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I’ve had the misfortune to share airtime with writers from Spiked magazine on a few occasions now. I’m not a fan: the magazine is reliably on the wrong side of any issue you care to think of, rushing to the defence of the world’s worst people. I fear that giving them airtime helps legitimise often… [more]
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Speaking at the Hollywood Reporter Women in Entertainment gala this week, comedian Hannah Gadsby spoke about her problem with “good men”. “My problem is that, according to the ‘Jimmys,’ there are only two types of bad men. There’s the [Harvey] Weinstein/Bill Cosby types who are so utterly horrible that they might as well be different species… [more]
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There are some truly terrifying numbers in a new survey on behalf of the End Violence Against Women Coalition [PDF document]. The study, of around 4,000 Britons, found that: 33% people think rape isn’t rape if there isn’t physical violence; A third of men think rape isn’t rape if the woman had flirted during a… [more]
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To borrow from Oscar Wilde, it would take a heart of stone to read about the fall of Milo without laughing. Milo, if you’re lucky enough to be unaware of him, is a vicious right-wing troll (and former Telegraph journalist) who managed to build a very lucrative empire by saying and doing hateful things. “Feminism is cancer”… [more]
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This is heartbreaking. Sculptor Gillian Genser has been slowly poisoned by the shells she used in her artworks. In 2015, I was diagnosed with heavy-metal poisoning. Doctors found high levels of arsenic and lead in my blood, the result of chronic exposure. The water where the mussels grew was likely contaminated from industrial waste, and… [more]
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This made me smile. Scotland’s first trampoline-based gay speed dating event is coming to Glasgow this Hogmanay. https://t.co/UW97rNOFxD pic.twitter.com/EaTllpLRpg — LGBT Scotland ðŸ³ï¸â€ðŸŒˆ ðŸŽðŸŽ…🤶🎄 (@lgbtscot) December 3, 2018 What a glorious phrase: trampoline-based gay speed dating. [more]
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This is an extraordinary tale and a wonderful piece of journalism. This is what happens when a Christmas movie plot unfolds in North Idaho: It’s a story that involves armed “patriots,” secret recordings, Fox News, claims of anti-Christian bigotry, reports of vandalism, a lawsuit, a countersuit, depositions and even — a la Miracle on 34th… [more]
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If you’ve been online as long as me you’ll know Heather Havrilesky, who wrote for the much-missed Suck.com. Among other things, these days she writes the Ask Polly advice column for The Cut. It’s a frank, insightful and occasionally uncomfortable read. This week’s edition has caught a lot of people’s attention: it’s powerful stuff. Havrilesky responds… [more]
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My friend Karie Westermann has started something really lovely on Twitter: 24 days of love. Tomorrow is December 1st and I’m starting 24 Days of Love. Every day I’ll share something I love instead of filling your feed with things that make me unhappy. Putting into the world what I want to see: light &… [more]
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The Daily Mail: Elsewhere in an American high school, members of staff attempt to break into a locked toilet stall because a trans  teenager is in it. In a different school, a lesbian student is beaten up because of her boyish presentation. In October a lesbian woman was kicked out of a bowling alley… [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.
