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The coverage of, and social media commentary on, a trans girl being stabbed in England is bringing back an old and poisonous trope: the gay panic defence. The gay panic defence, and its trans equivalent, asks people to agree that gay and trans people are so disgusting, so repellent, so predatory that their very existence… [more]
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The Mail, the Telegraph and the Times are all framing a horrifically violent attempted murder in the same way: they’re blaming the victim. Of course they are. She’s trans. [I don’t usually come back and edit posts but I’m going to fix this for clarity the day after posting it, because it was written in… [more]
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Despite public demand, our new EP is available now on Bandcamp (for free, or name your price) and will be coming to streaming next week. I’m very proud of it. The Nest That You Have Flown EP by Unquiet Mind The EP is called The Nest That You Have Flown. The title track is probably… [more]
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Platformer has obtained what it calls “the dehumanizing new guidelines moderating what people can now say about trans people on Facebook and Instagram.” Examples include “trans people aren’t real. They’re mentally ill”, “a trans woman isn’t a woman, it’s a pathetic confused man” and “a trans person isn’t a he or a she, it’s an… [more]
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When Elon Musk bought Twitter, he didn’t just destroy the good parts of a thriving social network. He also did massive damage to many people’s livelihoods, including creative people for whom Twitter was a key part of their marketing and who saw their post engagement – how many people see and interact with them –… [more]
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Today, Mark Zuckerberg announced changes to Facebook, Threads and Meta, initially for the US because EU law won’t allow such changes. The short version: hate speech is back, baby! You’ll see the details elsewhere so I won’t repeat them here, but ultimately the goal is to remove safeguards and moderation from Meta’s platforms. That freedom… [more]
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Abigail Thorn, actor and writer of Philosophy Tube, posted a video two years ago about her (awful) experiences of the NHS. The short version: she demonstrated how the NHS is institutionally discriminatory towards trans people. So I imagine she was quite surprised when a very senior NHS figure approached her about being the face of… [more]
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There’s a superb piece in Dazed by Sasha Baker, who explains how a vocal minority of religious and social conservatives has managed to dismantle trans healthcare and human rights in the UK without a single law being passed or revoked. The British gender critical movement purports to represent a silent majority, but knows it does… [more]
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We know that more than a dozen trans teens have taken their lives since the puberty blocker ban was introduced in the UK, despite the government’s best efforts to cover that up: its small inquiry into trans suicides discounted documented trans suicides. So it’s particularly disgusting to see Hilary Cass, the author of the politically… [more]
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Yesterday, Wes Streeting made the UK ban on puberty blockers for trans kids permanent. The ban does not apply to cisgender children; puberty blockers are apparently magic medicine that are uniquely dangerous to trans and gender non-conforming kids. The decision was subject to a consultation, which – at the Government’s invitation – featured significant input… [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. I believe it’s now sold out at my publisher but the ebook is still available and I’m sure your local indie bookshop will be able to find you a copy.
My next book, Small Town Joy, is a celebration of queer influences on and queer artists in Scots music and will be published in April 2025.
I’m also a contributor to the anthology Fierce Salvage, which will be published in January 2025.
