I'll just sum up…

Some days, Twitter brings me good news in concentrated bursts. But yesterday was all about going to the opposite extreme. I covered the Occupy stories all day on Twitter, but in between was a lot of other bad news and stories that all hurt me to read. At a certain point I gave up and went to the couch. Not because I was tired, but because I could no longer stand being on the emotional roller coaster.

This morning, it falls to me to pick three stories from the pile I found yesterday, bring them to your attention, and then move on so I can try to get some work done despite my plunging number of work hours this month due to my health.

So first, let's start with the hanging suicide of a ten-year-old girl, because her classmates were calling her fat and a slut. She'd asked her mother to be home-schooled, and the day after she was told to just go to public school, she hung herself with a scarf.

I could shout at you about how much we need to stop bullying. But you'd just go make another video for queer teens. So I'll just point out, your video campaign never could have reached this victim of bullying. At her age, those homo videos are hidden from children, on the grounds that they might get confused and turn homo themselves. So there is nothing that anyone could have offered this straight girl to convince her not to die. Certainly, there is no effort from parents to end bullying, which is what this victim and many others like her need. So, another child checks out because society loves bullies.

Second, a teen exhibitionist is going to be prosecuted for sending nude photos to her friends. Here we have a crime where the criminal is the victim, and the legal system is STILL going to pursue the case. This is not about protecting teens from sex. It's about controlling everyone in EVERY facet of their lives. Of course I expect most of you not to care about this one. After all, this is just a slut getting what she deserves. She should know better than to feel any pride in her body or her sexuality, and she's getting what she deserves, a good old heapin' helping of slut-shaming, American Purtian-style.

So let's move on to our last exposure, this time an adult trans woman who is still listed as male. Frustrated by this, the protestor bared her chest, resulting in instant arrest for indecent exposure. So, a man with breasts can go bare-chested, and that's okay. But a trans person is subject to an invisible set of laws that say "both sides apply to you, when WE see fit."

And so, to recap, the bullies won and killed a little girl. The state bullies are prosecuting a teen girl for exploring her own sexuality, and they're imprisoning a trans woman on the grounds that she's not really a man…while holding her in a male prison.

Now, ask me why I'm upset today.