dragon Ball community, which has divided into clear camps of those who believe the victim's accusations, and those who support Mignognia. This debate has become incredibly heated, and has become something of a toxic stain on the Dragon Ball fandom.


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Thousands Sign Petition To Ban Hate Pastor From Ireland

More than 6,000 people have signed an online petition calling for US pastor Steve Anderson to be banned from entering Ireland.

An independent Baptist, Anderson is a co-founder of the Faithful World Baptist Church in Arizona, a church which is currently listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Centre. Despite founding the church in 2005, Anderson received public attention within the last few years due to his open anti-LGBT+ views and rhetoric, as well as many other hateful standpoints.

Anderson publicly opposes abortion, taxes, feminism, LGBT+ people, and big government. He has called for a cure for AIDS by having governments kill all gay people, celebrated the Pulse Massacre, claimed the Holocaust never happened, and calls for the return of slavery.

The petition, which is available to sign on Change.org, says, 'Steve Anderson is a Holocaust-denier, Islamophobe and anti-LGBT+ extremist.'

Anderson has previously been banned from South Africa, as well as from entering the United Kingdom whilst travelling. Could Ireland become the latest country to ban this hateful bigot?


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Cardiff University Cancels Anti-LGBT+ Education Speaker

Cardiff University has announced that it has cancelled an upcoming event with speaker Dr Kate Godfrey-Faussett, a psychologist who has spoken out against LGBT+ education in schools.

Dr Godfrey-Faussett, who has a great deal of experience working with children and their families, is a leading campaigner in the group Stop RSE, a group that is aiming to remove Relationship and Sex Education from schools, which is set to become compulsory in 2020.

Speaking online Dr Godfrey-Faussett said that many Muslim youths were 'turning to same-sex relationships because they haven't had the guidance'. She also claimed that the new education programme would be a 'queering of the Muslim community', said that LGBT+ education is a 'social engineering programme to corrupt children', and called it 'unethical'.

'This is not education, this is ideological indoctrination that's happening. The aim is to redefine sexuality and gender norms. They are not saying let's break down the family, they're saying 'this is family, mum and mum, dad and dad.'

Dr. Godfrey-Faussett was due to appear at the university to speak about the new RSE curriculum by the Muslim Council of Wales, despite her being investigated by the British Psychology Society  for her fitness to practice for advising LGBT+ people to seek therapy for their sexuality.

A spokesperson from Cardiff University released a statement saying, 'Differing and often controversial views can be brought forward, listened to and challenged at universities, however, as this event has not followed our procedure for carrying out relevant due diligence, we have taken the decision not to allow it to go ahead.'

Due to Dr Godfrey-Faussett's repeated public statements against Relationship and Sex Education she was suspended by the British Psychology Society. In a statement made on 2nd April they said, 'Respect, equality, tolerance and a non-judgemental approach are the bedrock of good psychological practice and are the values that we know the vast majority of psychologists embrace day in, day out. As a result of our concerns, we have referred Dr Godfrey-Faussett to her regulator, the HCPC, as we feel her comments have the potential to undermine the public's confidence in the psychology profession. We are also conducting our own investigation which could result in Dr Godfrey-Faussett being removed from our membership.'

Speaking to 5Pillars Dr Godfrey-Faussett claimed that she was at the centre of a 'witch-hunt'.

'Since the attacks began, my employers obviously saw the articles in the Daily Mail and elsewhere and now I have been suspended without pay, which is having a financial impact. I don’t know what the outcome will be, and I will have to wait to see what happens but the way it’s being portrayed in the media is as if I am being hanged, drawn and quartered without trial already.

'The British Psychological Society (BPS) has approached me announcing they are launching an investigation. They wrote to me condemning me for a whole list of things but I still don’t know what I’ve done wrong and they have accused me of things that I haven’t done. The BPS has accused me of attempting to promote conversion therapy which is illegal in this country, but I have never said or made any reference to anything regarding conversion therapy, and I have never said anything discriminatory.​

So it feels like a witch hunt is going on and no one has asked for my opinion or what has happened on my side.​'

'The mainstream media will say what they want, but I think most of the public know that they just live off lies anyway.​'


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The Woman In Black - Book Review

'Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is summoned to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, the sole inhabitant of Eel Marsh House. The house stands at the end of a causeway, wreathed in fog and mystery, but it is not until he glimpses a wasted young woman, dressed all in black, at the funeral, that a creeping sense of unease begins to take hold, a feeling deepened by the reluctance of the locals to talk of the woman in black and her terrible purpose.'

As is so often the case for me I watched the film adaptation of this book long before I read it, not even realising that it was a book when first seeing the movie. I find that I come into books that have become films with certain expectations, thinking that I'm going to know a good deal about the story before I crack open the cover. As such, I was extremely pleased to find straight away when starting Susan Hill's The Woman in Black  that it appeared to be a very different animal to the film.

Beginning long after the events of the main story, the book sees an elderly Arthur Kipps spending Christmas with his wife, step-children, and grand-children. When the night turns to his children telling spooky stories around the fire late at night it brings to mind horrific events from Arthur's past, events that still shake him to his core decades later.

What follows in Arthur recalling his encounter with a frightening supernatural force when he was just a young man, an encounter that would go on to change the course of his entire life.

A traditional ghost story, The Woman in Black uses many of the expected tropes of the genre and Victorian setting to craft an incredibly creepy tale. Thanks to the introduction where Arthur is an older man, and then his journey to the village of Crythin Gifford, the chief setting for his story, it's a fair portion of the books relatively short 200 pages before anything supernatural actually happens.

Thankfully, by this time we've already become somewhat invested in Arthur and his tale, and I felt that I had a good sense of not only the character, but the world in which he was inhabiting. This continued for much of the book, as Arthur employs some excellent descriptive language to bring the world around him alive. Crythin Gifford and Eel Marsh House both feel like living breathing places, and they're described so well as to jump off the page fully formed.

This is one of the strengths of Hill's writing, she creates a world filled with atmosphere, one that fills the reader with tension and suspense. It's often this atmosphere that creates the horror, rather than ghosts jumping out at Arthur. It's a slow, traditional kind of ghost story, where the tension keeps on ramping up in order to keep the reader on edge, rather than relying on jump scares or moments that are visually shocking.

The Woman in Black followed many of the same beats that I had seen in the film, yet thanks to the film having changed a lot of aspects the book was able to remain engaging and interesting. I was expecting something of a quick, throwaway read that wouldn't really engage me a great deal, but instead I was drawn in and kept on edge throughout. A masterful example of how to write effective horror in such a small amount of pages, one that draws you in, keeps you hooked, and doesn't overstay it's welcome.

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Anti-LGBT+ Letters Handed Out Outside School In Birmingham

A correspondent for the Midlands BBC, Sima Kotecha, has tweeted a photograph of a letter being handed out to local parents outside Anderton Park Primary School.

The letter, being given out by anti-LGBT+ bigots who don't think LGBT+ rights belong in schools, by a parent group calling themselves Anderton Park Parents Community Group. The group have previously protested against LGBT+ inclusive education.

The leaflet claims that LGBT+ education 'promotes a whole-school gay ethos. It teaches children it is ok to be gay in all religions... you can even be gay and Muslim. It teaches 4-year-old children that they can be a boy or a girl. It teaches boys it is okay to marry your best friend 'Abdul'. It discriminates against the beliefs of parents and children.'

The letter then goes on to add, 'We do NOT believe in homosexuality. Parents do NOT want their children's belief changed.'

Anderton Park Parents Community Group are a hate group. They have engaged in harassment towards parents and teachers, they have engaged in homophobic, transphobic, and islamophobic rhetoric, views which have no place in a school.


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Star Wars Episode 9 Trailer

The first trailer for the new Star Wars film, revealed to be titles Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, has been released following it's airing at Star Wars Celebration.

Seeing the return of new characters such as Rey, Kylo Ren, Finn, Poe Dameron, Rose Tico, and BB8, the film will also feature the original trilogy's General Leia, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian, R2-D2, C-3PO, Luke Sywalker, and... Emperor Palpatine?!

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is set for release December 19th 2019.


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