It is still valid:

>>> class MyLocal(local):
...    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
...        self.args = args
...        self.kwargs = kwargs
...
>>> MyLocal(1)

This works when local is thread._local (from thread import _local as
local), but fails when imported from _threading_local (from
_threading_local import local)

See attached patch for the test case (and the fix of course)