dolorosa_12 | Saturday night bits and pieces (Reply)

Marriage equality has been passed into law in Australia (in spite of some histrionics by conservative politicians attempting to stall things by trying to make absurd 'religious freedom' amendments before the bill was passed; thankfully these were all voted down), and the first same-sex couples have given notice of their intent to marry today. There's a one-month notice period, which means the first marriages will happen in early January next year. I'm glad we have marriage equality at last, but my heart hurts at the convoluted and cruel way it was achieved, and the fact that Malcolm Turnbull (and, even worse, Tony Abbott) are claiming credit for this makes my blood boil.

In other Australian news, the horrific blight that is imprisoning refugees on Manus Island and Nauru continues. Behrouz Boochani, a Kurdish refugee and journalist who has been held on Manus since 2014, has been an eloquent and vital voice of the resistance, and his latest piece, published in The Saturday Paper, is well worth a read. I urge any Australians reading this to contact both their MPs and Malcolm Turnbull and request that the refugees be moved as soon as possible to a safe country and the camps on Manus and Nauru be closed.

Brexit shambles on. I have to admit I greeted the news of the 'sufficient progress' statement with hysterical laughter. All that posturing, all those lies and nationalistic chest-thumping, and the result, is, apparently, that we're going to end up like Switzerland. I notice that all the Brexiteers are the ones suddenly bellowing for a second referendum.

Patreon made some changes to how it will handle payments, and these changes seem likely to screw over the vast majority of its user base. There have been calls to make formal complaints and sign petitions, but my feeling is that nothing will make them revert back to the way things were before. As I said on Twitter, platforms not created by and maintained by the community they're designed to serve will always eventually change in ways that render them unusable by that community. The only guarantee that your chosen platforms will continue to work in ways that suit your needs is to build them yourself, or have them built by people from your community, sadly. I'm very sorry for all the creators and patrons who have been affected by this.

In slightly happier news, I finished another Yuletide treat, which means I've hit the writing targets I set for myself this year. I might poke around the requests summary and see if any other requests take my fancy.

It's going to snow tomorrow in Cambridge, and I am very pleased about that.

Edited to add: it did snow! Here are a photoset and a video that I took.