Julia Brightly | Julia Brightly | Articles http://juliabrightly.com/articles Julia Brightly: articles Sat, 22 Feb 2014 00:00:00 -0800 Here To Stay http://juliabrightly.com/articles/here_to_stay <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">As the year draws to a close, before it reaches it&rsquo;s last gasp, it seems so over, so redundant, so, well, last year.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">Although the moment we turn from the old to the new is arbitrary in cosmic terms, in our human psyche it is key.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">It is rebirth, a casting off of all that has gone before, a chance for us as a species to redeem ourselves and resolve to be better.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">I feel it keenly.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">The week of Christmas to New Year has been tough before, but this time was particularly stultifying.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">Strapped for cash after practically a year of no work I thought to end it all on New Years Day.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">I was going to take myself to a nearby park and as the sun receded, or rather as the pale grey day gave way to night, would shuffle off.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">However on New Years Eve I enjoyed a particularly joyful day with old friends, doing what I love most, making music.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">Upon returning to my little room I felt invigorated.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">Nothing in my financial position had changed, indeed it was a little worse in that I'd spent the last few pounds I had on public transportation to and from south London.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">Against all odds I decided that I wanted to live.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">Six months ago I was in a similar position, in the late autumn of twenty twelve after a full year of touring with the group M83.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">Confident the year would lead to more work I took the plunge and moved from New York, my home for the previous decade, to Los Angeles.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">By the following June due to severe unemployment I could not make the rent so was going to take myself to Topanga National Park and be gone.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">At the eleventh hour a friend sent a one way ticket to London.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">I arrived at her house in a state of shock.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">After a few weeks I found by chance a room at a house in North Finchley, owned and occupied by someone I knew twenty years previously and, with not unsubstantial financial assistance from friends, began to heal.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">I had been meditating twice daily for over a year, invaluable.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">There was though one thing that this time gave me the strength to pull myself up.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">Therapy.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">A friend in New York emailed me to say she had a friend in London, an old and very dear friend, who was and is a cognitive therapist, and she had agreed to see me for six sessions, free of charge.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">I thought thanks, but no.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">My friend was trying to help me the best way she could, and I was grateful, but felt I didn&rsquo;t need it.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">A couple of years ago I went through in some detail the truly shitty hand I was dealt as a child in my autobiography A Day Trip To Beijing, so felt therapy would be like going over old ground.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">I decided however to let the idea simmer for a while in the back of my mind and after a week of being back in London, the place of my birth, I was struggling so took up the kind offer.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">The first time we met I was apprehensive.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">Though having read much by Adam Phillips and Susie Orbach and appreciating their insights I have never had therapy of any kind and was a little skeptical, thinking I would keep close to my chest and see what she had to say.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">I immediately liked her, trusted her implicitly, and blurted everything out in an hour.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">She looked exhausted.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">I left and went to the restroom down the hall.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">I closed and locked the door, put my bag on the floor, fell back against the wall and cried for a good ten minutes.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">When I was going to take myself up to Topanga I felt ready to go.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">I had achieved so much, becoming the woman deep down I knew I was, making it to LA, making my peace with everyone including myself, having found the inner light through meditation and yoga.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">It felt an apposite time to bow out.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">Now I had set into a depression.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">Work for which I need my US green card, still not with me after 6 months, seemed doomed.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">I could see no way out and so for the most prosaic of reasons was chuffing off, spluttering out, an ignominious death, cold and alone, wretched, in a wintry park in North Finchley.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">Not a good epitaph.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">Then I remembered what the the therapist had lead me to believe, that I have a future.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">The feeling of newness that always strikes me as we head into January was powerful enough to get me this far into 2014.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">Now it's February and while it can be the harshest of months it means spring is not far behind.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">Flowers will bloom, bees will buzz, birds will nest, the world will explode in colour and scent.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">I woke up this morning and for the first time in a long time suicide was not on my mind.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">I had a plan.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">I am giving notice at my room, it is time.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">I am going on tour in the US with The Knife, green card or not.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">I am coming back with some of the things I left behind.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">I am finding a new place to live that is mine, a home.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">It is in London.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">There is so much to do, in music, performance, radio.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">I have love and joy to spread.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">My friends are many and they are here with me.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">My atoms are excited.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">I&rsquo;m here to stay.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">It&rsquo;s a beautiful day.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">xo&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1" style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> http://juliabrightly.com/articles/here_to_stay Sat, 22 Feb 2014 00:00:00 -0800 Julia Brightly | Julia Brightly | Articles Three Unwise Men http://juliabrightly.com/articles/three_unwise_men <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Yet another bawbag is frothing at the mouth.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">This latest cretinous oaf, a Russian actor of whom this reporter at least has never heard, says he would "stuff queers into an oven and burn them alive."</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Not exactly an original thought, but that he is capable of any thought, clearly being way down on the evolutionary scale, is something I suppose.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">I am a tolerant woman, I meditate, I try to see the best in all people and I am trying so hard to find something, anything, redeeming about this man.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Nope, I got nothing.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">What is it about two men in a loving relationship that men like this are so terrified of?</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Well, jealousy for one, as anyone who can come out with a statement like this you can bet your bottom dollar does not have and never has had love from another human.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Couple that with scant education and fear of the unknown and there I guess you have it.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">They are fine with two women fucking so long as they can join in, but not their woman, oh no.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">She is his property, shackled to his kitchen.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">It puzzles me how these he-men want to hang around women at all.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">50 Cent Tweeted "If you a man and your over 25 and you don't eat pussy just kill yourself damn it. Lol.&rdquo;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Clearly not the best educated of men.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">That &lsquo;lol&rsquo; at the end sounds a nervous laugh, as if he's trotting out a well practiced hetero line he really has no faith in whatsoever.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Mister Cent, you hate &lsquo;pussy&rsquo;.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">You're a violent misogynist.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Surely for you hanging out with women is faggy.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">I don't understand why you wouldn't embrace hunk on hunk love.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">What could be more macho than that?</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">I can see how you and our Russian toss pot would be great together.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Imagine it, hitting metal with hammers, necking bourbon, hoovering up lines of coke, wrestling naked in front of a log fire, then, coated in musty man sweat, fucking each other for Jesus till the early hours.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">It&rsquo;s weird that you have so much hate yet call yourselves men of God.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">What God?</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">I guess it's the almighty Old Testament God, the fire and brimstone one, the it's Yahweh or the highway God.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">The kind of men you hate so vociferously is exactly the kind of man Jesus would have been.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">A peaceful, awake, aware, gay man.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Oh come on, of course Jesus was gay!</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">FYI, that does not mean he fucked sheep.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Why is it you guys when talking about homosexuality go immediately to bestiality?</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">The bearded beast from Duck Dynasty is the latest case in point.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">For him sin &ldquo;Morphs out from homosexuality to bestiality, then to sleeping around with this woman and that woman.&rdquo;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Yes, women are less than than dogs in this world view.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Actually I had no idea who or what Duck Dynasty was so googled it.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Seems he invented a device which enables humans to enact a holocaust on a species.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">What an ass.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Another thing I cannot understand with you guys is your obsession with buggery.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">You hate the idea of sticking your cock in a man&rsquo;s anus but almost pathologically cannot wait to ram it up a woman&rsquo;s.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">News flash, not all gay men have penetrative sex.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Get the fuck out!</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">I know, it&rsquo;s true, bet that blows your minds.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">It is so easy to trot out the most idiotic nonsense as fact if you have never really got your brain in gear.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">If it caused no harm it would just not be good enough, not where we are well into the 21st century, with all that human history to learn from.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Oh but it does cause harm, harm to those it is directly aimed at, and harm to the rest of us who have psychically to take it on board.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">See, you rain this bilge down on us and we have to cleanse cleanse cleanse, scrub away, hose down the dirt, and atone for all your ignorant blather.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">It is a heavy psychological burden.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">It is unconscionable.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Knowing you have such paucity of thought I guess you imagine you speak for us all when you spout such tosh.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Well, you don't.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">There will be a few lobotomised thugs that might try to canonise you, and really you are welcome to each other.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">I&rsquo;m sure by now you&rsquo;ll be opining that everyone is entitled to their own opinion.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">No sirs, they are not, not if that opinion incites violence, is a hate crime, which pretty much everything that oozes out of your mealy mouths is.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">You are an anachronism, anathema.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">We are evolving and you&rsquo;re stuck, flailing in the primordial soup.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">At some point in our lives we must take time to stop learning and start thinking.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">We must question everything we have been taught in our own unique way, and through critical examination based on all the research we can muster come to conclusions.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">This is the way to enlightenment, to cast off our primitive beliefs, understand all we know, and advance.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">This however requires there to have been some learning in the first place, and I am absolutely naming names.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Everything we know is a process of elimination arriving at the least wrong of all the options, and we must strive to get to the next level of least wrong.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">That is our path, that is how we survive as a species.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Staying stuck at the most wrong level is not big, not clever, and really no-one is laughing.</span></p> <p class="p1"><br /><span style="color: #5e4132;"> If you three unwise men have read this I expect you'll be frothing at the mouth once more.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">If on the other hand you manage to read a book, see a little lightbulb go off over your head, or have an epiphany and come to terms with your own latent homosexuality, then we&rsquo;ll welcome you.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">What you each need is a hug, love and guidance.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span style="color: #5e4132;">Until you realise that and drag yourself out of the mire, then please, for the love of humanity, shut the fuck up.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">xo&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p3"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p4"><span style="color: #5e4132;">&nbsp;</span></p> http://juliabrightly.com/articles/three_unwise_men Sat, 21 Dec 2013 00:00:00 -0800 Julia Brightly | Julia Brightly | Articles PWA http://juliabrightly.com/articles/pwa <p class="p1">In nineteen eighty nine I wrote a song called &lsquo;PWA&rsquo;.</p> <p class="p1">It was in part inspired by American playwright and activist Larry Kramer and his efforts to get the then POTUS George Bush Senior to release plant based drugs without the hold up of trials to people who were dying from HIV and AIDS.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Instead of tackling this problem head on people in power began to talk instead of God&rsquo;s biblical wrath against homosexuals, and in Britain a series of government TV commercials were produced showing commandment like tablets crashing to the ground in slow motion, espousing safe sex.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Bush memorably referred to &lsquo;the giggle factor&rsquo; when he thought about gay men as many lay emaciated at death&rsquo;s door.</p> <p class="p1">I still don&rsquo;t get the joke.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Thirty years on we as a species have come a long way, but unfortunately not always in the right direction.</p> <p class="p1">Here in Britain, since adopting and repealing the notorious Clause 28 which made illegal the promotion of homosexuality, we have passed same sex marriage into law whereas in Russia, a short hop away, buggery obsessed men with self-imposed ignorance would have homosexuality made illegal or, as in Iran, punishable by death.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">They see a queer conspiracy lead by packs of limp-wristed nancy boys who lurk around school playgrounds luring children into lives of butt-fucked depravity.</p> <p class="p1">Feel sorry for these poor fools, their heads filled with this hogwash.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Homosexuality equals emasculation, they&rsquo;ll say.</p> <p class="p1">Oh how could there be anything worse for a man than to be in touch with his emotions?</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Men are strong, hit things with hammers, blow stuff up, are kings of the castle, whereas women are chattel, here to give birth to and look after their spawn, in desperation popping valium washed down with gin in Tupperware cups, having &ldquo;walked into another door&rdquo;.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">The traditional roles.</p> <p class="p1">How people love to waffle on about tradition.</p> <p class="p1">Men destroy while women cower, that&rsquo;s tradition.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">In Nazi Germany, in living memory, homosexual men were rounded up and murdered, although some high ranking male officers were indeed homosexual themselves.</p> <p class="p1">They hypocritically didn&rsquo;t see themselves as such, they were &lsquo;real men&rsquo; who just happened to like a spot of sword swallowing, taking warm showers, riding the top deck of the bus.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Lesbians were deemed first and foremost asocial as their predilections fostered ideas outside of bondage, but were also slain after men tried and failed to fuck the perversion out of them.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Pink for a boy, black for a girl, triangles that is.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">The concentration camp, another Great British invention.</p> <p class="p1">Long before Hitler cottoned on we had them in South Africa during the Boer War.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">I was born just 14 years after the end of WW2 and it would be another 8 years before homosexuality in Britain became legal, when we entered the age of enlightenment.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Sadly a leap forward is often followed by a backlash.</p> <p class="p1">HIV and AIDS were like manna from heaven to the unreconstructed bigots amongst us.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">At the time of writing &lsquo;PWA&rsquo; it was predicted that 5,000,000 Africans would be dead from HIV and AIDS by 1991.</p> <p class="p1">This was roundly ignored.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">That figure today is 30,000,000 and rising.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">You see so long as it was blacks and gays dying we were fine with it.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">It&rsquo;s as much a black disease or gay plague as measles.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">There is a hangover from white Christian Missionary in Africa that gives vent to the absurd idea that homosexuality is against God, is not natural, brings nothing but misery and disease, and that sodomy, intrinsically connected in the minds of the vacuous, is the work of the Devil.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">With over 400 animal species known to have homosexual behavior, what&rsquo;s natural?</p> <p class="p1">There is more anal sex amongst heterosexual couples that homosexual.</p> <p class="p1">As for all that religious hokum, there is no God.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">We in Britain are responsible for much of the backward thinking in the world as we once spread ignorance and hate throughout the Empire.</p> <p class="p1">Now we know better we must continue to lead by example.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">In India they have thrown off those shackles, though their treatment of transgender people leaves much to be desired.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">America, land of the free, home of the brave, shelterer of huddled masses, has categorically rejected the stupidity of uptight short sighted pig headed politicians and their wish to drag us all into to the mire.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Stephen Fry&rsquo;s TV documentary &lsquo;Out There&rsquo; recently showed us where we are at globally and where we are in danger of going if we allow the most dim witted control.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">The awake and aware people of the world know that sexual orientation is something we are born with, that it is not black or white but a rainbow, a beautiful multicolored rainbow.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Ignorance and fear are inexcusable in this day and age, and the perpetration of those two states of being on mass populations by spiteful God Botherers is abhorrent.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">As both the L and the T in LGBT I feel it keenly.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p3">If you think that these issues have nothing to do with you, think again.</p> <p class="p3">Ignore the knocks on doors at your peril as one day the knock will be on yours.</p> <p class="p4">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p3">We are your sons and we are your daughters,</p> <p class="p3">All we bring is love, don&rsquo;t turn your backs on us.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p2">xo</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Link to the song &lsquo;PWA&rsquo;</p> <p class="p1">http://youtu.be/Rn1R0Oco3kA</p> http://juliabrightly.com/articles/pwa Tue, 22 Oct 2013 00:00:00 -0700 Julia Brightly | Julia Brightly | Articles What It Feels Like For A Girl http://juliabrightly.com/articles/what_it_feels_like_for_a_girl <p class="p1">I was born in the wrong body.</p> <p class="p1">This is my earliest memory.</p> <p class="p1">I lived with all the wrong people.</p> <p class="p1">This is a close second.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">When Doctor Who came along in 1963 I was four years old and knew both those things to be true.</p> <p class="p1">I wished I was his granddaughter and he&rsquo;d whisk me away, not to go fight monsters but to get as far away a possible from the horror of home, a home full of abuse, physical, mental, sexual.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Fortunately The Beatles came along.&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">They were like beautiful creatures from another planet and for the next few years saved me.</p> <p class="p1">The abuse didn&rsquo;t stop but they were always there, smiling, shaking their mop tops, twanging their guitars, being sane.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Eventually though they had to go but joy of joys along came Marc Bolan.</p> <p class="p1">Suddenly boys wore girls clothes and make-up, and I embraced it.</p> <p class="p1">My father had other ideas.</p> <p class="p1">One day I came home from school to find he&rsquo;d covered up the pictures of Marc that adorned my walls with heterosexual soft core porn.</p> <p class="p1">I was 12.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">For four long miserable years I endured hell on earth, not helped at all by the likes of Gary Glitter and Jonathan King, though fortunately Jim didn&rsquo;t get to Fix It for me in his own special way.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">At 16, with all the hutzpah I could muster, I reinvented myself as a would be pop star and blasted my way out of there as far as possible.</p> <p class="p1">After a bumpy ride I landed in The Passions, fell in love with a German Film Star, and started on the path to discovery.</p> <p class="p1">It took another 34 years till I saw the signpost and took the right fork.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">In July 2009 I was living in New York City.</p> <p class="p1">I called Callen-Lorde, the LGBT clinic in the West Village of Manhattan and booked an appointment to talk about becoming a woman.</p> <p class="p1">They said sure, October.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">I wondered why it would take so long.</p> <p class="p1">Were there really that many big girls blouses out there?</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Making that initial call was euphoric.</p> <p class="p1">Something that had been on my mind my whole life, that I had pushed back and back and back was now out in the open, and I had at last taken the first step in making what I had dreamed about become reality.</p> <p class="p1">I figured they&rsquo;d given me a three month cooling down period, and that if I was serious I would wait.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">October came around and I was a bag of nerves.</p> <p class="p1">Although for the past year I had been living as a woman it had been in private.</p> <p class="p1">Now there I was in a dress and make-up opening the door to a new life.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">I went to the receptionist and barely able to speak conveyed that I was there for gender reassignment.</p> <p class="p1">No one turned to me, pointed and laughed.</p> <p class="p1">No one screamed I was sick.</p> <p class="p1">No one tried to pummel me to the ground.</p> <p class="p1">Instead very matter of fact she gave me a few forms to fill out and sent me forth to the fourth floor.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Coming out of the elevator I expected to find myself surrounded by a gaggle of overly made-up men in twin sets and pearls sitting pinched but no, it was a waiting room like another, just a few ordinary people peering into their devices.</p> <p class="p1">No-one looked up when I entered.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">I was taken to a nurse to get my blood tested.</p> <p class="p1">Then, after all those years of inner turmoil, there right in front of me was The Doctor who was about to change my life.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">He was gentle, kind, open, warm, asked me the same questions any medic would ask a new patient, told me I would need to see a psychiatrist, and if that went OK would start me on hormone treatment straight away.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Within two weeks I got the green light and on November 2nd 2009 received my first scrip.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">For 50 years I had tried to live in the gender my body said I was and failed miserably.</p> <p class="p1">I felt like an alien.</p> <p class="p1">But I had to survive and back then there was no possibility at all of doing anything other than invent a male persona.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Transitioning is not a matter of becoming a woman, it is becoming ones true self, and fifty years of living as a man, living a lie, took a lot of stripping away.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Many things had to be unlearned, like walking.</p> <p class="p1">As a child I watched other boys and copied them, settling on something they accepted.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">I&rsquo;d developed a deep voice and it took me a year of consciously training it to be in a higher register, with a different resonance.</p> <p class="p1">I thought I&rsquo;d never manage it, but with perseverance I did.</p> <p class="p1">The phone is hardest.</p> <p class="p1">&ldquo;Hi can I get room service?&rdquo; I&rsquo;d enquire in my best female voice.</p> <p class="p1">&ldquo;Certainly sir.&rdquo;</p> <p class="p1">The first time someone said madam I jumped up and down on the bed whooping.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Other things too take a while to adjust, things you wouldn&rsquo;t immediately think of.</p> <p class="p1">Clothes buttoning, for example.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Before I started transitioning if someone would call unexpectedly I would be like a whirling dervish getting out of make-up.</p> <p class="p1">After I started transitioning and someone called I would be like a whirling dervish getting into make-up.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Now, four years on, I feel I&rsquo;ve made it, at last, finally, hurray, deep breath, and relax.</p> <p class="p1">However, nothing fully prepared me for misogyny.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">I have been a lifelong feminist, ever since I witnessed my father beating seven bells of hell out of my mother.</p> <p class="p1">But unless you are a woman you cannot fully comprehend how a man can hate you for being who you are.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">We see sexism everywhere, from the myriad photoshopped magazines to Page Three, from billboards to plastic pop stars, treating women as disposable objects, male fantasy meat, cum sluts.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">In my work as a touring sound engineer I have come up against much discrimination, mostly from trolls sporting mullet hair cuts, dubious metal band tour T-shirts, and homemade tape holders strapped to utility belts, posture perpetually at a slant due to the copious rolls of gaffa hanging off them.</p> <p class="p1">When they see it&rsquo;s me, a middle aged woman, come to mix a band at their venue, they grunt and shuffle away, knuckles dragging the floor, cursing.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">More insidious is the outright hatred that can rear it&rsquo;s ugly head when a woman dares stand up for herself.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Once a man employed to help me screamed in my ear that I was a fucking bitch and he was going to fuck me up, this during a song I was endeavoring to mix.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Then there are the comments men write on social media sites, in anonymity of course.</p> <p class="p1">Lauren Mayberry is the latest victim.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Lauren is the singer in pop group Chvrches, friends of mine, and she has men posting on Twitter threatening to rape her, saying things like they will find out where she lives and fuck her anally, and she would love it, or that, being Scottish, they&rsquo;d fuck the accent out of her.</p> <p class="p1">I shit you not.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Who are these people, what makes them sink to these depths of human depravity?</p> <p class="p1">Would they be so bold if their mothers found out?</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">The man screaming in my ear was a bully and clearly extremely unhappy with me being there, doing what I know he considered men&rsquo;s work.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">What made it worse was denying it when confronted with what he had done in front of another man, my boss.</p> <p class="p1">He fully expected some kind of secret male bonding to occur where they would both raise their eyes, snigger, and go get a beer together.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">I felt sorry for him, the poor insecure frightened fool.</p> <p class="p1">Fortunately my boss was a decent human being having none of it and stuck up for me.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Should I have to put up with this as I try to do my job?</p> <p class="p1">Should women like Lauren Mayberry accept filth smeared all over their lives because they are in the public eye?</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">No.</p> <p class="p1">It&rsquo;s abuse.</p> <p class="p1">Stop it.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">We are the other half of the sky.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">I spent last year with a touring group of twelve in which there were five women, a rare and wonderful thing.</p> <p class="p1">I was privileged and honored to be included as one of the five, and I thank the men for that too.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">We talked about anything and everything with openness and love, yet there were some topics I could not fully engage in.</p> <p class="p1">I&rsquo;ve never menstruated so cannot say what it was like to get my first period; I went straight to menopause.</p> <p class="p1">I don&rsquo;t know what it would be like to be able to give birth, to be a mother.</p> <p class="p1">I missed out on so much.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">I was born in the wrong body.</p> <p class="p1">I knew that from the very start.</p> <p class="p1">Parents, if you have a child who knows this too help them as soon as possible, preferably before puberty.</p> <p class="p1">You will never regret it.</p> <p class="p1">That I have become a woman, albeit at this late stage of my life, is the best thing that ever happened to me, because I am finally me, happy in my skin.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">People have said oh you are so brave.</p> <p class="p1">Well, yes, coming out was terrifying, but once it was done the feeling of wellness was overwhelming.</p> <p class="p1">What was hardest, I now know, was for 50 years staying trapped in that body, cold and alone.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Boys, it is not weak to be loving, open, compassionate, kind.</p> <p class="p1">It is essential.</p> <p class="p1">Don&rsquo;t hate what you don&rsquo;t understand.</p> <p class="p1">There&rsquo;s no need to be afraid.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Do I know what it feels like for a girl?</p> <p class="p1">I am figuring that out more and more each day.</p> <p class="p1">I&rsquo;m on a wonderful adventure, and now my feet are firmly on the ground.</p> <p class="p2">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p2">xo&nbsp;</p> http://juliabrightly.com/articles/what_it_feels_like_for_a_girl Wed, 09 Oct 2013 00:00:00 -0700 Julia Brightly | Julia Brightly | Articles The Children of The Revolution http://juliabrightly.com/articles/the_children_of_the_revolution <p class="p1">That was the week that was for Operation Yewtree.</p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">First Dave Lee Travis went to court to face 12 counts of sexual assault, then Rolf Harris was charged with 9, along with 4 counts of making obscene pictures of children.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Yewtree, in case you&rsquo;d gone to the moon, is a police operation carried out initially to investigate reports of sexual abuse of children by Jimmy Savile, radio DJ, TV personality, tireless worker for charity, friend of politicians and royalty, loving son to his dear old mum, The Duchess.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">As we now know the reports turned out to be true and for 40 years he preyed on the most vulnerable people in society.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Yes, we all knew the rumours but no-one had proof, other than his victims, who were so young, so alone, so traumatised that they could not speak out.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">When Louis Theroux met him he denied being a pedophile when asked outright to camera, a denial that fooled no-one.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">What&rsquo;s more it seemed clear that he&rsquo;d indulged in more than one bout of necrophilia with The Duchess&rsquo; corpse.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Now every shot of him has been expunged.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">When the BBC show old Top Of The Pops episodes it&rsquo;s like he didn&rsquo;t exist.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">But happen upon one on youtube and everything he said and did show him for what he was.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Once he was outed the rest of them began toppling like dominos, but there were already signs that all was not well in that world of weird men.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Jonathan King was an incredibly successful songwriter and record producer of such inane but huge selling hits as &lsquo;Loop Di Love&rsquo; by Shag, and &lsquo;Leap Up And Down And Wave Your Knickers in The Air&rsquo;, and presenter of long running BBC TV show &lsquo;Entertainment USA&rsquo; where he&rsquo;d report on what was happening in New York, although what was really happening for him was not captured on film, or certainly not broadcastable.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">In 1997 he was awarded the BPI&rsquo;s Man Of The Year award, with a personal endorsement from Tony Blair.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">In 2001he was arrested for sexually abusing countless young boys.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">He was released on bail stumped up by Simon Cowell.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">His innocence was protested by the likes of Simon Bates and Max Clifford.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">He was found guilty on all charges, sentenced to seven years in jail, and put on the sex offender register for life.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The one thing we repeatedly hear from his and the others apologists is that in those days it was just how things were, it was in the culture, it was acceptable.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">By those days they mean the 1970&rsquo;s and dark days they were.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Men ruled everything everywhere, women were chattel, children slaves.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Misogyny and racism were institutionalised.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">If in doubt watch any clip of TV show The Comedians for a stark reality check.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Whist Marc Bolan and David Bowie showed us that there was a new way, a light out of the darkness, we had to at first see through the glitter, Gary Glitter to be exact.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&lsquo;D'Ya Wanna Be In My Gang?&rsquo; he asked.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Not really, Gary.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&lsquo;Do You Wanna Touch Me There, Where, There?&rsquo;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">No, Gary, absolutely not.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">In 1999 he put his computer in for repair at PC World and the tech servicing it found 4000 images of hardcore child pornography, for which he served time.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Since then he&rsquo;s repeatedly offended and has miraculously escaped with his life.&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">For example, in Vietnam, to where he once fled, there were allegations of rape of 11 year old girls, and had they lead to a conviction would have carried a mandatory death sentence.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">He is currently out on bail having been arrested in London for sexually abusing 14 year old girls with Jimmy Savile in Savile&rsquo;s &lsquo;Clunk Click&rsquo; dressing room.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">That dressing room was the setting for many of his conquests and it is said involved numerous TV personalities of the time, some of whom have been arrested lately, such as Freddie Starr.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Freddie Starr, like so many of his peers, pleads his innocence, yet they somewhat contradictorily say that the offences for which they are being accused were such a long time ago that they should not be pursued, or, fumbling, that they cannot remember that far back.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Scared shitless they ran in to the arms of Max Clifford, solicitor to the stars.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Max Clifford has now himself been charged with 11 counts of sexual assault.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Is that the offences took place way back in the dark ages a defence?</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">No.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">There is no statute of limitations.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Even if it was a defence how does that account for Max Clifford whose alleged reign of terror continued to the mid eighties, or Dave Lee Travis&rsquo; latest in 2007?</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The argument that it was in the culture, that everyone was up to it, that it was acceptable, will just not wash.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">At the same time as these men were sticking their dicks into every available orifice Esther Rantzen started Childline, and John Lennon no less said that after women&rsquo;s rights must come children&rsquo;s as children had none.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It is about power, and it is not just the preserve of celebrities.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">My own mother was sexually abused by her father from the age of 8.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It was systematic, calculated, relentless.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">He held court in the Magic Kingdom, where the secret potion that all good little girls drank was administered.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I had no idea.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">He to me seemed a gentle, warm, caring man who occasionally touched me in a way I didn&rsquo;t like, who died when I was a child.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It&rsquo;s shocking when someone in the public eye who we revere is proven to be abhorrent.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It&rsquo;s horrifying when it&rsquo;s ones own family.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It makes us wonder how on earth we didn&rsquo;t see it.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">We didn&rsquo;t see it because they are cunning predators who work hard sub rosa.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I don&rsquo;t know anyone who was surprised when the revelations about Jimmy Savile started to appear, but we are all staggered by the scale of it, and by what we can now see his and others brash hiding in plain sight.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">But The Hairy Cornflake, our cuddly breakfast time DJ friend, or Rolf Harris, everybody&rsquo;s grandfather?</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Now when I think of DLT&rsquo;s jingle &lsquo;whack whack oops&rsquo; I don&rsquo;t think of sunny breakfast mornings before gaily hopping off to school, I think of it being him whacking off over an 8 year old.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">When I think of Rolf Harris I don&rsquo;t think of him happily painting pictures on TV, the meaning slowly revealing itself, I think of him wanking his flaccid penis to an erect state and asking his victim &ldquo;Do you know what it is yet?&rdquo;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Of the others who&rsquo;ve been arrested under Yewtree, Jim Davidson, well known racist, is not going to be prosecuted, not because he has been proved innocent, but because there was insufficient evidence, not none, to guarantee a prosecution.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Sure, he was not on everyone&rsquo;s favourite person list from the get go, but what about Ken Barlow, aka William Roache, longest serving and most beloved star of Corrie?</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Or Tarby?</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I suppose I mustn&rsquo;t forget Stuart Hall, laughing gnome on ritual humiliation TV show &lsquo;It&rsquo;s A Knockout&rsquo;, but I&rsquo;d like to.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">There are a slew of outer circle people who have been arrested, TV show producers, staff drivers, all caught up in modern day Rome, a debauched, despicable coterie.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It&rsquo;s big stuff, big ugly soul destroying stuff.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Is it an aberration or is it truly part of what we are?</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It is undeniable that this behaviour was accepted back then, it is all there to see on youtube and no, it was not black and white but full blown in-your-face colour at prime time.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It is there today too and you don&rsquo;t have to look far as in every issue of The Sun men are encouraged to leer over topless girls, or in The Daily Mail where they continually gush over 14 year old curves.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I have heard pedophiles proffering the argument that they have a right to be what they are in the same way as homosexuals.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Let&rsquo;s be clear, homosexuality is a loving union in mutual appreciation, respect, and consent in exactly the same way as heterosexuality, whereas the likes of my grandfather raped children and scarred them for life.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">He knew exactly what he was doing.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">To call it pedophilia somehow excuses it, and listing it in the DSM as a mental health disorder somehow legitimises it.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I do not believe that any of the people mentioned here acted beyond their mental capacity to distinguish right from wrong.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">They boasted, they swaggered, they felt it was their right, they lived by their own code of justice, they made up the rules in their own warped world.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">But they are not aliens, they are human, and we feel it deeply as it defiles each of us.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">They took our children, our beautiful loving children, who looked up to them for guidance, hope, security, protection, and fucked them.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">With enormous strength and courage the victims are speaking out, they are the children of the revolution.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">At last we are saying no, you will not do this anymore and you will you not get away with what you have done, as we evolve, open our eyes, and heal.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">xo&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> http://juliabrightly.com/articles/the_children_of_the_revolution Wed, 04 Sep 2013 00:00:00 -0700 Julia Brightly | Julia Brightly | Articles Shrink Wrapped http://juliabrightly.com/articles/shrink_wrapped <p class="p1">This morning I went to see a shrink.</p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I walked into the empty reception area and, through what seemed like bullet proof glass, told the receptionist I had an appointment, handing him through a slit the letter I&rsquo;d been sent to confirm it.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">He looked it up down, tapped some keys on his computer, scratched his head, sat back in his chair and read the letter again, a look of consternation crossing his already mardy face.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">He thrust it back through the aperture and without looking up mumbled &ldquo;Take a seat.&rdquo;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">A few minutes later another man popped up in the glass cage and sat next to him.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">They had a little confab and both shook their heads.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">This second man came out to the water cooler next to where I was sitting.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I looked up at him and smiled as he ambled by.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">He snarled.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Wow, I thought, these two are the grumpiest patient care people I have ever seen.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Having been looking for employment the past couple of months I would happily do it better.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I took out my iPad to read while I waited.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I heard a door opening and looking up was surprised to see the area full of people waiting for appointments, in varying degrees of distress.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">We all looked over, like meerkats.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">A woman called out a man&rsquo;s name.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">We looked around but no-one got up.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">She said the name again, louder.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">With dread and horror as I realized it was my old name, the name I had when I was a man.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I closed my eyes hoping she&rsquo;d figure out the error and get it right, or would just give up after which, letting enough time pass so no-one made a connection, I could get up quietly and leave.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">She said it for a third time, this time loud enough that people on the street turned their heads.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I opened my eyes, steeled myself, stood up and walked the gauntlet over to her.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&ldquo;That&rsquo;s not my name&rdquo; I hissed as she fumbled with the combination lock on the door.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I could feel all eyes burning into the back of my head, my mouth so dry it literally felt like there was a sock in it.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I&rsquo;d rather have walked on hot coals back to that water cooler.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">She was mortified too, poor thing, trying to apologize as she finally punched in the correct sequence of numbers and we both fell through the doorway in relief.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">We entered a little cubicle where she and another young woman quizzed me.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It was clear they were in training and more than a little out of their depth, but I smiled and we carried on.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&ldquo;How did you do at school?&rdquo;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The words Eleven Plus, Grammar, and GCE gave them cause for concern, as if I was speaking gibberish.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&ldquo;Do you ever feel like you are a famous person?&rdquo;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I mentioned this to a friend after and she said, &ldquo;Did you just tell them you were in The Passions?&rdquo;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&ldquo;Do you ever feel like people are talking about you behind your back?&rdquo;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Not the best time to mention the receptionists I figured, so kept mum.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">After fifteen minutes trying to catch me out they told me to wait in reception while they spoke with the head honcho, then they&rsquo;d give me their assessment.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Cautiously I opened the door and was relieved to find it again empty, and the receptionists replaced, presumably their shifts over rather than turfed out for their narrow mindedness callousness.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">With barely enough time to regain my composure I was called back in, this time to a spacious office where sat a man, mid forties, leaning back in his chair behind a large desk, the two students seated to one side looking very down in the mouth.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I feared the worst.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&ldquo;Do you know why you&rsquo;re here?&rdquo; he asked, eyes piercing my skull.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I glanced over at the girls hoping for a clue but their heads were bowed, looking at their trembling hands.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&ldquo;Well&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;I am a psychiatrist and your GP has asked me to assess your mental health before referring you on to hospital.&rdquo;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I expected the door to open and men in white coats strap me into a straight jacket.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure why they sent you here as Charing Cross have their own psychiatrists, but as far as we&rsquo;re concerned you clearly have no mental health issues so I see no reason why you cannot be treated for gender reassignment on the NHS and I&rsquo;ll be writing to your GP in the next week or two informing them of this. Goodbye.&rdquo;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I know.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Two weeks to write a letter!</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The girls showed me out in silence.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I concluded they must&rsquo;ve had a dressing down for using the wrong name and putting me into an awfully embarrassing situation which I thought particularly unfair seeing as it was most likely his error.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It was a kind of surreal and not altogether pleasant experience, my first and hopefully last encounter with the NHS mental health department.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">In the UK one can have gender reassignment on the National Health Service but there are a number of hoops to jump through.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The psych eval was number two, the first being to register with a GP, a family doctor.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Step three is referral to a Gender Clinic for primary care such as hormone therapy, and for me this will be Charing Cross hospital.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">To qualify for this one has to live full time in one&rsquo;s chosen gender for a period of one year.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">This is cruel as it is the hormones that give the confidence and body shape to do that successfully.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">These hormones are Estradiol, estrogen, the female hormone, forms the breasts, redistributes fat, alters body shape, and Spironolactone, an androgen blocker, stops the production of testosterone.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">In the US, where I lived from 2002 till recently, hormones are prescribed immediately after registering with a clinic and being assessed by a psychiatrist, something I did in 2009, and for which of course I had to stump up cash.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">No, Obamacare doesn&rsquo;t cover it, though it is now tax deductible.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Fortunately because I had been on hormones over there for nearly four years my GP over here prescribed them straight off the bat.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Lucky.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The final step, the one I am most keen to complete, is SRS or GRS, sex/gender reassignment surgery, turning my bits around, a procedure that would cost me upwards of thirty grand in the US.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I&rsquo;m no medical tourist, before you reach for your green pen.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I&rsquo;ve paid taxes and national insurance here for over thirty years and do so now.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">SRS for many but not all Transgender people, is the final stage, the last piece of the jigsaw.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">After years of hormones, the gradual reshaping of the body and mind, after laser or electrolysis hair removal, after voice training, after trachea shaving, comes the vagina.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Those of a nervous disposition look away now - for male to female surgery the glans of the penis, the head, is turned into a clitoris, the penis itself turned inside out to form the vagina, the testicles removed, the labia formed, and the urethra repositioned.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">We&rsquo;re talking major surgery.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Not everybody chooses to have it.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Some people do not want to have to go through the pain, discomfort, and the three months minimum recovery.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Some simply cannot afford it.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I have had done and paid for everything so far, including the trachea shave, where an incision is made under the chin and the trachea, the Adam&rsquo;s apple cartilage, is shaved to reduce or remove its prominence, feminizing the neck.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It&rsquo;s a long journey, a gender journey, and one not to be taken lightly.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Yes, it has been wonderful, calming, life affirming, to be able to at last admit to myself who I truly am and, most importantly, to feel good about it.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">But there are pitfalls, should you, reader, be thinking about choosing this path.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It is not uncommon to find that the thing that makes you feel complete makes other people run for the hills, or want to beat you to a pulp.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Within the blink of an eye home, job, friends, can all disappear.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I&rsquo;ve been lucky in that most of my friends have stuck with me.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Not all though, and not all those who&rsquo;ve stuck around have found it easy.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It must be quite a thing to have a friend you&rsquo;ve known for 30 years seemingly out of the blue declare themselves female and start wearing dresses and make up in public.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">After the initial shock and embarrassment most folks come around.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Those that don&rsquo;t, well were they really friends?</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I travel a lot as a touring sound mixer, and in early transition found myself in some tricky situations, with my name change papers in one hand, and my old passport in the other, trying to get into, for example, Russia.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The thing is to stand your ground, be open, sincere, smiling just enough, not too much that you look insane, or more than they already think you are.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">In Japan one time the immigration official looked at me, a woman, looked at my passport, a man, put a hand to his forehead, exhaled deeply, and waved me on, shaking his head.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">In China I had five men in uniform all looking at my face, then my passport, up and down, up and down for 20 minutes, jut-jawed, grimacing, then begrudgingly letting me pass.&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I walked through with all the dignity I could muster.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">One thing it&rsquo;s worth bearing in mind at these situations, should you ever find yourself there, is to remember that sometimes the straightest looking people cross dress.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Oh yes, it&rsquo;s a lot more common than you&rsquo;d think.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Most who transition do so later in life, when it is hardest.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">When the skeleton has formed, the voice dropped, the beard thick, the head bald, all the will and pills in the world may not produce the effects society deems appropriate.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The best time for anyone to change gender is before puberty, and thankfully that is beginning to happen now.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">When I was eight years old I would go to sleep every night hoping I would wake up a girl, and cry every morning.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">This was the nineteen sixties, when homosexuality was illegal, men were men and women were terrified.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Just the other day I saw an article in a national newspaper about a happy heterosexual couple who had both changed gender.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">We&rsquo;ve come a long way since I was eight.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">But there are people who would&rsquo;ve looked at that happy couple and called them freaks, or worse, much worse.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">We can have two happy people who don&rsquo;t fit into a warped nonsensical bigoted hateful view of humanity or two miserable people who do.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I &lsquo;pass&rsquo;.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">This really helps, as no gang of uncouth youths have tried to hospitalize me.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">But I am now a middle aged woman which presents me with a whole new slew of discrimination, not least that I am failing to get work.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">A friend who is still struggling a bit said to me recently &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t understand why anybody would chose to be a middle aged woman.&rdquo;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">There&rsquo;s nothing I can do about being middle aged.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Gender is not black and white.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It&rsquo;s a rainbow.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Fortunately I am a citizen of a country that recognizes my condition as something essential to treat, that will do so for free at point of need, and will allow me to become my gender of choice legally whether I have had SRS or not.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Now, gis a job.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2">xo</p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> http://juliabrightly.com/articles/shrink_wrapped Mon, 26 Aug 2013 00:00:00 -0700 Julia Brightly | Julia Brightly | Articles Oh Obama http://juliabrightly.com/articles/oh_obama <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I saw a headline on Democracy Now&rsquo;s website this morning that started &lsquo;Obama cancels Putin summit...&rsquo; and thought for a hopeful second that it was going to continue &lsquo;...because of his barbaric treatment of LGBT people in Russia.&rsquo;&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Sadly no, Obama is miffed at Putin giving asylum to Snowden, a man who has had to run for his life after telling the American people that their President is spying on them, much the same way as.... wait..... The KGB once did.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Oh Obama.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">We had such high hopes.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Remember all the people gathered together, singing, crying, believing that a real change was going to come.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It seems like such a long time ago, doesn&rsquo;t it?</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It was eight months.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">You promised us that business in the White House would not be business as usual.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Well, that&rsquo;s a promise you&rsquo;ve kept.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">How many people have you killed so far?</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Let&rsquo;s make it easier and say just with drones?</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Of course your reputation as a cold blooded killer was sealed the day you strode up to the camera like a gunslinger and announced, with steely-eyed relish, that you&rsquo;d killed Osama Bin Laden, the boogeyman.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Not merely found, taken into custody, but taken out.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">No more covert operations for you.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Not even Dub-Ya had those cojones.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It left you jonesing for more.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Who next?</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Everyone, it seems.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Remember when you were a young idealistic senator in Chicago?</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">If someone back then blew the whistle on say illegal wire tapping, such as, let&rsquo;s see, Watergate, would you have backed tracking the blower to the ends of the earth?</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">What&rsquo;s the difference between 8 years of Bush and 8 years of Obama?</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Things got a whole lot worse.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It&rsquo;s not a joke.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Yes you showed a lot of promise but somehow you lost the plot, took the wrong turn, got in with the wrong crowd.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I hope that very soon, like tomorrow, you will wake up, look at Michele and your beautiful children, realize you have been <em>such</em> a fool, and start to do the things you have a huge mandate for.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Here are a few ideas to get you started.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Close down Guantanamo immediately.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Set the detainees free, put them on the witness protection plan.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">They are not going to hurt anyone.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It&rsquo;s shameful.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Stop killing innocent people abroad and at home by (a) stopping all drone strikes and (b) taking some of the huge amounts of money away from the death squads, or the military as they prefer to be called, and feed the millions of people starving in America right now.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Ban guns, all of them.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I know, it&rsquo;s so simple, it&rsquo;s brilliant.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Imagine.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Pull out of Afghanistan.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">You&rsquo;ve destroyed so many lives over there, decimated so many families, that foul spot will not wash away, but you have the power to heal the misery right now.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Drastically, and I mean drastically, cut back the obscene amount of nuclear weapons you&rsquo;ve got pointed around the world, and go for complete disarmament in your lifetime.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">How much of a deterrent do you need?</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Look, size really doesn&rsquo;t matter.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Force the Olympic Committee to pull out of holding the winter games in Russia, don&rsquo;t ask them or urge them, force them.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">You&rsquo;re the POTUS, you can do what the hell you like!</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">If you need more info on this read Stephen Fry&rsquo;s letter to Cameron, or watch George Takei on youtube.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">If ever there was a clear cut choice between right and wrong this is it.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Just do it, you&rsquo;ll feel so much better.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">If you must have a war, I know what you boys are like, then have it with the Corporations who are screwing it up for the rest of us, and really deal with Global Climate Change.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">If you don&rsquo;t then none of the above will matter anyhoo.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">So, go on, give it a go.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Yes, the anally retentive around you will blow off so hard shit will literally fly out of them, but ignore them.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">They&rsquo;re idiots, and they&rsquo;re wrong.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I know in your heart you are a good person and that when you were running in &rsquo;08 you really believed that you were going to make a change.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Well you did, but boy did you ever take a wrong turn.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Get up, stand up, we are in dire need for you to do what we hoped, make the world a better place, and yes, you can.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">In 2012 the old world that Romney and his ilk propounded was roundly rejected.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">You have the power, you have the brain, you have the choice.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Make it the right one before it&rsquo;s too late, and do it now because the shit is inches away from the fan and there will be no turning back.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Julia Brightly</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">August 9, 2013</span></p> http://juliabrightly.com/articles/oh_obama Fri, 09 Aug 2013 00:00:00 -0700 Julia Brightly | Julia Brightly | Articles Kick Out The Pricks http://juliabrightly.com/articles/kick_out_the_pricks <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">I&rsquo;ve been boning up on the protest over so called Lads Mags and the stiff pressure to cover up their covers and wrap them in cellophane at grocery stores.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">It&rsquo;s created quite a round of comment, from young feminists who say they are disgusting and degrading, to the magazine owners who say they purely reflect the views of millions of young men, from those who feel the cover up is an attack on freedom of speech to those who feel it doesn&rsquo;t go far enough.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Well, let&rsquo;s clear this up.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">These publications should not be covered at all, nor should they be hidden on the top shelf to keep them away from the prying eyes of toddlers.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">No.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">They should be piled on high and set afire.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">There should be no place for this kind of abusive trash in an evolved society.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">These rags are despicable, meretricious, without a mitigating feature.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">They do not reflect the view of millions of young men, they feed on baseness and force them to remain in a state of mental bondage.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">It doesn&rsquo;t matter whether your argument is for or against these publications.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">They are wrong and should have been banished from our collective psyche long ago.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">We must not permit the printing of this misogynistic bile, must stop this perpetration of outmoded and sick mindsets so a bunch of unprincipled meatheads can stuff more filthy lucre into their cum drenched fists.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">These magazines are not a bit of fun, they are about perpetrating the idea that the objectification and subjugation of women is perfectly acceptable.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Well it&rsquo;s not.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">It&rsquo;s painful, hurtful, morally reprehensible, fucked up.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">This is not a pornography issue, let&rsquo;s be clear.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">This is not about soft core as in Mags Fags and Shags shops.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">No, this is about misogynistic bile vomited up by the likes of Loaded.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">There was a boy a few days ago who with bravado egged on by the editorial content of all that bilge, Tweeted in scatter gun pattern callow thoughts about the sight, size, and smell of a middle aged woman&rsquo;s vagina.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">When threatened to have the beans spilled to his mother he was forced to examine his actions through her eyes, a middle aged woman, and was terrified, appalled, contrite.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">People cry that every one is entitled to their opinion.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Well no, they are not, not when it's dripping in hate.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">It isn't big, it isn't clever, and the only people laughing are the nervous under peer pressure and the profiteers, be they from Loaded, Twitter, Facebook, the local Co-op.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">There is no altruism in this cover up, not when there are bucks to be made.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">I am heartened to see that young feminists have taken this up.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">I was beginning to think that there were no young feminists.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">If you are someone who thinks that there is no need for feminism today, then please think again.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">This is one clear example of why you are wrong.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Now look around you.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Those billboards bursting with photoshopped shots of barely clad girls selling us stuff we neither need or want are part and parcel.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">It is slavery.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">I am not one for censorship.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">On the contrary I believe in the maxim ban nothing, question everything, with the proviso it causes no harm.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">A bald man being called bald may feel uncomfortable, though it is a truth.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">A woman threatened of rape in her own home for being a woman is a crime.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Degrading women is about control, power, based on fear, insecurity.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">As an evolved, mature, enlightened species which we know in our hearts we are, we must not, cannot stand for it.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">We are so much better than this.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Kick out the pricks!</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">xo&nbsp;</span></p> http://juliabrightly.com/articles/kick_out_the_pricks Sat, 03 Aug 2013 00:00:00 -0700 Julia Brightly | Julia Brightly | Articles Community Spirit http://juliabrightly.com/articles/community_spirit <p class="p1">&nbsp;</p> <p class="p2">At the behest of a friend&rsquo;s daughter I recently attended a free concert by a bunch of performers from a local high school.</p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I&rsquo;m not sure what I expected but it was most definitely not to be as absolutely blown away by the amount of talent, joy, and love that burst off that little stage as I was.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">There were three bands who were the match of many I&rsquo;ve seen at major festivals around the world, and I&rsquo;ve been to them all touring as I do with the likes of M83, Mogwai, and Caribou.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">There was a singer with an acoustic guitar who&rsquo;s songs made me cry.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">There was a human beatbox dancer who I wanted to wrap up in cotton wool and take home with me, that cute!</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">What makes this all the more incredible is that these performers were all aged 14 or under, were 50/50 girls and boys, and were from all races, creeds, religions, and backgrounds.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The school, Morpeth, and the organization that put on the show, Community Music, are in Tower Hamlets, the London borough that is one of the most culturally diverse in the country, if not the world.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">This is exactly what the EDL want to smash.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Having not been living in the UK for the past decade I was unaware of the EDL.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">They are the continuation of a cancer that we should by now have eradicated from our psyche.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The letters EDL do not as I thought stand for Extremely Dense Lumps, but should.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The members of this cretinous collective seem somehow unfinished, like a vital piece of their brains was omitted when they were cleaved from bulldog chalk.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">They are I suspect the kind of people that in childhood pulled wings off gnats, drowned kittens, bullied peers mercilessly, failed to get exam points for spelling their name correctly.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">They are white, predominately male, and so riddled with fear that they pummel anything they don&rsquo;t understands with fists till it&rsquo;s dead.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Queers, coons, pakis, slags, and poofs.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Translated that&rsquo;s homosexuals, anyone of African descent, anyone from Asia, women, and the people they seem to fear more than anyone else, men in women&rsquo;s clothing.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">As a man who used to wear women&rsquo;s clothing I have come face to face with the look of confusion turning to fear, to dread, and to hate in their eyes.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It&rsquo;s very hard to comprehend that someone would want to beat you to a pulp for just being you.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Fortunately I don&rsquo;t have to put up with that particular abuse any more as I am now a woman.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">This behavior is passed down through generations, the abused becomes the abuser.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I&rsquo;ve seen it in my own family.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">My father was a violent sot who failed to come to terms with the pain inflicted on him by his own father and so carried it on by battering me.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">When it became obvious that I was the most terrifying person in the world, a boy who wanted to be a girl, and he was not going to be able to punch me into shape, he disowned me.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">He hasn&rsquo;t spoken to me in 30 years.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">After a while this blaming on the past for ones acts is a smokescreen, a copout.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Ultimately we must be responsible for our own patterns of behaviour.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">What I witnessed at that performance the other day, from all those children, from all their parents, relatives, friends, was the complete rejection of this nonsense, embracing community, love, and acceptance of all people, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, colour, background.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">This is the true human condition, this is what we are, this is the next level of our evolution.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">To those who preach hate, who would denying us our rights as individuals to be ourselves, to be joyous human beings expressing love, it&rsquo;s time to put your knuckles down, hug each other, open up, try reading a book even, and begin to truly live.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">When I see children embracing the differences in us like this with love, with compassion, I know we have a future.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Community spirit is alive and well.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Now, let&rsquo;s save the planet too.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Julia Brightly</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">July 26, 2013</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> http://juliabrightly.com/articles/community_spirit Fri, 26 Jul 2013 00:00:00 -0700 Julia Brightly | Julia Brightly | Articles The Heart of Westminster http://juliabrightly.com/articles/the_heart_of_westminster <p class="p1"><span class="s1">A couple of weeks ago I applied for the post of Production Assistant at a well known English Shakespearian theatre company.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Not Production Manager, just a mere assistant.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">There were 220 applicants.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">220!</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Feeling up a gumtree I browsed some online general job sites and was flabbergasted to see that while the number of posts on offer totaled just 1900, the number of people looking were 33,000.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">33,000, and on just one site!</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">What jobs where they, you may wonder?</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Gofer mostly, paying minimum wage which in London won't cover rent in a shared hovel.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Full employment, it will never ever happen again.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Instead of dealing with this head on successive governments have head spent their time putting their fingers in their ears and their heads up their bottoms.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Why?</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">This week some bright spark took it upon themselves to check the House of Parliament toilets for cocaine traces.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">There were 9 .</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">9!</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">So, people with the power to literally decide who lives and who dies by what legislation they devise and pass into law are doing so coked up.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got an idea, bedroom tax!&rdquo;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">&ldquo;Brilliant!&rdquo; (hoovers up line the size of arm and leg)</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Let&rsquo;s be clear about this, politicians may be wily, but they are far from smart.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Not having our best interests at heart their decisions are questionable at the best of times.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Under the influence of cocaine they are mad I tell you, mad.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">There is something very wrong in the heart of Westminster.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It&rsquo;s a private club, its members peeing on us from a great stoned height, clutching bags of our cash as they sell off what&rsquo;s left of the family silver.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Britain&rsquo;s not working.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Oh sure, wander around vast swathes of London chock full of restaurants stuffed with diners pigging out on overpriced offal and you&rsquo;ll think recession, what recession?</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">But try and find somewhere to live as a homeless single person over the age of 40 and reality will hit you like a steam train driven by a blond buffoon.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">What will you do when <em>your</em> boss texts you in the morning to say you&rsquo;ve been fired, and with no explanation or recompense?</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Ragged Trousered Philanthropist anyone?</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">One thing we don&rsquo;t have to worry about right now is being blasted back into the Stone Age by North Korea as we seem to be dismantling all we&rsquo;ve held dear since the formation of the Welfare State quite nicely on our own thank you.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Do we really want to go back to soup kitchens, work houses, rickets, back street abortions, plague and pestilence?</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">A bunch of immoral chancers backed by barely elected tosspots gambled our history away in a casino, then stole all our savings, climbed up their towers, kicked away the ladders, laughing like drains, and they are still laughing.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">We have spent so long looking up the backsides of people who deserve not a jiffy of our time that we&rsquo;ve gone blind.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Well it really is time to squeegee our eyes and wake the hell up from this infant state before, as Flaubert memorably warned us, the edge of the crapper on which we stand crumbles and we plummet headlong into a century of shit.</span></p> <p class="p3">xo</p> http://juliabrightly.com/articles/the_heart_of_westminster Sat, 20 Jul 2013 00:00:00 -0700 Julia Brightly | Julia Brightly | Articles