Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"Forgive me if I fail to be convinced that the spate of anti-trans bills is motivated by conservatives' sincere concern for women's athletics, a subtle understanding of endocrinology or even the well-being of the children themselves. Instead, these bills are a way for conservatives to perform their scorn for people who are different from themselves.

"This kind of performance doesn't make transgender people disappear, of course. All it does, in the end, is demonstrate a lack of generosity and imagination to understand a soul different from your own."

-- Jennifer Finney Boylan (JennyBoylan), "Keeping Trans Kids From Medicine Doesn't Make Them Disappear", New York Times, 2021-04-07

"[...] We remember what happens when hate takes hold of the human heart and turns it to stone; what happens when victims cry for help and there is no one listening; what happens when humanity fails to recognise that those who are not in our image are none the less in God's image. [...]" -- Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (b. 1948-03-08, d. 2020-11-07), from A Prayer for Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day -- which is last night and today)

Today is
Gregorian: 2021 April 08
Julian: 2021 March 26
Hebrew: 5781 Nisan 26
Islamic: 1442 Sha`ban 25 -- Ramadan starts in a few days
Persian: 1400 Farvardin 19
Mayan: 0.0.0.13.0.8.7.20
Coptic: 1737 Paremhat 30

"I like to watch the news, because I don't like people very much and when you watch the news... if you ever had an idea that people were really terrible, you could watch the news and know that you're right." -- Frank Zappa (b. 1940-12-21, d. 1993-12-04), 1984-04-28

"I keep going back to kids I knew growing up who were gender non-conforming or queer. Who got kicked out of their parents' houses, who cut themselves or drank or got routinely high starting in middle school, who tore themselves apart, who, in some instances, did not survive." -- Jude Ellison S. Doyle (sadydoyle), 2021-03-29 (start of a thread, included for context; see below)

"In the UK the 'debate' often poses 'validation' as if it's just narcissistic nonsense, and that's easily done because cis people don't even notice they get it every day for free. But this is what it actually is. Children without basic validation suffer, it's a human need" -- Katy Montgomerie (KatyMontgomerie), 2021-03-30 (quote-tweeting Doyle, above)

[I'll be quoting more of that first thread later, BTW.]

"It's obvious that Hansen is still haunted by what she feels she could've have done to save Floyd. It's a stark contrast from how cops respond to similar incidents. They always insist they did everything according to their training and there was nothing they could've done to prevent the lethal outcome. All blame is usually transferred to the victim. This is how psychopaths speak. Hansen broke down repeatedly during her testimony because her own training hadn't burned away her empathy. When an officer is on trial, it's rare that there's a victim who can make the jury feel for the victim. The jury only hears about the officer's individual fears. The victim exists only as a threat. Hansen saw a human being killed in front of her, and the jury felt her grief." -- Stephen Robinson, "Minneapolis Firefighter Genevieve Hansen’s Testimony All But Convicted Derek Chauvin", Wonkette, 2021-03-31

"If you live in the dark a long time and the sun comes out, you do not cross into it whistling. There's an initial uprush of relief at first, then -- for me, anyway -- a profound dislocation. My old assumptions about how the world works are buried, yet my new ones aren't yet operational.There's been a death of sorts, but without a few days in hell, no resurrection is possible." -- Mary Karr, Lit: A Memoir (2009)

[Happy Easter to everyone celebrating it today! Christos Anesti!]

"Everyone by now presumably knows about the danger of premature optimization. I think we should be just as worried about premature design -- designing too early what a program should do." -- Paul Graham

[Happy Cheese Weasel Day, everyone!]

"There is no need or public desire for anti-trans legislation, yet trans people's lives are being put in danger in an attempt to sow division among the general public. In nearly every case, sponsors of anti-trans bills cannot cite a single instance where the participation of trans girls in girls' sports teams led to unfair competition. Polls show that the majority of voters believe that trans people should be able to live openly and freely and receive medical care. Earlier this month, many of the nation's leading child health and welfare groups-representing over 7 million professionals and 1000 organizations-called on states to oppose the wave of anti-trans bills." -- from a Google doc titled: By April 2: All Educators and Educational Scholars are Invited to Sign this Open Letter to Support Trans Youth

Only educators and education scholars are invited to sign, but the contents of the open letter include points everyone can use in favour of supporting trans youth and opposing the torrent of anti-trans bills in state legislators this spring.

[A blessed Good Friday to everyone observing it today.]

"So… I quote tweet dunked. I horny posted. I retweeted men to dunk on the horny posting of other men. I am an accessory to cringe. But most damning of all… I think I can live with it… And if I had to do it all over again… I would." -- Liam Bright (lastpositivist), 2021-03-24

Happy Transgender Day of Visibility, an annual day to celebrate transness, take pride in our survival and happiness, and remind everyone we're here and facing forces that want to eliminate or oppress us. The quotations below skew toward the dangers, mostly because of how much our rights and existence are under attack in state legislatures in lately and in the UK press ongoing. Seek out more trans voices -- there are folks speaking of the joys and pride as well, even if a lot of us are trying to raise awareness of & opposition to dangerous legislation right now.

This is an exhausting time to be trans, in a bunch of places.

On the current spate of anti-trans bills in several states this spring:

"Arkansas has become the first state to enshrine into law that dead trans kids are preferred to living, happy, thriving trans kids.

"This is wanton, purposeless cruelty to helpless children and adolescents.

"If you don't think LGB kids are next, you're a fool.

"It's just a short hop from "16 is too young understand the implications of changing your body" to "16 is too young to understand the implications of engaging in homosexual behavior."

-- Mari Brighe (MariBrighe), 2021-03-29

On the benefits and dangers of visibility:

"For most of my life, I couldn't be trans because I couldn't see trans. During my youth in the 1990s and early 2000s, the only trans people in my orbit were punchlines and freaks, such as the trans woman in Ace Ventura who prompts Jim Carrey to vomit with disgust. With no fully human trans folk in sight, my childhood brain banished transness from the realm of the possible.

"It is no accident that everything changed for me in the wake of the so-called 'trans tipping point'.

[...]

"But as I discovered last December, visibility comes at a cost. Getting a few trans people on screen is not the same as trans liberation. For a marginalised minority like the trans community, who face disproportionate rates of violence and discrimination, visibility alone is not an inherent good. On the contrary, it can in fact render us more vulnerable to harm. As Boyer warned, being visible makes trans people easier to hunt.

"There's no doubt that cultural visibility has indeed turned ordinary trans people into prey. Transphobia did not magically evaporate in 2014: in fact, it's arguably increased. In the years since the 'tipping point', we've witnessed a global transphobic backlash, characterised by anti-trans legislation, media commentary and violence.

[...]

"This Trans Day of Visibility, I'm not satisfied with trans flags and hashtags - I want to change the relations of power. I want the media to stop platforming TERFs; I want justice for trans victims of violence like Mhelody Bruno, killed in 2019 by her partner; and I want the 78 percent of Australians who support trans rights to act on that belief."

-- Dr Yves Rees (YvesRees), "When Trans Visibility Comes At The Cost Of Trans Safety", 2021-03-31

On trans folks' strength:

"being openly trans is such a fucking power move.

"imagine seeing a world that mocks and hates you and thinking, 'I can take em.'

-- Claire (thereisnoclaire)

"i can't take em but i can't take not being me more"

-- Mr. Fitzroy (DuncanDonut0), 2021-03-30

"Mom, can you come pick me up? The entire country is rehashing the cultural discourses of the late 1980s/early 1990s as if we're having satanic panic and feminist sex wars for the first time & I wanna go home and eat Golden Grahams" -- Camellia-Berry Grass (theCBGrass), 2021-03-29

Note that in their next tweet, they remind us:

Camellia-Berry Grass thecbgrass

Hey, the thousands of you reading this, please go yell at Arkansas' Governor. People are going to die for no other reason than GOP bigotry

ACLU (ACLU)

HB 1570 was just passed through both chambers in the Arkansas legislature, banning trans youth from accessing health care and health insurance coverage that we deserve and need.

Our rights and lives are under attack.

Governor Hutchinson must veto this bill.

Also note that tomorrow is the Transgender Day of Visibility, intended as a more joyous and positive counterpart to the somber Transgender Day of Rememberance in November. With the huge number of anti-trans bills in various states right now, a lot of us are feeling more stressed than positive -- it's tiring, hearing politicians and random transphobes telling lies about us or even just honestly admitting they don't think we should exist.

"And these children that you spit on
 As they try to change their worlds
 Are immune to your consultations
 They're quite aware of what they're goin' through"
   -- David Bowie (b. 1947-01-08, d. 2016-01-10), "Changes", 1971

"My home church did not follow the liturgical year with Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost, etc. There was Christmas, and there was Easter. You may see palms in the sanctuary the week before Easter, but that was just a prelude to the big day. For a church that gathered on Sundays only, one could go from the Hosannas of Palm Sunday to the Alleluias of Resurrection Day, but miss all the passion in between. You could have palms and lilies, but no cross, no lamentation, no tomb.

"Later, when I pastored a church that observed Lent, I discovered the ability of the Lenten season to communicate and celebrate the power of God's love as compassionate solidarity with us and the world. Amid the layers upon layers of encounters in the Passion story, we experience hope and jubilation, danger and disruption, and ultimately grief and despair. The readings end with a typical penultimate cliffhanger episode. We witness a lament, a final breath, a burial, and a sealed tomb. To be continued."

-- Rev. Michael-Ray Mathews, "Palm Sunday: God’s Love as Compassionate Solidarity", 2021-03-28

[A good Palm Sunday to everybody celebrating the start of Holy Week today, and a good Passover to everyone celebrating Passover this week!]

"I've said it before, but since it's in the news, I'll say it again.

"We need to make D.C., Guam and Puerto Rico states.

"Then there would be 53 states.

"53 is a prime number.

"And we would truly be, one nation, indivisible."

-- Dave Gragg (DaveGragg), 2021-03-22

[Chag Pesach sameach to everyone starting Passover celebrations tonight!]

"But all this new passion has made me wonder, what if all these people claiming to be fighting for the future of women's sports would really fight for the future of women's sports? What if they suddenly said, 'We demand women's sports get equal resources, equal media coverage, and equal pay'? What if these new activists embraced women's sports and invested in female athletes, instead of using us as their excuse for transphobia?

"This controversy hurts, because female athletes of all backgrounds have been spending decades fighting for equal treatment - and we are still far from winning. The conversation is disingenuous, patronizing and often racist. Using our struggle to score political points is a distraction.

[...]

"The dialogue around trans women's participation in sports implies that they are invading women's sports for a competitive advantage. Competing for what? Crumbs."

-- Lindsay Crouse (lindsaycrouse), "So You Want to 'Save Women's Sports'?", The New York Times, 2021-03-24

"act today only in accordance with that maxim through which you may not be proved milkshake duck tomorrow" -- jen foster, scrunchie rights activist (philoso_foster), 2021-03-24

[Happy Feast of the Annunciation to everyone celebrating that today!]

"absolutely wild that these pundits talk nonstop about "cancel culture" as a moral panic and yet there's an ACTUAL moral panic happening right now being weaponized against trans people, with LAWS. you know, state power?" -- matt (Lubchansky), 2021-03-22

"Gold was only still here, alive, because she had a mother who asked: what do you want for yourself, my child? and listened after all. A mother who saw how un-at-home Gold was in her old body, asked, what is your real name? and then believed Gold immediately. Life is different with a parent who listens and believes; a parent who welcomes you well when you take yourself home to meet her for the first time; who lets a dead name go quietly into the ground." -- Eloghosa Osunde, "Gold"

"Working on a theory that suggests conservatives fear trans women most of all because we're queer, we're a minority, and we're women; the three things they hate most in this world, combined into one gay megazord. And that it's just as simple as that." -- Kelly Wobbegong (AnxietySong), 2021-03-02

Today is
Gregorian: 2021 March 22
Julian: 2021 March 09
Hebrew: 5781 Nisan 09
Islamic: 1442 Sha'ban 08
Persian: 1400 Farvardin 02 -- second day 0f 1400
Mayan: 0.0.0.13.0.8.6.13
Indian: 1943 Caitra 01 -- new year 1943
Coptic: 1737 Paremhat 13

The Donkey, by G. K. Chesterton (b. 1874-05-29, d. 1936-06-14):

When fishes flew and forests walked
   And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
   Then surely I was born.

With monstrous head and sickening cry
   And ears like errant wings,
The devil's walking parody
   On all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,
   Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
   I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had my hour;
   One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
   And palms before my feet.