Daily OpusEverything I write is freely rebloggable. Just keep the source and tell people about my books :D [Until I decide otherwise, my pronouns are Ze/Hir/Hirself. As in "Ze went to the shops to get hir medication hirself". Thank you for the respect.]
The White House formally responded to a petition on WeThePeople.gov today seeking a ban on efforts to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of young people, the The New York Timesreports.
The petition called for the creation of “Leelah’s Law,” ideally national legislation that would prohibit licensed therapists from engaging in the scientifically discredited practice of so-called conversion therapy.The petition on the government’s We the People website was authored in the wake of transgender Ohio teenager Leelah Alcorn’s suicide. In a note that went viral after she scheduled it to post to Tumblr after her death, the 17-year-old Alcorn detailed the harm she endured when subjected to conversion therapy by a Christian therapist she was taken to by her parents. The petition obtained more than 100,000 signatures in January, triggering a formal response from the White House.
Noting that the practice is often used on minors, “who lack the legal authority to make their own medical and mental health decisions,” senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett offered a full-throated support from the administration toward efforts to ban such “therapy,” which has been denounced by every major medical and mental health organization in the country as not only ineffective but likely to harm.
“We share your concern about its potentially devastating effects on the lives of transgender as well as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and queer youth,” Jarrett wrote Wednesday night in the White House’s formal response to the petition.
“When assessing the validity of conversion therapy, or other practices that seek to change an individual’s gender identity or sexual orientation, it is as imperative to seek guidance from certified medical experts,” the statement continued. “The overwhelming scientific evidence demonstrates that conversion therapy, especially when it is practiced on young people, is neither medically nor ethically appropriate and can cause substantial harm.
“As part of our dedication to protecting America’s youth, this Administration supports efforts to ban the use of conversion therapy for minors,” the statement concluded.
The official response also included remarks from the president, who stopped short of outright endorsing national legislation — which has yet to be introduced — to ban such efforts. However, the official response did mention bans on the use of such “therapy” on minors in California, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C.
“Tonight, somewhere in America, a young person, let’s say a young man, will struggle to fall to sleep, wrestling alone with a secret he’s held as long as he can remember,” said President Obama in a statement. “Soon, perhaps, he will decide it’s time to let that secret out. What happens next depends on him, his family, as well as his friends and his teachers and his community. But it also depends on us — on the kind of society we engender, the kind of future we build.”
Transgender advocates applauded the administration’s action.”
What’s that? Two of our favorite groups of peop- I mean…bots? Wait. Two of our favorite creative groups have announced that they’re working together! Check out the info below, and check out the rest HERE! If you haven’t checked out Steam World Dig (Image & Form’s last title), now would be a great time ;) Also, check out that BRAND NEW taste of Steam Powered Giraffe music above!
Yes, the rumors have been true: Steam Powered Giraffe is working on the soundtrack for Image & Form’s anticipated multi-platform space strategy adventure SteamWorld Heist, due in spring 2015. The quirky San Diego-based band (that just so happens to feature humans parading as antique singing automatons) will not only make all the songs and in-game music forSteamWorld Heist, but will also be featured in the game as a troupe that Captain Piper and her crew encounter in bars while recruiting fighters. Image & Form CEO Brjann Sigurgeirsson is happy: “A SteamWorld game about steam-powered robots featuring real-world steam-powered robots. It’s perfect!”
Plain packaging on tobacco products is associated with lower smoking appeal, greater support for the policy and a higher urgency to quit among adult smokers, a new study has found.
The study, conducted by Victorian researchers and published in the journal BMJ Open, is the first to examine how plain packaging affects smokers thoughts in practice following the roll-out of plain packaging laws in Australia in late 2012. Previous studies have only looked at simulated plain packs.
Australia was the first country in the world to introduce plain packaging laws. The UK had considered following suit but has reportedly shelved plans to do so.
The researchers surveyed 536 cigarette smokers with a usual brand, of whom 72.3% were smoking from a plain pack and 27.7% were smoking from a branded pack. The participants were based in Victoria and surveyed by phone between November 1 and December 3 2012.
“Compared with branded pack smokers, those smoking from plain packs perceived their cigarettes to be lower in quality, tended to perceive their cigarettes as less satisfying than a year ago, were more likely to have thought about quitting at least once a day in the past week and to rate quitting as a higher priority in their lives. Plain pack smokers were more likely to support the policy than branded pack smokers,” the researchers said in their paper.
“Given that Australia is the first nation to implement plain packaging, our study provides an early investigation of its actual effects on smokers in a market where plain packs are available to all.”
At the time the survey was conducted, some smokers were still able to purchase branded packs. The researchers acknowledged that “those less interested in quitting may have been more likely to avoid the plain packs” but said they adjusted their results to account for this factor.
Simon Chapman, Professor of Public Health at the University of Sydney and a vocal proponent of plain packaging laws, said “every consumer goods manufacturer knows that packaging and price are front and centre of the appeal of products.”
“Think of your own behaviour when you stand facing a wall of different wine within your price range and why you select the bottle you do. Massive research goes into maximising the appeal of the look of cigarette packs, like all products. They cue expectations and tobacco industry internal research has long shown that many smokers cannot discern even their own brand in blinded tests. So it is no surprise that our plain packaging is producing negative findings for the tobacco industry. They would have known this was coming” he said.
Paul Harrison, a Senior lecturer at Deakin University’s Graduate School of Business who has previously written on the topic of plain packaging, said the new research “presents itself as a good study.”
“In terms of findings, it’s something I would have predicted as well. The one thing I have said previously [is that] these kind of changes will not see dramatic instant change in behaviour,” he said. “We will see incremental shifts in it being easier to not be a smoker than it is to be a smoker. And these are the aims of all these types of programs.”
Dr Harrison said he expected the tobacco industry to dispute the study’s findings: “I think what we will see in practice is the cigarette lobby, including all the companies funded by cigarette companies, who will say things like: it’s a small sample, they will say no dramatic changes, they will say it is not effective,” he said.
“In terms of it being used in practice, I think the health authorities can feel the change to plain packs is a good step and, internationally, legislatures and governments that are interested in the health of the community should look at the study and say this is something worth doing.”
