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Over the past few weeks, some very wealthy writers have been very vocal about the importance of free speech. People should be free to voice their honestly held opinions, they say, no matter how offensive or hurtful those opinions may be. This week, the same writers have sent their lawyers after multiple people and publications… [more]
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CTV News: An Ontario pastor who came out to her congregation as a transgender woman last month has been fired after the congregation voted to remove her. Metalsucks: Ex-Absu Guitarist Details Being Fired From Band After Coming Out as Transgender NBC News: Transgender man files discrimination suit after Maryland hospital cancels hysterectomy… the center canceled… [more]
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Jessica Valenti is very tired of writing the same column over and over again. I hate that I’m writing this column. Over the years, I’ve published versionafter version of it: how the majority of mass shooters have a history of domestic violence; how misogyny is a clear and obvious indicator of future violence; and how… [more]
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Another week, another wise and witty column from Jenny Boylan. I won’t spoil the opener because it really made me laugh and I think it will really make you laugh too. But the column isn’t just about a funny misunderstanding. It’s about having a disability, about consideration for others, about being different. I’ve spent too much… [more]
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Labour MP Nadia Whittome has a way with words. Today she said the government’s endless prevarication over gender recognition (GRA) reform was “fanning the flames of populist hate”. She’s right. We’re now going into the third “silly season” where it’s open season on trans people in the media and on social media. GRA reform is… [more]
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On Twitter, Dan Barker has posted an interesting thread showing how terrible reporting becomes conspiracy theory nonsense. It begins with The Telegraph. Its science editor reported that lockdown could cause as many as 200,000 preventable deaths, and the headline was clear: The same claim was then posted by other news outlets citing the Telegraph. For… [more]
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Trans Health UK has posted an update on the few services gender clinics are currently providing. It’s summarised in this image: Look at that bottom row: that’s the current waiting time for a first appointment. Not a prescription or a referral to anything; just a first assessment. The trend was obvious long before COVID-19 came… [more]
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Nesrine Malik in The Guardian writes about manufacturing dissent for ratings and clicks: The forums in which we find ourselves debating issues – Brexit, immigration or “identity politics†– are structurally designed to exacerbate, rather than resolve or even explore, differences. Conflict is favoured over conversation, animosity over inquiry. Usually, disagreements that happen on social media… [more]
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Last year, Ofcom found that 49% of the UK population used social media to access news reporting; the Pew Research Center reported a similar figure, 55%, in the US. Much of the news people see and share on social media is highly partisan, and it’s often highly inaccurate too. Right-wing bullshit factories have come to… [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.
