Morning Bluesky.

Watched 30 seconds with the sound muted. The contrast between this and, say, Zack Polanski’s walking monologues could hardly be starker. *And not in a good way* I guess they’re going for “statesmanlike”. But Johnson irretrievably ruined the flags + lectern image. Starmer seems remote. Detached.

I'm one of those trans women. I worked ground ops for Artemis I. I am torn between celebrating the success of my friends and peers and grieving how my dream of working for NASA was shattered by hateful assholes in Tallahassee

Morning #caturday

Watching them move through a decaying orbit, hit the atmosphere and then deploy the Tunnocks Teacakes is pretty fab

Crisps (potato chips, for my American friends). We were allowed them *once a year*, at the pantomime at Christmas, where everyone around us must have *loved* the crunchy noises (oh no, they didn’t, etc).

12 months. 29 property viewings. 2 offers. One pulled out after 3 1/2 months (you can do this in the U.K. *with no penalty*). The second is 3 1/2 months into conveyancing 🤞🏻 I just want it to be over 😐

(I’ve been seriously attempting to move home for 12 months now. This is quite normal for the U.K. these days… it’s a bureaucratic, archaic mess…)

If I’d had any choice in either matter, I wouldn’t have attempted transition and moving home at the same time. 100% do not recommend 🙄

I’d argue it could be harassment related to sex and gender reassignment. Also, the office-bearer behind this seems to be creating paper trail of her own inducement of discrimination…

Serious question: leaving aside the absurdity and the bad taste this leaves, is it even lawful for the WI to do this? @jolyon.goodlawproject.org @reactiveashley.cat

Estonia the first nation to talk about this intelligently in a long time.

This short thread, about the WI's capitulation to transphobia, is worth a read 👇🏻

I find this profoundly shocking. The WI insisting that every individual member sign a pledge agreeing to be transphobic...

The Darts Regulation Authority, very neutrally and reasonably, asked someone from Sex Matters whether they should ban trans women from women's darts. I'll give you three guesses what the answer was.

A member of the government comes clean. The idea Starmer has ‘kept Britain out of this illegal war’ has been a lie.

Morning

This is why Labour is so very, very wrong in its approach to minorities. And it’s not even as though it’s winning them votes. Zero compromise on human rights. We either all have them or, in the end, only the most powerful do.

This. You never, ever compromise with bigots. No compromise will placate them. Nothing will ever be “enough”.

“We are now at the point of greatest danger. Trump is not psychologically capable of admitting defeat. That means he has to win, at any cost.”

Love this. Colour nerds and sea slug fans unite!

Trans people have been warning you for ages that, after they have come for our human rights, they will come for everyone else’s…

So the “inherent advantage from male puberty” folks… anything to say about angling, chess, darts and snooker *in particular*?

Sports and activities that trans women have been banned* from (not an exhaustive list) Angling Athletics Chess Cycling Darts Football Rugby Snooker Swimming *anyone replying with any variation of “trans women are men and can compete with men” gets an instantaneous block

Lol

Fuck transphobia.

Cis women can't throw things as well as cis men can, according to Emma Hilton. This isn't even GCSE biology anymore - it's primary school playground bullying.

𝗧𝗔𝗞𝗘 𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗡𝗢𝗪! ‼ The government is committed to banning the 'smokescreen' of 'trail hunting' but we need YOU to tell the government to do it properly this time. They want YOUR views - please give them! 👉 www.huntsabs.org.uk/ha-campaign/... youtube.com/shorts/6azaF...

Hello! I’m Gail, Manchester based designer creating bold and colourful prints & homewares. Built on brutalism, vinyl & strong brews. www.gailmyerscough.co.uk

It is extremely important to understand two things about darts, as presently constituted: 1) There is one (1) trans woman who plays in the Women's Series, this is basically just a ban on her 2) Darts has pretty much always been a "coed" sport, and women compete at majors all the time!

One of the first things I did when Singal waltzed in here was block every single one of his followers. No regrets.

📺 Does queer representation on reality TV actually change anything? We’ll be discussing this at a live recording of the @wearequeeraf.com podcast at the @transhistoryweek.com community event - with some very special guests 👀🧵

I’m really looking forward to this one. The @wearequeeraf.com live podcast conversation is a highlight of our programming & this year’s suggestion was a favourite among our volunteers. We’re thrilled everyone said yes! Grab your tickets for May 6th 👇 www.outsavvy.com/event/34852/...

if you get rid of 'sex matters' then transphobia in the uk would essentially evaporate. that group has been given its power by @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social and wes streeting. never forget that. the anti-lgbt+ wave in this country was caused by a couple of christian extremists in the labour party.

NINE protests are taking place this weekend against transphobia! View a full list of actions here: whatthetrans.com/compilation-... Please get in touch with us if you would like to add your campaign, protest etc. to our website.

Did some work, washed the car (look I'm weird, I find it relaxing, ok?), panicked because I thought I might have to move house this month, asserted myself to make clear I *can not* move house this month, ate lunch, felt sick (delayed anxiety?), now attempting some more work. Rock'n'roll, my life is

<sigh> Betteridge's Law. Also: no-one can define "woke" for the same reasons that no-one can define "woman". Both are futile exercises in linguistic ring-fencing, whose main purpose is to distract from the harm being caused *to real people* by the rise of fascist authoritarianism.

I can't make it, but I'll be there in spirit ✊🏻🏳️‍⚧️

To be clear: the figures show not just the (expected) difficulty of accessing trans-specific healthcare. We knew about that. They show the effect of rampant, institutionalised transphobia on trans+ people's ability to access *any* healthcare, including in an emergency.

A study from Finland has been used to cast doubt on gender affirming care for youth. But Finland never offered gender affirming care. Perhaps invasive, adversarial, fruitless years of assessment harm trans youth? New opinion by @evanurquhart.bsky.social: www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...

Devastating survey results from @transactualuk.bsky.social on the reality of trans+ healthcare in the UK. If this were any other patient cohort, it'd be a national scandal. But apparently trans people don't count.

I'd just like to shout out to @annehealthcare.bsky.social again for having such great customer service, having resolved a very minor issue with my account this morning in record time :)

This is the leadership I want to see.

Never trust a man with hair as greasy as Hegseth's. Infallible rule.

MAGA threatening us all with a good time...

Interesting how, when the BBC asks someone for their opinion on something motoring-related the first question is “are you a driver?” Contrast that with when the BBC asks someone their opinion on something about trans people.

I'm constantly surprised and disappointed and not a little depressed at the proportion of intelligent, well-educated people in my friendship group who uncritically lap up everything that the AI machine spits out at them.

Superb 🤣👏

9% total hokum is the price we need to pay for utterly destroying organic traffic to news orgs, I guess.

Total UK spending on welfare (which has become a dirty word, but shouldn't be), is well north of £300 billion. And more than half of that goes on the state pension, which is itself desperately miserly by comparison to peer nations. Anyway. £1 billion is less than 0.3% of the total bill. So. Why?