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A new peer-reviewed study of the Cass Review, the UK project that was used to stop trans teens’ healthcare, has been published. And like all the other peer-reviewed studies of the Cass Review, it’s absolutely damning. It once again demonstrates that the review was skewed to deliver a pre-determined outcome that flies in the face… [more]
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When I self-referred to Glasgow’s gender clinic in 2016, the waiting list for a first appointment was 11 months. Now, it’s 224 years. That’s not a typo. The Sandyford gender clinic is so hopelessly understaffed that it’s barely seeing any people, so the backlog is ever growing. The national average is bad enough – 25… [more]
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Freedom of Information requests have revealed collusion between the Department of Health and Social Care and anti-trans groups: The correspondence shows Sex Matters, LGB Alliance and Transgender Trend manoeuvring their way into government as so-called “stakeholders” on trans policy, despite lacking any medical expertise and spreading narratives that misrepresent science, misuse human rights law, and… [more]
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The Scottish Government has published new guidance about segregating school toilets, which means trans kids will be prevented from using the toilets appropriate to their gender. Is that enough for the transphobes? Of course it isn’t. The Scotsman quotes Maya Forstater of anti-trans hate group Sex Matters, for whom segregating trans children doesn’t go far… [more]
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There’s a good piece in Doing Feminist Legal Work about the connections between gender and tyranny going back hundreds of years, and the way they’re connected on both sides of the Atlantic today. The article makes the point that the US state-by-state attack on women’s reproductive freedoms, Donald Trump’s assertion that domestic violence by husbands… [more]
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This, by Toby Buckle, is very good: Britain’s Bathroom Ban. The UK is in the process of implementing a prohibition on any trans person accessing any single-sex space. Trans people will be barred from using facilities that match their gender (i.e., a trans woman will not be able to use the women’s toilets), but also,… [more]
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I’ve been saddened but not surprised by the rush to canonise Charlie Kirk, the murdered bigot, in so much of the UK press: reading pieces like yesterday’s utterly deranged column by Kevin McKenna in The Herald would leave you with the impression that Kirk was some kind of Debate Jesus crucified by trans women rather… [more]
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Yesterday, three UK newspapers said that the killer of hatemonger Charlie Kirk was pro-trans on their front pages. The Daily Telegraph had the headline “Charlie Kirk suspect ‘left gun with trans message’”. The Sun front page said that “Ammo ‘carried pro-trans message’”. The Times front page headline was “Trump ally’s killer left ‘transgender ammunition’”. Other… [more]
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Transactual’s doing great work about terrible things right now. Its new report details how LGBTQ+ people are living in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, and it’s clear that the UK has become a terrifying and hostile environment for many of us. The report says: “some trans people are planning to flee to safer… [more]
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The Quakers in Britain have published their response to an activist’s demand that they segregate trans women in their premises and at their events. It’s a masterclass in how to respond to bigots’ unreasonable, aggressive and unlawful demands, and an excellent example of a very British form of literary work: telling someone, very politely and… [more]
Read me in books
My debut memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was a Scotsman book of the year and Damian Barr’s Literary Salon book of the week, and it was shortlisted for the 2023 British Book Awards book of the year in the Discover category.
My latest book, Small Town Joy, is a celebration of queer influences on and queer artists in Scots music and is out now.
I’m also a contributor to the excellent anthology Fierce Salvage, which is also out now.
