Magazinedesign

Contents

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Department Pride Babadook

By Jessica Roy

National Come Out Day

By Robert Eichberg

Features 5

11

Homophoblic Hate Crime on Transgender

17

Orange is the New Black Tv Series

7 26

32

Ruby Rose

LESBEHONEST A LESBIANS PLACE TO BE..

“Gay kids aren’t a “plot point” that you can play with. Gay kids are real, actual kids, teenagers, growing up into awesome adults, and they don’t have the books they need to reflect that. Growing up, my nose was constantly stuck in a book. Growing up as a lesbian, I was told over and over and over by the lack of gayness in said books that I did not exist. That I wasn’t important enough to tell stories about. That I was invisible. Why are we telling our kids this? Why are we telling them that they’re a minority, and they don’t deserve the same rights as straights, that they’re going to grow up in a world that despises them, that the intolerance of humanity will never change, that they’re worthless. It’s not true.”

-Ruby Rose

National Come Out Day

Worlds Coolest Lesbian Couples?

Did you come out yet ?

Pride WHATS YOUR PRIDE?

Ruby Rose

Orange is the New Black TV

PRIDE

PRIDE

The Babadook Jessica Roy

“In this moment, who better than the Babadook to represent not only queer desire, but queer antagonism, queer in-your-faceness, queer queerness?”

— Michael Bronski

One impression of the Babadook (Paul Duginski @latimesgraphics)

“The Babadook as an LGBT icon make sense. “ This year’s LGBTQ Pride Month has found an unlikely

mascot: The Babadook.Yes. The top-hat-wearing, pop-upbook-writing demonic figure from the eponymous 2014 Australian indie thriller. It started as an apparent error on Netflix. A Tumblr user who has since deleted their blog posted a screenshot of the streaming company’s “LGBT Movies” page. Prominently featured: “The Babadook.”

From there, it became a running gag to insist the Babadook was gay. June is LGBTQ Pride Month. As people geared up to celebrate, they started making and sharing fan art. It began as a joke but, in the greater context of the Babadook himself, LGBT history and so-called gay icons, it actually makes sense.

“Someone was like, ‘How could “The Babadook” become a gay film,’ and the answer was readily available,” said Karen Tongson, an associate professor of gender studies and English at USC. “He lives in a basement, he’s weird and flamboyant, he’s living adjacently to a single mother in this kind of queer kinship structure.”

The Babadook is creative (remember the pop-up book) and a distinctive dresser. Instead of living in a proverbial closet, he lives in a literal basement. He exists in a half-acknowledged state by the other people in his house.

The family is afraid of what he is, but finds a way to accept him over time. “For many LGBT people, that’s what it

5 | Babadook

feels like to be in your own families sometimes,” Tongson said.

Naturally, there are counter-arguments: The Babadook never says he’s gay. He never displays physical attraction to another person. But historically, fictional characters haven’t needed to say “I am gay” out loud to be read as gay or to become gay icons.

“So many LGBT people have been barred from seeing themselves represented in popular culture, so we’ve had to project ourselves into so many of these figures,” Tongson said. “There are ways to read into the character itself and the structure of how this ostensibly monstrous thing becomes incorporated ultimately into a family.”

“She was proud of who she was,” Bronski said. In the ’70s, it was Bette Midler and Cher, then Madonna in the ’0s and ’90s, and Lady Gaga in the 2000s.

And now, the Babadook.

Bronski said a longstanding connection exists between the horror/fantasy genres and queerness. Frankenstein has been read as an allegory for a gay man, hunted down and ostracized by his community for who he is. The Phantom of the Opera hides both himself and his forbidden, unrequitable love. In a popular 19th century novel that predated Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” both the vampire and the victim were women.

Michael Bronski is the author of several books about LGBTQ culture and history, including “A Queer History of the United States” and “Culture Clash: The Making of Gay Sensibility.” He’s also a professor in the studies of women, gender and sexuality department at Harvard. In terms of gay icons, he said, the community has adopted plenty of people who weren’t openly gay or gay at all. In the 1950s, it was Judy Garland. Her place in gay culture was so wellknown that referencing her out loud became a code word to indicate that you were part of it, Bronski said: You might ask another man, “Are you a friend of Judy’s?”

Modern horror and fantasy have continued the tradition: In the second “Nightmare on Elm Street” movie, Freddy Krueger — who was murdered by parents for being a child molester, a crime that has been conflated with gayness — appears in the shower with a naked teen boy in what Bronski sarcastically called a “completely not-coded gay subplot.”

In 2003, Bronski says he caught flak from a British tabloid for writing an article about the queer allegories in the “Harry Potter” books — in particular, how Harry Potter lives in the closet and has to hide who he is because his family disapproves. Oh, and the name of school he was going to be sent to: Stonewall High.

In the 1960s, it was Barbra Streisand, who unapologetically embraced both her gay fans and her Jewish identity.

At the very first official gay pride parade, in New York City in 1970, activist Donna Gottschalk held up a sign: “I

am your worst fear, I am your best fantasy.”

Referencing the sign, Bronski said it’s still at least partly true: “In some way, gay people, queer people, are the worst fear for heterosexuals, as well as on some level, the best fantasy — the sheer pleasure of not being on the inside, of not having to control everything you do and think and say to fit norms.”

Bronski said the sign, and the embrace of the Babadook, represent “a sort of queer affiliation to monsters.” Tongson, the USC professor, agreed: For “people who lived with a lot of their love and their passion in the closet, or who felt demonized in the broader culture, it’s very easy to find points of identification with monsters.”

And in the current political climate, when many LGBTQ people feel their rights are under attack, embracing a literal demon can feel like a way of reclaiming power and agency.

“In this moment, who better than the Babadook to represent not only queer desire, but queer antagonism, queer in-your-faceness, queer queerness?” Bronski said.

“The Babadook” is still streaming on Netflix, though it’s no longer categorized in the “Gay & Lesbian” section. As to whether the Babadook himself actually identifies as LGBTQ, the closest thing to an answer comes courtesy of the film’s official Facebook page, which weighed in after someone criticized adding the rainbow overlay to the

Babadook | 6

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National Come Out Day Robert Eichberg

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n Oct. 11, 1987, half a million people participated in the March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. It was the second such demonstration in our nation’s capital and resulted in the founding of a number of LGBTQ organizations, including the National Latino/a Gay & Lesbian Organization (LLEGÓ) and AT&T’s LGBTQ employee group, LEAGUE. The momentum continued four months after this extraordinary march as more than 100 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer activists from around the country gathered in Manassas, Va., about 25 miles outside Washington, D.C. Recognizing that the LGBTQ community often reacted defensively to anti-LGBTQ actions, they came up with the idea of a national day to celebrate coming out and chose the anniversary of that second march on Washington to mark it.

The originators of the idea were Rob Eichberg, a founder of the personal growth workshop, The Experience, and Jean O’Leary, then head of National Gay Rights Advocates.

From this idea the National Coming Out Day was born. National Coming Out Day began as a day that strove to make LGBT people more visible to the countless Americans who had never met a gay person. But this year, members of the LGBT community say the focus has become more political as President Trump spends his first LGBT History Month in the White House.

Rev. Broderick Greer, a Christian LGBT activist in Denver, told The Fix:

“For LGBTQ people to come out, be out, and stay out about our sexual orientations and gender identities in the Trump years is an act of resistance and an engagement in shameless hope about the country and world we deserve.”

Ohio State University Prof. Matthew Birkhold wrote in an op-ed for The Post that the day is no longer needed in a country where gay Americans are more accepted in society: America is a safer place in 2017. Polls suggest most Americans consider same-sex relations morally acceptable. Same-sex marriage is legal in all 50 National Come Out Day | 7

states. And the latest Gallup survey indicates that most Americans believe new laws

are needed to reduce discrimination against LGBTQ individuals. The more Coming Out is celebrated, the more it reinforces a normative ideal that is harmful to gay people. In the process of trying to make ourselves safe and visible, we are marginalizing ourselves. This will end either when all people are expected to “come out” or when no one is expected to do so. The GOP made gay-affirming strides at the Republican National Convention in 2016, including having a gay speaker and having Trump acknowledge the LGBT community in his speech accepting the party’s presidential nomination.

“As your president, I will do everything in my

power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology — believe me,” he said. After the audience applauded those words, Trump ad-libbed: “And I have to say, as a Republican, it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said. Thank you.”

Since then, though, gay activists say the Trump administration has made multiple decisions that have been criticized by LGBT Americans — and praised by the president’s more conservative base.“The highest leaders in our country are sending the message to LGBT youth that it is not okay to be who you are,” activist Blair Imani told The Fix. “Today, National Coming Out Day is a political statement because it allows LGBT people to celebrate unapologetic declarations of self. “

Gregory Angelo, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, a group of LGBT conservatives, told The Fix that National Coming Out Day is as important as ever — especially for gay Republicans.“With Republicans controlling the House, the Senate, the presidency, and the majority of state legislatures and governorships, sharing our stories as LGBT Republicans with other Republicans will be the driving force ensuring that the advances we have made in LGBT freedom are maintained and continue,” Angelo said.

Some activists argue that increased visibility and even support haven’t led to policies dedicated to improving the quality of life for gay Americans — particularly in a political climate in which traditional values are championed from the White House and both chambers of Congress.Instead of moving forward with addressing the concerns of gay Americans, writer Julie Rodgers said the current positions of the administration confirm the long-held fears many LGBT Americans have about being open about their sexuality.

“Our current political climate only confirms the fears closeted LGBTQ people felt all along,” she told The Fix. “When they hear loved ones disparage trans people, it confirms their suspicion that they cannot be truly known and loved by

PRIDE the people around them.

“Visibility also helps others realize they know trans people, and those trans people bring a lot of love and joy into their lives,” Rodgers added. “One story at a time, openly queer people help our communities imagine a future where we can tell the truth about ourselves and thrive.”What we think we know about lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth in schools is not always accurate, according to research highlighted in a newly released special edition of the journal of the American Educational Research Association.

This post reveals some of the important takeaways in the special edition (and you can read it yourself, from links at the bottom).

It was written by Joseph R. Cimpian is an associate professor of economics and education policy at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development and an affiliated associate professor of public service at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Carolyn Herrington is a professor of educational policy at the College of Education at Florida State University and director of the Educational Policy Center at FSU.

The American Educational Research Association just released a special issue of its journal Educational Researcher on the topic of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth in education. The special issue explores a range of timely topics, such as LGBTQ homelessness and student-led groups for LGBTQ youth, and it includes a diversity of research approaches. The latest research on youth who identify as LGBTQ provides some key insights into what we know and — perhaps more important what we think we know but don’t actually know about LGBTQ youth. Here we discuss some of these insights.

There is not a “typical” set of life experiences that characterizes all LGBTQ youth. While that may not surprise some readers, LGBTQ youth are often perceived as having similar experiences and attitudes, and a significant portion of the research conducted uses practices that overlook their diversity.

First, many studies focus on average outcomes for LGBTQ youth broadly, ignoring, for instance, differences between average outcomes for lesbian youth and bisexual youth.

Also, grouping together LGBQ and T into a single average estimate can conflate sexual identity with gender identity.Second, a focus on averages tends to ignore the vast differences within groups. For example, focusing on the fact that gay youth report thoughts of suicide more often than heterosexual youth can obscure the fact that, while some gay youth experience these thoughts frequently, many never do.

Third, describing “average” experiences ignores nuances in how sexuality and gender identity intersect with other characteristics, such as race or disability.

Fourth, research using samples of individuals who are relatively convenient to

access—for example, college students—may not reflect the full range of LGBTQ youth circumstances, such as homelessness. Capturing this diversity is critical in helping schools to serve the entire LGBTQ youth population rather than just a subset and to recognize whether segments of that population have special needs.

Finally, some research suggests that LGBTQ youth are so diverse in their experiences and in how they identify — some prefer the term “gay,” others “queer,” and others eschew labels altogether — that we need to be more students by sexual and gender identity. This is not to suggest that sexual and gender identities don’t exist or aren’t often helpful for schools when trying to serve the needs of the LGBTQ population, but rather that we should accept that each child is unique and has a unique story.

There are countless media reports of research showing LGBTQ youth at elevated levels of health and education risk. Some of these reports may be true, but we shouldn’t necessarily believe everything reported, even if it’s based on research that went through peer review.

Many of the comparisons between LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ youth reported in research — and consequently, in the media — come from data gathered through anonymous surveys. Although these surveys provide researchers with valuable data on sensitive topics like sexuality, gender identity, health risk, and bullying experiences, there are numerous ways that the data can become corrupted by faulty responses.

Some of the inaccurate data can come from youth simply not paying attention when responding to the survey. These kinds of survey inaccuracies tend to underestimate disparities between LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ youth. Other inaccuracies can come from fear that the survey responses are not truly anonymous. Youth may hold back sensitive information, which can lead to under- or over-estimates of risk.

Still other inaccuracies can come from youth who find it funny to give untruthful and exaggerated responses, such as a heterosexual-identified youth who does not use drugs reporting — just for fun — that he is gay-identified and uses drugs regularly. “Mischievous responders” can contribute to overestimates of the relative risks of LGBTQ youth. In one county-wide population-based study, removing likely mischievous responders reduced findings of LGBTQ-heterosexual disparities both in thinking about suicide every day and in using crack/cocaine by over two-thirds, suggesting that false responses were leading to substantially exaggerated estimates for very different types of risk outcomes.

Although the different kinds of survey data inaccuracies can produce opposite effects on estimates of risk — some leading to overestimates, others to underestimates — their effects do not necessarily cancel each other out. Because very little research explicitly addresses any of these error sources, we don’t really know how different our estimates are from the truth.

National Come Out Day | 8

PRIDE

PRIDE

People celebrate gay pride at a parade over the summer in Chicago And as mentioned above, there is a tremendous amount of diversity among LGBTQ youth, and it is unclear how survey data errors affect the findings about subgroups within the LGBTQ youth community. Researchers need to try to reduce data errors and help the media bring the remaining data limitations to light.

Student-led groups known as GayStraight Alliances (GSAs) have become increasingly popular in high schools and middle schools across the country, and even in some elementary schools. Researchers have tried to study what makes a GSA effective in supporting LGBTQ youth and in creating a safe space for gender and sexuality discussions.

GLSEN, a national advocacy organization for LGBTQ youth in K–12 schools, provides an online guide for developing and sustaining GSAs and helping to make them inclusive. Still, as with almost any education-related program or intervention, there is a great deal of variation in what GSAs look like across the country, some being more active than others and some more inclusive than others.

As mentioned above, LGBTQ youth are quite diverse and do not all feel welcome in National Come Out Day | 9

every GSA. In a study of 13 GSAs in Massachusetts high schools, LGBTQ youth of color reported lower levels of participation in and support from GSAs than did their white peers.

This study echoes prior research suggesting that queer youth of color may feel less welcome in GSAs but also suggesting that support for queer youth of color in GSAs can empower them and help them find their voice.

None of this speaks to the effectiveness of GSAs, however. We know very little about the effects of GSAs on LGBTQ youth.

Although a sizeable and growing body of literature links GSAs to more favorable health and education outcomes for LGBTQ students, it is unclear whether those outcomes are caused by the GSAs or if GSAs are more active in LGBTQ-friendly environments. Some researchers use terms that suggest they have uncovered the “effects” of GSAs, but their research designs do not support such causal claims. Nevertheless, there is reason to believe that LGBTQ-supportive school environments lead to positive development of LGBTQ youth, and a GSA may be part of the overall package of support.

To be frank, research on LGBTQ youth has a long way to go in many respects. There are the issues raised in this piece, which reflect concerns raised in the special issue of Educational Researcher. And there is the added complication that many research studies ignore LGBTQ youth as a population worth studying. Thus, while it should be easier to know how general school policies or, for example, a school-wide anti-bullying intervention may uniquely affect LGBTQ youth, we often do not know, because data are simply not collected on who identifies as LGBTQ.

Regarding policy, the emerging evidence suggests that LGBTQ-inclusive school policies and curricula are related to better outcomes for LGBTQ youth, and often for youth in general, regardless of sexual or gender identity.

Some other work finds that anti-discrimination policies aimed at adults (e.g., marriage equality) have beneficial effects for queer youth, which suggests that the broader climate for LGBTQ individuals affects future generations and that policies intended for adults send signals to youth. Thus, we need to think holistically about the climate we create for youth and how

discriminatory policies and practices can affect them directly and indirectly.

Educators and policymakers who wish to create a more inclusive environment for LGBTQ youth could consider passing and strengthening anti-bullying laws, adopting curricula that discuss the contributions of LGBTQ individuals, supporting GSAs, reducing discriminatory behaviors that inhibit sports participation, and providing training to staff on creating welcoming environments for all youth.

Research focused on sexual orientation and gender identity among youth is scarce in school psychology journals Graybill and Procto found that across a sample of eight school support personnel journals only .3 to 3.0% of the articles since 2000 included lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT)-related research. It appears that special issues are a mechanism for publishing LGBT-related scholarship.

This commentary includes a call for more research in school psychology and other related disciplines that intentionally addresses experiences of LGBT youth and their families. Two

articles in this special section are summarized and critiqued with clear directions for future scholarship. Researchers and practitioners are ethically responsible for engaging in social justice oriented research and that includes assessing gender identity and sexual orientation in their studies and prevention program evaluations. Youth pride, an extension of the Gay pride and LGBT social movements, promotes equality amongst young members (usually above the age of consent) of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Questioning (LGBTIQ) community. The movement exists in many countries and focuses mainly on festivals and parades, enabling many LGBTIQ youth to network, communicate, and celebrate their gender and sexual identities.

Youth Pride organizers also point to the value in building community and supporting young people as they are more likely to get gay bashed and bullied.[2] Schools that have a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) handle issues of discrimination and violence against LGBTIQ youth better than schools that do not because they help develop community and coping skills and give students a safe-space to get health and safety information.[3] Sometimes the groups avoid labeling young people and instead let them identify themselves on their own terms “when they feel safe”.

Gay and lesbian youth bear an increased risk of suicide, substance abuse, school problems, and isolation because of a “hostile and condemning environment, verbal and physical abuse, rejection and isolation from family and peers” Further, LGB youths are more likely to report psychological and physical abuse by parents or caretakers, and more sexual abuse. Suggested reasons for this disparity are that (1) LGBT youths may be specifically targeted on the basis of their perceived sexual orientation or gender non-conforming appearance, and “risk factors associated with sexual minority status, including discrimination, invisibility, and rejection by family members...may lead to an increase in behaviors that are associated with risk for victimization, such as substance abuse, sex with multiple partners, or running away from home as a teenager.”

A 2008 study showed a correlation between the degree of rejecting behavior by parents of LGB adolescents and negative health problems in the teenagers studied. Crisis centers in larger cities and information sites on the Internet have arisen to help youth and adults.

The Trevor Helpline, a suicide prevention helpline for LGBT youth, was established by the filmmakers following the 1998 airing on HBO of the Academy Award winning short film Trevor; Daniel Radcliffe donated a large sum to the group and has appeared in service ads for them condemning homophobia.

The increasing mainstream acceptance of the greater LGBTIQ communities prompted the Massachusetts Governors’ Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth to start

an annual Gay-Straight Youth Pride observance in 1995. In 1997 the Youth Pride Alliance was founded as a non-profit to put on an annual youth pride event in Washington, D.C.[11] In 1998 Candace Gingrich was one of the speakers at Washington D.C.’s Youth Pride Alliance, a coalition of 25 youth support and advocacy groups.

In 1999, the first annual Vermont Youth Pride Day was held. As of 2009 it is the largest queer and allied youth event in Vermont and is organized by Outright Vermont to “break the geographic and social barriers gay youngsters living in rural communities face”. In 2002, a college fair was added to the event to connect students with colleges and discuss issues relating to how to track students and ensure their safety.

In April 2003 a Youth Pride Chorus partly organized with New York’s LGBT Community Center started rehearsals and later performed at a June Pride concert at Carnegie Hall with the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus. in 2004 the San Diego chapter of Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) worked with the San Diego Youth Pride coordinators to organize the Day of Silence throughout the county.

In 2005, the Decatur Georgia Youth Pride participated in a counter-protest against Westboro Baptist Church, led by church head Fred Phelps’ daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, who were “greeting students and faculty as they arrived with words such as “God hates fag enablers” and “Thank God for 9/11”” at ten locations. In 2008, Chicago’s Youth Pride Center, primarily serving “LGBT youth of color”, opened a temporary location and will move into their newly constructed building on Chicago’s South Side in 2010.

In 2009, Utah Pride Center held an event to coincide with Youth Pride Walk 2009, a “cross-country walk by two Utah women trying to draw attention to the problems faced by homeless LGBT youth”.

In August 2010, the first Hollywood Youth Pride was held with a focus on the “large number of homeless LGBT youth living on Los Angeles streets.”[20] According to a 2007 report “of the estimated 1.6 million homeless American youth, between 20 and 40 percent identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. t larger pride parades and festivals there are often LGBTIQ or queer youth contingents, and some festivals designate safe-spaces for young people to provide safety and security.

National Come Out Day | 10

becoming Transgender

LA County Susan Abram

A

n article posted on a right-wing blog about teenagers trying to alter their gender simply to impress others has been met with fierce backlash from activists.

The piece, entitled: “Gender expert says teens are trying to be transgender because it’s cool”, by the conservative US platform The Daily Wire, quoted a psychiatrist saying many young people were “trying out being transgender” to get attention.

Dr Steve Stathis, who worked at a Australian gender clinic, said one child told him being transgender was “the new black”. The article was based on an interview

by Australian tabloid The Courier Mail. The doctor, who claimed to be an expert on gender, said he expected to see about 180 children with gender issues this year, but only a minority would be diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

Twitter users criticised the The Daily Wire for not including a quote that appeared in the original article, which explained the psychiatrist had also witnessed some children become so desperate to alter their anatomy they tried to remove their genitals themselves.

“I’ve seen genital mutilation, some who try to cut off their penis,’’ Dr Steve Stathis told The Courier Mail. The Daily Wire, headed up by former editor-in-chief of Breitbart, Ben Shapiro, claimed: “Being young and transgender has become the new hotness on the left.” It cited a recent article by The New York Times suggesting children suffering from gender dysphoria could be offered hormone therapy as evidence.

One Twitter user said: “This poisonous narrative that transgender people are fashionable and cool now hides the serious atrocities right in front of us”.

Another argued: “There have literally been at least eight cases of transgender people being murdered in the US so far this year,” asking, “how exactly is that ‘cool’?”

According to the US-based LGBTQ group Human Rights Campaign, at least 22 transgender people were killed in the US in 2016, the highest number ever recorded. At least eight more transgender people have been killed violently in 2017 so far, according to the organisation. The Japanese Government is being urged to end a rule requiring transgender people to undergo sterilisation to legally change gender.

People who seek to alter their legal sex must appeal to a family court under legislation entitled Law 111.

Law 111 requires successful applicants to be single, not have children under the age of 20, have a psychiatric diagnosis of “gender identity disorder”, and be sterilised.

The rule stipulating applicants must “permanently lack functioning gonads” has been condemned by both the United Nations and the World Health Organisation.

Human Rights Watch said the practice “amounts to forced sterilisation” and on Wednesday called on the Government to urgently review the law. ”Forcing people to undergo unwanted surgeries to obtain documentation is contrary both to Japan’s human rights obligations and its reputation as a champion of LGBT rights,” it said in a statement.

“The government should urgently revise Law 111 to end forced sterilisation.”The rule was challenged earlier this year when Takakito Usui, a 43-year-old man who was born female, took his case to family court.

Same-sex marriage is illegal in Japan and he wanted to change his legal gender so he could marry his girlfriend, while retaining the ability to have children.“I hear some people who underwent operations came to regret them,” he said.“The essential thing should not be whether you have had an operation or not, but how you want to live as an individual.”Mr Usui lost his case.

The Japanese Justice Ministry said the surgery requirement was put in place to avoid “various confusion” and “problems that would arise when a child was born because of the reproductive ability retained from the former sex”. A survey by the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology found that about 20 per cent of 15,000 people who consulted experts about their gender identity issue between 2004 and 2012 went on to change their sex legally after undergoing sterilisation.

The UN special rapporteur on torture in 2013 said people being “required to undergo often unwanted sterilisation surgeries as a prerequisite to enjoy legal recognition of their preferred gender” was a human rights violation.

Although attitudes to LGBT issues have shifted in Japan in recent years, transgender people still face discrimination at work, in education, and in accessing healthcare.A number of countries still require individuals to be sterilised before they are given legal recognition of their preferred gender. Transgender people in Sweden had to be sterilised before they could make the change until 2013. Several attempts to change the law in Finland, the only Nordic country still requiring sterilisation, have failed.

Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty line has been commended the world over for its inclusivity, stocking products to suit the lightest to the darkest of skin tones.

However, when one fan questioned the lack of a transgender model in the marketing campaign, the Bajan singer responded to him directly to clear up any confusion.Alberto Otero, a graphic designer from Brazil, reached out to Rihanna on Twitter to ask why there was no sign of a transgender model promoting her lauded makeup collection. She wrote: “I’ve had the pleasure of working with many gifted trans women throughout the years, but I don’t go around doing trans castings!

“I respect all women, and whether they’re trans or not is none of my business!

“I don’t think it’s fair that a trans woman, or man, be

15 | Transgender

Rihanna felt that deliberately including a model that’s transgender in her Fenty Beauty campaign would be exploitative.Otero appreciated the singer’s candid response, writing: “When I thought she couldn’t teach me more…” as he shared their conversation on social media. However, there are some who disagree with Rihanna’s reasoning.

“I see where she’s coming from and yes she’s right. However at this time trans people need visibility immediately,” Twitter user @chrisholmez wrote.

“Trans people need to be normalized in society. It’s a lot more deeper than just a marketing tool.”

The arguments both for and against have valid points.

It would be detrimental for the transgender community to be perceived as a fashionable accessory for marketing campaigns.However, increased visibility and awareness could help reduce the stigma that still surrounds the transgender community. In a few days trans people will meet all around the UK for Transgender Day of Remembrance, when we honour the lives of those who have been murdered simply for being who they are. A worldwide total of 325 trans people have been reported killed in the year up to September 2017 alone – who knows how large the number really is when factoring in those that went unreported?

Like many trans people in the UK today, we’re growing tired of debating our existence. Despite support from various institutions such as the NHS and more recently the Church of England, many of the biggest media platforms in the UK seem willing to fuel misconceptions and hatred towards the trans community.

Trans people pose absolutely no greater threat to society

or people within it than cisgender people, yet the media refuses to accept this fact. A recent Times article argued that more rights for transgender people would endanger children, both by forcing them to share a space with trans people and by making transitioning easier.

What articles such as these fail to realise is that all trans people were children too once. The sudden rise in young trans people seeking access to healthcare isn’t because it’s a trend or because of pressure from the “powerful trans lobby”– it’s because trans people are becoming less likely to suppress our true selves due to social shame, stigma and discrimination. Specific trans people are targets of articles, in which they are constantly misgendered and called “girls who want to be boys” or “trans-women-born-males”.

These articles suggest that it’s just something that we want to be as opposed to something that we actually are.

The comparison between trans kids seeking healthcare and anorexia and self-harm suggests it’s a social contagion, which can only be seen as a fancy way of saying it’s a fad or a trend amongst young people – much like the bigoted rhetoric around homosexuality which was considered acceptable not too long ago.

The problem with these comparisons is that it shows a lack of understanding of the experience of being trans. Being trans is an intrinsic part of who we are, and that in itself isn’t a mental illness or a medical condition.

Experiencing gender dysphoria is a form of distress that can lead to severe mental health problems which can be alleviated through access to hormone blockers, hormone replacement therapy and surgeries. Organisations such as Mermaids are under constant attack, but they offering vital services to trans children and their families. Tline after headline, demonising and vilifying trans people. We see our Transgender | 16

Orange is the new

Black Orange Is the New Black (sometimes abbreviated to OITNB) is an American comedy-drama web television series created by Jenji Kohan for Netflix. The series is based on Piper Kerman’s memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison (2010), about her experiences at FCI Danbury, a minimum-security federal prison. Orange Is the New Black premiered on July 11, 2013 on the streaming service Netflix.

In February 2016, the series was renewed for a fifth, sixth, and seventh season. The fifth season was released on June 9, 2017.

The series is produced by Tilted Productions in association with Lionsgate Television. Orange Is the New Black has become Netflix’s most-watched original series. It has received critical acclaim and many accolades. For its first season, the series garnered 12 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, and Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series, winning three. A new Emmy rule in 2015 forced the series to change categories from comedy to drama. For its second season, the series received four Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series, and Uzo Aduba won for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. Orange Is the New Black is the first series to score Emmy nominations in both comedy and drama categories.

The series has also received six Golden Globe Award nominations, six Writers Guild of America Award nominations, a Producers Guild of America Award, an American Film Institute award, and a Peabody Award. The series revolves around Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), a woman in her 30s living in New York City who is sentenced to 15 months in Litchfield Penitentiary, a minimum-security women’s federal prison (initially operated by the “Federal Department of Corrections,” a fictional version of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and later acquired

by Management & Correction Corporation (MCC), a private prison company) in upstate New York. Piper had been convicted of transporting a suitcase full of drug money for her girlfriend Alex Vause (Laura Prepon), an international drug smuggler. The offense had occurred 10 years prior to the start of the series and in that time Piper had moved on to a quiet, law-abiding life among New York’s upper middle class. Her sudden and unexpected indictment severely disrupted her relationships with her fiancé, family and friends.

In prison, Piper is reunited with Alex (who named Piper in her trial, resulting in Piper’s arrest) and they re-examine their relationship. Simultaneously, Piper must learn how to survive in prison and how to overcome its numerous, inherent struggles.

have usually three people working on my tattoos at one given time. So, they get it done, in I’d say, about an hour.

“I tried to count [how many star tattoos the character has] one day. We kept losing count. I have so many individual stars on my face. So, it’s like, oh my gosh, maybe 20 to 30 stars on my face, and then I’ve got two to three, maybe two to three, three to four on each arm. Then I’ve got one on my neck, I’ve got three on my head.”

She added of her transformation: “Even fans of the show coming up to me in real life will say, ‘Are you sure it’s you?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m positive.’ ”It’s kind of fun because I’ll sometimes be out to lunch with the other girls on the show, and they’ll be getting recognized, and then they’ll [fans] say to me, ‘Who are you?’”

“And you know, then it becomes a long, long wave of ‘No you’re not.’ And, I’m like, ‘OK.’”Orange Is the New Black season five is streaming now on Netflix. While Orange Is the New Black’s Maria Ruiz was a gentler character in the show’s earlier seasons (her storyline initially focused on her giving birth in prison, then longing for her daughter), season four found her at the core of a conflict between Litchfield’s Latina and white inmates. Cosmopolitan.com talked to Jessica Pimentel, who plays Maria, about exploring the darker side of her character, filming that intense branding scene, and what playing Maria has in common with performing heavy metal music. Congratulations on a great season — you had a lot to do!Yes, I did. It was grueling. A very grueling season. [Maria] took such a big turn in such a short amount of time. It wasn’t something you could see building up, it was just kind of like — bam! Here it is.

Episodes often feature flashbacks of significant events from various inmates’ and prison guards’ pasts. These flashbacks typically explain how the inmate came to be in prison or develop the character’s backstory.

The show pays close attention to how corruption, drug smuggling, funding cuts, overcrowding and guard brutality affect the prisoners’ health and well-being and the prison’s basic ability to fulfil its fundamental responsibilities and ethical obligations as a federal corrections institution. One of the show’s key conflicts involves the prison Director of Human Activities, Joe Caputo, whose efforts and aims as a warden constantly conflict with the business interests of MCC, which acquired the facility when it was about to be shut down.

OITNB Girl Talk Since 2013, Adrienne C. Moore has portrayed inmate Cindy Hayes on Orange Is the New Black, which recently rolled out its fifth season on Netflix. She recently revisited a famous bathroom scene from season three,

when Cindy delivered a musical number while wearing nothing but a bra and panties as she sprayed herself with a can of deodorant from head to toe. Speaking on a panel in New York City on Monday at the premiere of Straight/ Curve, a documentary about body diversity in the fashion industry, Adrienne says there were plenty of nerves going into the bathroom scene. All this, despite the frequency of nude scenes on the show and despite coming off a health kick in which she lost 10 to 20 pounds before shoot day. “[I] was so mortified about my size G/H breasts and my rolls, and being on TV and what people would say about my body,” she said on the panel (via the Daily Mail), which also included model Iskra Lawrence, designer Prabal Gurung, and model Jessica Lewis. It didn’t take long for the nerves to fade though; as soon as the cameras started to roll, Adrienne entered the “Cindy zone”: “I started forgetting more and more about the fact that I was frolicking around this bathroom in panties and underwear. By the end of the day, I was just walking around the set in my panties like, ‘Are we ready to go to set? Are we doing this thing?’”

Looking back, Adrienne says the scene helped her get to a place of acceptance. “By the end of the day, I felt very empowered by that moment.” Fan reactions at

Was there anything about her backstory that surprised you?No, I think they stayed true to what you had seen of Maria up to that moment — that she’s a good girl, she’s a hard worker, and she has a good heart. She wants to be a dental hygienist. Why? To make people smile. That shows that she has some drive, and has intelligence and foresight into the future. And she wants to improve herself, be greater than where she is. That’s when she asks [her boyfriend] Yadriel what his plan is. What’s his hope? What do you want to be?

The story was kind of perfect. And the fact that she stands up to her father, which, in a Latin household, is a very huge, huge thing to attempt, because there will be a very large backlash against it. To attempt that is to show strength of the time also helped: “The reaction from the audience character and a backbone, and no fear of being rejected or was, ‘Yes, the curvy, the sexy’ — it just further fueled my thrown away. confidence in that moment. I said, ‘You know what? I think I could do more scenes like this.’” Yes, please!

Like you said, it was a grueling season, and I’m It may not surprise you to learn that Orange Is guessing the branding scene [in which Maria and some of the New Black skinhead Helen is not a skinhead in real the other inmates brand a swastika on Piper’s arm] might life. However, the process that actress Francesca Curran have been particularly intense. What were the challenges in goes through to transform into her character is pretty filming that?We got the script, and we saw that it was going striking, and her real-life self could not be any more to be something very heavy and violent. The usual protocol is different. The actress says she is “so feminine” in real when there’s something involving physical danger, we will get life, so playing violent white supremacist Helen is a big together before the scene is filmed and work with a stunt cocontrast to what she is used to. ordinator, a fight choreographer. And they’ll walk us through Francesca’s process to be made-up takes lonthe action, and we’ll practice the action very slowly, so that ger than any other character, with the star explaining to no one gets hurt. They also have a fire marshal on the set, Insider: “I’d come in, in the morning, and I was always because as we shot, it was a real open flame, but never when the first person in and the last person out of the make- the actor was on top of the range. It looked like it, but it was up chair. I would see the whole cast come and go.” As not. We had the safety angle covered, so we were able to be well as having her head shaved every day of shooting to free in the scene. Piper, Taylor Schilling, really went to 11 on apply tattoos, she also has makeup done to look older it, and because of her acting and reactions, that informed my — Francesca herself is 24 — as well as makeup on her performance. teeth to make them look dirty.

The actress notes that they have whittled it At the peaceful protest in the cafeteria, it’s interestdown from three-and-a-half hours, which is how long it ing that it’s Maria who announces what they’re doing. She’s took to transform her when she started, continuing: “I

the one who says they won’t get down from the tables until Piscatella resigns. What is it that empowers her to speak for everyone in that moment?I feel at this point, Maria has had all of her hopes and dreams stripped from her. She was someone who wasn’t looking to be in trouble. She wasn’t mean. She wasn’t trying to get any attention, or ruffle feathers. She was the one saying, “They’re going to search you, let them search you. Don’t do this, let them have the table, whatever.” She wasn’t trying to go up against the guards for the most part. But now that she has absolutely nothing, and she sees this little, tiny girl just being abused, there are all these factors. These people have just completely stripped her of her humanity and her dignity and her hope. She feels less than human. And that’s kind of the lesson of this entire season, that we all become less than human. It’s really awful.

In a season like this, that’s so dark—It was a dark season. And I don’t see it lightening up anytime soon. I don’t know how we can cheer this up, kids. [Laughs.]There was maybe a tiny bit of comic relief in Judy King, but—And what an awful person, huh? She’s awful. But great. I loved that scene after the threesome.

I watched all of the episodes in a couple of days, and I struggled to decompress just from watching it. Is it hard to decompress while you’re filming, or after the season wraps?This season, after we wrapped, it was very heavy, because we had to walk around with this secret [of Poussey’s death] for six months. And a lot of my friends and family don’t want to know. They don’t want to know what happens, so you really can’t talk to anyone about it. On a day-to-day basis, though, we have each other. We can have these long days where we’re awful to each other, and then get in the van, and we’ll either put our headphones on and

zone out, if we can’t deal, or we just talk, make each other laugh, crack each other up. We have a long ride home from set. Depending on where we’re filming, it takes me anywhere from 2.5 to three hours to get home, so I have that much time to unwind before I even get back to my front door. You have your time to shake it off a little.

What conversations are you hoping this season will spark around racial issues?As far as in the Latino community, [I’m hoping it inspires a conversation around] how we separate ourselves within that community. I think the one thing that that cafeteria scene shows is that at the end of the day, we are all the same. We have more power if we unite. At the end of the day, it’s love and compassion and equanimity that is going to fix problems. Not separation, but unification of the world in general. We’re on this spinning rock in space, and we’re worried about minutia like the color of our skin, rather than the giant, daunting, overwhelming truth of our little tiny planet in this vast universe.

Are there similarities for you between playing Maria and performing heavy metal music in your bands Alekhine’s Gun and Desolate?Absolutely! You have to go all in. We say “all heart” before we play, and Maria does things with all her heart, all the way. She’s very confident, she’s very strong, and she doesn’t apologize. That’s how I have to be — or try to be — on stage while playing heavy music. It’s not going to be pretty or glamorous. It’s going to be ugly and ferocious and sweaty and not feminine. It’s going to be raw and from the heart.

While Maritza Ramos, the eyeliner-wearing, trash-talking inmate of Litchfield Penitentiary has always been a reliable source of comic relief, season four of Orange Is the New Black showed us the smarter, more conniving side of her.

(Congrats on that car heist, girl.) Cosmopolitan.com talked to actress Diane Guerrero, whose book about her parents’ deportation, In the Country We Love: My Family Divided, is out now, about that disturbing baby-mouse scene, fleshing out Maritza’s backstory, and her hopes for the 2016 presidential election.

I have to ask about the scene where Maritza eats the baby mouse before we talk about anything else. How do you even react when reading a script where your character eats a mouse?

It was so exciting! As actors, all we want to do is play high stakes and challenge ourselves in that way. It was a cool thing for me, especially since Maritza hasn’t done much like that in the past.

Was it a CGI mouse?

It was a real mouse! But the mouse was not harmed.

Right — it would’ve been taking method acting a little far to eat a real baby mouse.

Yeah, right. Like, No, I’m eating this mouse! And they’re restraining me from doing it. No, that’d be so unethical. But real mouse. Unharmed.

We got to see a lot more of who Maritza is this season. What aspects of her were most exciting to develop?

It was exciting to see deeper into who she was. We’d seen her for three seasons as this really specific person, and we knew how she acted, but we really didn’t know much about her.

Once we saw that backstory, we saw that she’s not all that she appears to be. She’s more resourceful and sharper than she appears. That was fun to see — even her just speaking in different ways when she’s talking to people at different levels of society. She’s using some acting skills, and that was fun.

Are there parts of the way that Maritza sees the world that resonate with you personally?

Yeah, I’m also sort of a go-getter too, and she’s showed some new initiative this season. That’s similar to me, and people tend to underestimate me, too, maybe because of what I initially portray, or maybe because I’m quiet or small in stature.

But I do have a lot to contribute! All my life, I’ve tried to project that. And I think that’s what I’m doing now with my personal story and my political views, trying to contribute to society. Eating the mouse notwithstanding, Maritza did get some lighter stuff to do this season — even when the story was particularly heavy, she was still comic relief.

Right. You see, even in the episode with poor Poussey, when she dies. Her friends, Poussey’s friends, are talking about it, and they’re outraged, they’re crying, they’re upset; and then you see this other side, of me and Flaca in the bathroom, where we’re laughing and talking about how we’re going to get ready for the cameras. Diane Guerrero the person would be outraged and upset and really empathizing with the fact that this had happened to an inmate around her. But we see that Maritza is another human being and she reacts differently, trying to laugh it off, or to seize her own pain or guilt by putting on a mask and saying, “Let’s get ready for the cameras. Let’s laugh about this instead of crying about this.”

The Latina inmates were stopped and frisked throughout the season, and the Latina and white communities were really clashing. How did that storyline impact you?

We thought it was amazing that we got to comment on [those issues]. I think all of us in the entertainment community have a responsibility to share these stories and

to make comments on this because of what’s actually happening ... you know, young black kids [are] being killed by cops, and [we’re] seeing the justice system not working for the people. We were seeing the Black Lives Matter movement coming out and then having people saying, “No, all lives matter,” and then having that debate and trying to make people see that Black Lives Matter doesn’t mean that all lives don’t matter, it just means that we’re failing to see what our history and our culture has done to shape our justice system today. We’re just trying to move that conversation forward and keep having it. It’s not a passing thing. This is still happening. Gun violence, the criminalization of people, the expansion of the prison system as a business — it’s all happening.

These are things that we need to look at, and we need to vote according to what we believe in.

What would you say to people who are thinking about voting for Trump?

Well, I don’t think my focus would be there. I think that the people who are voting for Trump are hooked, and those people need a lot of marinating.

It’s going to take time to change those minds. The people we need to focus on are the people who are not Trump supporters, but who also are not politically involved, and feel like it doesn’t concern them.

Those are the people we want to target, those are the people we want to say to, “Hey, we need you on Nov. 8. We need you to show up. We need you to really look at both sides and decide whether you want someone like Trump, who’s divisive and ignorant and just bashes the hell out of all of us, to run your country.

Do you really trust this man to appoint Supreme Court justices who are going to be just and fair?” We want someone who will elevate our country, and who will take it to the next level where we finally are all equal. That’s where my focus is — getting as many people who are not involved, involved.

The obstructionists and the Trump supporters are going to be very loud, but I cannot sit here and say that I believe that is the majority of our country — people who are irrational and fueled by slogans and walls and division.

Orange Is the New Black tackled Black Lives Matter in its fourth season with a shocking murder that will change the dynamics of the show forever: In the penultimate episode, the prisoners peacefully protest their inhumane treatment at the hands of the new guards and Poussey ends up on the cafeteria floor with Officer Baxter Bayley’s knee in her back, which squeezes the air out of her lungs until she’s dead. The scene hauntingly evokes images of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, and the fact that it’s Bayley, the “nice” guard, who kills Poussey has caused some viewers to question the messaging. Does it imply that we should sympathize with white men who kill unarmed people of color? (Isn’t it enough that they kill with impunity?) Samira Wiley, who plays Poussey, doesn’t see it that way. Cosmopolitan. com spoke to her about the devastating and controversial storyline, and why she’s happy to be the vessel for any conversation Poussey’s death has sparked.

Ruby Rose Star as Stella Carlin Ruby Rose Langenheim (born March 20, 1986) is an Australian model, DJ, television presenter, MTV VJ and recording artist. She portrayed Stella Carlin in Orange Is the New Black. Rose first gained fame by joining the Girlfriend model search in 2002, which she came in second to Catherine McNeil, to whom she was later engaged to be married. They have since broken up.

In order to land her gig as an MTV VJ in Australia, she competed against 2000 other hopefuls in a three-week national search, as former VJ Lyndsey Rodrigues moved to the United States to co-host TRL. As part of the competition, she downed 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes against Jackass’ Bam Margera, and kissed strangers on a busy Sydney street. However, she enjoys her job as VJ compared to her previous job as a model. “Being a model there is always something they want to change. Whether they want someone a little bit skinnier, a little bit taller, a little bit prettier, but MTV want you to be yourself ... not censoring anything and not conforming to anything.”

Rose came out as a lesbian when she was 12. As a teenager, she suffered from verbal taunts and physical abuse from her schoolmates due to her sexuality, even requiring hospitalisation once when she was 16. In 2008 and 2009, she was chosen as one of the “25 Most Influential Gay and Lesbian Australians” by Same Same, an Australian online gay and lesbian community.

In 2008, she was rumoured to be in a relationship with Jessica Origliasso from The Veronicas as the two had been seen behaving intimately. However, Rose denied this in a live blog, stating that the two are “really good mates”. She has also been in a relationship with ANTM contestant Lola Van Vorst and was also briefly engaged to model Lyndsey Anne McMillan. They had planned to tie the knot in Canada but broke up in late 2009.In late 2009, after breaking up with Lyndsey Anne McMillan, she was seen kissing Catherine McNeil, an Australian supermodel, during a pool party in Los Angeles.

On 22 July 2014, Rose came out as genderfluid, saying, “I am very gender fluid and feel more like I wake up every day sort of gender neutral.” This announcement came approximately a week after she released a short film called “Break Free,” in which she visually transitions from a very feminine woman to a heavily tattooed man and which she describes as a video “about gender roles, Trans, and what it is like to have an identity that deviates from the status quo In 2010 she is reported to have become engaged to Catherine McNeil. However the couple called off the engagement on 2 July 2010.Rose is also known for being extensively tattooed, which she showed off in a photo spread for Maxim Australia and PETA, as part of the campaign “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur”.

To see a gallery with all her tattoos, click hereThe family of Rose’s godfather, the Australian boxing legend Lionel Rose, has questioned Rose’s decision to take his name, saying they hardly know her and they question whether Ruby used it to further her career.On 31 March 2013, Rose reported she was cancelling some DJ tour dates due to start in April so she could concentrate on overcoming her current battle with depression.

On 18 March 2014, Rose reported that she was formally engaged to designer Phoebe Dahl, granddaughter of author Roald Dahl and cousin of model Sophie Dahl.

Phoebe Dahl proposed to her after she had already turned Rose’s proposal down for three times. After a two year relationship, they called off their engagement on December 15, 2015. Reasons for their break up were the distance and lack of contact due to work which put a strain on their relationship.

Rose also hosted the Foxtel Mardi Gras for 3 consecutive years before becoming an official correspondent for Foxtel for the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010. Stella Carlin is an inmate at Litchfield Penitentiary introduced in Season Three as a new romantic interest of Piper Chapman. She is the hidden, true main antagonist of Season 3. She is portrayed by Ruby Rose. She is currently in Maximum Security, only seen once in Season Four. Stella is outspoken, sarcastic, and humorous. She can also be cunning, as shown when she steals money from Piper. Stella is a physically alluring person with short hair that is normally swept up and out of her face. Her eyes are light green and she has very full lips, as well as defined cheekbones. She also has many tattoos.

She immigrated to America from Australia with her parents for her father’s job. Her parents then left America, and she stayed behind. She has been shown to have many tattoos all over her arms and body. Stella meets Piper Chapman in the third season, when the two start sewing panties for the Whispers business together. The two become close, especially when she becomes involved in Piper’s illegal business, in which Piper takes leftover material from the sewing room, sews extra panties, and has other inmates wear them around. She then smuggles them out, and sells them to perverts online for money (“Ching Chong Chang”).

Piper becomes interested in Stella, both romantically and sexually, and the two begin having an affair.

Around this time, Alex breaks up with Piper. Piper and Stella become close, and Stella uses a makeshift tattoo gun to give Piper a tattoo saying “Trust No Bitch,” which Stella designs herself.

Stella later steals all the money from Piper’s used panty business when she finds out she is soon to be released. When Piper finds out, she plays it cool, and then hides a bunch of contraband in Stella’s bunk, two days before her release, and tips off the C.O.s. When they search her bunk and find the contraband, including marijuana, cigarettes, a lighter, and even Boo’s screwdriver, C.O. Bayley says she “is totally going to Max.” As she is grabbed, she turns to see Piper extending her arm, displaying the “Trust No Bitch” tattoo clearly (“Trust No Bitch”) and smirking.

Stella is seen briefly in the sixth episode “Piece Of Shit,” sitting with Nicky in the courtyard of the Maximum Security prison. They have a brief conversation about how they had sex in the bathroom a few nights ago, and then a prison guard drops a small package containing drugs at Stella’s feet. Nicky then says to Stella, “I told you to stay the fuck away from me if you’re back on that shit; you’re disgusting!” before walking off.