Brief notes on today's discourse: - US folk should do whatever they can to avoid transphobia becoming bipartisan consensus. It's so bad. - Punishing and sidelining dems who capitulate to fascist framings is good for long term health anyway - Yes the specifics of the election matter to the decision.

This is why I think the retelling of accurate history is so important. Self ID was dropped by the Tories in 2020 and then Labour in 2023, which was around the time Stonewall was starting to quiet down too.

Defiantly Alice@mechanival.bsky.social · yesterday

Every time I see an American claim that trans people kill their own support, I think about how in the UK, self ID polled majority support until the media attacked it. When Labour accepted self ID should die, we were told to let them win, it would get better. Now we have a bathroom ban. Fuck you.

Sure would be a shame if everyone flooded their complaints inbox about this transphobic, misogynist bullshit. Nobody should be reduced to their capacity for child rearing but the bbc news team apparently thinks that is the most important fact to communicate. www.bbc.co.uk/contact/comp...

Elizabeth Taylor@elizabethtaylor47.bsky.social · 2w ago

I can’t put into words the fury this reporting fills me with. How more indignity must trans people be spoken be subjected to by our national broadcaster?

Picture the scene: It’s 2am, and a gas explosion has levelled a building, the whole street is uninhabitable. You are a local authority emergency planning & response officer trying to set up a rest centre. How tf are you supposed to be following the EHRC code there? Experts say you can’t

LGBTQIA in DRR@lgbtqiaindrr.bsky.social · 2w ago

This Sunday's #disasters & #LGBTQIA+ reading suggestion is; No safe option in times of crisis: Why the EHRC Code cannot be applied safely to trans and non-binary people in an emergency response (2026) by Kevin Blanchard Link bit.ly/DRR_EHRC (row 235 on our spreadsheet) #InclusiveDRR

This was already pretty clear to be honest, the UK publishing sector has a long long history of pushing completely fabricated misery memoirs whose job is to blend heartwrenching/gory details and the confirmation of people's odd beliefs about poverty or marginalisation www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8Nh...

The Rise and Fall of Misery Memoirs

YouTube video by Sarah Z

youtube.com

Mark Wallace@wallaceme.bsky.social · 3w ago

Amazingly damaging Today Programme interview by Alexandra Pringle essentially machinegunning the credibility of all memoirs to excuse Simon & Schuster over the Arday book.

Dude very nearly predicted the current trans panic and journalistic response to it word-perfect. In 2011. Arguing with Andrew Sullivan about the "well hang on, let's hear them out" tendency of journalists wrt eugenicists who have obvious ulterior motives.

ryan cooper@ryanlcooper.com · 3w ago

amusing post from @himself.bsky.social at the time crookedtimber.org/2011/11/29/g...

Watching the concept of 'woke 1.0' crystallise over the last couple weeks has been fascinating. Ah! A sudden consensus appears from nowhere! How curious. All they want is to be told no, there are no subjective moral standards to which you will be held accountable by the public anymore.

Michael Hobbes@michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 4w ago

Just once I would love one of these columns to identify precisely what this means. Who, specifically, needs to "acknowledge and reject" wokeness? What would such an acknowledgement look like? Is there anything conservatives need to acknowledge or reject in their own coalition?

The cold fury this puts in my chest. Gleefully burning rare books - whether they are considered valuable or not - on the altar of hype and profit, siezing and fencing off the intellectual commons to sell back to us, is just disgusting. Someone [redacted] immediately.

404 Media@404media.co · 4w ago

SCOOP: 404 Media placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it. What did we find? It ended up at an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books. Yes. This is literally the logo outside the Amazon warehouse door. Read now:

Once you start seeing it through this lens, a remarkable proportion of books, op eds, features, even news pieces can be summarised as "why won't my darling child go back to how they were when they accepted my complete authority over them, before they self-actualised (and got QUEER)"

Sheryl Weikal says Prosecute ICE@leftistlawyer.com · 4w ago

Lol the New York Times literally went from "being trans is self mutilation" to "cutting off your transphobic parents is self mutilation"

Plenty to reflect about re: the Arday affair, but I'm going to repeat this one thing. The playbook the right used here is effective even though it's not especially sophisticated, as it relies on the audience to do the dirty work. I've been calling it "Trojan horse propaganda", let's go with that. 1/

Press regulation now. It shouldn't take more people losing their lives to dehumanisation and vilification in the 'news', not because their stories or misdeeds warranted it but because it gave ammunition for the pet panics of a reactionary media that's lost touch with reality.

"Things are newsworthy when they reinforce my beliefs about the people who annoy me on the internet. I am a successful and senior British journalist."

flyingrodent@flyingrodent.bsky.social · last mo.

I again note: we wasted at least *six years* on the Keir Starmer project, premised upon the idea that the public were just crying out for mean-as-fuck crackdowns Labour with National Front rhetoric and policies. All the smart lads loved it and then, it turned out those voters just *do not exist*.

Should be pinned to the top of every single intercommunity argument about tactics. In particular: the people doing the kind of direct action work that other people like to fantasise about online are ABSOLUTELY not talking about it online, are you high? Doing the work > masturbatory discourse

Personally I reckon calls for more bathroom provision for workers could be a good opportunity to be in solidarity with allies with similar goals and align them to push for what we all want, rather than something we dismiss to highlight our plight. ALSO yes the relative timidity on our access sucks.

This is dire even by political polling standards. Utterly misleading and shoddy about it. And from a *registered UK charity* whose legal objects are "advancing education & raising awareness" and "conducting or commissioning research on equality & diversity issues". They are the GWPF of gay groups.

Parker Molloy@parkermolloy.com · 2mo ago

The anti-trans group LGB Alliance posted this to Twitter, and I find it genuinely funny. Once you read the methodology section on their survey, it's clear that this survey only tells you that people who already support this group... agree with the group.

The Scottish Parliament's decision to collect and present data based on 'biological sex' has made it harder for researchers to use data to understand and tackle inequalities. 📝 I've written to the Scottish Parliament requesting information on this change: kevinguyan.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...

Trying to make sense of gender pay gap reporting after the UK Supreme Court ruling on 'sex'? 🔢 @jenitennison.com has written a guest post for the Gender + Sexuality Data Lab explaining why organisations should continue to report gender data. gensexdatalab.business-school.ed.ac.uk/updates/orga...

👇

Bristol University Press@brisunipress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

This year’s ILGA Rainbow Map of Europe placed the UK near the bottom with regard to #TransRights, stating that after For Women Scotland, there is effectively no longer a legal gender recognition system in the jurisdiction. https://ow.ly/RuJm50ZiB4m

It is understandable but disappointing when elected politicians defer to polling on human rights issues. It is utterly unacceptable - indeed a dereliction of duty - for the chair of a body whose purpose is to uphold human rights to defer to polling on human rights issues. A scandal.

The driver for changing away from this blanket policy was the deaths of 4 trans women in prisons around 2015/16. Now the courts seem to be saying trans people dying doesn't matter, ideology is more important, and more cruelty ensures.

Rob Mullins@robertmullins.bsky.social · 3mo ago

This judgment has convinced me that the only way forward is new legislation. In the meantime, trans people will be raped in prison and commit suicide more often than they already do.

If lawmakers are serious about protecting children, they should roll back age-verification policies and start targeting the systems that incentivise mass surveillance. Read my latest print piece for The Guardian 👇 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Lot of people have told me over the past year that it's dangerous to undermine confidence in the court system and the perfect unbiasedness of judges. Girl the call is coming from inside the house. The bench undermines its own credibility. How much embarrassing shit will people ignore?

The racist pogroms in the UK are going to produce even more calls for compromise and understanding with the racists’ “reasonable concerns” but that is exactly what got us here.

🚨 NEW: 27 Members of Parliament have signed a motion to reject the EHRC Code of Practice edm.parliament.uk/early-day-mo... Ask yours to join them: equalrecognition.eaction.org.uk/rejectthecode

Draft Code of Practice on Services, public functions and associations - Early Day Motions - UK Parliament

That the draft Code of Practice for Services, public functions and associations, a copy of which was laid before this House on 21 May, be disapproved.

edm.parliament.uk

Textbook moral panic language, including (subconsciously I suspect) namechecking a notable moral panic book.

flyingrodent@flyingrodent.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I used to stay up half the night playing mid-90s video games, reading books or watching TV. Watching TV at a time when there were only two or three channels broadcasting.

Today we have published an in-depth summary of the EHRC’s Code of Practice. See our full statement and summary below.

Scottish Trans@scottishtrans.bsky.social · 4mo ago

After taking a few days to read and process the EHRC’s new Code of Practice we have produced an in-depth summary of its changes & what we believe they mean for trans people & organisations who wish to be inclusive. You can read it in full on our website here: www.scottishtrans.org/supreme-cour...

"I'd be remiss if I didn't also point out, as an American trans person, that Labour's bathroom policy is significantly more bigoted, invasive, and restrictive towards trans people than anything that any American Republican red state has managed to implement."

Katelyn Burns@katelynburns.com · 4mo ago

For my Friday Sick Burns post, I wrote down some angry thoughts about the UK bathroom ban announced this week by the allegedly left wing Labour Party. www.burnsnotice.com/there-has-ne...

Apparently the timeline today is talking about whether the Starmer government is anti-trans. So just to remind folks that they have: - Welcomed the courts striking down the GRA and trans protections in EA2010 - Laid waste to youth healthcare and made it pretty conversion-y - Done a trans section 28

I don't remember the last good speech I heard from a politician in English. I don't mean good as in I agree with it, just in term of oratory as a skill. Making a coherent argument convincingly and with wit and emotion. Making a moment feel historic. Not giving off supply teacher energy.