You are creating that debate. There is no debate. There is a far right talking point and a media willing to traffic it into the mainstream.

On Henry Nowak www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

📣Out now on #firstview! George J. Severs @georgesevers.bsky.social @gvagrad.bsky.social on 'HIV/AIDS and the English Countryside' #Urban #Rural #Heteronormativity #Sexual #Morality #History #Demography 20thc 🗃️ 👉Read open access here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

In Doppelganger, @naomiaklein.bsky.social shows how white supremacists assume the victimhood of those they oppress, presenting the evils they do as evils done to them. In Britain, where black people are 7 times more likely than white people to die after police restraint, this is what we are seeing.

nothing quite like finishing a PhD in the UK right now. we were well prepped for never getting a position in academia but not, I don't think, the abject joblessness we would graduate into. (tl;dr it's the week of my hand in and I have already had multiple job rejections)

I'm so pleased to see that this chapter has been published. It's in a wonderful open access collection, Sexual Violence in Medicine and Psychiatry: Addressing Harms Through Interdisciplinarity which emerged from the SHaME project at Birkbeck. Link here: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Do you know someone interested in the history of health and/or activism who might want to do a cool funded PhD in an even cooler city (Glasgow)? Tell them about this #studentship on the history of unorthodox health activism in Britain! #HistMed www.strath.ac.uk/studywithus/...

Took me over ten years to be diagnosed, in part because an ultrasound I had in my early 20s didn't show any signs of polycystic ovaries. Very happy to see this change! Plus now I can say don't PMO, I have PMOS.

Interesting analysis for those of us interested in hope and aware of the big graph that shows Reform peaked in October last year and is sliding inexorably down.

Reform took a £5m donation and they're trying to distract you. Farage is just another establishment stooge. Like in Gorton & Denton - the only way to stop Reform on Thursday - Vote Green. Join.greenparty.org.uk

@zackpolanski.bsky.social : "Antisemitism and Jewish safety is not some abstract concept for me. In fact, in the last 6 weeks alone 2 people have been arrested in relation to antisemitic actions towards me and yesterday the Times newspaper published a vile antisemitic cartoon.."

We must stand in solidarity with Jews being attacked by antisemitic criminals and terrorists: no ifs or buts. We must stand in solidarity with Palestinians being murdered by the Israeli government: no ifs or buts. These are not contradictory positions. They are consistent ones. 🧵1/5

Had the best time at the Sexuality, Activism and the State in Modern Europe workshop last Friday! Co-organised with the wonderful @zsofia-v.bsky.social and @georgiakat.bsky.social

👏 Thank you to all the participants of the “Sexuality, activism, and the state in modern Europe” workshop 👏 We had a great day of inspiring presentations, illuminating discussions and thought-provoking questions ✨🦄💥 👀🎤Find a sum-up of the keynote and panels in the thread! 🎤👀

This one-day workshop, organised jointly by the Interviewing and Oral History Working Group and @loladickinson.bsky.social, aims to integrate the history of sexuality, sexual politics and sexual governance in 20th-century Europe into a coherent transnational analytical framework

💥💅🏽Join our Workshop on sexuality in Western, East Central and South Eastern Europe!💅🏽💥 🏫Sala del Torrino, Villa Salviati ⏳24 April, 9:30-18:00 🧑🏼‍🎨Illustration by Emese Veszely (1991 World AIDS Day in Budapest)

‘The rearmament agenda may be cloaked in the language of defence, but it serves a colonial foreign policy that looks desperately outdated in a multipolar world.’ New on the blog from Rebekah Diski and Khem Rogaly: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ap...

So excited for the upcoming workshop ‘Sexuality, Activism and the State in Modern Europe’ which I have organised with the brilliant @zsofia-v.bsky.social and @georgiakat.bsky.social. Promises to be a fantastic day of talks and beautiful Italian sunshine! www.eui.eu/events?id=58...

Lucky, as ever, to engage with George’s work. I urge everyone to buy + read his brilliant book!

🚨Urgent action needed to ensure people living with #HIV in prisons are not left behind. With @sophiaforum.bsky.social, Ci2 Bureau & @tht.org.uk, we are calling for the HIV Action Plan to be complemented with a set of concrete actions to meet the challenges of HIV care in prisons.

When faced with a shockingly exploitative new employment contract that would’ve forced them to sign away their IP, their likeness rights, and their power of attorney, Jupiter Jetson and her coworkers at Sheri’s fought back—fast. They organized a union in SIX DAYS. www.thenation.com/article/econ...

So thrilled to announce that I will be presenting an original research presentation, 'The Story of BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival', at British Film Institute (BFI) Flare's 40th Anniversary on March 23rd! 🎥 🏳️‍🌈 🎞️ 🏳️‍⚧️ Tickets go live on 26th February 12pm! whatson.bfi.org.uk/flare/Online...

It’s National #HIV Testing Week! Take a few minutes to order your free test kit – it’s quick, simple, and you can do it all at home 🏡 Testing is the only way to know your HIV status, and now’s the perfect time to test. Get your FREE test now: https://freetesting.hiv/#HIV #ITest #HIVTestingWeek

🚨The Scottish Parliament has voted against the ‘Nordic Model Bill’ in a win for sex workers' rights. Jacqui Stevenson, Senior Policy, Research & Influencing Manager, congratulates Scotland for Decrim: "This victory would not have been achieved without their tireless campaigning."

These are war crimes committed in our name.

New article out 🎉 Drawing on my PhD research, I explore the construction of the 'prostitute' and the 'client' within England's AIDS Policy in the late 1980s. Published with the @sshmedicine.bsky.social and now available to read here (though sadly not open access!): #histmed #histsex #AIDShistory

So excited for this important conference on the Politics of Motherhood in Feb- open to all! I'll be speaking about how narratives of motherhood were mobilised in discussions about and by sex workers in late twentieth-century Britain. Fantastic range of speakers and panels

It's wild that there appears to be more current concern for the Lost Library of Alexandria than for the British Library. The BL's crisis exemplifies the accelerating destruction--through apathy as much as by design--of human knowledge & learning. I'm not even being dramatic.

After years of decline, Trump’s cuts to HIV/AIDS funding, mirrored by the UK and others, mean that AIDS death and HIV infections are rising again. #WorldAIDSDay

NEW QUEER HISTORY ARTICLE from me & @charlielynch.bsky.social! muse.jhu.edu/pub/15/artic...

Anyway

💉 Big step forward in #HIV prevention! NICE recommends long-acting injection (cabotegravir/CAB-LA), given every 2 months, for people who can’t take daily oral #PrEP. Ensuring an equitable rollout will be crucial www.theguardian.com/society/2025... #STI #STISky 🛟

Landlords and their lobbyists threw everything they had at killing this bill and still lost. Amazing news for renters everywhere who refused to back down!

As if they keep writing all these headlines - and our membership numbers and polling just keeps shooting up. 🚀 Now at 110,000. Over 55% increase in just one month! Lower bills. Fund NHS. Tax the super rich. Join.greenparty.org.uk

📣New Issue Alert📣 Volume 38 Issue 3 of Social History of Medicine is now available online! with 12 original research articles (7 of which are #OpenAccess) plus #histmed book reviews

Rest in power, Miss Major. www.advocate.com/news/miss-ma...

*FIFTEEN THOUSAND JOBS LOST*. If this were in a sector in which the PM could go and do a photoshoot looking like One Of The People, we’d have had a government intervention by now.

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy known for her incredible resilience she survived homelessness, police brutality, and systemic oppression, yet kept fighting for the community she loved. Image courtesy of Miss Major/Beck Witt 📸

18,457 children. Murdered by Israel.

Fester Carceral Permeability and California's COVID-19 Correctional Disaster www.ucpress.edu/books/fester...

🚨 Academic Conference Alert! 🚨 Keynote title for our Opposition to Thatcher conference by the amazing Dr Amy Edwards: 'Begrudging bedfellows and oppositional allies: Thatcherism and the limits of Popular Capitalism' It will be great. See all speakers & sign up 👇 forms.cloud.microsoft/e/WFugaYiSyh

Congratulations 🎊 to @rebeccawynter.bsky.social and @janetweston.bsky.social for a brilliant conference! 👏🏻 Lots of amazing papers including @historywill.bsky.social @sophiemhistory.bsky.social @stephemmabrown.bsky.social @henryyeomans.bsky.social 🌟 Looking forward to next steps 😀

The UK's #HIV response is failing women. In 2023, new cases increased the most in heterosexual women, but they are less likely to be offered or to take a test. Too many are diagnosed with HIV late, when it is more likely to have affected their health.

The violent political policing of picketing at Orgreave coking works in June 1984 was the single worst abuse of state power during the miners’ strike. Miners and their supporters have been campaigning for an inquiry for 40 years. Congratulations to @orgreavejustice.bsky.social.

Parliament and Hansard have removed “We are all Palestine Action” from my speech on Wednesday 2 July 2025 — despite me saying it. This is a blatant attempt to censor me and rewrite the record. This is not how a democracy behaves. We will not be silenced.

What can historians bring to policy work on drug use? In this new post for the RHS blog bit.ly/4lBdak9, Virginia Berridge ‪@lshtm.bsky.social‬ describes her experience as deputy chair of the London Drugs Commission. The commission's report, 'The Cannabis Conundrum', appeared in May #Skystorians

My article exploring US immigration policy & family separation in the 1930s is out. It uses deportation files of the 'immoral classes' to show the ways that the deportation was structured around denying women's citizenship and separating mothers from children. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Really happy to see that this special issue on transnational histories of HIV/AIDS activism is out in the world. Thanks so much to @npapadogian.bsky.social and @somakbiswas.bsky.social for all their hard work bringing it together! #histmed [1/2] muse.jhu.edu/issue/55146

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