Hamilton

2023 - 3 - 22

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Image courtesy of "SurferToday"

Surfing transphobically: the ignorance of Bethany Hamilton (SurferToday)

Surf Equity's contributing writer Anjali Ajmani criticizes Bethany Hamilton's remarks on including transgender surfers in women's competitions.

From bathroom bills to bills deferring transgender athletes to compete in sports based on their biological gender, it is increasingly clear that Republicans are only concerned about creating one kind of America, the kind in which transgender people do not exist. Athlete Ally, an organization that seeks to obtain gender equality for all genders (including the gender-non-conforming) in professional sports, has quite a bit of research on the subject of whether or not transgender athletes have a biological advantage over cis-gendered athletes in competition. I would argue that because surfing was once a gender-fluid sport, allowing transgender women to compete with cis-gendered women in WSL events can only create more unity in the world of surfing. Sasha also admitted to getting "schooled by some of the best longboarding women in the world," an assertion that pretty much spells out the fact that transgender women surfers do not have this superior biological advantage to cis-gendered women surfers. [thoughts on the World Surf League's (WSL) policy](https://www.surfertoday.com/surfing/bethany-hamilton-criticizes-wsl-over-transgender-policy) of including transgender women surfers in the women's division of WSL events. Sasha actually explains a bit about her journey under hormone replacement therapy, telling the public in an interview that her testosterone level was "sometimes a tenth of the women I was competing against."

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Image courtesy of "ABC Life"

10 lessons for creativity from Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda - ABC ... (ABC Life)

From making mistakes to unconventional places to find inspiration, Broadway legend Lin-Manuel Miranda shares his top creative tips with Leigh Sales.

Lin-Manuel was chatting to Hugh during a break and told him he was working on a song about how the British must have felt when America started fighting for its independence. The first foreign-language production of Hamilton recently opened in Hamburg, Germany. It will help you remain grateful and humble.Loading... Some of the most notable moments in the production are not ideas that came from Lin-Manuel himself. When working on the song arrangements in Hamilton, a team of people would gather around the piano improvising to see what emerged. "You'll be back," Hugh said sternly with a waggle of his finger, and Lin-Manuel had the seed of his idea. A throwaway conversation on the set of the TV show House — in which Lin-Manuel had a guest role alongside British legend, Hugh Laurie — led to one of the most popular songs in Hamilton, You'll Be Back. Embracing the idea openly, Lin-Manuel wrote one of the cleverest stanzas in the musical: Lin-Manuel was directly inspired by the experience of his own family and friends, and the contribution he saw them all making to life in America.Loading... In writing Hamilton, Lin-Manuel wrestled with the character of Lafayette: the French military man who fought alongside the Americans in their revolution. They brought in a German rapper and some translation experts, shifted the entire production into German rap as best they could, then reverse-translated it back to English to check if the integrity of the story held. The rhymes and rhythm of Hamilton are so intricate in English, surely it's impossible to create the same effect in German while remaining true to the story?

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