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INT: A MEETING ROOM – DAY A small group of people sit on plastic chairs. Some are young; some are very old. One of them coughs and stands. CARRIE (visibly nervous):Â Hi everyone. My name’s Carrie and I… I… YOUNG WOMAN: It’s okay, Carrie. You can do this. Be strong! CARRIE (sobbing): My name’s Carrie… [more]
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Imagine this. It’s 2018 and a publicity-seeking entrepreneur embarks on a high-profile court case. “If it’s okay for black men to marry white women, then it should be OK for me to marry my pet pig,” he chuckles. Newspapers and radio make it their light-hearted story of the week. No? Let’s try this one. It’s… [more]
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Last month, the extremely dodgy anti-trans group Fair Play For Women dropped a five-figure sum on a full page advert in the Metro claiming that reforms to the Gender Recognition Act would threaten women’s safety. It was cynical. It was designed to whip up hatred. And it was absolute bullshit. Some of us complained to… [more]
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When is “random person has an opinion” news? When it’s a “concerned parent”. This is from yesterday’s Scottish Daily Mail. The text describes how a “father-of-two” criticised the First Minister. “Edinburgh parent Richard Lucas…” Now, Mr Lucas is indeed a parent. But he also has another role. He’s the head of the ultra-right wing… [more]
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NPR has a great profile of Sia, one of the most talented and fascinating songwriters of our age. On the verses she trips across syllables like skipping stones and chews vowels like gum — an affectation that’s spawned no end of affectionate memes. On the pre-chorus, she switches to the sloshed gutters of her low… [more]
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This is Glasgow’s city of the dead, the Necropolis. It’s also a brilliant place to watch fireworks, which is what the people in the photo were doing last night. I love this shot, it looks more like I’ve stumbled upon some kind of ritual. [more]
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I’ve written many times about the “detransition myth”, the oft-repeated and thoroughly debunked claim that most trans kids who go through medical transition then change their minds. The short version: anti-trans groups tell you that 80% of trans kids detransition; the actual numbers show that 80% of gender non-conforming kids aren’t trans. Those kids aren’t… [more]
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The New York Times has brought forward its planned cover story for next week to coincide with the US midterm elections. It’s a horrific story about the rise of neo-fascism and the real threat posed by white nationalism. White supremacists and other far-right extremists have killed far more people since Sept. 11, 2001, than any… [more]
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In the final days of the Gender Recognition Act consultation, the (UK) Guardian newspaper published a one-sided string of anti-trans pieces culminating in an editorial regurgitating a lot of bigots’ tropes about dangerous predators. The latest criticism of it comes from an unlikely source: most of the US edition’s writers and editors. For journalists to… [more]
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I’ve been trying and failing to persuade one of my friends that Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe is one of the greatest pop songs ever made, which of course it is. I was genuinely dancing to this when I played it this morning. Given that I was in a dressing gown at the time… [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.
