Every time I see someone say "the pronouns have just become a gimmick" I look over at the folks who say they love the pronouns and it makes their heart happy and start trying to figure out how to put even more pronouns in the next book.

Strange Horizons was the first magazine I ever submitted to as a teenager (and received a kind rejection). It was one of the first sff magazines to feel like a platform that welcomed international writers. I've read them, been published by them, written criticism for them. Help keep the lights on:

I mean. Yeah. This doesn't even begin to be surprising.

I've seen sites you people wouldn't believe. Attack furries on fire in the comments of LiveJournal. I watched art theft drama glitter in the dark near an animated gif of roses. All those moments have been lost to the net like... tears in rain.

Also going to point out that many places in the world are increasingly hostile to literally anyone they deem different/unlike them. Especially governments in the commercial centers of Anglo publication/readership (US, UK et al). Any serious investment in a global community will keep this in mind.

In is Independent Bookshop Week in the UK, so we thought we should highlight some of the places where you can buy our books (or order them via bookshop.org). First up are our lovely friends at The Portal in York: the-portal-bookshop....

In fairness, the historical memory of the Suffragettes that's been actively maintained by liberal feminists has erased all the arson, bombing and suicide protest attacks in favour of loads of twee bullshit about votes for women sashes and glorifying simultaneously Emeline Pankhurst and Nancy Astor..

If you are a cis person just state your pronouns, or state the pronouns you'd like to use that day. He, she, they, it, xie, per, these are all fine. "Any pronoun is fine" is also fine if it's true. "My pronouns are sparkle/sunshine," fuck all the way off. Also, do not ever add "obviously."

Speaking as someone who has done a little research on this for genealogy reasons... What the fuck ahistorical nonsense are you even on about, Baroness Carr

Every time I do any kind of talk or interview about politics, I have to spend time saying it is not in fact the bots and foreign agents that are making you lose

How were the middle-class white women supposed to know that their movement centered around a retrenchment of womanhood as gestational labour and reproductive resource of the Nation would inexorably lead to a normalisation of reactionary, patriarchal politics? It's only happened every fucking time

One thing that worries me about a total social media ban for teenagers is that part of what will happen is kids will lie about their age to gain access to social spaces. And predatory adults who know damn well they're talking to a kid will exploit that plausible deniability.

It is the official stance of the UK government that you're mature enough at 16 to vote in general elections, but not mature enough to go on YouTube after dark.

I am so angry I can barely speak, vulnerable LGBT+ and neurodiverse children being ripped from their info sources and support networks. Also banned from essential coding and software YT videos. Because of mass campaigns of hate on X, Mumsnet and Facebook, which all remain unrestricted for adults.

There have been a lot of counter-racism protests in the UK that demonstrate just what a vocal minority the right are. Not sure if they’ll get the same breathless news coverage…

shout out to dan rubins at theatermania for being one of the only reviewers of the free shakespeare in the park romeo & juliet for actually pointing out why the production is a low-key moral obscenity

Now this is two tier policing. Still no arrests for the far-right extremists who incited pogroms. But this happens.

“In the beginning, Doctor Who was created. This has made a lot of Doctor Who fans very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move”

Hey remember when Starmer felt riots warranted all night courts and the harshest punishments available for a kids nicking shit like water? Wonder what the difference was in the reason for those riots...

How on earth do you fail to understand the link between the treatment of children's books as not worth criticism, and their treatment by kids as not worth their time??? www.newyorker.com/culture/prog...

I also think it's particularly noteworthy, maybe, that a book whose roots are in Lebanon, is being awarded at the same time as the Israeli state is trying to destroy Lebanon, as it is trying to destroy Palestine.

Outsourcing par excellence: the pogroms will now be armed by a US tech firm whose UK CEO is a Mosley. Blackshirts (back) in charge, via corporate elite capture.

no other way to say it, this thing in the uk where every single time a non-white person is in the news being accused of a crime we have full on race riots is very very bad

This sucks. This just sucks. I'm glad they're going out on their own terms, but my shelves will suffer from the loss of @subpress.bsky.social. (granted, my bank account won't...)

CINEMA QUEERS I WROTE AN ESSAY ABOUT CÉLINE SCIAMMA AT HER INVITATION FOR THE CENTRE POMPIDOU PLS SWOON www.centrepompidou.fr/en/pompidou-...

If I was in London I'd be at this like a SHOT. Since I'm not, please go on my behalf!

Dawn and Milks aren't wrong! "These books aren't very good at doing something that they aren't doing" is not a useful comment, really

Bari Weiss not beating the bootlicking propagandist allegations here:

Congratulations to all the Nebula winners, and to the finalists as well. I'm particularly pleased that @amalelmohtar.com's gorgeous, gorgeous book has been recognized for the marvel it is.

YES! Congratulations @amalelmohtar.com, so lovely to see The River Has Roots get the recognition it so richly deserves!

Awesome!! Congrats to Paul and Chris and everyone on the Murderbot cast and crew!!!

UK folks, let's jump on this AI regulation petition the Society of Authors emailed out! It's an actual parliament one so the government HAS to respond if it reaches the signature threshold. It calls for regulations to make AI developers disclose copyrighted works trained on. Sign & repost!! ❤️

oh my god 😭

"It is a metaphor for climate change, but fun!" - Claire North on their latest novel Slow Gods at @cymerafestival.co.uk

I don't really talk about this, because I'm actually quite private about my personal life, but many many years ago Tony Head took me under his wing and showed me the kind of person I could be. It's not an exaggeration to say that I'm the person I am today because of the kindness he showed me.

Terry Pratchett absolutely nailed this in Maskerade and Going Postal.

The official Equality impact assessment for the EHRC's guidance is damning when it comes to the impact on trans people. It says 'Many of the changes made to the Code were made to reflect a change or clarification of the law since the original Code was published' which is not really what happened.

One of these things is not like the rest......... but overall a phenomenal list

Rape culture in the British CJS is part of why we have no structural response to the epidemic of rape in this country (Yes the idea that rapists are suffering from a high libido that makes them rape, rather than being patriarchally empowered perpetrators of a violent crime, is rape culture)

Less than a week to go! Happy Pride month, folks, let's make it gayer

Too tired for this shit, because it's just too bleakly funny that Seema Malhotra has managed to sum up Labour's entire approach here. Lickspittle, speak to the manager, make someone else do the violence, I just have some concerns but my hands are clean. Cowardice on cowardice on cowardice.

Fuck the fucking Labour Party, you posse of transphobic pricked!

an hour after this was posted, a labour minister told parliament that customers should "alert member of staff" if a trans person walks into the "wrong toilet"

Sex is normal and does not need to be cordoned off from the rest of the human experience. Integrating it makes people feel better!

I don't think this is "an indicator of public opinion" so much as an indicator of where corporations and those invested in a resurgent queerphobic crusade want public opinion to be. Meanwhile, protests for trans rights continue to occur even in the UK as the media stubbornly ignores them.

Can anyone recommend a good popular book about the (pre)history/archaeology of textiles?

You know what we don't talk enough about? Queen & Annie Lennox/David Bowie rehearsing 'Under Pressure' in 1992. So much going on! Everyone's clothes, Bowie with a lit cig throughout, where Annie PROPER GOES FOR IT, George Michael singing along in the background. The amazing vocals. Yes, please!

This is yet another absolutely boggling example of a well off white dude seeming to be completely unaware of, completely detached from, the power of the State. We’re not just screaming at each other online. There are FUCKING LAWS being passed by one side using the State to eliminate the other! WTF?

the thing is, even if this isn’t true, the outcome was identical to what would have happened it is true