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Last week at the US Republican CPAC conference, Daily Wire host Michael Knowles said that “for the good of society… transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely” to loud applause. He now claims that he didn’t mean that trans people should be eradicated; just “transgenderism”. Let’s try that with some other isms, shall we?… [more]
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This graph is astonishing, if unsurprising: the UK press is publishing an average of 38 articles about trans people per day, most of them negative. Writing in advertising industry site Outvertising, Marty Davies makes it clear that brands, via advertising, are funding this – and that online advertising incentivises it. “We’re finding ourselves funding a… [more]
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While the press continue to pretend that people who aren’t trans are being rushed into irreversible medical treatment, trans people continue to die from inadequate healthcare and disgracefully long waiting lists. The coroner’s report into the suicide of 21-year-old Northern Irish trans woman Sophie Williams, a report released this week, found that multiple failings by… [more]
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Private Eye magazine would like you to believe that the magazine is a brave outsider, fearlessly speaking truth to power and exposing media hypocrisy. The reality, of course, is that it’s part of the same incestuous bubble as the media it reports on. Here’s an example. Normally, a high profile left-wing writer leaving a high… [more]
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“Average use of the word ‘trans’ in UK media stories about Brianna Ghey: 0.5 Average use of the word ‘trans’ in UK media stories about Isla Bryson: 16,427.1 The first is a victim of a terrible crime, likely targeted for being trans; the latter a perpetrator of a terrible crime, in which her trans status… [more]
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Jude Doyle knocks it out of the park yet again with an incisive analysis of the increasingly poisonous New York Times: “Transphobia has been an unacknowledged norm of “objective” journalism for a very long time. It’s been an unacknowledged cultural norm for much longer. Yet it is still transphobia—still bigotry, still lethal—no matter how unconscious… [more]
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On Saturday, the Daily Mail published a made-up story about something that didn’t happen. I know that is hardly news, but neither was the story. It’s just yet another made-up piece trying to spread fear of trans people, the kind of thing that ends up being quoted by politicians who want to remove our healthcare… [more]
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This, by AR Moxon, is superb. It’s an evisceration of people who say terrible things and demand freedom from criticism or consequences. “they pre-suppose that some are allowed to speak, and others should not be allowed to respond. What they want is not more voices. They want fewer voices. What they want is not a… [more]
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When The Onion strikes, it strikes hard. It Is Journalism’s Sacred Duty To Endanger The Lives Of As Many Trans People As Possible We just made Quentin up, and that’s okay. It doesn’t mean stories like his aren’t potentially happening everywhere, constantly. Good journalism is about finding those stories, even when they don’t exist. It’s… [more]
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This is a photo of Brianna Ghey, the 16-year-0ld girl who was stabbed to death at the weekend. She was trans, but the newspapers didn’t know that at first – and when they found out, the Times went back through its news story about her and removed every reference to her being a girl. As… [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.
