I must’ve been a postdoc at MIT or a new-ish engineering professor when I first heard the story of how Ben Barre overheard colleagues talking about how his research was so much better than his ‘sister’ Barbara’s.

As coroners continue to issue PFD reports citing delays in accessing gender affirming care as contributing to the preventable deaths of trans people, our government forcibly chooses to detransition trans youth. What’s happening in Brighton is unconscionable. It puts children in danger. Meanwhile…

Just one week left to register for my book launch event at the University of Oxford. 📖🎉 This study drew on queer method and theory to explore casual forms of sex work in the digital era. 💷📲 While focusing on post-identity, I highlight overlaps between movements for LGBTQ+ and sex worker rights. 🌈☂️

It is entirely the equalities regulator's function to push an equalities agenda that the Government doesn't like and publicly call them out when the Government drags its feet… … it's just generally assumed that the equalities agenda they'd be pushing is not a regressive one.

Lex has been doing some of the moment's best, clear-eyed and forceful journalism. a major loss.

Cue the song!

Clerical advantage

1/🧵 I am viewing a never-before-seen file on “gender reassignment” or trans inclusion policy at the National Archives, Kew. The Supreme Court should start sweating. A bagful of receipts!

This morning's AWS outage prompted reflections in NHSE towers that "disaster recovery" and "inclusive services" directly overlap. For instance, the Record a vaccination service have designed a paper-only data capture process for when the internet is unavailable

Delighted at the GPEW member surge happening in the context of @zackpolanski.bsky.social's positive messaging on trans rights + inclusion. I hope it means there are now even more trans-inclusive folks in the party who can get active in @greenpartywomen.bsky.social to fight for liberation for all ❤️

⚖️🏳️‍⚧️ WIN: High Court rules that a trans man cannot be denied a gender recognition certificate because he is trying to conceive, in an important win supported by Good Law Project. https://goodlaw.social/5k9b

I have been truly envious of Leontien Talboom’s digital preservation related knitted jumpers but now she’s released the charts, and more about their origins on Cambridge University Library Blogs #digitalpreservation digitalpreservation-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/knitting-thr...

windows is so advanced it comes with built-in nostalgiabait

“We write, we scream, we plead; but it seems our words fall into a void. There are no aid planes, no humanitarian airlifts, no real international movement and no ground efforts to break the siege." War crimes alert as food runs out in el-Fasher, Darfur: www.bbc.com/news/article... #KeepEyesonSudan

Read my two letters to the #UK: 1. Protests: I call for a review of the legal framework and the reconsideration of provisions in the Crime & Policing Bill that could restrict freedom of assembly. 2. Trans people: I warn against exclusion&zero-sum approaches 👇#HumanRights www.coe.int/en/web/commi...

As well as the five emoji reactions, Teams calls should have pronoun reactions so I can correct people while they're talking without having to unmute to exclaim "they!" at them. 🙄

Wrote a lil bit for the Clarion about Speedwell House, for those of you who saw my posts on it the other day! Am I ready for Serious Historians to call me ridiculous? Yes. Did I have a lot of fun writing it? Also yes

"Give us options" they said... Free bus travel and a host of extra services are coming to Oxford, thanks to clearer roads of the Temporary Congestion Charge www.oxfordbus.co.uk/free-bus-tra...

An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. A brief statement in solidarity with Liberal Democrat councillor Chris Northwood @chrisn.xyz

Lucifer statues just can't not be sexy. I don't make the rules (sculptors make the rules)

@calummillerld.bsky.social Would you sign this too? 🙏🏻

Congratulations to the newly elected Leader of the Green Party of England & Wales, @zackpolanski.bsky.social

The new Executive Director of Communications at Number 10 has been appointed by Starmer, and it is Tim Allan who was a trustee for Sex Matters until today. Labour are embedding transphobia into every facet of their operations and British political life in general.

lol, this quiz is hilarious. (I only scored 16/21, which is why I finally gave up running my own mail server because I couldn't take it anymore.)

Tiktokers knew in advance how to subvert censorship. The younger ones had made up a new language that was often juvenile and sometimes offensive just to get around TikTok’s algorithm. An algorithm that censored content that was controversial. bsky.app/profile/rowa...

Al Jazeera now confirm their crew in Gaza City have all been assassinated:

Israel is storing recordings of Palestinians daily phone calls - millions of them - that they analyse to plan airstrikes / kill people - in Irish data centres Sweet Jesus www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Today's work-related internet search: "aws glue hive metastore" 😶 I guess this is that fabled Big Data™?

Bodleian Book Hospital. 22 August, 11.00–15.00. Bring flapless lift-the-flaps & scribbled on bedtime stories to the Bodleian Book Hospital where our Conservation Team will fix 'well-loved' favourites and show little ones how to care for treasured tomes. visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/summer...

This is what the in whole or in part bit of the genocide convention is about. It's not just about the destruction of human life, and not just about the victims, it's also about the tangible and intangible legacy of humanity into the future. We all lost something when that seed bank was destroyed.

If you're a parent/carer of a young trans person, please, please do consider applying. Full details to apply are here: www.england.nhs.uk/get-involved... Details of the research programme here: www.england.nhs.uk/commissionin... Please share with your networks. THANK YOU.🙏 @emiliab.bsky.social

The combination of my girlfriend buying a label printer, us just having watched Murderbot, and me repeatedly checking my phone means that my phone is now labelled "The perimeter"

I'll see your signs & raise you this masterpiece:

Meanwhile, and this is truly beyond belief, the solution to famine in Gaza is RIGHT THERE. Which is what makes this starvation a deliberate and genocidal act. www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...

Can attest! Not only do you get a pot, but also half an hour of squeaky solo pass the parcel.

www.gov.uk/government/n... This guidance mandates that children are taught that they have different legal rights based on their biological sex. So much for kicking misogyny out of classrooms.

A new railway to Witney and Carterton would be economically viable with a benefit/cost ratio of over 2, according to a new study commissioned by West Oxfordshire District Council. The BCR would depend on the route chosen, with a construction cost of £600m or more.

Your reproductive future is a matter of state concern, after all. This coinciding with increased crackdowns on terminated pregnancies in the UK is not a coincidence in the slightest.

Frustratingly, the ICO has taken the position that Consent or Pay can operate under GDPR. The ICO’s guidance on this, though notionally providing legal clarity, actually legitimises a two-tier privacy system where fundamental data protection rights become contingent on ability to pay.

40th anniversary today of French spies bombing the Rainbow Warrior, killing photographer Fernando Pereira who was on board. The Rainbow Warrior was a ship used by Greenpeace to protest and blockade nuclear weapons tests in the South Pacific. Two French agents pled guilty for manslaughter.

@goodlawproject.org In goodlawproject.org/wp-content/u... para. 95 about toilets open to the public, should it not refer to service users as opposed to employees? Also "disabled employers" → "disabled service users"

Mitie previously ran Campsfield from 2011 until its closure in 2018. The Government is planning to reopen the centre this winter with 160 beds, later expanding to 400. The Keep Campsfield Closed campaign says “More detention means more years of danger, misery and harm.” keepcampsfieldclosed.uk

A six-year contract to run the Immigration Removal Centre at Campsfield House, near Kidlington/Oxford Airport, has been awarded to facilities group Mitie. The company’s motto is “Better places, thriving communities”; it says Campsfield will be “the first ‘green’ IRC”.

I am NOT saying we're cooked I AM singing Hot in! So hot in here!

Bruh

NEW: Tony Blair's staff took part in a BCG project for the redevelopment of Gaza along the lines of the 'Trump Riviera' plan www.ft.com/content/0b1b...

ESA's astronomers are actively tracking 3I/ATLAS, which is now the third confirmed interstellar comet to pass through our Solar System! More info at: www.esa.int/Space_Safety...