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Music fans of a certain age will recognise the name of Ian Penman, one of the best writers ever to work for NME (the NME of its glory days, not the shallow lifestyle brand of today). Here, the London Review of Books gets him to review two biographies of Prince. It’s an incredible article about [more]
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Game designer Owen Goss injects a healthy dose of reality into the “if I can do it, you can too!” school of careers advice. As he points out, privilege and luck have a huge role to play. Indie games are a hard thing to make a living at. And yes, I’ve worked very hard to [more]
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This, by Darcey Steinke, is fascinating. Without hormones my femininity is fraying. Twice I’ve been called “sir.†Once by a parking lot attendant and a second time by the young man who bagged my groceries. I did not correct them. Instead I tried to sit with the idea I’d been misgendered. I don’t possess the [more]
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PinkNews’ headline says it all: After 30 academics sign letter opposing trans rights, 3600 sign letter in support (Update, the same day: it’s more than 4,000 now) This is the reality, away from the social media echo chamber and the furious clickbait columns. Again and again, the public is overwhelmingly in favour of treating trans people [more]
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This is the British Army’s guide to spotting dangerous extreme right-wing (XRW) people, courtesy of James Wallis on Twitter. Heres’s a summary. They describe their opponents as traitors They become increasingly angry about perceived injustices and threats to their national or cultural identity They say their critics have been indoctrinated They make sweeping generalisations and [more]
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Herald columnist Iain Macwhirter, pictured, has gone off on one about trans people again. Yesterday he claimed on twitter that calling cisgender women cis “is the most extreme form of misogyny”, which I’m sure will be news to many women who’ve endured much worse things than being accurately labelled with a latin prefix. Cis is [more]
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One of the tricks the far right likes to use is phony science. They claim “facts don’t care about your feelings” while putting their feelings above actual facts, such as how human biology works. Scientific American has had enough of their shit and their “facts don’t care”. these “protectors of enlightenment†are guilty of the [more]
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I went to see the comedian Frankie Boyle last night. As ever, he said many terrible things because he’s a really bad man. I laughed so hard for so long I’m actually a bit sore today. I don’t go to as much comedy as I used to, even though I love live comedy: I got [more]
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Sorry about the title. My mum reads this blog and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to make her spit out her coffee. I mentioned this study before: it asked around 1,000 people about the genders they would consider dating. It wasn’t brilliant news for trans people. The study gave respondents a list of five types [more]
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Another beautiful NYT piece by Jennifer Finney Boylan, this time to mark the 50th anniversary of Stonewall. As a young trans girl, I could only assume that the odds against me were long. What would happen, I wondered, if I spoke aloud the thing that was in my heart? Even worse: What would happen if [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.
