Category: LGBTQ+
-
I haven’t got a Scooby
This, from Reddit, made me laugh. I’m going to a wedding today, my first one as me. The reception is fancy dress, and I’m going as Velma from Scooby-Doo. Jinkies!
-
Wired: Trump’s plan to redefine gender makes no scientific sense
There have been a lot of pro-science pieces in the aftermath of the Trump anti-trans memo, and while none of the science bits will be new to readers of this blog it’s still heartening to see mainstream media outlets battling misinformation from a man who actively courted LGBT voters before embarking on a campaign of […]
-
The extraordinary complexity of sex determination
I’ve posted this before, but Scientific American reposted it today in light of the Trump memo. Determination of biological sex is staggeringly complex, involving not only anatomy but an intricate choreography of genetic and chemical factors that unfolds over time. Intersex individuals—those for whom sexual development follows an atypical trajectory—are characterized by a diverse range […]
-
This is the way our world ends
The Gender Recognition Act consultation is now closed, thank God. In the short months since it began it’s been used by conservatives to mount a shockingly vicious campaign against trans people. Some 53,000 responses had been received by Friday. That isn’t a consultation. It’s a pile-on. It’s yet more evidence that human rights shouldn’t be […]
-
I didn’t lie
Many trans people don’t come out until later in life. We have partners, sometimes children. Revealing our secret is devastating. I’ve been asked the same question many times: Why didn’t you tell them? And sometimes the subtext to that is: Why did you lie for so long? The honest answer is that I didn’t lie. […]
-
All I wanna say is that they don’t really care about us
Stephen Paton writes in The National about the mischaracterisation of gender reform as a “trans vs feminists” debate. With the debate so heavily influenced by these groups, it’s no wonder that a narrative proclaiming trans rights must come at the cost of women’s has found mainstream attention, while sneaky facts that contradict it have been […]
-
Bullshit is not a precious and rare commodity
One big upside of being part of a demonised minority: it saves you a fortune. I cancelled my decades-long subscription to Private Eye yesterday: the current issue has three news stories about trans things in which it unquestioningly parroted anti-trans bullshit, picked on a trans charity and an LGBT charity and vilified a young trans […]
-
What you didn’t read in the papers this morning
The UK Government Equalities Office has issued a statement regarding the unhinged coverage of the Gender Recognition Act consultation in this weekend’s newspapers. [Emphasis mine] Neither GEO nor Ministers were approached for comment on today’s coverage on the Gender Recognition Act. Any speculation that decisions have already been made on the Gender Recognition Act is wrong. […]
-
Come out, come out, wherever you are?
It’s National Coming Out day today, a well-intentioned US campaign to persuade LGBT people to love themselves and live their authentic lives. Here are some people sharing their coming out stories on BBC’s The Social. But as the excellent DIVA columnist Cerian Jenkins points out on Twitter: BUT I do feel that the dominant narrative […]
-
How many debates do you need?
Yes, another trans post. I’m as bored as you are, believe me. What many people call trans activism is just trans people being pissed off with constant attacks on their right to a quiet life, and with just days left in the UK government’s gender recognition consultation the attacks are getting pretty intense on social […]