Norwich Pride - My First Pride Event

Last week was the first time I had ever attended a Pride event in my life.  To be honest, I knind of feel a little ashamed saying that.  Despite not figuring out I'm trans until I was into my twenties I've known I'm Pansexual since my early teens, yet in all that time I'd never been to a large scale LGBT+ event in order to celebrate that fact.  Despite being a little nervous about what to expect I grabbed my trans flag, slung it over my shoulders like a cape and set off for a day of festivities.

Norwich didn't disappoint.  Not only was the pride event itself full of happy and helpful organisations, people willing to chat and make friends, and more rainbows then the senses could handle, but it seemed like the whole of Norwich itself was in the mood to celebrate LGBT+ spirit.  From local coffee shops such as Mustards Coffee Bar (which had an amazing rainbow cake by the way), National Banks like Halifax, International chains like Starbucks and even the City Council Chambers were decked out in rainbow flags and messages of support.

That's what struck me most about the whole thing, the big community spirit that the event encouraged.  So many people were their to make friends and celebrate the diversity of the LGBT+ community, event staff and stall holders, attendees, even passersby in the street.  Other than one lone man with a crucifix who tried to protest the parade before being surrounded by supporters and drowned out their was no one around who tried to make any kind of trouble at all.

For someone who came from a fairly small town where I couldn't walk through the streets without having abuse or threats shouted at me this positivity was somewhat alien to me.  But it was a good thing.  I'm not isolated, I know that theirs a larger LGBT+ community out there, just the fact that I'm writing this article for people to read shows that I'm a part of that community even in a small way, but actually seeing that community in person, being their and feeling it, that was something amazing.

Pride is important for this reason, it helps you to know that you're not alone.  Even if you're active on line, or at a local group being part of the LGBT+ community can be incredibly lonely.  Even when you're surrounded by people you can feel completely isolated.  Even on my best days I sometimes feel that way.  Pride helped me with that.

It didn't matter if you were gay, lesbian, trans, pansexual, gender fluid, bisexual or straight, if you were a part of the community or a supporter than you were accepted, you were amongst friends and you were safe.  That feeling of being part of a larger whole has never been stronger for me than since my first Pride.  Obviously I knew that there were other LGBT+ people out their, but I never felt it before.

If you've never been to a Pride event before then please, try to go along to one.  It doesn't matter if you LGBT+ or not, if you believe in the cause or you need encouragement that you're not alone in the world, that their are other people who understand and accept you then go along.  Pride events are important not just to celebrate our diversity and show the world how amazing we are, they're also their to help the community too.

I know one thing, I'm definitely going to more Pride events in the future, and I can't wait until my next one.

Amy.
xx

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Nigerian President Shuts Down Questions On Gay Rights In US Supreme Court

Muhammadu Buhari, the new president of Nigeria, visited US Congress yesterday (Wednesday 9th July), where he shut down any questions on marriage equality in his home country.

Speaking at a joint session of the senate and house committees on foreign affairs during his four day visit Buhari said emphatically that gay sex would remain illegal in Nigeria and is found to be 'abhorent' to African culture.

Femi Adeisna, the president's special adviser on media and publicity, later tweeted to clarify Buhari's stance.  'The issue of gay marriage came up here yesterday.  PMB was point blank.  Sodomy is against the law in Nigeria, and abhorrent to our culture.  Talks shifted to another matter once PMB emphatically stated Nigeria's stand on same sex marriage.  The issue was not pushed.'

Nigeria has one of the harshest anti-gay laws in the entire world, which bans gay marriage and can punish any same sex couples with up to 14 years in prison, with 10 year sentences being applied to anyone else who was involved in the ceremony, including guests in attendance.

Last week US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said that the US would be mounting substantial pressure on the Nigerian government to rethink its harsh laws, though these pressures would appear to not yet be in place is they could not even press the issue during Buhari's visit.

Amy.
xx

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Disabled Transgender Woman Recorded Her Stepfather Raping Her

It has been revealed in a Melbourne court hearing that a disabled transgender woman who cannot be named for legal reasons, used her i-Pad to film her stepfather raping her.

The woman, who is confined to a wheelchair, was reportedly in her kitchen in her home when her stepfather began to assault her by grabbing her breasts and thrust himself onto her.  when he left the room the victim set up her tablet device to record what she knew would be coming next.

Detective Brad Beale testified to the courtroom that the victim had previously refused to have sex with her stepfather a week before, but was left bleeding when he ignored her protests and raped her anyway. 

Beale went on to inform the court that the woman's stepfather had admitted to having sex with the victim close to 30 times over the last 6 years, but claims that his stepdaughter had propositioned him and threatened to to make false police reports if he refused.

The stepfather has been denied bail and the case will resume in October.

Amy.
xx

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Actor Troy Baker Leaves Twitter Following Backlash After Caitlyn Jenner Tweet

Troy Baker is one of the video games industries most prolific actors, having stared in highly regarded games such as Resident Evil 6, The Last of Us, Far Cry 4, Call of Duty:Advanced Warfare, Metal Gear Solid 5 and Batman Arkham Origins to name just a few.  It's actually very hard to play a modern game and not find his name somewhere in the credits.

A massively popular Actor Toy Baker had a huge following on Twitter, before yesterday choosing to leave the site for an unspecified amount of time.  The reason why?  He tweeted a comment that referenced Caitlyn Jenner and received a backlash because of it.

Now, the comment in question, it should be noted, was not something that Baker himself said, but a re-tweet of a comment made by Brian W. Foster.  The tweet has since been deleted, but consisted of;

'Brett Michaels looks like Mickey Rourke tried to become Caitlyn Jenner.'

Following the criticism levelled at him for sharing the tweet Baker eventually tweeted that he was quitting the site, though his profile has not been deleted, which may mean that he intends to return to the site after an unspecified amount of time has passed.

A lot of fans of Bakers have come to his defence and have been decrying the criticism as an unjust attack.  As is often the case when arguments spark on twitter the arguments range from the reasoned to the outright vicious on both sides.  One of the most common comments raised by his supporters though is that it was simply a joke, and that people need to learn to get a sense of humour.

Now, this is a defence that we have all seen so many times before, and it may have actually been something that Baker saw to be funny and wanted to share with his followers.  The problem comes, however, from the fact that a minority that still doesn't have basic human rights shouldn't be used as part of a joke.

Trans people are regularly discriminated against all over the world, with the laws stacked against us when we try to demand justice.  To use a group that can still be legally fired simply for being born a certain way in America, the 'greatest country in the world', seems wrong in a lot of ways.

What a lot of Bakers supporters might not be aware of too, is that on the same day that this 'joke' involving a trans woman was made not just one, but two transgender women were brutally murdered.  The trans community was acutely aware of that, they were grieving, so of course they lashed out.

Those kind of jokes aren't appropriate at the best of times, but making them yesterday was just crass and thoughtless.  An equivalent would have been making racist jokes during the Charleston Shooting, or police brutality jokes when Sandra Bland was killed.  So no, we won't 'lighten up' or 'get a sense of humour', how about instead you stop being insensitive and cruel to a minority that is literally being murdered on the same day you tell trans jokes.

Amy.
xx

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Transgender Woman Nephi Luthers Murdered In Georgetown Guyana

Whilst still mourning the death of one transgender women from Florida, India Clarke, the transgender community was hit with another blow when mere hours later a second transgender woman was reported killed, this time in Georgetown, Guyana.

The Guyana Transgender United Group broke the news on Wednesday that Nephi Luthers was killed whilst involved in a discussion with a man in the heart of the capital.  Nephi, a sex worker, was speaking to one of her clients when the man pulled out a gun and shot Nephi in the head.

Despite the quick response from her fiends and colleagues who rushed her to the nearest hospital Nephi was pronounced dead upon arrival.

As of yet reports are that no members of Nephi's family have come forwards to claim her body.

As is so often in cases of transgender murder the media are reporting Nephi's case with little to no regard for who she was, or even common decency.  Media outlets are using her birth name and male pronouns to identify her, and bringing her character into judgement because of the line of work she was in.

A woman was murdered in the street, killed like an animal and once again the media is trying to turn a heinous crime into a judgement on the victim.  It was her fault for dressing as a female, it was her fault for engaging in sex work, she put herself in that danger.

I'm sorry, but no.  No.  Nephi's death was not 'her fault', if the media wants to blame anyone then blame the monster who killed her in cold blood.  Stop blaming the victims.  Stop dehumanising trans women.  Treat these women with a little common decency.  #HerNameWasNephi

Rest in peace Nephi.

Amy.
xx

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South Carolina Pastor Who Likes Wearing Confederate Flag T-shirts Wants Governor To Let Him Discriminate Against LGBT

South Carolina pastor Daren Squires, pictured above in his Confederate flag shirt, has written to the governor asking her to pass into law a bill that would allow him to openly discriminate against LGBT parishioners.

Apparently Squires has said that whilst he currently welcomes members of the LGBT community into his church he makes it very clear to them that he does not support them.

Squires sent out a letter to the governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, asking her to sign an executive order that would make it legal for himself, and others, to discriminate based on sexual orientation.  Though based on his choice of clothing I wouldn't be surprised if he's planning on sending a similar letter regarding race.

The letter reportedly said 'It doesn't matter if a man goes with a man, that's his choice.  My problem is they're going to try and make us, who do not believe in that, to have to bow down and accept them.'

The governor has so far not replied to Squires' letter or released a comment on the story.

Amy.
xx

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Transgender Woman India Clarke Found Murdered in Tampa, Florida

The body of a 25 year old transgender woman India Clarke was discovered in a park in Tampa, Florida in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Last seen by her parents Sunday evening India was discovered by an employee at the University Area Community Centre located at 14013 N. 22nd Street in Tampa.  Her body was reportedly found lying beside the basketball courts.

This news comes as yet another terrible tragedy, our community has lost another beautiful young life to horrific violence.

Unfortunately as is frequently common in cases of media reporting the murder of transgender women local Tampa news network WTSP television news has been reporting the story as 'Man Dressed As Woman Found Murdered', repeatedly use male pronouns and use her birth name over her real identity.  They have even tried to defame her character by reporting about an old arrest charge she had on her record.

An amazing young woman is dead and the media refuses to even report the story correctly, they refuse to accept her gender and try to defame her character.

Please don't do the same.  Speak her name, tell people about the tragedy that happened to her and respect her memory.  Her name was India, she was a member of our community and she has been taken from the world.  Fight to find her killer, honour her memory and spread her story.  #HerNameWasIndia.

Rest in peace India.

Amy.
xx

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Finding Acceptance on My Birthday

As you can probably tell from the title, today is my birthday.  I woke up to a pile of presents and some birthday cards and began opening them before heading off to work.  I came to the present from my parents, wrapped in pink paper and consisting of cosmetics and perfume.  Nothing new there, my parents have been giving me more and more feminine presents for birthdays and Christmas for a while now.  What did stand out, though, was the card they sent me.  They'd given me cards with my name in before, switched over to female pronouns, but this was the first time that I'd been sent a card with the word daughter on it.

I opened my card, saw what was on it and I cried.  Hell, I'm starting to well up a little now just writing about it.  Everything I'd been given for my birthday, all the messages on Facebook, the cards from friends and family, the presents, even my new pet cat, none of them came close to making me feel as special as that card did.

Having that one simple word on the front meant more to me than words can even adequately begin to describe.  It meant that not only were my parents tolerating or supporting my transition, it meant that they were supporting it.

I'm sure that there will still be the odd occasion where my dad still doesn't quite know how to handle things, and that we may still disagree from time to time, but I can't help but feel positive about our future relationships now.

I'm sure that some people who are reading this won't understand why I'm making such a big deal out of this, and I'd be guessing that you're cisgender.  Well, for a trans person their is nothing more amazing than being accepted and respected for who you are.  To finally receive that from my parents, after the years of fear that I might lose them from my life, that was the greatest birthday present I could have received today.

Amy.
xx

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Internet 'Celebrity' Carter Reynolds Threatens Suicide After Recieving Abuse For Trying To Force Underage Girl To Perform Oral Sex

 

An Internet 'celebrity' Carter Reynolds has come under fire following the alleged leak of a sex tape featuring both himself and fellow Internet 'star' and long time girlfriends Maddie Lindemann.

The tape was apparently leaked after Reynolds' iCloud account was hacked.  The tape showed an intoxicated Lindemann being pressured to perform oral sex on Reynolds whilst being filmed.  Lindemann, who was under the legal age of consent at the time, refuses.  She states on camera that she feels uncomfortable doing it.  Reynolds can be heard telling her to 'just do it' several times, even after she once again tells him that she does not want to.

Reynolds has since released an apology to his fans, stating;

'Some of you guys have a HUGE misunderstanding.  First of all, Maggie and I were dating at the time..it's not like she was a random girl or a fan.  Couples do stuff like that all the time...and no I'm not saying that it's the right thing to do but it's the truth.  It was supposed to be a private video for no one to see and i had no intention of posting it at all.  I shouldn't have recorded anything to begin with and I should've just deleted it right after I took it. 

'This video was taken a long time ago and unfortunately someone illegally hacked into my iCloud recently and ended up leaking that specific video.  Yes, saying 'do it' a couple of times and 'come on' was wrong on so many levels...I should've just stopped asking when she said 'no' the first time...and for that I'm very sorry to everyone that I offended and especially Maggie.

'After that night, Maggie and I were completely fine and just moved on with our relationship.  Some people are blowing things WAY our of proportion and making up all these false accusations about me saying that I raped her or forced her into doing something that she didn't want to do...well all of that is a lie.  You can believe whoever and whatever you want but at the end of the day I know everything that I just old you are straight up facts.

 'This wasn't my statement by the way...I wish a lot of you guys knew everything I just said earlier but I just couldn't think of what to say because I was so overwhelmed by all of the hate and negativity towards me.  Thank you for hearing what I have to say and once again I am very sorry about all of this.  Love you guys.'

Reynolds also attempted to start the hash tag #WeLoveYouCarter as a way of his fans being able to show that they support him and wish him all the best during his hard time being blamed for what he did wrong.

Reynolds was met with some severe criticism following his apology, with people both accusing him of lying about the iCloud hack in order to 'play the victim' and gain sympathy, as well as trying to manipulate his fans in order to gain support and sympathy.  Whilst this tactic worked with many fans who tweeted supportive messages, many people tweeted their displeasure at what he had done.

The controversy over what Reynolds tried to make his underage girlfriend do has been reignited today.  Whilst in the middle of a live web chat with his fans where he verbally abused Maggie Lindemann and threatened to reveal her sexual exploits for not reciprocating his attempts to repair their relationship, Reynolds received a telephone call from Lindemann informing him that if he did not cease she would telephone the police.

Unphased by the threat Reynolds continued to spout abuse about the young girl before he was interpreted a second time by another telephone call informing him that Linemann had been taken into hospital.  It was at this point that he ended his web chat.

Reynolds claimed that after ending the chat he immediately visited Lindemann and that the two of them were 'now okay'.  Things quickly turned sour, however, when Reynolds tweeted that Linemann had told him that she was in hospital due to him.  His reaction to this was pretty poor.

His attempt to attack Lindemann and hold her responsible backfired spectacularly, however, and he received a torrent of abuse for abusing a hospitalised teenager.  In a series of tweets Reynolds claimed that he had been pushed to breaking point by the people throwing abuse at him and has threatened to kill himself.  The last activity on his Twitter account was 10 hours ago in which he tweeted the single word 'bye'.  there is currently no indication whether Reynolds has actually attempted to harm himself or not.

The problem with this whole situation though isn't a young man potentially trying to kill himself, it's the massively negative effect his actions up to now have had.  And I'm not just talking about what has happened to Maggie Lindemann.  Whether you hold any stock in Internet 'celebrities' like Reynolds or not the scary fact is that he has literally millions of followers and subscribers.  People listen to him, particularly young people.

The danger with having a manipulative young man like Reynolds being someone young girls look up to has become apparent just from the reactions he is getting from his fans.  When his video 'leaked' thousand of teenage girls came to his defence, and not only that, but they were placing the blame at the feet of Maggie Lindemann.  That's right, teenage girls who should have viewed that video as warning of the dangers of sexual abuse were instead engaging in victim blaming.

Yes, Lindemann was drinking underage, and she did tell him to take his pants off in the video, she instigated the event, but most importantly she changed her mind.  Just because someone is drunk, just because someone starts out wanting to engage in sexual acts doesn't mean that if that consent is removed then it's okay to carry on.  Yet that's the message he is teaching these impressionable young women.  He is making rape culture okay.  He is making victim blaming okay, and these young people are helping him.

He went on to harass and humiliate his ex-girlfriend in such a public away that she ended up in the hospital, yet even then failed to stop.  His attacks were relentless and without any form of human compassion.  The only person he cared about was himself and getting more media attention.

I can only hope that not only will Maggie Lindemann make a full recovery but that Carter Reynolds fans come to their senses and see that his actions are wrong.  I hope that they see that his actions are not 'love', that love is not harassment, that it is not forcing your partner into sex acts they don't wish to do, it's not bullying and abusing them because they want to leave you and won't take you back.  Carter Reynolds is an abuser, plain and simple, and should be used as an example of the kind of actions that are not acceptable and the kind of men that young women should avoid at all costs.

Amy.
xx

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Phone Company 3 Appologises After Transphobic Advert

Three Ireland is currently receiving a large amount of criticism following the release of a billboard add that many people are condemning as being transphobic.

As part of their mobile data campaign the company released a billboard advertisement featuring the phrase, 'Sorry Vodafone customers, it turned out he was a she after you'd used all your data'.

Despite a number of public complaints on the social network Twitter, Three insist that it was never their intention to offend anyone.

The company has stated that 'It's part of a wider campaign that gives examples of when you can often miss the best bits of TV/films when you're streaming because you've used all your data.  Another example in the campaign is 'Sorry Vodafone customers, Ireland scored the winning try after you'd used all your data'.  Again, we're sorry for any offence caused and hope this explains the concept and that no offence was intended at all.'

Despite the outrage from many people who found the advert offencive, a number of people came to the companies defence, claiming that their intentions were clearly not to mock trans people and that the transgender community should not have 'caused a fuss over nothing'.

Intentions not withstanding, the advert is offencive.  It doesn't matter what they were trying to do, they were using the transgender community, an incredibly marginalised and oppressed community, to further their own ends.  It might not be offencive to everyone, but surely those people who do not find it offencive can understand why it can be found to be in poor taste?

And to those who are still finding this kind of thing acceptable, and even attack the trans community and their allies when they find this kind of thing offencive, congratulations on never having to deal with oppression in your lives, now kindly shut up and respect our god damned opinions on what is and isn't offencive to our community.

Amy.
xx

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