LGBTQ
In OneZero. More on Medium.
Online accounts can be a way to help ease your grief
My partner of 10 years died without warning on a freezing Calgary afternoon in January 2019. My world shattered — it was beyond anything I could’ve imagined.
John was only 38 at the time of his death and losing him was the furthest thought from my mind. It has been one year since he passed. Over this last year, I’ve been taking notes on my journey through grief. Of all the things that I’ve dealt with, one thing made me pause.
His Netflix profile.
Like most couples, we had a Netflix account together. On those cold winter nights, John and…
Plus, a few tips on how you can help
One night last fall, I attended a local open mic event for slam poetry. One person’s first poem was about receiving an Instagram DM that said, “You are so handsome I almost forgot you were trans.”
He proceeded to speak about the struggles of finding love on dating apps and dealing with the fear that no one could ever love him due to his gender identity.
Not long after that night, I came across a Twitter thread by another transgender poet discussing dating. While some replies shared stories of relationship success, the majority of replies were heartbreaking and lacked hope.
…
Digital mental wellness surveys could be the future of school screening, but experts warn they could expose students’ private information
In an effort to curb substance abuse and flag student mental health issues, in 2018, Washington state’s King County started giving students an unusual electronic survey.
The Check Yourself screener, which is conducted in classrooms on school-issued iPads or laptops, first displays a short disclaimer indicating that the collected information is confidential but not anonymous to the school. Students who click “I accept” are then asked a series of questions about their gender identity and who they are most likely to have a crush on, as well as their age and race. …
They place restrictions and limits on an identity that’s all about freedom
On Monday, Apple released a new version of iOS — and with it, a hotly anticipated update to its emoji collection. Where once users had been limited to just male and female versions of popular emojis like elf, zombie, graduate, detective, and British police officer, now a third, gender-neutral option is available. …
Genderfluid users say the platform’s moderation system is discriminating against them
Recently, I tried to leave what I thought was a fairly innocuous comment on my girlfriend’s Instagram. It was a photo I had taken of her during San Francisco Pride, blocks away from the Dyke March, an annual event for queer women.
My girlfriend, Amy Osiason, works as an androgynous model, and the photo was of her pointing to a billboard with her face on it — part of a Pride campaign for Lyft. The moment seemed extra prideful, so I commented, “Also this was on Dyke Day!” But I was surprised when Instagram suggested I censor myself. A message…
I/O
Finding adequate health care can be a challenge for trans people. Telemedicine can help, but some trans medical needs still require an in-person visit.
For many trans people, access to health care is a fraught issue. Just finding a provider who has the cultural competence to respect trans patients’ identities and pronouns while providing basic health care can be a major struggle. Finding one who specializes in gender-affirming care — medical care that acknowledges and provides support for transgender people’s gender identities, and may include providing transition-related medical services like hormone replacement therapy and surgeries — is even more difficult.
The situation is even tougher for trans people in rural areas, where getting good health care can mean traveling for hours to the closest…
A new study suggests there is no ‘gay gene’
Your genes alone can’t predict whether you’ll choose a same sex-partner, but they do play a role.
That’s the conclusion of a major study published today in Science that looked at data from more than 470,000 people, including 23andMe customers and individuals in the U.K. Biobank, a government-funded medical database.
Researchers gave participants a questionnaire about whether they had ever engaged in same-sex sexual behavior and examined their genes. They discovered five variations in the human genome that those who reported same-sex sexual experiences tended to have in common. However, each genetic variant had a very small effect individually —…
A new lawsuit highlights a basic injustice in YouTube’s ‘ad-friendly’ policies
YouTube wants to be a platform for self-expression for all kinds of people. It also wants to make piles of money selling and placing ads via automated systems with minimal human review.
It’s having trouble doing both.
This week, a group of LGBTQ video creators sued YouTube and parent company Google in federal court, alleging that it has systematically discriminated against their content. Specifically, the lawsuit accuses YouTube of filtering, demonetizing, and otherwise limiting videos that deal with LGBTQ identities, making it hard for their creators to reach a wide audience and make money. …
How video game character creators helped me explore my own queerness
“Are you a boy? Or a girl?” Pokemon Diamond asked me as I sat on the floor of my grandmother’s living room, the light from my brand new Nintendo DS and those from the Christmas tree fighting for space on my face.
I sat there for a very long time.
This decision, as small as it may seem, required me to question, fundamentally, what I wanted from this character and from this game. On one hand, boys were cool, and on the other, girls were pretty. And never the twain should meet because, as we all know, these are entirely…
I/O
Besides a still rampant porn bot problem, adult content on Tumblr is pretty much gone
At the turn of the millennium, I was a young adult just beginning to understand my own queer identity: who I was attracted to, what I wanted from relationships, how I understood myself as a queer person. As a college student in New York City, I was surrounded by resources that promised access to this knowledge — campus queer groups, dance parties, the bar scene — but none of them quite met my needs. I was shy and nightlife-averse.
So I went to the internet. An avid LiveJournal user, I connected with other queers, gaining a deeper sense of what…
