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What does hate look like? In many cases, it looks just like you. When we think of hateful bigotry, we tend to imagine stereotypes: the bomber-jacketed skinhead, the spittle-flecked preacher and so on. We don’t imagine nice people: our neighbours, our friends, the mums on the school run. But the stereotypes are often wrong. To [more]
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It’s National Coming Out Day in the US today. It’s often pitched as a celebration, but National Coming Out Day began as activism. For LGBT+ people, the personal is political – so coming out is a political act. Life is different if you’re LGBT+. The US Supreme Court is not currently discussing whether it should be [more]
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Today is World Mental Health Day, and the theme is suicide prevention. Many politicians and commentators will say or write suitably concerned things about the importance of getting help, without acknowledging that they are part of the reason people need help in the first place. Mental health is political. The causes are often political. And [more]
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I was given the flu vaccine the other day. I hadn’t really thought about it but since a lung cancer scare a few years ago there’s a flag on my medical records and I’m considered high risk for pulmonary infections and COPD, so I get invited to this stuff. As you’d expect, the vaccine didn’t [more]
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I’ve written many times about useful idiots, members of minority groups who join anti-minority parties. One of the best-known examples is Winston McKenzie, the former Commonwealth spokesman for UKIP, whose presence in the party was used to prove it wasn’t racist. He ended up quitting the party because it was racist. Trans and gay people [more]
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Jezebel has posted a very comprehensive analysis of one of the LGBT+ human rights cases in front of the US Supreme Court. Tellingly, a who’s who of anti-trans bigots have signed on in support of Rost, from the Heritage Foundation’s Ryan T. Anderson to the Women’s Liberation Front, or WoLF, all of whom are attempting [more]
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These stories are connected. Mark Zuckerberg says Elizabeth Warren’s policies are an ‘existential threat’ in leaked Facebook audio. Facebook exempts political ads from ban on making false claims. Facebook denies Biden campaign’s request to remove false Ukraine ad by Trump campaign. [more]
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Arwa Mahdawi writes in The Guardian about the US court cases on LGBT+ discrimination. These cases are, to put it mildly, a huge deal – and not just for LGBT people. The ruling will have serious implications for straight people who don’t comply with gender norms. It could allow employers to fire women who don’t [more]
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A company has analysed the gender balance of various UK festivals. The best was Latitude, which achieved a gender balance of 48.1% women; next up was Glastonbury, with 44.6%. And then there was Download, home of superannuated rock bands whose commercial and artistic peaks happened decades ago. 14.4%. That’s all performers. Female artists or bands? [more]
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Today, the US Supreme Court will hear three cases with massive potential consequences for LGBT+ people. The court will be asked to declare whether it’s legal to fire people on the grounds of their sexual orientation or gender identity. If the court rules that it is, it’ll be a very bleak day for human rights. [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.
