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I haven’t posted for a while, I know, and I’m sorry. Various personal dramas, work projects and family things have left me very short of time to blog here, and I’ve also found that constantly wading into the bad-faith dialogue and constant repetition of bullshit about trans people’s human rights has taken quite a toll. [more]
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I’m sorry I haven’t updated the blog for a while now: family things, a ridiculously heavy workload and adopting a greyhound have kept me away from the keyboard in the last few months. There are many fun things coming in 2022, but right now my RSI-addled hands need a rest. I hope you have a [more]
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I’ve been wanting to tell you about this for months, and now I can. My book, Carrie Kills A Man, will be published by 404 Ink next year. Here’s the link to my publisher’s blog about it. For us, Carrie’s submission was a joy to land in our inbox. Having published some of her writing [more]
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I learnt a new word today: copaganda. It’s when you try to change the news agenda to protect the reputation of the police, and it’s happening just now over the trial of rapist, murderer and police officer Wayne Couzens. This is from Sky News: “It’s something that will stay with me for the rest of [more]
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Trans Actual has published the results of its 2021 Trans Lives survey, in which around 700 UK trans adults shared their experiences. The results aren’t surprising but they are saddening. 27% of trans people have been homelessness at some point in their lives. That rises to 36% for both trans BPOC and trans disabled people; [more]
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The image above is a graph showing the Tavistock London Adult Gender Identity Clinic’s performance since 2017. In the last four years its finding has increased from just under £4m to just under £6m while the number of people being referred to the service has fallen. And yet the number of people being seen by [more]
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Here are two books you should buy. The Transgender Issue, by Shon Faye This is a book I’d very much like to have written, because it’s a clear-eyed, well researched and well argued response to the evidence-free scaremongering and barely laundered antisemitism of cisgender authors who claim to know more about trans people than trans [more]
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I’ve written many columns for various magazines, but I don’t do it so much any more: there are still plenty of places to pitch to, but I’m too old and too tired to pretend to be irate about things I really don’t care about, or to mock people I don’t know to try and demonstrate [more]
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In Greek mythology, Cassandra was cursed to utter true prophecies that would never be believed. I suspect she may have been trans. Since the Bell vs Tavistock case was first announced, trans people have been trying in vain to get people to understand the real goal that “gender critical” feminists are supporting: the end of [more]
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The Bell vs Tavistock judgement, which effectively stopped trans teenagers from getting appropriate healthcare under medical supervision, has been overturned. As Gendered Intelligence points out, the original decision – which today’s verdict says should never have been made – has since been used by anti-vaccination activists and various other cranks. In these days of rife [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.
