型破り

  Guest Post: Henck Röling Always surrounded by flower      Henck Röling is, according to his bio, an "artist, florist, gardener, singer, [&] rebel." He's by far the biggest name to have contributed to this little blog of mine so far, and I am very grateful for the words he has blessed us with.  Almost on a daily basis, I am privy to his amazing outfits, a few of which I have screen-grabbed and posted here.  You can find out more about him and his amazing art on his Instagram page or his website .  I really am appreciative of the story he has to tell, which is an inspiring one!  Read on...        My name is Henck, I am 48 years old and was born and grew up in the Netherlands. We were a good Catholic family, there were six children and I was the Benjamin. We lived on an old farm, surrounded by meadows, cut up by the little canals that make Holland famous. That space gave us children freedom to play for hours. Classmat...

Guest Post: A Man from Peshawar  Trapped by two realities      The Pew Research Center has stated that "Pakistan [is] one of the [countries] least accepting of homosexuality with 87% of those surveyed saying 'Homosexuality should not be accepted by society.'"( 1 )  Things are not all bad, though.  Like in Iran, transgender people have relatively good legal protection and recognition in Pakistan.  " 49% agreed that they should have the same rights, 51% believed they should be protected from employment discrimination and 44% believed they should be allowed to change their legal gender."( 2 )      However, being an ex-Muslim classifies one as being a so-called blasphemer and constitutes an even more serious offense than same-sex relationships under Pakistani law.  "Use of derogatory remarks, spoken, written, directly or indirectly, etc. defiles the name of Muhammad or other Prophet(s)" carries a " Mandatory Death and fine" ( 3 )....

  Your first FAGGOT     Saeed Jones, in his book How We Fight for Our Lives , states "You never forget your first faggot."        I couldn't agree more.   But then again, you don't forget the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth...      I'm 36 today.  I've been called a faggot for twenty years now.   Less often these days in person, but online it continues.      It's not always thrown at me in English.  Last week it was mostly in Arabic due to this post on Instagram .  I now know the Arabic word for faggot now: لوطي (luti, from "the people of Lot").       And I know it in French, obviously: pédé (from pederast, nice...)  It has been hollered at me on the bus here in Switzerland and on the streets of Paris.  Behind my back, naturally.  Always behind my back.     I know it in Dutch, as even on the libertine streets of Amsterdam I was call...

  Guest Post: A Swiss Transgender Voice     Switzerland is not always a land of openness towards ideas that are considered new or foreign.  Just three examples:     1. Women were only granted the right to vote in 1971 on a national level and in 1991 in one last Canton.( 1 )     2. Switzerland has not yet, as of January 2021, legalized same-sex marriage.     3. Switzerland did not join the United Nations until September 2002.     So I present today's guest post with gratitude towards Gabrielle. It cannot always be easy to be a transgender woman in a relatively conservative country.  Let us see what she has to say, in French, with an English translation below.  As you will see from the post below, the last line is, unfortunately, what I find to be the typical reaction here in Switzerland.  But things are changing, slowly. Bonjour, je m’appelle Gabrielle (prénom d’emprunt). Je suis une femm...