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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… [more]
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After ongoing protests, a Birmingham primary school has suspended its “no outsiders” programme, which teaches children about equality. The protesters have done the usual religious thing, accusing the school of “promoting gay and transgender lifestyles.” It’s been reported as a muslim protest but many of the parents protesting are christians; the lessons have been reported… [more]
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Writing in New Socialist, Pete Mitchell does a thoroughly entertaining demolition of two books making the culture war argument that “the left” is somehow silencing free speech. The whole thing’s worth a read but I particularly liked these bits: In Lukianoff and Haidt’s account, college students aren’t distressed because they’re facing unprecedented debt and insecurity,… [more]
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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… [more]
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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… [more]
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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… [more]
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After far too long, far-right puppet Tommy Robinson has been kicked off Facebook and the Facebook-owned Instagram for flouting the rules on hateful conduct. Which makes it a good time to link to this piece by Renee Diresta, Free Speech Is Not The Same As Free Reach. in this moment, the conversation we should be… [more]
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The Observer, this week, : “Gender identity clinic accused of ‘fast-tracking’ trans patients.” The Guardian, its sister paper, two days later, reporting the hellish, many-years wait for trans people to get any treatment whatsoever: Trans men and women are being left humiliated and desperate after seeking care from their GP, according to a Guardian investigation that… [more]
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Mark Hollis, singer in the critically acclaimed Talk Talk, has died. He was 64. The word “genius” is thrown around a lot in music, but Hollis was the real deal. I was mesmerised by Talk Talk as a young teenager and developed a deep love of their music that I still have today. They made… [more]
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Being trans is a bit like Chinese water torture sometimes. It’s not that the individual drops hurt; it’s that they don’t stop. So for example being misgendered by someone who hears a male voice isn’t upsetting on its own if that’s the only occurrence that day, but being called a man four times during a… [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.
