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The EHRC, which hates trans people, has leaked its trans guidance to The Times, which hates trans people, in an attempt to bully the Equalities Minister into approving it. But no amount of positive spin can hide the fundamental point: the EHRC wants trans people’s rights to access spaces to be dependent on how they… [more]
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Section 28, the law that prohibited the “promotion” of homosexuality in schools and libraries, was scrapped on this day in 2003 (three years after Scotland repealed the local version, Clause 2A). I’ve written about it a few times now, including in the anthology Twenty-Eight. Section 28 came into force just as I was leaving school,… [more]
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I took part in this year’s Aye Write! book festival with a different hat on: I was there as a host rather than a panellist. I was asked to chair three very different events: with former pop star Anthony Kavanaugh, aka Kavana, to discuss his memoir; with Mae Diansangu, Louise Welsh and Lewis Hetherington to… [more]
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There are some fascinating reports in the latest edition of the Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies, including a piece about the LGB Alliance’s Role in the UK Media’s Anti-Trans Moral Panic and this in-depth analysis of radicalisation on sites such as Mumsnet. It describes how posters attempt to reframe themselves as victims rather than victimisers,… [more]
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The BBC has been captured by the sinister trans lobby, a new report being pushed by the right-wing press claims. The report, by Michael Prescott, provides no convincing evidence of that – because of course it isn’t true. The BBC is one of the main vectors of anti-trans propaganda, taking its cue (and many of… [more]
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Various newspapers report that Glasgow councillor Chris Cunningham has disputed the terrifying 200-years-plus predicted waiting times for Glasgow’s Sandyford clinic, claiming that the waiting time is six to seven years. And that means he’s either ignorant or deliberately misleading people, and so are the newspapers – because the evidence shows that if you’re referred to… [more]
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There’s a good piece by Doc Impossible on Stained Glass Woman about the other kind of surgical recovery: your mental recovery, and how to try and help yourself handle the aftermath of what is a very big deal. Surgical recovery isn’t just physically difficult and debilitating; it’s very tough on your mental resources too, and… [more]
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I came out as trans nine years ago this week, and I think it’s interesting to look at the transition – not mine, but the transition in the Scots press’s reporting on LGBTQ+ issues and trans people during that time. Here’s a fairly typical piece from The Herald in the summer of 2016, which covers… [more]
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There’s a nice piece in Glamour featuring nine “ground-breaking” trans women from the worlds of fashion, music, publishing and activism as part of their Women of the Year special. I think the photography may be as important as the article, as it helps disperse the pervasive myth that trans women are “hulking” and highly masculine… [more]
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Today’s “completely manufactured anti-trans bullshit” takes us to Dundee, where an anti-trans activist has taken great exception to a Hobbycraft shop assistant’s “no TERFs, no Tories” badge to create predictable media outrage. It’s yet another example of DARVO – the abuser’s creed of “deny, attack, reverse victim and offender”, where members of a movement that… [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.
