-
For many parents, today is the beginning of another block of having the kids attending school virtually rather than in person. It’s many things – difficult and exhausting, mainly – but it’s not homeschooling. Dr Mary O’Kane on Twitter: This is not ‘home schooling’. Home schooling is a conscious decision made by some parents having… [more]
-
Before they stormed the US Capitol building leading to the death of four people (so far), the MAGA mob cheered a “bizarre” anti-trans rant by Donald Trump Jr. Speaking before his father addressed the crowd at Wednesday’s MAGA protest against Congress certifying the presidential election, Trump Jr. brought up gender-neutral language as well as transgender… [more]
-
If you’re not Very Online, you may have missed Bean Dad: for a full day social media was sharing and/or piling on a man who posted about teaching, or rather not teaching, his daughter to use a can opener. Emily Pothast explains it: …despite a bombshell story about Trump attempting to manipulate the outcome of… [more]
-
There’s an odd but interesting series on The Good Men Project called Rideshare Confessionals, which sets out to “[examine] the human experience in passengers’ stories as delivered from a therapist moon-lighting as a rideshare driver.” I did say it was odd. This one is about a trans passenger, and while it’s all a bit overwrought… [more]
-
My friend Ellie just coined a phrase I really love: whine producers. Think Toby Young, Allison Pearson and all the other people who have bad opinions for money, and who churn out those opinions on an industrial scale. [more]
-
Jeffrey Ingold, Stonewall’s head of media: In 2020, The Times (incl. the Sunday Times) wrote 324 articles about trans people & ‘trans issues’. Zero of which were written by trans people themselves. For comparison, in 2019, The Times wrote 321 articles about trans people & ‘trans issues’. 3 were written by trans people. [more]
-
Ed Yong is one of the best science reporters we have, and his COVID reporting for The Atlantic has been superb. He’s just published his final piece of 2020: Where Year Two of the Pandemic Will Take Us. It’s for a US audience but it’s relevant to many other countries too. How does a country… [more]
-
This article made me laugh: Why is there a bucatini shortage in America? Being educated noodle consumers, we knew that there was, more generally, a pasta shortage due to the pandemic, but we were still able to find spaghetti and penne and orecchiette — shapes which, again, insult me even in concept. The missing bucatini felt… [more]
-
As far as I’m aware, The New Yorker has only devoted its entire issue to a single story once before, for reporting on Hiroshima. And now it’s done it again for this incredible piece of journalism, The Plague Year. It’s very long, very detailed and very powerful. There are three moments in the yearlong catastrophe… [more]
-
My band released a Christmas EP last year, and I think the closing track is even more appropriate this year. It’s called A Christmas Prayer. Didn’t kiss you this Christmas by HAVR The lyrics are: I hope you have a good one I hope your christmas is fun I hope you’re with your family and… [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.
