elfinblaze

I've just come across the most awesome GLBTTQQIA replacement acronym, which seems to have caught on in the past few months: QUILTBAG. Originally popularised by the writer, Nicola Griffith, in War Machine, Time Machine. It stands for Queer/Questioning, Undecided, Intersex, Lesbian, Transgender/Transexual, Bisexual, Asexual, Gay/Genderqueer.

To quote asezawesome:

I instantly loved this one for two reasons. First, it’s a pronounceable but unfamiliar word, so you can just say it, but it’ll still make people stop and say “What?” and provide a teachable moment. Second, it takes the focus off of the G who have had the bulk of the political power and the bulk of the visibility and have been calling the shots in the community for far too long. Third, it nicely incorporates people who consider themselves part of the queer community who were not at all addressed by “LGBT” alone, which is only very rarely padded out with the other initials. Fourth, the “bag” provides a certain imagery: we’re all in this together. No more leaving our trans* friends and families out in the cold. No more deriding asexuality as some sort of phase or medical problem rather than a variant sexuality that deserves as much respect as any other.

I'm adopting that word. Love it.

Who saw this in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday?

Sexless in the city: a gender revolution
JOEL GIBSON
March 12, 2010

THIS Mardi Gras, Norrie received a gift that no other androgynous person in NSW has had before.

The night before the parade, the postman brought a certificate from the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages that contained neither the dreaded "M" nor its equally despised cousin, "F".

Instead, it said "sex not specified", making the 48-year-old Sydneysider, who identifies as neuter and uses only a first name, the first in the state to be neither man nor woman in the eyes of the NSW government.

( Read more... )

How awesome!

Woohoo! Good news for the day:

Indian gays' long fight ends as court overturns ban


Matt Wade Herald Correspondent in New Delhi
July 3, 2009

INDIAN laws banning gay sex have been overturned in a landmark judgment in New Delhi.

The 150-year-old section 377 of the penal code, introduced when Britain ruled the subcontinent, described gay sex as "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" and imposed a 10-year jail term on offenders.

However, the High Court yesterday declared the laws were a violation of "fundamental rights" and unconstitutional.

( Read more... )

I need to read more happy news every morning.

It just keeps going... All the stories are coming out now, excuse the pun.

Amazon’s "Glitch" Myth Debunked.

All of my novels have been aggressively censored by Amazon since (at least) January of 2008, when they were first released as Kindle editions and promptly rigged in the Kindle store so as not to register any sales ranks and bestselling categories, or to show up properly in Amazon search results. I have also experienced mysterious "sourcing fees" applied by Amazon to the list prices of my LGBT paperbacks, as well as the deletion of five-star customer reviews of them, the removal of their "in stock" status, and a host of other handicapping techniques which are still in effect today.

It's a longer read but it's worth it.

What's the bet Amazon will continue to de-rank whatever they want after all this dies down?

Still following Amazonfail online. metafandom has a whole bunch of links I'm too tired to link to myself.

Blargh. Hate coming home in the dark.

I'm not sure I'll ever buy from Amazon now, even if they do fix their "glitch", because the fact that they can change their listings so easily and essentially determine how popular a book will be makes me uncomfortable. All they have to do is un-rank a book and it won't show up in some searches and people won't find (and consequently buy it) as often. No one company should have that much influence over an industry.

*sigh*

Going to go eat more Easter chocolates now. Chocolate makes everything better. *wise nod*

First of all, I hope you all had a lovely Easter. I'd post pictures of mine, but I want to leave this post public, so the pictures will have to wait.

Secondly, if you've ever bought books from Amazon, or were considering buying books from Amazon, read these posts.

Basically Amazon have decided they don't want to have certain books/texts searchable. What books? They claim those with "adult content". In reality they've excluded books with gay and lesbian content, including at least one young adult fiction book, which proves it's not really "adult content" they're excluding. By the same token, Playboy and sex toys still show up.

This makes me as mad as all those YouTube clips that get flagged for "adult content" if they contain a homosexual kiss, while heterosexual kisses are open to be watched by anyone. Not many things actively infuriate me (mostly it's just expected) but when companies actually go out of their way to make certain peoples' lives more difficult, then I see red.

[Edited to add more details: markprobst (Mark R. Probst) is one of the writers affected and one of the first to blog about it. There's also some noise on the topic on Neil Gaiman's Twitter page, and meta_writer has a list of books (and editions) affected here.]

So if you'd like to avoid Amazon here's some alternative book retailers online: Book Depository which is based in the UK and ships free worldwide, or Fishpond for my fellow Australians if you want a local alternative.