Today was a special day in Australia. The same-sex marriage debate has been going on for years. Despite the fact that our Federal Parliament has to pass legislation to allow it, they insisted on a $120million voluntary postal vote of everyone on the electoral roll, and today the results were announced. 80% of eligible people voted, 61.6% voted 'Yes' and 38.4% voted 'No'. The Prime Minister has promised that legislation will be passed through parliament before Christmas. Finally, we have caught up with the rest of the Western world.

I was so pleased to read that 17 year old Georgie Stone has just been announced as the State of Victoria's nominee for 'Young Australian of the Year'. At less than eleven years old she was granted permission by an Australian Family Court to take hormone blockers. As a result, and her subsequent appeals for people like her, young transgender Australians no longer have to go through the expensive court process to take blockers, although they still need to do so to get hormone treatment.

OK, this is just a bit of my warped sense of humour. I recently bought a copy of the original 1943 film 'Lassie Come Home' and decided to do a Google search about it. First, although it's set in northern England and Scotland, it was actually shot in the USA - not surprising I guess as Britain was a bit preoccupied with World War Two at that time and America hadn't yet signed up. Secondly, the title role which from the name is obviously a female dog (I won't use the b... word) was played by a male dog called Pal of the breed called a Rough Collie.

Sorry to confuse everyone. I managed to finish Chapter 51 of Harriet's story after all. I hope you enjoy it.
Bronwen

An apology to the loyal readers of "All the World's a Stage" - I'm not trying to drag out the suspense (promise!) but I may not post Chapter 51 today as it's not finished nor checked over. I'll try to post in a day or two, or by some miracle it might still appear today!
Bronwen Welsh

Jazz Jennings, now aged 16 who was one of the youngest children to be documented as transgender at the age of about five is the inspiration for a new doll to be made in limited edition by the Tonner Doll Company of Kingston N.Y., with the full support of Ms Jennings. You can read the full article in the New York Times here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/17/business/transgender-doll...

An update on Karen's condition from her cousin says that she is making good progress but may have to spend some time in rehabilitation. She was really quite sick and is still not well enough to receive and respond to messages. I will pass on any messages via her cousin, and I'm sure we're all keeping our fingers crossed for her to make a full recovery.

Karen Lockhart has asked me to let readers of her stories know that she is not well at present. She's in hospital ICU with respiratory issues but is stable. However there may be a delay in starting her next story - 'Ginny's Story' which is the sequel to 'Gene's Story'.

I'm keeping in regular touch with her cousin and will report any developments.

Bronwen