text:
Somatic cell nuclear transfer

In genetics and developmental biology, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a laboratory strategy for creating a viable embryo from a body cell and an egg cell. The technique consists of taking a denucleated oocyte (egg cell) and implanting a donor nucleus from a somatic (body) cell. It is used in both therapeutic and reproductive cloning. In 1996, Dolly the sheep became famous for being the first successful case of the reproductive cloning of a mammal. In January 2018, a team of scientists in Shanghai announced the successful cloning of two female crab-eating macaques (named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua) from foetal nuclei.

"Therapeutic cloning" refers to the potential use of SCNT in regenerative medicine; this approach has been championed as an answer to the many issues concerning embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and the destruction of viable embryos for medical use, though questions remain on how homologous the two cell types truly are.

Introduction
Somatic cell nuclear transfer is a technique for cloning in which the nucleus of a somatic cell is transferred to the cytoplasm of an enucleated egg. After the somatic cell transfers, the cytoplasmic factors affect the nucleus to become a zygote. The blastocyst stage is developed by the egg to help create embryonic stem cells from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst. The first mammal to be developed by this technique was Dolly the sheep, in 1996.

Early 20th-Century
Although Dolly is generally recognized as the first animal to be cloned using this technique, earlier instances of SCNT exist as early as the 1950's. In particular, the research of Sir John Gurdon in 1958 entailed the cloning of Xenopus laevis utilizing the principles of SCNT. In short, the experiment consisted of inducing a female specimen to ovulate, at which point her eggs were harvested. From here, the egg was enucleated using ultra-violet irradiation to disable the egg's pronucleus. At this point, the prepared egg cell and nucleus from the donor cell were combined, and then incubation and eventual development into a tadpole proceeded. Gurdon's application of SCNT differs from more modern applications and even applications used on other model systems of the time (i.e., Rana pipiens) due to his usage of UV irradiation to enucleate the egg instead of using a pipette to remove the nucleus from the egg.

Process
The process of somatic cell nuclear transfer involves two different cells. The first being a female gamete, known as the ovum (egg/oocyte). In human SCNT experiments, these eggs are obtained through consenting donors, utilizing ovarian stimulation. The second being a somatic cell, referring to the cells of the human body. Skin cells, fat cells, and liver cells are only a few examples. The genetic material of the donor egg cell is removed and discarded, leaving it 'deprogrammed.' What is left is a somatic cell and an enucleated egg cell. These are then fused by inserting the somatic cell into the 'empty' ovum. After being inserted into the egg, the somatic cell nucleus is reprogrammed by its host egg cell. The ovum, now containing the somatic cell's nucleus, is stimulated with a shock and will begin to divide. The egg is now viable and capable of producing an adult organism containing all necessary genetic information from just one parent. Development will ensue normally and after many mitotic divisions, the single cell forms a blastocyst (an early stage embryo with about 100 cells) with an identical genome to the original organism (i.e. a clone). Stem cells can then be obtained by the destruction of this clone embryo for use in therapeutic cloning or in the case of reproductive cloning the clone embryo is implanted into a host mother for further development and brought to term.

Conventional SCNT requires the use of micromanipulators, which are expensive machines used to accurately manipulate cells. Using the micromanipulator, a scientist makes an opening in the zona pellucida and sucks out the egg cell's original nucleus using a pipette. They then make another opening to a different pipette to inject the donor nucleus. Alternatively, electric energy can be applied to fuse the empty egg cell with a donor cell containing a nucleus.

An alternative technique called "handmade cloning" was described by Indian scientists in 2001. This technique requires no use of a micromanipulator and has been used for the cloning of several livestock species. Removal of the nucleus can be done chemically, by centrifuge, or with the use of a blade. The empty egg is glued to the donor cell with phytohaemagglutinin, then fused using electricity. (If a blade is used, two fusion steps would be required: the first fusion is between the donor and an empty half-egg, the second between the half-size "demi-embryo" and another empty half-egg.)

Stem cell research
Somatic cell nuclear transplantation has become a focus of study in stem cell research. The aim of carrying out this procedure is to obtain pluripotent cells from a cloned embryo. These cells genetically matched the donor organism from which they came. This gives them the ability to create patient specific pluripotent cells, which could then be used in therapies or disease research.

Embryonic stem cells are undifferentiated cells of an embryo. These cells are deemed to have a pluripotent potential because they have the ability to give rise to all of the tissues found in an adult organism. This ability allows stem cells to create any cell type, which could then be transplanted to replace damaged or destroyed cells. Controversy surrounds human ESC work due to the destruction of viable human embryos, leading scientists to seek alternative methods of obtaining pluripotent stem cells, SCNT is one such method.

A potential use of stem cells genetically matched to a patient would be to create cell lines that have genes linked to a patient's particular disease. By doing so, an in vitro model could be created, would be useful for studying that particular disease, potentially discovering its pathophysiology, and discovering therapies. For example, if a person with Parkinson's disease donated their somatic cells, the stem cells resulting from SCNT would have genes that contribute to Parkinson's disease. The disease specific stem cell lines could then be studied in order to better understand the condition.

Another application of SCNT stem cell research is using the patient specific stem cell lines to generate tissues or even organs for transplant into the specific patient. The resulting cells would be genetically identical to the somatic cell donor, thus avoiding any complications from immune system rejection.

Only a handful of the labs in the world are currently using SCNT techniques in human stem cell research. In the United States, scientists at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, the University of California San Francisco, the Oregon Health & Science University, Stemagen (La Jolla, CA) and possibly Advanced Cell Technology are currently researching a technique to use somatic cell nuclear transfer to produce embryonic stem cells. In the United Kingdom, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has granted permission to research groups at the Roslin Institute and the Newcastle Centre for Life. SCNT may also be occurring in China.

Though there has been numerous successes with cloning animals, questions remain concerning the mechanisms of reprogramming in the ovum. Despite many attempts, success in creating human nuclear transfer embryonic stem cells has been limited. There lies a problem in the human cell's ability to form a blastocyst; the cells fail to progress past the eight cell stage of development. This is thought to be a result from the somatic cell nucleus being unable to turn on embryonic genes crucial for proper development. These earlier experiments used procedures developed in non-primate animals with little success.

A research group from the Oregon Health & Science University demonstrated SCNT procedures developed for primates successfully using skin cells. The key to their success was utilizing oocytes in metaphase II (MII) of the cell cycle. Egg cells in MII contain special factors in the cytoplasm that have a special ability in reprogramming implanted somatic cell nuclei into cells with pluripotent states. When the ovum's nucleus is removed, the cell loses its genetic information. This has been blamed for why enucleated eggs are hampered in their reprogramming ability. It is theorized the critical embryonic genes are physically linked to oocyte chromosomes, enucleation negatively affects these factors. Another possibility is removing the egg nucleus or inserting the somatic nucleus causes damage to the cytoplast, affecting reprogramming ability.

Taking this into account the research group applied their new technique in an attempt to produce human SCNT stem cells. In May 2013, the Oregon group reported the successful derivation of human embryonic stem cell lines derived through SCNT, using fetal and infant donor cells. Using MII oocytes from volunteers and their improved SCNT procedure, human clone embryos were successfully produced. These embryos were of poor quality, lacking a substantial inner cell mass and poorly constructed trophectoderm. The imperfect embryos prevented the acquisition of human ESC. The addition of caffeine during the removal of the ovum's nucleus and fusion of the somatic cell and the egg improved blastocyst formation and ESC isolation. The ESC obtain were found to be capable of producing teratomas, expressed pluripotent transcription factors, and expressed a normal 46XX karyotype, indicating these SCNT were in fact ESC-like. This was the first instance of successfully using SCNT to reprogram human somatic cells. This study used fetal and infantile somatic cells to produce their ESC.

In April 2014, an international research team expanded on this break through. There remained the question of whether the same success could be accomplished using adult somatic cells. Epigenetic and age related changes were thought to possibly hinder an adult somatic cells ability to be reprogrammed. Implementing the procedure pioneered by the Oregon research group they indeed were able to grow stem cells generated by SCNT using adult cells from two donors aged 35 and 75, indicating that age does not impede a cell's ability to be reprogrammed.

Late April 2014, the New York Stem Cell Foundation was successful in creating SCNT stem cells derived from adult somatic cells. One of these lines of stem cells was derived from the donor cells of a type 1 diabetic. The group was then able to successfully culture these stem cells and induce differentiation. When injected into mice, cells of all three of the germ layers successfully formed. The most significant of these cells, were those who expressed insulin and were capable of secreting the hormone. These insulin producing cells could be used for replacement therapy in diabetics, demonstrating real SCNT stem cell therapeutic potential.

The impetus for SCNT-based stem cell research has been decreased by the development and improvement of alternative methods of generating stem cells. Methods to reprogram normal body cells into pluripotent stem cells were developed in humans in 2007. The following year, this method achieved a key goal of SCNT-based stem cell research: the derivation of pluripotent stem cell lines that have all genes linked to various diseases. Some scientists working on SCNT-based stem cell research have recently moved to the new methods of induced pluripotent stem cells. Though recent studies have put in question how similar iPS cells are to embryonic stem cells. Epigenetic memory in iPS affects the cell lineage it can differentiate into. For instance, an iPS cell derived from a blood cell using only the yamanaka factors will be more efficient at differentiating into blood cells, while it will be less efficient at creating a neuron. Recent studies indicate however that changes to the epigenetic memory of iPSCs using small molecules can reset them to an almost naive state of pluripotency. Studies have even shown that via tetraploid complementation, an entire viable organism can be created solely from iPSCs. SCNT stem cells have been found to have similar challenges. The cause for low yields in bovine SCNT cloning has, in recent years, been attributed to the previously hidden epigenetic memory of the somatic cells that were being introduced into the oocyte.

Reproductive cloning
This technique is currently the basis for cloning animals (such as the famous Dolly the sheep), and has been proposed as a possible way to clone humans. Using SCNT in reproductive cloning has proven difficult with limited success. High fetal and neonatal death make the process very inefficient. Resulting cloned offspring are also plagued with development and imprinting disorders in non-human species. For these reasons, along with moral and ethical objections, reproductive cloning in humans is proscribed in more than 30 countries. Most researchers believe that in the foreseeable future it will not be possible to use the current cloning technique to produce a human clone that will develop to term. It remains a possibility, though critical adjustments will be required to overcome current limitations during early embryonic development in human SCNT.

There is also the potential for treating diseases associated with mutations in mitochondrial DNA. Recent studies show SCNT of the nucleus of a body cell afflicted with one of these diseases into a healthy oocyte prevents the inheritance of the mitochondrial disease. This treatment does not involve cloning but would produce a child with three genetic parents. A father providing a sperm cell, one mother providing the egg nucleus, and another mother providing the enucleated egg cell.

In 2018, the first successful cloning of primates using somatic cell nuclear transfer, the same method as Dolly the sheep, with the birth of two live female clones (crab-eating macaques named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua) was reported.

Interspecies nuclear transfer
Interspecies nuclear transfer (iSCNT) is a means of somatic cell nuclear transfer being used to facilitate the rescue of endangered species, or even to restore species after their extinction. The technique is similar to SCNT cloning which typically is between domestic animals and rodents, or where there is a ready supply of oocytes and surrogate animals. However, the cloning of highly endangered or extinct species requires the use of an alternative method of cloning. Interspecies nuclear transfer utilizes a host and a donor of two different organisms that are closely related species and within the same genus. In 2000, Robert Lanza was able to produce a cloned fetus of a gaur, Bos gaurus, combining it successfully with a domestic cow, Bos taurus.

In 2017, the first cloned Bactrian camel was born through iSCNT, using oocytes of dromedary camel and skin fibroblast cells of an adult Bactrian camel as donor nuclei.

Limitations
Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) can be inefficient due to stresses placed on both the egg cell and the introduced nucleus. This can result in a low percentage of successfully reprogrammed cells. For example, in 1996 Dolly the sheep was born after 277 eggs were used for SCNT, which created 29 viable embryos, giving it a measly 0.3% efficiency. Only three of these embryos survived until birth, and only one survived to adulthood. Millie, the offspring that survived, took 95 attempts to produce. Because the procedure was not automated and had to be performed manually under a microscope, SCNT was very resource intensive. Another reason why there is such high mortality rate with the cloned offspring is due to the fetus being larger than even other large offspring, resulting in death soon after birth. The biochemistry involved in reprogramming the differentiated somatic cell nucleus and activating the recipient egg was also far from understood. Another limitation is trying to use one-cell embryos during the SCNT. When using just one-cell cloned embryos, the experiment has a 65% chance to fail in the process of making morula or blastocyst. The biochemistry also has to be extremely precise, as most late term cloned fetus deaths are the result of inadequate placentation. However, by 2014, researchers were reporting success rates of 70-80% with cloning pigs and in 2016 a Korean company, Sooam Biotech, was reported to be producing 500 cloned embryos a day.

In SCNT, not all of the donor cell's genetic information is transferred, as the donor cell's mitochondria that contain their own mitochondrial DNA are left behind. The resulting hybrid cells retain those mitochondrial structures which originally belonged to the egg. As a consequence, clones such as Dolly that are born from SCNT are not perfect copies of the donor of the nucleus. This fact may also hamper the potential benefits of SCNT-derived tissues and organs for therapy, as there may be an immuno-response to the non-self mtDNA after transplant. Additionally, the genes found in the mitochondria’s genome need to communicate with the cell’s genome and a failure of somatic cell nuclear reprogramming can lead to non communication to the cell’s genome causing SCNT to fail.

Epigenetic factors play an important role in the success or failure of SCNT attempts. The varying gene expression of a previously activated cell and its mRNAs may lead to overexpression, underexpression, or in some cases non functional genes which will affect the developing fetus. One such example of epigenetic limitations to SCNT is regulating histone methylation. Differing regulation of these histone methylation genes can directly affect the transcription of the developing genome, causing failure of the SCNT. Another contributing factor to failure of SCNT includes the X chromosome inactivation in early development of the embryo. A non coding gene called XIST is responsible for inactivating one X chromosome during development, however in SCNT this gene can have abnormal regulation causing mortality to the developing fetus.

Controversy
Nuclear transfer techniques present a different set of ethical considerations than those associated with the use of other stem cells like embryonic stem cells which are controversial for their requirement to destroy an embryo. These different considerations have led to some individuals and organizations who are not opposed to human embryonic stem cell research to be concerned about, or opposed to, SCNT research.

One concern is that blastula creation in SCNT-based human stem cell research will lead to the reproductive cloning of humans. Both processes use the same first step: the creation of a nuclear transferred embryo, most likely via SCNT. Those who hold this concern often advocate for strong regulation of SCNT to preclude implantation of any derived products for the intention of human reproduction, or its prohibition.

A second important concern is the appropriate source of the eggs that are needed. SCNT requires human egg cells, which can only be obtained from women. The most common source of these eggs today are eggs that are produced and in excess of the clinical need during IVF treatment. This is a minimally invasive procedure, but it does carry some health risks, such as ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.

One vision for successful stem cell therapies is to create custom stem cell lines for patients. Each custom stem cell line would consist of a collection of identical stem cells each carrying the patient's own DNA, thus reducing or eliminating any problems with rejection when the stem cells were transplanted for treatment. For example, to treat a man with Parkinson's disease, a cell nucleus from one of his cells would be transplanted by SCNT into an egg cell from an egg donor, creating a unique lineage of stem cells almost identical to the patient's own cells. (There would be differences. For example, the mitochondrial DNA would be the same as that of the egg donor. In comparison, his own cells would carry the mitochondrial DNA of his mother.)

Potentially millions of patients could benefit from stem cell therapy, and each patient would require a large number of donated eggs in order to successfully create a single custom therapeutic stem cell line. Such large numbers of donated eggs would exceed the number of eggs currently left over and available from couples trying to have children through assisted reproductive technology. Therefore, healthy young women would need to be induced to sell eggs to be used in the creation of custom stem cell lines that could then be purchased by the medical industry and sold to patients. It is so far unclear where all these eggs would come from.

Stem cell experts consider it unlikely that such large numbers of human egg donations would occur in a developed country because of the unknown long-term public health effects of treating large numbers of healthy young women with heavy doses of hormones in order to induce hyper-ovulation (ovulating several eggs at once). Although such treatments have been performed for several decades now, the long-term effects have not been studied or declared safe to use on a large scale on otherwise healthy women. Longer-term treatments with much lower doses of hormones are known to increase the rate of cancer decades later. Whether hormone treatments to induce hyper-ovulation could have similar effects is unknown. There are also ethical questions surrounding paying for eggs. In general, marketing body parts is considered unethical and is banned in most countries. Human eggs have been a notable exception to this rule for some time.

To address the problem of creating a human egg market, some stem cell researchers are investigating the possibility of creating artificial eggs. If successful, human egg donations would not be needed to create custom stem cell lines. However, this technology may be a long way off.

Policies regarding human SCNT
SCNT involving human cells is currently legal for research purposes in the United Kingdom, having been incorporated into the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990. Permission must be obtained from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority in order to perform or attempt SCNT.

In the United States, the practice remains legal, as it has not been addressed by federal law. However, in 2002, a moratorium on United States federal funding for SCNT prohibits funding the practice for the purposes of research. Thus, though legal, SCNT cannot be federally funded. American scholars have recently argued that because the product of SCNT is a clone embryo, rather than a human embryo, these policies are morally wrong and should be revised.

In 2003, the United Nations adopted a proposal submitted by Costa Rica, calling on member states to "prohibit all forms of human cloning in as much as they are incompatible with human dignity and the protection of human life." This phrase may include SCNT, depending on interpretation.

The Council of Europe's Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine and its Additional Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine, on the Prohibition of Cloning Human Being appear to ban SCNT of human beings. Of the Council's 45 member states, the Convention has been signed by 31 and ratified by 18. The Additional Protocol has been signed by 29 member nations and ratified by 14.

title: Somatic cell nuclear transfer


text:
Billy Elliot

Billy Elliot is a 2000 British coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Daldry and written by Lee Hall. Set in County Durham in North East England during the 1984–1985 miners' strike, the film is about a working-class boy who has a passion for ballet. His father objects, based on negative stereotypes of male ballet dancers. The film stars Jamie Bell as 11-year-old Billy, Gary Lewis as his father, Jamie Draven as Billy's older brother, and Julie Walters as his ballet teacher.

Adapted from a play called Dancer by Lee Hall, development on the film began in 1999. Around 2,000 boys were considered for the role of Billy before Bell was chosen for the role. Filming began in the North East of England in August 1999. Greg Brenman and Jon Finn served as producers, while Stephen Warbeck composed the film's score. Billy Elliot is a co-production among BBC Films, Tiger Aspect Pictures and Working Title Films.

The film premiered at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, and began a wider theatrical release in the United Kingdom on 29 September 2000 by Universal Pictures through United International Pictures. Billy Elliot received positive critical response and commercial success, earning $109.3 million worldwide on a $5 million budget. At the 54th British Academy Film Awards, the film won three of thirteen award nominations. Jamie Bell became the youngest winner of Best Actor in a Leading Role. The film also earned three Academy Award nominations, including for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

In 2001, the film was adapted as a novel by Melvin Burgess. The story was also adapted for the West End stage as Billy Elliot the Musical, first produced in 2005. It opened in Australia in 2007 and on Broadway in New York City in 2008.

Plot
In 1984, Billy Elliot, an 11-year-old from the fictional Everington in County Durham, England, loves to dance and has hopes of becoming a professional ballet dancer. Billy lives with his widowed father, Jackie, and older brother, Tony, both coal miners out on strike (the latter being the union delegate). His maternal grandmother lives with them; she has Alzheimer's disease and had once aspired to be a professional dancer.

Billy's father sends him to the gym to learn boxing, but Billy dislikes the sport. He happens to see a ballet class that is using the gym while their usual basement studio is being used temporarily as a soup kitchen for the striking miners. Unbeknownst to Jackie, Billy joins the ballet class. When Jackie discovers this, he forbids Billy to take any more ballet classes. But, passionate about dancing, he secretly continues his lessons with the help of his dance teacher, Sandra Wilkinson.

Sandra believes that Billy is talented enough to study at the Royal Ballet School in London, but due to Tony's arrest during a clash between police and striking miners, Billy misses the audition. Sandra tells Jackie about the missed opportunity but, fearing that Billy will be considered to be gay, both Jackie and Tony are outraged at the prospect of him becoming a professional ballet dancer.

Over Christmas, Billy learns his best friend, Michael, is gay. Billy is supportive of his friend. Later, Jackie catches Billy and Michael dancing in the gym, and realizes his son is truly gifted. Although stunned at first, he resolves to do whatever it takes to help Billy attain his dream. Sandra tries to persuade Jackie to let her pay for the audition, but he replies that Billy is his son and he does not need charity. Jackie attempts to cross the picket line to pay for the trip to London, but Tony stops him. Instead, his fellow miners and the neighbourhood raise some money, and Jackie pawns Billy's mother's jewellery to cover the cost, and Jackie takes him to London to audition.

Although very nervous, Billy performs well. He punches another boy in frustration at the audition, and fears that he has ruined his chances. He is rebuked by the review board and, when asked what it feels like when he is dancing, struggles for words. He says that it is "like electricity". Seemingly rejected, Billy returns home with his father. Sometime later, the Royal Ballet School sends him a letter of acceptance, coinciding with the end of the miners' strike, and Billy leaves home to study in London.

In 1998, 25-year-old Billy performs as the Swan in Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake with Jackie, Tony, and Michael watching from the audience. As Billy takes the stage, his father is overcome with emotion while the other dancers watch from the wings.

Development
Lee Hall developed Billy Elliot from his play Dancer, which premiered as a rehearsed reading in 1998 at the Live Theatre in Newcastle upon Tyne. He was heavily influenced by photographer Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen's book Step by Step, about a dancing school in nearby North Shields. Writing in 2009, Hall said that "almost every frame of Billy Elliot was influenced by Step by Step [...] as every member of the design team carried around their own copy."

Hall met with director Stephen Daldry, who was working at the Royal Court Theatre at the time. At first, Daldry was not convinced with the script, but said, "I liked the emotional honesty of Billy Elliot. Also Lee writes brilliant kids. And there's a series of themes in it I rather enjoyed: Grief; finding means of self-identification through some sort of creative act, in this case dance; and the miner's strike itself." Working Title Films approached Daldry to become director and he accepted the offer. The BBC financed the project.

Casting
Thousands of boys were considered for the lead role. The producers were looking for a boy in a specific geographical area with a dance background. Jamie Bell had about seven auditions in total before eventually in mid-1999, it was announced that he would play the lead role in the film. Peter Darling, the film's choreographer, worked with Bell for "eight hours a day for three months, finding out what drove him as a dancer." Julie Walters accepted the role of Sandra Wilkinson. Walters called the script "moving", explaining, "It was a diamond in the sand [...] I loved the character, and the fact that she was disappointed on every level possible. She was so grim and jaded. Her relationship with the boy was so unusual".

In preparation for filming, Gary Lewis met with miners which he said was beneficial. Lewis stated that his own personal experience of the miners' strike made the role enjoyable. "My family and I were very active in supporting the miners: I stood in picket lines, I raised money for the miners and I was involved in the whole campaign to stop [...] closing the pits. Basically, it was the state that launched a complete attack on a section of the work force, a section of the working class. Lots of people responded with solidarity and that was a key element in the script: solidarity working at different levels, the collective solidarity, the economic solidarity."

Filming
Principal photography lasted seven weeks, beginning in August 1999. Most of the film, including the interior of the Elliot home at 5 Alnwick Street, was shot on location in the Easington Colliery area, with the producers using over 400 locals as extras. The mining scenes were filmed at the Ellington and Lynemouth Colliery in Northumberland, with some filming in Dawdon, Middlesbrough and Newcastle upon Tyne. Andrew Street and Alnwick Street, where the characters live, were two of several streets demolished in 2003 after becoming derelict. The cemetery scene was filmed at Lynemouth Cemetery. School scenes were filmed in Langley Park Primary School. Other filming locations include the Green Drive Railway Viaduct in Seaham, Tees Transporter Bridge, New Wardour Castle and Theatre Royal in Haymarket.

Daldry remarked in an interview: "The shooting schedule was a nightmare; we only had seven weeks. Kids can only work nine to five and you can't work Saturdays. And the kid had to dance the whole time. So it was tight." Producer Jon Finn spoke of the difficulties of seeking filming locations: "We didn't realise how hard it would be to find working pits."

Music
Stephen Warbeck scored the incidental music for the film. Polydor Records released the soundtrack on 11 March 2002, which includes several well-known glam rock and punk songs from T. Rex and The Clash. The soundtrack also contains pieces of dialogue from the film.

Box office
Billy Elliot premiered on 19 May at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival under the title Dancer. It was later decided to re-title the film Billy Elliot to avoid confusion with Dancer in the Dark, another film at Cannes that year. Billy Elliot was theatrically released on 29 September 2000 in the United Kingdom by Universal Pictures through United International Pictures. In the United States, Universal Focus released the film on 13 October 2000. Against expectations, the film grossed $109,280,263 worldwide, including $24 million in the United Kingdom and $22 million in the United States and Canada. Universal Home Entertainment released Billy Elliot on VHS on 20 April 2001, and on Blu-ray on 10 January 2012. The Blu-ray includes a short documentary of the film's production.

Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 85% based on 119 critic reviews, with an average rating of 7.30/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Billy Elliot is a charming movie that can evoke both laughter and tears." At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, calling the film "as much parable and fantasy as it is realistic". He said Bell's performance was "engaging", Lewis was "convincing" and Walters was "spirited and colourful". Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian praised the film saying, "This is a film with a lot of charm, a lot of humour and a lot of heart. Daldry's direction and the screenplay by Lee Hall distinguish themselves further in the discreet, intelligent way ... Billy Elliot has a freshness that makes it a pleasure to watch; it's a very emphatic success". David Rooney of Variety also praised the cast, writing, "Relationships between all the characters are well observed—the father and his sons, the two brothers, and Billy and his grandmother, his friend Michael and jaded Mrs. Wilkinson—all of them yielding sweet, unforced feel-good moments". Rooney also praised the cinematography, visuals and soundtrack in showing Billy's rebelliousness. Charlotte O'Sullivan of The Independent wrote the cast are "near perfect", adding the film is "as raw a slice of escapism as you could wish for". William Gallagher from the BBC gave the film five out of five stars, writing, "It's a simple tale but one that is extremely well told and acted. Fittingly for a story about dance, it doesn't put a foot wrong and is engrossing, funny, very sad, very moving and very uplifting."

Some critics gave a mixed response. Timeout magazine believes that "Daldry overuses the dance as a metaphor for escape and frustration, and choreographer Peter Darling's grandstanding ballet numbers sit a little uneasily, given the realist comedy pitch". A. O. Scott of The New York Times notes that there were "patches of thinness and predictability", and that "the first half seems to acknowledge its own triteness". However, he compliments the pacing of the scenes and the actors who "inhabit their roles like second-hand suits". Mark Holcomb, writing for IndieWire, took issue with the "odd, unsuccessful mix of theatrical whimsy and social realism", and a dance scene which he describes as a "cringe-inducing '80s-style music video routine".

Themes
Poverty and social class have been seen as major themes of the film. Author Rebecca Mahon observed the film has a realistic setting; the early scenes emphasising the miners' strike, the death of Billy's mother and the family's financial situation. Daldry adds, "It doesn't matter where you are in the world, people understand the idea that you're part of an industrial, working class group that is being discarded. And its question—of what happens to communities devastated by de-industrialisation and privatisation". In addition to social class, Daldry states that the film is about finding a voice—"someone trying to express himself or herself". Koller-Alonso writes that gender differences are expressed by showing girls attending ballet classes, while their male counterparts are having boxing lessons. Homosexuality, a taboo subject in the 1980s, as well as police brutality are depicted and explored in the film.

Stage musical
After the film's release, English singer-songwriter Elton John collaborated with the film's screenwriter Lee Hall to produce a musical adaptation of the film, which premiered 31 March 2005 at the Victoria Palace Theatre on the West End. Many of the film's crew took part in the stage production, including director Stephen Daldry and choreographer Peter Darling. The musical received positive reviews and ran for over 4,000 performances before closing in April 2016.

The musical ran on Broadway from November 2008 to January 2012, and won ten Tony Awards in 2009, including Best Musical.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Billy Elliot


text:
Tomboy

Tomboy is a term used for girls or young women with masculine traits. It can include wearing androgynous or unfeminine clothing and engaging in physical sports or other activities and behaviors usually associated with boys or men.

Origins
The word "tomboy" is a compound word which combines "tom" with "boy". Though this word is now used to refer to "boy-like girls", the etymology suggests the meaning of tomboy has changed drastically over time.

In 1533, according to the Oxford Dictionary of English, "tomboy" was used to mean a "rude, boisterous or forward boy". By the 1570s, however, "tomboy” had taken on the meaning of a "bold or immodest woman", finally, in the late 1590s and early 1600s, the term morphed into its current meaning: "a girl who behaves like a spirited or boisterous boy; a wild romping girl."

19th century
Before the mid-19th century, femininity was equated with emotional fragility, physical vulnerability, hesitation, and domestic submissiveness, commonly known as the "Cult of True Womanhood". Under the influence of this ideal of femininity, women did not engage in strenuous sports or any physical activity. This paradigm remained stagnant until the mid-nineteenth century. During the Long Depression of the late 1800s, the US's increasing economic instability made fragile femininity no longer desirable. Young women joined the workforce to support their families and learn practical job skills, and thus a more robust physique was needed to support the physical demands of job practices. This led to the paradigm shift in people's expectations of young women from languishing, decorative beauty to vigorously healthy, thus laying the groundwork for tomboyism.

In Charlotte Perkin Gilman's 1898 book, Women and Economics, the author lauds the health benefits of being a tomboy, that girls should be "not feminine till it is time to be". Joseph Lee, a playground advocate, wrote in 1915 that a "tomboy phase" was crucial to physical development of young girls between the ages of 8 and 13. Coupled with the birth of first wave feminism and the US's depressed economy, tomboyism amongst young girls emerged because the young girls' parents permitted or even promoted the tomboy upbringing due to the decaying economy and the American turbulent political climate.

Late 19th century and Civil War
During the American Civil War, American society fully realized the importance of healthy women. When hostilities of the North and South broke out and thousands of men fled to the battlefield, many adolescent girls and young women were pushed to be responsible for tasks that would be traditionally considered in the men's realm. Women who had not been allowed to have independent bank accounts were now expected to take care of the finances. American wives, mothers, and young girls who used to rely on the men in the household for security now had the duty of protecting their homes from the army. As a result, mothers focused on improving the physical constitution of their daughters while taking care of their own. Many women who had subscribed to the Cult of True Womanhood before the Civil War found themselves engaging in an array of masculine actions during it. Women being given the duties of men during the period of Civil War encouraged tomboyism.

20th century: Second wave feminism
While first wave feminism mainly focused on women's suffrage, second wave feminism expanded the discussion of gender inequality in areas such as sexuality, family dynamics, workspace, and laws in relation with patriarchy and culture. With the main purpose of critiquing the patriarchal system, this movement opened avenues for women in education, employment, and legal protection against domestic violence.

Late 20th century
In the late 20th century, the term tomboy describes girls who wear unfeminine clothing, actively engage in physical sports, and embrace what are often known as "boy toys" such as cars, or other activities usually associated with boys. The term is used less frequently than before in the West mainly because it is now a societal norm for adolescent girls to engage in physical activities, play with peers of the same and opposite gender, and wear comfortable clothing.

Beginning 21st century
Sebastian Zulch of Bustle argued that since the term tomboy implicitly associates a behavior to masculine gender and reminds the societal expectation for girls, its use could be considered condescending and sexist.

Child development
Tomboy can be seen as a phase of gender presentation in adolescence. Some parents might be concerned by the lack of femininity in their child but the tomboy phase is, in fact, crucial to physical development between the ages of 8 and 13, according to Joseph Lee, the playground movement advocate in 1915. Some girls start to embrace femininity as age increases while some persist to be tomboys in adulthood.

Psychologists speculate that childhood tomboy behavior results from a young child's innate curiosity combined with family dynamics and imposed societal gender roles and behavioral customs. The preference of athletics and masculine clothing can be explained by adolescent tomboys's curiosity about outdoors and physical games, by which comfortable clothing such as pants and jersey helps to facilitate their physical engagement. A 2002 study suggests that some girls are "born tomboys" because of the higher testosterone levels of the mother during pregnancy. Being a childhood tomboy does not determine one's sexual orientation or life-long gender presentation.

Gender roles
The idea that there are girl activities and clothing, and that there are boy activities and clothing, is often reinforced by the tomboy concept. Tomboyism can be seen as both refusing gender roles and traditional gender conventions, but also conforming to gender stereotypes. The concept may be considered outdated or looked at from a positive viewpoint. Feminine traits are often devalued and unwanted, and tomboys often respond to this viewpoint. This can be due in part to an environment that desires and only values masculinity, depending on the decade and geographical region. Idealized masculinity is atop the hegemony and sets the traditional standard, and is often upheld and spread by young children playing with one another. Tomboys may view femininity as having been pushed on them, which results in negative feelings toward femininity and those who embrace it. In this case, masculinity may be seen as a defense mechanism against the harsh push toward femininity, and a reclaiming of agency that is often lost due to sexist ideas of what girls are and are not able to do.

In western culture, tomboys are expected to one day cease their masculine behavior, usually during or right before puberty, return to feminine behavior, and are expected to embrace heteronormativity. Tomboys who do not do such are occasionally stigmatized, usually due to homophobia. Barbara Creed argues that the tomboy's "image undermines patriarchal gender boundaries that separate the sexes", and thus is a "threatening figure". This "threat" affects and challenges the idea of what a family must look like, generally nuclear independent heterosexual couplings with two children.

Gender scholar Jack Halberstam argues that while the defying of gender roles is often tolerated in young girls, adolescent girls who show masculine traits are often repressed or punished. However, the ubiquity of traditionally female clothing such as skirts and dresses has declined in the Western world since the 1960s, where it is generally no longer considered a male trait for girls and women not to wear such clothing. An increase in the popularity of women's sporting events (see Title IX) and other activities that were traditionally male-dominated has broadened tolerance and lessened the impact of "tomboy" as a pejorative term. Sociologist Barrie Thorne suggested that some adult women take pride in describing their childhood selves as tomboys, "as if to suggest: I was (and am) independent and active; I held (and hold) my own with boys and men and have earned their respect and friendship; I resisted (and continue to resist) gender stereotypes".

In the Philippines, tomboys are masculine-presenting women who have relations with other women, with the other women tending to be more feminine, although not exclusively, or transmasculine people who have relationships with women; the former appears more common than the latter. Women who engage in romantic relationships with other women, but who are not masculine, are often still deemed heterosexual. This leads to more invisibility for those that are lesbian and feminine. Scholar Kale Bantigue Fajardo argues for the similarity between "tomboy" in the Philippines and "tombois in Indonesia", and "toms in Thailand" all as various forms of female masculinity. In China, tomboys are called "假小子" (jiá xiao zi), which literally translates as "pseudo-boy". This term is largely used as a derogatory term to describe those girls with masculine characteristics. Most of the times calling someone a "假小子" is a humiliation which implies that the individual could not find a boyfriend. This largely reduces the value of women to only romance and diminishes girls' confidence in working in what is traditionally defined as the "boy's realm. "

Association of tomboyism with lesbianism
During the 20th century, Freudian psychology and backlash against LGBT social movements resulted in societal fears about the sexualities of tomboys, and this caused some to question whether tomboyism leads to lesbianism. Throughout history, there has been a perceived correlation between tomboyishness and lesbianism. For instance, Hollywood films would stereotype the adult tomboy as a "predatory butch dyke". Lynne Yamaguchi and Karen Barber, editors of ''Tomboys! Tales of Dyke Derring-Do'', argue that "tomboyhood is much more than a phase for many lesbians"; it "seems to remain a part of the foundation of who we are as adults". Many contributors to Tomboys! linked their self-identification as tomboys and lesbians to both labels positioning them outside "cultural and gender boundaries". Psychoanalyst Dianne Elise's essay in 1995 reported that more lesbians noted being a tomboy than straight women.

Misconception
While some tomboys later reveal a lesbian identity in their adolescent or adult years, behavior typical of boys but displayed by girls is not a true indicator of one's sexual orientation. With raising female liberation and gender-neutral playgrounds (at least in the US) in the 21st century, an increasing number of girls could technically be considered "tomboys" without being referred to as "tomboys" because it is considered normal for girls to engage in physical activities, play equally with boys, and wear pants, masculine or gender-neutral clothing. The association between lesbianism and tomboyism is not only outdated but can also be disrespectful to both women and lesbians.

Representations in media
Tomboys in fictional stories are often used to contrast a more girly and traditionally feminine character. These characters are also often the ones that undergo a makeover scene in which they learn to be feminine, often under the goal of getting a male partner. Usually with the help of the more girly character, they transform from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan, ignoring past objectives and often framed in a way that they have become their best self. Doris Day's character in the 1953 film Calamity Jane is one example of this. Tomboy figures who do not eventually go on to conform to feminine and heterosexual expectations often simply remain in their childhood tomboy state, eternally ambiguous. The stage of life where tomboyism is acceptable is very short and rarely are tomboys allowed to peacefully and happily age out of it without changing and without giving up their tomboyness.

Tomboyism in fiction often symbolizes new types of family dynamics, often following a death or another form of disruption to the nuclear family unit, leading families of choice rather than a descent. This provides a further challenge to the family unit, including often critiques of socially who is allowed to be a family – including critiques of class and often a women's role in a family. Tomboyism can be argued to even begin to normalize and encourage the inclusion of other marginalized groups and types of families in fiction including, LGBT families or racialized groups. This is all due to the challenging of gender roles, and assumptions of maternity and motherhood that tomboys inhabit.

Tomboys are also used in patriotic stories, in which the female character wishes to serve in a war, for a multitude of reasons. One reason is patriotism and wanting to be on the front lines. This often ignores the many other ways women were able to participate in war efforts and instead retells only one way of serving by using one's body. This type of story often follows the trope of the tomboy being discovered after being injured, and plays with the particular ways bodies get revealed, policed and categorized. This type of story is also often nationalistic, and the tomboy is usually presented as the hero that more female characters should look up to, although they still often shed some of their more extreme ways after the war.

title: Tomboy


text:
Orrin Hatch

Orrin Grant Hatch (March 22, 1934 – April 23, 2022) was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Utah from 1977 to 2019. Hatch's 42-year Senate tenure made him the longest-serving Republican U.S. senator in history, overtaking Ted Stevens, until Chuck Grassley surpassed him in 2023.

Hatch chaired the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions from 1981 to 1987. He served as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1995 to 2001 and 2003 to 2005. On January 3, 2015, after the 114th United States Congress was sworn in, he became president pro tempore of the Senate. He was chair of the Senate Finance Committee from 2015 to 2019, and led efforts to pass the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Early life and education
Orrin Grant Hatch was born in Homestead, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. He was the son of Jesse Hatch (1904–1992), a metal lather, and his wife Helen Frances Hatch (née Kamm; 1906–1995). Hatch had eight brothers and sisters, two of whom died during infancy. Hatch was profoundly affected by the loss of his older brother Jesse, a U.S. Army Air Forces nose turret gunner with the 725th Bombardment Squadron who was killed on February 7, 1945, when the B-24 he was aboard was shot down over Austria.

Hatch, who grew up in poverty, was the first in his family to attend college; he attended Brigham Young University and earned a Bachelor of Arts in history in 1959. He also fought 11 bouts as an amateur boxer. In 1962, Hatch received a Juris Doctor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Hatch has stated that during law school, he and his young family resided in a refurbished chicken coop behind his parents' house. Hatch worked as an attorney in Pittsburgh and moved to Utah in 1969, where he continued to practice law.

Elections
In 1976, in his first run for public office, Hatch was elected to the United States Senate, defeating Democrat Frank Moss, a three-term incumbent. Hatch criticized Moss's 18-year tenure in the Senate, saying, "What do you call a Senator who's served in office for 18 years? You call him home." Hatch ran on the promise of term limits and argued that many senators, including Moss, had lost touch with their constituents.

In 1982, Hatch won re-election, defeating Ted Wilson, the mayor of Salt Lake City, by 17 points. He defeated Brian Moss (Frank Moss' son) by 35 points in 1988 and was re-elected in 1994, 2000, 2006, and 2012.

In 2000, Hatch campaigned for the Republican Party nomination for president. After finishing last in the Iowa caucuses, Hatch withdrew his candidacy on January 27, 2000, and endorsed the eventual winner George W. Bush.

2012 Senate election
After the defeat of Utah's Senator Bob Bennett in 2010, conjecture began as to whether six-term Senator Hatch would retire in 2012. It was also speculated that Congressman Jason Chaffetz would run against Hatch, though Chaffetz would later decline. In January 2011, Hatch announced his campaign for re-election. Later, nine other Republicans, including former State Senator Dan Liljenquist and then-State Legislator Chris Herrod, declared campaigns for U.S. Senator.

Having elected state delegates in mid-March, both the Democratic and Republican parties held conventions on April 21, with the possibilities to determine their nominees for the November general election. At the Republican convention, Hatch failed to get the 60% vote needed to clinch the Republican nomination, so he faced Liljenquist (the second-place finisher) in the June 26 primary. Hatch won the primary easily. It was Hatch's first primary competition since his election in 1976. The Democratic convention chose former state senator and IBM executive Scott Howell as the Democratic Party candidate. Hatch defeated Howell, receiving 65.2% of the vote to Howell's 30.2%.

2016 presidential endorsements
In the 2016 presidential election, Hatch originally supported former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and later endorsed Florida Senator Marco Rubio once Bush ended his campaign. On May 12, 2016, after Donald Trump became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Hatch endorsed him. On May 27, 2016, after Trump suggested that a federal judge Gonzalo P. Curiel was biased against Trump because of his Mexican heritage, Hatch said: "From what I know about Trump, he's not a racist but he does make a lot of outrageous statements ... I think you can criticize a judge but it ought to be done in a formal way" and said that Trump's statements were not so inappropriate that he would rescind his support. On October 7, 2016, following the Donald Trump Access Hollywood controversy, Hatch described Trump's comments as "offensive and disgusting" and said that "[there] is no excuse for such degrading behavior. All women deserve to be treated with respect." Hatch maintained his endorsement of Trump's candidacy.

U.S. Senate tenure
Hatch took office as a U.S. senator on January 3, 1977. He chaired the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions from 1981 to 1987. He also served as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Finance Committee.

In September 1989, Hatch was one of nine Republican senators appointed by Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole to negotiate a dispute with Democrats over the financing of President George HW Bush's anti-drug plan that called for spending $7.8 billion by the following year as part of the president's efforts to address narcotics nationwide and abroad.

Hatch long expressed interest in serving on the United States Supreme Court. It was reported that he was on Ronald Reagan's short list of candidates to succeed Lewis F. Powell Jr. on the Supreme Court, but was passed over at least in part because of the Ineligibility Clause. Despite that, he vocally supported Robert Bork, who was nominated for the vacancy instead.

Hatch "worked across the aisle to pass landmark legislation, including the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Children's Health Insurance Program". During the 1991 confirmation hearings regarding the Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas, Hatch "famously defended Thomas ... by reading aloud from The Exorcist to suggest Anita Hill lifted details of her sexual harassment allegations from the horror book".

On January 3, 2015, after the 114th United States Congress was sworn in, Hatch became President pro tempore of the Senate.

Hatch was absent from the 2017 Inauguration Day festivities. At the request of President-elect Donald Trump, he agreed to serve as designated survivor during the inauguration and was kept at a secure, undisclosed location.

On December 25, 2017, The Salt Lake Tribune published an editorial entitled "Why Orrin Hatch is Utahn of the Year". The newspaper described its criteria for the designation as "Utahn of the Year" as "the Utahn who, over the past 12 months, has done the most. Has made the most news. Has had the biggest impact. For good or for ill." The editorial criticized Hatch for his role in the size reduction of the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument and the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and accused him of lacking integrity.

Hatch announced on January 2, 2018, that he would retire from the Senate instead of seeking re-election that November. Hatch retired from the Senate on January 3, 2019, having served there for 42 years. At the time of his retirement announcement, he was the longest-serving U.S. Senator in Utah history (having eclipsed previous record-holder Reed Smoot in 2007), the longest-serving Republican U.S. Senator in the history of Congress, and also one of the longest-serving Republican members of Congress in the history of the United States. In the latter distinction, Hatch was surpassed in length of service by fellow senators Ted Stevens and Strom Thurmond, who joined the Republican Party in 1964, and was later surpassed by Chuck Grassley and Don Young.

Abortion
Hatch was strongly opposed to abortion and is the author of the Hatch Amendment proposed to the U.S. Constitution, which states that there is no constitutional right to abortion and would empower the states to restrict abortion as they see fit.

Anti-terrorism
In 1995, Hatch was the leading figure behind the Senate's anti-terrorism bill, to a large extent a response to the Oklahoma City Bombing. Elements of the bill were criticised by the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee on civil liberties grounds, especially the new limits imposed on habeas corpus in capital cases.

As a senior member of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, Hatch was also instrumental in the 2008 extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. He said, "This bipartisan bill will help defeat terrorism and keep America safe. No, the legislation is not perfect, but it ensures that the increased expansion of the judiciary into foreign intelligence gathering doesn't unnecessarily hamper our intelligence community."

Bailouts
Hatch voted in favor of the 2008 legislation that established the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). In 2011, Hatch said that he "probably made a mistake voting for it", and also claimed "at the time, we were in real trouble and it looked like we were ready for a depression. I believe we would have gone into a depression." He voted against the renewal of TARP in 2009, and the renewal was voted down by 10 votes in the Senate.

Hatch voted in favor of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. The bill authorized $300 billion to guarantee mortgages and restore confidence in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Balanced budget amendment
Hatch was a longtime advocate of amending the United States Constitution to require that total spending of the federal government for any fiscal year not exceed total receipts.

During his time in the Senate, Hatch sponsored a balanced budget amendment 17 times—4 times as lead sponsor and 13 times as a co-sponsor. He also voted in favor of passing a Balanced Budget Amendment on at least nine occasions. Hatch's proposed amendment passed the House of Representatives in 1997, but failed to pass the Senate by the required two-thirds majority by one vote to move on the states for ratification.

Bank of Credit and Commerce International
In January 1990, the federal judge in a case against the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) accepted a 1989 plea bargain offered to the bank by the U.S. Department of Justice. The bank was to pay $15 million in fines and only admit that it had laundered drug money. Afterward, Hatch presented an impassioned defense of the bank in a speech on the Senate floor. It had been largely written for him by the bank's attorney Robert Altman. Hatch said, "The case arose from the conduct of a small number of B.C.C.I.'s more than 14,000 employees." Since 1989, Hatch and his aide, Michael Pillsbury, had been involved in efforts to counter the negative publicity that surrounded the bank. Hatch had also solicited the bank to approve a $10 million loan to a close friend, Monzer Hourani. In 1991, B.C.C.I. was shut down after regulators accused it of one of the biggest international financial frauds in history. Law enforcement officials accused the bank of making bribes throughout the third world to arrange government deposits. Clark Clifford, a former presidential advisor and Defense Secretary, and Altman, his law partner, were charged with taking bribes from B.C.C.I., in exchange for concealing its illegal ownership of First American Bankshares, a Washington holding company which Clifford chaired. Both had denied the charges, which were filed in New York State and Federal courts. In 1992, in a "Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States Senate", prepared by committee members, U.S. Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Hank Brown (R-CO), noted that a key strategy of "BCCI's successful secret acquisitions of U.S. banks in the face of regulatory suspicion was its aggressive use of a series of prominent Americans," Clifford amongst them. The relationship with Hourani included the receipt of campaign contributions laundered through his employees, for which Hourani was fined $10,000, as well as his purchase of 1,200 CDs of Hatch's songs, for which Hatch received $3 to $7 each, and the management of a blind trust for Hatch. These led to a Senate Ethics Committee investigation, by which Hatch was eventually cleared.

Health care reform
Hatch opposed President Barack Obama's health reform legislation; he voted against the Affordable Care Act in December 2009, and he voted against the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. Hatch argued that the insurance mandate found in the legislation was not in the category that can be covered by the interstate commerce clause since it regulates the decision to engage in commercial activity rather than regulating the activity itself. He therefore regarded the Act as unconstitutional. NPR called Hatch a "flip-flopper" on this issue since in 1993 Hatch co-sponsored a bill along with 19 other Senate Republicans that included an individual insurance mandate as a means to combat healthcare legislation proposed by New York Senator Hillary Clinton. In 2018, Hatch said that Obamacare supporters were "the stupidest, dumbass people I've ever met".

Hatch was one of the first senators to suggest that the individual mandate was unconstitutional and promised to work on dismantling it when he becomes the Finance Committee Chairman. Hatch was part of the group of 13 senators drafting the Senate version of the AHCA behind closed doors.

In 2003, Hatch supported the Medicare prescription drug benefit plan known as Medicare Part D. Responding to criticism of the legislation during the 2009 debate on health care reform, Hatch said that in 2003 "it was standard practice not to pay for things" and that although there was concern at the time about increasing the deficit, supporting the bill was justified because it "has done a lot of good".

On March 25, 2014, Hatch cosponsored the Emergency Medical Services for Children Reauthorization Act of 2014 in the Senate. The bill that would amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize the Emergency Medical Services for Children Program through FY2019. The bill would authorize appropriations of about $20 million in 2015 and $101 million over the 2015–2019 period. Hatch argued that "children require specialized medical care, and that specialized care comes with unique challenges. The EMSC program helps ensure that some of our country's most vulnerable have access to the care they need, and I've been proud to support it all these years."

Immigration
Hatch was one of the architects and advocates of the expansion of H-1B visas and has generally been an advocate of tougher enforcement immigration policy including voting for 1,500 new law enforcement agents to patrol the United States' borders. His 2010 Immigration Bill titled Strengthening Our Commitment to Legal Immigration and America's Security Act has received the support of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). He also proposed the DREAM Act, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants, who were children when their parents came to the United States.

Hatch critiqued President Donald Trump's 2017 executive order to temporarily suspend immigration from seven Muslim countries until better screening methods are devised. He reflected on his own family's immigration history and described the order as placing "unnecessary burdens" on families.

Judicial nominations
As ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Hatch fought hard to get conservative judges nominated to the Supreme Court. He took a leading role in the Senate confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas in October 1991. He was also a strong supporter of Jay Bybee during Bybee's confirmation hearings for a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, stating "I've seen a lot of people around and a lot of judges and I don't know of anybody who has any greater qualifications or any greater ability in the law than you have."

Nevertheless, in 1993, Hatch recommended Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whom he knew personally, to President Bill Clinton to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, even as he knew she was a political liberal. Clinton had not previously considered Ginsburg, and Hatch, as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, assured him that a Ginsburg confirmation would go smoothly. Ginsburg was ultimately confirmed 96–3 in the Senate.

With regards to the Senate filibuster being used to stall President Barack Obama's judicial appointments, Hatch voted against the November 2013 reforms, which eliminated the use of the filibuster on executive branch nominees and judicial nominees other than to the Supreme Court. In September 2014, Hatch argued that the filibuster should be restored, saying: "We should get it back to where it was. You can see the destruction that has happened around here." In November 2014, after the Republicans retook control of the Senate following the 2014 elections, Hatch wrote in The Wall Street Journal that "if Republicans re-establish the judicial-nomination filibuster, it would remain in place only until the moment that a new Democratic majority decided that discarding the rule again would be useful" and called for "the next Republican president to counteract President Obama's aggressive efforts to stack the federal courts in favor of his party's ideological agenda" by nominating conservative judges.

As an opponent of the confirmation of Merrick Garland, Hatch submitted to the Deseret News an opinion piece stating that, after meeting with Garland, his opinion on blocking Garland had not changed; the piece was published prior to Hatch's meeting with Garland. On March 13, 2016, regarding the nomination of Supreme Court candidates by Obama, Hatch stated "a number of factors have led me to conclude that under current circumstances the Senate should defer the confirmation process until the next president is sworn in."

Intellectual property
Hatch was long a proponent of expanding intellectual property rights and in 1997 introduced the Senate version of the Copyright Term Extension Act. Hatch believed that intellectual property laws should, in general, more closely mirror real property laws, and offer greater protections to authors and creators.

Hatch caused an overnight controversy on June 17, 2003, by proposing that copyright owners should be able to destroy the computer equipment and information of those suspected of copyright infringement, including file sharing, he stated that "This may be the only way you can teach somebody about copyrights." In the face of criticism, especially from technology and privacy advocates, Hatch withdrew his suggestion days later, after it was discovered that Sen. Hatch's official website was using an unlicensed JavaScript menu from United Kingdom-based software developer Milonic Solutions. Milonic founder Andy Woolley stated that "We've had no contact with them. They are in breach of our licensing terms." Shortly after the publication of that story in Wired magazine, the company that runs Hatch's website contacted Milonic to start registration.

On September 20, 2010, Hatch once again attempted to outlaw websites which could be used for trademark and copyright infringement through the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA). This bill would authorize the United States Department of Justice to blacklist and censor all websites that the department deemed to be dedicated to "infringing activities".

LGBT rights
The Salt Lake Tribune reported that in 1977, Hatch told students from the University of Utah, "I wouldn't want to see homosexuals teaching school anymore than I'd want to see members of the American Nazi Party teaching school." Hatch supported the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996.

In 2012, Hatch recommended and supported District Court Judge Robert Shelby, a Barack Obama appointee, though Utah Senator Mike Lee voted against him in the Judiciary Committee. In 2013 Shelby overturned Utah's ballot Amendment 3, which constitutionally defined marriage as between a man and a woman.

In April 2013, Hatch stated that he viewed same-sex marriage as "undermining the very basis of marital law", but declined to support a Federal Marriage Amendment and endorsed same-sex couples' right to form a civil union, stating that the law should "give gay people the same rights as married people". Later that same year, Hatch voted in favor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, legislation creating protected classes for those identifying as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. In 2018, Hatch "honored Pride" by giving a speech in support of programs to help and serve LGBT youth.

Nuclear testing
During Hatch's first year in the Senate in 1977, reporter Gordon Eliot White of the Deseret News published the first of what would be a lengthy series of articles detailing government malfeasance in atmospheric testing of nuclear bombs at the Nevada Test Site. Over the next 13 years White's articles detailed how the government determined to proceed with the tests, and with mining and refining, without adequate safeguards for innocent citizens whose health would be damaged. Though Hatch feared an investigation would endanger the nation's nuclear deterrence versus the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, by 1979 he was pushing for hearings on the issue before the Senate Labor Committee. Hatch prevailed on Committee Chairman Ted Kennedy to hold field hearings in Utah in 1980. At the end of 1980, Hatch was positioned to chair the committee himself.

By 1984, Hatch had held a dozen hearings, passed legislation requiring scientific investigation of the injuries, and enlisted the aid of the National Science Foundation and National Cancer Institute, but still could not muster the votes to get a bill passed. When a vote was obtained in the Senate in 1985 (as an amendment to a bill to compensate affected Pacific Islanders for nuclear tests in the 1950s), it failed by a handful of votes. Hatch discovered a clause in the proposed Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Kiribati and Tuvalu to pay at least $100 million to residents of the Marshall Islands for injuries similar to those of Utahns, and Hatch took the treaty hostage. His hold on consideration of the treaty eventually got agreement from the Reagan administration to agree not to oppose radiation compensation for Utah citizens, but it still took another five years to get the bill through. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990 provided compensation for citizens injured by radioactive fallout from the tests.

In December 2010, Hatch was one of twenty-six senators who voted against the ratification of New Start, a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russian Federation obliging both countries to have no more than 1,550 strategic warheads as well as 700 launchers deployed during the next seven years along with providing a continuation of on-site inspections that halted when START I expired the previous year. It was the first arms treaty with Russia in eight years.

Opioid crisis
Hatch introduced the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act, narrowing the broad authority of the DEA to suspend drug "manufacturers, distributors, and dispensers". Hatch stated the bill was also written to protect patients from disruptions in the production and delivery of their prescription drugs, saying that ..."The fact that prescription drugs can be abused should not prevent patients from receiving the medications they need. This bill takes a balanced approach to the problem of prescription drug abuse by clarifying penalties for manufacturing or dispensing outside approved procedures while helping to ensure that supply chains to legitimate users remain intact". The bill passed the Senate unanimously and Tom Marino passed a version of the bill in the House. It was then signed by President Barack Obama.

Critics of the bill claim the new law fuels the opioid crisis by limiting the DEA's ability to halt production and distribution by predatory drug companies. DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge John J. Mulrooney II wrote in the Marquette Law Review that ..."At a time when, by all accounts, opioid abuse, addiction and deaths were increasing markedly, this new law imposed a dramatic diminution of the agency's authority. It is now all but logically impossible for the DEA to suspend a drug company's operations for failing to comply with federal law." Donald Trump's Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he was "dubious" about the law when it passed and joined 44 state attorneys general calling for "repeal or amendment of the law to restore some of the DEA's authority." Jim Geldhof, a former DEA program manager who spent 43 years with the DEA called the bill "outrageous. It basically takes any kind of action DEA was going to do with a distributor or manufacturer as far as an immediate suspension off the table. And then the other part of that really infuriates me is that corrective action plan." Mulrooney compared the corrective action plan to one that would "allow bank robbers to round up and return inkstained money and agree not to rob any more banks—all before any of those wrongdoers actually admit fault and without any consequence that might deter such behavior in the future."

Hatch responded to a Washington Post and 60 Minutes investigation into the bill by writing a Washington Post opinion article calling the investigation "misleading" and asking to "leave conspiracy theories to Netflix". Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a co-sponsor of the senate bill, also defended the bill: "This bill was drafted in consultation with the DEA to offer better guidance for companies working to safely and responsibly supply prescription drugs to pharmacies, and to promote better communication and certainty between companies and regulators." Republican Pat Toomey expressed doubts that a conspiracy existed, but still suggested amending the bill: "I'm a little surprised that it passed unanimously in both houses, was signed by President Obama and got no opposition from the DEA at the time. That's not the way controversial legislation usually ends up, but hey, if there's problems, then we ought to revisit them."

Hatch received $177,000 in donations from the drug industry while pushing the bill through and has received $2,178,863 from the Pharmaceuticals/Health Products industry from 1989 to 2014 according to required filings by the Federal Election Commission.

Religious freedom
Hatch was the main author of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which protected all religions' right to build church facilities on private property. In 2010, Hatch defended the right of a private organization to build a mosque on private property in downtown Manhattan, citing this law and defense of the freedom of religion.

Presidential Medal of Freedom
On November 16, 2018, President Donald Trump awarded Hatch the highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Other issues
Hatch sponsored the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, which "all but eliminated government regulation of the dietary and herbal supplements industry." The bill has resulted in the unregulated sale of supplements with misleading labeling that have no beneficial health effects at all, or may have adverse health effects. It was intended to enable the marketing of quack medicine.

In 1999, Hatch called for a federal probe into manufacturers of violent video games, and proposed making the existing voluntary rating system for video games (ESRB) mandatory by federal law.

Hatch pushed legislation for the Equal Opportunity to Govern Amendment, which would amend Article 2, Section I, Clause 5 of the United States Constitution. This amendment would allow anyone who has been a U.S. citizen for twenty years to seek the presidency or vice-presidency.

A vocal supporter of stem cell research, Hatch was one of 58 senators who signed a letter directed to President George W. Bush, requesting the relaxing of federal restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. In 2010, Hatch's bill was reauthorized which allowed stem cells from umbilical cords to be used to find treatment options.

In June 2013, Hatch commented on a G8 proposal that tax authorities in the world's largest economies openly share information among themselves in order to fight tax evasion. The proposal has strong suggestions about ways to make companies more transparent and governments more accountable for their tax policies. Hatch stated that transparency is always a good thing, but he would like to see a bill before giving any support.

In 2017, Hatch was one of 22 senators to sign a letter to President Donald Trump urging the President to have the United States withdraw from the Paris Agreement. According to OpenSecrets, Hatch received over $470,000 from oil, gas, and coal interests from 2012 on.

In 2018, over the Judge Brett Kavanaugh U.S. Supreme Court controversy, Hatch said that it did not matter even if Kavanaugh did what his accusers alleged was true. Hatch said, "If that was true, I think it would be hard for senators to not consider who the judge is today. That's the issue. Is this judge a really good man? And he is. And by any measure he is.”

Hatch voted for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1999, saying "committing crimes of moral turpitude such as perjury and obstruction of justice go to the heart of qualification for public office ... This great nation can tolerate a president who makes mistakes. But it cannot tolerate one who makes a mistake and then breaks the law to cover it up. Any other citizen would be prosecuted for these crimes." In 2018, in the wake of court filings that implicated President Trump in campaign finance violations and in attempting to buy the silence of women who alleged affairs with Trump, Hatch said, "I don't care, all I can say is he's doing a good job as president."

In April 2018, Hatch was one of eight Republican senators to sign a letter to United States Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and acting U.S. Secretary of State John Sullivan expressing "deep concern" over a report by the United Nations exposing "North Korean sanctions evasion involving Russia and China" and asserting that the findings "demonstrate an elaborate and alarming military-venture between rogue, tyrannical states to avoid United States and international sanctions and inflict terror and death upon thousands of innocent people" while calling it "imperative that the United States provides a swift and appropriate response to the continued use of chemical weapons used by President Assad and his forces, and works to address the shortcomings in sanctions enforcement."

Committee assignments

 * Committee on Finance (Chairman)
 * As Chairman of the full committee, Hatch may serve as an ex officio member of all subcommittees of which he was not already a full member.
 * Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness
 * Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions and Family Policy
 * Committee on the Judiciary
 * Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights
 * Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs
 * Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security
 * Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
 * Subcommittee on Children and Families
 * Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety
 * Special Committee on Aging
 * Joint Committee on Taxation
 * Impeachment Trial Committee on the Articles against Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr. (Vice Chair)

Caucus memberships

 * Afterschool Caucuses

Lobbying ties
Hatch's son Scott Hatch was formerly a partner and registered lobbyist at Walker, Martin & Hatch LLC, a Washington D.C. lobbying firm. The firm was formed in 2001 with Jack Martin, a staff aide to Hatch for six years, and H. Laird Walker, described as a close associate of the senator. In March 2003, the Los Angeles Times reported that the firm was formed with Hatch's personal encouragement and that he saw no conflict of interest in working on issues that involved his son's clients. In 2009, The Washington Times reported that Hatch said "My son, Scott, does not lobby me or anyone in my office".

In March 2009, The Washington Times reported that the pharmaceutical industry, which has benefited from Hatch's legislative efforts, had previously unreported connections to Hatch. In 2007, five pharmaceutical companies and the industry's main trade association, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), donated $172,500 to the Utah Families Foundation—a charitable foundation which Hatch helped start in the 1990s and continued to support. Walker, Martin & Hatch LLC was paid $120,000 by PhRMA in 2007 to lobby Congress on pending U.S. Food and Drug Administration legislation. Hatch and his son also had close ties to the dietary supplement industry, which Hatch deregulated in 1994.

Personal life
Hatch married Elaine Hansen on August 28, 1957. They had six children. In January 2024, his son, Brent, declared his candidacy to replace Mitt Romney as a United States Senator for Utah in the 2024 election.

Hatch was a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Although he was born in Pennsylvania, his parents had been raised in Utah and he had ancestors who were members of the LDS Church in Nauvoo, Illinois. Hatch served as an Latter-day Saint missionary in what was called the "Great Lakes States Mission" essentially covering large parts of Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. Hatch later served in various positions in the church, including as a bishop.

Hatch was a founder and co-chair of the Federalist Society, an organization of conservative lawyers.

Hatch served as a member of the board of directors of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. In a 1996 interview on 60 Minutes, Hatch said he wears a mezuzah necklace in order to remind himself that another Holocaust should never be allowed to occur.

Despite their political differences, Hatch was a longtime friend of fellow senator Ted Kennedy, spoke at his memorial service in 2009, and publicly suggested Kennedy's widow, Victoria Reggie, as a replacement for Kennedy in the Senate.

Death
Hatch died in Salt Lake City on April 23, 2022, aged 88, from complications of a stroke he had the week prior. He was buried in Newton.

Musical career and film appearances
Hatch played the piano, violin, and organ. Fueled by his interest in poetry, Hatch composed songs for many artists. One of his songs, "Unspoken", went platinum after appearing on WOW Hits 2005, a compilation of Christian pop music. He co-authored "Everything And More", sung by Billy Gilman. In addition to serving as a United States senator, Hatch earned over $10,000 as an LDS musical recording artist.

Rock musician Frank Zappa composed a guitar instrumental entitled "Orrin Hatch On Skis", which appears on his 1988 album, Guitar.

In March 1997, Hatch and Janice Kapp Perry jointly recorded an album with Tree Music entitled My God Is Love. Hatch's later albums with Perry included "Come to the Manger".

Hatch appeared as himself, alongside Chuck Grassley, in Steven Soderbergh's 2000 Oscar-winning drama Traffic, in a brief cameo in a scene set during a Washington, D.C. cocktail party. Soderbergh later featured one of Hatch's songs, "Souls Along The Way," in his film Ocean's 12 as background music for a scene in Hatch's home state of Utah.

Hatch and Janice Kapp Perry co-wrote the song "Heal Our Land", which was performed at George W. Bush's January 2005 inauguration.

Hatch, along with Lowell Alexander and Phil Naish, composed the 2006 song "Blades Of Grass And Pure White Stones".

Hatch's likeness was featured in the 30 Rock episode "Jack Gets in the Game", aired in 2007, as one of Dr. Leo Spaceman's famous clients.

In 2009, at the request of The Atlantic correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg, Hatch authored the lyrics to "Eight Days of Hanukkah", described by Goldberg as "a hip hop Hannukah song written by the senior senator from Utah."

Hatch appeared in a 2015 scene in the Parks and Recreation episode "Ms. Ludgate-Dwyer Goes to Washington" alongside Cory Booker.

Writing

 * Orrin Hatch, The Equal Rights Amendment: Myths and Realities, Savant Press (1983)
 * Orrin Hatch, Higher Laws: Understanding the Doctrines of Christ , Shadow Mountain (1995) ISBN 978-0-87579-896-7
 * Orrin Hatch, Square Peg: Confessions of a Citizen Senator, Basic Books (2002) ISBN 978-0-465-02867-2
 * Orrin Hatch, Orrin Hatch, the L.D.S. Mormon Politician as Songwriter, text of an interview of Orrin Hatch by Phillip K. Bimstein, in Washington, D.C., August 14, 2003, transcribed by Jonathan Murphy, New York City, American Music Center, 2003, without ISBN.

Honors
Hatch had been awarded the following:
 * Order of the Star of Romania - Ribbon bar.svg Commander of the Order of the Star of Romania, Romania (June 8, 2017)
 * Order of Prince Branimir.jpg Order of Duke Branimir, Republic of Croatia (October 29, 2018)
 * Presidential Medal of Freedom (ribbon).svg Presidential Medal of Freedom (November 16, 2018)
 * Secretary of the Air Force Distinguished Public Service Award (December 11, 2018)

title: Orrin Hatch