An American Civil Liberties Union lawyer will make history in December as the first openly transgender attorney to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court, opposing Tennessee’s Republican-backed law banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors.
The ACLU’s Chase Strangio, 41, represents a group of transgender people who pursued a lawsuit challenging the measure that prohibits medical treatments including hormones and surgeries for minors experiencing gender dysphoria.
ACLU Legal Director Cecillia Wang called Strangio the leading U.S. legal expert on transgender rights.
“He brings to the lectern not only brilliant constitutional lawyering, but also the tenacity and heart of a civil rights champion,” Wang said.
Because it was the official church doctrine they used to begin persecution of anyone charged with witchcraft in the European middle ages. It didn’t simply justify all the tortures the church is famous for; it set that ball rolling as the legal document behind it all, written by a bunch of deranged zealots. It was used to genocide the native European religions and cement the power of the church. The perfection of the art of torture, all the burnings and rigged trials, all those horrors began with that book. Anytime you hear people freaking out about witches even today, anywhere, Malleus Maleficarum is the root of it all. Throughout the centuries, it shaped the brutality of European colonialism around the globe as one of the most influential books most people never heard of. Due to the extent of colonialism, it destroyed more lives and culture, and caused more agony and torment than probably any other book ever written.
It’s obscure, archaic, dogmatic, bloodthirsty, batshit legalese translated into Old English from Latin. These days it’s mostly of interest to particularly focused scholars, Wiccans, and edgy teens dipping their toes in. I wouldn’t expect it to be a good read.
For maximum WTAF, throw in Demonology by King James. Yes, that King James.
Very good explanation, thank you! Out of curiosity why would a Wiccan be interested in reading it?
Well, it’s a critical text in the history of Wicca, since it began the practice of burning accused witches. It also contains a great deal of the prevailing myths of the time regarding them. Its title translates to The Hammer of Witches. Finally, besides historians, they’re some of the few people keeping the text alive in the eye of pop culture, since the church no longer wants to be openly associated with it.