janus : I heavily disagree with you on the pushing for rights. I completely agree with you on private acceptance, though. You cannot force anyone to believe anything, though you can educate them.

There definitely will be backlash to pushing for transgender acceptance, and some of it will absolutely be dangerous. However, I believe it's vital that we keep pushing. Black people in the Civil Rights era of the 1960s were very active in pushing the federal gov't to end the idiocy that was segregation.

And yet fifty years later, large swaths of the population continue to believe that black people are lesser, or that different races should remain separate in culture and marriage.

Still, I'm glad black people and people of other skin tones came together to pressure the federal government to give them protections against racism, and racism that would continue into the future for decades.

In short, I believe we need to keep fighting for protection, but that it's ridiculous to think the fight for equality ends there.

SWTerra : Yeah, there are definitely net activism campaigns that I think are a lot less effective. Like, I chose not to do the French flag overlay thing either, because it ignored other attacks happening 'round the world at the same time. And I suspect that often communities are divided on how active people should be in those campaigns. Because sometimes, it does seem a bit difficult, to not get into the habit of clicking a hashtag and then feeling self satisfied when there is so much more to do.

janus :
SWTerra :
SWTerra is correct. Leelah Alcorn committed suicide on December 28, 2014. She gained media attention through her suicide note. Her parents did send her to therapy in which they were not supportive of her gender identity, a practice which is condemned by the medical community. Before saying goodbye, the last thing she said in her suicide note was, "Fix society. Please."

After her death, media outlets picked up several stories of other transgender people, largely youth, taking their own lives. The media's motivation, in large part, is to draw attention to the rampant epidemic of trans suicides. A statistic in common circulation that existed long before these stories were brought to the mainstream, cites that 40% of transgender people attempt suicide. As a transgender person very involved in the community, I'd say those numbers could well be low. I also have personal experience with extreme suicidal ideation and desire, and can attest to most of it coming from how society and family treats me as a transgender person.

Thus, depression and suicidal thoughts result from society's deplorable treatment of the community. Trans women in particular are often constantly harassed, both sexually and verbally, often told they deserve to die.

As far as net activism campaigns, they are a very, very small part of what my community does to improve our situation. Such events serve largely to boost morale in the community by creating a sense of solidarity, of other trans people and our allies. They also provide just a tiny opportunity to educate others who may be sympathetic to the cause, like I'm doing right here in this post.

Thanks both of you for engaging!

For those who wish to participate, there is this



~That is all.

HAPPY

BIRTH
DAY
Snow, you are awesome, and I'm glad we met through some weird conglomeration of events.

This is a holy war. This is a just war. May the Deity of your choice be with the most worthy party. I shall bring the vigours of my being to fight with all of my might and all of my honor.

May the best person win.

I approve of this thread. So much approval. Thank you, Xenthou, for doing this. I'd like to add a few words about gender and biological sex. Gender did, indeed, use to refer to what kind of chromosomes you have and what parts you have that would designate you as a male or a female. Not everyone fit this model, of course, because there exist people born with different parts than their chromosomes suggest, and there exist genetic conditions where sex chromosomes are different than the typical "XX" and "XY" variations. This is a condition referred to as "intersex."

However, as time moves on, so does language. Language evolves along with culture and understanding, and it is a natural thing and not something to be afraid of. Now the term "biological sex" describes what "gender" used to describe. Science is beginning to unravel the nature of "male" and "female." It is possible for a male to have a brain more like those of biological females, and vice versa. This, in many cases, is the root of the condition. Such people often feel constant discomfort with the gender that society has placed upon them, because how they feel and think does not match up with their bodies. One way that such people deal with these feelings is to undergo a process of "transition," which can include many, many things.

Transitioning can mean changing your hairstyle, using a different voice, walking differently, and changing your dress. Some people also choose to get on hormone replacement therapy, which changes the way your body looks and affects your voice. Some others decide to undergo surgery to change body parts specific to males and females, but neither getting on hormones or undergoing surgery are a necessary part of transition. They are a matter of personal choice, as with the transition itself.

I identify as nonbinary. I do not feel comfortable calling myself either a man or a woman. When I began to dress differently, wearing sports bras instead of regular bras, change my walk, my manner of speaking and so on, I got a rush of confidence. It changed my entire life. People who choose to orient what's outside to what's going on inside almost clamor with a unanimous voice that they feel more wholly themselves. Claiming "male" and "female" as their own, along with gender pronouns, is a part of that.

TheJmsGamer : Yeah, I was hesitant to start you down this journey before you were ready, and I didn't want to cause strife with you and your family, but through reading your posts I believe that you are ready to tackle this issue. If you ever need anything, I am happy to talk about it with you. And if you decide you are really cisgender, that is okay too. What's important is being in the process of figuring it out. This is going to be hard, whichever way you slice it, and I wish you the very best.

I really hope this thread does not get closed. I think it's unfortunate that when an argument of this nature erupts that seems to be the go-to method of solving the issue. It means that many difficult and complex issues upon which people feel strongly often don't get the time they deserve. I realize that opinions on this subject will vary, but I do hope we can keep this thread open. Even if the only reason to do so is that people can better understand this perspective.

Thank you for making this thread.

I am thankful for the people in my life that helped me learn to respect myself. They taught me that it is good to be yourself, screw the haters. It is good to love yourself and it is okay to think you are beautiful. That it is okay to stand up for yourself.

IgorBird122 : Actually, indicted means charged with a crime. A jury met to decide whether or not to put the officer on trial. When the jury decided not to charge the officer, then the riots started.

It's important to realize that even though the rioters are doing wrong, that doesn't change the fact that a man has died. From what I've read there was more than enough evidence to take Wilson to trial.

If you haven't yet, take a look at the non violent response of Brown's family. Amid so much suffering, I find this beautiful:
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/michael-brown-shooting/profoundly-disappointed-michael-brown-family-reacts-lack-indictment-n255436

I am not very knowledgeable in this area, but I am wanting to learn HTML among other things to help me create my own website. For beginners I recommend www.w3schools.com . What kind of program are you wanting to create?

I, also, am looking for whatever suggestions I can get, but for me it's what I need to know about website creation and where to learn it.

Also darthyoda, we should totally help track each other's progress, if you're up for it.

Happy birthday, Enii! I hope that you have a really wonderful day. What did you decide to do with it, by the way?

Good luck, man. I wish you the best. This may be unsolicited advice, but if you ever lapse back into it, that doesn't mean you've "failed." If that ever happens, the fact that you "lapsed" in the first place means that you have made progress. I hope this brings you happiness.

I'm somewhat on the fence between asking for Starcraft II and its first expansion and an older version of photoshop. I am madly in love with Starcraft, but haven't yet gotten a chance to play the sequel. Then again, it may lag on my computer, so that's a thing. But really, there should be no contest. Though I don't shoot photos nearly as often as I'd like, I'd like to become competent enough to actually make money off of my photography. And, as loathe as I was to admit it, most commercial photography these days requires good editing. You can't do that in GIMP. You really, really can't do it in GIMP.

Good luck on here. Can you explain more about why you wanted to be unpopular? Also, what did you do differently to be unpopular vs. how you're acting now? I'm a bit unclear on that.

I'm afraid my newbie experiences will not be very typical. Well, the first part is. Like many other users on here, I was an RGR newbie. I came to play games. For unknown reasons, one day I came around and decided to check out the board. I've only ever really been "active" on one other board on the internet, and that was a dumb board anyway. I couldn't even mention Harry Potter on that board without starting a giant argument about witchcraft. But that's neither here nor there.

At any rate, when I first took a peak at the board, my political opinions and religion were already a huge misfit for a good portion of the vocal user base on here. If I remember right the Christian Conservatives board was then a regular board fixture, not a rented forum. I thought it was weird that it would be "Christian Conservatives" rather than just Christians. I perused several threads in that forum and felt increasingly uncomfortable, as most people were coming from a tradition of Christianity I was already moving away from.

I stayed away from the forums for a long time after that. One fateful day, I was bored and decided to check the chat room. My name was similar to crazycatpup's, and due to that and what KG would later describe as how easily I interacted with everyone else, I was immediately accused of being a rereg. Mr. Pace, specifically, for anyone who is old enough to remember.

After that, The Planned Accident decided to play matchmaker with me and a staff member. The whole experience was pretty surreal and fascinating to me. I didn't expect to get nearly so much attention my first time in chat. I also found out pretty quickly that for a user base that had a lot of vocal Christians, many of the chatters at that time were atheists. That also fascinated me. So, I came back. I met people. Though I'd never made a post in the forums, people gave me trust points until one day, I was a trusted member. I went directly from newbie to trusted without going through member first. Yeah.... once I finally did start posting on the forums I don't think that got me very well liked.

I could go on about how my opinion and understanding of the site morphed from what it was at the start to what it is now, why my chat experience was so unique, and why I am still here, but that really doesn't fit in with what this thread is about. So I'll refrain.

But anyway, that's my story.

PacmanandMariofan : Reading through your selected best threads and posts made me super happy. Hadn't seen most of those gems before. Thank you for that.

P.S. The links are broken right now, should be a space between the end of the links and their closing parentheses.

Also
Didowe: I don't see any reason why not.

I've been scouring this subforum and didn't find any relevant information that was newer than three years ago. So here's a question for the technology buffs. I'm looking for a video editing program, preferably one that also includes webcam recording and screen recording capabilities.

I downloaded SmartPixel, but when I got to the editing stage of the video making process I couldn't figure out a way to edit the video to any level finer than a second. Problematic? I think yes. I'm looking for something that doesn't take up much space on my PC, and the simpler the better to minimize lag.

Any suggestions? Thank you all in advance for your help.

I see I've received a couple votes. Nice ego booster, and also warms the cackles of my heart. Only it's a bit ironic, because I don't really consider myself female.

Most Famous - Davideo7, I mean, this one seems a bit cheap.
Most Creative - Gingercream1, of course, because of Chat Comics.
Most Helpful - Singelli, pretty obvious, the most willing to help new users around site and just help out in general.
Most Controversial - Rasenganfan2, you probably know why.
Most Mature - yoshirulez! The way he handles things when stuff goes poorly is pretty cool.

Best Veteran - Morsalbus
Best New Member - ghostfishy, I've seen her just a smidgen around the board and she seems a pretty solid poster and user.
Best Non-Active Member - Q. I mean, like look at this.
Best Staff Member - Juliet (SORRY, LK, IT WAS CLOSE)
Best Female Member - styrofoamboots. Because she is awesome, duh. I realize the user base on this site is largely male, but I still wish we would have a "best male user" along with this.

Wisest - Light Knight. Just generally makes quality posts and gives food for thought.
Nicest - Eniitan. Voted this last time and it still is true.
Craziest - bostonblokhed1. Wifi. It's true. Don't deny it.
Insomniac - yoshirulez! All night in chat. But TheJmsGamer has been pushing this.
Meanest - warmaker

Best Username - maguc
Best Userpic - mrfe
Best Layout - thing1
Best Posts - ghostfishy
Best Threads - warmaker

Reviewer - a user of this. I hesitate to post on this one because I don't read reviews much at all, but I did see a review by user that was solid.


THE THREAD AWARDS
Greatest Post - Q tells us about her ideal mate