Category: LGBTQ+

  • The damage done

    Last year, anti-trans rabble-rouser James Kirkup wrote an article in The Spectator about the terrible rise of trans rights. Today, IPSO forced The Spectator to admit that the lurid claims at the centre of the story were complete and utter bullshit, invented by the writer. This happens an awful lot with trans stories: many of…

  • Follow the money

    OpenDemocracy reports that the US anti-LGBT hate group Alliance Defending Freedom has been funding supposed “grassroots” organisations in the UK. In this particular case it has been funding groups that campaign against euthanasia; it also funds anti-abortion campaigners and other lovely people. Here are some interesting coincidences. The ADF works closely with another anti-LGBT hate…

  • Just an ordinary day

    How’s your day going? Just after midnight, I saw The Economist tweet this. It turns out that the article was about Japan, and it has since been corrected with a less inflammatory headline. But as the writer Diana Tourjeé pointed out, “should trans people be sterilised?” is part of the regular media discourse on trans people…

  • There’s no joy in saying “we told you so”

    We told you so, #1. When religious groups protested about inclusive education in a Birmingham primary school, LGBT people said it was the thin end of the wedge. Protests have now expanded to more Birmingham schools who have abandoned their #NoOutsiders “respect everyone” lessons, and complaints have now been made to schools in Manchester too.…

  • The culture in which we swim

    Thomas Page McBee regularly writes about his experiences as a trans man. On Them.us he writes about the tension between wanting to be masculine and wanting to avoid toxic masculinity, and there are some really engaging ideas in the piece. I particularly liked this bit. I have another body within this body — we all…

  • #GwiththeT: not in their name

    Last year, lesbian women used the #LwiththeT hashtag to declare solidarity with trans people. Now it’s the men’s turn, with an open letter proudly labelled #GwiththeT. Stonewall: In solidarity with the hashtag #LWithTheT that sprung up last summer, the outpouring of support for the #GWithTheT movement and support from all parts of LGBT communities shows that…

  • A point proven

    More good news from the TIE campaign: 318 women across the country & counting have now signed @RhiannonV open letter supporting the trans community. Politicians, lawyers, campaigners, psychologists, writers, academics, women’s support workers, teachers, journalists & more form the collective: https://t.co/QiSFK20F8U pic.twitter.com/cU9qSfXWeD — TIE (@tiecampaign) 6 March 2019  And entirely predictable news from one of…

  • Feminists to columnists: you do not speak for us

    More than 70* notable women including politicians, representatives of vulnerable women’s groups, businesswomen and journalists have written an open letter to the Herald about the despicable coverage of trans women it and other newspapers publishes. In the Scottish Government’s recent public consultation on reforming the Gender Recognition Act (2004) a majority of respondents supported gender…

  • Stop us if you’ve heard this before

    On Twitter, users mimmymum and the implausible girl have shared a few newspaper clippings about the dangerous people tricking their way into bathrooms and locker rooms, demanding inclusion in education and other terrifying things. No, not trans people. Gay and lesbian people. Irony fans will appreciate this first one, about Martina Navratilova, because her recent…

  • “Respect for all”, apart from the gays and the transes

    There’s a predictable media storm in England (Scotland has a different, more enlightened education system) about plans to revise sex education, something that’s been overdue for decades now, to include “respect for all”. It’s predictable because various right-wing rabble-rousers have been banging on about the spectre of “gay and trans lessons” – a phrase you…