I Support Team Melli Too

Besides Scotland, I am unabashedly rooting for Iran in the grandest stage in global football. 

Not because of goals. Not because of stars. But because I watched what Team Melli went through – and admired how they still showed up. Respect is earned in moments like these. 🧡🧡🧡

Iran is the ultimate underdog. Despite consistently holding a Top-20 spot in the ⁠FIFA Men's World Rankings, they've historically struggled to advance past the group stage. 

But more importantly, I'm backing them because they continue to fight and compete at an elite level, even while navigating unprecedented off-pitch hurdles and restrictive external conditions. [Read my post "The Most Oppressed Team at the World Cup" published Monday]. 

There is a modicum of good news though. Iran's football team have been given extra time in the United States to prepare for their last group fixture. The US Department of Homeland Security have come out to say that Iran has been allowed to travel to Seattle in Washington State two days before their match against Egypt on Friday – giving them an extra day beyond the 24-hour window they'd been granted for their first two games. 

But their players are still required to return to their base camp in Tijuana, Mexico, after the match. 

According to BBC on Tuesday, this change came after the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran (commonly abbreviated as FFIRI) said, on June 19, they planned to lodge an official complaint with FIFA over what they described as unfair treatment in the United States.

The above aside, Iran's football federation reported the following day that their team’s flight to Seattle was delayed by 25 minutes as star forward Mehdi Taremi and assistant coach Saeed Alhoei were held up for an undisclosed reason. 

As if the crises currently strangling the Iranian team were not catastrophic enough, today's fixture between Iran and the Pharaohs has drawn global attention and significant international tension as it overlaps with Seattle's annual Pride Weekend. 

Because homosexuality is criminalized in both competing nations, the matchup was branded by the city's local organizing committee as a "Pride Match" to promote inclusivity, sparking protests and raised concerns from the Iranian and Egyptian governments. 

In fact, FIFA have given the green light for fans to bring rainbow flags into the stadium, classifying the symbol as one of human rights rather than a political slogan.

The abject failure of the global governing body for football to protect Iran from relentless political distractions and unfair travel restrictions severely compromises the fundamental spirit of the game.

Shame on you, FIFA! 😡😡😡

Russia Bans Roblox over LGBT Propaganda and Extremist Content

US gaming platform Roblox has officially been banned in Russia after the country’s media watchdog said they had identified “mass and repeated distribution” of illegal materials, including extremist content and LGBTQ propaganda. 

Roblox is an online gaming platform with more than 150 million daily active users, marketed largely toward children, where players create their own games, join worlds built by others, and interact across a shared virtual environment. 

On Wednesday, Russia’s Roskomnadzor announced that they would be blocking access to Roblox servers, stating that the platform’s content may harm the “spiritual and moral development of children”. 

The watchdog cited the presence of sexually explicit interactions, harassment, and attempts by adults to contact minors inside Roblox’s chat features. Additionally, the regulator said Roblox has hosted material “promoting and justifying extremist and terrorist activity, calls for violent crimes, and LGBT propaganda”. 

Russian legislators had previously warned that the platform is popular among predators who approach minors in-game before attempting to move conversations offline, pointing to multiple reports of sexual harassment and solicitation. 

Roskomnadzor noted that they have repeatedly notified Roblox since 2019 about prohibited material and concluded that its internal moderation systems have been unable to ensure full safety on the platform. 

The ban comes as Roblox has faced wider scrutiny internationally. Last month, in the US, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit accusing the company of “flagrantly ignoring” safety laws and “deceiving parents”, calling Roblox a “breeding ground for predators” and alleging it puts “pixel paedophiles and corporate profit” over child safety. Kentucky and Louisiana have launched similar suits. 

The platform has similarly been banned in Iraq and Türkiye over concerns about exploitation and inappropriate content. Roblox also came under scrutiny in Singapore in 2023 after regulators said a self-radicalised teenager had joined ISIS-themed servers on the platform. 

Roblox has said it is “disappointed” to be sued based on “misrepresentations and sensationalized claims”, insisting it has a “deep commitment to safety” and uses extensive monitoring systems, text filtering and age-verification measures. 

A day later, Russia blocked Apple's video-calling app FaceTime. The state communications watchdog had alleged it is being used for criminal activity. And Snapchat too. Roskomnadzor said they took action on October 10, even though they only reported the move on Thursday.

A Bakery's "Faith-based Convictions" Are "Intentionally Discriminatory"

In the US, an appeals court ruled last week in a suit brought by California's Civil Rights Department that the owner of a bakery who refused to sell a generic wedding cake to a lesbian couple in 2017 violated the law.

The case stemmed from the marriage of Eileen and Mireya Rodriguez-Del Rio, who visited Tastries bakery in Bakersfield to buy a cake for their wedding in August 2017. 

The couple spoke with an employee and selected a pre-designed plain, white, three-tiered cake that the bakery often sells for various celebrations including birthdays and baby showers, according to court filings. 

When the couple returned with friends and family for a tasting the following week, Tastries’ owner Catharine Miller refused to sell the cake upon learning it would be served at a same-sex wedding. 

Miller is a devout Christian who also refuses to make cakes depicting marijuana use or sexual imagery. She later told the courts she has a bakery policy stating that “wedding cakes must not contradict God’s sacrament of marriage between a man and a woman”. 

The couple filed a complaint with the state Civil Rights Department, which sued Miller in 2018. Miller, who is represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, argued her policy was based on her religious beliefs about marriage, not hostility toward LGBTQ people.

A Kern County judge sided with her, ruling that Miller’s policy did not violate the state’s Unruh Civil Rights Act because it applies to all customers, and because Miller referred the couple to another bakery that had previously agreed to sell cakes to same-sex couples (but which the Rodriguez-Del Rios had already ruled out). 

The state appealed the decision last year, and a three-judge panel of the 5th Appellate District reversed it in a unanimous ruling. The judges ruled Miller’s policy is not neutral because it could only apply to customers on the basis of their sexual orientation. They also ruled that reproducing a plain cake with no writing or decorations that Miller would have sold to anyone else does not count as being forced to express support for a same-sex wedding. 

“Drawing the contours of protected speech to include routinely produced, ordinary commercial products as the artistic self-expression of the designer is unworkably overbroad”, the judges wrote. 

Miller, through a spokesperson at the Becket Fund, declined to comment. In a statement, her attorney and Becket Fund vice president Eric Rassbach said Miller would continue to run the bakery while they appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.

Berjaya Food Bhd reported Friday their fifth straight quarterly loss, blaming pro-Palestine boycott against American brands as the reasons behind their financial struggles. 

The group, which operate the Starbucks and Kenny Rogers franchise in Malaysia, reported a pre-tax loss of RM67.09 million in the six-month period ending December 31, 2024. Their pre-tax revenue in that period was RM247.3 million – a whopping 46 percent steep fall from RM461.09 million in the same period the previous year.

LEGO Is Anti-LGBT

The LEGO brick is anti-LGBT and promotes the idea that there are only two genders, an exhibition at the Science Museum in the UK has claimed, according to a February 06, 2025 report in The Telegraph. 

Titled "Stories of Queer Communities, Experiences and Identities", a self-guided tour at the London-based museum includes a display of Lego bricks and a message, supporting the argument that the toy item can be against the idea of inclusion. 

"The top of the brick with sticking out pins is male, the bottom of the brick with holes to receive the pins is female, and the process of the two sides being put together is called mating", it states, without adding any source that people consider Lego to be gendered, or that sticking bricks together is called "mating". 

The museum claim this is "an example of applying heteronormative language to topics unrelated to gender, sex and reproduction". Notably, the tour has been put together by the Gender and Sexuality Network, a group of staff and volunteers who say they are “committed to creating more visibility and inclusion for the LGBTQ+ community in the Science Museum”. 

 Of course, the Internet reacts. 

"Stop seeing things 'queerly'. Problem solved", said one user. 

Another added: "What about magnets? They have two poles! Magnets are transphobic! What about batteries? They have an anode and a cathode! Batteries are transphobic!" 

A third commented: "Are they going to make nonbinary Lego parts now?"

A much-changed Celtic – Brendan Rodgers brought nine players into the starting line-up – eased past Raith Rovers 5-0 in the Scottish Cup fifth round yesterday. 

Daizen Maeda opened the scoring on six minutes and added a second just before the interval (45+3), before Luke McCowan struck just after the restart (47) and Yang Hyun-jun added a fourth in the fifty-sixth minute. And Maeda completed his hat-trick from McCowan's fine assist in the seventy-seventh minute.

Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich are next up at Parkhead in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Queer Courses in US Varsities

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't realise that increasingly, more and more US tertiary institutions are starting to offer queer courses until I came across a New York Post news article "Princeton to offer classes on erotic dance, sex work, and ‘queer spaces’" on Tuesday. 

 

[Note: Queer studies, sexual diversity studies, or LGBTQ+ studies refer to the study of topics relating to gender identity and sexual orientation].

 

Princeton University, one of the most prestigious institutions in the US, are introducing courses on traditionally taboo subjects as part of their spring 2025 semester curriculum, according to their published online course listing.

 

The offerings, part of the school’s gender and sexuality studies program, will cover topics such as queer theory, prostitution, pornography, sex tourism, and architectural histories viewed through feminist and LGBTQ+ perspectives.

 

One course called "Love: Anthropological Explorations" is said to explore links between love and technology, gender, race, law, capitalism, colonialism, and religion. Another course on prostitution, "Power, Profit and Pleasure: Sex Workers and Sex Work", is pitched as a discussion about sex workers and their clients, and will cover stigmatization and controversies regarding the topic, as well as race, class, and queer dynamics. And a course on "Queer Spaces in the World" will delve into the history of “groups and institutions that have actively resisted dominant regimes of power” and analyze institutional and historical power dynamics through gender-related theories.

 

Stanford University in California, announced last week a course called "Queer Electronic Music Composition", which will focus on LGBTQ+ contributions to electronic music and creative projects. 

 

The University of Chicago’s 2023-2024 program had included a religious studies course called "Queering God", which was promoted as applying LGBTQ+ ideology to different religions. 

 

Even Texas Christian University offered a "Queer Art of Drag" class last year that required students to create a “drag persona” and “engage queer theories in relation to performance practice”.

 

I'm sure there are many more colleges and universities offering queer courses too. 

 

I suppose these queer courses help promote diversity, equity and inclusion. But they also aim to dismantle traditional assumptions about gender and sexual identities. And if you don't already know, DEI is a big thing in the US and Western societies in general.

 

To many people, DEI goes beyond addressing gender and race discrimination as it prominently focuses on LGBTQ+ issues just as much, if not more.  

 

In any case, some sections of American society are staging a fightback. And so, DEI programs in higher education have been targeted by a wave of anti-DEI legislation and political pressure: 

• Number of bills. Since 2023, more than 85 anti-DEI bills have been proposed in 28 states, and 14 have become law. 
• States with DEI bans. Florida, North Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas have signed laws banning DEI initiatives.

UK's NHS Staff to Ask Men If They're Pregnant

UK health authorities have instructed doctors performing X-ray, CT and MRI scans to ask men whether they are pregnant. 

 

The “inclusive pregnancy status guidelines for ionizing radiation” were developed by the Society of Radiographers (SoR). According to The Telegraph on August 11, 2024, the guidance came in response to an incident in which a transgender man had a CT scan while pregnant. The decision was justified by the fact that the radiation from X-ray, CT and MRI scans can be harmful to unborn babies. 

 

Doctors have therefore been told not to assume the gender identity of patients when performing all such procedures and inquiring of all people between the ages of 12 and 55 about pregnancy, including men, transgender, non-binary, and intersex patients.

 

Under the new guidance, patients are asked to fill out a form with a list of questions, including their sex at birth and fertility status. According to some X-ray specialists who spoke to The Telegraph on condition of anonymity, the questions have already been deemed “invasive” by many patients. 

 

Doctors reported that men have reacted especially angrily to the forms, storming out of appointments at the implied suggestion that their gender was not obvious.

 

Another controversial aspect of the guidance is asking patients by which pronouns they would like to be addressed. Some parents of underage patients have reportedly been “furious” that their kids were asked their preferred names and pronouns – a question that confuses them – while one doctor revealed that a patient started to doubt their own gender identity after filling out the form.

 

Some doctors and human rights campaigners said they considered the new guidelines “humiliating” to patients, and said they have already appealed to the NHS to drop the system and “return to common sense”. 

 

“Given that it is impossible for anyone of the male sex to become pregnant, there is no need to ask male people if they might be pregnant… The proposed radiography guidelines muddy the water by including so-called intersex conditions”, Dr Louise Irvine told The Telegraph.

 

“The SoR’s inclusion policy is among the worst examples of professional bodies losing their senses by prioritizing ideology ahead of biological fact. Putting healthcare staff and male patients through this humiliating farce… is both inappropriate and a shocking waste of time”, Fiona McAnena, the head of campaigns at human rights charity Sex Matters, stated.

 

The guidance claims the proportion of British adults “identifying as trans or non-binary [is] as high as 4.5 percent”, despite Office for National Statistic census data putting it at only 0.5 percent. 

 

It says a further 1.7 percent of people are intersex, which is thought to be the situation with Olympic medal-winning boxers, Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting – read my August 05, 2024 post "Gender Eligibility of 2 Athletes Called into Question in Women's Boxing" – who purportedly have XY chromosomes, known also as differences of sex development (DSD).

 

It is not known how widespread their use is – but it is understood multiple hospitals in London, the North West and North East are using variations of the form. Insiders claimed the SoR were “pushing a national rollout” and “keeps doing training sessions”, with the guidance “slowly creeping in” across NHS hospitals.

Woke Olympics Opening Ceremony in Paris

Olympics opening ceremonies typically feature culture. And the 2024 Summer Olympics is no different. 

 

But it's not what you would expect! The XXXIII Olympiad and branded as Paris 2024 promotes a different type of culture. 

 

On Friday, a performance which parodied Leonardo Da Vinci's famous fresco 'The Last Supper' featuring drag queens in the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris sparked outright indignation and fury among Christians while supporters praised its message of tolerance. 

 

It was a recreation of the well-known biblical scene of Jesus Christ and his twelve apostles sharing a last meal before crucifixion, but with a group of drag queens, a transgender model and a naked singer painted blue all over, and with only vines covering his genitals – derisively referred to as "Blue Scrotum" on social media platforms – and who supposedly represented the Greek god of wine Dionysus. 

 

On X, @VincentOshana described it as an "abomination": "The opening ceremony of the Olympics mocked Jesus by recreating 'The Last Supper' with drag queens, a gay Smurf, and a few children sprinkled in there just for fun. Clearly overt pagan, satanic symbolism".

 

Gustavo Marval @gnmarval added: "They’re not even hiding it anymore". 

 

Florida Cracker @realfloridacrac: "Wtf is going on in the world?"

 

MPBe1 @bellone_melissa: "Honestly my eyes are tired of seeing these perversions constantly".

 

The Catholic church in France too criticised the segment. 

 

"This ceremony has unfortunately included scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity, which we very deeply deplore", the Conference of French bishops said in a statement.

 

All I can say is that the Frenchies have entirely given themselves over to debauchery.

 

Note that France, while proud of its rich Catholic heritage, has a long tradition of secularism and anti-clericalism. Blasphemy is not only legal, but also considered by many as an essential pillar of freedom of speech in a democratic society.

 

As Thomas Jolly, artistic director of the opening ceremony, said: "We are lucky in France to live in a free country".

A Hate Crime Law That Divides

A ferocious debate is raging across social media, legal chambers, police stations and Scottish politics. A hate crime law was meant to protect against prejudice. It ended up sowing further division.

 

Scotland’s Hate Crime and Public Order Act came into force on April 01, 2024, a contentious law that expands existing legislation to include transgender identity as a protected characteristic from hate crimes. 

 

“We must remember why this Bill is so necessary, every day in Scotland around 18 hate crimes are committed”, Scottish First Minister – then Justice Secretary – Humza Yousaf (left) said when the act was passed back in 2021, citing the government’s estimated figures at the time. 

 

“Through the passing of this landmark Bill, Parliament has sent a strong and clear message to victims, perpetrators, communities and to wider society that offences motivated by prejudice will be treated seriously and will not be tolerated”, he exclaimed. 

 

Supporters of the law believe it will provide much-needed protection for the marginalized and regularly vilified transgender community, while critics say it will stifle free speech and even threaten hard-won women’s rights. The two sides are at loggerheads, online and offline. 

 

Before Scottish lawmakers passed the bill, laws already existed across the United Kingdom to criminalize “stirring up hatred” against racial identity. This new legislation introduces offenses for hate crimes against more characteristics, including age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity and variations in sex characteristics. 

 

Biological sex, however, is not included. The government explain this is because they intend to put a separate bill criminalizing misogyny before the Scottish parliament at a later date. 

 

According to Susan Smith (left), the director of For Women Scotland, a gender-critical feminist campaign group, this creates an “inequality” within the law. 

 

“I think for a lot of people, this idea of having certain characteristics plucked out means you elevate or you give certain people a protection that others lack”, she maintained. 

 

Another major concern for those who oppose the Hate Crime Act is the supposed lack of clarity on what type of behavior could constitute an offense under the new law. Section 3 makes it an offense to behave in a manner or communicate material “that a reasonable person would consider to be threatening or abusive” with the intention of stirring up hatred. 

 

“The test for ‘threatening’ is obviously much, much higher than the test for ‘abusive’”, Smith said. “What somebody sees as abusive varies from person to person”.

 

Those convicted under the new law could face up to seven years in prison, and/or a fine. 

 

Liverpool suffer a shock home defeat to Atalanta in the Europa League quarter-final first leg! The Serie A side properly whacked them 3-0 yesterday and tbh, the Reds were genuinely fortunate that it wasn't more. Liverpool now face a humongous battle to stick around in the second-tier competition of European club football! 

 

Gian Piero Gasperini (right) has absolutely schooled Jürgen Klopp on Thursday. An average team, in poor form, coming to Anfield and absolutely pissing all over us! 

 

For sure, this wasn't part of the script and Liverpool only have themselves to blame.

 

Home to Crystal Palace on Sunday, nothing but three points will be acceptable if we’re to stay in the title race, if we’re even to make it a race in fact. And then it’s off to Italy for the second leg and a Brobdingnagian job to do.

One in 4 Gen Zers in the US Identify as LGBTQ

More than one in four (28%) Americans between the ages of 18 and 25, known as Generation Z, identified as LGBTQ in a survey published earlier this week by the Public Religion Research Institute. 

 

The figure was the largest percentage recorded for any generation by the pollsters, which conducted their research during August and September on a sample of over 6,600 people. 

 

Nearly half of the non-heterosexual Gen Zers said they were bisexual, amounting to 15% of all Gen Z adults. Gays and lesbians (5% of total) were outnumbered by “other” (8%). 

 

Generation Z were far more likely to identify as something other than straight than previous generations! 

Researchers also found that Gen Z adults were more ethnically and racially diverse than older generations and less likely to affiliate with established religions. 

 

While the PRRI’s numbers echoed previous surveys showing Generation Z were the most LGBT and liberal group to come of age in the US yet, the percentage who identified as something other than heterosexual was significantly higher in this week’s findings than in a similar poll by Gallup last year, which found 19.7% of Gen Z adults aged 18 to 26 self-identified as LGBTQ, compared to 7.2% of the general population.

 

My post "Texas Governor Declares Texas Law Supercedes US Federal Authority" published yesterday refers.

 

A total of 25 state governors have now backed Texas in an intensifying standoff with their federal government over illegal immigration. There's no denying it is a damn serious issue because in December alone, a record 300,000-plus people had crossed the border from Mexico into the United States.

 

It’s no coincidence that the surge in border traffic has been accompanied by increases in child trafficking and drug trafficking. Fentanyl transported across the border by drug cartels is killing thousands of Americans every month. More than 112,000 Americans died from drug overdoses between May 2022 and May 2023, primarily from fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. At the same time, there has been a 56-fold increase in the number of Border Patrol encounters with people who had been flagged on the US terrorist watch list. 

 

I suppose this is why many Americans don't refer to it as a migrant crisis, but rather label it as an "invasion".

Canada Warning to LGBTQ+ Travelers

Canada has issued a new travel warning to its LGBTQ+ citizens planning to visit the United States. 

 

It is claimed that anti-LGBTQ+ protests in the US rose 30-fold last year compared with 2017, while legal moves to restrict LGBTQ+ rights are on the rise. 

 

Global Affairs Canada warned that some state laws may affect them on their travels, but did not specify where. 

 

These type of warnings are usually reserved for countries such as Uganda, Russia or Egypt.

 

Their US travel advice page reads:

The term 2SLGBTQI+ is widely used in Canada for people who consider themselves two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning or intersex. 

 

A spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada pointed to US laws targeting the transgender community. 

 

"Since the beginning of 2023, certain states in the US have passed laws banning drag shows and restricting the transgender community from access to gender-affirming care and from participation in sporting events", they told CBC News. 

 

In March, Tennessee's governor signed laws banning drag performances in front of children and restricting medical treatment for transgender youth. Two months later, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed bills banning children from undergoing transgender medical treatments or going to drag shows, and restricting pronoun use in classrooms. 

 

Hundreds of similar regulations on LGBTQ+ issues have been proposed in conservative-run states across the US. 

 

The Human Rights Campaign, the LGBTQ+ community's largest advocacy group in the US, said in June that LGBTQ+ Americans were facing a state of emergency as states continue targeting them with legislation.

A Rainbow Swatch Can Mean a 3-year Jail Term

Malaysia on Thursday banned Swatch watches and accessories with LGBTQ+ references and made possessing them punishable by up to three years in prison, a fine of up to RM20,000 or both, if convicted. 

 

The government said the ban is in line with provisions under Section 7 of the Printing Presses and Publications Act – they maintained that normalizing the gay community may harm the nation. 

 

“The Malaysian government (are) committed to preventing the spread of elements that are harmful or may harm morality, public interest and the country… or national interest, by promoting, supporting, and normalizing the LGBTQ+ movement that is not accepted by the general public in Malaysia”, the ministry declared. 

 

They did not specify which Swatch watches they banned, but in May, they seized 172 timepieces from the 2023 Pride collection (re: “Swatch's Pride Watches Impounded” published May 23, 2023).

World Bank Punish Uganda for Anti-Gay Law

On March 21, 2023, Uganda's parliament passed the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023, a law that would criminalise identifying as LGBTQ. 

 

And on May 29, the country's president, Yoweri Museveni (right) signed what has been described as one of the world's toughest anti-LGBTQ legislations into law, drawing Western condemnation and risking sanctions from aid donors. 

 

Same-sex relations were already illegal in Uganda, as in more than 30 African countries, but the new law goes further. It stipulates capital punishment for "serial offenders" against the law and transmission of a terminal illness like HIV/AIDS through gay sex. It also decrees a 20-year sentence for "promoting" homosexuality. 

 

As expected, the World Bank announced a halt to new funding for Uganda, citing the said law as the reason for the decision. 

 

“We believe our vision to eradicate poverty on a liveable planet can only succeed if it includes everyone irrespective of race, gender, or sexuality. This law undermines those efforts. Inclusion and non-discrimination sit at the heart of our work around the world”, the global financing body stated on Tuesday. 

 

Uganda's state minister for foreign affairs, Okello Oryem, accused the bank of hypocrisy, claiming that they had been "put under pressure by the usual imperialists". 

 

"There are many Middle East countries who do not tolerate homosexuals, they actually hang and execute homosexuals, in the United States of America many states have passed laws that are either against or restrict activities of homosexuality... So why pick on Uganda?" Reuters quoted Oryem as saying.

Iraqi Prohibition of Homosexuality Term

Iraq’s Communications and Media Commission yesterday directed all media and social media companies in the country not to use the term “homosexuality” and instead replace it with “sexual deviance”. 

 

The media regulator also prohibited the use of the term “gender”. 

 

Iraq does not explicitly criminalise gay sex but loosely defined morality clauses in its penal code have been used to target members of the LGBT community. 

 

FYI, more than 60 countries criminalise gay sex, while same-sex sexual acts are legal in more than 130 countries, according to Our World in Data.

The Queer Tale of Barbie-Ken

A contentious social media influencer from UK who spent £250,000 to look like Barbie is revealing he's “de-transitioned” from Barbie and switched to wanting to look like her beau Ken. 

Now “living as Ken”, Oli London predictably shocked fans with his new image, after his 2022 change to a Barbie guise as a gender fluid trans woman, and just a few years after he'd revealed he'd spent over £75,000 on surgeries to look like K-pop star, Jimin from South Korean boyband BTS. 

He asserts he regrets his surgeries – he has had around 32 different cosmetic procedures which has left him “paralysed with facial muscle movements” and a painful lockjaw, the first being a nose job aged 23 in Korea. 

Oli has undergone many invasive facial surgeries such as six nose jobs, jaw surgery, and cat-eye surgery to give a more feminine eye look and claims they have been fueled by his own body issues from being bullied from a young age as well as social media. 

Having de-transitioned back to male, Oli says he is happy with his Ken look with a smaller nose and eyes. 

"I have six titanium brackets with 24 screws inside my chin and cheeks holding the bones together so sometimes I get jaw lock when I yawn and it's really painful", he explains. 

Despite forking out a quarter of a million pounds to look like his idol Barbie, Oli claims he now feels better about himself as Ken. 

He admits: "When I transitioned to being a woman, I had all of this praise and love but something was missing inside. I thought all my personal struggles were because of my gender identity, but then I realised it wasn't. I had some therapy and went to church. Doing all this surgery doesn't make me happy". 

I can’t help wondering what’s next for him!

Woke Military

The US military are becoming woke. 

 

It began in earnest when President Joe Biden signed an executive order repealing the Trump-era transgender military service ban in his first week in office in January 2021. 

 

Under Biden’s new policy which went into effect on April 30, 2021, individuals who identify as transgender, and have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, will not only be allowed to serve in the US military, but will have their “gender transitions” paid for by American taxpayers. 

 

In fact, facing declining enlistment numbers, the military are already making it very easy for just about anybody to “qualify” for military service. One area where standards have been lowered is physical fitness. 

 

The Army have lowered their “minimum passing standard for push-ups to an unimpressive total of 10 and increased their minimum two-mile run time from 19 to 23 minutes. And the Space Force are considering doing away with periodic fitness testing altogether”, according to the Heritage Foundation (Washington Examiner, May 17, 2023). 

 

And now, transgender soldiers experiencing negative side effects from hormone treatment, can even be granted waivers from physical fitness standards. 

 

Not to be outdone, the Navy have turned to a gender-fluid drag queen, Harpy Daniels (left) to be the face of their recruiting program in an effort to be more inclusive. 

 

It does appear that the US military are being used for experiments in woke social policies. And both the civilian and military leadership have actively and ardently adopted diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at the expense of the military’s war-fighting mission and organizational well-being. Wokeism is suddenly the name of the game.

 

I can just visualise drag queens prepping themselves up and getting ready before they do battle.

 

Swatch Sue Malaysian Government

Swiss watchmaker Swatch have filed a lawsuit against the Malaysian government for seizing timepieces from their LGBTQ-themed Pride collection, the company’s lawyer said Monday. 

 

The move comes after 172 watches were impounded in May by the home affairs ministry's law enforcement unit because they featured "LGBT elements". [Read my post “Swatch's Pride Watches Impounded” published May 23, 2023]. 

 

In Malaysia, homosexual activity is illegal under both secular and religious laws. 

 

Anyway, Swatch insisted in their June 24 lawsuit that the watches were "not in any way capable of causing any disruption to public order or morality or any violations of the law". Furthermore, they maintained the watches "did not promote any sexual activity, but merely a fun and joyous expression of peace and love". 

 

In their promotional campaign for the Pride-themed watches, Swatch describe them as "loud, proud, uplifting and bursting with meaning". And they refer to the six-stripe Pride flag as "a symbol of humanity that speaks for all genders and all races". 

 

Swatch are seeking compensation – including in the form of aggravated and exemplary damages – and the return of 172 watches worth RM64,795 ($14,200). 

 

The lawsuit names the home affairs ministry and the government of Malaysia as respondents. Home Affairs Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has yet to comment publicly on the matter.

Dodgers' Community Hero Award for The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

Only in America. 

 

A major league baseball team, Los Angeles Dodgers reversed their decision to cancel a San Francisco drag queen group to their annual Pride Night event. They not only offered The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (left) an apology – but they proceeded to re-invite them. 

 

The said LGBTQ+ advocacy group made up of queer and trans performers who dress as nuns and mock religious imagery like the crucifixion, had been conferred the Community Hero Award from the team during the Dodgers’ June 16 game against the San Francisco Giants. 

 

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence had been specially singled out for this honor. And a week earlier, they were also honored by the California state legislature. 

 

That’s not all. Anaheim mayor Ashleigh Aitken too invited the pretend-nuns to join the Pride Night organized by the Los Angeles Angels, the area’s other MLB team on June 07, 2023. 

 

Predictably, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops were justly upset and they issued an official statement: "Catholic Christians traditionally recognize June as the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. During this time, we call to mind Christ's love for us, which is visible in a special way in the image of His pierced heart, and we pray that our own hearts might be conformed to His, calling us to love and respect all His people. 

 

This year, on June 16 – the day of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus – a professional baseball team (have) shockingly chosen to honor a group whose lewdness and vulgarity in mocking our Lord, His Mother, and consecrated women cannot be overstated. This is not just offensive and painful to Christians everywhere; it is blasphemy". 

 

As Brian Burch, the president of CatholicVote, a political advocacy group, describes the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to Fox News: "This is an anti-Catholic hate group of homosexual men that dress up as Catholic nuns and engage in blasphemous and sacrilegious activities such as blessing themselves with sex toys, pole dancing on a cross, and inverting the words of Christ saying ‘go and sin some more’". 

 

Burch added that it was "very shocking" that the team chose to award a group whose advocacy goals are not in line with those of their fan base. Over 30% of adults living in the Los Angeles metro area identify as Catholic, according to Pew Research Center. 

 

The Dodgers are just one of many corporate entities – others include Budweiser, Disney, Target, and Ford to name a few – that willfully embraced pro-LGBTQ+ marketing or product decisions and their staunch woke positions are alienating their mainstream customers.

Pride Colors

June is #Pridemonth. In case you didn't know, this is the most colorful month of the year since the LGBTQ+ pride is celebrated. 

 

The RAINBOW flag is used widely but it is not the only flag that people in the community connect with. In fact, there are more than 20 different Pride Flags! 

 

The 14 more common ones are:

 

Gilbert Pride Flag

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The flag that started it all! Created in 1977 by Gilbert Baker, an artist, activist, and openly gay military veteran, the rainbow flag has eight different colors. 

 

Inspired by the classic song "Over the Rainbow" from the 1939 film “The Wizard from Oz”, Baker created a rainbow flag to represent LGBTQ folks. Each color in the flag also had a specific meaning:

Hot Pink symbolizes sex 
Red equals life 
Orange symbolizes healing 
Yellow stands for sunlight 
Green represents nature
Turquoise equals magic & art
Indigo stands for serenity 
Violet represents the spirit of LGBTQ people

6-Color Pride Flag 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 6-Color Pride Flag is one of the most well-known and used LGBT flags throughout history. 

 

This flag includes the colors red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, and violet on it. Hot pink wasn´t included in the fabrication of these flags, because the fabric was hard to find. 

 

In 1979, the flag was modified again. Aiming to decorate the streetlamps along the parade route with hundreds of rainbow banners, Gilbert Baker decided to split the motif in two with an even number of stripes flanking each lamp pole. 

 

To achieve this effect, he dropped the turquoise stripe that had been used in the seven-stripe flag. The result was the six-stripe version of the flag that would become the standard for future production. 

 

Philadelphia Pride Flag 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Philadelphia Pride Flag came out in response to the demand of more inclusivity across the LGBTQ+ community. The flag launched in 2017 as part of the "More Color More Pride" campaign in Philadelphia and was designed by a small Philly-based PR agency. 

 

The addition of black and brown stripes to the traditional pride flag symbolized people of color, who historically were not always included in aspects of the mainstream gay rights movement. 

 

Lena Waithe, an American actress, wore the Philadelphia Pride Flag as a cape at the 2018 Met Gala. She is a powerful advocate for black people within the entertainment industry and this flag spiked in popularity after she elevated its visibility. 

 

Transgender Flag 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Transgender Flag was first created in 1999 by Monica Helms, a transgender woman. 

 

Light blue and pink are featured because they’re the traditional colors associated with baby boys and girls, respectively. The white stands for those who are intersex, transitioning or those who don´t feel identified with any gender. 

 

Progress Pride Flag 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Given the evolving nature of the LGBTQ+ community and society at large, the Progress Pride Flag integrates many of these flags into one. 

 

The modern pride flag now includes stripes to represent the experiences of people of color, as well as stripes to represent people who identify as transgender, gender nonconforming (GNC) and/or undefined. 

 

Daniel Quasar’s flag includes the colors of the trans flag, as well as black and brown stripes harkening back to 2017 Philadelphia Pride Flag, which sought to further represent the queer and trans identities of black and brown people. Those two stripes also represent those living with HIV/AIDS, people who have passed from the virus and the overall stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS that remains today. 

 

Nonbinary Flag 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 2014, Kye Rowan created the Nonbinary Pride Flag to represent people whose gender identity does not fit within the traditional male/female binary. 

 

The colors of the nonbinary flag are yellow, white, purple, and black. The colors each symbolize a different subgroup of people who identify as nonbinary. 

 

Yellow signifies something on its own or people who identify outside of the cisgender binary of male or female. A cisgender person would be a person whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth. White, a color that consists of all colors mixed, stands for multi-gendered people. Purple, like the lavender color in the genderqueer flag, represents people who identify as a blending of male and female genders. Finally, black (the absence of color) signifies those who are agender, who feel they do not have a gender. 

 

Generally-speaking, non-binary/genderqueer people use gender-neutral pronouns. Usage of singular 'they', 'their' and 'them' is the most common. 

 

Intersex Flag 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This flag went through a number of iterations before the current Intersex Flag emerged. Previous versions embraced the rainbow that is often associated with queer pride, while others used colors like blue and pink, which are found on the transgender flag. In 2013, Morgan Carpenter chose the colors yellow and purple for the intersex flag. 

 

Morgan moved away from the rainbow symbolism and selected these colors because neither is associated with the social constructs of the gender binary. The circle is claimed to represent the wholeness of intersex people and that, supposedly, intersex people are perfect the way they are or choose to be. 

 

Asexual Flag 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Flag for the Asexual Community was created in 2010 by the Asexual Visibility and Education Network. Asexual is the lack of sexual attraction to others, or a low interest in sexual activity, but it is said asexuality can mean different things to different people. 

 

It seems that for some people, it may even mean that they rely on other types of attraction instead of or in place of sexual attraction. 

 

Asexual can be an umbrella term and each color in this flag also represents something unique. Black stands for asexuality. Gray represents demisexuality, for those who develop sexual attraction to someone only after forming a deep emotional bond with them. White stands for the allies of the community. Purple represents the entire community of asexual folks. 

 

Bisexual Flag 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bisexual Pride Flag was created in 1998 by Michael Page. His idea for the flag represents pink and blue blending to make purple. The way that bisexual people can blend into the straight community and the gay community. 

 

The colors of the flag also represent attraction to different genders. The pink symbolizes attraction to the same gender, while the blue represents attraction to a different gender. The purple represents attraction to two or more genders, the definition of bisexuality. 

 

Pansexual Flag 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This flag was created in 2010. Pansexuality represents those people who feel attracted to a person without thinking about gender. 

 

Pansexual people may refer to themselves as gender-blind, asserting that gender and sex are not determining factors in their romantic or sexual attraction to others. This means that they can feel attraction to those who identify as women, men, both or neither. 

 

The pink on the flag represents attraction to women, blue represents attraction to men, and yellow stands for attraction to those who don’t identify with either gender. 

 

Pansexuality may be considered a sexual orientation or a branch of bisexuality, to indicate an alternative sexual identity. 

 

Because pansexual people are open to relationships with people who do not identify as strictly men or women, and pansexuality therefore rejects the gender binary, it is often considered a more inclusive term than bisexual. 

 

Lesbian Flag 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This flag features different shades of pink and sometimes comes with a red kiss on it to represent lipstick lesbians (or femme lesbians and whose appearance and behavior are seen as traditionally feminine). 

 

This flag was created by Natalie McCray in 2010. Some lesbians oppose this flag because of its exclusion of butch lesbians (most often a term used to describe a lesbian who exhibits a masculine identity) – but no other flag has as much popularity as this one. 

 

In the new flag, the colors represent the following:

Darkest Orange: Gender nonconformity

Middle Orange: Independence 

Lightest Orange: Community 

White: Unique relationships to womanhood 

Lightest Pink: Serenity and peace 

Middle Pink: Love and sex 

Darkest Pink: Femininity 

Abrosexual Flag 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Abrosexual Pride Flag has existed since 2015. The flag was created by Mod Chad of pride-flags-for-us after another anonymous person requested it. It is unknown why this person chose these colors specifically. 

 

Abrosexual refers to an individual whose sexuality is changing or fluid. E.g., someone could be gay one day, then be asexual the next, then polysexual the next. While it has been claimed that it is possible – and even common – for a person's sexual identity to shift or change in some way throughout their life, an abrosexual person's sexuality may change more frequently, over the course of hours, days, months, or years! 

 

Gay Men’s Pride Flag 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Gay Men’s Pride Flag is another lesser known pride flag. It features different shades of green, blue, and purple. 

 

This modern gay men’s pride flag is a revamp of an earlier gay men’s pride flag that featured a range of blue tones. That version was problematic because it used colors that were stereotypical of the gender binary. 

 

This updated flag is inclusive of a much wide range of gay men, including but not limited to transgender, intersex, and gender nonconforming men. 

 

Heterosexual Pride Flag 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Straight is most viewed as men attracted to women and women attracted to men. The term "straight" is used to describe for both straight men and straight women. 

 

While straight is often used to describe non-LGBT people it is said that it is possible for straight people to be part of the LGBT community. E.g., they might be transgender. They also might be, asexual heteroromantic, or aromantic heterosexual, which also makes them LGBT. 

 

However, some believe “straight pride” events are simply the latest manifestation of anti-LGBTQ bigotry.