The Texas Tribune is tracking the catastrophic “only conservative white people matter in American History textbooks clusterfuck” that will soon be unleashed on the unsuspecting American child population here

In their January meeting, State Board of Education members came armed with more amendments to the state social studies curriculum than they could vote on — a process hardly helped by the acrimony between the board’s socially conservative bloc and more moderate Republicans and liberal Democrats. And so the SBOE kicked the process of revising the standards down the road to this week’s meeting, where social studies rewrites will resume today.

Because of the flood of amendments under consideration, we’ve produced this annotated version of the high school U.S. History standards, which have been the focus of controversy. You can see exactly what the board has added, deleted and rewritten, along with our analysis of the current arguments and historical context behind each change.MORE

A. And here I thought my American History class was a piece of shit.

B. IF I ever do have kids I’ll have to homeschool them.

C. And Texas is actually apparently majority POC. I suppose at some point there will be a grassroots movement to throw this shit out. Hopefully it won’t take too long.

Hipster Racism Because Amanda Palmer showed her ass. AGAIN.

Closeted politicians and bi-invisibility

…Amanda Mennis recently wrote me with an interesting question: Does this story of a secretly gay public figure — and the absurdly long parade of stories like it — contribute in some way to bisexual invisibility?

After all, most of the guys in these scandals (and it has just been guys so far) are married, or have some sort of sexual/ romantic relationship with women. Many of them have children. They’re clearly capable of having sex with women. Doesn’t that make them bisexual, not gay? Or at least, doesn’t it suggest the possibility that some of them are bisexual and not gay?

An interesting question. And one that I’m finding tricky to answer.

Part of the problem is that we don’t have a standard definition of what it means to be gay or lesbian or bisexual. It’s not like there’s a gay person in a vacuum in the Smithsonian, against whom we all measure ourselves to determine our own sexual orientation. Everyone defines these terms — gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, bi-curious, heteroflexible (that was a new one on me!), questioning, queer, “basically straight but wouldn’t kick Jon Stewart out of bed,” whatever — in subtly different ways. Or not so subtly different ways.

So ultimately, it doesn’t really make sense to talk about whether someone is “really bisexual.” There is no such thing as “really bisexual.” Within reason (and please don’t ask me to define what “within reason” means), we get to decide for ourselves what sexual orientation we are, and what language we use to describe it.

But what does that mean for someone who’s closeted?MORE

Some of the downsides of the Health care bill in terms of women Yes, its more than teh abortion executive order. Which is a Big Fucking. Deal.

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He’s a Terrorist. Just say it. Terrorist. For F*%k sake!

You see, the very definition of terrorism has changed, right beneath our feet. A man with strong idealogical beliefs against the government of the United States tries (and succeeds) to kill himself and take as many civilians (federal workers) as he can with him. But they don’t call it terrorism. That sacrosanct term is now reserved only for non-white people with funny sounding names. Preferably Muslim.

Trans Murder Monitoring Project: 333 cases of reported murders of trans people in the last 2 years

Integrating Primary and Mental Healthcare

Currently, primary care providers (PCPs), also called general practitioners, provide over half of mental health treatment in the United States – which results in up to 50% of mental health problems going unindentified, undiagnosed, and untreated through the primary care system. This is a wasted opportunity, as PCPs have significant opportunities to identify behavioral health problems early and provide interventions and treatments to prevent further deterioration.MORE

Videos: Dance party!

The Male “P” Spot: Why het men are so afraid to discover their own bodies’ capacities for pleasure, from a sex organ that ISN’T a penis

Has anyone, anywhere, seen a medical illustration of the prostate gland and men’s other sexual organs depicted with the prostate being touched and the penis erect? Why not? And why do these diagrams only exist to promote “checking for cancer”? Talk about stigmatising an organ!MORE

Gemini Mini Documentary

TransGriot Note: Mini Documentary on Chicago drag queen Saya Naomi Diaz Deleon or Gemini. It includes commentary from Christina Kahrl, who was recently featured on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.MORE

And finally, Movie rec: Sleep Dealer

Now on sale