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The US edition of The Guardian continues to embarrass its UK sibling with its coverage of anti-trans violence; most recently, its coverage of a stochastic terrorism event in the US. If you’re not familiar with the term, stochastic terrorism is when you incite violence indirectly: you’re not saying that someone should go out and attack [more]
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While I’m on the subject of healthcare, this piece by David Oliver for USA Today is very good. Ever broken a bone? You know your first thought: “Ouch!” But what if said health care worker was too busy asking about your gender identity instead of focusing on mending your broken bone? Sure, it’s important to record and [more]
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Inclusive language is a favourite topic of right-wingers and bigoted authors: look at what the silly minorities are demanding now! But the reality is that inclusivity can really be a life or death matter. Writing in the i Paper, Patrick Strudwick talks to deputy House of Lords Speaker Ian Duncan about the death of his [more]
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The terrible people at ADF, who are behind much of the anti-trans and anti-LGBT+ organising on both sides of the Atlantic, have lost their latest legal case. Their lawyer represented Lorie Smith, a cake designer who refused to make cakes for same-sex couples. Smith had never actually been asked by a same-sex couple to make [more]
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Jessica Valenti: Yes, All Men. The majority of ‘good’ men prop up sexism in all sorts of ways: Those who complain about #MeToo and not being able to ask out coworkers anymore make life easier for virulent workplace harassers. Men who joke about locking up their daughters pave the cultural way for paternalistic policies that [more]
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I’ve had multiple calls from media wanting to do an item today on the tech story du jour, the NHS COVID app telling more people to isolate. But it’s not a tech story. The app is pinging more people because more people are getting infected. The uncritical framing of this as an app problem rather [more]
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This Twitter thread made me laugh. Starting my new lobby group, Speak Up For Soccer. Our stated campaigns are to ban kids playing rugby, ban rugby clubs and coaching for teens, and ban adults from playing rugby. We’re not anti-rugby, we’re a pro-soccer rights group. [more]
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Here are the latest hate crime figures for England and Wales, via the Home Office. What could have caused a 200% increase in anti-trans hate crimes during a period of sustained attacks on and scaremongering about trans people in the UK press (and by UK politicians), an assault that began in 2016? We may never [more]
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Another great piece by Jessica Valenti, this time on the hilarious idea that if women don’t want to sleep with right-wing men it’s a sign of “political discrimination” and authoritarianism. As Valenti points out, it’s the same argument put forward by incels. The only difference is that this time the whiny man-baby has been to [more]
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This report by the Los Angeles Blade should – but probably won’t – make UK anti-trans activists think about what they’re doing and who their friends are. It’s an investigation into the alleged sauna incident I wrote about the other day, which was used by neo-Nazis as an excuse to crack heads and stab people. [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.
