Owain
∞-Some infinities are bigger than other infinities-∞
Rally breaks silence on bullying - The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram. A Portland crowd voices support for gay, lesbian and other youths who face harassment.
PORTLAND – More than two dozen people gathered in Monument Square despite the cold and wind Saturday to speak up during the Breaking the Silence rally. The event, organized by the youth of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network of Southern Maine and the Gay Straight Alliance, came a day after the National Day of Silence. On Friday, hundreds of thousands of students and teachers nationwide took a vow of silence to bring attention to name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools. Saturday’s focus was breaking that silence to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth and efforts to make Maine schools safe places for all. “Vow to tell our stories,” Timothy Rose, communications director for Equality Maine, said to cheers. Jazz, 11-Year-Old Transgender Girl, Talks To Barbara Walters. That first schoolyard crush can challenge even the most confident of tweens, but when the child in question is transgender, it can present an entirely unique set of hurdles.
On a special edition of "20/20," Barbara Walters interviewed Jazz, an 11-year-old transgender girl whom she first met in 2007, as part of a new profile. Though Jazz has a supportive parents and friends, she isn't entirely prepared for how to come out as transgender to a new crush. Explaining that she's fully "attracted to boys," Jazz -- who plays on the girls' soccer team and is female on her passport -- tells Walters, "If any boys decline me because of my situation, I just know they're not right for me at all.
" Jazz is also the subject of the documentary "I Am Jazz: A Family in Transition," which premiered on Oprah Winfrey's OWN network in 2012, On Top Mag notes. For more on Jazz, check out more of Walters' interview here. Polar Bears and Climate Change. Floods.
Droughts. Heat waves. Massive storms. Climate change is not just about polar bears, the iconic symbol of a melting Arctic. It affects the entire planet. In fact, if our chief scientist, Dr. "Events like these will continue to increase in number and severity as the world continues to warm. " What's causing climate change?
What's causing climate change? Greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere act like a blanket that keeps the earth warm. Other factors such as deforestation have added to the problem. Do scientists agree about climate change? The laws of physics dictate that the world will grow warmer and warmer as greenhouse gas concentrations rise. Are scientists still debating climate change? The important point to remember is that natural fluctuations in the climate system will continue with global warming, but the baseline will climb higher and higher. And once we cross those thresholds, it will be bad news not only for polar bears—but countless other species, including humans.
Jazz Jennings. The Reaction To #LikeAGirl Is Exactly Why It's So Important. Out of all the controversial ads that aired during the Super Bowl, the one that may have spurred the most vocal backlash was the one that promoted gender equality.
The original "Like A Girl" spot, which first aired in June 2014, featured people being asked to throw, run and fight "like a girl. " Instead of simply doing these actions, each person weakly reenacted them, by accidentally dropping the ball or slapping instead of punching. But when the same questions were asked of young girls, they threw, ran and fought aggressively -- like anyone would. The implication: To do something "like a girl" is to do it badly, but that negative connotation is something that is only learned over time. Therefore, it's something we can change. The campaign received a lot of positive attention when it originally aired, but it wasn't until Sunday's shortened Super Bowl ad, which approximately 115 million people watched, that the Internet's resident haters really found their voices.
Nicole Maines, Transgender Student, Goes To Maine High Court. BANGOR, Maine — Maine's highest court heard arguments Wednesday over whether transgender students can use the bathroom of their choice, and the girl at the heart of the case said she hoped justices would recognize the right of children to attend school without being "bullied" by peers or administrators.
Nicole Maines, now 15, watched lawyers argue over whether her rights were violated when the Orono school district required her to use a staff bathroom after there was a complaint about her using the girls' bathroom. Maines said after the hearing in Bangor that she hopes the Supreme Judicial Court will ensure no one else experiences what she went though. "I hope they understood how important it is for students to be able to go to school and get an education and have fun and make friends, and not have to worry about being bullied by students or the administration, and to be accepted for who they are," said Maines, who now attends a high school in southern Maine.
Teen Activists and Issues.