A man in Cornwall, England was barred from hosting a gay disco at a community hall because of fears a party full of homosexuals could offend the local Christians in the town of St Agnes.

In this short film from Canada Aaron plays a game of Hide and Seek in which his friend Tony is never found. The mystery of their relationship — and of their queer attachment to the armoire in Aaron’s bedroom — can only be revealed, it turns out, through hypnosis. At once a comedy, a mystery and a melodrama, Jamie Travis’ The Armoire is the resounding finale to his Saddest Children in the World trilogy (which includes "Why the Anderson Children Didn’t Come to Dinner" and "The Saddest Boy in the World").

Through magnificent art direction, Jamie Travis brings us another poignant children’s tale, eerily capturing a young boy’s struggle to hide his secrets. I was particularly impressed with this film for its cohesive unique vision.  The story was eerie, sad and moving and the tone was supported seamlessly by the shooting style as well as the crisp, beautiful art direction.

In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) decided that gay people were no longer mentally ill, but that changed nothing for trans and gender-variant people. In fact, "experts" led the push to create a new disease called "gender identity disorder," which they successfully got added to the APA’s big book of mental illnesses, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Though trans activists have been protesting to get this mental illness removed in the 2012 revision, these Toronto "experts" hold key positions among the people doing the revising.

Even worse is a sub-disease they created called "gender identity disorder in children." They have made a lot of money claiming to "cure" hundreds of children who are "too feminine." While they also treat kids who are "too masculine," in most clinics which have adopted their methods, 5 to 30 times more children assigned as males are treated. The methods? No playing with dolls, no drawing with the "wrong" colors like pink or purple, and no playing with or drawing pictures of girls. The anxious parents who bring their children in to be "cured" are expected to enforce all rules. They are sent home with instructions to make the child go through all their possessions and remove anything "inappropriate," as well as ways to use reinforcement to "correct" their child’s thinking and behavior. How did nonconformity become a disease? And how did Toronto become infamous for this? It’s a textbook case of pathological science with roots in the 20th-century eugenics movement, and it shows how a few misguided people can have impact all over the world. Read on at Boing Boing

• Almost half of Americans believe being gay is a choice according to poll
• Australia plans to censor internet with secret list of sites like China and Iran do
• Canada makes talking to children online crime, regardless of what you talk about
• Lithuania still wants to ban information about homosexuality to “protect minors”
• English anti-terror cops ask nursery school workers to watch for 4 year old terrorists
• US-Woman gets 60 years prison for sex with minors (murderers usually get ~20 years)
• Heavy illegal downloaders buy more music & film industry healthier than ever
• How stranger danger changed the way children play on the example of the UK

• CDU & FDP verschulden Staat für Steuergeschenke an Reiche und Unternehmen…
• …Gleichstellung von Schwulen & Lesben findet die CDU dagegen zu teuer.
• FDP meint Krieg ist im nationalen Interesse, egal was die Bürger davon halten
• CDU & FDP ersetzen staatlichen Medizinkontrolleur durch Pharma-Lobbyisten
• Lebensmittellobby setzt sich durch: keine Kennzeichnung ungesunder Produkte
• Fingerabdruckscanner in der Grundschule: In Bayern blüht der Überwachungsstaat
• 14-jähriger erldeidet schwere Gehirnerschütterung während er in Polizeigewahrsam ist
• Geschichte: Tagung beschäftigte sich mit Unrechtssituation Schwuler in der BRD

Want to see him *without* Photoshop?
Click the Photo and stop feeling bad about yourself ;)

But that was before we let the special interest groups and politicians terrorize us about the “threat to our children.” Since then we have passed hundreds of ill-conceived pieces of legislation “to protect our children.” Now we are sacrificing our children on the very political altars that we helped build.

What was once considering a normal rite of passage, typical curiosity that the newly sexualized young have about themselves, their bodies, and the bodies of others, has become a heinous crime. Not long ago a curious adolescent or child, caught exploring, or playing doctor in the back yard, was given a talking-to, sent to bed early, and warned to not do it again — a warning most heeded for at least another few years, after which time warnings were useless. Today, it has been criminalized, and criminalized in a way far exceeding crimes of violence. A youth who has sex with another youth, even if voluntary, could well face legal sentences far worse than if they had killed their friend.

Please read the whole article at Classically Liberal. They have also collected a partial listing with relevant cases.

I for one think it’s kinda sad that even the author of the good and much needed article above thinks sending kids to bed without supper is a proper way to handle such situations. Not so long ago European parental guides suggested to let kids do whatever they want to do when it comes to sexuality because everything else would let them get the impression that sex is something bad and dirty.

My first young adult novel, Little Brother, tells the story of a kid named Marcus Yallow who forms a guerilla army of young people dedicated to the reformation of the US government by any means necessary. He and his friends use cryptography and other technology to subvert security measures, to distribute revolutionary literature, to liberate and publish secret governmental memoes, and humiliate government officials. Every chapter includes some kind of how-to guide for accomplishing this kind of thing on your own, from tips on disabling radio-frequency ID tags to beating biometric identity system to defeating the censorware used by your school network to control what kind of things you can and can’t see on the Internet. The book is a long hymn to personal liberty, free speech, the people’s right to question and even overthrow their government, even during wartime.

Marcus is 17, and the book is intended to be read by young teens or even precocious tweens (as well as adults). Naturally, I anticipated that some of the politics and technology in the story would upset my readers. And it’s true, a few of the reviewers were critical of this stuff. But not many, not overly so. What I didn’t expect was that I would receive a torrent of correspondence and entreaties from teachers, students, parents, and librarians who were angry, worried, or upset that Marcus loses his virginity about two-thirds of the way through the book (secondarily, some of them were also offended by the fact that Marcus drinks a beer at one point, and a smaller minority wanted to know why and how Marcus could get away with talking back to his elders).

read, read, read!

because they fear nothing more than a freethinking youth

Two twins who downloaded a variety of shota materials have been jailed for possessing “virtual child pornography,” with the judge condemning them for “victimising” imaginary children. The men, both 20 and residents of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, were reported to police by a sister-in-law after she came across “distressing” images on their computer. Police searches soon found a substantial collection of shotacon material on their computers, saying 90% were “cartoon drawings called Japanese Anime.” The pair, one of whom is said to be an active homosexual, were subsequently charged with possession of child pornography, both for the minority of real images and their manga collection, which under Canadian law is considered “virtual child pornography.” The state prosecutor insists that victimising fictional children is a very serious offence:

“Every one of these images involves the victimization of children. The victimization wouldn’t happen in the first place if there weren’t people there to look at this material.”

More details can be found here. So, looking at images of drawn boys is “victimising children”? Does that mean you can get child allowance for drawn kids too? No? Too bad. And children wouldn’t get raped if shota wouldn’t exist? That’s interesting because 1. I heard (just a rumour) that children were victims of sexual abuse before manga existed and 2. Japan – where all the shota manga come from and are legal – has one of the lowest sex crime rates of all industrialized countries.