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Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Transgender woman who grew up in strict Catholic household now makes millions selling racy snaps
A transgender woman who spent years hiding her sexuality while living in a strict Catholic household has revealed she now makes over $1 million a year selling racy snaps of herself after being shunned by the church. Lana Madison, who was born male, was raised in an extremely conservative community in southern Texas. From a young age she was into 'feminine' things, but she was forced to 'pretend to be masculine' out of fear of how the people at her church would react. 'Growing up Catholic was tough. I was so feminine but constantly at odds with who I was,' she explained exclusively to the Daily Mail. 'It was hard pretending to be masculine while everything inside me screamed the opposite.' Lana recalled 'faking asthma attacks' to get out of Mass when the priest would 'start preaching anti-gay rhetoric.' But as Lana got older, she said she couldn't hold in her true self anymore. Eventually, word began to spread that she 'was into boys,' and it led to the community turning on both her and her family. 'I managed to disguise myself for a while until I couldn't anymore,' she continued. 'Once people found out I was into boys, my friends dropped me. 'But that rejection weirdly gave me freedom. I no longer had to pretend. I leaned into being an openly effeminate guy, and eventually, that led me toward my truth.' While her parents were certainly shocked at first, they ultimately came around. 'My parents may be Catholic and conservative, but they've always loved me unconditionally,' she explained. 'When I came out, it wasn't easy for [my parents]. They didn't embrace everything right away, but they never made me feel unloved. 'Even as they were being shunned by people in their community, they told others and me that they'd rather have a relationship with their child than a dead child. 'That kind of love gave me strength. They didn't always get everything right, and it took time for them to adjust to my name and pronouns. 'But I knew they loved me, and that gave me the confidence to stand tall in who I was becoming.' Eventually, word began to spread that she 'was into boys,' and it lead to the whole community turning on both her and her family Lana realized that she was transgender while she was in college when a drag queen friend put her in full glam for the first time and she started undergoing hormone therapy at age 21 Lana realized that she was transgender while she was in college when a drag queen friend put her in full glam for the first time and she started undergoing hormone therapy at age 21. During her transition, Lana realized that to become the girl she truly dreamed of being she would have to go under the knife multiple times because there were so many things about her appearance that she wanted to change. So instead of going through recovery over and over again, she decided to do it all at once - undergoing a whopping 15 procedures during one marathon 10-hour surgery. This included having her hairline pulled down, fat grafting to her cheeks, shaving down her Adam's apple, getting buccal fat pads partially removed, a rhinoplasty, brow lift, breast augmentation, and other tweaks to her lips and forehead. 'I wanted to go under and wake up as a new person,' she explained. 'I didn't want to spend years in and out of recovery, nitpicking parts of myself, constantly planning the next procedure. I wanted to just be done and move forward in my life. 'I didn't want to heal one part of myself while still dealing with dysphoria about another. I wanted to wake up in a body that felt whole.' She looks at the transformation as a 'rebirth' and said she feels like it has given her a 'second chance at life.' Her conservative parents are not exactly fond of her career choice, but they just want her to be happy. She dished, 'They might not understand every part of it, but they understand me' And now, Lana - who went on to get a hair transplant and two more boob jobs - claimed she earns over $1 million a year by selling sultry snaps online and has raked in more than 76,000 followers on Instagram. Her conservative parents are not exactly fond of her career choice, but they just want her to be happy. 'My parents might have preferred I choose a different career path. But they see how much freedom I have,' Lana dished. 'I get to set my own schedule, I'm not risking my safety working some soul-crushing job for someone else, and I'm thriving doing something that actually pays. 'They might not understand every part of it, but they understand me. They know I'm empowered, independent, and exactly where I'm supposed to be.' In the end, she's said she's immensely proud of herself for overcoming everything she's endured.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Russia attacks Ukraine with more than 300 drones and missiles
Ukraine reports one person killed and six others injured in a southern port city as the strikes damaged buildings and knocked out electricity.
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘It's impossible to tell who is killing us': four days of violence end with hundreds dead in southern Syria
Bahaa* had no choice but to keep on working as patient after patient came through the doors of the Sweida National hospital in southern Syria. Almost all bore similar injuries: gunshot wounds and bodies shredded by shrapnel from nearby exploding artillery. 'There were hundreds of wounded, no less than 200 bodies in the hospital. Many of them shot in the head, as if executed,' said Bahaa, a surgeon speaking of the events of this week in Sweida under a pseudonym for fear of retribution. Videos filmed inside the hospital showed hallways lined with corpses, rooms stacked with body bags and corpses piled up outside. A second doctor from the intensive care unit said bodies had to be placed outside the morgue for lack of space. The casualties, both civilian and military, were some of at least 516 civilians and fighters killed in four days of clashes in the Druze-majority province, according to figures given by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). At least 86 of those killed were field executions of Druze civilians by government fighters or allied militias, as well as three Bedouin civilians killed by Druze fighters, SOHR said. The fighting, begun by a local dispute between Bedouin tribes and Druze fighters, quickly escalated and prompted Syrian government forces to intervene. Druze fighters resisted their entry into the province and clashes began with Syrian government forces. Residents described four days of terror as fighting quickly took on a sectarian flavour – the violence was the most serious threat to Syria's stability since March, when 1,500 mostly Alawite civilians were killed after a failed attack on government forces. Syria's president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, has pledged to protect the country's minorities since the toppling of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in December. He now leads a country riven by sectarian divisions after 14 years of civil war, without the resources to engage in the transitional justice needed to heal it. The president, a former al-Qaida leader turned statesman, has been welcomed on to the international stage but there are deep misgivings about him among Syria's minorities back home. As the Syrian military withdrew from the city on Wednesday, people began to emerge from their houses and take stock of their losses. At least 15 unarmed people were killed at a reception hall belonging to the prominent Radwan family in Sweida city on Tuesday, three members of the family told the Guardian. SOHR also reported the killings, though put the number of dead at 12. 'They were sitting there drinking coffee when gunmen came in and just started shooting. There are no weapons allowed in the hall, it's not like it's a military base,' said Maan Radwan, a 46-year-old London resident whose relatives were killed in the shooting. Sweida residents blamed government-affiliated forces for the killings but witnesses said it was impossible to distinguish between state security forces and rogue militias. The Guardian could not independently verify who was responsible for the killings. An eyewitness said the attackers were wearing army fatigues but could not tell if they were from government-affiliated forces or a militia. 'It's impossible to tell who is killing us,' a 52-year-old teacher and relative of the Radwan family in Sweida told the Guardian by phone. Video of the aftermath of the shooting showed unarmed men strewn across a room lying in pools of blood. Family members said men in army fatigues prevented ambulances from reaching the reception hall, which they thought was meant to ensure the wounded died from blood loss. Bahaa received the bodies of those killed in the Radwan shooting at the hospital, some of whom he knew personally, and said that their bodies bore close-range gunshot wounds. He would recognise many more of the corpses that would later come through the hospital doors. Conditions in the hospital itself became desperate as fighters besieged the facility. Doctors hid in the hallways as bullets and artillery flew by, and the hospital itself was hit at least once. They began to ration medicine and other basic supplies. 'We were trying to limit each wounded person to 2 or 3CCs of Tramadol and we would dilute it so it would last for everyone,' the doctor from the intensive care unit said. Al-Sharaa gave a speech on Thursday condemning the abuses against civilians and said there would be accountability. The Syrian defence ministry also said it was 'adhering to rules of engagement to protect residents'. 'We are determined to hold accountable anyone who wronged or harmed our Druze brethren. They are under the protection and responsibility of the state, and the law and justice guarantee the rights of all without exception,' the Syrian president said. On their private social media seen by the Guardian, two government forces members posted sectarian hate speech against Druze. One posted a video of him and two other soldiers driving through Sweida laughing as he said: 'We are on our way to distribute aid,' while brandishing a machete to the camera. He filmed himself inside a house in Sweida ripping a picture of Druze spiritual leaders off a wall and trampling it with his boots. 'If God grants you victory, none can defeat you … On behalf of the tribes, oh Druze and Alawites, we are coming for you with sectarianism,' he continued. Another fighter posted a video of him driving through the town of Sahwa Blata in Sweida province, pausing to gloat over two dead bodies on the sidewalk as he filmed. 'These are your dogs, al-Hijri. Anyone who stands against the state this is what will happen to them,' he said, referring to the most staunchly anti-government of the three Druze spiritual leaders, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri. Yousef* recognised the two men in the video as his cousin and his cousin's son. He had no idea prior that they were dead. 'They called me at 7am that morning and most of the people had fled the village. They didn't know what to do, and they didn't have any guns at all,' said Yousef, a 25-year-old civil engineer in Sweida. Despite the ceasefire on Wednesday, intermittent violence seemed to continue. Rumours of another Bedouin attack on Sweida prompted a mass exodus of residents on Thursday. Yousef sent a video of him interviewing people as they fled. One had two body bags in the bed of his pickup truck. Unzipping the one of the body bags, Yousef showed the camera the body of a woman, her throat slit. The cycle of tit-for-tat violence which carried sectarian overtones threatens the unity of the new Syrian state, which authorities in Damascus were desperately trying to hold together. Mistrust between the Druze and the new authorities, and vice versa, has fallen to an all time low. Syrian state media reported on Thursday that there were now attacks on the small Bedouin communities in Sweida, prompting further displacement and what it called massacres by 'outlaw groups'. Social media was flooded by another round of images of dead civilians, this time, they claimed, it was the Druze attacking the Bedouins. The Guardian could not independently verify the veracity of those videos. 'So many of those killed were anti-Assad from the beginning. All of these killings after 14 years of war. What's the point?' said Bahaa. (Names with an asterisk have been changed)
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Amid attacks on DEI, a US nonprofit offers reparations, education and healing: ‘We're looking to fill the gap'
When Ashley Robinson and her mother took DNA tests 10 years ago and began meeting long lost cousins, they stumbled across a surprising family history that changed their lives. Robinson's lineage traced back to the 272 West Africans who were enslaved by Jesuits and sold to plantation owners in the southern US in 1838. The sale of the enslaved Africans helped fund Georgetown University, the oldest Jesuit higher education institution in the US, and served as collateral to the now defunct Citizens Bank of New Orleans, whose assets were later folded into JPMorgan Chase. Robinson dived into researching her lineage after having her first child at 21 years old, and soon enrolled in an organization called the GU272 Descendants Association, which hosts genealogical workshops and connects people whose ancestors were sold by Georgetown University. While national discussions around reparations for the descendants of enslaved Africans have largely stalled, Robinson's uncovering of her family's history met an unlikely resolution. During her senior year in undergraduate school, she received a scholarship funded by the successors of her family's enslavers. 'I remember praying after I finished the [scholarship] application,' Robinson said. As a 29-year-old mother of three, Robinson considered taking a break from school due to financial constraints. 'It was perfect timing, because the scholarship came about, and that's sailing me through the end of my degree.' The $10,000 from the nonprofit Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Foundation has helped minimize the federal student loans that Robinson needs to complete her computer science degree at University of Maryland Global Campus by the end of the year. For Robinson, the scholarship has meant that she 'will be able to finish school without taking food from the table or having to figure out what we're going to do next'. Based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, The Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Foundation is a partnership between the descendants of West Africans enslaved by Jesuits and the church's successors, aimed to address the wrongs of the past by focusing on three pillars: education, honoring elders and addressing systemic racism. The descendants partnered with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund to issue post-secondary educational scholarships for descendants of Jesuit enslavement at institutions of their choice. Since the fall of 2024, the foundation has awarded more than $170,000 in scholarships to 25 students across 20 schools, with students being eligible to renew scholarships every year. Related: 'A dog cemetery would not be treated like this': the fight to preserve Black burial grounds in the US As Donald Trump's administration has targeted diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the federal level by cancelling grant programs that benefit people of color, the foundation has successfully championed reparations in the private sector. 'We're looking to fill the gap where these institutions are somewhat hesitant or unsure how they're going to be able to support those communities,' the foundation's president and CEO, Monique Trusclair Maddox said. Bishops reckoning with their church's history of slavery in the UK are also looking to the foundation's truth and reconciliation efforts. 'Teaching this history through Jesuit institutions, allowing dialogue to come in places that wouldn't otherwise be afforded is something that hasn't been done in the past,' Trusclair Maddox said. 'We believe that that whole approach to changing how people look at racism and how people look at marginalized communities is something that will last for a long time.' The Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits, were slaveowners until the mid-1800s, relying on forced labor to expand their mission throughout North America. When Georgetown University faced financial difficulties, the Jesuits sold more than 272 enslaved people from five tobacco plantations in Maryland to Louisiana plantation owners to help pay off the school's debts. More than 100 of the enslaved people were sold to other owners, or remained in Maryland by escaping or by having spouses on nearby plantations. The sale that generated the current-day equivalent of $3.3m tore apart families and communities, and in turn, helped form the Georgetown University that's known today. Georgetown and the church's sordid past was largely forgotten until a descendant uncovered it while researching her genealogy in 2004. Over several years, genealogists dug up additional research on the enslaved people, as descendants formed their own groups to learn more about their ancestors. Then starting from August 2018 to the fall of 2019, about 15 representatives altogether from the Society of Jesus, Georgetown University and the descendants gathered together over multiple joint meetings with a facilitator and truth and racial healing practitioner hosted by the Kellogg Foundation. Through their difficult conversations, they created a memorandum of understanding that created the scaffolding for the foundation and laid out the Jesuits' commitments. When Father Timothy Kesicki, a Jesuit priest and chair of the Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Trust learned about the descendants, he said that it transformed his understanding of history: 'I almost had a 180 degree turn on it, because suddenly it wasn't a past story. It was a living memory, and it begged for a response.' The year-long conversations that unfolded between the Jesuits and descendants were raw and full of challenging emotions. 'The whole thing was painful for everybody. This is a historic trauma. It was very hard for Jesuits. It's very easy to be trapped by shame and fear and a prevailing sentiment out there that says: 'Why are you digging up the past?'' said Kesicki. 'We were understanding the truth differently than our preconceived notions, there was a power and a beauty to it also.' After tracing her own family history back to those who were enslaved by the Jesuits in 2016, Trusclair Maddox attended an apology ceremony at Georgetown University where she met other descendants of Jesuit enslavement the following year. She soon joined as a board member of GU272, before taking over the helm of the Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Foundation in 2024. The Jesuits agreed to commit the first $100m to the foundation, and so far have contributed more than $45m, some of which came from the sale of former plantation land. Georgetown University also committed $10m to the trust. Half of the funding is designed to provide educational scholarships and home modifications for elderly descendants, and the other half of their dollars will go toward projects devoted to racial healing. The first racial healing grant funded an art display in New Orleans on Juneteenth. The exhibit will go to the Essence Festival in New Orleans, and Cleveland, Ohio. The foundation is also considering creating a grant for victims of fires in California, which would be open to all. Along with the educational pillar, the foundation also helps seniors by hiring occupational therapists to do an assessment of the safety needs in their home, and then a remodeler installs features such as grab bars and railings. The foundation is now piloting its program in descendant homes in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Ohio, with plans to grow nationally. In spite of the anti-DEI rhetoric nationally, Trusclair Maddox said that support from individual donors has increased by 10% in recent months, and they've also received donations from more anonymous donors. Benefactors have shared with the foundation that their work is needed now more than ever. The program is also being used as a model for truth and reconciliation throughout the world. Last September, Kesicki and Trusclair Maddox presented their programs to the College of Bishops in Oxford, who were grappling with their own history of slavery in England. After the presentation, the College of Bishops sent a video expressing gratitude about what they learned over the two days. 'We're transforming their church,' Trusclair Maddox said, 'not just what we're doing here in the US.' Related: Harvard hired a researcher to uncover its ties to slavery. He says the results cost him his job: 'We found too many slaves' The foundation is also working to educate young Jesuits and descendants on their shared history and to instil in them a respect for their collective future. Starting in late June, about 15 people – a combination of Jesuits and descendants – from throughout the nation will discuss racial healing in-person in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and through Zoom throughout the summer. A descendant will lead discussions on race relations and teach about the history of the Jesuits and enslavement, as well as Jim Crow policies. Trusclair Maddox foresees the foundation helping future generations reckon with the past in perpetuity. 'The heirs of enslavers and the descendants of those who were enslaved have come together, not from a litigious perspective, but from a moral perspective, and joined hands and hearts together to walk this path. As painful as it may be together, we believe that shows some hope,' Trusclair Maddox said. 'There is a possibility for a greater America. There's a possibility for people to not live in fear.'
LBCI
10-07-2025
- LBCI
One killed, another injured in strike on motorcycle near Mansouri, south Lebanon
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported Thursday that a motorcycle was targeted at the intersection near the southern town of Mansouri in the Tyre district, resulting in one fatality and one injury.
