01 September 2019

Serbia - Lesbian PM Or Not, Serbia Blocks Gays' Path To Parenthood

Ron Synovitz, Gordana Cosic
RFE/RL


near Bukovik, Serbia


please press:  www.rferl.org

civil rights - TERFs Have Taught the Trump Administration Well

Louisiana - A sign to remember Vontashia Bell and a sign to find her killer

Emily Enfinger
Shreveport Times


Shreveport/Bossier City, LA
Allen Bridge


please press:  www.shreveporttimes.com

ezs note:  It's been a little over a year old, and Vontashia's case is getting cold.  But it's never too cold.  Make her friends happy and put this cretin in jail.  Call Crimestoppers at 318-673-7373.  Thanks. 

lead story - Mum arrested in front of her kids for calling transgender woman a man is hauled to court for trolling

Ellie Cambridge, Mark Hodge
The Sun


Hitchin, UK


please press:  www.thesun.co.uk

30 August 2019

Russia - Russian Authorities Drop Charges Against First Suspect, Detain Second In Killing Of Rights Activist Grigoryeva

Press
RFE/RL


Moscow, Russia


please press:  www.rferl.org

civil rights - Civil Rights Turned Topsy-Turvy

Linda Greenhouse
The New York Times


 former Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy


please press:  www.nytimes.com

Iowa - Title X rules hurt transgender people

Staff
The Gazette


Cedar Rapids, IA


please press:  www.thegazette.com

lead story - Transgender woman beaten in Newport, man charged

Joe English
KOMO News


Newport, OR (1937)


please press:  komonews.com  

27 August 2019

Donald Trump - Trump privately clashed with G7 leaders over reinviting Putin

Poland - Polish Court Rebukes “LGBT-Free Zone” Stickers

civil rights - Fired for Being Trans or for Violating Dress Code? Supreme Court Will Decide.

Jessica Mason Pieklo
Truthout.


Livonia, MI


please press:  truthout.org

Mississippi - MISSISSIPPI CHURCH VOTES UNANIMOUSLY TO KICK OUT LESBIAN COUPLE. PASTOR TELLS THEM 'I HAD HOPED YOU WOULD REPENT'

Daniel Avery
Newsweek


Southaven, MS


please press:  www.newsweek.com

ezs note:  Y'know, churches do have the right to make whatever screwball letter they'd like.  But a couple has the right to leave.  And good riddance to you.  😆

lead story - When Transgender Travelers Walk Into Scanners, Invasive Searches Sometimes Wait on the Other Side

Lucas Waldron, Brenda Medina
ProPublica


please press:  www.propublica.org

26 August 2019

review of Shishunki Bitter Change

author: Masayoshi


Shishunki Bitter Change

Credit:  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dc/Shishunki_Bitter_Change_volume_1_cover.jpg

Before I get started on the main manga, there is a story to be told.  It originally started in Japan,  from Empress Koken.  (孝謙天皇, 713-770 CE)  It describes the tale of the cow-herder and the seamstress,  or Higoboshi and Orihime.  To keep things very short, they were very star-crossed lovers.  Due to her father's anger, they would only be allowed once a year.  In modern times, slips of paper would be handed out, with wishes for the future written on them.  They were then hung on a holiday tree.  (perhaps analogous to a Christmas tree)



Japanese woodblock of Tanabata, 1852
Credit:  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Tanabata_Festival_in_Edo_%28Hiroshige%2C_1852%29.jpg

Now to the manga.  Yui (大塚 結依) and Yuuta(木村 佑太) are, in the beginning, elementary school students at later grades.  (5th-6th grade?)  Supposedly, they were at an earlier grade, but this is where the drama takes place. The change takes place immediately, with Yuuta falling from the tree onto Yui.  Perhaps you don't see it (well, at this point you don't see at all, unless you're psychic) but the hint is starting to crop up; the cap is seen.  To  Masayoshi's credit, he puts in the tiniest detail, things that you won't see for detail, but things that are there - to which an uninformed public will pooh-pooh him for his (relatively) spare drawing. 

However, to his demerits, are the supporting cast.  One of the earliest is Haruki (木村 春樹) one of the kindest, most thoughtful little boys around.  Yeah, he's a bit of a squirt, but that's the exception rather than the rule.  However, in his last scene (and absolutely the most important one)  neither Yui nor Yuuta mentions his name at all.  Not once.  If taken alone, he might as well be a stick figure.  Granted, Yui and Yuuta are involved in one of the most intense conversations of their lives... but still, Haruki deserves better.

One other problematic person is that of Tachibana (橘 隼人).  He doesn't show up until chapter 20, and when he does appear, you might think that he's little more than a street punk.  However, he does appear far more greatly.  When he does (finally, at last) decide to attend high school, he has grown to such an extent that he qualifies as a minor/major character.  Shortly after the kiss he plants on Yuuta, however, he becomes strangely silent.  It's not nearly as irksome as what happened to Haruki, but it left me wanting nevertheless.

The singular problem facing Yui and Yuuta is not, strictly speaking, "transgender".  For example, in the earlier sections, both Yui and Yuuta desperately want to change back to their "normal" skin.  But what is "normal", after all?  Neither Yui nor Yuuta can dodge the complexities of life.  They can't escape that this is normal.

In the final chapter,  Kazuma (高岡 和馬) one of the other minor characters, nevertheless gets to utter one of the more intriguing passages. He says, "I... think it's (Yui and Yuuta) been decided ages ago."

We - all of us who follow a different path - are descendants of the cow-herders and seamstresses.