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A personal and powerful essay by Katelyn Burns who, like me, is a late transitioning trans woman. As a child, I could not see positive examples of trans women having meaningful lives, so I could not be a trans woman who had a meaningful life. I’m a bit older than Katelyn so I didn’t discover [more]
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There were two newsworthy trans-related stories in the last 24 hours. In one, a YouGov poll reported that most people, especially women, are in favour of gender recognition reform. This is quite important, given that Liz Truss is expected to announce her plans to kill gender recognition reform later this month. In the other, the [more]
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In an excellent Twitter thread, Slate writer Lili Loofbourow explains why it’s pretty much impossible to have a debate on the internet. “Why would you refuse to debate someone who’s simply saying that All Lives Matter?” is the kind of question an Enlightenment subject longing for a robust exchange of ideas might ask. Well, the [more]
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An interesting poll in PinkNews: despite more than two years of relentless and increasingly vicious scaremongering in pretty much the entire national media and online, most UK women are still in favour of self-ID for trans people: 57%, compared to 21% against. It’s welcome, of course, and it echoes many other polls (and trans people’s [more]
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The Times published an article today about so-called “cancel culture”, aka powerful people being criticised by marginalised people, and gave examples of the kind of wonderful humans whose careers have supposedly suffered as a result of it. The list includes some truly awful people. For example: The singer R Kelly’s career was damaged hugely after [more]
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This collection of photos is fascinating: it’s the Athlete series by Howard Schatz, and it shows bodies. Big bodies, little bodies, stocky bodies, thin bodies, light-skinned bodies, dark-skinned bodies… the only thing they have in common is that the people pictured are all elite athletes. The collection has been doing the rounds again as a [more]
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I’ve seen this a lot today on social media, and it’s clear that many people don’t realise that not only have trans women been peeing peacefully in the ladies since before many of us were born, but that trans women must use the ladies. It’s not just about our safety, although of course that’s important. [more]
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This Twitter thread by Helen Belcher, who has been analysing media coverage of trans people for many years, is worth your time. I’ve posted the text below. Most trans people I know tried for years not to be trans. The personal cost was often thought to be too high. So when some “white knight†rides [more]
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…but Rowling is trolling again, and she’s moving into very dangerous territory. The government is considering whether to ban conversion therapy, which is discredited and dangerous. Rowling is trying to convince people that trans-affirming healthcare is also conversion therapy. Here’s The Trevor Project: Conversion therapists use a variety of shaming, emotionally traumatic or physically painful [more]
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This is lovely. How would you react to your child coming out if you were a giant fictional Japanese sea monster? Thanks to @beeragon for putting together this amazing short titled “Coming Out.” #HappyPride 🌈 pic.twitter.com/wG9OptRSZm — GODZILLA.OFFICIAL (@TOHO_GODZILLA) June 30, 2020 [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.
