“Jim.”
The man stepped down from the transporter pad, and the Captain moved toward him, embracing him in his arms with a pleased, “Bones.”
Spock clasped his hands behind his back, straightening. The hug lasted eight seconds. It seemed a bit excessive.
When the Captain told him that the new ship’s surgeon was his personal friend for many years, Spock’s first thought was to tell him that he considered it a bad idea. Surrounding oneself with close friends on a mission where anything could happen, where their lives were in danger every day, did not seem very logical. He said nothing and hoped the doctor’s fate would not follow the one of Gary Mitchell, which hurt the Captain deeply.
-
“Captain. The way you let Doctor McCoy act toward you is disrespectful and improper,” Spock said two weeks later during one of their chess matches.
The Captain blinked at him. “Improper?”
“He questions your authority, never addresses you properly, and you yourself allow it with the use of the overfamiliar moniker.”
The Captain continued watching him with a baffled expression, mouthing “overfamiliar moniker”.
“Furthermore, the crew started to question the nature of your relationship.”
“And we can’t have that, can we, Mister Spock?”
Spock understood the words as humorous, but the Captain’s eyes weren’t laughing.
-
The next time Doctor McCoy visited the bridge, the Captain greeted him with, “Hey, Doc.”
It felt somewhat mocking, and Spock could not shake off the impression that McCoy was glaring at Spock’s back, trying to burn a hole there.
He refused to turn around.
-
“Jim, they won’t hurt the doctor.”
The Captain stopped pacing. “I thought you said the use of my first name was improper and disrespectful.”
“I did not say that… exactly.”
“You sound like McCoy now.”
“There is no reason to be insulting, Captain.”
The Captain sighed. “Look, Spock. I don’t know what your problem with McCoy is…”
“There is no problem, sir. The Doctor’s behavior simply does not fit a Starfleet vessel and can cause distraction.”
“Did it cause a distraction?”
“Not yet,” Spock conceded.
“When…” The Captain cleared his throat. “When McCoy comes back, the next time he’s on the bridge, watch the crew, Mister Spock.”
-
Spock did as told.
McCoy did not only speak to the Captain. He’d stop at Lieutenant Uhura’s panel to talk to her, leaving her smiling. He’d ask Lieutenant Sulu about one of his many hobbies. He’d talk to everyone, addressing all of them by their names, leaving them relaxed and more open to joking with each other during the long voyages from one place to another that humans tended to find tedious and tiring.
It reminded him of Captain Pike, who’d take that role on himself. Perhaps the last year and two months at Kirk’s side made him forget something important.
-
McCoy would talk to everyone but Spock.
-
“Any time you can bluff me, Doctor!”
Spock turned toward the captain’s chair. The whole bridge was looking at Kirk in confusion and bewilderment. Spock wasn’t petty enough to remind the captain that this was what he’d meant when he talked about distractions.
He could tell the Captain understood anyway.
And to Spock’s surprise, so did McCoy. His demeanor deflated, and he oozed embarrassment, moving away from the chair, subdued, his hands curled into fists.
And yet, Kirk and McCoy’s uncommon disagreement turned out not to be a distraction at all. Somehow, it gave the Captain an idea. An absurd, illogical idea. But as Spock learned during his time serving with Kirk, sometimes it took such an idea to get them out of a predicament.
“However, it was well played,” Spock acknowledged, and in order to further lighten the mood on the bridge, he continued, “I regret not having learned more about this Balok. In some manner, he was reminiscent of my father.”
“Then may heaven have helped your mother,” Scott quipped.
“Quite the contrary. She considered herself a very fortunate Earth woman.”
-
Perhaps he did judge the nature of Kirk and McCoy’s friendship wrong, he thought as he watched McCoy step close to Kirk and touch his arm in apology.
“Doc… sorry,” Kirk said, and Spock wondered if the moniker “Bones” would ever make a reappearance.
-
When McCoy invited him for a group poker a few days later, Spock did not refuse.
He wisely didn’t react after Kirk kept calling McCoy “Bones” throughout the game. After the fifth time, he caught McCoy’s exasperated look.
Maybe the two of them could find an understanding.
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Rowling isn't denying holocaust. She just pointed out that burning of transgender health books is a lie as that form of cosmetic surgery didn't exist. But of course you knew that already, didn't you?
I was thinking I'd probably see one of you! You're wrong :) Let's review the history a bit, shall we?
In this case, what we're talking about is the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, or in English, The Institute of Sexology. This Institute was founded and headed by a gay Jewish sexologist named Magnus Hirschfeld. It was founded in July of 1919 as the first sexology research clinic in the world, and was run as a private, non-profit clinic. Hirschfeld and the researchers who worked there would give out consultations, medical advice, and even treatments for free to their poorer clientele, as well as give thousands of lectures and build a unique library full of books on gender, sexuality, and eroticism. Of course, being a gay man, Hirschfeld focused a lot on the gay community and proving that homosexuality was natural and could not be "cured".
Hirschfeld was unique in his time because he believed that nobody's gender was either one or the other. Rather, he contended that everyone is a mixture of both male and female, with every individual having their own unique mix of traits.
This leads into the Institute's work with transgender patients. Hirschfeld was actually the one to coin the term "transsexual" in 1923, though this word didn't become popular phrasing until 30 years later when Harry Benjamin began expanding his research (I'll just be shortening it to trans for this brief overview.) For the Institute, their revolutionary work with gay men eventually began to attract other members of the LGBTA+, including of course trans people.
Contrary to what Anon says, sex reassignment surgery was first tested in 1912. It'd already being used on humans throughout Europe during the 1920's by the time a doctor at the Institute named Ludwig Levy-Lenz began performing it on patients in 1931. Hirschfeld was at first opposed, but he came around quickly because it lowered the rate of suicide among their trans patients. Not only was reassignment performed at the Institute, but both facial feminization and facial masculization surgery were also done.
The Institute employed some of these patients, gave them therapy to help with other issues, even gave some of the mentioned surgeries for free to this who could not afford it! They spoke out on their behalf to the public, even getting Berlin police to help them create "transvestite passes" to allow people to dress however they wanted without the threat of being arrested. They worked together to fight the law, including trying to strike down Paragraph 175, which made it illegal to be homosexual. The picture below is from their holiday party, Magnus Hirschfeld being the gentleman on the right with the fabulous mustache. Many of the other people in this photo are transgender.
[Image ID: A black and white photo of a group of people. Some are smiling at the camera, others have serious expressions. Either way, they all seem to be happy. On the right side, an older gentleman in glasses- Magnus Hirschfeld- is sitting. He has short hair and a bushy mustache. He is resting one hand on the shoulder of the person in front of him. His other hand is being held by a person to his left. Another person to his right is holding his shoulder.]
There was always push back against the Institute, especially from conservatives who saw all of this as a bad thing. But conservatism can't stop progress without destroying it. They weren't willing to go that far for a good while. It all ended in March of 1933, when a new Chancellor was elected. The Nazis did not like homosexuals for several reasons. Chief among them, we break the boundaries of "normal" society. Shortly after the election, on May 6th, the book burnings began. The Jewish, gay, and obviously liberal Magnus Hirschfeld and his library of boundary-breaking literature was one of the very first targets. Thankfully, Hirschfeld was spared by virtue of being in Paris at the time (he would die in 1935, before the Nazis were able to invade France). His library wasn't so lucky.
This famous picture of the book burnings was taken after the Institute of Sexology had been raided. That's their books. Literature on so much about sexuality, eroticism, and gender, yes including their new work on trans people. This is the trans community's Alexandria. We're incredibly lucky that enough of it survived for Harry Benjamin and everyone who came after him was able to build on the Institute's work.
[Image ID: A black and white photo of the May Nazi book burning of the Institute of Sexology's library. A soldier, back facing the camera, is throwing a stack of books into the fire. In the background of the right side, a crowd is watching.]
As the Holocaust went on, the homosexuals of Germany became a targeted group. This did include transgender people, no matter what you say. To deny this reality is Holocaust denial. JK Rowling and everyone else who tries to pretend like this isn't reality is participating in that evil. You're agreeing with the Nazis.
But of course, you knew that already, didn't you?
Edit: Added image IDs. I apologize to those using screen readers for forgetting them. Please reblog this version instead.
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