#Another Trans Identified Male Sex Offender

[coochiequeens]

How the hell was this guy walking around free to terrorize a community? He should have been still locked up for his previous crimes.

By Anna Slatz April 14, 2024

A serial sex offender has been convicted of assaulting a disabled teen girl in Wisconsin. Adam Hetke, who identifies as a female vampire named Sabrina, has a lengthy criminal history involving multiple sex offenses against women and outstanding charges related to a homicide.

Hetke, 35, was charged in July of 2021 with first-degree sexual assault by threatening the use of a dangerous weapon and second-degree sexual assault of a mentally ill victim. The assault occurred in Waukesha, and involved a 16-year-old cognitively disabled girl Hetke had met at a local gas station.

According to the complaint, Hetke terrified the girl, telling her he was a “vampire” who would harm her if she did not comply with his demands. He then followed her to her nearby home and sexually assaulted her. During the assault, Hetke kept a knife nearby and threatened to use it to harm her before the girl jumped out of a bedroom window and fled for help.

When he was arrested, he was wearing a one-piece swimsuit under his clothes and was holding a knife.

During trial, Hetke underwent a number of assessments to determine his ability to stand trial, but was found to be competent and deemed ineligible for the insanity plea. On April 11, Hetke was convicted on both counts he was charged with, and is set to be sentenced on June 7.

Hetke as of 2024. Photo Courtesy of the Waukesha Police Department.

But this is not Hetke’s first run-in with law enforcement.

Hetke is a registered sex offender in the state of Wisconsin, dating back to a 2007 conviction for second degree sexual assault. At the time, Hetke had been staying at a residential facility, and he physically overpowered a female staff member before groping her repeatedly. The victim was able to escape his grip and get away.

For the assault, Hetke was sentenced to 8 years in prison with 4 years on extended supervision, and was ordered to the sex offender registry for life.

Just before his release on January 26, 2016, the Waukesha Police Department warned the community that Hetke was at “high risk” to reoffend. In the announcement, they noted Hetke had no fixed residence, but that he would be monitored by a GPS tracker.

In 2019, Hetke was convicted once more of sexual assault involving a female victim, and was released from prison in 2020. The police bulletin again noted that Hetke was homeless and would be subjected to GPS monitoring, but also indicated that Hetke had begun identifying as a “woman.”

Following his second release from prison, Hetke was allegedly involved in a homicide in Milwaukee, for which he has yet to stand trial.

According to the complaint in that case, Hetke reportedly strangled a man to death using a power cord in April of 2021, though he apparently blamed the murder on a “demon.” He told Milwaukee police that the victim was “possessed by a demon” and began stabbing himself in the chest with tongs.

Hetke said he was only trying to exorcise the demon from the victim, but that the demon caused the victim to wrap a cord around his own neck and pull the ends. But a witness in that case has testified that Hetke admitted to murdering the man because he “disrespected” him, and that Hetke told the witness he was an incarnation of Satan.

Hetke is set to appear in court for that case on April 30.

According to the Wisconsin Sex Offender Registry, Hetke goes by a number of aliases including: Sabrina, Morrigan, Black Dragon, White Chocolate, Katie, and Andre.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), who has repeatedly pledged to “protect kids” with anti-LGBTQ+ laws, appointed a man to a top state prison post even though he had previously been fired from a local police force for receiving oral sex from a teen girl in a post office parking lot.

Jamol Jones, who Sanders appointed as chairman to the Arkansas Post-Prison Transfer Board in January, resigned last Friday after news agencies reported that the Benton Police Department fired him after he admitted to an internal affairs investigator that he had sexual relations as an adult with a 17-year-old girl, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

The age of consent in Arkansas is 16. A ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors that Sanders signed last year includes everyone younger than 18.

A November 1, 2018 letter from Benton Police Chief Scotty L. Hodges revealed that he placed Jones on administrative leave with pay “until further notice” for lying to an internal affairs investigator about his sexual relationship with the teen. Jones said he lied because he was embarrassed and scared. An investigation found that Jones’s initial job application to join the police force “did not provide or submit certain key information” about the relationship with the minor.

Jones said he and the girl “had talked at the gym” and that “she had identified herself as an 18-year-old” before performing oral sex on him in the Benton Post Office parking lot. Though he denied knowing her actual age, the Benton Police internal affairs investigator wrote in his official report, “There was indication he knew her age and continued the relationship, even telling her that the relationship could not be found out.”

Jones admitted to wanting to keep the relationship secret. He also admitted to never asking to see the girl’s ID, even though he had been formerly trained as a police officer to confirm people’s ages by doing so. The girl’s mother said she suspected that her daughter might have lied about her age to attract male attention, and the mother added that she didn’t want Jones to go to jail over the sexual relationship with her daughter.

Nevertheless, the lie and relationship violated the department’s ethics policy and state law. Though the Saline County prosecuting attorney’s office didn’t file charges against Jones, Hodges fired Jones three weeks later.

When Sanders appointed Jones in January, she said in a statement, “His prior law enforcement experience makes him a clear choice to take on this important role, and I look forward to working together as we empower Arkansans with a safer, stronger state.”

He was meant to serve for seven years as the board’s “chief executive, administrative, budgetary, and fiscal officer” while earning an annual salary of over $95,380. The board he resigned from oversees parole, alternative sentencing programs, and expunging criminal records for eligible offenders.

State Sen. Kim Hammer (R) said that he and other senators “had no knowledge of [Jones’s] actions” before the Senate voted to confirm his appointment to the position, noting, “I was given no indication from the Governor’s office, who vets the application, that there was an issue.”

Sanders’s office didn’t respond to a media request asking if she knew of Jones’ firing from the police force before she appointed him or how her office vets potential political appointees. Her appointment of him seems at odds with her pledge to “protect kids” by passing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.

In March, Sanders also signed a “Don’t Say Gay” law, banning classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation before fifth grade, as well as another bill allowing anyone who received gender-affirming care as a minor to sue their doctor up to 15 years after they turn 18 — though a court blocked it. In February, she signed a bill reclassifying drag performances as adult-oriented entertainment.

“The Governor has said she will sign laws that focus on protecting and educating our kids, not indoctrinating them and believes our schools are no place for the radical left’s woke agenda,” a Sanders spokesperson said in a statement when she signed the gender-affirming care ban.

Last November, Sanders appointed an anti-LGBTQ+ Christian nationalist to oversee state libraries. In October, Sanders issued an executive order banning “woke,” gender-inclusive language in government communications.

[redditreceipts]

I read your pinned post and was wondering, when you say you support dysphoric transitioned people as long as they don't use opposite sex spaces, what are your feelings on trans people who are "stealth"? Either for safety reasons or convenience or what have you. I'm new to radfem tumblr and am still forming opinions myself.

hey :) so this is an interesting question.

I think first of all, there should be some kind of legislation that takes away civil rights from sex offenders. Sex offenders, for example, should be prohibited from going into so-called "vulnerable spaces" like changing rooms and bathrooms (for any sex), places with a lot of children etc. This should also be supervised closely, of course. That would prevent males who are sex offenders from going into women's spaces at all. (Sex offenders also shouldn't be allowed to transition imo)

Secondly, I think that there are two types of sex-segregated spaces. One I would call the kind of space where you can choose to go or not to go, like for example a convention for lesbians, a gay bar for only gay men, a women's only event etc. There is no good reason in my opinion for a transgender person, stealth or not, to go to any of those events for the sex that they do not belong to. You can freely choose to not go to a lesbian's event as a straight trans-identified male, so I would assume that it isn't for you and you can go to another open event instead of going into another person's space.

But there is also the second type of sex-segregated space; the type of space where you can't just choose to not go. This would be things like public bathrooms, prisons, changing rooms etc. And there, I think that we should work on creating third spaces for people who are transitioning, like single-stall bathrooms or changing rooms, or an extra section in the men's prison for men who are likely to be attacked by other men (like gay men or transitioning males). So what should be done in the meantime? 1. we have to work on the main problem here, which is male violence. There has to be a legal system in place that consequently punishes males who attack transwomen because they don't want them in their restrooms 2. there has to be a more realistic concept of "passing". I see mtfs on reddit all the time talking on how much they love passing, but then I click on their profiles and they don't even remotely pass 😭

So okay, after these points have been adressed, I think that a person should use the space that causes the least amount of upset. I don't think that there is a perfect response because in this society, there is still a lot of bigotry and male violence.

[someone-will-remember-us]

Female inmates are terrified that transgender prisoners will still be allowed into women’s jails, according to policy reviews that have been secret until now.

Women prisoners are concerned that some trans offenders have manipulated the system by ditching hormone therapy used to help them transition as soon as they enter a female jail.

Vulnerable women have told researchers that they fear being sexually abused by male offenders who claim to be transitioning.

The reviews were conducted by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) after public outrage over the case of Isla Bryson, a double rapist previously known as Adam Graham who was initially remanded to Cornton Vale women’s prison in January last year. Only after political condemnation of the decision was Bryson switched to a male prison.

New guidelines for the SPS will still allow transitioning male prisoners to be admitted to female jails if they have no record of violence against women.

Single-sex campaign groups said the new policy was “shocking”. They said trans prisoners should not be put in women’s jails where most inmates have suffered lives of physical, sexual and domestic abuse.

Kate Coleman, director of Keep Prisons Single Sex said: “At its heart is not the safety of women, rather it is the principle of maximising the opportunities for transgender prisoners to be allocated to the estate corresponding to their expressed gender.”

The aim, she said, was to increase the opportunity for male prisoners identifying as women to have access to women in prison so that they could “practise” being female.

The SPS drew up its policy after a series of unpublished reviews asking female prisoners and officers about their concerns.

The Sunday Post said it had gained access to several papers that contain claims of trans prisoners “manipulating the system” and refusing, as soon as they get into a women’s jail, to take the female hormones that prevent their male genitalia “working”.

One female prisoner said of a trans fellow inmate: “If I was to have an argument with them then I would feel at risk because that’s the strength of a man.” Another said: “The last one to get out [of jail] is now back living as a man. The one before that got out — back living as a man. When he was in our hall he was telling people ‘I’m stopping taking my medication because I can’t get [an erection]’.”

Rhona Hotchkiss, the former governor of a number of Scotland’s prisons, including Cornton Vale, expressed an “increasing concern” for the wellbeing of female prisoners as well as staff. “Why was this research never issued by the SPS?” Hotchkiss asked. “Possibly because it would increase the pressure on them and the SNP government?”

She added: “It is abundantly clear that women in prison — not all of them and not all of the time — are by turns distressed, frightened, annoyed or irritated by the presence of men who identify as women in women’s prisons.”

The SPS said its new policy supported the health, safety and wellbeing of all people living and working in Scotland’s prisons. The reviews had not been published to protect personal information.

“No transgender women with a history of violence against women and girls, who present a risk to women, will be placed in the female estate,” the SPS said.

Separately, Patrick Harvie, the Scottish Greens co-leader, has been criticised for a “dangerous” attack on critics of Nicola Sturgeon’s gender self-identification bill after comparing them with bigots who hate Muslims.

In a podcast the Scottish government minister said that people who express concerns about changes to transgender laws are no different from the far-right trying to ‘“demonise and stigmatise the Muslim community”.

Meghan Gallacher, deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said: “Patrick Harvie typically dismisses legitimate concerns people had about how the bill threatened the safety of women and girls because he is so wedded to his dogmatic views.”

(archive)

[trans-wojak]

Hello! I find your posts interesting and I'm a transmed myself, so I wanted to bring up something I've noticed about tucutes and the non-binary labels.

As we all know, cisgender transphobes claim being trans is a choice. But what happened to more people being offended by this statement?

Due to new mainstream media with tucutes and non-binary labels populating and taking over actual trans spaces, more people now think gender is a choice, because of tucutes. If people can acknowledge that transphobes think gender is a choice, then why can't people see past the non-binary façade and the tucute ideology spitting the same theme? Tucutes have the same beliefs as the oppressors, and their appearance in mainstream media lures cis people into thinking they're trans and stretching the 'being trans is a choice' theme, while also bringing more hate to the community because of their appearance.

Tucutes are our oppressors in disguise as the oppressed. Their whole non-binary scheme is to keep them in the community to try fitting in while breaking off actual transsexuals. They're on a mission to make LGBT labels infinite and meaningless, taking over certain spaces- trans, lesbian, etc. All the while indoctrinating people that don't have a mind of their own and guilt tripping people into believing them. They're confused, and they're confusing others. The future is headed in the wrong direction with their plotting.

I as a Gen Z notice how the ideology of tucutes is to rebel and express their spite for social norms while feeling unique. They 'reclaim' slurs that aren't meant for them to feel like they're winning against their enemies. And they take over on TikTok and act like they were victims of their past transmed ideology. Saying transmed ideology made them dysphoric. If they need certain ideology to be dysphoric and another ideology makes them not feel dysphoric, then visibly they're contradictory, and therefore trenders.

Yes this exactly true, nonbinary and transphobes share the same belief system; that trans healthcare is just cosmetic body modification and not a medical need, they just believe in diff results: one believes it should be banned indefinitely, the other thinks it should be freely handed out to anyone who wants it.

They think gender dysphoria is socially created, just like transphobes. That you can just use mental gymnastics to ignore the male gender is associated with having male sexual characteristics in biology, it’s not a made up social concept and no amount of “you are valid as a man even if you are entirely female!” will magically change the fact the human brain sees sexual characteristics as either male or female even without socialisation.

Fence sitters now accuse transsexuals of being wrong for wanting to alter our sex and NOT just using stupid terms like “I identify as”. Like, non binary isn’t even gender non conforming majority of the time.

It’s confused many transsexual men and women into thinking if they don’t fit gender roles, they aren’t real men or women. It’s confused butch lesbians into thinking because they aren’t subscribing to gender roles and like the same sex, they mustn’t be real women. Like talk about non binary being the new third sexist gender role lmao.

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

Fox News employees are allowed to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity, rather than their biological sex, and permitted to dress in alignment with their preferred gender. They must also be addressed by their preferred name and pronouns in the workplace. 

These are just a few of the policies outlined in the company handbook, dated January 2021, a copy of which was shared with The Daily Signal. Fox also offers to help employees come up with a “Workplace Transition Plan” to ease their gender transition at work. 

The revelations comes amid conservative consternation at Fox Digital’s use of activist language like “gender affirming care” in stories on its website, as well as the site’s consistent use of female pronouns for biological males like TikTok celebrity Dylan Mulvaney and swimmer Lia Thomas (formerly known as Will Thomas).

Fox also drew strong backlash for a June 2022 on-air segment praising a child’s gender transition as an “inspiration to others.” That segment briefly depicted California state Sen. Scott Weiner, a far-left Democrat who led the move to soften sex offender registry requirements for sodomy with minors, and highlighted the activist claim that a child might commit suicide if he or she is not permitted to transition.

The Daily Signal talked to current and former Fox employees who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the company. 

“They want you to think it’s this place that supports traditionally conservative values,” a former producer for “Tucker Carlson Tonight” told The Daily Signal. “But in reality, they’re pushing this nonsense behind the scenes.” 

Carlson’s show was canceled April 24, days after he delivered a viral speech at The Heritage Foundation’s 50th anniversary gala. Fox News Media has not given a reason, simply stating that the two parties “agreed to part ways.” 

A source who still works at Fox News told The Daily Signal that after Carlson’s show was canceled in April, producers for the new 8 p.m. “Fox News Tonight” program were told not to bash Mulvaney. That directive came from high-level executives, the source said. 

So, that's bad, and fuck Fox News and you if you're still supporting them, but I want to highlight another part of the article below:

Fox’s policies appear to be aligned with the legal requirements in New York City, where the company is headquartered, as well as California, where a large number of its employees work.

The New York City Human Rights Law requires employers to use the name, pronouns, and title with which a person identifies, regardless of their biological sex. It is a violation of the NYCHRL to intentionally or repeatedly refuse to use a person’s preferred name, pronouns, or title.

Additionally, the New York City law requires that people “be permitted to use single gender facilities, such as restrooms or locker rooms…that most closely align with their gender, regardless of their gender expression, sex assigned at birth, anatomy, medical history, or the sex or gender indicated on their identification.”

If a biological woman objects to sharing a bathroom with a trans-identifying man, her objection will not be considered a “lawful reason to deny access” to the trans-identifying individual: “In those circumstances, a covered entity may offer alternatives for the individual expressing discomfort, by, for example, providing a single-occupancy restroom to change in.”

This is not meant to excuse Fox, again, fuck them, but this is a prime example of why conservatives can't place themselves under the umbrella of left wing spaces. I know we all hate Crowder now because being an asshole to his wife apparently invalidates everything good he's ever done or said (and because someone is going to say it, no, I don't support how he treated his wife in that video) but this kind of thing is exactly what he was talking about during his StopBigCon videos. And he was right. And so is everyone else who's been saying the same things over the years.

You can't fight for conservative values while placing yourself under woke coastal laws. You can't fight the left while living in their cities and paying their taxes and patronizing their businesses. A corporation like Fox News never should have had their headquarters in New York City. They should have been in Memphis or Boise. Hell, almost anywhere would have been better than NYC or California. It's so, so important to create our own spaces and make sure we operate under our own rules. There is no reason why any of us should ever willingly make ourselves subject to woke left wing rules if we can avoid it. And if we can't avoid it, it's our responsibility to make a place where we can. Not to close the gates after us and to make an echo chamber. But to build a base where we can attack the left and their institutions where we don't have to compromise ourselves by following their rules while we're telling everyone else how evil those rules are.

[grackles-hoard]

Men pretending to be women for autogynephilia or mental illness reasons is absurd and biologically impossible and also harmful. Lol. Echo chamber much?

https://www.lawsociety.ie/gazette/top-stories/2021/12-december/ex-inmate-gives-account-of-sex-assault-by-trans-prisoner

https://www.kxii.com/content/news/Transgender-woman-allegedly-sexually-assaults-teen-in-walmart-505820451.html

https://amp.theguardian.com/society/2021/jul/02/trans-women-with-sex-offence-convictions-in-female-jails-lawful-rules-judge

https://nypost.com/2022/04/25/transgender-rikers-inmate-gets-7-years-for-raping-female-prisoner/amp/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11458335/Male-female-Trans-inmates-drive-rising-numbers-rapes-abuse-womens-prisons.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-63785679.amp

https://wset.com/amp/news/nation-world/la-da-blasted-for-charging-26-year-old-trans-women-as-juvenile-in-sex-assault-of-minor-los-angeles-california-george-gascon

https://www.womensforumaustralia.org/rape_victim_fights_back_after_a_trans_identified_male_was_given

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2021/10/29/trans-bathroom-policy-sexual-assault/8568005002/

Hi! I see you are continuing to try to excuse your hateful behavior!

The argument you made (and I responded to) was that natal sex and gender cannot be changed, thus trans people are invalid.

Let's dive into the links you sent me and examine each article and their content!

The first link you sent me is from the news website 'Law Society Gazette Ireland', and the article is titled 'Female inmate tells of sex assault by trans prisoner' published January 18, 2022. The article is about sex predator Karen White being sent to an all female prison based on self identification as a woman, despite never having undergone surgery or HRT. White was convicted for grievous bodily harm, multiple rape, and other sexual offences against women. In the case to place White into a female prison, the previous crimes were not taken into account. The Ministry of Justice even says they did not take the previous crimes into account.

One of the offended women, Cheryle Kempton, tells the reporter that she believes White faked being transgender to prey on vulnerable women.

Now that we have touched on the articles content, let's go through why this is not a credible source for your argument.

This article is about a sex predator; which does not connect to the argument you are making.

The article states that the previous crimes of White were not taken into consideration when placing the criminal in a female prison. This could be used for the argument of prison safety, but that is not the argument you are making.

The article uses a survivor of the assault in the report, who makes no action to condemn trans people. Kempton tells the reporter that she believes that White faked being trans to prey on fellow inmates and took advantage of the laws allowing those who identify as trans women to serve time in female prisons. Kempton does not go on to say anything supporting your original argument.

2. The second link is to another news website 'kxii.com', and the article is titled 'Transgender woman arrested accused of sexually assaulting teen in Walmart bathroom' published February 13, 2019. The article is about a 31 y/o Ojeda sexually assaulting a 16 y/o in a Walmart bathroom. Ojeda is facing sexual battery charge, and may face a charge of obstruction for withholding possible evidence, should Ojeda be convicted.

Now that we have touched on the articles content, let's go through why this is not a credible source for your argument.

This article's URL ends in a '.com'. This stands for commercial, and thus, does not meet the criteria for being a credible source for any argument.

This article has no links to verifiable, current evidence. Reputable news articles usually link their sources within the paragraphs and the links should take the reader to the main source of information, which itself should also be a reliable source.

This article talks about sexual assault, and does not support your original argument.

3. The third link is to another news website 'The Guardian', and the article is titled 'Lawful to imprison trans women sex offenders in female jails, judge rules', amended July 2, 2021. The article is very much like the first article you sent me, which talks about sexual assault by MTF peoples in female prisons. It discusses the fine line of safety and respect for both MTF inmates and ciswomen inmates. Lord Justice Holroyde reports in the article; " said the statistics were too low and had insufficient detail to provide a safe basis for conclusions, adding: “I can accept, at any rate for present purposes, that the unconditional introduction of a transgender woman into the general population of a women’s prison carries a statistically greater risk of sexual assault upon non-transgender prisoners than would be the case if a non-transgender woman were introduced. But that statistical conclusion takes no account of the risk assessment which the policies require.”"

Now that we have touched on the articles content, let's go through why this is not a credible source for your argument.

This article talks about sexual assault, and does not support your original argument. This could be used for the argument of prison safety, but that is not the argument you are making.

The article's website 'The Guardian' is not peer reviewed, and ends in a commercial web address, and thus, does not meet the criteria for being a credible source for any argument.

The article's website 'The Guardian', is held in high regards to providing well informed news, however, 'The Guardian' tends to leans to a left-wing bias, and thus, without you providing a counter bias, makes this uncredible.

4.-9. These next articles you have sent me link more news websites, all with commercial web addresses. I have read over each of them, and to save us some time, I will go through why these are not credible sources for your argument.

Many (if not all) of these articles talk about sexual assault, and does not support your original argument. This could be used for the argument of prison safety, but that is not the argument you are making.

Many (if not all) of these articles does not provide a creditable source/link for their articles.

The last link has 'opinion' in its URL, making is not factual information, liable to bias, and not creditable.

Again, you are in no position to tell someone (who is not harming you or others) that their experiences are incorrect. It is not a burden to be kind, I can assure you.

I am in no control of you or your displeasure for any trans person, I never claimed to be. I am, however, in control of myself, unlike you. Your frustration and hate towards me is not deserved, I have said nothing to slight you or to berate you.

Once again, I hope you learn kindness :)

[gailynovelry]

I just wanted to ask… in regard to your LGBTQ post about being a safe person to ask. I don’t want to offend. (I have been raised pretty conservative.) Your bio says he/him and you’re a lesbian… (a man can say: I like women, I’m a lesbian in a jesting way) or is it you informing people in a creative way that you are a gay male or does it mean you were born biologically a female, identify as a male, attracted to women? From what I have come to know as being a lesbian, it means a female being attracted to the same sex as them… so why put you’re a lesbian if you identify as a male? I know this probably sounds super ignorant, I just want to understand a bit better.

If you do take time in answering this, thank you :) and if not that’s okay, I like your blog any way.

Hello nonny! I’m glad you find us a safe person to ask.

Different people identify with the he/him lesbian label in different ways. The most common, I think, is people identifying as a woman, but liking masculine pronouns because of the way it queers their gender. Like wearing masc clothes, or cutting your hair, right? Pronoun butchness.

That is one of the reasons we have given for using the he/him lesbian label.

But in our case, it’s also just that our gender situation is a little weird for plurality reasons.

Physically, we are one person, one body. That body is AFAB, yes. In the fuction of our mind, we’re a little bit shattered. There are three of us who typically run the show here. One of us is more or less a girl who likes girls. Another is a trans man with a certain amount of dysphoria. And I do identify as a boy, but I don’t mind people mistaking me for a girl.

So, collectively, we identify as bigender, and the way we express that is by nodding toward Fade’s lesbian identity as well as Gail and my preference for masc pronouns.

He/him lesbian. Masculine and feminine both.

This is not a common situation, admittedly! There are also plenty of people out there who use bigender, he/him lesbian, and other genderweird labels without being plural. You would have to ask other people to get singlet perspectives on these identities.

Thank you for being brave enough to ask about this, nonny. Hope this helps!

[ukrfeminism]

thetimes.co.uk / article/ snp-gender-reforms-dangerous-for-women-un-official-warns-s3kxxrvcs

Thank you for the link, anon!

3 minute read

A leading UN official has condemned the SNP’s gender recognition reforms as posing a danger to women and urged Scottish ministers to postpone the legislation.

Reem Alsalem’s devastating critique dismantled the approach taken by Nicola Sturgeon’s government, describing the legislation as unfair, rushed, vague and contradictory. Above all she stressed the threat to women from violent males who could abuse the proposed self-identification process to acquire a gender recognition certificate (GRC).

In a 4,500-word letter to the UK government Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, appealed to Sturgeon to allow “sufficient time to complete a thorough assessment of all foreseeable consequences”.

The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill is set to be enacted by Christmas, though it was introduced at Holyrood only last month. It aims to make it easier for trans people to switch gender through “self-ID” and by lowering the age limit from 18 to 16.

Backed by the SNP-Green administration, the Scottish Lib Dems and some Labour MSPs, the legislation is bitterly opposed by feminist groups, who have received strong support from campaigners including JK Rowling.

Alsalem amplified many of the concerns raised by campaigners. She said: “Such proposals would potentially open the door for violent males who identify as men to abuse the process of acquiring a GRC and the rights associated with it. This presents potential risks to the safety of women in all their diversity.

“The Scottish government … does not provide for any safeguarding measures to ensure that the procedure is not, as far as can be reasonably assured, abused by sexual predators and other perpetrators of violence. These include access to both single-sex spaces and gender-based spaces.”

She said evidence demonstrated “that the majority of sex offenders are male, and that persistent sex offenders will go to great lengths to gain access to those they wish to abuse”.

Alsalem said the consultation on the bill had been insufficiently fair and inclusive. She added that although a Holyrood committee had listened to the voices of trans women, she was concerned that the same MSPs had told five survivors of male violence they “did not have time to see them and to put their objections in writing”.

“Second-guessing and questioning the needs of survivors of violence born female for single-sex assistance and protection services is not victim-centered and ignores and undermines the survivor’s involuntary trauma, agency, and dignity,” Alsalem said.

Echoing criticisms of the legislation made by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Alsalem said the Equality Act 2010 permitted the provision of single-sex services, “excluding anyone born male, however they identify, as a proportionate means to achieve a legitimate aim”.

She added that she had been made aware of “reports that indicate a failure to provide single-sex spaces to female survivors of male violence, who, because of their experiences, do not feel able to access a trans inclusive service, leading to their self-exclusion from support and refuge services”.

She warned the Scottish government that it could also infringe the Equality Act if women from different religious backgrounds felt excluded by the consequences of the gender reforms.

“It is vital that service providers in Scotland continue to be able to provide both single-sex and gender-based services, and funding must be ringfenced for a certain proportion to be single sex, balancing the needs of the different demographics without placing them in conflict.”

In another critical passage, Alsalem echoed the concerns of some policy analysts who believe the quality of data collected in the census has been degraded by the SNP’s obsession with gender rather sex-based definitions.

Under the heading “the deprioritisation of sex-related data collection”, she said the Scottish government was already in breach of the UN Cedaw protocol — the Convention of the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women — which she called a “concerning” development.

Another topic, “the lack of clarity on the relationship between Scotland’s Gender Recognition Act and the UK Equality Act” showed the Scottish government’s position to be “less than clear and at times contradictory”.

Returning to the simplified procedure for obtaining a GRC, she said it would be more difficult “to determine a prior history of violence for the transitioned person in question”.

She added: “There needs to be a consideration of adequate safeguarding during the procedure of certification itself. Furthermore, the government of Scotland is yet to clarify what procedure is in place for dealing with cases of those individuals that transition back to their previous gender identity.”

Alsalem stressed that “trans persons are entitled to live a life that is free from discrimination, harassment to have their human rights safeguarded” and that existing UK law had raised “legitimate concerns” among some people wishing to transition because it required a mental health diagnosis of gender dysphoria, violating international rights and standards.

The Scottish government was asked for comment.

[itdobethatbitch]

what are your thoughts on trans men? i am a trans man who told my family when i was 12 that i wanted to be a boy. i didn't know that being transgender was a thing, nobody told me i should become a boy, and i believed that women were just as strong and capable as any man. i am 18 now and medically transitioning not because i am "deluded" or "crazy", but because being called she or her or my deadname physically hurts. i've attempted suicide twice, but i am much happier now, and my male-to-female friends have had similar experiences. we are not grooming children- many of us realized we were trans as children, without outside intervention. educating on lgbtq history and trans issues does not force somebody to be trans. and as somebody raised female, i understand being afraid of men and paranoid that they are out to get you, but have you considered that not everything is about you? that a trans woman isn't uprooting her entire life just to fuck you in a public bathroom? trans people are not preying on cis women. we just want to be normal.

I think it is very common for younger girls to want to be boys. There are pleanty of reasons why puberty is uncomfortable for both boys and girls. It is an awkward time, and there are a lot of cultural factors that tie into it as well.

I dont feel differently about women being trans and identifying as men, save for the fact that women are physically built differently than men and are on average, not as strong. I still think there should be more single stall bathrooms, that would fix some problems. I still think you shouldnt be allowed to change to a different sex sports team.

Personally, the trauma I have experienced occured when I was roughly 4 to 10 yesrs old, and it wasnt violent. So, I am not worried about myself nearly as much as I am worried about other women and girls.

Sure, if someone genuinly feels they should be a different gender and they are 18, they are an adult and can make their own choices. However, I think men who know damn well they are men, are acting as if they are trans to get access to vulnerable people. I think it is the responsibility of people who identify as trans, and as you say "just want to be normal", to understand the consequences of allowing people to self identify and use whichever restroom they please.

Someone who has a paraphilic disorder will do whatever it takes to satisfy their urges. They are abusive and manipulative and are a danger to others.

It is more of an issue for men to identify as women because men, even going through hormone therapy, will have the physical advantage over women. I know these are generalities, but it is the duty of good people to protect others. If you are trans, i think it is up to you to manage yourself and act accordingly, finding a single stall bathroom. Fight for that if you want to fight for rights.

At the end of the day, I believe that allowing biological men into women only spaces removes the rights of biological women...I dont aim to offend people, but i wont keep my mouth shut just because people get offended. I wish the world was perfect and we could trust people to be honest and kind, but that isn't reality.

And words cannot cause a physical pain to someone. You may feel a strong emotional reaction, but while I believe words do have power, they cannot physically harm someone.

I am sorry you felt so strongly you tried to take your life, but my opinions on suicide are another topic and i will offend even more people. If you want to have that conversation I will, but anyway...and I am glad you personally feel better about yourself, and you may not personally be a groomer, but people who want to cause harm are benefiting from certain actions.

This was a long one, I tend to ramble, but i tried to answer the topics that seemed to be brought up in your ask.

[coochiequeens]

A male in office was going to let a child rapist free but a woman defeated him in last Novembers election and is now keeping him locked up. This is why every vote counts means more than just the presidential election.

By Genevieve Gluck January 31, 2024

A serial child rapist who had previously secured a release from prison after identifying as transgender has finally been deemed a “sexually violent predator” under Iowa state law. A judge has determined that Joseph Matthew Smith, who now uses the name Josie Maria Dunham or Josie Smith, should be confined in a secure facility indefinitely, quashing a previous ruling that claimed Smith was no longer a sexual risk due to being on feminizing hormones.

Newly-elected Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is behind the push to keep Smith in custody, having recently defeated the nation’s longest-tenured attorney general, Tom Miller, in a November election.

In 2020, Miller endorsed the move that saw Smith released from custody. Bird then condemned his judgement in the matter, running ads during her campaign slamming Miller as sympathetic to the sexual predator.

A petition filed in December in Buena Vista County District Court requested a civil trial in order to determine whether Smith should be re-classified as a sexually violent predator with a high chance of re-offending.

“[Smith]’s mental abnormality makes him more likely than not to engage in predatory acts constituting sexually violent offenses if not confined in a secure facility,” the petition reads. “[Smith] should be committed to the custody of the Department of Human Services to be held in a secure facility for control, care, and treatment until such time as his mental abnormality has so changed that he is safe to be at large in the community.”

In December 2015, Smith was convicted in Buena Vista County of lascivious acts with a child. At the time, Assistant Attorney General Andrew Schoonhoven determined that Smith suffers from “at least one mental abnormality, specifically the mental abnormality of pedophilic disorder,” which predisposes Smith to “commit sexually violent offenses to a degree constituting a menace to the health and safety of others.”

A pre-sentence psychological report was prepared by the State’s expert, Dr. Jeffrey Davis, a psychologist from the University of California.

Davis recommended that Smith be confined at the Cherokee Civil Commitment Unit for Sex Offenders (CCUSO) for an indefinite period based on what he determined to be a high likelihood of sexual re-offending. The report noted that Smith had told a state forensic psychologist he had molested as many as 15 children under the age of 13, the youngest being a 1-year-old baby. He added that he believed Smith was more likely to commit a sexual assault than 92% of male sex offenders.

There has not been even one recorded case of a female patient having been committed to the CCUSO in the unit’s 25-year history, reports the Cherokee Chronicle Times. But there have been at least three trans-identified males in the civil commitment unit. One of those patients, a man named Christian Schiebel who uses the feminine name Tina Keller, told the Storm Lake Times-Pilot he was advised by his attorney that a transgender identity would increase his chances of release.

Smith made international headlines in 2020 after being released from prison just 4 years into an indefinite prison sentence. He had been convicted of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old resident at Midwest Christian Services (MCS), a treatment facility for juveniles following another conviction for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old when he was a teenager.

Despite his record of sexual offending, on January 9, 2020, the Iowa Attorney General’s office filed a motion to dismiss a petition requesting that the serial pedophile be considered a sexually violent predator. The Iowa Attorney General office’s defended the decision by citing Smith’s reduced testosterone levels as a result of hormone treatments. Attorney general spokesman Lynn Hicks stated that “an offender’s hormone levels are an important part of substantiating an offender’s likelihood of recidivism.”

Officials claimed Smith was at a lower risk of re-offending due to an altered testosterone level, and that he “no longer had the sex drive of a man.”

Smith had been receiving hormones related to his self-declared gender identity while being held at Newton Correctional Facility, where, in January 2016, he began serving an indefinite sentence after being convicted of molesting a child. In October 2017, he first expressed a desire to “get started on transgender classification” and started using female pronouns.

Hicks also claimed that an expert had determined that Smith was not at a risk of re-offending due to his gender identity. An Iowa district court judge therefore granted the motion to dismiss “in the interests of justice.”

In January of 2020, Smith was released on parole; but by October of 2021, he had already violated the terms of his strict conditions by using an unauthorized electronic device and seeking out sex. Despite the violation, Smith was not remanded to custody, and was instead allowed to continue to live in the small city of Sloan, Iowa.

In January 2022, Christine Louis, administrative law judge for Iowa Correctional Services, sentenced Smith to two more years in prison, as he had again violated the terms of his parole. During an inspection in January, Smith’s parole officer discovered child pornography on his phone which depicted boys and girls aged between five and eight years old. Smith requested leniency, but was ultimately denied.

[lanceinwonderland]

Stylized top surgery scars irritate me to no end - like surely everyone can see this doesn't actually help anyone, other than transphobes that believe they have a god given right to "always tell"? Who are you actually helping by teaching more cis people how to clock trans people? We should teach cis people why some people need to transition to live happy lives, not the details of what medical procedures we may choose to go through.

There really are two different kinds of "visibility". One is making people know this particular group of people exist and how to deal with it if someone tells you they belong to this minority. One is "how to identify all members of this group of people in daily life". The former is necessary for eventual acceptance but the latter is harmful. Like, I think the HIV/AIDS awareness campaign is a better example. People of course need to be aware of what is risky and what is completely safe, and know that our HIV treatment is fairly decent right now so it's not a death sentence even if you're unfortunately infected. But there's no campaign running around telling everyone how the meds HIV+ people usually take look like, or if someone adheres to their meds schedule extremely tightly they might be HIV+. That would be an extremely fucked up thing to do. Yet people are doing this to us all day every day.

And those "arts" are always so exaggerated. Almost like a caricature really. As if everyone who had DI has scars like two red pythons on their chest. That's not even to mention many people had keyhole or peri. Now even cis guys who had gynecomastia surgery and unfortunately didn't have their scars fade completely are regularly harassed if they ever show their bare chest, because people believe they must be trans.

I still have the fear of being clocked in super progressive places like Toronto. I've not lived there long term but visit frequently, probably every one or two months. So far it hasn't happened. I've played such hypothetical scenarios many times in my head, as in how to react if someone says something that implies they know I'm trans. I usually land on just acting very confused and slightly offended, like "what? But I'm a guy". I feel that reacting too strongly would either make them more certain in their correctness, or they would assume I'm transphobic, which I'd like to avoid. But just shrugging may also seem like an acknowledgement. Ughhh. I just wish people could stop doing this to each other. My gf stayed stealth in Montreal for 3 years so we joke around saying that must mean she's conventionally feminine enough to stay stealth almost anywhere in the world.

Another thing is whenever 99% of cis people and even a huge number of trans people hear "a trans man", they automatically think "a man with a vagina" (vice versa for trans women). As if somehow, trans people post bottom surgery are less trans than those pre bottom surgery. As if none of us has bottom dysphoria so severe that they don't wish to use their natal genitals for sex. The thought grosses me out yet I know it's true. Not gonna lie, a huge part of not wanting people to know is because I don't want them to think I don't have a dick or like think about my genitals at all. 

So many people do superficial performative things like replacing male/female or men/women with AMAB/AFAB, which literally benefits no one. I would even argue it's more transphobic than the traditional "genital shape = sex = gender" view, as it implies it's something magical that once assigned at birth, can never, ever be changed under any circumstances. A walk-in clinic my gf used to go to replaced all their "sex" fields with "sex at birth", and they even put it on your medical notes, the ones that you may need to show your employer to take medical leave. How does that help anyone exactly? She was so annoyed that she eventually left when she managed to find another doctor. I wouldn't completely disregard the possibility that it was indeed designed to out trans people, since many cis people feel they're entitled to "always know". I haven't encountered this personally but she also had companies collecting demographic data of both "sex" and "gender" in job applications. What the hell? I just put male and never out myself whatever terminology they use.

TLDR: Most people don't actually want to learn out of deeply ingrained transphobic ideas, because that would require them to reflect and maybe uproot their entire worldview.

[dandeliondelee]

Looking Back: A Take On Donna Minkowitz's "How I Broke, and Botched, the Brandon Teena Story"

Blog Post 2

“Stories constitute the single most powerful weapon in a leader’s arsenal.” - Dr. Howard Gardner

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

With a title as straightforward as “How I Broke, and Botched, the Brandon Teena Story,” Donna Minkowitz wastes no time to tell the world of her shortcomings in delivering the tragedy of Brandon Teena. Minkowitz’s youthful and ignorant mistake has garnered great criticism from trans activists during its time for reasons she used to not understand. But now in a time of fervid debates about body politics, she realizes her fault in the matter and attempts to reconcile the harm she has done by revisiting the pages long forgotten and setting the story straight. Her apology puts great caution on the role of how our preconceptions shape the way we tell the story of others and how our audience will perceive these based on our words. 

Brandon Teena is transexual male, originally from the conservative Lincoln, who had recently moved to Falls City. In his new home, he had managed to find both happiness and problems— the two things that would ultimately set the stage for his death. Falls City was not only where he met his girlfriend Lana Tisdel, but also where he would be later discriminated against after the police department’s hand in publicly declaring his biological sex to the public in the news report of his check-forging charge. A few days after the report came out, he was physically and sexually assaulted by Tisdel’s friends, John Lotter and Tom Nissen. The police’s inaction against this incident is what further led to the same perpetrators’ coercion in his murder a week later. 

This story captured the attention of publisher, The Village Voice, which tasked Minkowitz on the hunt to write a feature article about the events leading up to the death of Brandon Teena. Her take on the issue inadvertently casted Teena as a lesbian who hated his body because of prior experiences of childhood and adolescent sexual abuse. She stated as much in her original article that the very action of Teena converting genders was “bold,” but she also made the wrong choice of assuming this was an action prompted by fear, as a result of internalized homophobia. Looking back at the original article, Minkowitz acknowledges her misconceptions about the context of the circumstances. Hence, the way in which she wrote the article reflected the subtleties of her anti-trans ideologies, ones that she failed to take heed of— but they weren’t subtle enough to go unnoticed by her readers. 

From this, several external factors may be pinpointed as to why the death of Teena and its telling took its sinuous path. Firstly, culture is a domineering presence in almost all aspects of life from the moment we’re born that no person is immune to its influence. The culture in the traditionalist hometown of Teena has helped Minkowitz diverge into speculations about how his environment contributed to his decision to identify as a transexual person. For instance, she cites that the sexual abuse he endured as a child became the avenue for him to favor female partners, rather than male ones. Aside from this, the article she released branches out wildly from her original notes— those taken raw from the mother of Teena. At first, she had always seen Teena’s mother as a homophobic parent because of her extreme, albeit justified, reaction to Teena’s transition. Failing to see the gray areas that people under the immense pressure of culture tread over, Minkowitz never once asked the question of how Teena’s decisions affected his mother and what the rationale was behind the next steps his mother took upon processing this news. 

Another thing is the confusion about gender and sex. These are two terms that are often used synonymously— despite being vastly different from one another in definition and in nature— that it’s funny when people become offended over the realization that gender and sex are two separate things that stand independently. And to rub salt into the wound, there used to be very little distinctions made between the different descriptors for how LGBTQ+ people identified themselves on the spectrum. Minkowitz fell victim to these ideals at the time, which led to more of her conjectures about Teena: becoming trans was a way of living a relatively heterosexual life with the body that he was not given. 

Lastly, the law seemed to reflect these transphobic notions, which— again, like with culture— helped Minkowitz’s appeal to cast Teena as a victim of society’s keen eye and authority. The police department of Falls City did nothing to shield Teena from the discrimination that would come his way after they revealed his birth sex, all because of a petty forgery charge. If that wasn’t already bad enough as it is, after Teena’s rape, the police refused to arrest the perpetrators for reasons that would not hold up on court. There is only one common denominator from these three aforementioned themes that has muffled Teena’s voice after his death; assumptions about other people is what leads us into the trap of seeing them the way we’ve been told to do so by our upbringing.

The actions of Minkowitz sheds light on the weight of our biases guiding the way we think and act. Take for example the murderers of Teena and Minkowitz, they were all motivated by the underlying ideas they had of LGBTQ+ people which led to their failure to regard this population as people same as them, only with different ideals. However, that’s not to say that they are the same, far from it. They are dissimilar by a giant leap— a misinformed article is nothing next to the murder of a human being— but it’s also undeniable that they have caused significant negative effects to the people around them. Mainly, it was Minkowitz’s own prejudices that allowed the story of Brandon Teena to take the path it did, rather than the narratives of those who knew him. Now, Minkowitz offers the option of living in a world where we tell the stories of others the way they want to be remembered, far from the illusions that fog our rose-tinted lens.

[corvus--rex]

Another one that's soundly asleep and not abandoned. Non-canon compliant, and all 7 of them are lgbt+ (I also may, possibly, be projecting onto Keith - just a little). And Lance is a they/them enby.

~*~*~*~

Liberating the planet Artrax was the easy part. Eliminating the Galra presence was simple. Voltron’s Paladins had done their job in securing the planet’s freedom. No different from any other occupied planet they’d been to. The Artraxians were holding a celebratory festival both in honor of the Paladins and in anticipation of joining the Voltron Coalition. Not complicated. It wasn’t something they hadn’t done many times before. And while every planet’s traditions and customs were different, they more or less knew what to expect. At least, they thought they knew what to expect. They were apparently wrong about that.

Allura dropped into her usual seat at the head of the dining table with a heavy sigh, the tablet in her hand clattering to the table’s surface. A lack of her usual composure was evident in the way her shoulders slumped, the annoyance and displeasure clear on her face. She sighed again before facing the Paladins.

“I’ve just spoken with Artrax’s leaders. They are going forward with the celebration in our honor and over joining the Coalition,” she said, heavy with exhaustion.

“I’m sensing a ‘but’,” Lance said cautiously.

“The Artraxians have a very rigid society when it comes to gender roles and sexuality. They are also insisting that, as distinguished guests, we are to dress according to their standards. At the very least I got them to agree to modify their fashions to our anatomy. But they will not back down from their views on gender. Not even for us. Alteans may not believe in those strict lines, but they do.”

“And combined with their enhanced sense of smell, especially when it comes to hormones and pheromones, there’s no way we can get around it,” Pidge noted disappointedly.

“Unfortunately. Please know that I would never ask any of you to do something that makes you uncomfortable in that way. But they would consider it a personal insult not to attend, or abide by their customs. And their trade routes are invaluable to the Coalition. I am so sorry.” Allura slumped back into her seat, gaze dropping to the table.

The room was silent for a long minute as they all considered their options and what the Artraxian societal standards meant for them. Three fifths of the Paladins didn’t identify with their assigned genders and none of them, Allura and Coran included, were straight. Hiding their sexual orientations was manageable, their gender identities far less so. Neither Lance nor Pidge in any way liked the idea of being forced into presenting as their assigned genders. After expanding their wardrobes beyond what they had worn into space, there was no telling what Lance would appear in on any given day, while Pidge’s remained as non-gendered as physically possible.

It had only been a few months since Pidge had come out to the team as agender, aromantic, and asexual. “Triple-A Queer” they had called it. They had known for some time before, but their disguise to get into the Galaxy Garrison was important to their self-imposed mission to find Sam and Matt, and so allowed everyone to believe that they were male. Lance, on the other hand, had never made their semi-fluid nonbinary identity a secret. Being bisexual and nonbinary at the Garrison had been an unpleasant experience at times, until the day when Tommy Bailey was harassing them for it again and Hunk simply appeared behind Lance without a sound, glaring. Tommy was too afraid of Hunk after that to try anything again.

While Lance and Pidge – as much as they hated it – could power through the discomfort of dressing to their physical sex, it was a little harder for Keith. He had kept it a secret at the Garrison, Griffin’s homophobia and “teasing” about Keith’s parents was bad enough. The only ones who had known were Shiro, Adam, and Garrison medical staff. He figured his life was hard enough being the gay, orphaned, golden boy without adding his trans status on top of it. His recovery time after top surgery was dismissed (by him) as having been sick, and hormone shots as being for specific, undisclosed allergies. (“Yeah, I’m allergic to being female,” he’d told Shiro with a laugh when they decided that was going to be the “official” story.)

He’d been off hormones since not long after leaving the Garrison, and told the team shortly after settling into the castle. He wanted to, but even if he hadn’t, it was going to show itself sooner or later. He’d rather they were prepared for bitchy, PMS-ing Keith, followed by angry, period Keith. It was not a side of himself he liked anyone seeing, but without access to his hormones, they were going to whether he liked it or not. He had the grace of the gods in that respect. Shiro handled it the same way he always had – from a distance and with care. Pidge was right there with him, commiserating over a bodily function neither of them wanted. Hunk had two moms and a younger sister, so he understood, even if it was from the outside. It was the same for Lance, with both of their sisters, one of whom was their twin, so they’d seen what she went through a little more closely than they’d wanted. Allura and Coran didn’t understand human reproductive cycles, but understood that it was an uncomfortable process, and did what they could.

But all that meant that he was going to be the one out of all of them in the most discomfort. It had been years since he’d had to pretend like he wasn’t in the wrong body, and now he was having to face that all over again. He knew that if they’d had any kind of leeway, Lance and Allura would be there to help him to be as comfortable as possible while stuck in a dress. But they didn’t. They were going to be in a modified version of the planet’s inhabitants’ traditional costume. None of the paladins knew what it looked like, but from how upset Allura was, it couldn’t be good.

Keith decided to rip off the band-aid. “So, what do these outfits look like?” he asked.

Allura played with the tablet she’d brought with her for a moment before turning it on. The images projected over the table were of the Artraxian people modeling their traditional clothing. Their race was in an eternal transitional period between reptilian and avian. Mostly scaled, and more closely resembling their reptile ancestors, they also had patches of brightly colored feathers and slightly wing-like arms with retractable membranes. The feathers that grew along their shoulders, forearms, and thighs were short, and nearly mistakeable for scales if it weren’t for their texture. They also had feathers that grew in a swath from forehead to neck, but these were longer, some trailing down their backs. Artraxian scale colors ranged from pale, leaf green to deep forest, those colors determined by regional origin. Unlike what the paladins would have expected of either reptiles or birds, Artraxians were a live-birth species, and so had some features more like Earth mammals, most notably two close-set rows of three breasts. Six-titted aliens was not what they were expecting. But combined with their long, thick, tapering tails and wing-arms, the paladins could see why their clothes would have to be adapted for human and Altean anatomy.

The clothing itself was as brightly colored as their feathers. It appeared light, soft, and silky, but was wrapped around their bodies like bandages, ultimately not leaving much to the imagination. Some of the wrappings were sheer, showing off the scales beneath. The females wore a two-paneled, A-line skirt over their leg wraps that ran to mid-calf, completely sheer and split at the sides to the waist. Males wore something similar, but slightly shorter and opaque. Both sexes went barefoot, no doubt a necessity due to their sharp claws. All five paladins looked over the projection with varying degrees of curiosity, anxiety, and fear.

“We’ll be providing the Artraxians with our physical measurements from here, and they will send us our…outfits,” Allura said, eyeing the female Artraxian with trepidation.

Keith was sorry he’d asked; he felt sick.

Lance was sitting directly across from him and was the first to notice it. Leaning over the table slightly, they nudged his foot. “You ok?” they asked quietly.

“No.” It was all he could get out before bolting from the room.

Shiro started to get up, but Lance stopped him. “I’ll go. No offense, but I don’t think a cis guy is what he needs right now.”

“Want me to come too?” Pidge asked.

“Maybe in a little bit. I think too many people will be too much for him.”

Pidge nodded at the same time Shiro spoke. “I’m not offended, Lance. You’re the best suited out of all of us to talk to him right now.”

“Thanks, man. I’ll call if I need anyone.”

Lance paused in the hallway, considering the possibilities of where Keith was most likely to be. Training deck? Always a possibility, but it didn’t seem as probable at that moment. He’d been genuinely upset, not just aggravated or frustrated. So not there. Holed up in his bedroom? Maybe, but it felt a little too obvious. The shock of seeing what he was expected to wear had made him bolt, and Lance knew he’d gone to ground. Ok, so not his bedroom either. The castle was not a small place, but there were only a handful of places Keith would go. If not the training deck or his bedroom, he had most probably run for his favorite of the observation decks, and that was where Lance set off for.

Walking the halls of the castle, Lance enjoyed the feeling of the soft fabric of their long skirt and fluffy cropped sweater. They liked the way the silky material flowed around their legs, and how their sweater floated and felt like it was made of clouds. It also made them think about their own coming out process. How their twin sister Rachel was the first person they’d told at age 12. Barely a month before their thirteenth birthday, Lance had taken Rachel on the short walk to the beach, to the spot away from where even the locals stayed. Their favorite place where they went swimming all summer long. Where their older siblings taught them to surf, and where their mother had shown them the constellations and sparked a love of space in Lance.

That’s where they’d gone with Rachel on a hot day in June. Lance remembered standing ankle-deep in the warm, clear water. They couldn’t look at her, too nervous about what she’d say. But looking out over the Atlantic, they’d found the courage they needed, and told Rachel everything. About how they’d been thinking about how they noticed they liked girls ok, but also boys and nonbinary people too, and considered themselves bi. It led them into talking about their own gender. That they didn’t feel much like a boy, but that they felt kinda like a boy sometimes, kinda like a girl sometimes, but mostly felt nonbinary. Lance told her that they felt like gender didn’t matter as much to them, and that while they didn’t feel the need to change their name, their preferred pronouns going forward were they and them.

Rachel had sat on the beach and listened. She thought it over while Lance was talking, and when they were done, she got up without a word, left her flip flops on the sand, and joined her sibling in the water. She crushed them in the tightest hug of their life and told Lance that they were her twin, nothing in the known universe could stop that, and that the absolute most important thing was that they were comfortable in their own skin. If there were a few tears before they left for home, no one needed to know. With Rachel firmly beside them, they told the rest of the immediate family that night, getting almost the same reaction from them as they had from their twin. Their father Diego was only a little more reserved, admitting that he didn’t understand the nonbinary part, but as long as Lance was safe and happy, that was all he cared about. By the time Lance had left Earth, Diego had come to understand what being nonbinary meant and that those five years of expressing themselves freely had been the happiest of Lance’s life.

The memory of that summer day made them smile to themselves as they walked, but also made them miss home and family all over again. With a sharp shake of their head, they remembered what they were coming up to the observation deck for. They knew Keith understood how important this party was, but being forced into that was more than enough to cause that kind of reaction. Ironically, Lance thought, the Artraxian male fashion sense was actually feminine-leaning, non-gendered by human standards and didn’t bother them as much as they thought it would, although it still did upset them. But that was them, not Keith. Especially with what Artraxian women wore, they knew how much it upset Keith. And that was why they were there. Not to try to convince him to wear it, but to be supportive. Let him know that both they and the team had his back with this. That Lance would be there for him however he needed.

Lance knocked on the door, walking in when they didn’t get an answer anyway. Keith was sitting on the floor with his arms wrapped around his knees as he watched the stars. Lance curled up beside him without looking over.

“Hey. It’ll be ok. I know it really, really, sucks, and I wish we didn’t have to do it, but we do. We’re all here for you, you know that right?”

Keith sighed, rolling his head from where it rested on his knees to look over at Lance. “I know you are. Doesn’t make it any easier. I thought I was past all that. Having to pretend to be something I'm not. It’s been hard enough being out here without even the possibility of access to my T shots. And now this. I think I would have been more ok with it if it didn’t look like that.”

“Yeah, I get that. Kinda exposes almost everything. None of us like it, even if I know Allura and Shiro are gonna look amazing in it, but Pidge and Hunk will be really uncomfortable. Hunk doesn’t like going to the beach without a shirt on unless he’s really comfortable with the people around him. And I don’t think I can even imagine Pidge in anything girly, let alone that. And even I’m not really comfortable with it. Way too much skin on display, y’know? I mean, I say this while wearing a crop top, but…” they trailed off with a soft laugh and turned to face Keith. “Really what I’m saying is that we’re all uncomfortable. I know it’s not exactly the same, but you’re not alone. If you need to stay close to one of us for the party to feel safe, it’s ok. No one will mind.”

Lance thought that the soft huffing sound that came from Keith might have been a laugh until they heard the sniffle and realized that he was wiping away tears.

“Thanks, Lance,” Keith said softly.

“Anytime, Samurai.”

It was barely a day after transmitting the team’s measurements to the planet’s surface before an unmanned shuttle landed onboard the castle. They realized that color preferences hadn’t been asked of them, and that their “outfits” were all individually wrapped in black tissue and labelled with their names. Coran busied himself with handing out the packages and sent Allura and the paladins off to change.

“Hey, Lance?” Keith called quietly.

They turned to him and immediately saw the discomfort and anxiety all over his face. “Hey, it’s ok. What do you need?”

“I think I need to call in that favor.”

“Ok. Would having Allura there help?”

Keith thought for a few seconds. “…Yeah, I think so.”

Lance turned to where the princess was making her way across the pod bay floor. “Allura, I have a question for you.”

She stopped and waited for both of them to catch up with her. “Yes? What is it?”

Lance looked to Keith first for his silent confirmation before continuing. “Keith’s gonna need some help with this. I figured you being the only girl here would help with making him as comfortable as we can.”

“Oh, yes, of course. Allow me to change and then we can meet.”

“My room?” Lance suggested.

~*~*~*~

Links to the rest of the series:

1 | 2 | 3* | 4 | 5* | 6* | 7 | 8 | 9* | 10 | 11 | 12* | 13 | 14 | 15* | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19*

[ukrfeminism]

Female prisoners in Scottish jails have told how transgender inmates serving sentences alongside them switched back to their male birth gender after being released.

The disclosure — in a study published in the British Journal of Criminology — has raised fresh concerns about self-identification of gender posing a risk to women’s safety as first minister Nicola Sturgeon prepares to press ahead with gender recognition legislation this year.

In England and Wales there have been a small number of incidents of violence and sexual violence involving female prisoners being attacked by trans prisoners.

The study by Dr Matthew Maycock of Dundee University’s school of education and social work turned up no such disturbing behaviour in Scotland, with only some discomfort about very limited consensual sexual activity.

One Scottish Prison Service (SPS) source said: “There have been incidents, but very minor. No one can say for certain that nothing significant has happened, but if it has none has been reported.”

However, Maycock’s report did identify fears among female inmates of predatory behaviour by some trans prisoners, with one suggesting “the transitions of transgender people might be an attempt by paedophiles or other sex offenders to access cis-women in the female prison estate”.

Another woman told of a transwoman prisoner in her work party whose views “were totally wrong. He wanted to be in this hall because he wanted to have sex with loads of lassies.”

In response to a freedom of information request, the SPS confirmed that one transgender woman housed within the women’s estate was on the sex offenders register as a result of a previous offence unrelated to the offence for which they were currently being held.

It also confirmed that no one currently in SPS custody had made the service aware that they were in possession of a gender recognition certificate confirming their acquired gender.

Another recent FoI request revealed that 12 trans prisoners convicted of violence or sexual crimes had been accommodated in Scottish women’s jails within the past 18 months. Only one had transitioned fully while the others had self-identified as female.

Maycock, who worked for the Scottish Prison Service when he undertook the research at four Scottish prisons, said several of the 15 female prisoners he interviewed spoke of transgender people who had transitioned in custody and reverted to their birth gender following release.

While some believed prisoners born male had switched for sexual opportunities, there was also a view that some had abused the system to get an easier time in jail.

Marion Calder of the campaign group For Women Scotland said the findings raised new questions about the Scottish government’s gender reforms agenda. “It has repeatedly said it will uphold the rights and protections that women currently have to single-sex spaces under the Equality Act, and yet we can see quite clearly that in practice it is busy undermining them in the most egregious way.

“It is a cruel and unusual punishment when failing to pay your TV licence can result in being forced to share a shower with a male sex offender. Single-sex prisons need to be reinstated immediately; the prison service has already shown it is capable of safely housing men, however they identify, in the male estate.”

Dr Kate Coleman, director of Keep Prisons Single Sex, said: “When you consider that very many women in prison have a history of violent and sexual abuse at the hands of men, to force them to share accommodation with prisoners who they could reasonably recognise as male is outrageous.”

While some women surveyed were respectful of the rights of trans people to identify as they felt, and positive about some of the trans prisoners they had lived beside, there was also anger that they had no opportunity to express discomfort.

One prisoner said she feared the trans prisoners she had known had conned the SPS. She said: “The last one to get out, back living as a man. The one before that got out, back living as a man.

“While he was in the hall, [he] was telling people, I’m stopping taking my medication because I can’t [become erect]. I’ve not a problem living with trans people; it’s living with people who are manipulating the system and pretending to be trans.”

Another said of another trans prisoner: “I feel like it was a bit of an act. Because she had a beard and she didn’t try. She basically had a short back and sides and . . . she just looked awful. And she didn’t try to cover up her ‘down belows’. She just didn’t try.”

The SPS is aware of Maycock’s research but has no plans to make use of it. Instead, it has undertaken its own consultation exercise into how it fits trans prisoners into its estate and expects to have a report by the summer.

On Christmas Eve, Scotland’s prison population stood at 7,435, with only 259 listed as women. A total of 15 prisoners were trans, 12 of them trans women and three trans men. It is understood that all are currently held in female units as previous experience of trans men in the male estate had caused tensions.

A senior SPS source said risk assessments are conducted before offenders born male and identifying as female are allowed into the female estate, and the validity of their claims is tested. “It is not, as some think, automatic on request,” the source said.