Sunday Sofa Activism. WRDA is carrying out research on the role of firearms in VAWG in Northern Ireland. If you are comfortable sharing your experience anonymously, please complete the survey at the link: www.wrda.net/blog/wrda-is... Support Services: www.raiseyourvoice.community/helpadvice

The last two + years have been an immense struggle for my family, faced with a healthcare system that was not suitable for autistic patients. Today I found out that because of me, the service has changed its approach and is working towards neuro affirming care.

Eating disorders are one of the most life-threatening mental illnesses, yet treatment remains underfunded, misunderstood & neglected. That’s why I’m supporting the #DumpTheScales march this year. No one with an eating disorder should be dying in 2025. Join us on June 21st to march for change👇

So, if Trump has named a genocide in South Africa and the USA are party to the Genocide Convention, what now? Is it bluster or is he planning some kind of action?

Bosco by Placebo is such a devastating song

Ah, so Hungary is just quietly forgetting that it was complicit in the murder of over half a million Jews in WW2 then?

Today is International Transgender Day of Visibility and so we are standing in solidarity with all trans folk across the UK 🏳️‍⚧️ Trans people are often disproportionately affected by violations of their everyday rights, and we want to build a country where that can't happen ✊

Full list of countries issuing US travel warning to transgender people amid ‘detention’ fears “By [the UK] not issuing an official warning, those who are aware of the dangers and now wish to cancel their holiday bookings cannot obtain refunds.” metro.co.uk/2025/03/25/f...

As a parent with shit in this game, if ypu have kids who are fans of Ariana Grande, know that she is not in a healthy body. She is in a perilously dangerous condition, please tell your kids that when someone is that thin, it’s not about body shaming, it’s about making sure that they don’t die.

“The OfS criticism was directed at the university’s trans and non-binary equality policy statement which required course materials to “positively represent trans people” and said “transphobic propaganda … will not be tolerated” HOW is not tolerating BIGOTRY a bad thing!!?? 😣 The OFS is 🤯🫠🤬

I am avoiding the world by endlessly re-reading Alexis Hall’s London Calling and Spires series. In a world of fear and misery, it gives me some joy. #BookSky #QueerJoy

Sorry not sorry but fuck the UK. Imagine being able to find money for guns and bombs at the expense of the most vulnerable people. If I could leave today, I would.

Making it harder to qualify for #PIP. It was never ever easy, it’s always been so hard. This will also impact on those caring, as is a qualifying benefit for Carers Allowance. Therefore, more carers and disabled people going without support. www.itv.com/news/2025-03...

The joy I feel coming out of a depression is like a cat basking in the sunshine ☀️ You may catch me smiling for the first time in quite a while.

Please sign. Our lives have been ruined by a lack of candour. A simple ‘sorry we got this wrong’ as soon as possible means far more than empty words further down the line. Institutions need to change the culture of closing ranks because it ruins lives.

⚠️Content Warning This is a horrific account of conversion therapy (disguised as “gender exploratory therapy”) performed by a member of CAMHS (the org now tasked with ‘evaluating’ - aka gatekeeping - trans kids wanting access to the new gender clinics) 😖 👉🏻 www.reddit.com/r/transgende... 1/…

The right wing think tank, Policy Exchange, has released a big report today recommending young people on PIP “be required to look for work, to volunteer or be engaged in training.” Only one problem: PIP is not an out of work benefit. policyexchange.org.uk/publication/...

Bad Gays is a real eye opener. A real insight into how terminology obscures the existence of 🏳️‍🌈 people, right in front of everyone. And in some times and spaces, men sleeping with men was pretty normal. Ofc, none of this could even have been alluded to in history class #Section28 #BookSky

Thirty states & DC still have laws on the books that allow forced sterilization. Some of the laws aren’t even that old—in 2019, Iowa and Nevada passed new forced sterilization laws for people under guardianship. Both passed unanimously. via @metrauxjulia.bsky.social motherjones.com/politics/202...

In a small trial, nearly half of pancreatic cancer patients who received an mRNA vaccine had no signs of relapse after three years. Dr. Vinod Balachandran from @mskcancercenter.bsky.social joins us to discuss the results and what they could mean for cancer treatment.

A teenager with complex needs is repeatedly imprisoned because Northern Ireland lacks alternatives. CLC states, "A healthcare issue shouldn't receive a justice response." This highlights a systemic failure. Read more via BBC News: [https://buff.ly/4i1GwX8]

I‘d like Mr Starmer to know that I have been assessed as limited capacity for work but I am still working. I didn’t ask to be given this status, I had to be assessed and that was the outcome.

What a speech from Lola Petticrew at the IFTA Awards, winning Best Actress in a Drama for SAY NOTHING. 👏🏻✊🏻

Have put together a creative exhibition at Liverpool Everyman Theatre (Hope Street) from next Tuesday to Friday, marking National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. All art, poems and pieces of writing by artists living with eating disorders. If you happen to be in the area, pop in why don’t you??

Achievement unlocked: finishing The Secret History. Not something's that I ever thought I would do, but it was worth it.

Alan Hollinghurst Our Evenings = perfect companion for a long, rainy Friday journey across Belfast. #BookSky

Never a day goes by that I am not deeply troubled by immigration regulations, and how playing to populism has untold impact on the lives of others.

CAMHS across the UK is broken, and then end result is that children are locked up and made vulnerable to violence from within the system supposed to care for them. It’s terrifying that very sick patients are treated like this and nobody cares.

When you hear just what happened to women given symphysiotomies in Ireland, it sounds so far fetched, BUT IT HAPPENED. Ireland terrorised its women for such a long time.

I really, really hope at this point someone in Ariana Grande‘s circle of influence has managed to care enough to get her a medical review. It’s not about body shaming, it’s about making sure that she is safe. She cares so much about others, I hope it is reciprocated.

I honestly have been so ignorant of LGBT history. I‘m watching Große Freiheit (Great Freedom) which tracks the time after being released from a concentration camp and his imprisonment of imprisonment for being gay over three decades.

I was today years old when I found out that some of the gay men liberated from concentration camps were re-imprisoned in Germany and denied victim status.

Youngest is very, very good at searching out inappropriate things famous people have done in the past. She’s sent me multiple instances of the Beatles being racist this week. She’s now just about to introduce her dad to Fat Albert and deconstruct Bill Cosby.

…Ending thread with more social research on online disability activism. (All quite positive, as I’m just sharing studies I can remember at 9am on Sat!) 1. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... 2. www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/14... 3. academic.oup.com/ccc/article-... 4. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Hi pocket friends. My biggest project is due out on 21st May. I’ve never put so much of myself into anything I’ve ever made before and I’m so anxious but excited! Pre-orders are SO helpful for new books, so if you want to make this little author happy, you can order here: amzn.eu/d/6CuzKct

I’d like my life to have a Wes Anderson aesthetic, but right now it feels more Gary Oldman.

We seriously need some tv adaptations of Alexis Hall’s books. Why has nobody made this happen? Is someone hiding the rights in a safe place but they forgot where the safe place is?

Alexis Hall, Glitterland. Like A Single Man, with hilarity. #BookSky

I agree. If the NHS cannot create a culture where staff feel able to whistleblow against colleagues and where candour is the norm, naming staff who destroy lives is necessary. The culture of silence is killing people. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Finished Fellow Travelers. Send tissues. #BookSky

Hawk, you are terrible for doing that to Tim, no matter the circumstances. And every time I read it, I can find no way to forgive you. #FellowTravelers #BookSky

Speculation about disability benefits can be deeply hard on your mental health. If you’re struggling, please consider talking to a trusted person or the Samaritans. You can call them for free 24/7 on 116 123 or email [email protected] You are not alone. www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-h...

Probably the most radical thing I have done in my life is making my grandparents and mum watch My Beautiful Laundrette at the tender age of 10.

Just to keep things light this week, I am halfway through It’s a Sin and started on the novel of Fellow Travelers. I thought I knew something about how bad the world can be, but this is just a whole new depth of badness.

We are pleased to announce 2 exciting funded PhD studentships at the Centre for Children’s Rights. 1. Deaf children and young people’s rights shorturl.at/NL6lt 2. Developing a child-led measure of poverty: see here:https://shorturl.at/lzamB Application deadline for both is 31st March 2025.

I am way too invested in dream casting the TV adaptation of Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall. Someone needs to make this happen before I can’t find my way out of this rabbit hole.

I had quite a busy reading month this January, so I’m narrowing it down to my highlights… EM Forster -Maurice Alexis Hall - Boyfriend Material Michael Magee - Close to home #BookSky

Honest to goodness, I sometimes think that one of my kids was exposed to too much Frankie Boyle in the womb. She just sat and had a conversation with Lily on Duolingo about her hawk ‘two ah’. At one point Lily said ‘it must be interesting to watch’ and I am dying with laughter on the floor.