Read The Play

Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: https://www.greataustralianpods.com/read-the-play/

#ICE Is Buying Mobile #Iris Scanning Tech for Its #Deportation Arm

Originally designed to be used by sheriff departments to identify inmates or other known persons, ICE is now likely buying the technology specifically for its Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) section, which focuses on #deportations.
#privacy #identity #immigration #biometrics

https://www.404media.co/ice-is-buying-mobile-iris-scanning-tech-for-its-deportation-arm/

'Europe’s narrative is constructed on the exclusion of colonialism from its history, allowing the ideology of Europe’s racelessness. […] The disremembering of the colonial past shapes the contemporary perception of Europe as a progressive well-intentioned neutral mediator. Moreover, this colonial amnesia produces Europeans of color as outsiders and “aliens” threatening to the liberal continent’s identity.'

'Thus, racialized Europeans are forever “just arriving” and forgotten in the construction of a contemporary European identity. The book gives examples of continent’s Roma and Sinti populations who have resided in Europe for half a millennium and are constantly marginalized as foreigners.'

(1/2)

Trans men who haven’t medically transitioned still bleed. Still cramp. Still carry the weight of a cycle that doesn’t align with how they see themselves. And no one talks about it.
https://medium.com/prismnpen/living-in-a-body-that-betrays-me-964e4b8e441d

Two years to freedom!

Exactly two years ago, I was sitting at my desk at my old job, bored, reading a blog post by a trans woman I had started following on Mastodon, when I saw this:

If you’re under the assumption that you’re a cis guy but have always dreamed of being a girl, and the only reason you haven’t transitioned is because you’re afraid you’ll be an “ugly” girl: That’s dysphoria. You’re literally  trans girl already, hon.

I stopped reading. I stared at the webcomic with this accusation. My mind started spinning. I said to myself, “Oh. I think I should keep reading.”

I gave a detailed account of the following week in this blog post. In brief, that week culminated in a moment of existential panic that resolved into knowing who I was for the first time in my life. By that time, I had adopted a new name. Two months later, I started hormone treatment. Six months after that, my new name was official. 

A lot has happened in the last two years. I feel like I’ve lived more than in the previous twenty years. I learned to love unconditionally. I’ve changed careers. I’ve moved. I’ve got boobs! 

But most significantly, I’ve come to know who I am on a profound level. I’m a chaotic genderfluid nonbinary transcendgender woman. “Chaotic genderfluid” because my energy shifts around the whole field of gender identities, and even I can’t predict when and how it will shift. I’ve accepted that, no matter how much I yearn for complete femininity, I have masculine aspects that are an integral part of who I am; I’m definitely nonbinary. 

But I don’t consider myself partially male, partially female. I’ve learned a lot about gender in the last two years.1 Gender is not tied to physical, hormonal, or chromosomal sex. It’s something we’re indoctrinated into from the time we’re in our third trimester, something we learn in childhood until it becomes deeply ingrained in our teens. Binary gender is an ideology that is so rigidly enforced, we come to think of it as normal, and every other possibility as a deviation. 

That’s where transcendgender comes from. I don’t consider myself pangender or agender—or even polygender. I identify more with the feminine than the masculine, but I transcend the need to identify with any specific gender. 

It was a liberating realization. As I’ve said elsewhere, I’m the best of both worlds, but bound by neither. After five decades, I’m truly free.

1. See Sex/Gender: Biology in a Social World by Anne Fausto-Sterling ↩︎

“When presented with the #AgeVerification pop-up, gamers are launching the #DeathStranding 2: On The Beach photo mode and using the ‘Sam’s expression’ bar to pick the requested facial expression. The trick has been verified by #PCGamer.”

#UKOSA / #identity <https://nme.com/news/gaming-news/death-stranding-2-uk-new-online-safety-act-bypass-3881181>

Educator Yarns With Jessica Staines and Bec Burch

Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: https://www.greataustralianpods.com/educator-yarns-with-jessica-staines/

SWIISH: Wellness Unlocked

Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: https://www.greataustralianpods.com/global-tapestry/

Combining oil paint with the soft definition of embroidery fiber, Daniela García Hamilton explores intergenerational bonds in tender, narrative canvases.

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2025/07/daniela-garcia-hamilton-amanecer-atardecer/

Afro-Scottish Poetry Event 2025
25 July, Glasgow. Tickets £0–£10

A multicultural evening of poetry, music, & storytelling that celebrates African & Scottish identities through powerful performances. Created & curated by Chisom Okoronkwo with U Belong Glasgow

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/afro-scottish-poetry-event-2025-tickets-1396145632169

Claudia Callisto - The Good Italian Girl And Friends

Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: https://www.greataustralianpods.com/claudia-callisto-the-good-italian-girl-and-friends/

Uncle Charlie: The Invisible Hero

Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: https://www.greataustralianpods.com/uncle-charlie-the-invisible-hero/

https://youtu.be/G3ZSR1owcGs?si=wM6DMci3t-90sU30
Thomas Chatterton Williams interviewed by Jordan Klepper. About American liberal "fetishization" of (racial) identity, which ignores all experience other than ancestry.

Two Worlds, One Health

Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: https://www.greataustralianpods.com/two-worlds-one-health/

the evolution of chinese names in singapore: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/community/whats-in-a-name-local-author-traces-the-evolution-of-singaporean-chinese-names

unlike *most* of my millennial peers, i have my passport chinese name NOT in mandarin / pinyin but in my dialect (teochew / chiu chow) name. i used to be ashamed of this (this was perceived to be deeply backward, in a time of mandarin hegemony and death to other chinese languages), but now i am very proud of it.

Archaeoethnologica: Materializing the Roman Empre - Book / Materializando o Imperio Romano - Livro

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2024/04/materializando-o-imperio-romano.html

Rights Made Real

Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: https://www.greataustralianpods.com/rights-made-real/

I dont identify myself as a man, guy, straight, white or whatever the fuck. I am a human being with a lot of wishes, likes and dislikes, behaviors that are influenced by the environment. And so forth. I am me, unique.

How about we all see each other like that?! Everyone is a unique individual whose behavior comes from the environment and can/will change/adapt over time.

Seems more realistic to me and no more fights over trans this, gay that, straight, male, female, girl, boy, neutral, etc.. Just complex individual human beings.

No Face, No Case: California’s S.B. 627 Demands Cops Show Their Faces
#identity #california #sb627 #privacy

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/07/no-face-no-case-californias-sb-627-demands-cops-show-their-faces