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The ever-inflammatory A Thousand Flowers has made SNP politician Joan McAlpine their Wanker of the Week. ATF’s language, as ever, is robust – but it’s tame compared to the stuff McAlpine’s fellow travellers say and do on Twitter to trans people and any woman who doesn’t think trans people are demons. One of the points… [more]
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This is Garnock Academy, the secondary school (high school for my American friends) I attended in the 1980s. It’s near a town called Beith. Like all schools of the era, there were no LGBT pupils or teachers. Or at least, there were no openly LGBT pupils or teachers; the ones who were LGBT kept their… [more]
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It’s not surprising to see yet another anti-trans op-ed in The Scotsman; once again it portrays all trans people as abusive internet trolls in killer heels, trampling on the anti-trans women who are just lovely people who care about all kinds of stuff. But even by those low standards, it’s galling to see the horrific… [more]
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I didn’t know Lyra McKee, the extraordinary young woman shot dead by terrorists in Derry this week, but some of my friends did. They’re devastated. The loss of a friend is always a tragedy, but to lose them in such circumstances is particularly horrific. McKee’s death has been marked by some fine, angry, fearless writing.… [more]
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It’s interesting to compare the media’s treatment of extremely rich far-right ideologues who want to watch the whole world burn – reasonable people with legitimate concerns, as the papers might put it – with environmental protesters trying to raise awareness of the very real and present dangers of climate change. They’re loonies, terrorists, privileged middle-class… [more]
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This really made me laugh. Related: [doctor looking at my xrays] doctor: this is exactly what i was afraid of me: what doctor: skeletons — Zilla (@GoodZiIIa) February 27, 2018 [more]
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The above image, which has saved me a bit of typing because it pretty much describes my situation, is from the resources page of Still Here. I wasn’t aware of it before and it’s clearly a work in progress but it may be worth bookmarking. [more]
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Channel 4 has been uncovering some truly despicable behaviour by the Leave.EU campaign. First, there were the videos: The pro-Brexit campaign group, Leave.EU, faked a viral video and appear to have staged photos of “migrantsâ€, shortly before the EU referendum. An investigation by Channel 4 News found that images purporting to show “migrants†attacking young… [more]
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Am I missing something, or is this idea incredibly, dangerously bad? Labour’s LGBT+ advisor calls for UK-wide ‘safe spaces’ for transgender people Mr Watson wants Ministers to give Local Authorities the powers to outline special zones for transgender people so they can socialise safely with family, friends and the wider LGBT+ community. I’m hoping that… [more]
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Writing in The Nation, Eric Alterman isn’t pulling any punches. one family has been able to use the power of the press to subvert democratic norms, misinform citizens, undermine governments, and fill our national debates with lies, misogyny, racism, and ethnocentrism while calling it news. Nothing in the article is particularly new: Murdoch’s power over… [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.
