Thrilled to see this piece with Douglas Page & Sam Whitt) published in PRQ! We examine how LGBT+ activists can counter backlash by discrediting anti-LGBT+ messengers. Huge thanks to the PRQ editors and reviewers for their thoughtful feedback. 🔗 Read it here: 🧵 (1/4)

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

journals.sagepub.com

“Outrage disseminated on social media in response to these ridiculous claims actually reduces the effectiveness of collective action. The result is a media environment that keeps us in a state of debilitating fear and anger, endlessly reacting to our oppressors instead of organizing against them.”

You Can’t Post Your Way Out of Fascism

Authoritarians and tech CEOs now share the same goal: to keep us locked in an eternal doomscroll instead of organizing against them, Janus Rose writes.

404media.co

The AI Opportunities Action Plan (Matt Clifford report), trailed in today’s morning news is now out in full. I’ve read it, and here’s a few observations 1/10 Link to full report assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6784eb...

UK WRITERS: You need to fill in this consulation. Govt is very clearly looking to an opt-out model of rights licensing that puts all the burden on creators instead of profiteers. It's long and boring but this is important. www.gov.uk/government/c...

Copyright and Artificial Intelligence

This consultation seeks views on how the government can ensure the UK’s legal framework for AI and copyright supports the UK creative industries and AI sector together.

gov.uk

We are deeply concerned by the decision by @teamlabouruk.bsky.social @rthonwesstreeting.bsky.social to ban puberty blockers. It's hard to fathom how he can say he cares for the wellbeing, safety and dignity of trans people, based on this decision. This is wrong, cruel and heartless.

Sian Berry MP@sianberry.bsky.social · 2y ago

Continuing the ban on puberty blockers is a worrying decision. The same medication continues to be used safely by young people for other reasons. By relying on the reason for prescription, is this ban simply discrimination against our #trans youth? 👇

With the UK Parliament reportedly considering a longer-term ban on puberty blockers, here is the evidence against the ban I provided to the UK Government and Commission on Human Medicines. I have no doubt that Parliament will ignore that evidence today. But this is a long fight we intend to win.

Puberty blocker consultation: my response

In early September I recieved an email from the Department for Health and Social Care, inviting me to participate in a closed consultation on the Labour government’s proposed extension of the…

ruthpearce.net

As in Tennessee, this ban does not apply to cis children, because the drugs themselves are not a safety hazard. The only thing at risk is a society’s discomfort with allowing young people to make their own decisions about their own bodies.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2y ago

Puberty blockers to be banned indefinitely for under-18s across UK

Caroline Litman is the mother of Alice Litman, a young trans woman who died to suicide at 20. An official inquest found NHS delays in offering medical transition contributed to Alice's suicide. Today, she has found an audit of trans suicides used to exonerate the NHS did not include her daughter.

Caroline Litman@alicemydaughter.bsky.social · 2y ago

BREAKING On the day the UK government announces a permanent puberty blocker ban I learn: ALICE’S DATA WAS NOT INCLUDED in data sent to Appleby to assess for his rushed DHSC report, that dismissed whistleblower claims of increased suicides in trans youth since Bell. The report is a proven sham.

Tucked into the Cass Report, deep in the appendices, you'll find that they reviewed thousands of patient records and found no one who'd been harmed by puberty blockers and fewer than 10 detransitions.

Arthur Webber 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈@bernietranders.bsky.social · 2y ago

It’s even worse knowing that Wes actually met trans kids, listened to them cry about how awful it would be to go through the wrong puberty, how this is a lifesaving treatment, and is fucking doing this anyway It’s even more heartless than shutting them out of conversations

Day 6! 🎁🎁🎁 @simonjlock.bsky.social is reading Systems Ultra by @gsvoss.bsky.social which "brings a multidisciplinary eye to the importance of large-scale technological systems from industrial ports to air traffic control to car crash testing, unpicking and challenging how power flows through them".

Queer & Trans Studies Cultural Studies Starter Pack. This one was a bit tricky and there’s lots of room left in here still. LMK who I’m missing —was looking to build a list of queer & trans cultural studies (and adjacent) folks mostly, as I haven’t seen on of thede on here yet. go.bsky.app/6tcCTzg

I can only assume that the Times wanted to keep these definitions

“How’d the world die? A pack of no-talent tech grifters created a digital artbarf machine to spew endless artbarf and each time the machine threw up it drank more water, destroyed more resources. Nobody wanted it but they did it anyway! Eat your roach paste.” www.thebookseller.com/news/new-pub...

New publisher Spines aims to 'disrupt' industry by using AI to publish 8,000 books in 2025 alone

A new publisher has claimed it aims to “disrupt” the books industry by publishing 8,000 books in 2025 alone using artificial intelligence.

thebookseller.com

This obsession is unhealthy. Our horizons are fine. Also social media, for most, is not a job. It is not school. It is socializing. And it’s fine to say “I don’t want to hang out with Nazis, homophobes, transphobes etc in my free time.”

The Globe and Mail@theglobeandmail.com · 2y ago

Opinion - The problem with Bluesky: It won’t broaden our horizons: In the wake of Donald Trump’s election win, the social-media platform has enjoyed a surge of new users looking for an alternative to Elon Musk’s X. But will it be useful, if it just creates an echo chamber for the left?

I have created a Starter Pack for British Trans Activism Let's start organising and making the UK a better place. We've been on the defense for too long 🇬🇧🏳️‍⚧️✊ go.bsky.app/N6Qai5F

There can be no left resistance to the reactionary onslaught without an uncompromising radical intersectional commitment You can't fight fascism if you're not fighting racism, transphobia, ableism, classism etc There can be no pick and choose and no opposing one to the other

Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance. We have witnessed another year of violence, harassment, and policing of trans people. As we mourn, we must continue to challenge politics that ritually subjects trans folk to debates about their existence and degrades trans lives as an “ideology” or “agenda.”

Normalize Professors: ⁃ Having tattoos ⁃ Having body piercings ⁃ Having colored hair ⁃ Wearing casual clothing - Wearing (excessive) jewelry ⁃ Speaking non-academic English

Omg. Paging @damianbarr.bsky.social

Scarred For Life@scarredforlife.bsky.social · 2y ago

It's Christmaaaaas! BBC4 are repeating THE BOX OF DELIGHTS from Saturday 7th December at 7.10pm, with a new introduction from director Renny Rye at 7pm!

since all the "gender critical"/TERFs are migrating here, thought I'd share this primer explaining their history, dissecting their beliefs, & debunking their talking points. no-paywall links, pls share! Substack: juliaserano.substack.com/p/a-gender-c... Medium: juliaserano.medium.com/a-gender-cri...

A “Gender Critical” and “TERF” Primer

for readers trying to make sense of “feminists versus transgender activists” debates

juliaserano.substack.com

I briefly put principles and values aside to make a saltier, crankier case for leaving X: Elon Musk is uniquely insufferable holapapi.substack.com/p/x-out

X Out

A salty, cranky case for letting Twitter die

holapapi.substack.com

Whenever I posted this in the bad place I got a load of spam and fake people applying, hopefully I'm in the right echo chamber 🤞🏿

Phil Samba@idiosyncraticxl.bsky.social · 2y ago

Want to help improve future sexual health services in the UK? Take part in one of our upcoming focus groups. If you take part in a focus group, you will get a £50 e-voucher as a huge thank you! To take part go to thelovetank.info/shresearch

Want to help improve future sexual health services in the UK? Take part in one of our upcoming focus groups. If you take part in a focus group, you will get a £50 e-voucher as a huge thank you! To take part go to thelovetank.info/shresearch

My new dating profile just dropped…

Twlldun@twlldun.bsky.social · 2y ago

Fancy. Woke. Fillings.

This is a great starter pack go.bsky.app/9oFYM1Z

Activists and academics working and writing from/for/with the global souths in social and political studies. Please help us build this list. Suggestions very welcome. go.bsky.app/xCeFhi

I used to keep a thread (on the other place) of papers and reports relevant to LGBTQIA+ experiences in STEM. @prideinstem.bsky.social have been kind enough to share it on their website, in case the list is helpful to anyone. prideinstem.org/2024/11/18/t...

Every reactionary centrist after this election.

It’s International Day of LGBTQIA+ People in STEM so I’ll share some writing by myself and my lovely colleague @ellietheelement.bsky.social from BUP’s ‘Queering Science Communication’ One is a chapter on Queering Public Science institutions bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/display/book...

I couldn’t agree more (full disclosure: I may also have two chapters in said book)

Shaun O’Boyle@shaunoboyle.bsky.social · 2y ago

Recommending this book, for the day that’s in it. Filled with lots of great insights from science communication researchers and practitioners. If you work in a university, it would be a great addition to their library. www.cambridge.org/core/books/q...