(1) HWA RELEASES SOCIAL MEDIA STATS. The Horror Writers Association shared some numbers about their coverage of social media platforms.
a. Facebook page: 3713 followers
b. Facebook group: 15.8K members
c. Twitter: 22.3K followers
d. Instagram: 3713 followers
e. Slasher: 5500
f. Discord Server: 150 members – has same functions as HWA’s old message boards but is more secure.
g. TikTok: 108 followers
(2) NEW DELANY NOVEL. No indication that it’s sff that I’ve seen: “Samuel R. Delany to Publish Serial Novel in The Georgia Review”. The first installment is out.
The Georgia Review is proud to announce that our Summer 2022 issue will begin our serial publication of This Short Day of Frost and Sun, a new novel by Samuel R. Delany. The novel begins on New York’s Upper West Side sometime in the early 1990s, and, in an embedded tale, moves to a millionaire’s estate somewhere in the Midwest, a residence called “Mapless.”
Somone on Facebook asked how long the serial will run. Delany replied:
It might take them as much as three or four years to finish up the whole thing. I’m fiddling with it as I feed them chapters.
(3) NEXT YEAR’S STOKERCON. The Horror Writers Association’s StokerCon® 2023 will be in Pittsburgh, PA from June 15-18. Michael Arnzen, Benjamin Rubin, and Sara Tantlinger will co-chair the event. Register here.
(Early Bird) Launch through September 30 – $150
October 1st through October 31st – $200
November 1st through December 31st – $250
January 1st through May 15th – $300
More info will be available in the coming months.
(4) BAD LUCK AND TROUBLE YIELDS GOOD SF TV? The LA Times interviewed several showrunners to learn “How science fiction is shaping prestige TV”.
With storylines rooted in the Cold War or climate change or any number of other deep-seated earthbound concerns, no fewer than four new series (and counting) are boldly proclaiming an emerging era of prestige science fiction this season.
Why this sudden surge?
“Science fiction has always flourished when things weren’t going too well, and right now, there’s just a ton of anxiety in the world,” says David S. Goyer, showrunner for the Apple TV+ series “Foundation.”
That anxiety is reflected in these wildly variegated, star-packed offerings: Goyer’s “Foundation,” starring Jared Harris, traffics in “Dune”-style interplanetary strife set 25,000 years in the future; folksy heartland drama “Night Sky” (May 20, Prime Video) features Oscar winners Sissy Spacek and J.K. Simmons as a couple who periodically visit a distant planet via the teleportation device ensconced in their backyard shed; time-travel western “Outer Range” (Prime Video) stars Oscar nominee Josh Brolin as a Wyoming rancher spooked by a giant hole on the edge of his property; and “The Man Who Fell to Earth” (Showtime) casts Oscar-nominated Chiwetel Ejiofor as a charismatic extraterrestrial.
And while “Star Trek” in all its versions has been a relatively constant presence on screens big and small since the mid-1960s, its presence in these current times is growing ever larger, adding to the mix the recently launched “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” (Paramount+), which follows Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and his USS Enterprise crew on fresh adventures. And there’s still more to come as Apple TV+ will be back in the space race soon with “Constellation,” featuring Noomi Rapace and Jonathan Banks.
The Envelope spoke to these showrunners about how they’re reshaping sci-fi TV amid troubled times….
(5) STILL GUESSING. “Doctor Who casts Heartstopper star Yasmin Finney for 60th anniversary” – Radio Times declines to leap to any conclusion about the history of the character named Rose that this actor will play.
…However, Rose is also the title of Davies’ very first Doctor Who episode, where NuWho (and his own involvement in the series) all began. As he returns to take over the show again, it seems oddly appropriate for there to be another Rose in the mix – and given his heartbreaking parting from the original Rose, we might assume it’ll have some resonance for Tennant’s Doctor as well.
For now, it’s still unclear exactly what role Finney will play alongside Tate and Tennant, how many episodes (or specials) she’ll appear in, and whether she’s just a guest star or whether she’s here for the long haul. If she is a companion, Finney will be the first trans actor to hold that position in the TV series (though Rebecca Root has played a trans companion in audio dramas, and trans actors have appeared in episodes and spin-offs before)….
Similiarly: “Doctor Who casts new Rose but what’s her connection to Billie Piper?” at Radio Times.
This new version of Rose isn’t necessarily a multiversal revamp or reincarnation. She’s not necessarily Donna’s surprise daughter (though that would be cool, right?) or a herald for Billie Piper’s own comeback (though again, let’s not rule that one out).
For the last 17 years, that name has been a crucial motif in Doctor Who. And as Davies looks back for the 60th anniversary of the show, it might have just felt right to have a new Rose blooming for a new generation.
(6) ANOTHER HUGO-WINNING PRONOUN ANTAGONIST. [Item by Anne Marble.] I didn’t know Barry Longyear would use words like “woke” and complain about pronouns. Maybe Barry Longyear should be shipwrecked on another planet with an asexual pregnant alien… Then he might learn about his prejudices. Longyear’s May 17 Facebook post begins:
I usually shy away from this sort of nonsense, but after watching the news this morning, enough is enough.
Of all the cruel, pointless, wastes of time in existence, “woke” pronoun designation and enforcement is vying with CRT and the new college segregation to promote “racial harmony” for first place. Three Wisconsin middle school boys have been charged with sexual harassment for using “incorrect gender pronouns.” A student in rather crude terms, berated a boy for not using “they” and “them” when referring to that student….
(7) DEATH DID NOT RELEASE HIM. “Marvel Signs Deal to Insert CGI Stan Lee Cameos Into Future Films” – Futurism has the story.
…What happens when a brand puts words in a dead guy’s mouth? And how come Marvel reversed course? In 2021, the company said the digitally-aged cameo of Lee they inserted into “End Game” would be his last.
And emotionally, it’s worth noting that the whole thing feels a little icky. Is it really what Lee would have wanted?
“Ghoulish behavior,” one fan wrote on Twitter. “Do not resurrect the man for further movie appearances as a CGI puppet, no matter what his estate is willing to sign off on.”
(8) OH, SNAP! Seems like death did not release Nick Fury, either. How did that happen? “Secret Invasion Taking Place ‘During The Blip’ Raises Obvious Question” and Bleeding Cool tries to find the answer.
…During Disney’s Upfronts on Tuesday, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige brought out Jackson to help him promote the six-episode series. And that’s when things got interesting because while folks knew Secret Invasion would take place within the MCU timeline, Feige offered a bit more clarity that… caused a bit of confusion. While still engaging in the Marvel Studios’ policy of offering as few details as possible, did say that the series would take place “during The Blip, when half of the universe was decimated by Thanos and will explore the events that happened in that period.” So if that’s the case and it takes place between Avengers: Infinity War (especially that post-credits scene) and Avengers: Endgame, then we have a huge mystery in front of us. Because as far as everyone saw during that previously mentioned post-credits scene, Fury and Cobie Smulders‘ Maria Hill (who is also set to appear in the series) found themselves on the wrong side of Thanos’ finger-snap…
(9) VANGELIS (1943-2022). The Guardian reports Vangelis, composer of Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner soundtracks died May 17. His music was also associated with space exploration.
…A fascination with outer space found voice in 2016’s Rosetta, dedicated to the space probe of the same name, and Nasa appointed his 1993 piece Mythodea (which he claimed to have written in an hour) as the official music of the Mars Odyssey mission of 2001. His final album, 2021’s Juno to Jupiter, was inspired by the Nasa probe Juno and featured recordings of its launch and the workings of the probe itself in outer space….
Sultana Raza commemorated his passing in verse: “Cosmic Rainbow – Vangelis’ music inspired this poem”.
(10) MEMORY LANE.
1983 – [By Cat Eldridge.] Thirty-nine years ago, William Shatner got his very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It as the 1762nd such star. He’d actually also get a star on the Walk of Fame in Canada.
It is said that hundreds of people attended Shatner’s dedication ceremony, including Leonard Nimoy. He gave a speech on the day, in which he said that Shatner was “a wonderful man and a great actor” before telling the crowd about the terrible jokes Shatner liked to play on him.
Shatner also spoke, “This is my small ticket to the stars. All of the other accolades are so ephemeral one never has anything that’s truly concrete and this is the one exception.”
(11) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]
- Born May 19, 1904 — Anthony Bushell. He played Colonel Breen in the Quatermass and the Pit series. He showed in Danger, Invisible Man and The Saint. (Died 1997.)
- Born May 19, 1937 — Pat Roach. He was cast in the first three Indy Jones films as a decided Bad Person though he never had a name. His first genre appearance was in A Clockwork Orange as a Milkbar bouncer but his first named role was being Hephaestus in Clash of Titans. He was of an unusually stocky nature, so he got cast as a Man Ape in Conan the Destroyer, and as Bretagne the Barbarian in Red Sonja. And of course he had such a role as Zulcki in Kull the Desttoyer. Oh, and he played a very large and mostly naked Executioner in the George MacDonald Fraser scripted The Return of The Musketeers. (Died 2004.)
- Born May 19, 1944 — Peter Mayhew. Chewbacca from the beginning to The Force Awakens before his retirement from the role. The same year he first did Chewy, he had an uncredited role as the Minotaur in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. He also shows in the Dark Towers series as The Tall Knight. Can we say he earned a Hugo at IguanaCon II? I know I’m stretching it there. (Died 2019.)
- Born May 19, 1946 — Andre the Giant. Fezzik in The Princess Bride, one of my all-time favorite films. He had an uncredited role as Dagoth In Conan the Destroyer. He’s actually did a number of genre roles such as The Greatest American Hero with his American acting debut playing a Bigfoot in a two-part episode aired in 1976 on The Six Million Dollar Man titled “The Secret of Bigfoot”. He died at age forty-six of congestive heart failure in his sleep at a Paris hotel while there for his father’s funeral. (Died 1993.)
- Born May 19, 1948 — Grace Jones, 74. Singer, best known for a song about looking for a parking spot, but also acts. In addition to other genre roles, she was a companion of Conan in Conan the Destroyer and a Bond Girl in View to a Kill. (Alan Baumler)
- Born May 19, 1966 — Jodi Picoult, 56. Her Wonder Women work is exemplary (collected in Wonder Women, Volume 3 and Wonder Woman: Love and Murder). She also has a most excellent two volume YA series called the Between the Lines Universe which she wrote with Samantha van Leer. ISFDB lists her Second Glance novel as genre but I’d say it’s genre adjacent at best.
(12) WE INTERRUPT THIS SCROLL. John Scalzi has not been neglecting his Coca-Cola tasting duties – we just missed the coverage!
In February CNN Business featured another variation on the soft drink: “Coca-Cola Starlight: Coke’s new flavor is out of this world”. That week Scalzi obtained a can and shared his impression:
Then earlier this month he also wrote up another new limited edition flavor: Pixel Flavored! (How on earth – or off it – did we miss that?) “In Which I Try the Latest Coca-Cola Creations Flavor” at Whatever.
It is the Byte Limited Edition Pixel Flavored Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, which you cannot get in the stores; you have to order it off the Coca-Cola Web site, where it comes in a specialty boxed package (which you can see in the background) featuring two cans, a sticker and a QR card for a video game, all for $15 or thereabouts. Apparently only 25,000 of the boxes will be made. Well, okay; I bought two boxes, just in case I fell so in love with whatever “pixel flavored” tastes like that I needed to have a couple extra to string it out.
(13) MORE LOVE, MORE DEATH, MORE ROBOTS. And unrelated to beverages, About Netflix tapped John Scalzi for comments on “’Love, Death + Robots’: The Story Behind the Anthology Series’ First-Ever Sequel”.
How did it feel to return to these characters?
For me, the thing that was great is I wrote the characters because, years ago, a friend of mine kept poking me until I contributed to her anthology, Robots Vs. Fairies. I knocked it out in about an hour. The fact that something I did to keep my friend from annoying me has gone on to have such a long life – first in the book, then the first season, then being the only episode that is explicitly a sequel – just tickles me. And it thrills me, because the longer I’m with those characters, the more I love them….
(14) BRADBURY DNA. The Chicago Shakespeare Theater will be inspired by a bard from another world when they stage “It Came from Outer Space” from June 22-24.
A new musical comedy adapted from the ‘50s cult classic sci-fi film from Universal Pictures! Amateur astronomer John Putnam encounters an alien spaceship in the desert and becomes the laughingstock of his small town—until the extraterrestrial visitors make their presence known and he must convince the gathering mob that they have come in peace. A clever musical score and creative physical humor puts a new spin on Ray Bradbury’s flying saucer tale, examining society’s fear of outsiders as it simultaneously embraces the wonder of what lies just beyond the stars. Commissioned and developed by Chicago Shakespeare with Creative Producer Rick Boynton, the production reignites an artistic partnership with creators Joe Kinosian and Kellen Blair, following the triumph of their Jeff Award-winning 2011 musical, Murder for Two, which went on to an acclaimed New York run.
(15) JEOPARDY! Andrew Porter was planted in front of the TV tonight when Jeopardy! contestants stumbled over this genre item.
Category: Lit Bits
Answer: This book introduced us to the Eloi and Morlocks.
Wrong questions: What is “The Lord of the Rings” and “What is “War of the Worlds”?
Right question: What is “The Time Machine”?
(16) TIMES CROSSWORD PUZZLE. The answers to Thursday’s puzzle are hidden to avoid spoilers. Though we guess most Filers will get this four-letter answer pretty easily.
(17) ORION SHALL WRITHE. “In The Original ‘Star Trek’ Pilot, It Wasn’t Easy Being Green” explains H&I. It’s not a long anecdote, and would be spoiled by running enough of an excerpt to read coherently. So just click over and be entertained.
(18) NOT A FLOOR BUT A CEILING? Dr. Matt O’Dowd analyzes possible answers to a reciprocal of the usual assumption: “What If the Galactic Habitable Zone LIMITS Intelligent Life?” at PBS Space Time.
Our solar system is a tiny bubble of habitability suspended in a vast universe that mostly wants to kill us. In fact, a good fraction of our own galaxy turns out to be utterly uninhabitable, even for sun—like stellar systems. Is this why .. most of us .. haven’t seen aliens?
(19) NOT A FAN OF FOX. Screen Rant takes notes as “Star Trek Writer Hits Back At Controversial Fox News Op-Ed”. “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe reacts to a Fox News op-ed that smeared the show as having suddenly adopted ‘woke politics.’”
(20) MEANWHILE, BACK IN FLORIDA. Reason brings you “Democratic Disney vs. Republican Disney”.
Tired of Disney not bending to their partisan sensibilities, two politicians update their theme parks.
(21) VIDEO OF THE DAY. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] In “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Pitch Meeting,” Ryan George, in a spoiler-packed episode, says that when the writer tells the producer that Wanda has gone bad because she’s been “possessed by an evil book,” the producer says, “this is why I don’t read.” But the producer discovers who to cast for cameos when the writer makes smirky faces to him.
[Thanks to JJ, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Andrew Porter, Anne Marble, John Scalzi, Will R., SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Michael Toman, Cat Eldridge, Mike Kennedy, Martin Morse Wooster for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Matthew Johnson.]
Discover more from File 770
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.
First!
Ahhh Longyear, could you have avoided wading into that morass? I guess not.
Though I did see this Pixel Scroll first on Twitter, I didn’t get the email notification but did get the Auto Draft email notification after Cat commented.
(10) MEMORY LANE.
Speaking of stars, James Hong (“Big Trouble in Little China”, “Everything Everywhere all at Once”, “Bladerunner”, and over 400 more credits on IMDB) just got a Hollywood Walk of Fame star at the young age of 93(!).
https://ew.com/movies/james-hong-hollywood-walk-of-fame-ceremony-lion-dancers/
ETA: Apparently Second!
Another auto draft? We shall see.
No notifications went out for this Scroll, so I manually tweeted the link.
Post subscribers are up a creek without a paddle.
I have just finished writing another customer support request. Back down the rabbit hole.
I’m going to comment and subscribe to see what happens…
(1) I keep forgetting to check out the Slasher app again. I deleted it as I found the app ran slowly on my iPad. Does anyone know if it has gotten better? (There were other issues, too, such as other horror fans upset with customer support.)
(11) A lot of tall people were born today!
15) my first thought was War of the Worlds also. Though I really know better.
4) Most of these were planned before COVID. I don’t think much of the ‘lot of anxiety’ explanation
(2) According to an attendee at a recent reading (as long as you count any time in the current millennium as recent), Chip Delany described the novel as fantasy in the manner of Chesterton’s “The Man Who Was Thursday.” It’s therefore unsurprising that the published section manifests no overtly genre fantasy elements.
(19) I think my favorite repost of the Fox News quote about Trek was someone who simply said, “tell us you’ve never seen Star Trek without saying that you’ve never seen Star Trek.” 🙂
17) Reminds me of Gerry Anderson’s live-action feature Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, which involves a trip to a “mirror Earth”, located – well, the clue’s in the title. Everything on the mirror planet was supposed to be mirror-imaged, an obvious visual clue to what was going on. But the mirror-imaging was “helpfully” corrected in post-production….
(Mind you, there were plenty of other things wrong with that particular film.)
6)
:sigh:
@xilfr I did a variation on that phrase in my own repost.
9) Requiescat in pace
re Nick Fury: I don’t see the problem. Since it was subsequently revealed at the end of the next Spider-Man movie that Nick and Maria Hill had been impersonated by Skrulls, it was clearly that pair which were blipped away for 5 years.
Longyear is one of many.
As a short, straight, genetic male, I’ve run into many like him. They’re the ones who deliberately misidentify people, judge people, and dismiss people for not being “normal” (normal being whatever the speaker is).
I had a discussion about bullying in school with a very tall gentleman. We compared notes, and found that the bullying was EXACTLY the same. It wasn’t that he was “too tall,” or that I was “too short,” it’s that we were different than the norm. It fault for the behavior wasn’t on us, those targeted, but on the bullies, themselves, for being insecure, hate filled, and lashing out at ANYONE who didn’t conform to their narrow view of the world.
I’ve come to realize, as many others have, including tall, short, people of color, immigrants, those of other than Christian religions, LGBTQ, tec, that being different is actually a superpower.
It enables us to see IMMEDIATELY who is worth talking to and who is not, who is mentally unstable, and who is not, who is living in a dystopian fantasy world of social media, where truth is scarce and agendas drive people to commit crimes out of hatred and fear.
This superpower also allows us quickly to find out who is willing and able to learn, explore new ideas, and work toward progress, not regress, and compassionate about others without hate based judgement. The vast majority of the science fiction/fantasy community is supportive, intelligent, and driven to make the world better.
I can think of only a few exceptions. They needn’t be named.
#6- I can’t see the entire post, because I refuse to use Facebook, but it kind of seems to me like this is less about being antagonistic to pronouns and more about questioning whether or not it’s reasonable to charge children with sexual harassment for not using someone’s preferred pronouns. Are we really and truly saying that we’re fine with that? Seems a bit excessive to me.
Barry Longyear. Sigh. Fortunately for me, he was never one of my favorite writers, so all I need to do is roll my eyes (especially after reading that posts and the comments–which helped add to my block file).
But the whole argument about the singular “they” is so head-shaking that I can’t really believe it. It’s a lot easier to use and less awkward than alternatives. It’s kind. It accurately reflects the orientation of the people using it. And it makes things so much simpler when you are unsure of someone’s gender–which is probably one reason for all the fuss.
(6) For those who like me were thinking ‘wait, wasn’t that dude already known to be chudly?’ it turns out we were remembering Barry Malzberg instead.
more about questioning whether or not it’s reasonable to charge children with sexual harassment for not using someone’s preferred pronouns.
No one has been “charged” with anything. If one follows to the actual story the school is investigating the incident as possible sexual harassment, and the parents of the children being investigated are shrieking that their little angels could not possibly have done something wrong. It is also clear from the story that the alleged harassment involved more than just using the wrong pronouns.
At this point, coming to any conclusion seems premature, especially since the school has not completed its investigation. Even if the school concludes that the students behaved inappropriately, they won’t be “charged” with anything, since the school isn’t a criminal court. The school will make an administrative determination concerning what the investigation revealed.
My solution to the Longyear (et al) pronoun bashers is simple: repeatedly call them infantilizing pronouns (etc.) of the opposite gender repeatedly until they snap, then say, “Oh, so you do care about gender pronouns. Got it. I didn’t realize you were that ‘woke.’”
If they genuinely seem to rethink things, I’ll stop there, but usually they need more work than that. Until then, they’re “Daddy’s special princess,” “Cupcake,” etc.
I’m so tired of older white male SFF writers living down to expectations. Barry Longyear looks like a hateful dinosaur by taking a stand against doing people the simple courtesy of using their personal pronouns.
It’s literally the least you could do and that’s still a bridge too far for Barry. But but but “they” was plural when I learned my three Rs by etching with coal on a shovel and walked uphill both ways to school!
Blech.
@Joyce Reynolds-Ward: Not only does singular-they have all the benefits you mentioned, it’s also been part of the English language for centuries. It’s even found in the King James Bible! 🙂
2
yay! More Delany!
6
Teaching young men and boys to be thoughtful about others feelings seems to me to be the essence of education. I hope they learn something.
12
“Space tastes like a crushed Oreo with a raspberry waved over it. Which…is fine?”
Is it, John? Is it really?
19
Uh, that’s a quarter century old show…which response is admittedly not as clever as xfitir’s.
rcade says I’m so tired of older white male SFF writers living down to expectations. Barry Longyear looks like a hateful dinosaur by taking a stand against doing people the simple courtesy of using their personal pronouns.
Personal pronouns are something I very, very carefully check when doing the Birthdays. Most of the time they are easy to get correct but sometime they are not.
And I’ve actually had it where the personal site of a given individual is gendered one way and the site set up for them by their publisher is gendered another way.
It was pointed out to me that the first commenter on the Longyear post was Brad “Paul, you want to put me and mine in a boxcar!” Torgersen.
So yeah
I’m in the minority here, but I daresay Goodyear is spot on. Misgendering someone, however distasteful, simply is not criminal, nor should it be. I don’t this he’s being unreasonable at all. The whole situation with the students in Wisconsin is absurd.
(6) You know, it’s really not that hard. Every once in a while, for any number of reasons, you may get someone’s chosen personal pronouns wrong. At which point you say, “Oh, I’m sorry,” and correct yourself.
Neither of you is “spot on” about this situation. No crime has been alleged. A Title IX sexual harassment investigation is not a criminal proceeding.
There’s a lot of crappy hysterical reporting on the right about this situation, but here’s a local newspaper story that covers the facts.
School districts have an obligation under federal law to undertake an investigation under Title IX when they receive a complaint of sexual harassment, including due to gender identity. They don’t have the option not to investigate.
The whole situation with the students in Wisconsin is absurd.
That is because you, like Longyear, clearly didn’t actually look at the actual story.
Aaron Pound: Admittedly, the word “charged” was poorly-chosen. I can’t really think of what the correct terminology would be in this case, but nevertheless these kids would face real, life-altering consequences.
While we’re scrutinizing each other’s word choices, I daresay that “shrieking that their little angels could not possibly have done something wrong” is definitely not the tone of someone who hasn’t reached any conclusions yet. Maybe you should take your own advice.
I can’t really think of what the correct terminology would be in this case, but nevertheless these kids would face real, life-altering consequences.
What life altering consequences do you think a Title IX investigation would have in a case like this? Do you even know what the potential outcomes are?
While we’re scrutinizing each other’s word choices, I daresay that “shrieking that their little angels could not possibly have done something wrong” is definitely not the tone of someone who hasn’t reached any conclusions yet.
It is exactly what the parents are doing – since they have threatened to file a lawsuit unless the school stops the investigation. The parents are mad that the school is even investigating this at all. “Shrieking” is a mild way to describe it.
@Chet: “real, life-altering consequences”
It might even go on their permanent record!
@Aron Pound: I did, actually. Eighth grade kids are being hit with a sexual harassment investigation stemming from pronoun misuse. The situation is exactly as absurd as that sounds. Here’s the local news on it:
https://www.weau.com/2022/05/16/middle-schoolers-accused-sexual-harassment-not-using-preferred-pronouns-parents-say/
The school district is way out of line potentially derailing the lives of three eigth graders with potential criminal investigations (and records) over what should have been handled with a sit down between staff and students. If you don’t think reaction to all of this doesn’t fit the “crime”, I pray to God you never run for public office.
Upon reading the whole story, I don’t see the phrase “criminal investigation” used anywhere. Just “investigation.” I’m pretty sure not all investigations are criminal investigations.
I do see the parents attempting to reframe the situation as (direct quote) “Sexual harassment, that’s rape, that’s incest, that’s inappropriate touching…” Which is factually untrue. Rabidoux has listed examples of sexual assault. She’s conflating assault and harassment here. That way, when the school says, “There are allegations that your children have been verbally harassing their non-binary classmate by persistently misgendering them,” she can respond “OMG THIS IS LIKE ACCUSING MY KIDS OF RAPE HOW DARE YOU”
She’s also insisting that her kids have no responsibility to respect a classmate’s gender identity and preferred pronouns because “it’s confusing to them”. Well, duh – as long as she keeps telling them “they/them is only ever plural” they’re gonna continue to be confused (including when they get to high school and start studying Shakespeare, I guess). If she keeps trying to shield her kids from certain life lessons, they’re never gonna learn those lessons. Which is probably what she’s hoping for, actually.
I must have missed this one! Thanks for the title credit.
(6) The Kiel Area School District has dropped the investigation.
That link says the school district completed the investigation, which it was obligated to undertake under Title IX. It doesn’t say it was dropped.
It doesn’t say any such thing.
The letter says that the District has done two things: “We have worked hard to find a resolution” and “we have issued clear directives and expectations” — that’s all they said they did. And now, they “consider the matter closed.”
After the families of the accused students lawyered up and pointed out all sorts of problems with how the District pursued the matter (that “mispronouning”, as a matter of law, isn’t severe enough to constitute Title IX harassment; that the District was not following Title IX-required procedures; that Title IX does not cover gender identity; that the students likely had a 1st Amendment right to disagree about pronouns) the District dropped the matter.
The Department of Education made it clear in 2021 that Title IX covers gender identity.
The school fulfilled its obligations under Title IX and other law and then closed the investigation. You can invent a different outcome you like better but that’s not what occurred.
It’s incredibly sad that the far-right is so invested in championing anti-transgender bullying that the school district faced bomb threats and threats of violence against a staff member for investigating the abusive behavior.