The Laird is Shocked

So as the reluctant royalist that I am, I will now share the good and the bad news with you, my dear readers!

Lets start with the good news. Here is the relevant announcement in English that was sent out yesterday from the Swedish royal household.

The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm and prince of Cascade Falls, was happy for the young family and that they were all doing well, even if his thoughts also went to the poor harrowed father who must have had an awful sleepless night. (Why cannot women have the consideration to give birth during office hours, say between 9 AM and 5 PM, when fathers are up and about anyway?)

The shocking news came today when the Swedish royal household made the following announcement.

"Friday the 24th of February a cabinet meeting was held at the Royal Palace to mark the birth of a new heir to the throne. At the cabinet meeting, The King informed the Government that the Princess will be named Estelle Silvia Ewa Mary, with the given name Estelle. The Princess was assigned duchess of Östergötland."

Luckily the laird was seated when this announcement was handed to him by HRH Callum Beamish, prince of Cascade Falls and ambassador of Sweden to Southern Charm. 

The poor laird went pale and started shivering when he read the announcement then he cried out in agony "Estelle? Silvia? Ewa (with that unfortunate spelling)? and Mary?. Have those Swedes gone totally insane? These are no names for a future queen of Sweden, what happened to Margareta, Christina, Victoria, Ingeborg or even Blanche, after that sweet old princess from Namur?" 

It took a long while for the laird to recover from this blow but finally, with a visible effort, he collected himself and with a deep sigh and a beautiful little smile said "Well, we cannot expect all royals to have our impeccable taste. We will  have to accept with fortitude what we cannot control."

Rhino Writers

"Now forming, Rhino Writers is a gay bloggers group in Second Life, believing there is power in numbers. Formed by Avacar Bluestar & Eddi Haskell, we want to raise up the art form of blogging to a new level.

Description of Rhino Symbol:

Purple Rhinoceros

The purple rhino made its first appearance in December 1974. It was created by two Boston gay rights activists: one source names Bernie Toal and Tom Morganti, another says it was Bernie Toal and Daniel Thaxton. The entire campaign was intended to bring gay issues further into public view. The rhino started being displayed in subways in Boston, but since the creators didn’t qualify for a public service advertising rate, the campaign soon became too expensive for the activists to handle. The ads disappeared, and the rhino never caught on anywhere else.

As Toal put it, “The rhino is a much maligned and misunderstood animal and, in actuality, a gentle creature.” But when a rhinoceros is angered, it fights ferociously. At the time, this seemed a fitting symbol for the gay rights movement. Lavender was used because it was a widely recognized gay pride color and the heart was added to represent love and the “common humanity of all people.” The purple rhinoceros was never copyrighted and is public domain.

Requirements:
Must have posted more than 3 articles in the past six months. And be at least 90% gay :)


IM any member for your group invite, subject to Rhino Checkpoint’s approval (Official membership chairperson TBA).


Our first item on agenda is to create clicker boards (one each) for each of our members’ blogs for placement in the Rhino Writer’s booth at Second Pride 2012. Dimension detail to follow shortly in group notice.


Avacar & Eddi"
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Well, I fit the requirements so of course I joined when I was invited. There is a shortcut on my blog to the page that is being set up at GWNews.

Ewa´s Mardi Gras

My friend Ewa Aska is throwing a combined housewarming party and carnival tomorrow, Friday February 24, 2012, at 1 PM.

Mardi Gras beads are compulsory and clothing optional if I choose to deliberately misread her invitation. (Although knowing Ewa as well as I do, I think you will be kicked off the sim if you come only wearing beads - if they do not cover all of your interesting parts (boobs, penises and asses).

Spring Is Here

According to the Swedish meteorological definition spring arrives when the daily average temperature is rising and between 0 and 10 degrees Celsius (i.e. 32 - 50 degrees Fahrenheit) for seven consecutive days.

Well today was the eight day so officially spring has now arrived to the southernmost parts of Sweden, even if it is difficult to believe when you feel the cold winds sweeping around you every time you step outside for a cigarette. It´s not at all cozy and you hate the day you started smoking.

I am beginning to believe there is a conspiracy between nature, the Swedish legislators and my employer and they are all trying to send me a message of some kind...

At times like this it is good to have a second home to log in to. I keep Southern Charm on a sort of eternally mild summer, not too hot and not too cold and always with a slight breeze. Simply wonderful!

Mardi Gras at The Bullring

Although it was Fat Tuesday yesterday I was preparing for a peaceful evening at Southern Charm, perhaps some light gardening but nothing at all adventurous when I saw my friend missK calling us to a Mardi Gras party with DJ Hotboy at my co-blogger Torro Spyker´s club The Bullring.

Torro Spyker checking out a patron

I had never been to that club before so I thought to myself, "What the hell, the gardening can wait...". I threw off my shirt, threw on my beads and a mask and took the teleport.

When I arrived the small room was already filled by a few very good looking women and the hunkiest men in SecondLife, the pride of the gay community in our world. My fellow Swedes sometimes complain about my exaggerated height, but I believe I was the shortest man in the room this night.

Strangely enough there wasn´t much conversation going on although the room was packed so I am guessing it was all in IMs. The music was good and the sights were just fine too, so I stayed until it was time for bed and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

DJ Hotboy and Mercedes

Bock, shirtless with beads and mask

Blogger Jeff Ellsworth hiding in the rafters but I found him anyway

Are You Married?

On the amazing J.M.G. I saw this news.

If you are heterosexually challenged and married (hand-fasted, jumped over the broom or whatever ceremony was performed) to someone of the opposite sex but do not feel threatened by allowing marriage to be extended to same-sex couples there is a group for you to "Like" if you are on Facebook.

The group is called "Heterosexuals for Same-Sex Equality" (HSSE)

Link to the HSSE-group on Facebook. The group is presently running a photo campaign where you and your spouse can post pictures of yourselves. The HSSE also has a website.
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And as that group on Facebook must likely will only accept first life contributions I will offer my blog as an affiliate to it and will start accepting contributions from avatars in SecondLife.

The following rules apply
1. Heterosexually challenged couples
2. Married, partnered etc. etc.
3. A sign in the picture showing the message
"Gay marriage doesn't threaten our marriage"
4. Send  your contribution to my e-mail lundamats@gmail.com. or drop it on my SecondLife profile (make certain the picture is sent with full rights). Some editing of the picture may occur.
5. If you drop the picture on my profile name the picture with both the spouses avatar names. If you send an email tell me the avatar names in the message.

Cute straight couple

Example from Facebook, but hey play around with the theme!

A Welcome Change of Heart

In two previous posts (Stop Forced Sterilization and A Message from Love) I have informed you about the deadlock among the four parties that form the Swedish government on the issue of forced sterilization of transsexuals before being granted permission for new legal gender identity and gender corrective surgery. 

Although three of the four parties in the governing so called "Alliance for Sweden" and 90 % of the members of parliament as a whole were for a change of the law and abolish the requirement for sterilization the fourth party in the Alliance, the Swedish Christian Democrats, blocked any change of the present law.

The Christian Democrats is a socially conservative ("family values", i.e. anti-abortion, anti-gay rights, anti stem-cell research etc etc.) party heavily influenced by the "Word of Faith" movement and other fundamentalist Christian movements. 

Recently internal strife broke out where the party chairman Göran Hägglund was challenged for the leadership of the party by a candidate for the hardcore fundamentalists. The rebellion was successfully quenched by a humiliating defeat after which the party leadership - finally - grew a pair of brand new "cojones" and on Saturday declared that the party would no longer oppose abolishing the requirement of forced sterilization.

We can now look forward to a change of the anachronistic and discriminatory law.