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Earlier this week the BBC explained what it’s going to do to help during the Coronavirus crisis. The short version: a lot. Here’s just one part of it, the education section: In the event that schools are shut down, and subject to further work and discussions with the Department for Education, devolved administrations and schools, [more]
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There are lots of good causes hoping for your attention and your cash right now, and I’d like to mention one that’s close to my heart: The Ice Box arts and music centre in Glasgow. It’s struggling and without financial help it may not be able to re-open its doors. They’re raising money here. The [more]
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I’ve become a little bit obsessed by the marketing for Positive Grid’s SPARK, a very clever guitar amplifier. In recent weeks I’ve been seeing a lot of videos like the one pictured below, in which really amazing women guitarists test the amp. I’m not used to seeing women in marketing for musical stuff, which tends [more]
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I know, I know. I’m sick of it too and there are plenty of other things to worry about. But the Scottish consultation on gender recognition reform closes tonight and you can be certain that the worst people have made their voices heard. I know of lots of people who’ve been meaning to do this [more]
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One of the most incredible things I’ve seen in recent days is transphobes gleefully predicting that coronavirus will kill lots of trans women. They’re responding to Chinese stats that indicate a higher fatality rate among infected men than women; this, apparently, means those of us assigned male at birth will get our just desserts for [more]
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The Coronavirus pandemic has brought out the best in many people. But it’s also brought out the worst in others, as the panic buying in your local supermarket demonstrates. But the selfish sods filling their vans with enough toilet paper for an army pale in comparison to this arsehole. On March 1, the day after [more]
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The new ZZ Top documentary, That Little Ol’ Band From Texas, is a little Netflix gem. It traces the history of the band from their earliest musical adventures until the release of their smash hit Eliminator  in 1983, which coincided with the launch of MTV. I’d have liked it to continue – the band didn’t [more]
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Another thoughtful column: Laura Waddell on feminism, transphobia and GRA reform. …often the cry of “listen to women†comes up. So let’s do that now. Here’s what women’s organisations across Scotland have actually said. During the original consultation, Close the Gap, Engender, Equate Scotland, Rape Crisis Scotland, Scottish Women’s Aid, Women 50:50 and Zero Tolerance [more]
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A thoughtful piece on feminism and trans women by Scots author Elaine Gunn: I get it – honestly, I understand how protective women feel of their safe spaces. In a world that feels unsafe a lot of the time, where our rights are hard-won and grudged at every step, it’s reasonable to feel nervous and [more]
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Writing in The Guardian, Zoe Williams takes a very different stance from the majority of Guardian pieces on trans rights. As she points out, it isn’t the anti-trans feminists who are being silenced here. All kinds of voices have been excluded. The experience of trans men, for instance, has been more or less erased, because [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.
