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The LGB Alliance, on the actual anniversary of Section 28: “We never demanded society change its laws” isn’t just shockingly ignorant, although of course it is. It’s also a grossly offensive insult to the thousands of gay, bisexual and lesbian people (and of course trans people, but the LGBA doesn’t even pretend to care about… [more]
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This is an extraordinary story. One day in December 2016 a 37-year-old British artist named Sam Winston equipped himself with a step-ladder, a pair of scissors, several rolls of black-out cloth and a huge supply of duct tape, and set about a project he had been considering for some time. …No screens. No sun. No… [more]
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Laura Bassett, writing for GQ.com, explains how the US Christian Right moved from being largely pro-abortion (in some cases because they were racist and believed abortion would limit the number of black children) to becoming militantly against it. The short version: strategists used abortion as a wedge issue to rally the faithful and grow the… [more]
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There’s an interesting interview in PinkNews with Alison Phipps, author of Me Not You: The Trouble With Mainstream Feminism. The book is very critical of the often very privileged white women whose feminism excludes women of colour, poor women, incarcerated women, sex workers, trans women and disabled women. This bit is short and to the… [more]
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David Paisley took a look at the Twitter feed for the LGB Alliance on the international day against homophobia, biphobia and transphobia (#IDAHOBIT); you’d expect a group that says it’s standing up for lesbian, gay and bisexual people to have something to say about ignorance and bigotry. He made this image. On the left, all… [more]
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Many [press reports say “thousands” of] cisgender women have signed an open letter to women and equalities minister Liz Truss expressing their concern at her apparent plans for the gender recognition act. Trans equality was not widely seen as an issue until the Transgender Equality Inquiry of 2015 triggered a concerted campaign in the media… [more]
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It’s 32 years since the Conservatives introduced Section 28. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay. All of those children are being cheated of a sound start in life. Yes, cheated.… [more]
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Peter Geoghegan and Mary Fitzgerald in The Guardian on the “lockdown sceptics“: It is no surprise that so many professional contrarians are paid-up lockdown sceptics. They are products of our distorted media ecosystem, which invariably privileges heat over light. For them, the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about –… [more]
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Pinknews: The ‘gender critical’ feminist movement is a cult that grooms, controls and abuses, according to a lesbian who managed to escape. …“They really don’t even care about gay people, which is the bottom line [for me],†she says. “They’re going for gay rights too, including marriages, the rainbow, LGBT+ clubs in schools.†[more]
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Liberty: Liberty joins other UK human rights organisations to say: trans rights are human rights. In a joint statement with Amnesty International UK and Human Rights Watch it says: “Human rights are universal and belong to everyone. Yet too often in the UK trans people are spoken about and treated as though their rights don’t… [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.
