An absolutely brilliant piece from @wearequeeraf.com featuring equally brilliant scholarship from @alexsharpe.bsky.social 'Sex by Deception' cases in the UK have a frightening history, but the treatment of trans woman Chiara Watkin is a terrifying new development

From Instagram - today the Dyke Project shut down NHS England HQ to protest the politically motivated ban on trans youth healthcare.

Transphobia is at the core of modern fascism

Another mad and confusing day to be doing a PhD on trans rights from England.

New School Guidance announces: Full bathroom ban. Full PE ban. Full school trip accommodation ban. Trans kids will not go to the bathroom, do PE or go on any school trips. 1/

This is an important read. I don't want to take anything away from it. However: It really should have been a news item informed by the Good Law Project's data. It isn't bc the British press has shut out any story that contradicts anti-trans talking points. goodlawproject.org/new-data-sho...

This test is (was?) used by Italian GICs. I filled the long list and ranked how distressing I found each part of my body, 0 to 5. This particular test was at the top of a thick stack - hundreds of pages - of other tests. It set the scene about how humiliating the rest of the process would be.

They are forcibly de-transitioning trans children/adolescents. Those most severely impacted are aged 11-15. The risk to this group is very high, and NHS England/NHS Sussex know this. They don't care at all about the safety or well-being of trans under 18s.

📣SAVE THE DATE 📣 📆 29-30 gennaio 2026 📍Dipartimento di Scienze Umane - Università di Verona Deadline: 31 ottobre 2025 La CfP è aperta al mondo dell’accademia, dell’attivismo e delle istituzioni, con l’obiettivo di stimolare un dialogo intersettoriale. sites.dsu.univr.it/politesse/wp...

‘The​ current members of the Supreme Court, ten men and two women, all of them white, seem to regard the Human Rights Act as an unwelcome remnant of a past era.’ In his final piece for the 𝘓𝘙𝘉, Conor Gearty writes on the Supreme Court’s reinterpretation of the HRA: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

It is hard not to despair when literally anyone could accuse you of having hid your "transgender status" from them and have you imprisoned and put on a sex offenders register.

Hello! To make sense of the world, transphobia and my research, I’m looking for *poetry* suggestions about: - agency, activism and solidarity after torture - life/emotions post dehumanisation - the oppression-trauma-guilt-shame mix With a preference for 🏳️‍🌈 authors other than cis straight men! 🏳️‍🌈

The banality, everyday-ness of hate is one of the most striking parts of this. The way in which bystanders are once again happy to make humiliation of trans and gender non-conforming people a part of their routine social interactions.

It was so nice to see @pagingdrpaige.bsky.social and Gina, and to have a small PhD workshop filled with feminist and queer care practices to navigate academia!

I confirm - once again - that not having to justify your whole existence to access basic gender affirming healthcare FEELS GOOD. And light. And decent. Thank you Australia (2025) and Belgium (2021) for these brief encounters with your imperfect (!!) but not violently transphobic healthcare systems.

I’m taking a breather from England and its transphobia, and reading this from a place where gender self-determination is a solid policy makes the hate and cruelty so visible and incomprehensible at the same time.

All good BUT details matter: > the Court misgenders the applicant EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. 🤯 > no critique of aim of the interference - the aim to maintain states’ ability to exclude some trans people from recognition and protect cisnormativity is still *fine* for the Court.

Hi! I’ll be in Melbourne this summer for a research visit :) If anyone has tips about the city, bookshops to visit, queer things to do, leads on housing, or anything else, let me know!!

Last week I had the amazing opportunity to chat about trans rights catastrophes in the Uk with @pagingdrpaige.bsky.social and Manon!! Chatting and complaining about the case with such amazing minds was such an important part of making sense of what’s happening on terf island.

Time to make *those* worst-case scenario type of plans for trans people in the UK. The hard reality is that this is not a panic-induced call, but a very calm and rational one.

The ruling, as I understand it, did not say that trans women cannot use women's toilets as such. It said it is lawful to exclude us. Which sucks but the difference matters. If organisations discriminate against us it's a decision they are making, not something they've been forced into.

I’m still struggling to express my horror for the UK Supreme Court judgement in full sentences. To be with thousands of fellow trans people and allies made it possible to feel and think about resistance.

The ECtHR has had a major role in the achievement of trans rights in the UK. One of the central elements of Goodwin v. The UK was the recognition of the applicant's affirmed gender in *all aspects of her life* This is one of the few aspects of on trans jurisprudence where the ECtHR has been clear.

🏳️‍⚧️UCU and the trade union movement stands with the trans community. Join us and fellow unions for an emergency demo on Saurday: 📍Parliament Square 🗓 Sat 19 April 🕐 1pm Solidarity means standing together, especially when it’s hardest. ✊

This is very true. There are many things to abhor about the judgment but the protected characteristic of 'gender reassignment' stands.

In the face of this horrific attack on equalities from Labour, important to note what we still have: Stock did not leave Sussex because of a policy. She left because she couldn't stand colleagues' and students' free speech, their opposition to her bigotry. Governments cannot take this power away.

If you are trans, live in England, and think you might want to change your gender marker on the NHS, contact your GP to sort it **asap**. The UK government is cracking down on trans people and we have seen exactly how this plays out in the US. The form for your GP is here:

‘The accusations of ‘child abuse’ and the promotion of mental illness may be stupidly rhetorical exaggeration but they are not likely to be taken literally’ (para 159). Yet, these are things that have been taken increasingly literally over the last 5 years.

Notice the difference: - Addressing 'gender-critical' beliefs as "transphobic" is an unlawful sterotype, potentially amounting to discrimination. - But calling queer/trans people "child-abusers" is more of a "rhetorical exaggeration" or "derogatory sneer". bsky.app/profile/jess...

Also concerning was the obiter endorsement of the EHRC's claim, itself built from obiter, that to consider people with "gender-critical" beliefs ('gender is binary/sex is immutable') to be transphobic is "stereotyping", and can amount to discrimination of a protected belief. Really troubling.

Poland experts release clinical guidance on trans youth healthcare. They define the Cass Review as of "low scientific value and credibility". journals.viamedica.pl/endokrynolog...

In my PhD I claim that the institutional pathologisation of trans people may amount to torture. Last week I started wondering whether by the time I finish it, there will even be a framework to characterise as torture. The attacks on rights are quickly permeating in the uk and rest of Europe

Today, England feels, tastes and smells like persecution. Accessing healthcare as a trans person in this country was already daunting. Not sure where this would leave us and our future.