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I mentioned that today is the international day against homophobia, biphobia and transphobia but I don’t think I’ve ever explained what transphobia actually is. The Trans Actual website has put together a comprehensive explanation. Transphobia, like homophobia and biphobia, is an umbrella term to describe various negative attitudes towards people based on a single characteristic:… [more]
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Equalities minister Liz Truss has marked international day against homophobia, biphobia and transphobia with a feel-good Twitter message: ðŸ³ï¸â€ðŸŒˆ It’s the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. We are proud of the progress 🇬🇧 has made on LGBT rights. We will be hosting an international LGBT conference on the theme of Safe to Be… [more]
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This is the sound of a nail being hit squarely on the head (video in the pic.twitter.com link). It’s not about “reopening the economy.” People aren’t protesting for the right to BE waitresses and hairdressers, they’re fighting for the right to HAVE them. This is about white people demanding service. pic.twitter.com/KMupBTuAha — jess mcintosh (@jess_mc)… [more]
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There’s a famous cartoon by artist KC Green: As Green told The Verge, it’s popular because: it’s a feeling we all have, apparently. It’s a feeling we all get of, just like, “Things are burning down around me, but you got to have smile sometimes.” It’s a basic human [feeling], “Well, what are you going… [more]
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As a rule of thumb, when a famous company goes under it’s usually because private equity firms bought it, hollowed it out and loaded it with so much debt that even a relatively small drop in demand made it unsustainable. As David Turner writes, private equity has had a huge influence on the music business… [more]
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During the AIDS epidemic, some people who didn’t want to wear condoms claimed that it wasn’t because they were selfishly putting other people at risk; it was that the virus was so small that it could pass through microscopic gaps in the material condoms were made from, so there was no point in people wearing… [more]
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According to STV and Glasgow Live, there are “mass gatherings” planned for Glasgow this weekend to protest against the lockdown. The story is interesting for all the wrong reasons. Reason number one is that it isn’t true. A couple of far-right yahoos [update: their group is a front for the racist Britain First] have shared… [more]
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A great piece by Pam Mandel in Longreads about online dating in her 50s: When I can’t sleep, I pet the dog and listlessly scroll through profiles, feeling all the markings of my 55 years, looking for something — someone — to stop that feeling of loss. It’s bad for me, junk food for my… [more]
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Jon Alexander, on Medium.com: The immediate response to the government’s new Covid19 messaging has been a mixture of confusion and outrage. Commentators and academics seem bemused, the only possible explanation being that the government is incompetent. But actually, I think it’s very deliberate — and if their ultimate goal is to retain power rather than… [more]
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Neil Mackay in The Herald writes about SNP factionalism: The SNP has always had a fractious, bitter, conspiratorial base, which some politicians have pandered to in the past. Now, it seems as if the base is coming overground, as if the base is set on taking the party over. …will I ever vote SNP again?… [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.
