In the wake of a horrifying story, some hope...

High School Students Wear Skirts to Honor "Agender" Teen, Sasha Fleischman, Burned on Bus

Students at a high school in Berkeley showed up wearing skirts to campus on Friday to honor an "agender" 18-year-old whose own skirt was set on fire during an AC Transit bus ride earlier this week in an attack that's now been charged as a hate crime.

"It's just remarkable that somebody would think it would be a good idea to light them (sic) on fire while they're sleeping on a bus," said classmate Ian Gonzer, referring to Sasha Fleischman as "they," the preferable term for many "agender" people. "Not just Sasha. Any person, no matter what they're wearing. It's just not cool."

Gonzer and the rest of Fleischman's friends at Maybeck High School wanted to show support for their peer, who identifies as agender, and does not like to go by either "he" or "she." Other terms for this identification can be "nonbinary" gender or non-conforming gender. The students planned to send the photo to St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco, where two classmates said Fleischman is in "remarkably good spirits" after one of several anticipated surgeries to repair the teen's burned thighs that were set on fire Monday evening on an AC Transit bus. In addition, people hung rainbow flags along the Oakland bus route where Fleischman was burned as a tribute they called "Rainbows for Sasha."

Horrible

Teen arrested for assaulting woman on Thanksgiving day

A teenager accused of a beating a woman so severely, that she may require plastic surgery, has been released from jail on bond.

The family of Mallory Owens said 18-year-old Travis Hawkins, Jr. targeted her because of her sexual orientation and they want to see the charge for the Nov. 23 beating upgraded to attempted murder.

The incident occurred as Thanksgiving Day turned violent at Hawkins' home on Bourgeois Drive in Mobile. Mobile Police Department said officers responded to the home for a report of a person being assaulted.

When police arrived, they found Owens, 23, had been punched repeatedly in the face.

Owens's mother said her daughter was attacked because of her sexual orientation.

Woman beaten on Thanksgiving by girlfriend's brother will be released from the hospital today, family says

Family members say the woman who was severely beaten by her girlfriend's brother on Thanksgiving Day will be released from the hospital today.

Mallory Owens, 23, suffered multiple skull fractures and crushed bones after the Nov. 22 attack. Family members say she had metal plates put under her eyes because of her injuries. She also has internal and external injuries.

Owens says she was beat on Thanksgiving while at her girlfriend's family's house for dinner. Avery Godwin, Owens's sister, said Owens was blindsided just before she left the Mobile home of the Hawkins family.

Well that's an unusual take on Shakespeare

Outcry over Hamlet novel casting old king as gay paedophile: Publisher showered with complaints over Orson Scott Card's Hamlet's Father

Subterranean produced its limited edition, signed, 1,000-copy run of the book this spring, with the release largely falling under the radar, apart from a damning review from trade journal Publishers Weekly which said that its focus was "primarily on linking homosexuality with the life-destroying horrors of paedophilia, a focus most fans of possibly bisexual Shakespeare are unlikely to appreciate". This is a view Card has espoused in the past, writing in 2004 that "the dark secret of homosexual society – the one that dares not speak its name – is how many homosexuals first entered into that world through a disturbing seduction or rape or molestation or abuse, and how many of them yearn to get out of the homosexual community and live normally".

Just for the record, no, the book should not be banned or otherwise challenged. And I probably shouldn't be surprised, given some of the details in his bio. I can't comment on Card's abilities as a writer (I'm familiar with his fantasy writing through a friend, and I know it actually includes some man/boy love themes, such as in Songmaster, but I haven't read his work.) But it does rather sound like he has an axe to grind somewhere along the way.

Turning the tables

Welcome to Gaytown (episode 1):



There are four episodes so far--they come out on Wednesdays. Okay, it's based on stereotypes both gay and straight galore. But what if the tables were turned? What if heterosexuals were constantly having to change themselves to fit in?

I wonder where bisexuals fit in in Gaytown? I guess I'm just an outsider regardless. :)