How Witchcraft Is Empowering Queer and Trans Young People

PART 2

Dakota Hendrix, a non-binary trans witch based in New York—an identity Hendrix jokingly refers to as "goat femme," describing their combination of body hair, a smoky eye, and talons for nails—says the practice of witchcraft is a way to take control in a world that can be both metaphysically and mortally threatening.

It's a supernatural form of self-defense that Hendrix says includes amulets that fight off mis-gendering, rituals that provide protection when walking down the street, and paying honor to queer and trans ancestors who don't have descendants of their own paying homage. Not to mention—since, Hendrix says, contemporary witchcraft is connected to social justice work—a hex or two on the NYPD for good measure. But while the rituals are plentiful, the rules are not, and Hendrix says being a witch is all about choosing one's own path: "Being a witch is being autonomous; that's the whole point. That's how we draw power. We are defying the patriarchy, we are defying the submissive norm." "There is no one way to be a witch," says Mey Rude. "It's a really freeing identity."

Rude is a Latina witch who was raised Catholic in Idaho, and though she moved away from the church and into witchcraft after she came out as transgender, her practice is informed by her religious roots. This means a lot of candles, shrines dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe ("She's a very queer goddess," Rude says), and traditional Mexican herbal remedies.

Rude says that playing with gender by wearing aggressively dark makeup is also part of her witch identity. While individual ornamentation may seem superficial, it's as important a ritual as anything else.

Identifying as a witch makes her strong, she explains. It's intimidating to be a trans woman of color in public, and the tools and rituals of witchcraft make her feel like she's just as formidable as the culture that would threaten her.

In Medieval Europe, the idea of the witch was used as a weapon against marginalized people, and the person most likely to be accused of witchcraft was the old crone at the edge of the village.

But those roles have been reversed, and what was once used as a weapon against marginalized people is now working to defend them. Witches might still be on the edge, but they're claiming that place for themselves, and drawing power from an identity that celebrates defiance while embracing difference. After all, what is being a witch if not owning the right to be yourself?

Oh God. Christianity, witchcraft, it's all bullshit. Instead of looking to magic, maybe queer and young trans people should focus more on their education. Judging by their blogs, tumblrs, and YouTube videos, they are in desperate need of it.

R2, how would you feel about being turned into a nice white rabbit?

r2, human beings need spirituality. Interestingly, I'm seeing more and more openly queer grad students convert to Shi'a Islam because of it's strong emphasis on social justice. Apparently, so far they have been received warmly into the Shi'a Muslim community.

I'm glad that New Age types and "witches" are all about feminism and are supportive of gay rights and all, and generally find them more tolerant than KKKristians and Muzzies, but R2 is spot on. It's all complete horse shit.

I know the universe is scary and we are afraid of our own mortality. But instead of subscribing to all this superstitious nonsense, why not find some worthwhile hobbies or read about science, nature, and technology some time? There are far more wondrous and magical things in the universe than this hocus locus garbage,

Grow up.

I guess social justice is only for men then, since all women get treated like packmules in Islam, R4.

Not suprised to hear about these genderspecial men trying to worm in on yet another female thing.

[quote] I'm seeing more and more openly queer grad students convert to Shi'a Islam

Only in the West

[quote]because of it's strong emphasis on social justice.

Solely for other Muslims

[quote] since all women get treated like packmules in Islam

No, they don't. Wide generalizations about millions of people are not accurate or morally OK only because Muslims are the target. Have some decency.

[quote]No, they don't.

Yes they do. Women are not responsible in Muslims societies because they are considered the property of a men, their family/clan/husband. Ergo, honour murders.

[quote]Wide generalizations about millions of people are not accurate or morally OK only because Muslims are the target.

Wide generalization is accurate for people do not live in diverse societies, when all that governs them, all they know is Islam.

Didn't Muhammad have a child bride? And I mean young even by ancient standards? Yeah. Okay.

It's all bullshit. Humans don't need spirituality. It is no coincidence that as humanity as grown more secular, the quality of life for people grows. The more religious the country, usually the more fucked up it is. Fact.

I miss the Satanists. WEHT to them? They were more fun.

r6, you clearly know nothing about Shi'a Islam which was essentially founded by women, namely the Prophet's beloved daughter Fatima and his brave outspoken granddaughter Zainab.

r9, in Shi'a Islam women are definitely not the property of their husbands, they do not even take their husband's surname when they get married. Honor killings are a cultural practice that predates Islam and is largely limited to Kurdistan, the Levant and South Asia. The UN has found that honor killings in Jordan and Palestine actually occur at a higher rate in Christian families than in Muslim families.

I prefer Satanists to Muslims. At least Satanists weren't throwing gay men off bridges and buildings.

Muhammad married one of his wives when she was six and fucked her when she was nine (some argue and say 10). This is Islam.

r14, your ignorance is astounding. Back then, people's life expectancy was 40 and childhood mortality rates were high, so girls started having sex as soon as they started puberty to make the most of their reproductive years. It was the norm back then and no one thought it was unusual. The Hebrew prophets in the Bible all had child brides.

[quote] Yes they do. Women are not responsible in Muslims societies because they are considered the property of a men, their family/clan/husband. Ergo, honour murders.

You're a fucking moron. I'd be ashamed to write those sentences as an adult. To suggest that 1.2 billion people, spread all around the world, living in a wide range of socio-economic conditions, have exactly the same take on social issues is nothing short of lunacy.

There's huge diversity within and among Muslim societies - compare Lebanon to Pakistan, for instance, or Albania to Saudi. You probably have no idea what I'm talking about because you've been fed from your far-right bloggers a very narrow, cherry-picked view of the Muslim world, that selected for iconography of fanaticism and downplays diversity of opinions and pockets of modernization. But here it goes: laws and customs differ from Muslim country to Muslim country. Blew your mind, didn't I?

The way you talk of Muslims is how the right behaves towards the demonized minority du jour - deny their diversity, downplay what Those People have in common with you; pretend they're all alike and share none of your interests and values. They're all determined by one thing, and one thing only - gay men, for example, are nothing but incarnations of their Sexual Orientation, with its Promiscuity and AIDS; and Muslims are nothing but walking representations of Islam, with its honor killings and suicide bombers.

There are Muslims who identify as feminists or as gay. I don't like to use SJW language, but to posit that there's no diversity in Islam, that Muslims all see politics and culture with the same mind, is to erase the existence of many individuals who do good work, in much harsher conditions than ours.

What's more, it's to deny people their humanity. Humanity becomes diverse when exposed to different historical conditions - to their economy, their national history, etc. To pretend that Muslims are devoid of all these intellectual influences, that they are shaped just by Islam, being therefore all alike in behavior and values, is to deny they share the same historically malleable essence with the rest of mankind - it turns them into mere robots, rigid and controlled by Islam. Ugh.

You think you can get away with that because there are no strong social norms discouraging generalizations about Muslims. But rest assured some of us, perhaps a minority on Datalounge, can see that your self-satisfied generalizations are no different in nature to generalizations historically made about all other minorities by bigoted majorities with a superiority complex - people who filled out their knowledge gaps about minorities with broad generalizations that lack the nuance of actual contact with them.

R13 And I prefer Muslims to Americans because at least Muslims did not do the thing in the link below.

I should also add that Muhammad's child brida Aisha was no pushover. She was a feisty outspoken girl who led the very first army in Islam. She commanded the troops in battle - hardly the 'packmule' you desperately want her to be.

Islam....Christianity....Judaism....

All equally awful and full of blood, despair and horse shit.

R12 You clearly have your own skewed, myopic vision of Islam. You must be that Iranian.

Shi'a Islam has everything to do with the belief that Ali was appointed by Muhammed. Fatima and Zenab are nice stories but irrelevant to basic belief.

[quote]in Shi'a Islam women are definitely not the property of their husbands, they do not even take their husband's surname when they get married.

Taking a husband's surname is largely a Western practice, again irrelevant. Both women and their children are male property in Islam, the children taking their socio-religious identity from their father only.

Honour killings are entrenched in Islam, used as an on-going method of social control all over the Muslim world, in North Africa, the Near/Middle East, the Gulf, and Asia.

R14 The T-a-lmud gives permission for J3wish men to rape women and blame and murder them for their own rape, if she's a gentile.

[quote]If, by contrast, a J3wish male enters into relations with a gentile woman, when he does so intentionally, she should be executed.23 She is executed because she caused a J3w to be involved in an unseemly transgression, as [is the law with regard to] an animal.24 [This applies regardless of] whether the gentile women was a minor of three years of age,25 or an adult, whether she was single or married. And it applies even if [the J3w] was a minor of nine years old, [she is executed].26

There, ban me, Muriel.

Are you stupid, R15? The vast vast majority of nine year olds are incapable of getting pregnant. Early puberty would have been even rarer back then. Muhammad was fucking her between her thighs when she was six (no debate about her being prepubescent then). Your prophet was a child fucker, plain and simple. Muslim religious leaders acknowledge this. It is fact.

Who gives a fuck about the Muslim towelheads and their 2,000 year old fairy tales?!

Hail Satan, bitches!

[quote]If, by contrast, a Jewish male enters into relations with a gentile woman, when he does so intentionally, she should be executed.23 She is executed because she caused a Jew to be involved in an unseemly transgression, as [is the law with regard to] an animal.24 [bold] [This applies regardless of] whether the gentile women was a minor of three years of age,25 [/bold] or an adult, whether she was single or married. And it applies even if [the Jew] was a minor of nine years old, [she is executed].26

Oh dear, reading this a second time - it's really vile. And no, it's not Islam. It's the Chosen People's religion.

R22 The article makes no mention of Islam. It's the bigots on here who decided to overreact to one comment a DLer made with a passing reference to Shia Islam, and hijack the thread to parade their fat and proud ignorance.

I love how defending the fucked things about Islam is to point out the fucked up things about Judaism. Both are wrong. The big difference is that while Judasim has thankfully move beyond institutional child fucking, stoning, and beheading, many in the Muslim world still live by this.

For the record, all religious are fucked up. Secularism is the salvation of humanity from all religious oppression.

R16 You're diatribe is completely Western-centric, with absolutely no corrolation to daily lives of 1.5 billion Muslims from the Atlantic to the Arafura Sea. To claim that people living in oppressive, authoritarian societies with no exposure to diversity, whose lives and thoughts are circumscribed by Islam have somehow absorbed an appreciation for diversity and freedom is ludicrous.

You ascribe a mentality to the majority of Muslims that in reality is non-existent except in your own mind.

r19, you are wrong. Shi'a Islam believes that not just Ali but the entire family of the Prophet including Fatima were appointed to be his successors. This concept is referred to as the Ahlul Bayt. Zainab founded the Ashura commemorations that are central to the practice of Shi'a Islam.

And if honor killings are 'entrenched' in Islam, why do they predate Islam in those regions? Show me the Islamic scripture that approves of them?

r21, that is an Islamophobic myth. All original Islamic sources are clear that Muhammad did not touch Aisha until she began puberty and was capable to having children.

Let's see those sources that prove that a nine year old was going through puberty when he first penetrated her. Are you also denying he wasn't fucking her between her thighs when she was six? You conveniently didn't mention that part. Did he fuck a six year old between her thighs or not? ;)

R27 Vis-a-vis Ali, yours is simply your own intrepretation. There are others.

[quote]And if honor killings are 'entrenched' in Islam, why do they predate Islam in those regions? Show me the Islamic scripture that approves of them?

Honour murders are entrenched in Muslim society because they are prevalent social control methods, occurring with alarming and increasing frequency all over the Muslim world. Where honour murders originated is irrelevant, does not excuse their continued occurance in Islam.

R25 is correct. Islam and Muslims are stuck in the 8th century. And there is nothing to compel Islam or Muslims to evolve beyond it.

R25 has obviously never set foot in the jew enclaves of Brooklyn. No child fucking?

Jew, please.

r28, the myth of Muhammad fucking Aisha’s thighs has no basis in fact. It stems from completely fabricated and deliberately mistranslated reports that were seized upon by Western Islamophobes.

r29, ask any Shi’a Muslim, the Ahlul Bayt and the centrality of Fatima is not my interpretation, they are central to Shi’a belief.

The UN has intensely researched honor killings and found their highest rate of occurrence is among secular Kurds and Christian families in Jordan and Palestine.

R25 doesn't know the meaning of the word institutional. At an institutional level, Judaism does not condone child fucking any more. Many Muslim countries, however, do, and use their prophet, who fucked a nine year old, as proof.

The thigh fucking of the six year old did not originate from Islamophobes, but from Muslim scholars. Nice try. Still waiting on that proof that a nine year old went through puberty before he fucked her (as if that makes it okay).

[quote]ask any Shi’a Muslim, the Ahlul Bayt and the centrality of Fatima is not my interpretation, they are central to Shi’a belief.

No, that is again your personal interpretation, not based in fact.

[quote]The UN has intensely researched honor killings and found their highest rate of occurrence is among secular Kurds and Christian families in Jordan and Palestine.

WRONG! The UN found that honour murders are prevalent in MUSLIM countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, Yemen, and other Mediterranean and Persian Gulf countries. The UN also found that honour murders regularly occur in Muslim migrant families in the West, including the US.

R31, do you believe that it would be okay for a nine year old today to get fucked be a 50 year old man if the nine year old went through puberty? If you don't, why not?

r33, in the earliest biography of the Prophet, Ibn Hisham states that Muhammad married Aisha at 6 but that she continued to live in her parents house until the age of 9 when she had her first period. Then, and only then, did Aisha leave her parents and go to live with her husband Muhammad. Aisha was no ordinary girl. She was feisty and outspoken. She commanded the troops in battle.

r34, honor killings were happening in these countries long before Islam arrived. Today these are Muslim-majority countries but Islam is not the motivation for honor killings. The Qur’an has an entire chapter against the killing of daughters. The UN figures show that honor killings are worse in areas where Islam is weakest - among secular Kurds and Christian families in Jordan and Palestine.

The centrality of the Ahlul Bayt (which includes Fatima) in Shi’a Islam is a basic fact. You clearly have no idea what you’re talking about.

There is no Satan, so Satanism is also bullshit.

r35, as I have said, that was a completely different time. Back then, people's life expectancy was 40 and childhood mortality rates were high, so girls started having sex as soon as they started puberty to make the most of their reproductive years. It was the norm back then and no one thought it was unusual. The Hebrew prophets in the Bible all had child brides.

Today, with modern medicine, those conditions no longer exist, so no, it would not be ok today for a 9 year old to marry a 50 year old.

R38, why would it not be okay for a nine year old to have sex with a 50 year old? Elaborate please. Why would it be wrong?

Of course, Satanism isn't real --- even "satanists" are in on the joke. "Satanism" is just an excuse to live by these simple, straightforward, hedonistic guidelines:

[bold] Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.

Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them.

When in another’s lair, show him respect or else do not go there.

If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and without mercy.

Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal.

Do not take that which does not belong to you unless it is a burden to the other person and he cries out to be relieved.

Acknowledge the power of magic if you have employed it successfully to obtain your desires. If you deny the power of magic after having called upon it with success, you will lose all you have obtained.

Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.

Do not harm little children.

Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.

When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him. [/bold]

Way more common sense than these stick-up-their-ass religions or non-religions (many atheists included).

[quote]Today these are Muslim-majority countries but Islam is not the motivation for honor killings. The Qur’an has an entire chapter against the killing of daughters.

Your attempt to separate Islam from Muslims and what is institutionalized in Islam/Muslim societies and practices is ludicrous, dishonest and devoid of reality. But that's what Muslims learn in their societies. Islam is not at fault, something or someone else is at fault. Because as the Prophet and every Imam/Ayatollah since him has said, Islam is perfect.

[quote]The UN figures show that honor killings are worse in areas where Islam is weakest - among secular Kurds and Christian families in Jordan and Palestine.

No, UN figures show nothing of the kind. But you go right on fucking that chicken . . . uhhh. . . . sheep.

r41, Islam does not dictate society. For example, both the Qur’an and the Prophet strictly forbid racism, and yet many Muslims are racist anyway. If Islam ’institutionalizes’ honor killing, point to the Islamic scripture that allows it? If Islam ’institutionalizes’ honor killing why does it not happen in Muslim countries like Malaysia or Indonesia? You are the sheep with your idiotic hatred of a religion that you are clearly too stupid to understand.

[quote]You are the sheep with your idiotic hatred of a religion that you are clearly too stupid to understand.

Of course. One does not question or criticise Islam. Like a sheep, one submits silently.

I wish the Webmistress would reinstate the ban on discussing Islam.

Retroactively.

Some Satanists are nasty socippathic fuckers, and others are decent pagans who fimd wicca and witchery too femme. Those guys worship the male principle rather that The Goddess, they pray to Horned God, Pan, whatever you call the male spiritual essence - maleness rather than patriarchy.

And of course they say that Christianity distorts their beliefs, but then what don't they distort.

I'm certainly no defender of Islam (I hate all religion and superstition), but I'd love to see assholes who derail threads like this get slapped viciously in the face.

Back in topic. I'm going to start hitting the F&F button on every poster who uses this thread to discuss Islam.

Start your own damn thread.

[quote]I wish the Webmistress would reinstate the ban on discussing Islam.

Ban? This is America, not Europe.

The Datalounge is a private institution, R47, the webmistress can ban anyone or any topic at a whim.

And she has, she does, and I wish she would!

Agree with the others. I'm sick of the anti Islam bigotry on this board. It's no different than anti gay bigotry. Enough. Begone, racist trolls.

[quote]anti Islam bigotry on this board. It's no different than anti gay bigotry.

R49 wins the weekly DL prize for the most appallingly thoughtless comparison.

Can someone explain what non-binary is?

I thought it meant tranny but in the article one of the 'women' is described as 'non-binary trans'.

[quote] I love how defending the fucked things about Islam is to point out the fucked up things about Judaism. Both are wrong. The big difference is that while Judasim has thankfully move beyond institutional child fucking, stoning, and beheading

Have they? I seem to remember children being burned death by settler religionists in the West Bank. And they're still at large.

[quote] many in the Muslim world still live by this.

And many don't - but that's what you bunch here are denying.

Anti-Islam "bigotry"? Is that anything like anti-Nazi "bigotry" or anti-KKK "bigotry." Islam is probably the only religion more bigoted than Christianity.

R26

I love how you just go copying my arguments, and then turn them on me as if to say, "You're the one doing it!!!!" Are you fucking 8?

[quote]To claim that people living in oppressive, authoritarian societies with no exposure to diversity whose lives and thoughts are circumscribed by Islam have somehow absorbed an appreciation for diversity and freedom is ludicrous.

Where to start with this piece of idiocy?

Muslim-majority countries are not all authoritarian - many Muslim countries have free and fair elections, including the world's greatest Muslim nation, Indonesia, and several others among the the world's largest Muslim countries: Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Turkey, for example. Other, smaller nations such as Lebanon, Albania and Senegal likewise have had open elections for decades, contested by a range of parties from nationalist to Islamist to left-wing. Many of these countries have had elected heads of state/government who were female, something you can't say of many of the most boorish and self-important Western countries like France and the US.

What's more, authoritarianism in the Muslim world takes many shapes - it's not all shaped by Islam. In Syria, Central Asia, and Egypt, for example, it's secular authoritarian regimes that call the shots. And sometimes the emergence of religious authoritarianism occurred in collaboration between religious parties and foreign, Western forces, invested in weakening secular nationalist regimes in the Middle East. The Muslim Brotherhood collaborated with the CIA to bring Nasser down; Isr--l used to finance Hamas in the first years of its existence to serve as a counterweight to the secular left-wing PLO; and of course, the US has much to do with the rise of the Taliban over the previous communist regime in Afghanistan, and its war on secular Iraq is the reason Iraq is now getting closer and closer to becoming a Shia theocracy.

The existence of religious authoritarianism in the Middle East can't, therefore, be blamed entirely on the influence of domestic culture only - on Muslims being stuck in the 8th (don't you mean 7th?) century, like the self-satisfied racists here keep insisting. In many cases, it had to do particular historical circumstances taking place in the [bold]XX and XXI centuries[/bold], sometimes with Western involvement.

And the existence of authoritarian regimes does not by itself deny the possibility of diversity of opinion, you simplistic imbecile. All authoritarian regimes, to a larger and smaller extent, harbor dissidents and reformers. Because that's how human beings are - people with different personalities, education, social and ethnic background, and life stories, will have different opinions on matters of politics and culture, as is natural, and it's humanly impossible to reach a total consensus on any given issue among a large mass of people, regardless of who these people are. You live in an ahistorical cartoon world if you can't grasp that.

R53 Considering that Islamic laws are just a copy of the Old Testament Torah, and where Islam diverges from Orthodox Judaism, it's in a [bold]more liberal direction[/bold], that couldn't possibly be accurate. You're just one of those people who are so obsessed with how scary and backwards The Other is, that you exaggerate their flaws beyond your own - the very definition of parochial bigotry.

And I doubt you know two shits of any religion not given prominent air time in your cable news, so please, refrain from making categorical comments on religions as a whole. Your ignorance and indifference to issues regarding human rights in places under Dharmic religions, for example, do not give you the right to brush them off to declare your personal Boogeyman is worse.

I'm having fun with the F&F button on is thread.

Back to topic, you fucking whores. Everyone is sick of your ridiculous, off-topic Islam argument.

Now back to discussing how ridiculous "witchcraft" is and how sad that in 2015 people still call themselves "witches."

People calling themselves witches is no sadder than people who call themselves Christian, Muslim, Jewish, etc. They are all equally absurd and complete and utter bullshit. We can argue which religion is worse, but that's like arguing which animal creates the smelliest shits. At the end of the day, shit is shit. Islam = Christianity = Judaism = Shit. Clear enough or everyone?

As has been reiterated in this thread, young queer and trans people would be better off studying hard, getting an education, and making themselves valuable players amongst the truly enlightened individuals of the world.

R51, "non-binary" means you don't define yourselves as a man or a woman, that you consider yourself to be both and/or neither, and don't intend to be defined by the standard gender roles. Which may sound silly, and it usually is in practice, but there's a core of sense to it, as damn few of us are entirely masculine or entirely feminine.

Calling yourself "non-binary" is actually more sensible than saying you're 100% a woman, in spite of your dick and full beard.

Muslims rarely kill or cause havoc, Christians do all over the world!!!

Amen, r54! School these racist fucked up queens!

Great post.

Stop picking on witches. It's not easy being green.

R54 An apologist for homophobic, hate-filled, mysogynist Islam on a gay board is always cause to wonder about the apologist's mental stability. Normally, I would simply ignore your highly selective, exaggerated, vituperative and - I must say it again apologist - version of an oppressive, authoritarian, barbaric dogma, but your fairy tale version demands at least some response.

[quote]many Muslim countries have free and fair elections

Out of 50 Muslim-majority countries, 5 have what passes for "fair elections". "Fair elections" do NOT include people or ideologies that will contravene prevailing Islamic law and social custom, and their "democracy" is at best fragile (Lebanon is NOT a Muslim-major country yet). The other 45 Muslim-majority countries have various forms of absolute rulers, despots and dictators. Again, out of the 50, [bold]three[/bold] have had female heads of state. Your continued use of "many" simply gives false credence to your fairy tale .

[quote]What's more, authoritarianism in the Muslim world takes many shapes - it's not all shaped by Islam.

Yes, it is. Islam is the religion of State and/or Shari'a is the law both in public and personal issues in 40 of the 50 Muslim countries. Senegal - now that you mentioned it - is in the process of introducing further Shari'a regulations.

[quote]to serve as a counterweight to the secular left-wing PLO;

The PLO was never secular or left-wing. Habash and Hawatme, both Christians, headed secular left-wing-supported terror groups. The "official" religion of the PLO/PA/Hamas has always been Islam.

[quote]the existence of authoritarian regimes does not by itself deny the possibility of diversity of opinion

This is the silliest of your assertions. Islam was readily adopted because it re-enforced, rather than conflicted with, the tribal nature of the societies that adopted it. Yet you are claiming individuality of thought in societies where the concept of individuality is not only non-existent but anathema to the very social structure. Where everything one reads, hears and sees is limited to ONE specific way of life/dogma, where group think/mentality shapes daily life. The penalty for "transgression" is well-known, right-think therefore scrupulously observed and followed. A Bangladeshi journalist was thrown in jail and charged with treason for having the termerity to publicly write that Bangladesh should establish ties with Israel.

You are aware - or perhaps not - of the reality of daily life in Muslim-countries - the discrimination faced by everyone who is not male, Muslim and of the right family/clan, the absence of freedom/diversity/choice/options, the absence of equal access, due process and protection under the law, the absence of any personal rights and most of all, the complete absence of a modicum of self-reflection and soul-searching. The Umma, 1.5 billion Muslims are just like you - the misfortune and hopelessness in their lives, the horrors they see daily committed all around them is not due to Islam, but due to other cultures, other belief systems, other influences, as if Islam is a monolith completely detached from Qur'an surahs and hadiths and devoid of the Faithful. However, I do understand the Muslim mentality that Islam is blameless because Islam is perfect. The Prophet said so.

And since this is a gay board, a little about the reality of Islam vis-a-vis homosexuals and homosexuality in Islam, since you ignored and continue to ignore it in your fairy tale view. Starting with the UN LGBT rights resolution, rejected by ALL Muslim countries. In all but 5 Muslim countries, homosexuality is illegal, a crime, with penalties ranging from jail sentences, to flogging to death. Five Muslim countries have decriminalized homosexuality, but it remains unacceptable, a social taboo. Turkey, which rates highly in your fairy tale of Muslim "tolerance and diversity", used water cannons and rubber bullets to break up a Pride parade in Istanbul a few month's ago.

Thank for a well thought our, well researched post, R61. There is one poster in this thread who very clearly has an agenda and either makes up shit to support his arguments or cherry picks what he wants to respond to. Have an up vote for wisdom.

More F&F for the assholes who keep derailing the thread.

I don't care which side of the Islam argument you're on. Get the fuck out of this thread and start another, you off-topic cunts.

Everyone should go through and hit the F&F button on them so they're banned.

Take your squabbling about repressive patriarchal religions to another thread, for fuck's sake, some of us are actually interested in witchcraft and pagan religions!

I pour a libation to the ancient Gods and use the F&F button on you freaks, piss off before I drop a house on you.

We are sprinkling Florida Water on trannies and burning strange candles in front of them even as we speak!

R64 has stated her boundaries.

So, we're back to gay people are witches and worship the devil?

LOL - what a circle we've gone.

What the fuck is this garbage? Of course, people who believe you can change sex also believe in magic. Morons.

[quote] Dakota Hendrix, a non-binary trans witch based in New York

What are “they” — a B-52?

There are no such things as witches and witchcraft.

Next.

[quote]Calling yourself "non-binary" is actually more sensible than saying you're 100% a woman, in spite of your dick and full beard.

If you're non-binary, what do you transition from and into, and still be non-binary?

The mind boggles.

^^ I asked this with regard to:

[quote]Dakota Hendrix, a non-binary trans witch