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I’ve been locked out of my Twitter account for a terrible, terrible crime. No, not being a big old Nazi. Messing with the year of birth in my profile page. This, apparently, is a really bad thing and I can’t currently read anything on Twitter or see other people’s messages to me. It’s been brilliant. Being… [more]
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I’ve been meaning to share this for aaaaaaages. Harrison Bergeron, a short story by Kurt Vonnegut. THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was… [more]
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One of the many joys of being a late transitioning trans woman is that you have a choice: you can be a bearded lady, you can get used to shaving two or three times a day, or you can have facial electrolysis to remove your stubble. If you’re younger or darker-haired there’s another option, laser… [more]
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A US school district has cancelled classes after parents made multiple violent threats against a 12-year-old trans girl. The only thing I find shocking about this is that it’s made headlines. There are plenty of examples of parents bullying young trans people online. This case began with a mum stirring up hatred. If you think… [more]
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Jenny Boylan, novelist, columnist and author of the excellent memoir She’s Not There, posted a really worthwhile thread on Twitter today. I’ll give you a flavour: People often ask late-transitioners, Why now? After all this time? What kind of woman do you think you can be, after missing your girlhood and your adolescence? But those… [more]
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The Times has carried out an investigation into Twitter. References to child sex abuse, taunting of rape victims, disturbing messages from stalkers, homophobia and transphobia all stayed on the site after Twitter reviewed the content and decided that none of it breached its terms. Examples of the hate speech include attempts to link LGBT people… [more]
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There’s an interesting piece in Bella Caledonia by Mike Small about how “overtourism” is doing to Edinburgh what it’s done to so many other places in the world. It’s not just Edinburgh. The “North Coast 500” road route, an invention to draw in tourists, destroyed the road surface and caused chaos on rural roads thanks to… [more]
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This is the penultimate upload from the album we haven’t actually got a title for yet. It’s called Your Love Is Not Enough and it’s a typically bleak slab of minimalist electronic pop. We’re available for children’s parties and other celebratory events. [more]
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No, not its boss, Jack Dorsey. This guy. Twitter doesn’t want to move against hatemongers such as Alex Jones because if they do, it begs the question: why not Trump? The short answer is: $2 billion. That’s how much the Trump account is believed to be worth to Twitter, which is why it hasn’t blocked… [more]
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Fortress Britain doesn’t want foreign musicians. The musician Peter Gabriel has expressed “alarm†over UK foreign policy after a number of international artists were unable to perform at Womad world music festival after visa issues. Or authors. A dozen authors who were planning to attend this year’s Edinburgh international book festival have had their visas… [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.
