We are supporting the Global Strike for Gaza by pausing online sales every Thursday. These posters are available to download and print out and use free: linktr.ee/polaripress (Commercial distribution not allowed.) #GlobalStrikeForGaza

Anyone eligible to vote in the Society of Authors elections please read the following thread and use your votes!

A great video to shift perspective. The past is really not that far away.

Now AI slop is even taking John Boyne's job

Love the drive by at the discredited Cass Report she slips in here.

Postage (for orders on our website) to the USA is suspended while processes for new tariffs are set up by Royal Mail. Hopefully a resolution will be sorted, but it's likely to be pricier to send to the USA so we'll have to add those costs onto US customers as an additional Republican/Trump Tariff.

Revolting Gays are fundraising to keep their website online. It's a great archive of queer life in 1970s south London. Read more and donate here: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/revolting-...

Gay men in the UK only have an equal age of consent because the gov was forced to by the European Court of Human Rights (implementing the European Convention on Human Rights). They say they want to remove protections from people they deem as “other” but they want to remove human rights from us all.

21 August 1943 | The camp authorities carried out a selection at the women's camp in Birkenau. The SS selected 498 Jewish women, who they considered as unable to work. Before being deported to a gas chamber, they were placed in barrack 25 called the "waiting room to gas."

The UK government will evacuate nine of the 40+ students in Gaza with scholarship at UK universities. My PhD student Shaimaa isn't included. We must now make sure they help the other students - email your MP today. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

🧵 Polari latest | Controversial Irish author, & anti-trans activist, claims there is ‘no such thing as LGBTQ+ & that there are just individuals. This is historically & factually incorrect. It leans into the false conspiracy that you can separate trans ppl from the rest of the Queer community [1]

Polari Press statement on the unaffiliated Polari Prize. As director of Polari Press, a queer-focused independent publishing house and design practice, I've been watching the developments of this year’s Polari Prize. 1 / 6

Worth remembering that Terence Stamp was the son of a ship's stoker. Stamp desperately wanted to act, after falling in love with movies as a kid, and it was a scholarship to Drama School that allowed him to walk that path. Every time arts cuts are made, they rob us of more Terence Stamps.

“If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.”

I wrote about the decision myself and other authors took to withdraw from the longlist of the Polari Book Prizes for LGBTQ+ writers www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I am one of the 14 authors who chose to leave the Polari Prize, and I find myself frustrated and saddened at the way this entire story has been represented. 1/

Banner put on the front of Wes' office

Women are “ordinary people.” Migrants are “ordinary people.” LGBT folks are “ordinary people.” Stop using “ordinary people” as a reference only for people who are straight, white and male. It’s simple.

DuckDuckGo has added a feature to filter out AI images from search results.

This year, we’re joining with many others in the poetry community to support @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social reading fundraiser for Gaza, raising funds for The Sameer Project’s life-saving work. www.instagram.com/p/DMqin-dh36i/

On Monday, details emerged that not only was Smalls detained, but he was physically beaten by the IDF. He was the only Black member of the Freedom Flotilla on the Handala, writes @mikeelk.bsky.social: www.commondreams.org/opinion/chri...

Anyone know any gay men's zines that are active at the moment? Someone reached out for advice. I could list millions of queer zines but I have a bit of a knowledge gap here! #diyzines

Thanks for featuring our book ‘The Gospel According To…’ and for @gaystheword.bsky.social for stocking us! 💜

The Sameer Project is a donations based aid initiative, led by four Palestinians in the diaspora, working to supply an emergency reponse and funding to the displaced families in Gaza. Please donate if you can afford.

‘Famine playing out’ in Gaza, warns global hunger monitor” No this famine isn’t just “playing out”, it isn’t some natural disaster unfolding by accident. This famine is being deliberately engineered by Israel as a methodical weapon of genocide to murder an entire people through mass starvation

“If you are reading this at a table, with a cup of coffee, know that I am writing from somewhere else. A place where coffee is a luxury and bread is a miracle. I am writing from a city that has lost all its colors, leaving only the gray of hunger and fear.”

Well, I'll be damned. It's royalty free and there's already six, generic manufacturers lined up. newatlas.com/infectious-d...

The BBC News website has pages & pages of coverage related to farmers protesting inheritance tax, including events where only a few hundred turn out. In London yesterday 100,000 people marched for trans rights, and nothing. Imagine if it was 100,000 anti immigrant activists, they'd cover that.

A detailed thread with thoughts on if you’re attending a book festival (or other events) this summer and want to show solidarity with people currently under attack, including Palestinian people, trans people and disabled people:

‘I believe that damaging and destroying weapons of war is one way of waging peace: I can only conclude that for the British government, the waging of peace is terrorism.’ Huw Lemmey on Palestine Action: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

We are not exaggerating when we say this is the return of Section 28, but for trans kids. Labour have banned teachers from “encouraging” children questioning their gender. Another word for “encourage” is “promote”. This will silence teachers from supporting trans or questioning children.

the core idea that can radicalize people is so simple: there is enough. there is enough food to feed everyone. enough resources to house everyone. money and technology and medicine to stop the suffering of people around the globe. once you accept that there's only one question: why don't we?

If you're marching in Glasgow Pride today, join the No Pride in Genocide bloc from 10:30 at the Stewart Memorial Fountain in Kelvingrove Park.

Went to see the Leigh Bowery exhibition at Tate Modern last week and here’s a playlist bringing over 3 hours of appropriate New Romantic vibes. (One more reason to move from Spotify to a different music streaming provider, obviously 😉) music.apple.com/gb/playlist/...

Reminder:

1. One thing you need to realise about the British Establishment is that it uses clowns to express its deepest desires. People like Rod Liddle offer a kind of deniability - "lighten up, he's just having a laugh". But they deliver a closer representation of its truths than any sober editorial.

This is hateful and dystopian. I was just on holiday in Kent. Nice to know how welcome queer people (esp children) are there eh? Please, Kent locals, write to your councillors and resist this grossness. #KidLitUK www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Babe wake up, applications for the 503Five are open!! 🎉 We are so excited to be reopening submissions for our 2026-27 writer's residency, and to begin this new journey with FIVE talented writers who are eager to take their career to the next level.

Left it till the last minute because I've been dreading it, but I'm finally filling out the EHRC consultation. It's horrible. You have until the end of the day to complete it. Help here from @transactualuk.bsky.social transactual.org.uk/equality-act...

Hungary banned anything that “promotes homosexuality,” which means Pride. However, today over 500,000 people in Budapest told the government to fuck off. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

“You can’t see rainbows from underneath the rubble. Equally, you cannot in good conscience celebrate Pride in the west while knowing that many of our countries are supplying the arms and funds that are killing queer Palestinians, along with their families.” There is no Pride in genocide.

‘Given the size of Palestine Action and the breadth of support so far expressed for it, proscribing it could lead to a significant proportion of civil society being criminalised, including MPs, journalists and pro-Palestinian groups.’ Daniella Lock on Palestine Action: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ju...

I've been having some very tiresome conversations about my use of the word 'queer'. In all honesty, if you personally find it distasteful or traumatic because of something you've experienced, I'd never tell you to feel otherwise. 1/

We Are All Palestine Action. And louder, for those at the back: WE ARE ALL PALESTINE ACTION!! Whatever they *attempt* to legislate, we will defend dissent, protect the right to protest, and fight for people over profit: we will not be silenced, we will be ungovernable.

This is a big deal. Stephen Fry is difficult to dismiss as a fringe figure. He's as middle-of-the-road establishment as they come - with the politics and long silence on this issue to match. JKR and her fan club won't just be able to shrug this off. www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/step...

CLARIFICATION : The Trevor Project's hotline will still be live. But basically this means LGBTQ people can no longer be connected to it through the US national 988 suicide prevention hotline. They will need to be contacted DIRECTLY So spread this around They can be texted. They can be called.

I'm in this exhibition opening on Thursday evening, everyone welcome! #privateview #fineart #artist #gallery ##galleryopening

Sadly so predictable yet still so outrageous.

Very important update regarding the nonsensical EHRC “interim update”:

Some cis gay men say “trans men being gay undermine same-sex attraction” without realising how they sound just like the “letting gays marry will undermines the institution of marriage” crowd. If you feel your sexuality is threatened by how others define theirs, please get a decent therapist. Thanks.