Trust the process? After months of meetings with queer activists and neighbors to hash out a policy that works for everyone, Seattle’s gay nude beach, Denny Blaine, isn’t getting new rules after all. They tried, but the proposal for nude and clothed areas went over poorly. (If you want a recap, I wrote the whole story in our recent Pride issue.) Still, something could come from all this. In a blog post, the Department of Parks and Recreation wrote that they’re planning to improve the park’s staircases in the near future, and that it may study long-term improvements such as restrooms and additional parking.
That ransomware attack hit the library hard: Systems are still not a ‘go‘ more than two weeks after someone cyber-attacked the Seattle Public Library. The library won’t give details on the attack but said it is working with outside organizations specializing in forensics and recovery. Digital materials and services, including e-books and audio-books, remain unavailable. The Wi-Fi still isn’t working, either.
Just so we’re clear: Whether or not the US Supreme Court soon rules that federal law requires hospitals to provide emergency abortions, Washington already ensures that they do. Gov. Jay Inslee explained at a Tuesday news conference that our state laws around emergency services pertain to abortion, and he’s directing the state Department of Health to write a rule clarifying that fact.
Cop who hit guy once bragged about how hard he hits: Sergeant Nathan Patterson, one of the two officers caught on video late last month beating an arson suspect, has a history of complaints and lawsuits. Back in 2012, Patterson was videotaped whacking another person with his baton so hard that it broke, and when asked if he was proud of that, he said he was. Ashley wrote more on Patterson here.
This is huge. Sgt. Nathan Patterson is like the poster child for police brutality at SPD, and he supervises officers in the city’s most diverse precinct. https://t.co/zNAvaiYMY3
— DivestSPD (@DivestSPD) June 11, 2024
New leopards just dropped: Snow leopard parents Marai, 7, and Aibek, 6, welcomed three adorable little cubs into the world on Memorial Day, and we’re just finding out about it. Because they’re born eyes-shut and helpless, they’ll be penned in with their mom Marai in a private but camera-monitored maternity den for the next few months. They’ll be introduced to solid food and the outdoor exhibit at the end of summer. While it’s pretty heteronormative of the snow leopards to gloat about their straight family during Pride month, we’ll let it pass because they’re cute and there are only between 4,000 and 6,390 wild snow leopards in the world.
Shameless self-promotion: If you do go to the zoo to see the cubs in three months or so, you might as well throw some fish at Woodland’s hungry, hungry penguins while you’re there, or try one of The Stranger’s 98 other suggestions for How To Seattle before an earthquake rends the PNW to pieces.
Bruce Harrell spoke to parents at Garfield High: Garfield students returned to school yesterday morning, days after someone shot and killed their classmate, 17-year-old Amarr Murphy-Paine, in the parking lot. The Mayor joined Principal Tarance Hart for a special early-morning orientation to reassure parents they’d keep their kids safe for the last nine days of school. Harrell said the City was devoting additional resources to “get to the bottom of it.” No one has been arrested for the killing.
The Sandy Hook shooting survivors are graduating high school this year: Nearly twelve years ago, 60 of the 330 seniors graduating from Newtown High in Connecticut lived through one of the deadliest school shootings in US history. A man with a gun stalked the halls of their school, killing 20 of their classmates and six teachers. The Associated Press spoke to five of them about leaving the “bubble” of their hometown, which has protected them from the outside world. It breaks your heart to know what they live with, and it’s even worse knowing we’ve done almost nothing to stop it from happening again.
The sandy hook survivors graduating high school this year is such a head fuck. Nothing has changed ever since they had to witness that senseless carnage.
— Ashley Reese (@offbeatorbit) June 12, 2024
Gaza death toll hits 37,200: This is according to the latest figures from the Gazan Health Ministry. Thousands more uncounted dead are believed to be buried underneath the rubble of destroyed buildings. The number of wounded rose to 84,932. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there’s no guarantee the pending ceasefire deal will come through.
ICYMI: A jury found Hunter Biden committed three felonies when he lied about his drug use on a background check form and possessed a gun while addicted to said drugs. He could face 25 years in prison and a $750,000 fine at sentencing, but he likely won’t receive the maximum penalty as a first-time offender.
Speaking candidly: A woman posing as a Catholic conservative caught Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito saying on a surreptitious audio recording that compromise between the American left and right may be impossible at this point. He then agreed when she said the nation should instead return to a place of godliness. Chief Justice Roberts didn’t take the bait, and he pushed back when she said the court was obligated to lead our “Christian nation” on a more “moral path.”
We’re at the COVID shot, we’re at the flu shot, we’re at the combination COVID-flu shot: Data shows that Moderna’s combined flu-COVID mRNA vaccine not only works but works better for older adults than separate shots. While promising, this information should be taken with a grain of salt, as the results of Moderna’s clinical trial have not been peer reviewed or published in a medical journal.
Chiquita held liable for Colombian murders: A jury in South Florida says the multinational banana grower is liable for the deaths of eight farmers and civilians killed by a far-right paramilitary group the company helped finance from 1997 to 2004. The company has faced hundreds of suits like it, but this is the first time Chiquita has been found culpable. The company plans to appeal, but experts say it’s significant. In cases where a corporation is held liable for deaths in the politically destabilized regions in which they operate, juries rarely side with victims.
Hundreds of US cops have abused children: A Washington Post investigation revealed that 1,800 state and local law enforcement officers were charged with sex crimes involving children between 2005 and 2022, and the criminal justice system enabled them every step of the way. Police and sheriff’s departments botched background checks and mishandled investigations. Cops used their knowledge of the legal system to stall cases and evade convictions. Prosecutors offered generous plea deals to admitted child rapist cops. Judges let cops off easy, allowing them to avoid prison time. You can read all about it right here.
Orcas could have done the funniest thing for Pride: Unfortunately, they’re very rare that far down the Atlantic coast.
‘Harry Potter’ author J.K. Rowling’s yacht anchored off James Island https://t.co/Rshz6RJvzA
— The Post and Courier (@postandcourier) June 10, 2024
“It breaks
your heart
to know what they
[Sandy Hook survivors]
live with, and it’s even worse knowing
we’ve done almost nothing to stop it from happening again.”
the War on Guns is so (nearly!) Over:
We busted Hunter Biden!
now if only Smokin’ Joe
might Adopt everyone
Else in America we
Might see some
Progress* and
a little Sanity?
*there’s
That Dirty
Word again ma-
king Regressives
sick to their stomachs
“This is huge. Sgt. Nathan Patterson is like the poster child for police brutality at SPD, and he supervises officers in the city’s most diverse precinct.”
Relax.
it’s just
Coppers
letting off
a little Steam
when the Po-po’s Union runs
the show the occasional
Beatdown is Actually
Good for Morale
Expensive
as Fuck but
whatchya gonna Do?
also: careful, Vivian:
inciting Orcas
may be Il-
legal.
@3
“ I admire the precision of Vivian McCall’s orca knowledge.”
It’s amazing what a google search can do
I don’t believe for a second that nobody who was there doesn’t know who shot the young man at Garfield HS. Folks are choosing not to help solve that murder.
@4: agreed. i presume the SPD is repeatedly interrogating witnesses. kids: start snitching.
@4/5/6 I can almost guarantee the police know who the shooter is and possibly even where they are holed up but they are working on putting together the full case to make sure everything is in order so when they do arrest them they can make it as airtight as possible. Since the person is also most likely under 18 they are not going to be careful about putting their name out in the media. Just because things aren’t moving quickly don’t assume the community is not cooperating.
Parks and Recreation needs to get a spine and politely tell wealthy citizens wanting special treatment to go away. P&R has huge backlogs of deferred maintenance needing attention, rule changes to fix non-problems should get zero attention. If P&R has excess money floating around it should go for acquiring new open space. Some years ago I attended a meeting ostensibly seeking public input on increased density and heard much about “concurrency” with new open space to offset increased density. Flash forward a few years to another meeting. When asked what happened to “concurrency” I was told it was aspirational but not actually required in any planning documents. Fooled me. Once.
If Tolkein’s public persona was consumed by his visceral hatred of atheists that might be an apt comparison but by the sound of it he just had different religious beliefs than you. Hating trans people is Joanne’s entire personality now.
@11
When churches were denouncing and burning her books, the leftists loved her.
When she confirmed that Dumbledore was gay, which we all already knew, the leftists loved her even more.
When she was getting into Twitter battles with Trump, the leftists were beside themselves with glee and professed their adoration.
When she said people who menstruate are called women, she’s suddenly Undesirable Number 1.
The left accepts nothing less than 100% adherence to their doctrine. JK Rowling has been excommunicated just like heretics were in the Middle Ages.
It’s not that deep. She’s never been a “leftist” icon (side note: that word doesn’t mean what you think it means). She wrote a children’s book that a lot of people enjoyed, then she became one of the most militant anti-LGBTQ voices in contemporary culture, and now LGBTQ people and their allies don’t like her anymore. This is what happens when someone becomes openly hateful towards a persecuted minority — they hate you right back.
@14,
Google “how popular is jk rowling currently” and this is the first returned hit.
https://www.newsweek.com/jk-rowling-harry-potter-popular-transgender-trans-terf-millenials-1793035#:~:text=J.K.%20Rowling%20remains%20a%20huge,her%20comments%20about%20transgender%20women.
In case the slog formatting fudges the link, the title of the piece is “J.K. Rowling Remains Popular With Millennials Despite Trans Outrage”
You’re an idiot.
@15 she stated that biological women are in fact different from trans women. If that’s your definition of one of the most militant anti lgbtq voices today you really need to get outside your ideological bubble.
@17, Aren’t you adorable. She’s said quite a bit more than trans women are different from AFAB women. You should take your own advice before wading into a subject you clearly know nothing about beyond your own ideological priors.
@18, Wow, a trans “influencer” whose paycheck depends on her willingness to throw trans people under the bus says Joanne isn’t transphobic. I guess thet seals it! I expect nothing less from the resident gay republican than pre-packaged propaganda without a shred of personal thought or analysis to add to the discussion. You never disappoint.
Even Elon Musk — who hates trans people because his trans daughter no longer speaks to him — told her to simmer down and find something else to talk about for a change because her entire Twitter feed is virulently anti-trans. But I’m sure Blaire White probably thinks JK Rowling isn’t a TERF either. Maybe you can find a clip of her saying so on Alex Jones’s podcast or something. Surely that will counter the millions of LGBTQ/allies who think she’s got a terminal case of brainworms.
@19, LOL. Months ago? Bro…
You might like sucking dick but it’s evident you’ve never been a part of the LGBTQ community.
@22, Excuse me, I started this thread by saying JK Rowling’s entire personality is transphobia and I’ve held the same line throughout.
Here, go ahead and scroll through her feed and see for yourself what she thinks about trans people instead of sharing whatever anti-trans trans influencer content you subscribe to: x.com/jk_rowling
@24 you mean like this?
“If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth”
This is one of the tweets that caused such an uproar. Feel free to explain to the tranphobic part..
@12 “Diversity of thought and conviction is (should be) parallel with progressive values.”
It is except when said convictions involve hatred and intolerance of others because it leads to discrimination. We are nice but not stupid.
@25, Yes, that’s one of the early ones, when she was still professing to be willing to march for trans rights if they were discriminated against. She’s probably tweeted thousands of times about trans and LGB people since then. It’s a straw man — no one says “sex isn’t real” or seeks to erase it as a concept — but certainly less toxic than her output of late.
@27 she still would. Her entire argument is the rights of trans people cannot erase the rights of biological women. I don’t see anything transphobic in that and certainly nothing that makes her the demon you say she is.
“When she said people who
menstruate are called women,
she’s suddenly Undesirable Number 1.”
not in My book.
“The left
accepts nothing less
than 100% adherence to their doctrine.”
Not This One
& I’m pretty
Far Left
We’re not the
So-called ‘right’
In reverse. Sorry
“JK Rowling has been excommunicated
just like heretics were in
the Middle Ages.”
It’s gotta be
Rough for her
Excommunicated
out of an ideology she
Doesn’t agree with. Shall
We all chip in & send her a Card?
Why on Earth haven’t
We Stoned her?
‘Everyone must get Stoned.’
–B. Dylan
poor,
poor gal. may-
be she needs a Much bigger Boat
@28, No she wouldn’t.
I’m sorry but it’s obvious this issue is not on your radar. I’ve been following her spiral closely for years now and she’s only gotten more extreme, even as trans rights are being repealed and LGBTQ people are facing increasing harassment, abuse, and violence. She has had plenty of opportunities to stand up against discrimination — some trans kids have even been murdered in the UK in recent years — but she refuses, because she is consumed by hatred of trans people.
@30
“… trans rights
are being repealed
and LGBTQ people are facing
increasing harassment, abuse, and violence.”
influencers
oughtta be judged
by the danger they sow.
how is minimizing
not complicity
they’re Com-
ing for You.
@10 and others, regarding the vile bigot JK Rowling:
I am an Atheist who was raised to be a devout Roman Catholic, before my faith crumbled before reason. I’m still a fan of Tolkien, as I’m not aware of him ever expressing his faith in a way that was hateful towards others. Much like I have the utmost for the Reverend Fred Rogers and Jimmy Carter. Expressing faith isn’t the issue.
The real issue stems from why I can be a fan of the horror fiction inspired by the works of HP Lovecraft. He’s dead. His one virtue was that he made the universe he created “open source” that others could write stories in. Many of the best authors in that genre are folks who would highly offend that old bigot, like our own Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire. Since Lovecraft is dead, the bigot is not profiting off of this.
JK Rowling is still alive and spreading hate. No decent person should support anyone who pays her while she is spreading hate.
No offense but it doesn’t particularly surprise me when people who don’t care about discrimination and violence towards minority groups aren’t swayed by evidence of bigotry towards them. You not finding her obsessive tweets about trans women transphobic (including one near the top where she straight up targets a specific trans woman for harassment) = water is wet.
For anyone who cares, here is a quick recap of her recent turn as the internet’s premier gender cop:
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/j-k-rowling-trans-twitter-elon-musk-1235019620/amp/
And here is a longer piece from Current Affairs contrasting the breadth of imagination in the Harry Potter series against the narrowness and rigidity of her beliefs about gender:
https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2020/07/jk-rowling-and-the-limits-of-imagination?hs_amp=true
What does that even mean? You seem to think you can toss a bunch of fancy words into the air and disappear behind them like a cloud of smoke but it doesn’t work that way. If you’re not going to try to explain yourself why say anything. Seems like your goal is to not be understood at all.
In the past few years trans people have been targeted politically and in public life, with politicians and influencers using their existence as a wedge issue and/or moneymaker, leading to hundreds of anti-trans laws and huge spikes in anti-trans hate crimes. These are facts and you have made your feelings about them abundantly clear, and your word salad does not even attempt to refute it.
@36 misgendering someone and insisting there are innate differences in biological sexes is not discrimination nor is it violence or bigotry. It may be rude and disrespectful and you can dislike her for it but the level of vitriol that has been leveled against her for pushing back on some of the idealogical positions in the trans community has been way worse than anything she has said on twitter. This issue of women’s rights is deeply personal for her but if you don’t believe me read it in her own words:
https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/
What is most concerning about this topic is exactly what you are demonstrating. Anyone who doesn’t fully agree with 100% of the discourse is labeled a bigot or accused of violence. A case in point is a couple of months ago a video went viral of a critical thought professor having a discussion with a student about Rowling. The professor talked to the student calmly and asked questions to help the student dissect the argument. He never interjected his own views and yet he was fired from his position. It’s this kind of thing that does more damage to the trans community than anything Rowling or anyone else says.
https://scnr.com/article/teacher-from-viral-jk-rowling-critical-thinking-video-fired-from-college_a91f8d69117011ef9c930242ac1c0002
I’m telling you my opinion of you that is directly informed by reading the things you’ve said on the topic, and you saying nuh-uh with a bunch of 10-cent words does nothing to change that. You don’t get to dictate how people see you, and if my opinion of you as a transphobic bigot offends you, deal with it. Not my problem.
You’ve made it clear you are supportive of anti-trans legislation and at best completely indifferent to anti-trans hate crimes and online harassment. You could reshape my opinion by expressing concern for the anti-trans backlash in our society over the past few years, but you would have to actually give a fuck first, and it’s obvious you don’t. Any time the topic comes up, you minimize the extent of the hazard it presents not only to trans people queer but gender-nonconforming cis people, and instead get defensive about being called a bigot.
You care more about what a complete stranger thinks about you as a person than people having their rights taken away and their lives ruined. It’s pathetic and narcissistic, but it tells me everything I need to know about you.
@40, “She targets trans people for reasons I personally find acceptable” isn’t an argument that she isn’t transphobic, it’s an admission that you are, too.
You’re literally doing it right now in this thread! You just said you support bans on trans health care (you also incorrectly believe minors are getting gender reassignment surgery, another clue as to where you’re getting your information), and you completely disregarded the tweets in Joanne’s Twitter feed where she sicced her millions of followers on several trans women who did absolutely nothing wrong.
@44, I’m paraphrasing. You know what paraphrasing is, right? Of course you do.
Here is the direct quote: “misgendering someone and insisting there are innate differences in biological sexes is not discrimination nor is it violence or bigotry”
Intentionally using words to insult and offend someone based on their identity is the definition of bigotry (also this “innate differences” bullshit is a really tired straw man — no one is arguing this). If it doesn’t register as bigotry to you, I have very bad news to share.
Yes, the number of trans kids seeking gender-affirming care is increasing. Not sure what the gotcha is supposed to be here, nor a study showing that trans people experience higher rates of suicide than non-trans people, but the belief that suicide is a “card” that people play in online debates and not evidence of the actual suffering of real people who exist in the world is something else entirely and I’m frankly speechless that you think you’ve got something here. I’m afraid you’re still not beating the allegations.
That’s fair, albeit odd after playing the suicide card yourself, but the reasoning behind the “dead son” argument is supported by the data, and I remain baffled that you think a study showing the alarmingly high rates of suicide in trans people compared to cis people shows that gender-affirming care is harmful to them.
If you actually care about this topic there are loads of studies about suicide rates in trans people and they have near-universal consensus that 1) trans people are much more prone to suicide in general, and 2) gender-affirming care either improves or has no impact suicidal behavior. Here is a systematic review compiling the data from multiple studies:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10027312/