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This is a powerful and important piece by Katelyn Burns, one of very few trans journalists, on the problem with mainstream reporting on LGBT+ issues: the lack of dedicated LGBTQ media is a disaster. It begins with something depressingly common: a major newspaper highlighting the views of a website crank as some kind of expert,… [more]
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It’s no great secret that anti-trans bigots tend to be bigoted in other ways too; they just hide it. The ongoing hate-fest over the NSPCC working with and then dropping trans woman Munroe Bergdorf is a vivid demonstration. The NSPCC has apologised for dropping Bergdorf, but its employees aren’t happy: 148 of its employees have… [more]
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Today is the third anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, in which 49 LGBT+ people were slaughtered. It was the single deadliest lone gunman mass shooting in US history, the worst terrorist atrocity since 9/11. To commemorate it, a number of US Christian fundamentalists will hold a rally in Orlando. The rally… [more]
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I’m going to resist the temptation to make too many obvious jokes about The Pope’s latest damnation of trans people; you can come up with your own variations of “…says a man in a dress who thinks his boss lives in the sky”, I’m sure. I’d rather talk about yet another survey that shows growing… [more]
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I lived up to a negative trans stereotype the other day: I hid in a toilet because I shouldn’t have been there. It was the gents, of course. I should probably explain. Although I’ve transitioned legally and socially, there are times when I don’t present female: the days I’m getting electrolysis, which require me to… [more]
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Another day, another bunch of saddening headlines: armed neo-Nazis with a police escort intimidating Pride attendees in the US, lesbian women attacked in the street in England, the usual raft of anti-LGBT hatred in the press. Two UK stories stood out for me, because they demonstrate two elements of the same thing: how anti-trans individuals… [more]
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Most of the coverage I’ve seen of the so-called “straight pride” march apparently happening in Boston has demonstrated how broken much of the media has become. It’s been treated in “and finally…” style, a gently amusing little story in much the same style as a cat on a skateboard or a dog that can say… [more]
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The various candidates for the Conservative party leadership haven’t just been falling over themselves to be sexist and homophobic. Some of them have been keen to talk about their pasts as drug hoovers too. Michael Gove has spoken about his use of cocaine while Andrea Leadsom has admitted to smoking cannabis. That makes her the… [more]
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Lesbian couple attacked on London bus after refusing to kiss for men Why can’t we have a straight Pride month? Esther McVey: Parents should have power to stop 15-year-olds learning gays exist  Why can’t we have a straight Pride month? Restaurant refuses lesbian couple due to “unhealthy relationship” Why can’t we have a straight Pride… [more]
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This is a powerful piece by Stella Duffy in response to today’s horrific photos of two lesbian women beaten up on a London bus. THIS is what it’s like. Every fucking day that I am not behind the closed front door of my home. THIS is what it’s like to walk down the street with… [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.
