KARACHI, Pakistan- It’s not very often you hear about a transgender model making waves in the fashion world. It’s particularly uncommon for a transgender model to be attaining fame in a Muslim country.
Kami Sid is a Pakistani social activist who is renowned for her endless campaigning for the LGBT community in her home country.
She was previously featured in a documentary filmed by the BBC titled ‘How Gay is Pakistan’ which brought her to light in various circles.
Kami Sid made her debut in the fashion world in a powerful photoshoot that aims to end stigma and phobia against the LGBT community in Pakistan.
The LGBT community has been frequently targeted in the country with over 45 transgender people having been killed in the past year in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province alone.
In May, a 23 year old trans woman named Alisha, was gunned down and denied treatment at the hospital due to her gender identity.
Earlier this month, a transgender person was beaten by a group of five men in Sialkot and tortured horrendously.
The beating was caught on tape and made rounds on the internet.
The five men were arrested by the police.
Read More: “You’re Pretty. I Mean For A Brown Girl”
Kami hopes that her photoshoot can help end transphobia and break the stereotypes attached to it.
Her photoshoot was captured by Haseeb M. Siddiqi with makeup artistry being provided by Nighat Misbah.
The two collaborated with stylist Waqar Khan to give Kami the fierce look.
Although violence against the LGBT community continues, the positive reaction to Kami’s photoshoot on social media shows that in some circles transphobia is rapidly declining.
This can be considered progress in a country like Pakistan where Sharia law and Islamic fundamentalism is rampant and LGBT rights are nearly non-existent.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
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Conservative Columnist Posts Racially Charged Attack On Reddit: “Black Men Are Notorious For Lusting After A Well-Rounded Caucasian Butt Cheek”
In a controversial Reddit post, Breitbart columnist Milo Yiannopoulos responded to criticism of his publication’s crusade against the woman who Tweeted criticism of a Texas police officer that was murdered last week.
In the post, Yiannopoulos launched into a racially tinged tirade against African-Americans and Monica Foy, the woman who Tweeted a distasteful message about the murder of Texas Deputy Darren Goforth.
“I can’t believe so many people care about a dead cop and NO ONE has thought to ask what he did to deserve it. He had creepy perv eyes …,” Foy tweeted on September 1.
The Tweet quickly went viral after it was published on Breitbart.com, the right wing news website.
Two days ago, a Reddit user that goes by the name of tracker2208 posted a message on a pro GamerGate subReddit questioning Breitbart’s decision to report on the Tweet. (Foy only had 20 followers at the time and was not a public figure.):
“To me when I read that she is commenting about how society reacts to black shooting victims, not anything about the cop. But that doesn’t matter. What does is that she had 20 followers, she was a nobody,” tracker2208 posted. “Yet Breitbart journalist Brandon Darby decided she was relevant enough to do a hit piece on her. What follows is pretty much what you would expect when Gawker pulls this s**t. Why would he think so? Because they were investigating the BLM movement, and she retweeted #BlackLivesMatter 3 times. Are you eff’n kidding me.”
Yiannopoulos responded in the comments, referencing his GamerGate (GGers) audience.
“Alright, I’ll respond. I know that GGers are too gentle a species to engage in the sort of cruel and vindictive social media witch-hunt so often staged by progressives, so instead allow me as a distinguished member of the press to share a few thoughts.”
“Does she have a blackcent? Is this all a ruse to pick up dark-skinned men, now she’s grown too gigantic to get a white date? Perhaps I’ll write to her in prison.”- Milo Yiannopoulos
Here are some of the more pointed remarks by Yiannopoulos (you can read the whole post here):
“Enter stupid fat cracker Monica Foy, a large-and-in-charge supporter of Black Lives Matter who called one of the slain officers “creepy,” tweeting: “I can’t believe so many people care about a dead cop and NO ONE has thought what he did to deserve it. He had creepy perv eyes.” Foy is the latest and greatest example of moronic white lard-asses who might mean well but have bought into the lies and conspiracy theories peddled by BLM organizers…
“Monica Foy is a student, by the way, at Sam Houston State University, which is rightly proud of its strong criminal justice program. Talk about the wrong place to talk smack about a cop. If it’s right to kick frat boys off campus for saying they don’t want blacks in their club (and I’m sure it is), I can’t help but wonder: has Sam Houston already put an order in for the crane?…
“Racist? Me? I’ve had more black dick in me than the entire Kardashian family,” Yiannopoulos Told Rise News.
“All of which leaves the looming question of why a woman like Foy was so enamoured with Black Lives Matter in the first place – her penchant for violence excepted, of course. Now, forgive me for being crude, but I happen to know there’s quite the interracial chubby chaser scene in Texas, and black men are notorious for lusting after a well-rounded caucasian butt cheek. I speak from experience. Does she have a blackcent? Is this all a ruse to pick up dark-skinned men, now she’s grown too gigantic to get a white date? Perhaps I’ll write to her in prison. (For some tips, you understand.)”
Yiannopoulos responded to an email with multiple questions from Rise News. One of the questions we sent him asked if his remarks were racist.
“Racist? Me? I’ve had more black dick in me than the entire Kardashian family,” Yiannopoulos wrote. “Yes, that’s on the record.”
Cover Photo Credit: NEXTConf/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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Bernie’s People: Inside A Sanders Rally In The Heart Of Dixie
The most powerful statement Bernie Sanders made all night came during the 10 minutes that he didn’t speak at all.
A little over three-quarters of the way through his usual stump stop rundown at a rally in Birmingham, AL, Sanders suddenly halted mid-sentence and swung to his left, peering into the crowd at a cluster of mild commotion about 20 feet away, where a woman had collapsed from heat exhaustion.
“Stop. Wait. Somebody needs a doctah over here. Is there a doctah or nurse in the room? We need a doctah.”
His right hand thrust into the air to subdue the 7,000-person assembly into near silence, Sanders leaned out from the stage and scoured the crowd for hands raised in offers of assistance. He thanked one lady as she popped up from her seat and clambered down from the bleachers, then another as she hurried down the steps from the balcony.
Sanders stood peering from the stage’s edge for several more minutes until staffers relayed confirmation that paramedics were en route. Only then did he quit his vigil and return to the podium.
“Paramedics are on the way. We think she’s going to be just fine,” Sanders said.
Then, he did something unheard of in the realm of contemporary political campaigning, an exercise typically designed for the self absorbed- Bernie Sanders actually stopped talking.
His words would wait until the health and safety of one person among 7,000 had been ensured. He stepped back from the podium, and he walked over to talk with the 80-odd people arrayed along the back of the stage as a backdrop for the television cameras.
He ended up staying back there talking to people, well out of range of any microphone, for the next 10 minutes as the ailing woman was tended to.
Bernie eventually got back behind the podium, updated the crowd that the woman had recovered and had been able to walk out of the room on her own volition, and steamrolled his way through his remaining talking points.
But in those ten minutes of patient, respectful silence, Sanders contributed further evidence to the mounting body of proof that he just might actually care about his supporters every bit as much as they do about him.
But in those ten minutes of patient, respectful silence, Sanders contributed further evidence to the mounting body of proof that he just might actually care about his supporters every bit as much as they do about him.
And, boy, do they care about him. The crowd held a smattering of graying longhairs and old black ladies in their Sunday Best, but assembled here were 7,000 math majors, whitewater rafting guides, and junior attorneys who had been in middle- or high-school at the onset of the Great Recession espousing, with a fervor historically reserved for the likes of Mick Jagger, their ubiquitous love for a thin-haired, slump-shouldered, 74-year-old man in a suit.
There were handmade signs galore. One posed the rhetorical question “Bern Down for What?”
Another one superimposed Sanders’ campaign logo over a vivid, hand-painted pastoral scene, complete with a gleaming rainbow, rolling hills, and a bubbling brook.
One woman wore a black T-shirt bearing Sanders’ face and the words “Feel the Bern – Enter Sandman” in the jagged, iconic Metallica typeface.
These people hadn’t packed into an auditorium to be talked at by Senator Sanders of Vermont. They were here to meet Bernie.
The last time I was in Birmingham, it was to attend a Donald Trump rally with my girlfriend Maureen and my friend Cristian.
Before we were allowed into the auditorium, we each had to get past a security screening – metal detector, bag search, and pat down – administered by flak-vested police officers and overseen by suit-clad hired toughs.
Once we eventually worked our way inside, a goon-patrolled fence line maintained a 15-foot One Man’s Land between Trump’s podium and his nearest supporter. The only signs dotting the landscape of outstretched hands were the white standard issues reading “The Silent Majority Stands With Trump.”
A significant portion of Trump’s speech was devoted to making sure we understood that he – unlike anyone else in the field of candidates or in that room – had spent a lifetime attending prestigious schools and purchasing expensive things.
With the Trump security detail serving as our only gauge on how these kinds of things worked, Maureen and I made sure to slough any unnecessary metals and auxiliary items from our pockets before leaving the car in order to expedite the inevitable search process ahead.
But instead, a bunch of pimply, earmuff-wearing volunteers herded us all inside the Sanders rally en masse without any question, and the rally-goers around us clearly had not even considered the notion that the things they wanted to bring with them might be screened at the gate.
One woman with a little gray in her hair and an enormous grin on her face scurried busily through the crowd, asking everyone she met to pose behind a cardboard box with a heart-shaped cutout and hand-lettered “I ♥ BERNIE” while she took their picture.
Another dude slapped a Bernie 2016 sticker on his longboard and thrust it into the air, and somebody else taped a porcelain doll to a pole.
A few feet ahead of me, a white girl kissed a black guy, and everywhere you turned, people were hugging and smiling.
No one at the Sanders rally hurled a hateful racist slur at another person, nor did they pull a person to the ground and repeatedly attempt to stomp on his throat.
Nor, for that matter, did they scream with approval at the prospect of establishing a list that would register and track the names of U.S. citizens who choose to practice one religion instead of another.
At the conclusion of my account of that Trump rally, I described Trump’s supporters as “hungry, disgusted, and upset.”
Bernie’s people, too, seem to be linked by a common discontent with many factors that define the present state of American affairs, and at the surface both constituent groups seem to express their restlessness in similar ways: edit out the name being chanted, and you’d be hard pressed to differentiate the roars of applause at each pause or the frothy parroting of catchy mantras at one candidate’s rally from those at the other’s.
But there is a subtle and fundamental distinction between the two factions, and I couldn’t see it in full until we were driving home: Bernie’s people have the naïve audacity to believe that they can help do it.
Some of them are only four to eight years removed from high school civics class and its accompanying fairy tale of a world in which checks and balances reign supreme and voting is something you can’t wait to do for the first or second time, not something you’ve actively chosen not to do since Nader in ’96.
They think that the system ain’t broke, it just needs a little fixin’
They think that the system ain’t broke, it just needs a little fixin’, and their conception of a heroic Washington outsider is one who will show them how, one whom they feel like they know and one who pokes fun at his own wispy hair and lack of style, not an untouchable Visigoth who promises scorched earth and brags about wielding the bigger stick.
By their measure, the whole point of packing into an auditorium together on a Monday night is to take a step forward (even if it is just a symbolic one) into a more hip tomorrow, not whip themselves into a collective, anger-fueled mope-fest for the decayed and irretrievable Glory of America Past.
But peace, love, and hopey-changey stuff have not consistently demonstrated a formidable knack for self-sustaining longevity.
For some, it didn’t even make it out to the parking garage after the program – the queue stalled for more than 40 minutes as people raced to get out onto the street ahead of each other instead of alternating for spots in line.
And getting up on a Tuesday morning to go vote can prove a lot less exhilarating than getting swept up in an effervescent throng at the end of a three-day weekend – realities that Sanders did not lose sight of in his speech.
“This isn’t about Bernie, Bernie, Bernie, although I appreciate it. This is about You, You, You,” Sanders said. “I need you on Election Day, but I really need you on the day after.”
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. Anyone can write for you us as long as you are fiercely interested in making the world a better place.
Photo Credits: Jordan Cissell/ RISE NEWS
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Bernie Sanders Needs To Drop Out Now
Bernie Sanders said in his victory speech in California after winning the Oregon primary that he could still win the Democratic nomination for President.
It will be a steep climb, but we have the possibility of going to Philadelphia with a majority of pledged delegates pic.twitter.com/dY6zZd4dQu
— People For Bernie (@People4Bernie) May 18, 2016
He’s pedaling a fantasy.
While Sanders could *technically* still beat Hillary Clinton (and I could *technically* still make the NBA), he has close to no room for error. Neither does the country.
While Sanders is waging an ideological fight to further he and his enthusiastic supporters’ agenda, the United States is starting down the horrifying possibility of a Donald Trump presidency.
The time for high school civics games is over with. Bernie Sanders should drop out of the race and immediately endorse Clinton so that she can have more time to unite the Democratic Party and prepare for the long election fight to come.
Sanders has repeatedly said that the number one priority should be to stop Trump from being President. This is the correct priority. After all, Trump is a barbarian who is willing to do just about anything to get elected.
Clinton has been careful in recent weeks (after it became clear that Sanders didn’t really have a winning path) not to anger Sanders supporters by calling for him to drop out. She also stayed in until all the votes were cast in the 2008 primary when she lost to then Sen. Barack Obama.
But that was a very different situation (high levels of excitement in the Democratic primary) and the stakes didn’t feel quite as high as they do now, with the specter of Trump on the horizon.
While Clinton has rightfully not called for Sanders to drop out, he should still do it on his own. I’m sure he won’t and a strong case can be made for his staying in the race until he is mathematically eliminated. But what good would that really do for the party and for the Sanders movement?
Bernie has made his point. And the party will never be the same because of his hugely successful and revolutionary campaign. It would be a real shame if his actions over the course of the next few weeks gave Trump the cover needed to score important victories on Clinton.
And just for the sake of argument, Sanders doesn’t really have one anymore. He is running as a figurehead of a movement and not as a legitimate candidate for the Democratic nomination.
That’s great, but he can do it from another platform and not as a candidate that is causing resources to be devoted from Clinton that should be used on Trump.
Before any Sanders supporters say something nasty in the comments, lets just get all the facts out there.
Sanders is behind Clinton by more than three million raw votes.
Sanders is behind Clinton by nearly 300 pledged delegates.
Sanders is behind Clinton by nearly 500 super delegates.
Before entering Tuesday night (where Sanders narrowly won Oregon and narrowly lost Kentucky), he would have had to win 90% of the remaining delegates to win.
Clinton would basically have to have her name taken off the ballot in the remaining states for Sanders to win, and even then he still might lose it.
Bernie has lost his argument for staying in the race and its time for the real fight to begin.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: Phil Roeder/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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