Outraged protesters took to the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil, on June 1 to demand justice in a case of alleged police brutality in which a Black man suffocated after being shut inside the trunk of a police car with an open gas canister.
AFP
Friday, June 03, 2022
Seen from space, the snow-capped Alps are going green
AFP - Yesterday
The famous snow-capped peaks of the Alps are fading fast and being replaced by vegetation cover -- a process called "greening" that is expected to accelerate climate change, a study said Thursday.
© Sabine RumpfA view of Piz Bernina
The research, published in Science, was based on 38 years of satellite imagery across the entirety of the iconic European mountain range.
"We were very surprised, honestly, to find such a huge trend in greening," first author Sabine Rumpf, an ecologist at the University of Basel, told AFP.
Greening is a well-recognized phenomenon in the Arctic, but until now hadn't been well established over a large scale in mountainous areas.
However, since both the poles and mountains are warming faster than the rest of the planet, researchers suspected comparable effects.
For their analysis, the team examined regions at 1,700 meters above sea level, to exclude areas used for agriculture. They also excluded forested areas and glaciers.
According to the findings, which covered 1984-2021, snow cover was no longer present in summer on nearly 10 percent of the area studied.
Rumpf pointed out that satellite images can only verify the presence or absence of snow -- but the first effect of warming is to reduce the depth of the snowpack, which can't be seen from space.
Secondly, the researchers compared the amount of vegetation using wavelength analysis to detect the amount of chlorophyll present, and found plant growth increased across 77 percent of the zone studied.
- Vicious cycle -
Greening happens in three different ways: plants begin growing in areas they previously weren't present, they grow taller and more densely due to favorable conditions, and finally particular species growing normally at lower altitudes move into higher areas.
"It is climate change that is driving these changes," said Rumpf.
![]()
"Warming means that we have longer vegetation periods, we have more benign conditions that foster plant growth, so plants can just grow more and faster," she added.
The effect is additive: "The warmer it gets, the more precipitation falls as rain rather than snow."
And there are several harmful consequences.
First, a large part of drinking water comes from melting snow. If water is not stored as snow, it disappears faster via rivers.
Next, the habitat species adapted specifically to the alpine environment is disrupted.
The snow's disappearance also harms the tourism industry, a key economic driver for the region.
"What we kind of tend to forget is the emotional aspects of these processes that the Alps are like a very iconic symbol and when people think about Switzerland, it's usually the Alps that they think about," stressed Rumpf.
While alpine greening could increase carbon sequestration, feedback loops are more likely to cause a net result of amplified warming, and thawing of permafrost, the researchers argue.
Snow reflects about 90 percent of solar radiation, vegetation absorbs much more, and radiates the energy back in the form of heat -- which in turn further accelerates warming, snow melt, and more vegetation: a vicious cycle.
- From green to brown? -
The future of the Alps can't be predicted with certainty.
"In terms of snow, it's pretty straightforward," said Rumpf. "I would expect the snow cover to disappear more and more, especially at lower elevations."
For the time being, another phenomenon known as "browning" -- in which the ground is no longer covered with either snow or vegetation -- has only been detected in less than one percent of the area studied.
This is much less than what has been observed in the Arctic, or in the mountains of Central Asia.
It is fueled by two factors: the increase in episodes of extreme rain followed by droughts, and a reduction in water available to plants that was produced by annual snowmelt.
"We do not know for the future whether browning is going to occur more and more," concluded Rumpf, who hopes to repeat the observations in a few years' time.
la/ia/md
AFP - Yesterday
The famous snow-capped peaks of the Alps are fading fast and being replaced by vegetation cover -- a process called "greening" that is expected to accelerate climate change, a study said Thursday.
© Sabine RumpfA view of Piz Bernina
The research, published in Science, was based on 38 years of satellite imagery across the entirety of the iconic European mountain range.
"We were very surprised, honestly, to find such a huge trend in greening," first author Sabine Rumpf, an ecologist at the University of Basel, told AFP.
Greening is a well-recognized phenomenon in the Arctic, but until now hadn't been well established over a large scale in mountainous areas.
However, since both the poles and mountains are warming faster than the rest of the planet, researchers suspected comparable effects.
For their analysis, the team examined regions at 1,700 meters above sea level, to exclude areas used for agriculture. They also excluded forested areas and glaciers.
According to the findings, which covered 1984-2021, snow cover was no longer present in summer on nearly 10 percent of the area studied.
Rumpf pointed out that satellite images can only verify the presence or absence of snow -- but the first effect of warming is to reduce the depth of the snowpack, which can't be seen from space.
Secondly, the researchers compared the amount of vegetation using wavelength analysis to detect the amount of chlorophyll present, and found plant growth increased across 77 percent of the zone studied.
- Vicious cycle -
Greening happens in three different ways: plants begin growing in areas they previously weren't present, they grow taller and more densely due to favorable conditions, and finally particular species growing normally at lower altitudes move into higher areas.
"It is climate change that is driving these changes," said Rumpf.
"Warming means that we have longer vegetation periods, we have more benign conditions that foster plant growth, so plants can just grow more and faster," she added.
The effect is additive: "The warmer it gets, the more precipitation falls as rain rather than snow."
And there are several harmful consequences.
First, a large part of drinking water comes from melting snow. If water is not stored as snow, it disappears faster via rivers.
Next, the habitat species adapted specifically to the alpine environment is disrupted.
The snow's disappearance also harms the tourism industry, a key economic driver for the region.
"What we kind of tend to forget is the emotional aspects of these processes that the Alps are like a very iconic symbol and when people think about Switzerland, it's usually the Alps that they think about," stressed Rumpf.
While alpine greening could increase carbon sequestration, feedback loops are more likely to cause a net result of amplified warming, and thawing of permafrost, the researchers argue.
Snow reflects about 90 percent of solar radiation, vegetation absorbs much more, and radiates the energy back in the form of heat -- which in turn further accelerates warming, snow melt, and more vegetation: a vicious cycle.
- From green to brown? -
The future of the Alps can't be predicted with certainty.
"In terms of snow, it's pretty straightforward," said Rumpf. "I would expect the snow cover to disappear more and more, especially at lower elevations."
For the time being, another phenomenon known as "browning" -- in which the ground is no longer covered with either snow or vegetation -- has only been detected in less than one percent of the area studied.
This is much less than what has been observed in the Arctic, or in the mountains of Central Asia.
It is fueled by two factors: the increase in episodes of extreme rain followed by droughts, and a reduction in water available to plants that was produced by annual snowmelt.
"We do not know for the future whether browning is going to occur more and more," concluded Rumpf, who hopes to repeat the observations in a few years' time.
la/ia/md
DYING BUT NOT FAST ENOUGH
The state of the NRA: Membership, revenue in decline, legal struggles aboundKathryn Mannie - Tuesday
On Friday, the National Rifle Association (NRA) held its annual convention in Houston to "celebrate Freedom, Firearms and the Second Amendment!"
People walk outside the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston Friday as the NRA Convention is held a few days after the Robb Elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
Just three days earlier, and 300 miles away, 19 students and two teachers were killed during a school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. A week before that, 10 people were shot and killed at a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y.
The NRA's last annual convention in 2019, before the pandemic, drew more than 80,000 attendees. The last time the convention was held in Houston, the fourth most populous city in the U.S., the NRA drew a crowd of 86,000.
On Monday, the NRA said that 61,000 people came to this year's meeting, but a reporter from The Trace said that more than a quarter of the seats in the main hall (which seats 3,600) of the convention space were empty.
While attendance for an annual meeting doesn't necessarily say much, it does signal the waning influence of the 151-year-old organization that has come to represent the face of pro-gun lobbying in the U.S. The recent tragedies may have soured the convention, but even before that, warning signs of the NRA's decline were cropping up.
Declining revenue and membership
Citing IRS tax filings, CBS reported that the NRA's revenue has decreased 23 per cent between 2016 and 2020, when the most recent filings were available. In 2016, at the peak of the NRA's membership, the organization pulled in US$367 million. That declined to $282 million in 2020.
Contributions and grants from members and corporations have declined by 15 per cent in the same time period.
"The NRA relies on revenue from members, and they seem to be losing members," said Frank Smyth, an NRA member who penned The NRA: An Unauthorized History. "They are doing their best to cover that up. It's a trend that is probably going to continue."
An internal financial report that was leaked to The Reload found that the number of NRA members has been steadily declining since 2018. In that year, the NRA proudly announced that its ranks had swelled to 6 million members, though the leaked document shows that its membership wasn't even cracking 5.5 million. The financial report also showed that 2021 membership figure was just above 4.5 million people.
Read more:
In an email to CBS, the NRA said that it has "approximately 5 million members." In a 2021 deposition, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre said that membership was "under 4.9 million."
The NRA has disputed the legitimacy of the leaked internal document, called it "outdated" and "unaudited."
Amy Hunter, director of NRA media relations, blames the pandemic for the NRA's recent woes.
“With respect to questions comparing figures from a pre-pandemic 2018 to (figures in) 2020, the NRA, like many others, continues to confront this global pandemic that forced the cancellation of many events and impacted revenue streams,” Hunter said. “The safety and well-being of our staff and members is paramount. Through it all, the NRA has emerged stronger — better positioned to fight for its members and their freedoms. The Association and its patriotic members deserve an enormous amount of credit.”
Scandal has rocked the NRA's foundation
Experts point to recent allegations and a lawsuit concerning fraud and financial mismanagement as one of the main reasons why support for the NRA is waning.
In 2020, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the organization, claiming that top executives had been diverting the NRA's funds for "years of illegal self-dealings," enriching themselves and loved ones, and using the corporation as a "personal piggy bank."
Specifically, LaPierre is accused of spending at least $500,000 on eight trips to the Bahamas over three years, paying for professional hair and makeup services for his wife, and obtaining a $17-million post-employment contract from the NRA.
The NRA soon filed for bankruptcy — but a Texas judge struck down the petition in 2021, saying that the NRA was seeking to gain an "unfair litigation advantage," against James' lawsuit.
In March, a New York judged blocked James' attempt to shutter the NRA's doors entirely for corruption, but allowed the lawsuit to continue. The judge recommended less intrusive remedies to the NRA's problem and left the door open for one possible solution: the ousting of LaPierre as chief executive.
At the Houston annual meeting this year, the NRA's board voted to re-elect LaPierre as CEO — showing no change of course in the midst of rising mass shootings and its internal upheavals.
Smyth predicts that James' lawsuit will "eviscerate the NRA," and bring about imposed financial reforms and sanctions against the organization. The NRA has called James' suit an "unhinged and political attack."
Speaking to CBS, the organization says that it is "fully engaged — as usual."
Andrew Arulanandam, the NRA's managing director of public affairs, pointed to recent political wins as evidence of the NRA's continued strength.
"As an example of its winning advocacy, Georgia recently became the 25th state in the nation to pass constitutional carry."
Constitutional carry means that legal gun owners can carry their handguns with them without a permit or licence.
Political influence
Even in the midst of their worsening financial and internal state, the NRA still commands considerable political clout. Its 2022 Houston meeting had guest speakers including former president Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
According to OpenSecrets.org, a group that tracks political donations, more than a dozen Republican politicians received at least $1 million in campaign contributions from the NRA over their careers.
Since 1989, the NRA has spent $171 million lobbying the U.S. government, of which $70 million has been dispersed to Republican politicians currently serving in Congress.
Gun rights advocates have long claimed that political attitudes about gun control do not mirror the desires of the American people.
According to a recent survey from Morning Consult and Politico, 73 per cent of respondents "strongly support" and 15 per cent "somewhat support" universal background checks for gun purchases in the U.S.
H.R. 8 is a bill that would require a federal background check for all gun purchases, closing the loophole for unlicensed gun show sellers and gun transfers. The bill was passed in the U.S. Congress in March 2021, but has been stalled in the Senate for over a year. Ten Republican votes are needed to end the filibuster.
Read more:
Republicans shut down domestic terrorism bill, gun policy debate in Senate
Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, a gun control advocacy group that started in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting, told CBS that politicians need to be more aware of the NRA's declining status.
"Dismantling the power that the gun lobby accumulated over the years was never going to happen overnight, but it's clear that this NRA consumed by chaos and mismanagement is in a weakened position," Watts said.
"It's on senators now to realize that this isn't the NRA of years past, and actually do something because we can't wait another minute."
Manitoba bill would let people get information on partner's violent past
WINNIPEG — Manitoba may be the next province to let people learn whether their partner has a history of domestic or sexual violence.
Families Minister Rochelle Squires introduced a bill in the legislature Monday that is similar to what is commonly called Clare's Law.
First enacted in the United Kingdom where a woman named Clare Wood was killed by her partner — and later adopted in Saskatchewan and Alberta — the law is aimed at preventing violence before it starts.
It allows people to find out whether their partner has a history or abuse or violence, even if some information might normally be deemed personal and beyond publicly available court records.
"We ... are working in conjunction with privacy experts to ensure that we are doing the right thing, creating that path forward for people to access the information that they need in a way that is conducive," Squires said.
The government has not yet worked out what level of detail would be provided. Squires said the law would only come into effect one year after it is approved in the legislature, in order to have time to strike the right balance.
The bill would let a person apply online for information about their partner. If police and a director in the Families Department jointly believe there is information that warrants sharing, they could disclose it to the individual, who would be required to keep it confidential except in some circumstances.
The Manitoba bill, if it becomes law, would go further than those in other provinces, Squires said, because it would allow for the disclosure of more types of prior violence. It would also require authorities to develop a safety plan for the person at risk and provide information on help available to them.
One important aspect of the plan is a fast turnaround time so that people are not waiting for information that could protect them, said Diane Redsky, executive director of Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre, an Indigenous-led family resource centre in Winnipeg.
"We all know that knowledge is power," Redsky said.
"It needs to be easy and timely ... and I'm really glad to hear that there will be efforts made to ensure that that is quick and timely."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 30, 2022.
Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press
WINNIPEG — Manitoba may be the next province to let people learn whether their partner has a history of domestic or sexual violence.
Families Minister Rochelle Squires introduced a bill in the legislature Monday that is similar to what is commonly called Clare's Law.
First enacted in the United Kingdom where a woman named Clare Wood was killed by her partner — and later adopted in Saskatchewan and Alberta — the law is aimed at preventing violence before it starts.
It allows people to find out whether their partner has a history or abuse or violence, even if some information might normally be deemed personal and beyond publicly available court records.
"We ... are working in conjunction with privacy experts to ensure that we are doing the right thing, creating that path forward for people to access the information that they need in a way that is conducive," Squires said.
The government has not yet worked out what level of detail would be provided. Squires said the law would only come into effect one year after it is approved in the legislature, in order to have time to strike the right balance.
The bill would let a person apply online for information about their partner. If police and a director in the Families Department jointly believe there is information that warrants sharing, they could disclose it to the individual, who would be required to keep it confidential except in some circumstances.
The Manitoba bill, if it becomes law, would go further than those in other provinces, Squires said, because it would allow for the disclosure of more types of prior violence. It would also require authorities to develop a safety plan for the person at risk and provide information on help available to them.
One important aspect of the plan is a fast turnaround time so that people are not waiting for information that could protect them, said Diane Redsky, executive director of Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre, an Indigenous-led family resource centre in Winnipeg.
"We all know that knowledge is power," Redsky said.
"It needs to be easy and timely ... and I'm really glad to hear that there will be efforts made to ensure that that is quick and timely."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 30, 2022.
Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press
BACKGROUNDER
Gun control advocates applaud Ottawa’s handgun freeze, but some owners are angryOttawa tables tougher firearm laws freezing handgun ownership, targets gun trafficking
Police display guns seized during a series of raids at a press conference in Toronto on Friday, June 14, 2013. Ottawa has revised draft firearm regulations to ensure someone buying a gun actually has a valid licence.
Sean Boynton - Monday
Gun control advocates and the mayors of several large Canadian cities are welcoming the federal government's proposed freeze on the sale and transfer of handguns, a central feature of new firearm legislation that is also angering some gun owners.
The freeze was an unexpected addition to the new Bill C-21, which also seeks to take away guns and firearm licences from domestic abusers and crack down on gun smuggling and trafficking.
"These are substantial, effective, popular and historical measures that will take Canada in the right direction," Nathalie Provost, a survivor of the 1989 mass shooting at Polytechnique, said in a statement shared by prominent advocacy group PolySeSouvient.
Read more:
The legislation tabled in Parliament on Monday replaces a previous version of Bill C-21 that expired when last year's election was called, and did not include the nationwide freeze on selling, buying, importing and transferring handguns.
The Liberals had previously promised to support provinces and territories that wanted to pursue a full ban, which gun control advocates argued would create a patchwork of ineffective rules across the country.
Under the new legislation, existing handgun owners would be allowed to keep their firearms but would only be allowed to sell or transfer to businesses and exempt individuals, chiefly valuable goods carriers and sport shooters.
The bill would not ban handguns, but rather seek to cap the number already in Canada.
Provost, who attended Monday's announcement along with other gun violence victims, survivors and advocates, said the inclusion of the nationwide freeze shows the government is listening to those groups.
However, she and other members of PolySeSouvient said they were hopeful the final version of the bill will include a complete ban on assault-style weapons like the one used in the Polytechnique massacre.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino promised Monday to make sure such firearms are automatically prohibited when they enter the market in future. A mandatory buyback program for those weapons is set to begin by the end of this year.
"Given today's extremely positive announcements, I'm very much inclined to believe (Mendicino's promise)," Suzanne Laplante-Edward, whose daughter Anne-Marie was killed at Polytechnique, said in a statement. "We will just have to wait a few more months."
Read more:
For now, advocates say the national handgun freeze is a welcome start.
"It will have a measurable impact to our ER," Dr. Brett Mador, a trauma and general surgeon at the University of Alberta Hospital and a member of Canadian Doctors for Protection from Guns, told Global News.
"As health-care providers, we are trying to treat disease but also trying to prevent it, and every gunshot is preventable."
The number of registered handguns in Canada increased by 71 per cent between 2010 and 2020, reaching approximately 1.1 million, according to federal statistics. Handguns were the most serious weapon present in the majority of firearm-related violent crimes between 2009 and 2020.
NDP public safety critic Alistair MacGregor said his party wants to believe the announcement is an urgent priority and not just another political stunt.
``If the Liberals are finally serious this time, New Democrats are here to get this done,'' he said in a statement. ``We are committed to addressing gun violence and making our communities safer.''
Mayors of Canada's largest cities said they were thankful the federal government moved to effectively ban handguns on a national level, rather than leaving it up to provinces and municipalities.
Toronto Mayor John Tory welcomed the proposed handgun freeze as a ``step in the right direction.''
``Gun violence is a national problem requiring national solutions,'' he said. ``Toronto city council has been clear that it supports a national handgun ban.''
Read more:
Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart called the freeze "an important first step in making our communities safer by curbing gun violence."
"As I have said before, guns have no place in our cities," he said in a statement, adding he will continue to pursue actions that crack down on other sources of gun violence including untraceable "ghost" guns and illegally imported weapons.
Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante also expressed hope that the freeze will lead to a national handgun ban, while also applauding the steps laid out in the new legislation.
Prior to the announcement, Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said Monday she was hopeful such restrictions would not be "shoved" to municipalities to deal with.
"They need to take care of us here," she told reporters.
The bill would also allow for the automatic removal of gun licences from people who commit domestic violence or engage in criminal harassment, such as stalking.
In addition, it would create a new ``red flag'' law allowing courts to require that people considered a danger to themselves or others surrender their firearms to police.
The government says the measure would guard the safety of those applying through the court process, often women in danger of domestic abuse, by protecting their identities. The decision to shield those identities would be up to a judge's discretion.
"We love to see it," said Angela Marie MacDougall, executive director of Battered Women's Support Services in Vancouver, when asked in an interview about the new legislation.
"We think that gun control is just one part of an effective strategy in preventing femicide."
Statistics Canada found in 2019 that a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner about once every six days.
"Rates of murder and domestic violence increases when there's a firearm in the home, and the sheer presence of them is a leading risk factor in lethal domestic violence incidents," Pamela Di Pinto of the Canadian Women's Foundation told Global News.
Yet some firearm owners are expressing frustration, arguing the new law, if passed, will do little to target criminals and the gun violence they unleash.
"I'm angry and frustrated," J.R. Cox, owner of the Shooting Edge gun range in Calgary, told Global News.
"We follow the rules and abide by the laws and look after our firearms and we are scapegoats. They are on the attack."
A Global News investigation found many guns used by criminals in Canada came from the U.S. through illegal trafficking.
The new Bill C-21 includes new measures meant to crack down on trafficking and smuggling by increasing criminal penalties, providing more tools to investigate firearm crimes and strengthening border measures.
Read more:
While the Conservative Party said it welcomes those measures, which give new authority to border agents to deny entry to criminally-involved foreign nationals and to investigate transborder crime, it said the full bill will not make Canadians safer.
"Today's announcement once again proves Liberals are focused on headlines, not on safety," public safety critic Raquel Dancho said in a statement.
Cox agrees, saying only law-abiding gun owners will be targeted. He's also worried that the proposed laws will cause his business and other shooting ranges to suffer.
"The problems associated with bullets flying in the streets of our urban and rural communities have virtually nothing to do with legal, law-abiding gun owners taking their firearms to and from shooting ranges," said Rod Giltaca, CEO and executive director of the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, in an interview.
"This looks to be a lot more political than it is about public safety."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau noted repeatedly on Monday that the legislation will not go after the "vast majority" of gun owners, who he said "are responsible and follow the law."
"We are, however, facing a level of gun violence in our communities that is unacceptable, which is why we are acting" though this latest legislation, he told reporters.
--With files from Adam Toy, Abigail Bimman and the Canadian Press
Scientists receive mysterious signals from space: Israel's Uri Geller says aliens
By AARON REICH - Yesterday
Are alien civilizations reaching out to us on Earth, sending perplexing seemingly gibberish messages in order to establish contact with humanity
According to Israeli mystic Uri Geller, that is exactly the case.
The famous spoon-bender was specifically referring to the curious case of Voyager 1, a space probe launched by NASA in 1977. Since then, it has continued to operate nearly 45 years later, having actually exited the solar system and traveled into interstellar space.
But recently, the signals NASA has been receiving from this probe are strange, seemingly confused about its location.
As far as NASA is concerned, this isn’t a cause for alarm.
“A mystery like this is sort of par for the course at this stage of the Voyager mission,” Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager 1 and 2 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said in a statement on May 18. “The spacecraft are both almost 45 years old, which is far beyond what the mission planners anticipated. We’re also in interstellar space – a high-radiation environment that no spacecraft have flown in before. So there are some big challenges for the engineering team. But I think if there’s a way to solve this issue with the AACS, our team will find it.”
Geller, however, has a different idea. To him, it’s no glitch. It’s a targeted message from an advanced extraterrestrial civilization, albeit one NASA is evidently struggling to decipher.
“That’s what I believe,” he explained. “I truly believe they are so advanced that they can easily create these glitches and send messages that are difficult for NASA to decipher.”
While Geller may be the first to propose that the Voyager 1 signals are alien communication, the idea that advanced extraterrestrial civilizations are trying to communicate with us on Earth isn’t new, with researchers like those in the Breakthrough Listen project founded by Israeli billionaire Yuri Milner, who specialize in comprehensive search efforts for alien transmission.
In fact, the idea of aliens trying to communicate with Earth via signals is something that has been part of Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) efforts for decades.
Wow! And mysterious malicious civilizations
While there have been many different efforts to track down alien signals, there is none more famous than the Wow! Signal.
The signal itself is a strong narrowband radio signal and was recorded on August 15, 1977, at the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University. However, the signal, or any other like it, has yet to be detected again.
Consequently, it is seen as the strongest candidate for a genuine extraterrestrial transmission.
But where did it come from?
Well, a recent peer-reviewed academic study by a PhD student in Spain named Alberto Caballero managed to supposedly pinpoint from which star it originated.
But Caballero hasn’t just been trying to track down the Wow! Signal. In recent days, the PhD student has also authored another academic article. This one, published on the pre-print website arXiv and which has not been peer-reviewed, is titled “Estimating the Prevalence of Malicious Extraterrestrial Civilizations” and proposes that there are maybe four advanced alien civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy that are hostile and could pose a danger to Earth.
This article relied on many assumptions, of which it freely admits, and thus it functions more as a thought experiment rather than a genuine piece of empirical evidence. But it does still propose an interesting point: Efforts to try and contact aliens, should such a thing be possible, is dangerous as they could possibly even provoke them.
But Geller has a different approach. Rather than fearing the dangers of these possible hostile civilizations, he thinks that the ones that are trying to contact us through Voyager 1, the ones that are closest to us, are friendly. As such, contacting them isn’t risky. In fact, according to him, it might just be for the best.
“Climate change is melting the ice caps,” he explained. “There might be a huge comet or asteroid coming to Earth. And sure, we have a lot of nuclear bombs, but we don’t have a way to stop global warming or cure cancer or AIDS or even COVID-19. We only live around 85 years. We think we’re so advanced but in the grand scheme of things, we’re really backward. I have a feeling they’ll land here one day because they know we need their help.”
Of course, many people claim to have had close encounters with the third kind already, and Geller is no exception. He claims to have had an alien encounter when he was a child in Tel Aviv, and later to have touched a fragment of a UFO while on a trip to NASA to meet with Dr. Werner von Braun in the 1970s.
“Climate change is melting the ice caps. There might be a huge comet or asteroid coming to Earth. And sure, we have a lot of nuclear bombs, but we don’t have a way to stop global warming or cure cancer or AIDS or even COVID-19."Uri Geller
And he is far from the only person to think so.
The truth is out there!
A Pew Research Center survey from June 2021 found that a majority of Americans believe that alien life exists in the universe. Further, an overwhelming majority of these Americans also thought that alien UFOs were either a minor threat or no threat at all.
Indeed, as ridiculous as the idea of aliens may seem, there is one thing that empirical evidence doesn’t deny: That the idea of aliens has a captivating hold on the general public. It isn’t just some fringe conspiracy idea, but rather it is something we as a society are becoming increasingly interested in.
This is why people who have played pivotal roles in getting humanity to space, such as von Braun or NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell, claimed that they believed in aliens, Geller claimed.
And they aren’t alone either.
The spoon-bender recounted a recent story of a group of scientists from a leading Israeli university who visited the Uri Geller Museum in Jaffa. There, he showed them his videos and presentations on aliens, UFOs and his own first- and second-hand accounts of them. And according to Geller, these scientists were watching with rapt attention.
“It’s a fascinating subject,” Geller explained, “because in the back of their minds, they know there’s something real there, and they don’t yet know what.”
And that is emblematic of the classic phrase that has embodied the search for UFOs and SETI for years: The truth is out there.
By AARON REICH - Yesterday
Are alien civilizations reaching out to us on Earth, sending perplexing seemingly gibberish messages in order to establish contact with humanity
According to Israeli mystic Uri Geller, that is exactly the case.
The famous spoon-bender was specifically referring to the curious case of Voyager 1, a space probe launched by NASA in 1977. Since then, it has continued to operate nearly 45 years later, having actually exited the solar system and traveled into interstellar space.
But recently, the signals NASA has been receiving from this probe are strange, seemingly confused about its location.
As far as NASA is concerned, this isn’t a cause for alarm.
“A mystery like this is sort of par for the course at this stage of the Voyager mission,” Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager 1 and 2 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said in a statement on May 18. “The spacecraft are both almost 45 years old, which is far beyond what the mission planners anticipated. We’re also in interstellar space – a high-radiation environment that no spacecraft have flown in before. So there are some big challenges for the engineering team. But I think if there’s a way to solve this issue with the AACS, our team will find it.”
Geller, however, has a different idea. To him, it’s no glitch. It’s a targeted message from an advanced extraterrestrial civilization, albeit one NASA is evidently struggling to decipher.
“That’s what I believe,” he explained. “I truly believe they are so advanced that they can easily create these glitches and send messages that are difficult for NASA to decipher.”
In fact, the idea of aliens trying to communicate with Earth via signals is something that has been part of Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) efforts for decades.
Wow! And mysterious malicious civilizations
While there have been many different efforts to track down alien signals, there is none more famous than the Wow! Signal.
The signal itself is a strong narrowband radio signal and was recorded on August 15, 1977, at the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University. However, the signal, or any other like it, has yet to be detected again.
Consequently, it is seen as the strongest candidate for a genuine extraterrestrial transmission.
But where did it come from?
Well, a recent peer-reviewed academic study by a PhD student in Spain named Alberto Caballero managed to supposedly pinpoint from which star it originated.
But Caballero hasn’t just been trying to track down the Wow! Signal. In recent days, the PhD student has also authored another academic article. This one, published on the pre-print website arXiv and which has not been peer-reviewed, is titled “Estimating the Prevalence of Malicious Extraterrestrial Civilizations” and proposes that there are maybe four advanced alien civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy that are hostile and could pose a danger to Earth.
This article relied on many assumptions, of which it freely admits, and thus it functions more as a thought experiment rather than a genuine piece of empirical evidence. But it does still propose an interesting point: Efforts to try and contact aliens, should such a thing be possible, is dangerous as they could possibly even provoke them.
But Geller has a different approach. Rather than fearing the dangers of these possible hostile civilizations, he thinks that the ones that are trying to contact us through Voyager 1, the ones that are closest to us, are friendly. As such, contacting them isn’t risky. In fact, according to him, it might just be for the best.
“Climate change is melting the ice caps,” he explained. “There might be a huge comet or asteroid coming to Earth. And sure, we have a lot of nuclear bombs, but we don’t have a way to stop global warming or cure cancer or AIDS or even COVID-19. We only live around 85 years. We think we’re so advanced but in the grand scheme of things, we’re really backward. I have a feeling they’ll land here one day because they know we need their help.”
Of course, many people claim to have had close encounters with the third kind already, and Geller is no exception. He claims to have had an alien encounter when he was a child in Tel Aviv, and later to have touched a fragment of a UFO while on a trip to NASA to meet with Dr. Werner von Braun in the 1970s.
“Climate change is melting the ice caps. There might be a huge comet or asteroid coming to Earth. And sure, we have a lot of nuclear bombs, but we don’t have a way to stop global warming or cure cancer or AIDS or even COVID-19."Uri Geller
And he is far from the only person to think so.
The truth is out there!
A Pew Research Center survey from June 2021 found that a majority of Americans believe that alien life exists in the universe. Further, an overwhelming majority of these Americans also thought that alien UFOs were either a minor threat or no threat at all.
Indeed, as ridiculous as the idea of aliens may seem, there is one thing that empirical evidence doesn’t deny: That the idea of aliens has a captivating hold on the general public. It isn’t just some fringe conspiracy idea, but rather it is something we as a society are becoming increasingly interested in.
This is why people who have played pivotal roles in getting humanity to space, such as von Braun or NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell, claimed that they believed in aliens, Geller claimed.
And they aren’t alone either.
The spoon-bender recounted a recent story of a group of scientists from a leading Israeli university who visited the Uri Geller Museum in Jaffa. There, he showed them his videos and presentations on aliens, UFOs and his own first- and second-hand accounts of them. And according to Geller, these scientists were watching with rapt attention.
“It’s a fascinating subject,” Geller explained, “because in the back of their minds, they know there’s something real there, and they don’t yet know what.”
And that is emblematic of the classic phrase that has embodied the search for UFOs and SETI for years: The truth is out there.
Jerusalem celebrates Pride under heavy security
Agence France-Presse
Jerusalem, Undefined: Thousands paraded through the streets of Jerusalem waving rainbow flags on Thursday (Friday in Manila), taking part in colorful celebrations for the Pride March against a backdrop of heavy security.
Mickey Levy, the speaker of the Israeli parliament, said he would join the march for the first time because it was necessary "to support the fight of LGBTQ people for equal rights".
Jerusalem has held an annual celebration of LGBTQ+ rights since 2002, often contending against protests from ultra-Orthodox Jews and far-right extremists.
"No one should live in a closet", read one sign, carried during the parade.
"No one is free until everyone is free", read another.
Thousands of police were mobilized "to ensure the safety of the participants and to ensure public order", the force said.
Three people were arrested, one for making social media threats against a march organizer, and two others near the parade route when found in possession of tear gas in their vehicle, police said.
On July 30, 2015, an ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed to death teenager Shira Banki during the parade and wounded six others, since when the annual event has been heavily protected.
The attacker had been released from prison a few weeks before the murder, having served a sentence for wounding three people during the Pride March in 2005. He was sentenced to life in prison for the 2015 attack.
Israel is considered a pioneer in the Middle East in terms of gay rights.
But in Jerusalem, a holy city for Jews, Muslims and Christians, the gay community faces far greater challenges in acceptance than the coastal city of Tel Aviv.
Several dozen protesters against the march gathered along the route.
Netflix’s Heartstopper Shows The Beauty Of Gay-Straight Bromances
Chichi Offor - Friday
By now, you’re probably aware of Netflix’s Heartstopper, an incredibly heartwarming coming-of-age television show about queer romance. Yes, the budding relationship and growing romantic feelings between the leads Charlie and Nick send even the most stoic individual through a whirlwind of emotions one could describe as cuteness overload. However, the show’s depiction of friendship – particularly that between Charlie and Tao – is challenging the idea of what platonic love can look like.
Platonic love between men aka a bromance isn’t new. Jon Snow and Sam Tarley in Game of Thrones, Seth and Ryan in The O.C., and Scott and Stiles in Teen Wolf are a few of my personal favorite depictions of bromantic love. But more recently, we’re seeing gay and straight men, like Charlie and Tao, and Eric and Otis in Sex Education, form platonic relationships together that are built on deep emotional connection in the same way women and queer people converse and relate to one another.
When I think of my close friendships, there’s a deep level of intimacy, vulnerability, and understanding. This isn’t built overnight. The continuous emotional investment and the trusted exchange of a secret or two lay the foundation for each of us to be seen and heard and to feel like we have support through life’s turbulent challenges. While talking about feelings comes naturally when women and queer folks converse among themselves, men – particularly straight men – haven’t always experienced this same level of ease when emotionally connecting with each other. There has long been a fear of being perceived as emotional (in other words, feminine)in male friendships, which society has traditionally emphasized isn’t the ideal a man should strive for.
A 2006 study on gay and straight men’s friendships found the fear of feelingshame from a platonic relationship that may be perceived as a gay romantic relationship impacted the level of intimacy and closeness in gay and straight participants’ friendships. It also found that many straight men subscribed to a limiting view of masculinity: that male friendships are formed over shared activities, like sports, video games, and drinking, rather than intimate discussion of the deep inner workings of their minds and emotions. Not only does this support the notion that straight men can be afraid of becoming emotionally close to one another, but it also speaks to deep-seated internalized homophobia.
But the idea of masculinity is fluid and can evolve. “In the time that has passed since the 1980s, where a cultural zeitgeist of hegemonic masculinity existed, young men have rapidly come to esteem a more advanced and complex level of emotionality in their same-sex friendships,” a 2017 study on bromances says. That’s why seeing Tao’s approach to friendship with Charlie is lovely to witness. There are various moments where Tao, who is a cis-gender heterosexual man, expresses highly emotional feelings in regard to his group of best friends. After Tao fights with school bully Harry, Tao is incredibly distraught and taken over by emotion when speaking to Charlie because he feels deeply hurt and forgotten in their friendship. So much has changed for the friend group: Elle switches schools, and Charlie has less free time after joining the rugby team and hanging with Nick. Tao feels like the friend group that he holds dear is slipping away.
Although he can sometimes seem a bit jealous and a little overbearing, Tao makes it clear that he’s emotionally invested and deeply loves and cares about Charlie and his well-being. So it’s natural for Tao to have pause when so much of Charlie’s time is spent with Nick, who is friends with the type of boys that bullied Charlie in the past. Even Nick shows us a thing or two about showing up as a good friend by providing space for Charlie to dispel his former relationship issues before any strong romantic feelings have developed or been confessed.
Obviously, anyone can be friends with whoever they want to be, but there’s a deeper conversation here about who or what society tells us our non-romantic relationships can look like. If you asked me even a year ago what this relationship between two cis-gender men has anything to do with the relationships I have with my girlfriends,I’d probably wonder the same thing. However, these limiting society ideals of what relationships between men look like impact us too. Alok Menon-Vaied, a non-binary activist, artist, and scholar, says on their personal blog that, “all of us — regardless of how we identify & navigate the world — have a stake in ending the gender binary.” This is because this binary not only holds up a limited idea of what genders exist but also how you can exist within gender. They go on to say, “[I] want a world where gender is respected as a story, not just a word. One where we understand that it means a fundamentally different thing for one person to be a woman than another, where we recognize that there is no one way to be a man.”
Queerness has always challenged what we hold as the status quo, and, in this case, traditional constructions of what a bromance looks like. For Heartstopper’s Charlie and Tao, it does exactly that. Perhaps Charlie’s queerness and Tao’s rejection of hegemonic masculinity allow them both the space to express themselves and connect and truly love each other beyond solely shared hobbies. Although, Tao would agree that a little movie night never hurt anybody.
Chichi Offor - Friday
By now, you’re probably aware of Netflix’s Heartstopper, an incredibly heartwarming coming-of-age television show about queer romance. Yes, the budding relationship and growing romantic feelings between the leads Charlie and Nick send even the most stoic individual through a whirlwind of emotions one could describe as cuteness overload. However, the show’s depiction of friendship – particularly that between Charlie and Tao – is challenging the idea of what platonic love can look like.
Platonic love between men aka a bromance isn’t new. Jon Snow and Sam Tarley in Game of Thrones, Seth and Ryan in The O.C., and Scott and Stiles in Teen Wolf are a few of my personal favorite depictions of bromantic love. But more recently, we’re seeing gay and straight men, like Charlie and Tao, and Eric and Otis in Sex Education, form platonic relationships together that are built on deep emotional connection in the same way women and queer people converse and relate to one another.
When I think of my close friendships, there’s a deep level of intimacy, vulnerability, and understanding. This isn’t built overnight. The continuous emotional investment and the trusted exchange of a secret or two lay the foundation for each of us to be seen and heard and to feel like we have support through life’s turbulent challenges. While talking about feelings comes naturally when women and queer folks converse among themselves, men – particularly straight men – haven’t always experienced this same level of ease when emotionally connecting with each other. There has long been a fear of being perceived as emotional (in other words, feminine)in male friendships, which society has traditionally emphasized isn’t the ideal a man should strive for.
A 2006 study on gay and straight men’s friendships found the fear of feelingshame from a platonic relationship that may be perceived as a gay romantic relationship impacted the level of intimacy and closeness in gay and straight participants’ friendships. It also found that many straight men subscribed to a limiting view of masculinity: that male friendships are formed over shared activities, like sports, video games, and drinking, rather than intimate discussion of the deep inner workings of their minds and emotions. Not only does this support the notion that straight men can be afraid of becoming emotionally close to one another, but it also speaks to deep-seated internalized homophobia.
But the idea of masculinity is fluid and can evolve. “In the time that has passed since the 1980s, where a cultural zeitgeist of hegemonic masculinity existed, young men have rapidly come to esteem a more advanced and complex level of emotionality in their same-sex friendships,” a 2017 study on bromances says. That’s why seeing Tao’s approach to friendship with Charlie is lovely to witness. There are various moments where Tao, who is a cis-gender heterosexual man, expresses highly emotional feelings in regard to his group of best friends. After Tao fights with school bully Harry, Tao is incredibly distraught and taken over by emotion when speaking to Charlie because he feels deeply hurt and forgotten in their friendship. So much has changed for the friend group: Elle switches schools, and Charlie has less free time after joining the rugby team and hanging with Nick. Tao feels like the friend group that he holds dear is slipping away.
Although he can sometimes seem a bit jealous and a little overbearing, Tao makes it clear that he’s emotionally invested and deeply loves and cares about Charlie and his well-being. So it’s natural for Tao to have pause when so much of Charlie’s time is spent with Nick, who is friends with the type of boys that bullied Charlie in the past. Even Nick shows us a thing or two about showing up as a good friend by providing space for Charlie to dispel his former relationship issues before any strong romantic feelings have developed or been confessed.
Obviously, anyone can be friends with whoever they want to be, but there’s a deeper conversation here about who or what society tells us our non-romantic relationships can look like. If you asked me even a year ago what this relationship between two cis-gender men has anything to do with the relationships I have with my girlfriends,I’d probably wonder the same thing. However, these limiting society ideals of what relationships between men look like impact us too. Alok Menon-Vaied, a non-binary activist, artist, and scholar, says on their personal blog that, “all of us — regardless of how we identify & navigate the world — have a stake in ending the gender binary.” This is because this binary not only holds up a limited idea of what genders exist but also how you can exist within gender. They go on to say, “[I] want a world where gender is respected as a story, not just a word. One where we understand that it means a fundamentally different thing for one person to be a woman than another, where we recognize that there is no one way to be a man.”
Queerness has always challenged what we hold as the status quo, and, in this case, traditional constructions of what a bromance looks like. For Heartstopper’s Charlie and Tao, it does exactly that. Perhaps Charlie’s queerness and Tao’s rejection of hegemonic masculinity allow them both the space to express themselves and connect and truly love each other beyond solely shared hobbies. Although, Tao would agree that a little movie night never hurt anybody.
R29
Sara RamÃrez Pitched for Their Grey's Anatomy Character Dr. Callie Torres to Be Bisexual
Christina Dugan Ramirez - Yesterday
© Provided by PeopleTheo Wargo/Getty
Sara RamÃrez is reflecting on their game-changing character on Grey's Anatomy.
On Wednesday, RamÃrez, 46, opened up about their experience playing Dr. Callie Torres, a bisexual woman and orthopedic surgeon, in 239 episodes of the ABC medical drama — making Callie the longest-running LGBTQ character in TV history.
In a recent interview with Variety, RamÃrez, who came out as non-binary in 2020 and uses the pronouns they/them, recalled the moment they approached creator Shonda Rhimes with the fresh idea of introducing Callie as bisexual.
"I wanted to pursue a storyline where Callie would discover that she was attracted to women, as well as men," RamÃrez told the publication.
Rhimes was quick to jump on board with the idea. "She knew I was bi," RamÃrez recalled.
And so, Callie came out as bisexual on the series in 2009. At the time, RamÃrez says they knew they were bisexual themselves, but weren't ready to come out publicly.
"I was really afraid it would hurt my career if I came out as bisexual," RamÃrez told PEOPLE in December. "I was very aware of the bi[sexual] antagonism that exists. But I'm really proud of what we put out in the world. It was definitely disrupting a narrative."
© Provided by PeopleDanny Feld/ABC
RELATED: Sara RamÃrez Joins the Cast of HBO Max's Sex and the City Revival as a Non-Binary Podcast Host
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After a brief marriage to Dr. George O'Malley, Callie went on to marry Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw) on the show. The relationship proved to be extremely impactful.
During an interview with Out Magazine last year, RamÃrez said the role not only had an impact on the LBGTQ community as a whole, but also their own self-understanding.
"Prior to Callie Torres, I'd never seen myself represented on television," RamÃrez told the outlet. "There was so much I didn't know that I didn't know. So, I've caught up with myself in a lot of ways."
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories
Speaking with Variety, showrunner Krista Vernoff expressed similar sentiments about Callie.
"I don't think it can be overstated what the social impact of Callie's bisexuality was on the culture at large," Vernoff said. "Bisexuality was almost invisible on TV at that point. I personally have two kids who have come out as bisexual, and I don't think it's disconnected from Callie and Sara publicly coming out."
Though RamÃrez exited Grey's Anatomy in 2016, and last appeared in the season 12 finale, they said they're open to a Grey's return in the future.
"It taught me so much, portraying a character that a lot of folks had not seen on TV including myself," RamÃrez told PEOPLE in December. "I will always have a soft tender place in my heart for that work family and that role. It was the role of a lifetime."
"I wouldn't be who I am today without the experience I had on Grey's Anatomy and my heart is completely open to going back and checking in with Dr. Callie Torres," RamÃrez added. "But that would only happen if the writers' room and the story really organically led them to need a character like Callie to come back. They all know that I support them from afar and that I'm rooting for them."
Grey's Anatomy is not the first time RamÃrez has broken boundaries with their character. They also starred as Che Diaz, an outspoken, non-binary podcast host and stand-up comic on the Sex and the City revival series, And Just Like That..., who ends up being (spoiler alert!) Miranda Hobbes' love interest.
Christina Dugan Ramirez - Yesterday
© Provided by PeopleTheo Wargo/Getty
Sara RamÃrez is reflecting on their game-changing character on Grey's Anatomy.
On Wednesday, RamÃrez, 46, opened up about their experience playing Dr. Callie Torres, a bisexual woman and orthopedic surgeon, in 239 episodes of the ABC medical drama — making Callie the longest-running LGBTQ character in TV history.
In a recent interview with Variety, RamÃrez, who came out as non-binary in 2020 and uses the pronouns they/them, recalled the moment they approached creator Shonda Rhimes with the fresh idea of introducing Callie as bisexual.
"I wanted to pursue a storyline where Callie would discover that she was attracted to women, as well as men," RamÃrez told the publication.
Rhimes was quick to jump on board with the idea. "She knew I was bi," RamÃrez recalled.
And so, Callie came out as bisexual on the series in 2009. At the time, RamÃrez says they knew they were bisexual themselves, but weren't ready to come out publicly.
"I was really afraid it would hurt my career if I came out as bisexual," RamÃrez told PEOPLE in December. "I was very aware of the bi[sexual] antagonism that exists. But I'm really proud of what we put out in the world. It was definitely disrupting a narrative."
© Provided by PeopleDanny Feld/ABC
RELATED: Sara RamÃrez Joins the Cast of HBO Max's Sex and the City Revival as a Non-Binary Podcast Host
After a brief marriage to Dr. George O'Malley, Callie went on to marry Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw) on the show. The relationship proved to be extremely impactful.
During an interview with Out Magazine last year, RamÃrez said the role not only had an impact on the LBGTQ community as a whole, but also their own self-understanding.
"Prior to Callie Torres, I'd never seen myself represented on television," RamÃrez told the outlet. "There was so much I didn't know that I didn't know. So, I've caught up with myself in a lot of ways."
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories
Speaking with Variety, showrunner Krista Vernoff expressed similar sentiments about Callie.
"I don't think it can be overstated what the social impact of Callie's bisexuality was on the culture at large," Vernoff said. "Bisexuality was almost invisible on TV at that point. I personally have two kids who have come out as bisexual, and I don't think it's disconnected from Callie and Sara publicly coming out."
Though RamÃrez exited Grey's Anatomy in 2016, and last appeared in the season 12 finale, they said they're open to a Grey's return in the future.
"It taught me so much, portraying a character that a lot of folks had not seen on TV including myself," RamÃrez told PEOPLE in December. "I will always have a soft tender place in my heart for that work family and that role. It was the role of a lifetime."
"I wouldn't be who I am today without the experience I had on Grey's Anatomy and my heart is completely open to going back and checking in with Dr. Callie Torres," RamÃrez added. "But that would only happen if the writers' room and the story really organically led them to need a character like Callie to come back. They all know that I support them from afar and that I'm rooting for them."
Grey's Anatomy is not the first time RamÃrez has broken boundaries with their character. They also starred as Che Diaz, an outspoken, non-binary podcast host and stand-up comic on the Sex and the City revival series, And Just Like That..., who ends up being (spoiler alert!) Miranda Hobbes' love interest.
‘An Act of Defense’: Jaclyn Moore on Republicans Weaponizing Trans Panic and Why Representation Really Does Matter
Jaclyn Moore - Yesterday
It’s Pride Month, which means three things: Corporate Twitter accounts will start talking like “Drag Race” contestants, the queer community will continue fighting our annual blood feud about kink’s place at Pride and there will be think pieces about LGBT representation in the media. If you’re like me, the thought of those three things is enough to make your eyes glaze over.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that conversations about representation aren’t important. Letting viewers see themselves depicted in art helps people feel less alone. It tells them they’re OK. It tells them that they are worthy of story and narrative and, yeah, maybe love. And it exposes people to folks who are different than they are and makes the case that those that we don’t understand are worthy of empathy and love. That’s all wildly important, but it’s also self-evident.
More from Variety
But as a trans woman, I’m sick of these conversations because it feels like we only get to have them in June. I’m sick of these conversations because I’m sick of feeling like representation alone is enough. I’m sick of these conversations because I’m sick of art that seems to simply argue on behalf of our community’s collective humanity. That humanity should be beyond debate. I want stories of complex queer and trans people. That was our goal when making Peacock’s “Queer as Folk.” To depict queer folks who were messy and made mistakes but were still ultimately worthy of love and narrative. I want that to be where we’re going. I want more than just “representation” for our community.
And yet, here I am, in June, writing an article about the continued need for more queer representation. Why?
I was recently driving from Los Angeles to New Orleans. Now, I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the geography of the American Southwest, but that’s a drive that puts me in Texas by myself for something like 15 hours. Not ideal.
One night, a little before midnight, I was a couple hours outside of Austin when my dog Leo woke up and very clearly needed to go to the bathroom. I took the next exit and pulled into a mostly empty gas station plaza. I parked along the edge of the lot, hopped out, leashed up Leo for an impromptu walk and encouraged him to move quickly. Just then, across the parking lot, three guys left the convenience store part of the station and headed to a van. As they made the walk to their car, I felt like they were looking at me, but they were far away, and my nerves were on edge, so I tried to dismiss the thought and turn my attention back to my pup, who had finally found a rock worthy of his pee.
Only I couldn’t dismiss it. And as I looked back to the van, I felt my blood run cold. The van was driving across the parking lot toward me.
It parked about 10 or so feet away from me. Close enough that I could see the faces of the men inside looking at me and talking to each other, but not so close I could make out what they were saying. There was laughter, but the kind that feels coated in razor blades. A joyful noise paired with hostile eyes.
I turned back to Leo, grabbed him, and returned to our car. I pulled out of the parking lot only for the van to follow. I drove back to the highway entrance, with my heart in my throat, and my eyes fixated on my phone’s lack of service. As I stopped at a red light, a million scenarios played out in my head at once. All of them bad. The light finally turned green and I finally turned onto the entrance to the highway. Once I did, I saw the van pull a U-turn and drive off into the night.
In some ways this is a story of something not happening. I’ve been assaulted for being trans before. I’ve been groped. I’ve had beer bottles thrown at me. Why this story and not those?
Because these men looked sure of their anger. They had the air of a group who felt like they had morality on their side. And why wouldn’t they? Right now, trans rights are under attack across this country. The Republican Party has spent the last two years explicitly running an election strategy to weaponize trans panic. On Fox News, trans people and those who support minors having access to gender-affirming care are being recategorized as “groomers.” On Netflix, famous straight comedians make jokes about trans women being dangerous in bathrooms, as well as worthy targets for their audience’s anger. All this leads to a simple but scary truth. When you start to say a group of people is dangerous, you empower your followers to become dangerous to them.
And it’s not stopping with trans people. “Don’t Say Gay” bills are becoming common in state legislatures across the country. And with Roe v. Wade likely to be overturned soon, Supreme Court protections that queer folks fought long and hard for are also seemingly back under threat. It’s not doom and gloom to say that things feel like they’re getting worse right now. It’s a realistic reading of the situation.
So, here I am, in June, saying that we need to make art that shows that queer and trans people are worthy of love and respect. Yes, I want to move beyond simple representation, and I hope our reimagining of “Queer as Folk” does that somewhat. But as much as I think that is where we should be going as an industry, I can’t sit here in the face of the political backslide we are experiencing and its very real-life consequences for actual queer and trans people (not to mention anyone with a uterus) and act like “representation matters” is trite. Telling our stories is an act of defense against the narratives being pushed that seek to harm us. Our humanity should be beyond debate, but unfortunately, we don’t live in a world where that’s true.
Jaclyn Moore is an executive producer and writer on Peacock’s “Queer as Folk.”
Variety
Jaclyn Moore - Yesterday
It’s Pride Month, which means three things: Corporate Twitter accounts will start talking like “Drag Race” contestants, the queer community will continue fighting our annual blood feud about kink’s place at Pride and there will be think pieces about LGBT representation in the media. If you’re like me, the thought of those three things is enough to make your eyes glaze over.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that conversations about representation aren’t important. Letting viewers see themselves depicted in art helps people feel less alone. It tells them they’re OK. It tells them that they are worthy of story and narrative and, yeah, maybe love. And it exposes people to folks who are different than they are and makes the case that those that we don’t understand are worthy of empathy and love. That’s all wildly important, but it’s also self-evident.
More from Variety
But as a trans woman, I’m sick of these conversations because it feels like we only get to have them in June. I’m sick of these conversations because I’m sick of feeling like representation alone is enough. I’m sick of these conversations because I’m sick of art that seems to simply argue on behalf of our community’s collective humanity. That humanity should be beyond debate. I want stories of complex queer and trans people. That was our goal when making Peacock’s “Queer as Folk.” To depict queer folks who were messy and made mistakes but were still ultimately worthy of love and narrative. I want that to be where we’re going. I want more than just “representation” for our community.
And yet, here I am, in June, writing an article about the continued need for more queer representation. Why?
I was recently driving from Los Angeles to New Orleans. Now, I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the geography of the American Southwest, but that’s a drive that puts me in Texas by myself for something like 15 hours. Not ideal.
One night, a little before midnight, I was a couple hours outside of Austin when my dog Leo woke up and very clearly needed to go to the bathroom. I took the next exit and pulled into a mostly empty gas station plaza. I parked along the edge of the lot, hopped out, leashed up Leo for an impromptu walk and encouraged him to move quickly. Just then, across the parking lot, three guys left the convenience store part of the station and headed to a van. As they made the walk to their car, I felt like they were looking at me, but they were far away, and my nerves were on edge, so I tried to dismiss the thought and turn my attention back to my pup, who had finally found a rock worthy of his pee.
Only I couldn’t dismiss it. And as I looked back to the van, I felt my blood run cold. The van was driving across the parking lot toward me.
It parked about 10 or so feet away from me. Close enough that I could see the faces of the men inside looking at me and talking to each other, but not so close I could make out what they were saying. There was laughter, but the kind that feels coated in razor blades. A joyful noise paired with hostile eyes.
I turned back to Leo, grabbed him, and returned to our car. I pulled out of the parking lot only for the van to follow. I drove back to the highway entrance, with my heart in my throat, and my eyes fixated on my phone’s lack of service. As I stopped at a red light, a million scenarios played out in my head at once. All of them bad. The light finally turned green and I finally turned onto the entrance to the highway. Once I did, I saw the van pull a U-turn and drive off into the night.
In some ways this is a story of something not happening. I’ve been assaulted for being trans before. I’ve been groped. I’ve had beer bottles thrown at me. Why this story and not those?
Because these men looked sure of their anger. They had the air of a group who felt like they had morality on their side. And why wouldn’t they? Right now, trans rights are under attack across this country. The Republican Party has spent the last two years explicitly running an election strategy to weaponize trans panic. On Fox News, trans people and those who support minors having access to gender-affirming care are being recategorized as “groomers.” On Netflix, famous straight comedians make jokes about trans women being dangerous in bathrooms, as well as worthy targets for their audience’s anger. All this leads to a simple but scary truth. When you start to say a group of people is dangerous, you empower your followers to become dangerous to them.
And it’s not stopping with trans people. “Don’t Say Gay” bills are becoming common in state legislatures across the country. And with Roe v. Wade likely to be overturned soon, Supreme Court protections that queer folks fought long and hard for are also seemingly back under threat. It’s not doom and gloom to say that things feel like they’re getting worse right now. It’s a realistic reading of the situation.
So, here I am, in June, saying that we need to make art that shows that queer and trans people are worthy of love and respect. Yes, I want to move beyond simple representation, and I hope our reimagining of “Queer as Folk” does that somewhat. But as much as I think that is where we should be going as an industry, I can’t sit here in the face of the political backslide we are experiencing and its very real-life consequences for actual queer and trans people (not to mention anyone with a uterus) and act like “representation matters” is trite. Telling our stories is an act of defense against the narratives being pushed that seek to harm us. Our humanity should be beyond debate, but unfortunately, we don’t live in a world where that’s true.
Jaclyn Moore is an executive producer and writer on Peacock’s “Queer as Folk.”
Variety
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