We cannot have “reasonable conversations” in public when our media platforms and social media algorithms continue to feed people lies that refer to migrants, trans people, and other minoritised groups as sexual predators, terrorists, deviants, etc. Emotional disinformation erodes democracy.

“This is one valuable function of shame: it reminds us of who we want to be when we fall short, a goalpost that is necessarily anchored to the lofty height that our conduct fell beneath.” Shame can be productive. We need politics that can accept shame for its failures and make amends for its harms.

“Facts don’t care about your feelings.” Unless you’re a politician who gets anxious about people using their bodies in ways you disapprove of (like having an abortion or transitioning gender). Then apparently your feelings are a legitimate basis to ignore facts and basic human rights. It’s trash.

My book is published! It’s a critical take on how emotions shape conflicts about LGBT rights and repair in equality law, gender recognition, bans on conversion practices, and sex education in schools. You can download it free via @edinburghup.bsky.social: edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-emo...

I have the honour of interviewing the fabulous @saranahmed.bsky.social about her new book, No Is Not A Lonely Utterance: The Art & Activism of Complaining next month (22nd October). Come join us at The Whitworth in Manchester for a critical discussion of refusals, community building, and solidarity.

“Facts don’t care about your feelings.” Unless you’re a politician who gets anxious about people using their bodies in ways you disapprove of (like having an abortion or transitioning gender). Then apparently your feelings are a legitimate basis to ignore facts and basic human rights. It’s trash.

The occupation and apartheid system must be ended, and justice must be delivered - anything less while Palestinians continue to be slaughtered by Israeli forces in an ongoing genocide is just empty words. 🧵3/3

The UK Government must immediately halt UK arms exports, divest from arms companies that continue to sell arms to Israel, sanction Israeli officials implicated in crimes under international law and stop trade with settlements. 🧵2/3

Recognition is no doubt significant but it will be a hollow gesture if the UK does not also seek to end Israel's genocide, illegal occupation, and system of apartheid against the Palestinian people. 🧵1/3

We cannot have “reasonable conversations” in public when our media platforms and social media algorithms continue to feed people lies that refer to migrants, trans people, and other minoritised groups as sexual predators, terrorists, deviants, etc. Emotional disinformation erodes democracy.

At a time when some use the language of feminism to attack trans rights, it’s vital to see feminist activists and scholars counteract such attacks. Feminist Legal Studies is inviting papers for a special issue that will explore how feminist goals and trans liberation are connected. Check it out. ✊🏾🏳️‍⚧️

“With the current political climate and the constant attack on LGBTQ+ rights, immigrant rights, and more, Wilson said she finds hope wherever she can.” Find and build community wherever you can. Our joys, our lives, our loves will continue to be our resistance in a world that tries to diminish us.

My parents came to visit me in Canberra today and we had a wander to Floriade. They’re big fans of growing flowers. I mean, they did a pretty excellent job nurturing a pansy like me.

At the end of the day, if the “concern” you have about your country or neighbourhood is that there are too many Black or Brown people living there, then that is racism. Yearning to make the place you live more white is, in fact, white supremacy. Just saying.

It was a privilege to be invited to give a guest lecture about queer judgment writing to A/Prof Wayne Morgan’s Law, Identities & Sexualities class. This is the first and longest running Law & Sexualities course (about 30 years now!) in Australia. Thanks for the wonderful chats, Wayne! 🌈🎓

“Europeans who do not fit the typical definition of male or female are grappling with an ‘alarming’ rise in violence, the EU’s leading rights agency has said, as concerted campaigns seek to sow disinformation and fuel hatred towards them.” We must stop the political/social abuses of intersex folks.

Gay folk who trash talk being trans, caricaturing them as ideologies, need therapy to work through their layers of internalised shame. Imagine looking at the world right now and thinking trans people are threats to gay people, not fascist politics and authoritarian regimes that seek to trash us all.

A reminder: state-mandated mourning and censorship of dissent are basic signs that you have an authoritarian government. Just saying.

“Free speech is an inalienable right.” Unless you want to protest genocide, refer to someone with their correct pronouns, criticise someone for being a bigot, boycott an organisation for their human rights abuses, etc. Then politicians aggressively try to regulate and police speech. It’s perverse.

I had the joy of meeting and working briefly with Tuisina Ymania Brown during World Pride in Sydney. She was an incredible advocate for social justice and building solidarity, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. She exuded humour, warmth, care, wit, and kindness. Vale, Ymania. 💜

“A UN commission of inquiry concluded on Tuesday that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza and that top Israeli officials including the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had incited these acts.” What is left to say? We need our governments to do more to sanction Israel and end this genocide.

Fascism is thriving. Every politician, journalist, and influencer that talks about migrants as threats, Black folks as criminals, trans people as social contagions, etc is directly facilitating the social resentments that shape fascism. We need them to stop their destructive disinformation politics.

What a wonderful treat to see my bff @senthorun.bsky.social in #Sydney during this trip. We found the rainbow - shocking! 🌈

Disinformation is dangerous because there’s no adequate way to retract it once it’s out there. It’s deliberately designed to cultivate powerful emotions (outrage, disgust, resentment, anxiety, etc) and those emotions don’t just disappear even when a person is told their feelings are based on lies.

Empathy and mourning are selective. But if you only mourn the public killings of a few while tolerating politics that kill/maim Palestinians, migrants, trans people, disabled folk, women etc, then you need to rethink your understanding of “political violence” and recognise that it happens every day.

The political attacks on LGBTQ+ people, especially trans people, are part of a concerted push to institutionalise authoritarianism. We can only defeat fascist ideas by refusing to coddle or sympathise with those who spread them. Solidarity with LGBTQ+ and other communities defending their existence.

A reminder: keep following the rainbow path. 🌈

A reminder: Ending healthcare for trans folk is political violence. Caging and deporting people who seek asylum is political violence. Arresting those who protest genocide is political violence. Political violence is pervasive, made persistent by politics that consign groups of people to death.

I don’t care if you think homosexuality is a “choice.” But I do care if you choose to be homophobic. My safety, rights, visibility and identity as a gay person shouldn’t depend on whether you think I was “born this way” or not. You don’t need a biological reason to respect my existence. Just saying.

My new book explores how emotions like pain, shame, and anxiety shape the ways we conceive rights and pursue reforms to protect LGBT people. I think/feel through how we might live with discomfort as we seek justice. You can read the book for free here: edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-emo...

Happy Father’s Day. I’m lucky to have a dad who never made me feel ashamed for not wanting to play cricket as a kid (which is blasphemous in most Sri Lankan households) and letting me strut about in heels and play with dolls instead. All kids deserve to grow up without gender policing! Thanks, Appa!

“Two transgender athletes say they felt forced to disclose their gender identity to their sports clubs after they were banned from playing women’s cricket and football. It may constitute a human rights breach…” It’s deeply shameful to forcibly “out” and segregate trans athletes in sports.

30 years ago this icon graced our TV sets and made us all gay.

Academic selfie: unapologetically queer with the amazing and delightful @senthorun.bsky.social edition

📢 RECENTLY PUBLISHED: “Informed by comparative constitutional scholarship and queer legal studies, this article argues that art 156 represents the constitutionalisation of queer subordination by enshrining in the supreme law of the land the subordinate status of queer persons.” By Daryl W. J. Yang

”Reductionist views which subscribe to and perpetuate misleadingly binary constructs of sex play into misogynistic right-wing politics which harm us all… this is not a theoretical debate, it impacts lived realities and the liveability of our lives.” Feminist scholars demand trans equality.

It’s lovely to be in Canberra this month as a visiting fellow at the ANU Law School. On Thursday 18th September, I’ll be presenting some of the work from my new book which explores emotions and conflicts over LGBT rights. Come along if you’re around! Details here: law.anu.edu.au/news-and-eve... 🌈🎓

“The International Association of Genocide Scholars has declared Israel is committing both genocide and crimes against humanity in Gaza.” More and more groups are joining the chorus to call Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide. No more words are needed. States must take all steps to end this horror.

FYI: @senthorun.bsky.social published a paper in our journal that explores how the emotional dynamics of accountability and vulnerability emerge in the legal classroom and shape the teaching of LGBT rights. You can read it open access here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Working as a legal academic and writing on LGBT rights is not an abstract intellectual exercise. It’s deeply emotional. It requires political accountability and intellectual vulnerability.

A new book rewrites judgments in cases decided by the ICC from a feminist perspective.

Article 8 of the ECHR is the protection on which not only all positive trans law rests but also most LGB rights to, as well as those of families where one parent wasn't born in the UK. It prevents asylum seeking families from being split. It is utterly monstrous for Labour to want to weaken rights.

“Quite how asylum seekers living in hotels who are banned from working but are provided with meals and receive £9.95 a week are expected to afford any luxuries is unclear.” This is ridiculous on many levels. Even people on welfare are entitled to things that give them joy. It’s what makes us human.

In this piece entitled “The Unbearable Arabness of Being: Anti-Arab Racisms in the Human Rights Sector,” Fatima Ahdash reflects on the orientalism and racism underpinning Western human rights organisations, arguing that a complete overhaul of the sector is urgently necessary. Read (for free) here:

A reminder: if your political campaign or social movement is endorsed by Nazis, it belongs in the trash. It’s that simple.

Back on another rainbow path in Sydney. 🌈👣

Tonight, I strutted around in my pink stilettos while talking about my new book. The only reason I walk so comfortably in heels now is because I had much practice as a toddler in my mother’s shoes. I feel so blessed to have parents who nurtured my queerness throughout my life. Thanks, Amma and Appa!