So there’s a thing about these right wing Americanists who want to force women back into “traditional gender roles” that I don’t get: they come from the bit of America where the music is all about women in traditional gender roles, trapped in an abusive marriage, murdering their husbands.
Goodbye, Earl. (Srsly though here in the US this would more typically end with Earl murdering Wanda & probably Maryanne, too, if she lived in easy driving distance.) youtu.be/bqnrXRuebWg
Pharmacies in Portugal (verified) and Spain (unverified) will often sell oestrogen HRT over the counter to tourists without a prescription. If you watch Ryanair prices, you could day trip there for £50 or less.
This will likely be cheaper and potentially safer than using an internet pharmacy.
@Siguza Like, I’m frequently named personally by connected TERFs in the UK as the trans woman they hate the most, and I use FAO/STN like it’s a city bus. I’m at the, “oh, you again, hi! Usual in flight meal?” stage with some of the cabin crew and I can confirm that UK Border Force find me wholly and entirely uninteresting. They are looking for some people. They aren’t looking for us.
(As in on Wednesday, I was in my own kitchen in the UK, making tea, exactly 40 minutes after the Ryanair flight I had been on touched its wheels to the ground and engaged its brakes. Barely broke stride for the border).
@Siguza And as for the usual in flight meal thing, the green chicken curry on Ryanair is surprisingly good, and also gluten free. It’s my meal plan for Sunday, when I will be eating one about 10km above the Bay of Biscay.
The “recommended legal max” was mentioned to me by the Thai doctor I visited because I don't have the energy to fill out all the forms in the UK, let alone wait that many years.
There may have been a misunderstanding I dunno.
It sounds like maybe I'm one of those folk who struggles with estradiol valerate as my level was 60-something I think and they said the 'target level' for a trans woman was 100.
I bought 6 months' worth of E before I left Thailand though so I'll stick with that for now.
Do you know if estradiol hemihydrate is available in Thailand? If my levels aren't great in November, maybe I can ask to go on those.
@StuffByBez the 8mg limit tends to be what the NHS and UK private providers stick with. There are patches/gel you could try. Different people react differently.
@StuffByBez @jen To my understanding this is mostly if you use overly high doses, which is sadly kinda common because medical professionals are idiots and often don’t take into account that E is an anti-androgen and prescribe full 50mg pills.
The linked document is being circulated amongst NHS service providers for young trans people. It advises cessation of ALL medical intervention for transition but goes further. It suggests that if the patient or parents continue to access trans healthcare outside their system, they should be reported to social services with the implicit threat that the children will be taken from their parents.
IF YOU ARE A YOUNG TRANS PERSON OR A PARENT OF ONE, IT IS LIKELY UNSAFE TO ENGAGE WITH NHS MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES.
@JamieR Exact same experience here. CAMHS recommended some group Zoom sessions but that's about it. I got the impression they were so overstretched, if the kid wasn't an immediate self harm risk they just didn't have the resources to do anything. We are also now going private but it sucks for the many people out there for whom that's not an option 🙁
@ian I think they do what they can, within limits, to meet bare minimum standard … if they get 6 months to respond to something, they’ll take 6 months, which is why they process with them could be 5 years before anything significant happens.
Yes, those fortunate enough can take the easier route and pay to go private, but I genuinely fear for those that don’t have that luxury, it’s heartbreaking
@grayface_ghost @StrangeNoises @cstross You're giving the British public more credit than they deserve,don't forget these are the people that gave the albino orang utan and 80 odd seat majority to do with as he wished to which he started wrecking the country. Mags happened on both sides of the Atlantic ocean we've gotta make sure it doesn't happen on this side again.
@sesquipedality I did vote for a police commissioner this time, though often I spoil the ballot. I've been less worried since it became clear they do nothing at all. But I should get back into the habit of spoiling.
I probably shouldn't have been told this, so I won't name names, but I've heard some hilarious Police Commissioner spoils from counters, from people venting about the police and their conduct to votes for Inspectors Morse, Frost, and Clouseau: it's a bit of an art-form, apparently, particularly for that particular post.
Since apparently some of my friends are unaware, these are the things that are bothering me and other UK trans people: theguardian.com/society/2024/a… - the UK government’s latest transphobic shit. 1/3
#ukpol #transphobiarcgp.org.uk/representing-you/p… - GPs’ representative body calling for end to shared care with the private sector, and restricting their role in other aspects of trans healthcare. 3/3
Like, there’s this person who I barely knew existed until I heard that they are now on a multi year deep dive obsession with me making a post saying that getting rid of TERFs was akin to getting rid of bedbugs.
I didn’t name this person; I had no fucking idea that they existed, until I started hearing on the grapevine that they are habitually walking around showing screenshots from this server and complaining that “Sarah said I am like bedbugs and pubic lice”. Bit self-important, but whatever.
Apparently recently they presented it as justification for their revolting behaviour towards trans women. “Sarah, who doesn’t know me, said mean things about a group of people which I took to include me, based on my own evaluation of my own behaviour, and I am now VERY OFFENDED”.
Ok, so here’s the thing:
I know you’re almost certainly reading this because you’re obsessed with m
Like, there’s this person who I barely knew existed until I heard that they are now on a multi year deep dive obsession with me making a post saying that getting rid of TERFs was akin to getting rid of bedbugs.
I didn’t name this person; I had no fucking idea that they existed, until I started hearing on the grapevine that they are habitually walking around showing screenshots from this server and complaining that “Sarah said I am like bedbugs and pubic lice”. Bit self-important, but whatever.
Apparently recently they presented it as justification for their revolting behaviour towards trans women. “Sarah, who doesn’t know me, said mean things about a group of people which I took to include me, based on my own evaluation of my own behaviour, and I am now VERY OFFENDED”.
Ok, so here’s the thing:
I know you’re almost certainly reading this because you’re obsessed with me. I fled the country to avoid people like you, so yeah, I don’t like you much. I think you’re objectively terrible human beings. You’re worse than my mother in law, and she steals tips off of restaurant tables.
And the fact that you’re still letting this live rent free in your head months and months, going into years later, and that people you think are your friends are laughing at you for it and then telling me about it, is clearly something that’s bothering you.
So I’m going to try and offer you a bit of insight, and maybe you might find it helpful. I dunno.
Anyway, were some random TERF to liken me to pubic lice or bedbugs, even if they specifically named me (and I sure as fuck didn’t do that; I’m not stupid), I know exactly what I’d feel:
NOTHING
Absolutely nothing. The fuck should I care what some random arsehole I don’t respect thinks about me? It’s not like I’m relying on their opinion for anything.
Maybe if I thought they had a point, I might be upset, and dwell on it tho.
as a young trans woman (under minimum age for medically prescribed HRT) living in the UK. Things have never been worse for me. I have tried self harming within the past few months because of my severe gender dysphoria yet I cannot do anything about it. I live in a single working class parent household without enough money for DIY. So I've pretty much given up on a medical transition until I can move to another country or get enough money for a good supply of DIY hrt.
i wanna talk to it but it is on DND mode for the last couple of days meaning that i'm not sure if i should reach to her or if to give it space (said friend uses it/she pronouns)
@Isabel Ruffell Which kind of makes the next election a no-op. If I thought any party likely to win significant support would moderate him I’d pin meagre hope on that but I can’t see even our “allies” making trans rights a condition of doing business.
it's been hard. I've got friends who are definitely struggling right now. Things seem very uncertain is probably the nicest way to say "it's probably going to be more of the same after the election"
@Alisdair Calder McGregor aaaaasanyway, must dash. Got a subtropical sunset to watch over my citrus trees, safe in the knowledge that I have no pubic lice.
I remember around 2015ish, when you predicted that there'd be US-style toilet laws in the UK someday. I remember thinking that that was a bit far-fetched, but I've now changed my mind. Labour aren't going to be any kinder towards British trans folks, are they? 😞
Aged 10 (late C19), my grandmother's aunt went paddling and her feet were cut by a piece of tin. They became infected (I presume they developed gangrene). By the time she saw a doctor, the only solution was amputation. Both feet, on the kitchen table of the girl's house, without anaesthetic. Apparently, she could be heard screaming from outside the house.
It's besides the point, but they could've given her tourniquet anaesthesia as a non-pharmaceutical option.
My language learning web page (linguno.com) has gone all political today on this 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution in Portugal. This means I know how to say "I will abolish the death penalty".
I have got literally the happiest thing in the history of everything ever for you today! And that is no exaggeration whatsoever! In fact it is an understatement! Here is My Baby Goat! Get the mp3 f…
Michael O’Leary is a real life shitposter who plays the press like a fiddle, and here he is doing it again.
We live in a time where anyone could do a quick check to see if a 737-8200 could reach Rwanda from the UK (ok, fuelling stops are possible but it seems unlikely that would be favoured), and confirm that, no, it cannot.
But “journalists” don’t apparently bother to actually investigate … anything.
Ryanair Holdings Plc Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary weighed into the UK’s controversial plan to deport refugees to Rwanda, saying he would “happily” do the flights if he had the available aircraft.
Suppose you are the judge in the fictitious case of Djarin v Skywalker. The parties each seek a child arrangements "live with" order in respect of a child, G. How would you apply the welfare checklist in s1(3) of the Children Act 1989?
But it’s basically Silo, if Silo didn’t take itself seriously, and also there’s no nuclear war in Silo, and everybody outside is dead in Silo (humans anyway, the rest of the ecosystem is fine as long as it stays away from Fulton County, Georgia).
And Silo is set in our future, not some 1950s retro future.
But other than that, same idea. I guess Silo was influenced by the game. It’s very much “what if Fallout, but hard sci-fi?”
@FoolishOwl Also, the reasoning for doing the bad thing was different: Fallout, capitalist excess; Silo, Thurman passionately believes that he needs to murder 7 billion people to save humanity.
They both probably draw from similar sources in many ways. I’d be surprised if there aren’t some Twilight Zone episode or similar around.
And while sharing a lot, they also are by all means distinct. Does feel like a copy, just shared inspiration. Which is good.
That said, Fallout was the spiritual successor to Wasteland, which isn’t a vault thing but more generic post apocalyptic. I still have my C64 original 😀
"The hearing was entirely conducted remotely by Zoom" says this judgment*. I wonder in some future era this will make as much sense as discussion of stannary courts or writing things down on vellum.
"Zoom", hmm, let me see: "magnification, especially with the aid of optics". Well, it was at the time of the great illness, so probably they were sat in different buildings and using telephoto lenses.
“Woke” is used as en epithet by those whose entire existence is trying to make reality conform to their simplistic prejudices, against those who live in the real, but more complex, world.
after lettuce-head said the other day that their constituency “has no woke hostelries”, and there being no desire on their part to define “woke”, I’ve decided to take that task on myself. From now on, “woke” means “great beer”.
Don’t quite know what to make of this. Either it’s Cass trying to gaslight us, or maybe she’s realised that beyond the shores of Normal Island and the US, having her name on this bag of crap basically destroys her career? thekitetrust.org.uk/wp-content…
@christineburns I suspect she’s just so lacking in empathy that she thought she was doing a good job. Her main focus seems to have been on NHS admin, completely failing to appreciate what it must be like for folk trapped in a hostile system with a clock ticking.
@Kim Spence-Jones 🇬🇧😷 @Christine Burns MBE 🏳️⚧️📚⧖ none of these people even consider us human, if they consider us at all. To them, we are a failed outcome, to be avoided at all costs. It doesn’t even occur to them that we lead rich, fulfilling lives.
So first they feed the transphobes a bunch of crap they'll be running wild with for YEARS, then they're trying to feed everybody else the idea that they didn't mean it that way-- as if that's going to help. What a steaming pile of twisted crap.
To read the UK media you’d think Cameron was swooping in to sort the mess Brexit left Gibraltar in. Talking to a Gibraltarian friend though he didn’t have much part in it beyond bringing the tea. The hard work has been done by the Gibraltar government and the local government of La Línea just over the border.
UK new builds: the builders will tell you that the toilet flushes are “European style” to save water.
This is a lie. I live in two new build flats. One in Portugal and one in England. The toilets they put in in UK new builds are just shit at flushing. The ones in Portugal flush properly.
the UK blaming Europe (a continent of which it is a part no matter how much it insists it’s a continent of its own) for things it does to itself is a tradition going back to at least the early 80s but probably medieval times
I think I’ve put my finger on what coming back to the UK feels like. If an actual nation state could be suffering from clinical depression, this is what it would look like: Everything is slowly going to shit; the country seems to see no future for itself; it’s making decision after decision that is self neglect bordering on self harm; quite possibly the most unpopular government to be removed by democratic vote rather than bloodshed is about to lose an election by a cataclysmic margin, and when the opposition, who are set to clean up, are asked what they’re going to do differently, the answer is a shrug followed by, “nothing”.
And people here more or less accept it, because boiling frogs and suchlike, but then you go elsewhere (no, America, not you, sit back down), and it’s like the colour returns to the world and you didn’t even realise it was missing.
@S . G . A . @Ian Turton they’re not in any hurry to do any of that. It would involve the entire state changing its mind and there is a lot of inertia involved in that.
@danieldurrans Honestly I accept it because it’s that and move away from almost every human I know. If I had no family or local friends I’d be in Germany already.
you're 100% right. I felt the same way after recently returning to the UK from a trip to the Netherlands, only I couldn't have articulated it nearly as well.
I can't speak for the other UK nations, but in England it just feels like we've given up. I hate it.
@quantumjump I was in London for a mere 24 hours recently and it lived up to every stereotype I had in my head of it being the physical personification of a vague feeling of looming oppression. most other places Are Not Like That
@s31bz It's a total clown car of a country nowadays. Nothing works and no one cares. @goatsarah is completely right about boiling frogs - most people here have never lived abroad to know any better.
Musing on nationality and locality. Gibraltar, where I am right now, is a very strange place. It tries so hard to be British: literally the first thing you see when you step out of the border post is a red telephone box. The street furniture is British, the pedestrian crossings are the “WAIT until signal shows” type… and yet the driving is on the right and speed limits are 50kph. The feel of the place makes me want to go into foreign language mode and yet everything’s in English and the accents are mostly those of bits of the UK.
The aggressive Englishness is in the food too. Everywhere is desperate to sell British Fish and Chips, and on Sunday all the pubs do a Sunday roast. The policemen routinely wear old style helmets.
Compare La Linea just over the border, which is assertively Spanish. Little or nothing is translated into English on menus etc. and the waiters have only a little English. This is quite a contrast with Portugal where basically everyone under 50 has functional English. In the context of the competing claims to Gibraltar, thoug
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Musing on nationality and locality. Gibraltar, where I am right now, is a very strange place. It tries so hard to be British: literally the first thing you see when you step out of the border post is a red telephone box. The street furniture is British, the pedestrian crossings are the “WAIT until signal shows” type… and yet the driving is on the right and speed limits are 50kph. The feel of the place makes me want to go into foreign language mode and yet everything’s in English and the accents are mostly those of bits of the UK.
The aggressive Englishness is in the food too. Everywhere is desperate to sell British Fish and Chips, and on Sunday all the pubs do a Sunday roast. The policemen routinely wear old style helmets.
Compare La Linea just over the border, which is assertively Spanish. Little or nothing is translated into English on menus etc. and the waiters have only a little English. This is quite a contrast with Portugal where basically everyone under 50 has functional English. In the context of the competing claims to Gibraltar, though, it feels like an assertion of “we’re Spanish, cope with it”.
The atmosphere of the two places differs hugely too. Gibraltar has wavered when I’ve been here between a bit dead and utterly heaving when a cruise ship is in town. La Linea has this constant buzz and hubbub of people sitting and chatting outside in many street cafes. Everybody seems to be meeting someone and catching up.
The last observation is that when we’re at sea in Gibraltar bay, Jebel Musa in Morocco is clearly visible, closer to Gibraltar than England is to France. And yet Africa is somehow (in the popular mind anyway) distant and different.
The acquisition of a PICADE has me playing OUTRUN. This is a game that I remember from my youth with spectacular graphics. The graphics are, in fact, shit. It also has HGVs doing in excess of 180kph. I am questioning SEGA’s commitment to realism.
@Sarah Brown I remember it in arcades with the big cabinet you could sit in. It didn’t matter that the palm trees looked like stacks of cardboard boxes somehow.
@Alexandra Lanes Stereo speakers behind your head. Cabinet looked a bit like a Ferrari. It cost 50p a play when most games were 10p, but my god, it was such a sight to behold!
IAEA audits their fuel & waste chain & takes a dim view of nations outside of a very small group using power reactors to create weapons-grade material. Also it's hard & expensive & they have more immediate things to do with their resources.
FeralRobots
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •(Srsly though here in the US this would more typically end with Earl murdering Wanda & probably Maryanne, too, if she lived in easy driving distance.)
youtu.be/bqnrXRuebWg
Dixie Chicks-Goodbye Earl Lyrics
YouTubeSarah Brown
in reply to FeralRobots • •