Richard Dawkins: Trans women aren't real Also Richard Dawkins: AIs are conscious and my Claude is a Claudia

A-fucking-CA-fucking-B.

Multiple UK universities took down their policies relating to trans inclusion after the OfS's unprecedented fine of Sussex over its wholly anodyne approach to discouraging transphobia. Today is a very good day to demand to know when those policies will be going back up.

GenAI is plunder, pass it on (a comic)

Fuck the fucking Scottish Labour Party. When your keystone argument is transphobia, you deserve exactly the electoral shellacking you've got coming.

This quote is making the rounds again and people are goggling at it, because on its face it makes no sense. It might help to consider that this is all a euphemism for "the only use case for our product is self-insert porn with an actress who did not consent to her image being used this way."

The Subtle Art of Folding Space, @johnchu.bsky.social (2026) xkcd.com/224/

I’ve been hearing so much anger and disappointment from frontline workers about the BBC investigation into fraudulent asylum claims. One of the most damning responses has come from one of the experts they interviewed, solicitor Ana Gonzalez. It’s really worth reading her response in full:

The absolute bluntness of "fewer people like you" was, I must say, inspiring.

when we mourn le guin, we mourn one of our greatest writers & thinkers. but we also mourn one of our all-time greatest haters

This fucking reeks of the same terrible response to scandal that brought down Boris Johnson, and that Starmer *slammed* him for over Partygate and others. Fun!

Have I got this right? Starmer has been found innocent because he whipped his MPs until they promised to say he knew nothing about Mandy & Epstein. And they were all drunk when they voted because that is a sacred parliamentary tradition.

So The Subtle Art of Folding Space by @johnchu.bsky.social is really, really good. Both an action thriller and a powerful look at family dynamics, as well as a @maxgladstone.bsky.social -style piece of really great, fun world-thought. Brilliant.

ludicrous headline from the bbc here

... so MPs are voting mindlessly and we're meant to be OK with that, huh

What bothers to me to no end is Portugal legalised the sale of heroin decades ago as a public health measure—and it worked. Deaths from ODs dropped, use dropped, it helped people. Legalising heroin works. In a world with legalised heroin, my friend might still be alive. And it’s dismissed as a joke

That's a great idea Keith, give everyone a referendum on whether they want to be miserable or not. The British people are famously very good at this.

I have now finished @lateonsetgirl.bsky.social's What We Are Seeking and I concur with @niallharrison.bsky.social: this ought to be on the Hugo shortlist next year. Also, ow, the feelings, so many times it got me in the feelings.

So many wonderfully light and airy summer dresses out today in Glasgow. So much gender envy and dysphoria.

it's just quite obvious they hate the SNP more than Reform

This is a gift, you know. I won't forget it.

The Scottish Parliament Election is coming up on the 7th May. Ahead of the election, we have created a summary of the relevant commitments and comments from the manifestos of all the parties currently projected to win seats. www.equality-network.org/our-work/pol...

Excellent work from @lgbtiscotland.bsky.social here who have extracted every LGBT+ related comment and commitment from all of the major Scottish party manifestos. They pass no comment on any of it here, leaving readers to reach their own conclusions. Much of it truly is damnable.

Across five prose fiction categories, there are 30 different authors shortlisted. That means no author was shortlisted more than once for a novel, short story, novelette, novella, or series. Awesome to note there are 10 authors who appear on the ballot in those five categories for the first time.

One thing that's worth repeating: There is *zero* evidence that "substack helps you get readers". The only thing that we've ever seen that helps grow an audience is other authors mentioning your blog or newsletter, which is not the platform's doing. Substack just takes credit for that!

This is the takeaway from the running robot, tbh

Yuuuuup

So to paraphrase their old t-shirts, their stance now is "some people are transphobes, get over it". What a useless woman, what a useless organisation.

Yet here in the UK such bans are defended by "sensible" politicians

If only there was some billionaire who could help this charity out.. oh, wait…

It's true that Stonewall, attacked by the press, Charity Commission and the Right, came to the brink of collapse because it advocated for trans people. In the UK you can no longer do that work as a charity. But ceasing to be useful, genuflecting to hate, is not the answer. Better to cease to exist.

I didn't expect @kezdugdale.bsky.social to be returning to the days of S'onewall, and it's hugely disappointing that this interview suggests she's heading in that direction.

I’m looking for an automated way to read others’s scientific data without giving credit or acknowledgement, and also claim full credit for insights from it. And I want it to have a fitting name OAI: say no more

Hiring a part time bookseller! Ah! Change! If you fancy joining our tiny team and yelling about queer books on a regular basis, now's your chance docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

This Is How You Lose The Hundred Years' War

The nub of so many of this government’s problems is that there is a Keir Starmer where the prime minister should be.

Very much one of those things where I'm not convinced it's true but it is so likely, based on previous experience, that I might as well proceed as if it's true.

People are going to point to Starmer's unpopularity as to why Sarwar won't be FM but like the Scottish Tories, Scottish Labour very much did this to themselves by courting a radicalised cohort of the electorate that loathes Holyrood with the heat of a thousand suns.

I keep coming back to how absolutely BRAINDEAD this argument of Jesse’s is. Let me summarize his argument - “the moral arc of the universe is long, but if there’s any sustained backlash, give up.”

Scottish Labour manifesto is out, don’t vote for them

On that note, always remember that Bolsonaro was voted out, tried to do a coup, failed, was tried and convicted, and is now under house arrest. And Duterte was constitutionally banned from running again, arrested by the ICC, and is currently awaiting trial in the Hague.

At Scottish Labour Conference in Feb 2025, a leadership-backed motion to adopt a transphobic policy on single-sex spaces in schools was defeated. Party members and affiliates voted it down. Today Scottish Labour's leadership put that transphobic policy into its manifesto for May's election anyway.

For the avoidance of doubt, following the publication of the explicitly transphobic Scottish Labour manifesto this morning, I will not be campaigning for any Scottish Labour candidates in the upcoming election, and I will not be voting Scottish Labour either. #NoVotesLabourInMay #TransRightsNow

Adults in charge: the trouble is, little boys just don't like girls Little boys: I love Rumi and Bluey and Elsa and Ms Rachel and the Lionesses and my friends and Adults in charge: EW. NO. You're supposed to be a chauvinist by now. Probably because of phones.

Atmosphere is, for anyone wondering, very, *very* good. Taylor Jenkins Reid really delivered with that one, damn.

"The Scottish island of Summerisle, home of the best fruit in Britain. The first thing you notice? No churches. The farmers here practice a fascinating form of pre-Christian worship…and I just learned I'll be playing the lead role in their annual May Day festival. First stop: my costume fitting."

I have been an editor in genre publishing for thirty-five* years and "mantasy" is the single most ridiculous notion I've come across in all that time. *Oh my sainted aunts

Does anyone hear speak fluent Gaeilge? I need a quick translation for a small indie project, just two lines of dialog, and my usual source is not available... I would appreciate it!

*slides a massive reading list of Palestinian fantasy, sci-fi, and horror across the table* soniasulaiman.com/readpalestin...

Many thanks to D and the Waterstones staff, to the British Sign Language interpreters, and to everyone who came. It was lovely to see so many colleagues from the Glasgow sff writing and scholarship community, and to top the evening off with good talk and fabulous folk music at a nearby pub.