Weaponising rhetoric around women and children is nothing new. As I've noted on this blog before, the populist democracy of ancient Athens was perfectly capable of using it to have public intellectuals executed and making smears the basis of a lawfare case to drive a political rival out of the …

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Since the UK Supreme Court have seen fit to rewrite the Equality Act in this Easter week (at least in the Western Christian calendar), it seems fitting to think about the crucifixion of trans people. Before the far-right who have never entered a church, still less opened a Bible, yell …

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Reflections on a Journey to a GRC

The arrival, today, of my updated birth certificate prompts many thoughts. Where should I stash the second copy in case we have to make a run for it? Why is my dad's profession on my birth certificate? How miraculous is it that the …

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What is the Problem with Trans Healthcare?

Today I went to the annual Scottish Trans Pride march, which this year took place in Kilmarnock. After the march, there were the usual stalls, but in a new departure, there were workshops, including a panel discussion with political and NGO figures. The …

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Timing has never been my strong point, and so now that LGBT History Month has gone by, it is the obvious time to write a post about trans history. There are two main reasons for me doing so now. First, a couple of pieces of mine have recently emerged, one …

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I've been on Twitter, technically, for about a decade, but hardly ever used it. I did the whole flamewar thing in the 1990s on mailing lists and newsgroups, and the appeal of doing that kind of thing again in a short form-factor just seemed too exhausting. And yet, I've lately …

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