They call it the “eighth wonder of the world,” and the ultimate tourist attraction. It’s Palm Jumeirah, a huge human-made island off the coast of Dubai in the shape of a palm tree. Must be seen to be believed. Each “frond” contains thousands of expensive beach-front properties, which were sold just weeks after Sheikh Mohammed, the Prince of Dubai, announced the project. The central “trunk” holds over 100 malls, plus a Trump hotel and a monorail. Dutch engineering firm Van Oord spent almost 7 years building the island from scratch, literally squirting sand into the water out of giant hoses mounted on tankers, reinforcing it with rocks, and using insane drill techniques to make the whole thing seismically sound.

Apparently the curvy edges of the island will have to be nipped and tucked quite often, since the currents will bear away hundreds of kilos of sand monthly. (This also explains why you don’t find naturally-occurring palm-shaped islands.)

Not content to quit the giant engineering project game, Sheikh Mohammed has initiated three more artificial island projects. Two will be palm-shaped, and one will actually contain islands in the shape of Arabic letters that spell out a poem the Prince wrote. Another, called The World, is a series of islands built to resemble the shape of all the continents on earth. You can see a promotional video for The World here. There are some great arial photographs of all the islands here.

Sheikh Mohammed envisions his islands as tourist destinations for the already-touristy Dubai. They’re also excellent examples of what terraforming might really be like on another planet. And the fact that their extreme luxury requires constant high-tech upkeep if they’re not to be washed away makes me think they’re the perfect setting for a near-future SF movie about techno-elites whose fragile way of life is just one step away from being destroyed by hoardes of deprived, angry mutants.

So the ass-grabbing, girly-man-bashing governor of California signed a handful of queer rights bills as part of his desperate bid to stay in office. He signed a bill that will make it much harder for murder and assault defendants to use the “tranny panic” defense. The bill, named after Gwen Araujo, will prevent defendants in cases like her murder from claiming that they were so freaked out by someone’s gender or other queer signifiers that they just had to end that person’s life in, uhh…. self defense. Also, he signed a TBLG non-discrimination law in housing, the Civil Rights Housing Act of 2006. And he signed a law to amend a voluntary pledge that political candidates can sign, in which they’ll promise not to use queer-bashing attacks in their campaigns.

So basically our governor is just a big rubber stamp for queer issues, right? Well, except that he vetoed the “Safe Place To Learn Act,” which would have strengthened protections against anti-queer bullying in schools. The bill would have required the state superintendent of public instruction to investigate reports of anti-queer harrassment and cut off funds to schools that failed to act on those complaints. It came in the wake of a victorious lawsuit in which two gay students alleged their school ignored their complaints of abuse.

According to the ACLU:

Joseph Ramelli and Megan Donovan, two gay former high school students from California, were awarded $300,000 by a jury that found school officials failed to act to protect them even after becoming aware of the harassment the students were experiencing. Both students from Poway High School, near San Diego, were repeatedly threatened, and Ramelli was spit on, kicked, punched, and his car was vandalized. Ramelli and Donovan were home-schooled during their senior year because they could no longer handle the constant harassment.

The governor vetoed the bill because he felt existing protections were strong enough.

So basically the message here is, you can’t discriminate on housing or pretend that queer terror blinded your judgment after you kill one of us. But meanwhile your kids are going to be learning the real score.

Last night I went to a fancy party thrown by Laura Albert, the writer formerly known as JT Leroy. It may have been her first big public soiree as herself. She was celebrating the release of the new Paris Review with her Q&A. In person, Laura turned out to be a skinny middle-aged brunette in a fancy couture outfit including a nice corset. Very wiry and a bit wired as well. She greeted everyone very effusively and was very hostess-y.

I was talking about the event this evening with Suzanne Kleid, who had just been reading Julie Philips’ new biography of Alice Sheldon, who wrote as James Tiptree.  What really struck Suzanne was that Alice couldn’t write any more after her Tiptree cover was blown, because she needed the Tiptree persona to write from. Suzanne was wondering if the same thing would happen to Laura now that JT is no more.

It’s interesting, I’d never considered the parallels between them before. (As Suzanne pointed out, they even have the same initials! Woo!) The main difference, of course, being the extent to which people got caught up in the mythology of JT’s supposedly true life story. I can’t help wondering if the same thing would have happened to Tiptree if Alice Sheldon was writing today. Is that just a feature of our literary landscape now, the obsession with writers’ real lives? Or was this a particular fascination with JT’s life because it hit so many hot buttons about child sexuality, victimhood, transgender stuff?

Fantastic fat activist Marilyn Wann is doing an event this Saturday in San Francisco, and she needs YOUR help. Stomach-stapling surgeons are having their annual “Walk from Obesity” to raise money and awareness for bariatric surgeries. And Marilyn and her cohorts are going to have their own event in response. She (and you, possibly) will be standing out at the Ferry Building, the Powell St. cable car turnaround, 16th and Mission and other popular spots, with the famous Yay! Scale. This is a scale that gives compliments instead of numbers. “It’s a total rush to see someone (of whatever body size) step on a Yay! Scale and feel good about themselves when it gives them a compliment!” Marilyn says.

She’ll provide you with a buddy, a Yay! scale, handouts, signs, etc. and send you on your way. Or if you’re good with a glue gun, you can help make a Yay! scale tomorrow. Contact Marilyn by going to her web site and clicking “contact.”

Also, Marilyn’s friend Rae is now organizing a fat dance party called Heavy Rotation at El Rio in SF. The next one is Friday October 20 at 10 PM.

He’s a hard-bitten spy/crime novelist who’s turned to comics writing. She’s an introspective singer-songwriter best known for the sappy “Both Sides Now.” It should be easy to tell his narration from her lyrics… or should it?

Well, here’s your chance to find out. I’ve collected some quotes from Joni Mitchell song lyrics, and another batch of quotes from the narration boxes in Greg Rucka comics. All you have to do is figure out which is which! Easy, right? (more…)

We’re now reading submissions for issue #12 of other, the “Bad Gender” issue. More details here.

Here in California, we more or less take it for granted that transgender people are able to change their gender on their drivers licenses, even if they haven’t undergone expensive and risky genital surgery. All you have to do in the state of California to change your gender is to start hormone treatment and obtain a doctor’s signature on the DL-328 form. (This is a form by which the doctor attests that someone is transgender and receiving treatment.)

But in Texas, the state won’t let you change your gender marker until you plunk down tens of thousands of dollars for an operation that doesn’t really change anything about how you interact with 99 percent of the people in your life. Luckily, crusading transgender attorney Phyllis Frye is working to change that.

Frye brought a case on behalf of a trans client who wants to change her name, and gender marker, without surgery. The judge in the case, unfortunately, ruled that he didn’t have the authority to grant both a name and gender change. He could only grant a name change. Frye argued, in response that the judge was only granting an “incomplete” name change, since her client’s gender wouldn’t match her new name.

Frye plans to appeal the judge’s ruling, but her client doesn’t have a lot of money. She’s set up a 501(c)3 foundation with a tax number (pending) of 20-2216619. You can send donations to:

Foundation for Family and Marriage Equality

c/o Nechman, Simoneaux and Frye

2990 Richmond Avenue, Suite 400
Houston, Texas 77098

ATTN: Transgender Appellate Account

Other magazine contributing editor Suzanne Kleid went to see Shortbus, the new X-rated drama by Hedwig’s John Cameron Mitchell, the other night. Here’s what she had to say:

It was…meh. It was “Friends with money” with cumshots. Too many characters, trying too hard to create Deep Emotional Epiphanies with all of them. And like every movie about attractive young people trying to find themselves in Manhattan, they all live in gorgeous, huge apartments with exposed brick and hardwood, despite being supposedly “edgy”. Hedwig was a million times better.

John Cameron Mitchell appeared in person and his strange distracted unhappy intro kinda sucked all the energy out of the room. “How come the theater’s not full? I’m really tired, so I’m gonna go eat dinner and I’ll see you after.” and then after, he didn’t come back.

In the first 5 minutes of the movie, a cute guy manages to *just barely* achieve auto-fellatio and jerks off into his own mouth: that got a huge round of applause.

You know what I just realized??? there wasn’t a single pussy close-up in the whole movie. dicks and asses everywhere, of course, but somehow, the women-only room in the sex club is full of dykes TALKING about orgasm (including JD from Le Tigre!), and all of them are fully clothed. One of the main characters is a woman on a quest to have her first-ever orgasm, but there aren’t any scenes of real female orgasm, at all.

I don’t have much to add to that, except that I just saw the awesome documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated last night. One of the really interesting threads that came out of it was the idea that what really freaked out the MPAA raters, in several films, was a closeup of a woman’s face when she’s having an orgasm. Nudity, humping, Sharon Stone’s beaver shot, etc., are all fine, but a close depiction of female pleasure is a no-no.

Also, this is a good place for a shameless plug for Jordy Jones’ essay about what’s wrong with Hedwig, from issue #1 of other. Among other things, he talks about why it’s dumb that Hedwig’s botched SRS leaves her with an angry inch, instead of “a shallow hole.”

Since liberals hate children, most othermag blog readers probably aren’t parents. But for those one or two readers who are parents, I think you should know that conservatives think you’re doing a terrible job. I know that it might hurt to hear this. But just listen to what they have to say with an open mind, OK?

Take talk-radio host Mike Gallagher. When he sees a kid pitch a fit in a restaurant and the parents (“well-heeled, well-dressed”) give in, there’s only one possible conclusion: the parents are liberals! Worse, they’re raising a liberal!

Such permissiveness will set that child up for a lifetime of disappointment and misery. Children want to be taught to do the right thing; they expect us to be in charge. Little Henry is going to grow into a person who figures that if he screams loudly enough, he’ll always get his way. He’ll develop into a person with an overwhelming sense of entitlement.

In other words, he’ll become a liberal.

Hearing from parents on my radio show all the time, there’s a clear distinction between conservative parents and liberal ones. Conservatives believe in the power of spanking….Liberals seem afraid to spank their children…I’ll bet anything that Henry’s parents were a couple of liberal New York Democrats.

And probably Jewish to boot. Well, enough said about Little Henry Rosenfeld, or whatever his name is. Later on in Gallagher’s book, Surrounded by Idiots – I think he’s referring to his listeners, but that’s speculation on my part – Gallagher strikes out at “wacky mothers… who flaunt breast-feeding in crowded places, like restaurants, shopping malls or department stores.” I wonder if breasts are intrinsically liberal? If so, I’m glad Mike is doing something about them. Mike’s got the breast-beat covered for the conservative movement. He’s their breast man.

Betsy Hart, who has breasts but still boasts back-cover quotes from rock-hard conservatives like William J. Bennett and Laura Schlessinger, takes on the whole “parenting culture,” in which “parents are essentially encouraged to idolize their children, to marvel at their inherent wisdom and goodness…and that’s just for starters.”

In her book It Takes a Parent (as opposed to a village – villages are for liberals!), Hart attacks parents who give their kids choices. Choices are liberal and liberal, as has been established, is bad. “Children learn to make wise choices by having wise choices made for them,” she writes. She talks about just ordering food on behalf of all four of her kids in restaurants – no perusing the menu for them! Letting your kids pick items on the menu is liberal, and remember, liberal is bad. She spends a lot of time in her book criticizing bad parents who let their kids pick their own sno-cone flavors.

What’s a conservative parent to do when kids keep insisting on making their own choices? For anyone who reads the Bible literally, that’s an easy question to answer. You beat them.

Let’s say, for example, that your 2-year-old insists on getting out of bed after you’ve told him to stay put. “The youngster should be placed in bed and given a speech,” writes Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, one of the country’s most influential conservatives. “Then when (the child’s) feet touch the floor, give him one swat on the legs with a switch. Put the switch where he can see it, and promise more if he gets up again.”

In some cases, a switch might be too Rockefeller Republican, if you know what I mean. With especially liberal children, you’ll need to head down to Home Depot and buy some quarter-inch plumbing supply line or PVC Pipe.

“If you want a child who will integrate into the New World Order and wait his turn in line for condoms, a government funded abortion, sexually transmitted disease treatment, psychological evaluation and a mark on the forehead,” writes pastor Michael Pearl in his book To Train Up a Child, “then follow the popular guidelines in education, entertainment and discipline, but if you want a son or daughter of God, you will have to do it God’s way.” Though PVC pipe is not specifically mentioned in the Bible, Pearl recommends such “chastisement instruments” as excellent expressions of the Lord’s will.

Too extreme? Not with immortal souls at stake. Children, like liberals, are born demons. “As for thinking there is badness in children,” writes right-wing family psychologist John Rosemond, “yes, I most certainly do, and the evidence suggests I am correct… One does not have to teach antisocial behavior to toddlers. They are by nature violent, deceitful, destructive, rebellious and prone to sociopathic rages if they do not get their way.”

In other words, they’re liberals. That’s why you have to beat the little bastards. Keep hitting the rebellious little brats until they vote Republican!

It does seem, doesn’t it, that when it comes to multiracial children, government agencies lose their minds, and the media forget their mandate. Remember this bizarre story about a surrogacy/adoption case in Indiana that got all messed up because the mother and father were of different races? Even though race was essential to the story, it was hardly touched on.

Well here’s a new one, about a biological mother in Washington state who didn’t have the same DNA as her kids. It turns out that she’s what’s known as a “chimera”, a very rare phenomenon, where two eggs fuse in the womb, giving one person two separate sets of DNA for different parts of their bodies.

She applied for public assistance and was required to have everyone in her family tested to make sure they were all related (huh? Does that mean that women can’t apply for public assistance for adopted children in Washington?) Anyway, they called her in when her DNA didn’t match that of her two children, and eventually started threatening to take the children away (double huh?) because they suspected her of welfare fraud, or at best being a surrogate mother (yet she was clearly the one taking sole responsibility for these kids … again, huh?) The state even sent a representative to attend the birth of her third child, who was then immediately tested … and turned out not to have the same DNA again.

Fortunately for her, another case of chimerism had just been identified elsewhere in the country and her doctors heard about it. They were able to find the tissue in her body whose DNA matched that of her kids.

And that, as far as ABC news is concerned, is that. However, ABC did include a picture of the woman with her children (the boyfriend, mentioned briefly as the father of the children but not otherwise included in the story at all, was not in the picture). The woman appears to be white, and the children appear to be biracial. And the reporter didn’t mention this at all. Could this have been part of the reason for the suspicion? A white woman claiming motherhood of multiracial, or black-looking, children who don’t share her DNA is not merely a curiosity but, possibly, an object of contempt and rage. Is this why the government agency was so ready to take children away from a woman who was, if not their biological mother, at least clearly their primary caregiver?

Again, it’s difficult to tell why the multiraciality wasn’t mentioned. It’s probable that the government agencies, fearing repercussions, didn’t mention race, making it not an official reason for suspicion. After all, race usually plays a subtextual, not an overt, role in these kinds of discriminatory cases. Maybe this kind of speculation is absolutely unacceptable in a news story. But journalists are famous for making implications by strategic mentionings of facts, and the fact that this wasn’t mentioned at all in such a case is … bizarre.