This situation further compounds the misery of being a fixed-term/precarious academic. Why would universities hire an ECR if they can hire an established academic who has been made redundant?

But fundamentally, this shows why first past the post isn’t fit for purpose. If the government doesn’t introduce proportional voting, a far right party could win the next general election outright on a minority of the vote.

underappreciated but very funny gorton and denton sideplot: the conservatives nominating literal sex matters (uk terf group) trustee charlotte cadden, only for her to get the worst result for the conservatives in by-election history and lose her deposit

Sorry but Matt Goodwin losing to the Green Party, I just love good news, this is delicious

Read Ruth’s post and then take action by 22 April

Utterly extraordinary that Hilary Cass on the BBC this morning said if some young people had "taken more time" they might not have pursued medical treatments, when her own report last year found that children routinely faced multi-year waiting lists for gender services.

City St George’s VC spoke at event last week www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/news-and-eve... focused on 2nd report of Sullivan Review (SR2). @jaytoddgla.bsky.social and I want everyone to be clear about who & what SR2 positions as “threats to democracy” rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The vice-chancellor of City St George’s, University of London has publicly lent his support to the Sullivan Review. Read @jaytoddgla.bsky.social’s and my critical article to understand the full stakes of this Review rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... (Covered by the THE)

I assume the government is delighted that the Supreme Court has brought clarity to this situation

“Streeting’s view that the Sullivan Review ‘will lead to better, more inclusive and fairer outcomes for everyone', is wrong,” @jaytoddgla.bsky.social Source: www.wearequeeraf.com/understand-t...

Being trans is not a medical condition nor is it an unwanted life outcome to be guarded against, it is a healthy way that many people choose to express themselves.

It’s absurd for this Government’s proposed guidance to suggest that schools need to seek clinical advice if a young person wants to change their name, uniform or hairstyle.

There's a lot going on - bear with us as we take the time to understand the ruling on the EHRC's guidance on the Equality Act, but in the meantime... Our statement on Government 'guidance for gender questioning children':

Donate to the @goodlawproject.bsky.social crowdfunder to appeal the decision from the courts today. goodlawproject.org/crowdfunder/...

This explicit transphobia is spelled out in excruciating detail. Direct from Cass again.

Again, this is transcribed direct from Cass. And *why* do we need to be careful? Because Cass doesn't like the idea that a child could turn out to be trans. Because bigotry. Of course NOT accommodating social transition if requested is EQUALLY an active intervention. A transphobic punishment.

Did they consult with a single LGBTQ+ organization? This view that parents are saintly, that being outed to them is automatically some kind of safety measure, is just fucking wild.

Rewind a bit, we can see that the transphobic assertions from Cass, based on repeatedly debunked pseudoscientific work and opinion pieces, have been directly transcribed into this as "fact".

This draft guidance reproduces Cass insisting that clinicians must be involved in decisions about *social transition* which actually should be none of their damn business They take the line that this "non-directive" intervention should force things to be "keeping options open and flexible"...

Also noticeable in this guidance is how it reinforces gender stereotypes, you know exactly the type of messaging used, as in US, but obviously elsewhere, to attack women's rights. This may seem minor, but why is girls playing with trucks treated as something to "grow out of" bsky.app/profile/lous...

Don't hold back there, Stonewall...🙄

Labour has brought back section 28 against trans and non-binary individuals. I lived through section 28 last time. I suffered the harms of it. This will do the same thing. Not even allowing young people to socially transition is plain wrong. It prevents them finding their own identity.

If you were trying to come up with more harmful guidance towards trans and non-binary young people you would be hard pressed to find it. The fact it is backed by Cass shows how wrong it is. We are already seeing an increase in suicide rates among trans young people. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This goes further than Section 28 ever did. Compulsory outing of children to their parents. Referral of children to medical interventions for straying outside the norm. Those are threats being wielded against trans kids that weren't even in the demands of Section 28.

Involving parents and carers - calling for schools to act as informants on young people who dare to transgress or experiment beyond gender norms - is so large a safeguarding issue, putting the everyday wellbeing - and in some cases the lives - of trans youth at risk. Because of transphobia.

Social transition “requests” aka subjecting to trans youth to authoritarian control over almost everything they do because they’re trans. Flying in the face of existing best practice for supporting social transition and all published work on young trans people’s autonomy and experiences.

Just imagine, today, if children got referred to "clinical support" if they expressed any interest in "gay feelings" with the Government saying that approval for them to be allowed to express being homosexual at school would only be likely in very limited circumstances. That's what this guidance is

The ZDF announcer said her outfit looks like Jean-Paul Gaultier, who will presumably sue for defamation.

The review "implicitly promotes the systematic exclusion and erasure of trans and gender diverse people from research,” says @jaytoddgla.bsky.social and @felicitycallard.bsky.social Read more in our newsletter 📩 www.wearequeeraf.com/understand-t...

the whole thing is of course completely revolting. 20 YEARS to settlement for refugees? no settlement if you’ve ever had a criminal conviction or a tax debt? 10 YEARS added if you’ve ever received benefits? partners and children on their own routes to settlement? What are you even TALKING about

Thank you @wearequeeraf.com for covering Jay’s @jaytoddgla.bsky.social and my peer-reviewed critical response to the Sullivan Review rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The narrative of “distress” is so potent. This idea that young trans people are by default “distressed” about their gender is demonstratably false & wilfully misrecognises that “distress” most often emerges from lived conditions not as an inherent consequence of transness. doi.org/10.1111/tran.12662

Jay Todd @jaytoddgla.bsky.social and I discussed the dangerous hardening of a particular model of 'sex' in our paper on the Sullivan Review rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/.... Just look at the violence of that phrase 'sex-rejecting procedures'

Our amazing @sophisteria.bsky.social recently gave evidence, alongside reps from other Scottish HEIs, to the Education, Children and Young People's Committee at a special session on HE funding at the Scottish parliament. We have made a 2.5 minute video mash up of her best moments. Enjoy! #UCU

Sharing again this thread on the potentially harmful approach to research ethics - impacting all forms of research - proposed by report 2 of the Sullivan Review doi.org/10.1111/tran.70057

New on the CDBU blog: 5 low cost things employers could do to help precarious staff 💰 Words by @hagenilda.bsky.social ✍️

LATEST: Together, we have sent a vital message to our political representatives: www.transsolidarityalliance.com/protectinclu...

A vital piece of work 👇👇

This piece has been covered in the Times Higher Education - read more here below ⬇️ www.timeshighereducation.com/news/trans-r...

One of the key problematics in the Sullivan Review is that in some face to face settings the review recommends an “observed sex” approach… which, ethics contraventions aside, will also lead to inaccurate data! rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Please read this excellent &timely critique of the Sullivan Review out today: it cogently argues that the SR's recommendation of a single binary sex-at-birth model for data collection undermines trans&gender diverse people's (& I'd say, by extension, all participants') self-determination in research

Reminder of our abstract deadline of 18 February for our session on Queering Environmental Justice at the RGS-IBG 2026! Check it out:

Not only does the University of Edinburgh have net assets of £3.1bn, but they have a surplus of £43mn. Yet, in the name of savings, the university continues to pursue redundancies which harm students, staff, and the institution itself. An utter disgrace.

We would love for @jaytoddgla.bsky.social’s and my critical response to be read widely, given the Sullivan Review’s potential for far-reaching implications across the social and health sciences — and indeed well beyond the academy

No dude is gonna double-check a woman's chromosomes or birth certificate before he sexually assaults her or turns her down for a job.

This, for me, always raises questions around *why* we are collecting data on sex. Are we collecting data on sex simply for the sake of it? Or - do we *actually* seek to understand sexism and gender inequality? If the latter, we have decades of research on why trans experiences are relevant.

It is a recommendation that would be harmful to many people, including gender-nonconforming cisgender people.

Thread- Has there been a 'loss of data on sex', as the Sullivan Review argues? @kevinguyan.bsky.social's work unpicks this. Guyan notes: for Sullivan, ‘sex’ data only counts when trans people are *forced* to record sex aligned with what was assigned at birth. doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2025.2611975

A truly hideous right wing smear campaign against these six activists for exercising their free speech rights to protest - and confronted with the evidence all six have been acquitted.

The Sullivan Review & Ethics: A Thread A key problematic of the Review is its significant consequences for ethical principles/governance. Its 2nd report recommends universities consider ‘paring back the scope and power of ethics committees’ in varied ways Read them below doi.org/10.1111/tran.70057