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Open Thread with Screech Owl In A Hornet

tigtog

“Fod”, a Screech Owl found in the wheel well of an F/A 18 Hornet on the flight deck of USS Harry S. Truman in 2008, features for this week’s Open Thread. Please natter/chatter/vent/rant on anything* you like over this weekend and throughout the week.

Screech Owl named Fod found on USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75)

Potential foreign object debris (in this case, a Screech owl) found in the wheel well of a F/A-18 Hornet on a US aircraft carrier, here seen resting on a telephone cable in the flight deck control centre
Official U.S. Navy photo by Aviation Boatswain’s Mate Handling 3rd Class Alex Dieringer (Released) – Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

So, what have you been up to? What would you rather be up to? What’s been awesome/awful?
Reading? Watching? Making? Meeting?
What has [insert awesome inspiration/fave fansquee/guilty pleasure/dastardly ne’er-do-well/threat to all civilised life on the planet du jour] been up to?

* Netiquette footnotes:
* There is no off-topic on the Weekly Open Thread, but consider whether your comment would be on-topic on any recent thread and thus better belongs there.
* If your comment touches on topics known to generally result in thread-jacking, you will be expected to take the discussion to #spillover instead of overshadowing the social/circuit-breaking aspects of this thread.

10 thoughts on Open Thread with Screech Owl In A Hornet

    1. Merry belated Xmas. I don’t celebrate it myself, but I hope everyone had a nice or at least tolerable day yesterday.

      You know I would have said that when I was your age (i.e before I had a girfriend/fiance/wife who comes from a Christian family,) because I wasn’t a Christian and my parents don’t even practice Judaism. But I did celebrate Christmas by taking off from school and spending the day with my family, not doing anything to celebrate per se, but having a nice family meal, (preferably in Chinatown.) When I was 16 and older, I always would work on Christmas, usually receiving an overtime bonus, so I did celebrate Christmas then, to some extent, by receiving a ‘gift’ of more money for the same job.

      Now we not only ‘celebrate’ Christmas, but we rent a house near my wife’s family (Western NY,) and host around 20 of her relatives to a dinner prepared by me, with the logistics of the party attended to by my wife, (something that started due to my in-laws being of limited capabilities health wise.) I believe I have made a positive influence on the way my wife’s family celebrates Christmas in that I have almost managed to strip out any religious aspects, except I do say ‘Merry Christmas’ and am happy for anyone else to do so. (just as I, an agnostic will say ‘god bless you’ and appreciate a god bless you when I sneeze, I assure I am not worried about spirits escaping my body.) I also say ‘Jesus Chirst’ several times while dealing with the hot oven.

      However, for the first time in 20+ years no one said ‘grace,’ and it was, literally, the best smoothest Christmas dinner we’ve hosted. Two years ago I posted a recollection on an Xmas thread about how it ended with my father in law in the emergency room. I’m hardly claiming the lack of religion made things go smoother, just pointing out the irony…

      I will say this, there is a lot of satisfaction in feeding 20+ people with food you’ve made from scratch. It’s also much more fun than just sitting in front of a football game or Christmas Vacation making small talk.

  2. My dad’s motives are always so transparent. When I first came out to him, he sent me an email reply full of love and acceptance. Now he doesn’t show a single sign of ever wanting to accept me as a trans daughter.

    He calmly dismisses any objections he anticipates from me by saying “I did my research, and my research has shown me that this thing you’re concerned about [being trans] is meaningless, unnecessary” or “Transgenders only are the way they are so that they gain attention” or whatever other kind of bullshit he comes up with. Lately the conversations between the two of us about transness never go beyond him – no one else – telling me his views and then changing the topic without giving people an opportunity to respond. He knows that the only reason I don’t talk back is that he’ll abuse me if I do.

    He also shows a disturbing level of awareness of his abusiveness. A few days ago, when he was berating me in a restaurant for being a “failure”, he told me “I can see that what I’m saying is unsettling you, and that’s exactly how you should be when I talk about these things.” If it weren’t for the food getting to the table just in time, I would have had a breakdown – yet he knew that and didn’t give a shit about me.

    I’m so sick of him. This year I escaped from his house – I hope that in 2015, I will also free myself of his emotional grip on my life.

    1. It’s my hope for you that you can escape his emotional clutches this year as well. You deserve to be free of him.

  3. Leelah Alcorn, a 17-year-old trans girl, was abused by her transmisogynistic parents and committed suicide yesterday as a result of the abuse.

    Her parents continue to disrespect her identity after her death – they misgender her and don’t even try to acknowledge that her suicide was a result of their forcing through conversion therapy and abusing her.

    In our society, there is no regard whatsoever for the lives of trans women and girls. We are considered worthless. No statistic will ever be able to represent the sheer number of trans women and girls who kill themselves, not only because society doesn’t give a shit about us, but also because so many of us have never even been able to find the opportunity to out ourselves as trans.

    1. It’s so horrific. You need to love your child for what he/she/ze is, not what you want him/her/zir to be. No child should ever have to feel that rejection.

  4. I saw that story, Aaliyah. Another tragedy. It’s so sad, and it’s just one of so many. I know there’s a statistic that at least 40% of trans women attempt suicide. And there are so many others — like me — who’ve never made an attempt, but have thought about it innumerable times over their lifetime.

    Sometimes I despair about things ever getting significantly better. The contempt and disrespect we’re all subjected to — on a daily basis, unless we cut ourselves off from the world, and all media — continues. Obviously things have improved since I was a trans child and teenager (when there was nothing positive out there, at all, really), but the pace of progress is glacial.

    Here are links to some other stories quoting Leelah’s suicide note in full, as well as to her own tumblr, saying goodbye. (Of course, her parents are misgendering her in death, and pretending that it was an accident.)

    http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2014/12/transgender-teen-struck-and-killed-on-ohio-interstate-in-apparent-suicide/

    http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2014/12/transgender-teen-commits-suicide-cites-christian-parents-in-blog/

    http://lazerprincess.tumblr.com/post/106547704517/sorry

    As always, be careful about reading the comments. Even on progressive and LGBT-related blogs. Although in this case Leelah’s parents’ failure to accept her was due to their being devout Christians, the societal rejection of trans people cuts across almost all political and religious beliefs (and non-beliefs). Being secular, being “radical,” being gay and lesbian friendly — none of them necessarily signals trans acceptance.

    1. For a more hopeful response than mine, please see this hashtag, which is very active right now both on Twitter and on Facebook:

      #RealLiveTransAdult

  5. Aaliyah, I hope very much for you that this year you manage to escape from your father completely. Nothing good can come from your continued contact with him, it seems.

    The story you linked to about Leelah’s suicide is terribly sad. My comment about it is in moderation.

  6. Aaliyah, I want you to know you are a special and valuable person, and you have people here who think of you and wish you well, even if some of us usually only lurk in the comments.

    I know you live in a different country from me, but here in Canada the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty has been fighting the city of Toronto for the opening of a trans-inclusive women’s drop-in shelter. Several members were arrested at a demonstration on November 25th, the day for the elimination of violence against women. This fight will be resumed and will continue until it is won.

    In my home town of Sudbury, we have been waging a campaign to open additional, expressly trans-inclusive homeless shelter space in the city, and we’ve been succeeding. The space is open, and the focus now is on expanding the number of beds, making it open 24 hours a day, and finding city staff to run it instead of staff from religious charities (with bad histories with indigenous and LGBT people.) This is all part of a wider campaign for safe, inclusive, affordable housing for all.

    My point, Aaliyah, is you are not alone. There are people ready and willing to be arrested, if need be, fighting for public policy and institutions that protect trans- men and women’s lives and better meet their needs. I am ready and willing to be arrested fighting for public policy and institutions that protect transmen and transwomen’s lives or that better serve their needs. That’s a commitment.

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