northernmusician's Journal, 15 May 2016

My kids are telling me that there is a whole new kiddie culture called "otherkin," or some such. These are kids who sexually and culturally identify as ANIMALS. As in - I am a poodle, mistakenly born into a boy's body. Apparently they mean to be included abs a new LGBT category.... that's. simply. stupid. 

jimmiepop, unless someone actually knows what it is like to be called an animal and be told that they deserve to be treated like one, people have no idea how hurtful that is. Can cause pain for years. It saddens me to hear that they refer themselves as animals. And all NM brought up was a changing table in the men's room. 

Yeah. I am still at a loss t understand the direction this thread took! 

my fault, sorry 

My bad! Now I see! I did not mean to call you out. I hadn't scrolled up to the top of the thread. 

PS - You all only narrowly avoided my hardcore rant on the virtue of men's rooms changing tables.... 

Jimmiepop... The otherkin you said sexually identified as animals? Does that mean they go after poodles??? 

@SG First let me say - neither I, nor anyone in my family, nor anyone I know, has any direct personal experience of these things. With that said, the kids tell me it's not that they "go after" poodles, but that they think they ARE poodles (or whatever); trapped in a human body. Supposedly in the same way that Bruce Jenner is trapped in a man's body. They want to add "O" as a new LGBT category, as in LGBTO.  

Oops. I meant top say in the same way that Caitlyn Jenner thinks she is trapped in a man's body... 

they're all over tumblr... 

Sounds really funny to think of oneself as an animal, but then there's the Chinese Zodiac where you have an animal year! I'm a horse! If it's anything like that, cute teenager stuff... But adding the O at the end of LGBT is about sexual preference- these kids need to get their facts straight, unless they're into animals for orientation. By the way Jimmiepop I never once associated you or your family with otherkin.. Lol 

It is a lot more prevalent, then people realize. It is the most difficult issue to understand, out there, I think, but North Carolina has made the political issue front and center. My wife counsels many transgenders. It is an emotional nightmare for many. 

I just switched my avatar picture to a transgender guy, who is online. Proof, that there is no way to visually tell. 

The best suggestion I heard was to designate restrooms by function, as in urinal or toilet. In addition, urinals and stalls should provide better privacy with tall sides, provide sound masking and better odor control. I am always surprised at the lack of empathy for transgenders, as if they made a choice to be "different." It can't be comfortable for them to not feel at home in their own skins. True, they challenge everyone who would prefer to be able to classify and respond to others on a gender basis and they will put you in touch with the fact that you relate to others by how they look. Truly food for thought for those of us who do not want to be judged by the amount of weight we carry on our bodies.  

Aside from the transgender issue there's also the fact that single dads need a place to change diapers too, so unless they cater to a family bathroom then they would require one of these as well. 

So one time I was at the theatre and needed to use the washroom. So I'm sitting there wondering to myself 'I've never seen a men's room without a urinal before'. That's when the lightening struck. I also have this problem with where to put my arms when I go to bed. They just don't seem to belong to me. I tend to sleep on my side with my arms sticking straight out in front of me. I often wonder if they twitch while I'm sleeping, or if they run, like Tika's do. Maybe I'm a dog in a man's body. Can't believe this was a simple comment about a change table in a men's room. That's what happens when you do a 300 mile run in one day for a replacement cell phone. Yes, my daughter could have got it here. What's that got to do with anything? I'm doing that exact run again one Tuesday morning. I'll see what little troll I can come up with for Tuesday. This was kind of like that 'sit in a circle and whisper something in someone's ear and let's see how twisted it gets before it gets back to you' game. By the way, I think political correctness is about to come to a sudden and abrupt halt. Otherkin. That's new to me. I actually think it's more likely I should have been a radish. 

I'll tell you an inappropriate story, that I shouldn't tell, but you know me. I was playing on the football team, and we were playing the U of Hawaii in Hawaii. Coach told us if we won, we could go drink at the bar all night, and not have practice the next day. Terry Metcalf, our star player, scored an NCAA record for touchdowns, and we won. The whole team went to one bar. At closing, our mostly black team had found ladies to take home. Trouble was, they didn't realize the bar was next door to a building, where mostly transvestites lived. I went back to our barracks, where we were staying. When they got back the next morning, it was like they had all seen GHOSTS. There mouths were having troubles keeping up with their speech. All they could talk about was what they saw in those pants! lol  

I love coming online in my UK morning and catching up on US threads. What a digression from the original post. Tt looks like a new record, NM :) Way to go with the trolling ;-) (oh, and the game in a circle you mentioned - we called it Chinese Whispers until it became politically incorrect to do so) 

Phooka. That would be a great name for it. :) I think the biggest tragedy of political correctness is that it has made everyone afraid to make a joke. It's very possible to be hurtful without being politically incorrect, so all we ended up with is a language police out of the attempt to make things more civil. 

I agree, we need to be able to laugh at ourselves. To digress even more from the original post, the whole idea of "political correctness" suggests it is something imposed by outside forces when really we should be thinking in terms of being more kind and considerate of everyone's personal struggles. Empathy comes from within.