Out now: my book, about the institutional and localized impact of anti-trans campaigns in the UK. C1 + 4 analyse the anti-trans outputs of JKR and R.Gervais; C2 + 3 about GC ideology and anti-trans campaigns on a uni campus; C5 about media; C6 about the beauty and magic of being trans in Edinburgh.

Samara Rafert@rafertess.bsky.social · 2w ago

@ginagwenffrewi.bsky.social's JK ROWLING AND THE ANTI-TRANS PANIC, just published by Ohio State Press, is an @autostraddle.bsky.social most anticipated queer book for September! www.autostraddle.com/our-most-ant...

If you want to know how the anti-trans panic ends, go the Edinburgh Festival. Every year, thousands of queer-adjacent acts. None are 'gender critical.' The idea of theatre portraying a marginalized minority as monstrous would be obscene, it's fascism. And everyone knows it. The future is ours.

CN Lester 🏳️‍⚧️@cnlester.bsky.social · 2w ago

Fantastic thread, and a really important reminder that - no matter how bad things are, think how much worse they would be without the extraordinary fight we've put up. It's hard to feel that a lot of the time - that slowing the onslaught is not the same as accepting total defeat. But it's true.

Advice wanted: I've been contacted by Times Higher Education for a statement on the EHRC's CoP and its impact on HE. My instinct is to avoid responding entirely: they'll almost certainly misgender me, and they've been fuelling the anti-trans panic for a decade. Or is engagement better?

Further disheartening confirmation of Novara’s shift away from coverage that defends trans people. Co-host M. Walker defends Kathleen Stock (49.38) against campus protests, claiming her views reflect the majority of country, & diversity in academia is important (1/5) www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rv3...

My hot take: Nolan's Odyssey recounts a stag party gone wrong: bloke and his mates go on a series of destructive adventures; bloke ends up on an island with a woman trying to jog his memory of where he's from; meanwhile, his partner's at home, pacing back and forth, wondering where the f*** he is.

With the current Amnesty International situation, I think this is a good time to re-promote my upcoming book, 'JK Rowling and the Anti-Trans Panic' (Ohio State University Press), which partly analyses JK Rowling's activism in relation to organised transphobia. Out in September; pre-order now.

Gina Gwenffrewi@ginagwenffrewi.bsky.social · 5mo ago

My academic book, ‘JK Rowling and the Anti-Trans Panic,’ is out September 2026. It is my analysis of the moral panic from Edinburgh, the ‘city of JK Rowling,’ where I study and work at JKR’s former university as it became a hub for anti-trans organizing … ohiostatepress.org/books/titles...

With our further loss of rights this week, it's more important than ever to celebrate the work of trans artists. In the case of Roz Kaveney's brilliant chapbook The Great Good Time, it's a reminder that things have been bad before, but we will survive. My review: www.ginamaya.co.uk/books-music/...

Roz Kaveney’s The Great Good Time (2022)

Twenty-eight years after its completion, Roz Kaveney’s semi-biographical novel Tiny Pieces of Skull (2016) won the Lambda Literary prize for its poignant depiction of trans sex workers in 1970s/80s Lo...

ginamaya.co.uk

When trans culture's vitality should be celebrated more than ever, Roz Kaveney @rozkaveney.bsky.social publishes her wonderful new book of poetics: "We’re in a war... share my darlings share listen and read Our texts our bodies all we are and need." Review here: www.ginamaya.co.uk/books-music/...

Roz Kaveney: Further Selected Poems 2009-2025

It was in 2018 that the trans scholar Aren Aizura highlighted “the enormous groundswell of transgender cultural production in the 2010s” (2018: 89), inclusive of literature and the arts. Since then, t...

ginamaya.co.uk

This evening Novara M. finally addressed Labour's assault on trans rights. It took a show hosted by Helena (NoJusticeMTG) and Steven Methven - I'm still not sure Walker or Bastani would have done so - but respect to Helena and Steven for doing this so unambiguously. www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE0p...

Russian Drone Strikes Kill Dozens In Kyiv

YouTube video by Novara Media

youtube.com

The framing of D. Cummings as an uncategorizable visionary, as depicted by B. Cumberbatch in 'Brexit: The Uncivil War' (2019), was annoying because Brexit wasn't radical and neither was Cummings. It was a conservative reaction by a conservative reactionary. This development simply confirms it.

Another great article by Toby Buckle, including about the media on Starmer's legacy on trans rights: "They can only see the middle-class affect, not the substance...One gets the...impression of people who would not notice any amount of oppression providing it was presented in this simpering way."

Toby Buckle@polphilpod.bsky.social · 3mo ago

the write ups of the pm's fall never mention his biggest reforms—those that made the uk far, far worse for minorities my latest for @liberalcurrents.com www.liberalcurrents.com/starmer-out/

Some thoughts about Novara Media, which I've been a paying subscriber for a number of years. The larger they've grown, in recent years, the less they're speaking up about the assault on trans rights, as if trans issues are toxic and divisive to their growing audience ...

The 'gender critical' depiction of women's prisons as safe spaces (to be protected against trans women's inclusion) is anti-feminist. Prisons are places of violence, as this latest news reveals: archive.ph/KzVEW

Tristan Grayford@tristangrayford.scot · 3mo ago

"The court did not accept that putting a trans woman in a male prison would place her at higher risk, because the Scottish Police Service is "adept at managing safely" vulnerable biological male prisoners." An actual statement in an actual judgement by an actual Scottish judge 🤯

I spend so much time online, but here I am with part of my trans and queer found family exploring the waterfalls and wildlife in the town of Dolar, north of Edinburgh, with perfect hiking weather: cool breeze, no rain. Message to those who wish to legislate us out of existence: we are everywhere.

There was a lot of goodwill for Andy Burnham, in order to stop Reform. But it's become clear he's just another Starmer clone, representing a different kind of Labour Marxism: Groucho Marx(ism) and his 'These are my principles, if you don't like 'em, I have others.' I'm off the fence: vote Green.

The Green Party of England & Wales@greenparty.org.uk · 4mo ago

Meet Sarah Wakefield. Manchester City councillor, mum of two, sustainable food campaigner - and your Green MP candidate for Makerfield.

For anyone around Edinburgh tomorrow evening (i.e. Wednesday, 13 May), for one night only at the Filmhouse and co-hosted by SQIFF, the documentary 'Queer as Punk' about a queer/trans punk band in Malaysia battling transphobia/queerphobia through kick-ass music: www.filmhouse.org.uk/movie/queer-...

Queer as Punk + intro + pre-recorded Q&A

Cinetopia:DOC in collaboration with SQIFF (Scottish Queer International Film Festival) presents this Scottish special preview of Queer As Punk ahead of its wider UK release with T A P E Collective. Th...

filmhouse.org.uk

My academic book, ‘JK Rowling and the Anti-Trans Panic,’ is out September 2026. It is my analysis of the moral panic from Edinburgh, the ‘city of JK Rowling,’ where I study and work at JKR’s former university as it became a hub for anti-trans organizing … ohiostatepress.org/books/titles...

J. K. Rowling and the Anti-Trans Panic

Weaves the author’s lived experience as a trans woman with pop culture and media analysis to dissect J. K. Rowling’s emergence as an anti-trans activist within the context of the UK’s anti-trans moral...

ohiostatepress.org

The Office for Students was set up in 2018 after pressure from the dark money-backed, right-wing Policy Exchange and its manufacturing of a campus free speech crisis, in order to enable hate speech. This is a major victory for marginalized groups everywhere, and a defeat for liberal-backed fascism.

hannah@hannahkateboast.bsky.social · 5mo ago

The Office for Students needs shutting down. This judgement makes clearer than ever that it's simply a partisan organisation used by the right, including government ministers, to suppress academic freedom and freedom of expression of left-wing staff and students. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

For aspiring queer and trans filmmakers, SQIFF is inviting applications for its 10-week filmmaking course up in Glasgow between May-August 2026. Click on the link for details for more information:

SQIFF (Scottish Queer International Film Festival)@sqiff.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Apply now for 💥SATURATE: Queer Filmmaking Course by SQIFF💥 A free practical 10 week filmmaking course which will cover the entire independent filmmaking process from beginning to end, grounded in LGBTQIA+ film history, screenings, and readings. 📍Deadline: 3rd May docs.google.com/forms/d/1J7j...

"[James Baldwin] wrote, not because he believed the writing would fix it, but because the alternative of silence, surrender, and the acceptance of someone else’s description of your reality, was itself a form of death." Powerful reflections on the anti-trans climate by Alejandra Caraballo ...

Alejandra Caraballo@esqueer.net · 6mo ago

I spent the last week writing up this essay on what it means to be trans in this moment. What it means to live under authoritarianism as the scapegoated minority of the moment and how it feels inescapable as an infinite loop. www.thedissident.news/exit-conditi...

A Guardian journalist's condescension against younger generations gets to the heart of some of the adjacent cruelty against trans youth: "We contain multitudes, and nothing is black or white. And whatever young people think now, they will learn this too – and probably sooner than they would like."

This is a powerful story for me. Several branches of the Women's Institute are closing across the UK in protest at the new trans-exclusionary ban against trans women. It cuts through the lie by the media and GC groups about speaking on behalf of women. Solidarity. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

‘Carnage of concern and upset’: Women’s Institute groups close after transgender ban

Members warn NFWI decision has opened up toxic culture that deters younger women from joining

theguardian.com

Superb analysis of Sex Matters' eliminationist agenda against trans people: "some are starting to realise supporting Sex Matters’ position has entangled them in something they never sign up for ... those seeking compromise find they have surrendered nearly everything they once stood for"

TACC@tacc.org.uk · 7mo ago

This is a must-read: Appeasing Sex Matters was never about “clarity”. It was about power. What followed the Supreme Court ruling wasn’t calm or resolution, but escalating demands, wider exclusions, and institutions choosing fear over inclusion. yorkshirebylines.co.uk/opinion/what...

Exciting news for U.K.-based people who love theatre, literature or creative writing and have dreamed of spending summer weeks up in Edinburgh. SUISS are now offering for the first time a Domestic Student Discount of 30% off course fees. Come study with us! Registration now open:

Accepting Applications: 13th July - 22nd August 2026 – Scottish Universities International Summer School

We're now accepting applications for our summer school courses in Literature, Creative Writing, and Theatre at the University of Edinburgh!

suiss.ed.ac.uk

For anyone looking for an immersive, LGBTQI+-welcoming experience this summer, come study at the SUISS summer school school in Edinburgh in 2026. Courses on literature, creative writing and theatre, the latter coinciding with the queer-friendly Edinburgh Fringe/Festival and its thousands of shows.

Scottish Universities' International Summer School@suiss-edi.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Come study literature, theatre or creative writing at the SUISS summer school in beautiful Edinburgh, for 2026. Spend your mornings immersed in learning before soaking up the city’s summer festivals or wandering the city’s ancient streets and hills. Applications now open: www.suiss.ed.ac.uk

My critical analysis of the anti-trans astroturf group, the LGB Alliance, has just been published in the special edition of the Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies. I recommend the whole special edition - it's open access, no pay wall. bulletin.appliedtransstudies.org/article/4/1-...

Are you doing research on anti-trans politics? Consider submitting to the special issue of @cogitatiopag.bsky.social 'Global Politics and Anti-Trans Moral Panics: Transfeminist Perspectives', co-edited by me, @ashstokoe.bsky.social and @ginagwenffrewi.bsky.social to be published in 2027 (1/2)

Future Issues | Politics and Governance

Politics and Governance is an innovative new offering to the world of online peer-reviewed open access publishing in the Political Sciences.

cogitatiopress.com

The pub I was in yesterday had no gender-neutral toilets. It highlights the impracticality of what's being demanded of us. But that's the lesser issue. Asking trans people to stop using the single-sex toilets that match their gender is asking them to participate in their own detransition.

I've just been contacted by a media team that want to interview me for a YouTube show about 'free speech' and 'cancel culture,' provisionally titled 'The impossible conversation.' I said, 'no thanks.' It really hit home the contrived, asymmetrical nature of these continuing narratives ... 1/

Good news! UCU have won an employment tribunal against the directors of the film 'Adult Human Female,' who claimed UCU's protest against the screening of the film represented discrimination and harassment due to their GC beliefs. UCU press release here for details: www.ucu.org.uk/article/1404...

Employment Tribunal rejects claims University and College Union discriminated against members on grounds of their gender critical beliefs

The University and College Union has successfully defended claims against it in an Employment Tribunal from two UCU members who claim they had been discriminated against and harassed by the union beca...

ucu.org.uk