God, I wish half as many people would show up for my twitch streams as RT my threads on trans issues. I'm not gonna lie that it can be disheartening.
I want to make it clear that I'm not admonishing anyone for not coming by for my streams. I'm just lamenting that the thing that quite honestly brings me a lot of joy, just isn't anywhere near as popular as when I'm speaking on topics of despair that frankly distress me.
I try very hard to make my streams a place where folks can come to relax and chill, I've made a channel that's an explicitly LGBT friendly place, and it's something I have a lot of passion for.
The transphobia crisis in the UK mirrors in a lot of ways Prop 8 in California over a decade ago. There was a concerted effort by the religious right to ban same sex marriage in what is one of the most progressive states, and saw huge amounts of out of state money pouring in...
The logic was, that if the religious right could prove that even a progressive state rejects marriage equality, that it would deal a deadly blow to LGBT rights and kill off the growing momentum for marriage equality. It passed in 2008, and California banned same sex marriage.
It was deemed unconstitutional and overturned eventually, and in the end marriage equality won out in 2015. But I don't think it can be overstated just how intense the culture of homophobia got during the Prop 8 era, it was absolutely vile and shocking and extremely dehumanising.
Well, that's an oversimplification. They most certain are a hate group, and act the same as any other anti-LGBT hate group, but more than that, they're something more sinister: They are controlled opposition. And that's considerably worse.
Don't get me wrong, the fact that they oppose anti-bullying measures in schools, campaign against hate crime legislation when hate crimes against LGBT community is on the rise, imply that gay teachers are predators, etc... That's all absolutely standard hate group stuff.
But more specifically, they were formed to undermine and replace the UK's national LGBT charity, Stonewall. They applied for charitable status in the UK. One of their stated goals was to have Stonewall's school curriculum withdrawn, and replace it with one of their own making.
Hey folks, it's Steam sale time! Who'd like some recommendations?
For general recommendations, you can see all the games I recommend on my Curator page. Definitely give it a follow: store.steampowered.com/curator/283401…
But if you want a specific, personal recommendation? Lemme know your criteria, and I'll try my best to recommend something suitable!
Want some choice picks?
Lair of the Clockwork God is hands down the most underappreciated game of the year, I haven't laughed so much with a game in ever, and it's a truly clever little gem.
It'd be interesting, but it'd be seriously tough to do Buffalo Bill as written, without it being extremely transphobic, and as much I love both Hannibal the show and the admittedly problematic Silence of the Lambs, they'd have to be very clever about it to pull this off.
Ideally, I'd like to see them subvert the trope entirely, by making the "failed transsexual" context of the character be a red herring; a profile of the killer that is entirely inaccurate and throws law enforcement off of Bill's tracks.
Also, they'll have to do a really good casting job, because I'll be honest here... People love Hopkins in that movie? But Ted Levine was absolutely, genuinely terrifying. One of the most bone chilling, unsettling performances ever. Gives me shivers just thinking about it.
Hey folks, really sorry about this, but I might not stream after all. Just feeling really drained today, and not sure I'm up for it after all. I apologize it's at such short notice.
Instead, how about I shout out some indie games that you should check out? That might be nice.
Ghost of a Tale is a wonderful Redwall inspired stealth game. I got this way back when it was in early access, played it for a little and then always meant to come back to it after it got it's full release, but never did. Must fix that. Tilo is such an adorable protagonist.
Wintermoor Tactics Club is a very neat and accessible tactics game, I had bought this a while ago to support the devs, and while it's very good, I haven't played anywhere near enough to put it on my curator page. But no rule against me giving it the thumbs up after an hour here!